Jim Thurston of Pie 'n' Mash Online very kindly offered to send me a package of their pie and mash for review which I enthusiastically accepted. The company's great selling point is that the meal is made to a 150 year old recipe entrusted to him by a last generation pieman and that the pies are made by a professional restaurant chef. I was told that the meal would be sent by courier and would arrive on Thursday.

Come Thursday morning and my mouth was watering like one of Pavlov's dogs in anticipation and the pack duly arrived at 12:30. Inside the box were two large insulation sheets, cooking instructions, several ice packs (still frozen) two bags of mash, two bags of liquor and two bags containing two pies each. This represented four meals.
 

Well, I almost cooked the lot there and then! But, sensibly, I put it off until the evening and invited my friend Peter to share. Peter is an 82 year old classical pianist who has never tasted Pie & Mash before, so he readily agreed to participate in the review process.

PREPARATION
 

PIES	The instructions tell you to remove the pies from their foil cases, place a desert-spoon of cold water into the case, replace the pie into its case and put a thin film of water over the crust prior to placing it in the oven. Hmmm. I thought about this. The pies looked a little bashed up. The foil cases were dented and the crusts were cracked. I placed the flat palm of my hand over the top of one pie and inverted it. The pie came free easily and I duly put the water into the foil case. Now for the difficult bit. I carefully placed the pie back into its case, but the crust had already started to fall apart. Into my fan-oven with two pies at 220°C for twelve minutes and out came two beautifully brown pies with the slightly burned edges that I like (left). Unfortunately they started to disintegrate when I took them out of their cases and placed them on the plates (right).
MASH	Two portions of mash come in a thick gauge sealed polythene bag. Cooking instructions are simple: pop it in the microwave and heat on full power, stirring occasionally, until piping hot. I cut the cold mash up into chunks and it took around four minutes in my 800W microwave and came out looking just like mash should. As promised, there were detectable lumps.
LIQUOR	Again, two portions in one bag. Cooking options are to microwave or heat in a saucepan. I chose the latter and set it on a very low heat. It looks most unappetising when first emptied out cold (left) and I have to admit I was a little dubious when I had a tiny taste, but it gradually took on a more familiar appearance as it reached steaming temperature. Jim says that they make it deliberately thick (and they do), so I thinned it down with a little boiling water from the kettle until its consistency resembled what I personally am used to. If you want to thin it down then I advise you to do so very carefully with only small additions of water each time and plenty of stirring or you may end up with something far to thin to use. It has a good pale green colour with plenty of dark green flecks of parsley (right).

TASTE

PIE Considering the near disaster of the pies falling apart I was taken aback when I first tasted the filling. Although the minced beef was not quite as tender as I am used to the taste was 100% authentic and brought a huge grin to my face. While the crust (as damaged as it was) tasted excellent, the base was a little disappointing. I usually wax lyrical about the "soft, slippery, silver underbelly" of pie and mash pies which, to me, are usually reminiscent of the underbelly of a freshly caught trout. This base, however, seemed to resemble slightly soggy shortcrust pastry. That said it was indeed tasty. I would have liked to give the pies four stars, simply based on the taste of the filling, but I have reduced it to three because of the mentioned problems. MASH The consistency of the mash was very good and the only added taste I could detect was a little salt. There were lumps in it, proving that it was real mashed potato. If you don't like lumps then they are easily mashed out. I am left wondering what type of potato they use to achieve the authentic pie and mash shop feel and taste (Maris Piper?). LIQUOR Although I had initially tasted the cold liquor and been a little concerned (have you ever tasted cold congealed liquor?), there was no need to worry. On the finished dish it tasted surprisingly authentic. It had just the right amounts of salt and parsley and I had got the consistency just right. The liquor made the dish proper pie and mash. OVERALL If you look back to the photo of the box I received it is obvious that the courier did not treat it as FRAGILE! That is neither here nor there when it comes to the mash and liquor, but I believe that the problems I had with the pies were probably down to transit damage. They might well have fared better in a little cardboard box of their own. Bar the difficulties with the pie, this dish was a delight to eat. Doubly so as it came via post and I had my doubts, having had bad experiences of food sent in the post in the past. The meal was tasty and filling leaving me with the opinion that Jim's 150 year recipe is an undoubted success and he had a product to be very proud of. Peter tucked into the meal enthusiastically. He is normally used to me cooking great big British roasts, hearty stews and intricate foreign meals. His main comment (when his mouth wasn't full) was that it was "excellent grub" and when was I going to treat him to some more pie and mash with green liquor? If you love pie and mash but don't live in an area where a shop is a viable distance away then I would recommend you try Pie 'n' Mash Online's fare. You will not be disappointed. FOOTNOTE: Since writing this review Jim has said that he is aware of the problem of  pie damage in transit and is in the process of providing better protection of the pies.

The finished article Peter tucked in enthusiastically THE EDITOR'S STAR RATING Pie Mash Liquor Overall

Three weeks later and I retrieve the two remaining portions from the freezer to try my nine year old daughter out on pie and mash for her first time. The pies were allowed to defrost for several hours before cooking and only one of them broke up. Preparation was exactly as before and the taste didn't appear to have been afeected by freezing.  I'll leave Amber's face on the following photos to tell you whether she enjoyed her first taste or not: