This thread has been a pretty interesting read for me.
I don't know how many times I have to say it, but I work in a bakery. We make pies.
From that perspective I find it interesting to see others opinions on pies they have tried and tested.
Seriously, I'm taking all of this on board and am reporting back to my boss, who in his own opinion and also of many others, bakes a darn good pie.
However, a true artist knows that there is always room for improvement!
Those of you who believe you have had the best pie ever from Yatala, well, you should probably try a few elsewhere as written about in this thread first. I have sampled their chicken pie and I believe it was sub par. Certainly not even close to our own secret chicken pie formula. The Yatala chicken pie was a bit weird to me but I guess whatever floats your boat. Our chicken pies are based on a creamy filling not a clear fat filling as the Yatala ones are, which is pretty horrid.
Then there are some claims in this thread of "simply the best" or "the best evar" pies and whilst probably valid in the pie testers eyes, not quite all that helpful as others of us believe we have tried the best pies elsewhere.
So, having said that, perhaps a leaf out of the Pie Smiths Guild should be in order and you should rate the pies that have been tried out of 10. I believe that the pie smiths that I know of used to rate pastry and filling and come to the score out of 10.
In regards to pastry, the bottom pie pastry should be different to the top pastry. It is a well known pie bakers creed that the top pastry should be of the flaky light pastry type and the bottom pastry should be of the shortcrust style. Again, I stress, that this comes from my knowledge of working in a bakery, reading bakery industry information and having to deal with bakers! So, if you're having a truly awesome pie, let us know what the pastry is like. Some people base their pie experience on how good the pastry is.
For those who base their pie experience on the filling, well, again, according to pie bakers, the filling should be not too runny, certainly have plenty of meat, not have any evidence of the pie base mix that they all use (yes, they do, there is not one bakery that doesn't! Just ask Bakels!) If you like a pie with chunks or mince, this shouldn't make one better over the other as I believe that in this regard there are definitely acceptable standards for both types and neither should be judged against the other. Rather, judge mince against mince and chunky against chunky. Once mince or chunky is determined, decide if the filling is tasty enough for your tastes, if it is firm enough that it doesn't fall out of your pie all over your good Myswag shirt and contributes to the all over experience that a pie is.
So, I'll be keen to see if any of you take this on board as there is a serious industry pie maker watching keenly in the background and will be taking the customer feed back to the bakery and ensuring that all that is good goes into a well made hand crafted Aussie pie.
If you're not sure if I'm taking the p*** or not...you'd better PM me...
