Anna N

No experience with these pies. Found other iterations that were supposed to be savoury to contain so much sugar… Not sure I’m prepared to try a pie if I could even find one.

I see no reason why calzones wouldn’t count.

Speaking only for myself I suspect it might be a lazy thing! But I refuse to apologize for it because it works.

That is an interesting approach. Usually one of these pies represents a whole meal for me. Leaving the bottom crust means leaving part of my meal behind. I certainly left the crust behind from the Scotch pie but otherwise I have found them acceptable if a bit soggy. Awfully glad to see you joining in with your contributions. Just wondering when you reheated in the CSO did you use just convection or did you use steam-bake? I am not a fan of turke y as just about everybody knows but your pie still looks interesting.

The need to be be gluten free poses challenges. I notice only a single offering of a gluten-free chicken pot pie. That was listed on the menu from the Hamilton Meat Pie Company posted early in this thread.

Yes I will be looking for more of these and hope to compare different ones from the different bakeries.

I am surprised that anyone even remarks upon it. Obviously other people are either eating these pies straight from their aluminum containers (I won’t judge) else they are much more adept at removing them intact and right side up.

When my daughter texted me a photograph of this pie as she did while doing my grocery shopping, I almost instinctively said, “No thanks!“ But then one can only eat so many steak and kidney pies. (Speaking only for myself, of course.). So I told her to grab just one. I had to satisfy my curiosity. I also have to keep those who are following our mini blog from becoming totally bored. This really was a mystery to me. I had to assume sausage and beer to account for the Oktoberfest name. Beyond that I had no idea. There was no nutritional information nor any cooking instructions. I did look up the pie on the Denninger’s website but got a 404, page not found, error. Still I was able to determine that it was Bratwurst simmered in sauerkraut and beer with some mustard.. Out of its packaging. Baked at 325°F for 55 minutes. Tipped out into a bowl. Broken into. It was easy to distinguish the taste of the bratwurst and of the mustard but the beer and the sauerkraut were muted. I would’ve expected a little more tang from the sauerkraut. Did I love it? Not really but it wasn’t horrible. I did a little bit of research and discovered that it is a thing. Betty Crocker offers a recipe using Bisquick. Here. There was no cheese in the pie that I had. The salad suggested as a side would have been a great idea! Apparently I’m prepared to finish up just about anything!

Missed that completely. Thank you for pointing it out.

Breakfast This time nutritional information was included but who on earth would cheat only 1/2 of a small pie? with the wrapping removed, the crust seemed pale and moist and positively unappetizing. Again no cooking instructions were included. But this is the pie after 50 minutes In the Breville smart oven at 325°F. You can see that I put holes in the crust with my thermometer. I wanted to ensure that it was at least 168°F. This had a little to do with food safety and much to do with my dislike of cold pie filings. The crust suffered some minor trauma as I turned it out of its foil container. The innards. Not one of my favourites. I am sure the pastry is the same across this whole line of pies and yet this did not appeal to me in the same way. The filling was moist and tasty but the meat was not as tender as I think it should have been. I wouldn’t turn down another of these pies but nor would I make the effort to ensure a steady supply. But I still managed to finish every scrap.

Thanks. I think I have the opportunity to test out the longer bake using the convection fan on my oven versus baking at a higher temperature. I hope to report back in a couple of days.

So good to see someone else fully engaged in this exploration. I don’t expect to find anything with lamb here unless it is homemade. Mulga Bill sent me down a rabbit hole from which I emerged without even a clue as to the relationship between a children’s poem and a lamb and potato pie! Can you enlighten me?

I am somewhat surprised at this advice. Quite some time back I was having serious trouble with some puff pastry confections that I was making and with the help of people here traced the problem to an oven that was not getting hot enough. Once I was able to solve that problem and bake them at 400° or higher, they rose as expected and were perfect.

From the British Grocer Out of my freezer. Sunburned after being a little too close to the upper element in the Breville smart oven. But the bottom was nicely browned. I took my instructions from the British Gregg’s sausage roll page which called for 425°F with the cooking sheet preheated along with the oven. I found it was perfectly good at the 25 minute mark. Next time I would lower the shelf. Meat to pastry ratio seemed right to me and the pastry was definitely very flaky. Sausage flavour was good. If I have just one fault to find it would be that there was a little too much salt for my liking. So far I would say this was my favourite.

And to me the difference between a sausage roll and a pig in a blanket is exactly this.

Wow! Thanks. Confirms my suspicions about the curry flavouring. Definitely not the yellow stuff. I can’t say I detected much else that is in there but that may be my taste buds showing their age.

Yesterday my daughter visited one of my favourite food stores, Denninger’s . I asked her to look only for some smoked duck breasts and some cabbage rolls. She knew that I had earlier asked for sausage rolls so she began sending me text after text with photographs of sausage rolls, pies, pastries in heaven only knows what! My freezer is now jammed full. This was one of the items I asked her to get for me. As a traditionalist as far as pies go, I was more than prepared to dislike this. It was more a case of taking one for the team. Before baking (re-heating). There were no directions, no ingredient list, no nutritional value sticker. But I followed directions for other pies I have had and put it into the Breville smart oven at 325°F for 50 minutes. After baking. Tipped out of its foil pan and into a bowl. Breached! To my surprise I enjoyed this more than any other chicken pie that I have had in recent memory. There seemed to be the appropriate amount of chicken, vegetables and enough sauce to keep it lovely and moist. The pastry was tasty and crispy. I tried my best to identify the curry flavour. It was definitely not what I was expecting. I thought for sure it would be seasoned with that ubiquitous yellow curry powder that we Brits used to believe was the epitome of “Indian” flavour. This was most definitely not that but something much more nuanced and complex. I would have little difficulty keeping a supply of these in my freezer if only there were room!

Babies. All of you. Try 1943.

Usually when I ask for beets from the grocery store I get a measly bunch of perhaps three or, if I’m lucky, four beets. This time however the bunch was quite generous. Too many, in fact, for me to eat fresh. So I reserved two to be eaten fresh and with the remainder I made a quart of pickled beets. It’s very simple pickle that I inherited from my Danish in-laws. 1:.5 white vinegar and white sugar (volume or weight, doesn’t seem to matter much) heated until boiling with a generous sprinkling of cloves. Pour this over sliced beets and you’re done. No fussing about sterilizing since they will be in the refrigerator and eaten long before they can grow nasties.

I can only think you were extremely unlucky. Our mods are volunteers and though all too often subject to abuse, manage to maintain a level of equanimity that should make some of them eligible for sainthood. I hope your experiences going forward are much more positive.

Surprisingly no. I did not find it spicy, not even the sauce.

Today @Kerry Beal picked up lunch from Charred and brought it to my place. She also served it up! This was the piri Piri whole chicken dinner with three sides. We both decided of the sides we would prefer a double order of the potatoes rather than the other options. Described as creamy chipotle coleslaw I wore out my taste buds trying to detect even hint of chipotle. The chicken which was beautifully cooked and very juicy. But the star of the show is the potatoes. They are cooked beneath the chicken so they pick up all the flavour. Two plates served up in the kitchen. A close-up of my plate. (The chicken looks overcooked but it certainly wasn’t). The bonus: lots of leftovers.

No apologies needed. Was it nearly as good as it looks?

Click.

Thanks, @Toliver. I am not doing much cooking these days consequently not really paying too much attention to cookbooks. The Salvage Chef caught my eye or perhaps I should say my curiosity. So far I am most impressed by how many pages can be devoted to introductory matter!