Feast your pies on these tasty treats

The crisp short pastry, the rich hot filling, and don’t even get us started on the gravy!

Then there’s sweet pies, and not forgetting the classic pork pie, filo pies, and does the pasty count?

But creeping up the vast list on menus in the county’s pubs, fish and chip shops, and restaurants is the beef steak and ale pie and the chicken and mushroom version.

However, lurking in the background are the more exotic comfort food tastes favoured by some foodies in the county, who are plumping for the likes of pheasant and rabbit pie, Herdwick lamb and redcurrants and wild venison and cranberry pies.

Whatever your favourite filling this week being British Pie Week has given us all the perfect excuse to indulge in our favourite dish daily.

Fontanas is one of Carlisle’s best-known and most popular chippies.

But as well as the traditional fish and chip supper, Fontanas best sellers are proving to be the humble home-made pies.

And it is the staple steak pie that is proving the customer’s favourite take-away at £2.80, and if that’s not enough, gravy, curry, peas or beans can be added as an optional extra.

Fontanas was opened 30 years ago by David Foster, who is married to a member of the Fontana family. The premises doubled in size about 10 years ago.

The business is managed by David’s two daughters, Samantha Dixon and Emma Ward and her husband Andy Ward.

But it was dad David who stumbled upon the delights of the home-made pies on their menu. 

“My dad went out to Little Corby to visit his cousin and bought a steak pie from Wilson’s Butcher’s and the rest is history.

“Dad came back and said ‘we could really sell these and they would go down a treat’ and he was right,” said Samantha.

“We have been selling the steak pies for three or four years now, then a year ago we introduced the chicken and mushroom and meat, potato and veg pies. They are really popular and we sell an awful lot of the steak pie. It is not just about selling fish and chips anymore,” added Samantha.

PIE FACTS

• It is said that the origins of the humble pie can be traced back as far as the ancient Egyptians. The bakers to the Eqyptian Pharaohs used nuts, honey and fruits in bread dough, a primitive form of pastry
• It is believed that the traditional pie pastry originated in Greece. The pies were made using a flour-water paste wrapped around meat; this served two purposes, to cook the meat and seal in the juices of the finished dish
• The pie’s attributes spread around the globe thanks to the Romans and every country adapted the pie recipes to their own unique customs and food

And when the days are colder, the chippie really does sell more of the pies. “People don’t mind paying a bit more for these home-made pies. They realise the quality, and we sell three or four times more than the manufactured kind.”

British Pie Week started in 2007 as a marketing campaign by ready-made pastry manufacturers Jus-Rol, but it has now evolved into much more.

Every Thursday is pie night at The Queens Head at Tirril, and where better to source the diners’ favourites than the Pie Mill in Threlkeld, run by landlords Jim and Margaret Hodge’s daughter, Amanda.

Pies are made using The Pie Mill’s own recipe for shortcrust pastry. All the fillings are their own recipes too.

The Pie Mill, based at Threlkeld, was born in 2005. With pies named after the Lakeland fells, it has gone on to win many awards.

The first one, in its opening year, was awarded by Eblex: the Blencathra beef in ale pie made with Cumbrian Galloway beef and Cumberland Ale, won the best steak pie in England.

Kathryn Braithwaite, of The Pie Mill, with fruit pies All Pie Mill products are made using fresh, locally-sourced meat and vegetables. Among the suppliers are the Dunning family at Westmorland Services for beef and lamb, Highgate turkeys and James of Penrith for fresh vegetables.

Amanda supplies pies to the pub trade, to the award-winning Westmorland Services and to the Theatre By The Lake in Keswick where they are on the menu for pre-show meals. Amanda’s parents Jim and Margaret retired from the pub trade in 2008, but found they missed the busy life: they took over The Queen’s Head in 2010.

They have regular pie and mash nights where The Pie Mill pies are served. There are also eight available on the normal menu.

Their first Pie Fest was held in November 2001 to help boost business in the quiet month of November. Pie Fest is now an annual event and is a weekend totally dedicated to eating pies, having fun and raising money for charity.

“We were receiving an increasing number of requests from our customers to sell the pies as ‘off-sales’ to take home and out of this came the idea, and what we believe is a natural progression, for The Pie Mill,” said Amanda.

“Beef and ale was the first pie we made, and it’s still the most popular, but there are all those you would not expect, containing apples, rhubarb, and steak and kidney,” she added.

But for all lovers of all things pastry-encased when is a pie not a pie?

Traditionally, a pie is one which is fully covered in pastry, with a base, sides and lid.

But some among us might argue that surely there is room for a puff-pastry topped steak and ale pie, a fully cottage pie or shepherd’s pie, or a sharp and sweet lemon-meringue.

The debate is endless – but check out the online Oxford Dictionary definition. A pie is a baked dish of fruit, or meat and vegetables, typically with a top and base of pastry. However, the Cambridge Dictionaries online describe it as a type of food made with meat, vegetables, or fruit covered in pastry and baked.

But the British Pie Awards, which are held during British Pie Week, state on their website that ‘a pie is deemed to be a filling toally encased in pastry’. It goes on to say that entries will not accepted if they are fruit, open lattice or potato topped.

In Brampton, Colin Moore, of Colin Moore Butchers, said traditional pie recipes are his best-sellers, with steak ranking top.

Another hot favourite is his Christmas pie which is so popular it is on offer throughout the year. The recipe – of turkey, carrots, stuffing, gravy, a layer of mash and a slice of bacon on top – is one he created about 15 years ago.

All-day breakfast pie filled with sausage, bacon, beans and black pudding is also a popular choice.

The High Cross Street butcher said what he thinks people love is “the fact that they’re homemade and it’s all good quality meat, just exactly the same meat as we’d sell over the counter, and it’s all sourced from local farms,” Colin.

Colin’s pies come in single portions, medium-sized for two to three people and large ones that serve four.

At R J Harrison Butchers in Wigton the best-sellers are steak pie and Cumberland sausage rolls.

Baker Sheila Harrison said they are the best because they are full of meat. They have a steak and black pudding pie and haggis rolls too. 

“We do a wide range of pies,” she said. “Possibly about 20 or more different ones, but we are well known as a traditional family butcher sourcing from local farmers.”

At Cottage Pie in Dearham, near Maryport, there is always a good selection of pies and often a limited edition recipe on offer.

Regulars include steak and cheese, and steak and black pudding but their best sellers are traditional steak pie, and meat and potato.

Baking starts in the shop at 3am, so baked today, eaten today.

So it would appear although variety abounds that this week has been about the buttery goodness of the pastry filled invention from beef, steak, pork, ale and chicken, and not a veggie in sight.

And the world’s most expensive pie was in 2005 at Fence Gate Inn in Lancashire, which came in at a whopping £8,195 a pie or £1,024 a slice, and the world’s heaviest pie weighed in at 5.37 tonnes.