The Crusty Chronicles. Savories from Bakeries.

[Anna N]

2 hours ago, haresfur said:

So the discussion in this thread made me realise that your bakeries seem to sell the pies cold. They keep them warm here so you can eat them right away.

I don’t think this is necessarily true. I am sure we can get warm pies. We have a logistical problem only made worse by the Covid virus. Being extremely vulnerable I am in lockdown so it is necessary for Kerry to acquire the goodies and bring them back to my house.  Since she can’t be running after me all day, every day, she buys a bunch and many of them end up in my freezer. 
Your offering looks good. 

Edited October 4, 2020 by Anna N
To change you to we (log)

[Anna N]

Today’s pie is from Leylands in Waterdown. All their baked goods are brought in from outside as far as I can determine. They do not bake on site. @Kerry Bealattempted to find out where the steak and kidney pie may have originated and suspects it might’ve been in St Catherine’s.  Click.
 

 

out of my freezer. 
l

 

out of the oven

 

 

broken into

 

 

Covered with onion gravy.

 

 

 

The plate is clean. 
 

Well the first thing I can tell you about this steak and kidney pie is that not a single kidney was harmed in its making.  I could not detect any physical evidence of kidney nor even the hint of the flavour of kidney. 
 

The beef was tender and quite flavourful and the crust was very satisfactory. 
 

I sometimes wonder if these things get mis-labelled. 

 

 

 

[rotuts]

@Anna N 

 

quite interning :

 

""" Covered with onion gravy. """

 

you added this yourself ?

 

why not !

 

""   the hint of the flavour of kidney ""

 

I dont even know that that flavo(u)r is like

 

after a significant Vaccination Period (s)

 

Im going to have to get out more and look into that.

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, rotuts said:

@Anna N 

 

quite interning :

 

""" Covered with onion gravy. """

 

you added this yourself ?

 

why not !

 

""   the hint of the flavour of kidney ""

 

I dont even know that that flavo(u)r is like

 

after a significant Vaccination Period (s)

 

Im going to have to get out more and look into that.

Yes I added the gravy myself. Even if there were no kidney physically present in a steak and kidney pie the flavour should still be there if indeed the kidney had been cooked with the beef. 

[rotuts]

@Anna N

 

Everything is better with Gravy.

 

or Sauce if Gravy sounds odd for the item in question.

[Anna N]

I am not really sure why this pie, staring up at me from my freezer drawer, has been calling out to me for days. Chicken pot pie is just not anything that I can really relate to. It has no place in my childhood and I am not even sure if I have ever eaten one before. I am somewhat familiar with chicken à la King served in a vol-au-vent. So a few days ago I caved. 
 

 

I have serious doubts that chicken pot pie is truly a British “thing“. I should ask my sister the next time we speak.

 

 

 

Out of the freezer. 
 

 

 

Out of the oven. 
 

Broken into. 
 

I think I had a bit too much invested in the idea of this pie to ever be satisfied with the reality of it. It was OK. I just didn’t feel the love. Perhaps I need to sample @kayb‘s or @Norm Matthews’ or the versions of dozens of other people who seem to have mastered the art here on eGullet. 

 

 

[liuzhou]

9 minutes ago, Anna N said:

 

I have serious doubts that chicken pot pie is truly a British “thing“. I should ask my sister the next time we speak.

 

Pending Sis's response, I can say that this old British man had never heard of a chicken pot pie till he accidentally wandered into this website and a lot of Americans.

[Norm Matthews]

8 hours ago, Anna N said:

I am not really sure why this pie, staring up at me from my freezer drawer, has been calling out to me for days. Chicken pot pie is just not anything that I can really relate to. It has no place in my childhood and I am not even sure if I have ever eaten one before. I am somewhat familiar with chicken à la King served in a vol-au-vent. So a few days ago I caved. 
 

 

I have serious doubts that chicken pot pie is truly a British “thing“. I should ask my sister the next time we speak.

 

 

 

Out of the freezer. 
 

 

 

Out of the oven. 
 

Broken into. 
 

I think I had a bit too much invested in the idea of this pie to ever be satisfied with the reality of it. It was OK. I just didn’t feel the love. Perhaps I need to sample @kayb‘s or @Norm Matthews’ or the versions of dozens of other people who seem to have mastered the art here on eGullet. 

 

 

 

I think of the Chicken pot pie I make sort of similar to Southern chicken and dumplings with a crust instead of soft steamed dumplings.

[Kerry Beal]

Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada. Dropped around to @Alleguede's patisserie yesterday afternoon and left with a tortiere. 

 

 

Of course I had to bake it myself as it was one from the fridge.

 

 

 

Well seasoned interior, lots of pepper, bit of nutmeg.  Pastry was a bit different that what I usually make for my tortiere. 

 

 

[Anna N]

 

 

From the freezer 

 

 

 

from the oven 

 

 

The innards.

 

Bland, boring.  This one didn’t even leave me feeling satisfied in terms of sufficient food. Usually one of these pies meets my requirements as a full meal. This one seemed to contain very little in terms of chicken or anything else for that matter. Very disappointing.

 

Edited October 16, 2020 by Anna N
Multiple mistakes. Poor copy editing. (log)

[BeeZee]

Interesting how they specifically note the use of Bisto Gravy, by name, in the ingredients.

[CantCookStillTry]

Chicken Pie that just won "Best Chicken Pie In Australia". 

It actually won its heat. Not the final round but thats not how the bakery and local media are spinning it and all power to them. 

Since their Facebook post, trade has doubled. I found this out when I was chatting to the head baker/owner at my work and exclaimed how great it was! He replied that everyone keeps saying that but he's now working 15/18 hour days to keep up and he ain't that thrilled 😂. 

