Be Excellent To Each Other

I can't believe people microwave mince pies. Tut! Heating should be done in an oven, or with the warmth of love from family and cherished ones at Christmas.

Based on my experiences of food from Spar*, that should be "0.4375 out of 100."

I wonder if they do sliders, it would certainly explain things.

* - barring their mint ice cream.

the pies were consumed at lunch time with a friend and with quantities of fizzy juice, i believe that technically makes it a minor party yes.

It's that time again!

Morrison's deep fill luxury ones were nice.

There is a rating system, you know. Put some fucking effort in.

I'll give them a B+.

Oooo excite, it might be tricky this year as I'm on a health thing. Maybe I'll try for healthy pies? The hunt begins.

for the information of the panel: I WILL be continuing my controversial practice of micro waving, you have been warned.

This might be my new favourite thread.

Nom nom mince pies!!

Waitrose Deep filled shortcrust mince pies

P: 15. Nice looking pie, box could be better. Would benefit from a picture of a mince pie on it!
T: 10. Too much pastry; bad meat to crust ratio. The meat was nice but not incredibly flavourful.
F: 10. The meat portion isn't exactly stingy but the pie was only half full... Don't call it deep fill if it ain't; it scores poorly for promising and not delivering.
S: 15. Quite large but too much of that is pastry and air.
C: 18 £2 for six so quite cheap.

Mr. Kipling Exceedingly Merry mince pies

P: 17. Pretty decoration on the pie. Box is as you'd expect from Mr. Kipling, it's the smallest, flimsiest box of the lot but does it's job. And has a picture of a pie.
T: 13. Too dry. The meat was flavourful.
F: 9. The meat portion only half fills the case, which is quite shallow.
S: 13. Would be a great size if they had more filling.
C: 20. £1 for six (on offer).

Waitrose All butter mince pies

P: 17. Nice large box, very pretty decoration. But the pies are boring looking.
T: 19. Lovely pastry and very flavourful filling. A lot less liquid then the other fillings.
F: 18. Completely full to the top!
S: 18. Good, large size and all in proportion.
C: 17. £3 for six so the most expensive.

Asda extra special mince pies.

£1 for 4 pies

packaging: just a plastic tray, perhaps underplaying itself to make the pies seem to support themselves. You know what i mean. 0.1¥

filling: tasty good filling, moist fruitful flavour with a hint of Frankenstein and mir. 0.8¥

filling to crust ratio: "deep fill" no. A smear in the bottom of the case. Poor. 0.5¥

pastry: excellent pastry with a good bite and a fine taste. 0.7¥

couldn't test for latent temperature coefficient due to the microwave being in a different room sorry folks. Also, on phone so can someone else average up the scores?

Joan's came home with these.

From Aldi, price unknown.

Very sweet, I had two. Bloody lovely, I could eat the whole box in one go. Moist, tasty, sweet.

Nom out of nom.

Not mince pies. Get out of this thread immediately!

The fillings seem to suggest it IS a mince pie, but with added extras. I think they are allowed as though not ‘traditional’, if we only went with what originally a mince pie contained they’d also be full of meat.

Jazzy, I think you need to test another two, this time warmed in the oven, so we get the full taste test.

Then have one warm and one cold, side by side comparison, to find out which is the best eating method, just so that we know how to maximise our enjoyment potential if we happen to buy some. Do it for SCIENCE.

The box describes them as a twist on the traditional mince pie.

I had my first mince pie of the season yesterday. From Gail's. Very good - extremely tangy and generous filling. Price, a very seasonal "How fucking much?!"

Mince pies with meat in are excellent.

Only if you love animal torture and the destruction of the environment by the meat and dairy industry, you heartless capitalist monster.

Challenge accepted!

My first mince pie of the season has been consumed. Handmade, puff pastry top. Lots of icing sugar.

8/10

Puff pastry mince pies are ace. My Nan used to make them. Russell’s Grandad does now, for which I am forever grateful.

I've got a pack of four 'Asda Best' or whatever they are called that my friend told me to buy because she read they came out top.

