2017 Steak Pie, Speciality Pie and Mince Round Evaluation

Sponsored by Lucas Ingredients and William Sword Ltd
A competition to find Scotland`s Best Ashette Pies

Five regional winners will receive a certificate.
Gold and Silver Awards to all those worthy of such recognition

Forth Valley College were delighted to provide the venue at their Stirling campus on Friday 11 August, for our latest product evaluation and the venue proved to be a bit hit all round.

We were delighted that we chose the state-of-the-art Campus – which specialises among other things in hospitality and cookery courses in conjunction with its Gallery Training Restaurant which is open to the public – as it had the perfect central location and essential facilities needed to make the competition a success.

Access off the M9 was easy, the facilities and the catering department staff at the college were excellent and the judges loved the spacious judging area with an inspiring view of the Wallace Monument.

Douglas Scott, Chief Executive, Scottish Federation of Meat Traders, said:

"We hold these awards every two years and there is always great interest from craft butchers throughout the whole of Scotland. Entries came from Stranraer to Dingwall, Bowmore to Buckhaven. Good steak pies can attract customers from far and wide and the Scottish consumer appreciates this identification of the best that can be found."

89 Businesses entered 258 products. In the Traditional Steak Pie evaluation there were Gold and Silver awards, regional champions and one Scottish Champion. 89 Traditional Steak Pies entered and in addition to the five regional champions, there were 14 Gold and 35 Silver awards.

In the Speciality Pie and Mince Round categories there were Diamond, Gold and Silver Awards.

91 Speciality Pies entered and the awards were: 1 Diamond, 17 Gold and 32 Silver
78 Mince Rounds entered and the awards were: 1 Diamond, 19 Gold, 28 Silver

Following the judging at Forth Valley College, the five regional champions were mystery shopped on a Thursday. However one champion had none available mid morning and so could not be taken to the final. The four finalists were taken to Abertay University where they do regular sensory analysis on a vast range of foodstuffs.

The Abertay panel of 12 undertook the task to choose the best Steak Pie. They treated the judging with great respect, it was very serious and yet very enjoyable.

Results will be announced at SFMTA Regional Meetings w/c 11th September 2017. The winner as selected at Abertay will be announced on Friday 15th September.

Dr Jon Wilkin, Lecturer in New Product Development at Abertay University said:1

“We were impressed by the entries to this year’s Steak Pie competition, the qualities of the finalists were above what we expected, the scores were close, and in fact it was so close that we spent some time afterwards discussing the different products. However there has to be one winner.

"We felt that the crumbly texture of the pastry was a perfect attribute to this product, crisp but not dry or oily. The winning factor for us was the succulent nature and quality of the steak within the pie, including the steak to gravy ratio. We felt this pie reflected well on one of Scotland’s national dishes and we encourage all consumers to try this product.”