Big bits of thigh. Little bit much carrot for me. Excellent pastry. The pie pictured also took a nose dive at speed off my dash board so extra points for durability. 

 

My only complaint is the poppy seeds. I know they have to identify but I hate poppy seeds. 

[Anna N]

8 hours ago, CantCookStillTry said:

Big bits of thigh. Little bit much carrot for me. Excellent pastry.

Certainly looks more appetizing than the rather bland one I had. 

Edited October 18, 2020 by Anna N
Grammar (log)

[Kerry Beal]

Dropped in to Denninger's to find some matzo meal - a difficult task with passover so far behind us. 

 

Saw a package of 2 scotch pies for half price - one was a bit damaged hence the discount. 

 

 

Heated 325 for 20 min in CSO

 

 

Mash and turkey gravy

 

 

Nice flavorful filling. 'reasonable' pastry - not great but not bad. Child was pleased!

[Anna N]

 

 

From my freezer. 
 

 

Baked. 
 

 

Innards. 
 

First the good: it is obvious from the photographs that this was juicy and,  not so obvious, it was also very tender. 

But: the juiciness led to very a pasty, horrible bottom crust. The other serious objection I had to this pie was that when I broke into it the aroma of stale beer was quite off-putting. My guess is that instead of adding whatever beer/ale was being used early in the game to burn off the alcohol, it was simply slopped in before closing up the pie. That’s my theory. Once the smell dissipated it was difficult to detect any related flavor. Will not be repeating this experience intentionally. 

[Anna N]

@Kerry Beal took time out from her busy day to attend to a couple of things that will make my life a little more exciting over the next few days or weeks. One of the things she did was to  restock my freezer so I can spend more time posting on this topic!

 

 

 

these pies from Denninger‘s do not need to be frozen. They have a very long refrigerated shelf life. I have already sampled the chicken curry pie from here and thoroughly enjoyed it. 

 

 

 

 

Those are beef sausage rolls in the top photograph. 
 

Quite the selection. (But I’m having a hard time forgiving her for eating a Portuguese custard tart as she drove to my place and didn’t bring me one!)

 

[Anna N]

Breakfast this morning was one of the “sausage rolls” from The Hamilton Pie Company.

 

 

From my freezer. 
 

Heated through.

 

Cross-section. 
 

For a roll filled with beef rather than pork I found this quite passable. The beef could have tolerated a little more seasoning. Pastry was very good. It was not quite puff pastry but had a pleasant bite to it and was moderately flaky. 

 

[haresfur]

There is a fish store I drive past all the time that is only open a few days a week and those days I'm almost always on another quest and can't stop. Last Saturday AM the planets aligned and we drove past on our way to get coffee with a plan to get cups to take back to the nearby parking spot overlooking the city, which usually is only busy at night when the teenagers are out having a pash. On the way past I spotted a sign for scallop pie and knew what I had to do. 

 

They came in tins and one could only be served inverted

 

The scallop didn't have much seasoning, which made sense because you wouldn't want to overwhelm the scallop but it did seem like it needed something. Crust was flaky but tasted a bit like frozen chicken pot pie. Overall pretty good.

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, haresfur said:

On the way past I spotted a sign for scallop pie and knew what I had to do. 

Gotta love that “cooking destructions”!

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I had wanted to play too.  A few weeks ago I purchased fresh pies from Shoprite and Whole Foods, took pictures, the whole bit.  But not worth posting.  There was a bit of something in the Shoprite pie.  At first I thought bone, but pretty sure was plastic.

 

The Whole Foods pie was better.  Meat was actually good.  Nothing to write home about, but I might buy again to keep me from starvation.  Both pies, to my taste, were dry.  I like gravy in my pie.

 

 

[Anna N]

 

 

 

Out of the package it looks most unappetizing. That is grease! I’m going to assume it has something to do with it being vacuum packed. 

 

 

After being baked according to the directions the greasiness is much less apparent.

 

 

Although I lived for a short time in Quebec (both of my sons were born there) I have never sampled tourtière. I had some expectations including some fairly prominent spicing particularly cloves. I read a comment somewhere that this pie is a little like the garam masala of Indian cuisine – – every family has its own version.  

 

This was OK initially but I found out I could not finish it.  It was hard to detect spices of any kind in there let alone cloves. I found that it sat heavily on my stomach. 

 

I am quite prepared to try other versions of this well-known French-Canadian dish but I wouldn’t buy another one of this brand. 

 

[chromedome]

The version I first tasted (courtesy one of my middle-school teachers, who was French-Canadian and also - ironically - my best-ever English teacher) was REALLY heavily flavored with allspice. I've made similar versions in later years, and enjoyed them greatly.

[Anna N]

 

This just might be the best thing I have tasted since I started this topic. It is a piece of

 tourtière from Goûter, @Alleguede‘s Patisserie in Toronto. It was moist and appropriately spiced and I found the pastry to be exactly what I was expecting. I ate one piece for lunch and the second piece for dinner and if there were more I’d have another piece for dessert!

[liuzhou]

@Anna N Obviously I don't know if you have see this, but it made me think of you.

[Anna N]

2 hours ago, liuzhou said:

@Anna N Obviously I don't know if you have see this, but it made me think of you.

I really appreciate the link so I hope you won’t take any of what else I have to say as  personal! I know you’re not that thin-skinned.

 

Felicity annoys the hell out of me. There is just too much of a sameness to her columns.  She is wordy. But perhaps she is still on the old system of a penny a word. 
 

So much for Felicity. I have a strong aversion to meat and potato in a pie shell. Too many carbs. Nothing to do with nutrition or dieting. So it seems very reasonable that I would run away a barm pie.
 

thanks again.