To be honest, as they are baked in store they all looked really inconsistent in the actual colour/amount of dusting, etc. I hope they are OK though as we'll be having them Christmas Eve and Christmas Day so it will be too late if they are awful.

Sad reminder of the final challenge that saw Jazzy off, never to be completed.

I might have mentioned this before so apologies if so but a friend of mine runs a mince pie review blog which might be of interest!

https://mincepiereviews.co.uk/

My recent favourites are the Asda brandy buttercream topped ones. Nice pastry, decent amount of mince meat and a good buttercream. Even the luxury Co-Op buttercream ones aren't as good, as the amount of mincemeat is poor.

What does your friend have against Mr Kipling?

https://mincepiereviews.co.uk/2017/mr-k ... ie-review/ ??

Oh wait, that's from 2017.

I shall be contacting my lawyer and expecting a royalty.

I may have written this before, but I used to work with mince pies, a LOT. So much so that I ended up hating the things, but time heals and all that.

So, here's a thing. Many manufacturers that make mince pies use ways to deal with the Christmas demand. Specifically, they freeze them to work up a volume of pies.

So, the production and distribution goes something like this:

- First wave of mince pies go out into shops with a pre-Christmas use-by.
- Mince pie production continues: shops top up but some quantity is syphoned off for freezing
- Last two-three weeks before Christmas: production continues, none frozen, previously frozen defrosted to box and sell.

Sometimes, if you find your pastry casings have what looks to be a wet leak around lid, this can be a sign they've been previously frozen. It really affects the taste and texture as the ice crystals that form in the freezing process can fracture and break the bonds in the fruit.

So, grab a box the second they appear in shops and eat them down. After that, if you can find pies that have the date that you need that say 'suitable for home freezing' it is generally a good indication they have not yet been frozen and thawed. But don't freeze and thaw them.

Ignore the above if you like your pastry casings a bit less crumbly and your fruit more mushy, which some might.

At work, Greggs are a country mile above anything else, followed by Mossies

NOT A THING

Not any sort of thing at all.

Ha! I did actually do this! But I can't remember the result. :-|

Then there's only one answer: do it again!

Custom PC has you covered.

Fortunately, I've bought some more tonight.

Which?'s mince-pie reviews are in (via the Guardian)

1. M&S Collection Mince Pies £2.50

2. Iceland Luxury Mince Pies £1.89

3. Asda Extra Special All Butter Luxury Mince Pies £1.50

4. Waitrose No. 1 All Butter Mince Pies £2.50

5. Aldi Specially Selected Mince Pies £1.35

6. Tesco Finest Mince Pies £1.75

7. Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference All Butter Mince Pies £2

8. Lidl Deluxe Luxury Mince Pies £1.79

9. Co-op Irresistible Luxury Mince Pies £2

10. Morrisons The Best All Butter Deep Filled Mince Pies £2

11. Spar Luxury All Butter Mince Pies £2

Well.

Just got back with some sloe gin minces, blackforest crumble minces AND salted caramel crumble minces from the Aldis. Nom nom

Please to be reviewing thanks. Will be at Aldi later.

We done had the blackfurrrrrst ones last year and they are quite gurt lush. I'd say a good gurt of 1000 lushes. The sloe gin ones are very sweet, but also of a similar gurtings.

Fuckin' sold.

The salty caramel ones are also lovely. The caramel doesn't overpower the mince. Much mincing was done.

Yeah... they all sound great.

Don’t ever buy them though as I’m lucky enough to get home made ones from my mum each year that are superb.

Standard iced Mince Pie from the ASDAs. Pastry a touch dry and crumbly. Decent amount of mince. Icing not too sweet.

3 Rudolfs out of 5

I had one of the black forest jobbies at work. Terrible.

Greggs are number 1 so far, easily.

Co-op puff pastry mince pies.

Burned, no filling. 1.5/10.

Were they actually cookies?

Dammit, that was likely the problem.

I’ve tried the puff pastry mince pies from Morrison’s, also. Not burned at least (slightly underdone if anything) but also containing the merest smudge of filling.

2.5/10.

Actually, is there a proper ‘how to score’ sheet here somewheree?

Page 1, there is even a handy mnemonic involving transvestites.