Marie Callender’s Pub Style Steak & Ale pie

I’m sure I’m not alone in having a soft spot for Marie Callender’s pot pies. With their calorie count I don’t even them as often as I’d like, but when I do, I really love to indgule; yes that means I’ll just eat a family sized pot pie all to myself…

Anyway…when I spotted this sophisticated looking new product from the company, resplendent in the gold and black packaging, it was a no brainer. A pub style steak and ale product to enjoy at home – done!

Here’s some shots of the frozen and cooked pie:

Marie Callender's Pub Style Steak & Ale pie frozen side
Marie Callender’s Pub Style Steak & Ale pie frozen side
Marie Callender's Pub Style Steak & Ale pie frozen
Marie Callender’s Pub Style Steak & Ale pie frozen
Marie Callender's Pub Style Steak & Ale pie cooked
Marie Callender’s Pub Style Steak & Ale pie cooked
Marie Callender's Pub Style Steak & Ale pie cooked interior
Marie Callender’s Pub Style Steak & Ale pie cooked interior
Marie Callender's Pub Style Steak & Ale pie cooked interior close up
Marie Callender’s Pub Style Steak & Ale pie cooked interior close up

Sadly things started badly from the get go with the cooking instructions. The instructions for conventional oven cooking on the packaging didn’t come close to cooking my pie to temperature. I ended up raising the oven heat and cooking for at least another 15-20 minutes to get things up to temp.

The pie itself was a real let down too. The slightly sweet and buttery pastry, was nothing like the pastry on a regular Marie Callender’s pie. It was claggy and not at all enjoyable to my tastes.

The filing was poor too. The amount of beef was minimal and what beef was present was chewy and of a poor flavor. The gravy was overly thick I thought, and had something of a weird aftertaste.

Honestly, the pie went into the garbage after picking around and taste testing the various elements. The only thing that stopped me throwing the second pie into the trash was I wanted to try the alternate cooking method (quick-bake) which also failed to produce good results. Again I had to cook for much longer than the packet instructs.

Overall a real let down for me, this one needs a complete redesign or just scrapping. I’ll still enjoy my regular MC pot pies, but I’ll be giving this one a wide berth.

Marie Callender’s Pub Style Steak & Ale cooking and nutrition

Marie Callender's Pub Style Steak & Ale pie cooking instructions
Marie Callender’s Pub Style Steak & Ale pie cooking instructions
Marie Callender's Pub Style Steak & Ale pie nutrition and ingredients
Marie Callender’s Pub Style Steak & Ale pie nutrition and ingredients
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2 thoughts on “Marie Callender’s Pub Style Steak & Ale pie”

  1. Hi Stewart,
    I lived in England for several years and these meat poured are the closest thing to the real thing I have had in ages. The crust is a lard based crust so it may seem a bit more dense than the crusts people are used to in America. Personally I found them to be a very acceptable store-bought version to the real thing.

    Reply
    • Taste is certainly a subjective thing, and if you love em, fabulous! :). They just weren’t for me at all, in a any regards.

      As a side note I’m English myself and grew up (uniwsely) eating wayyyyy too many lard based pies, I’ve made more than a few myself from scratch too 🙂

      As I say, I just couldn’t stomach this one personally.

      Reply

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