As I have stated on many an occasion, I am a staunch traditionalist when it comes to what amounts to a pie. Whatever the filling (and it can truly be anything savoury or sweet, such is the versatility of a proper pie) it must be fully encased in pastry. A casserole topped by a puff pasty lid may aspire to piedom, but in reality is a pienacious popienjay (if posing as a pie in my book) and should be banished to the darkest depths of Tart-arus if it has the procacity to label itself as a pie.

Probably my favourite purveyor of a proper pies (certainly in Cardiff) is Rees Family Butchers in Canton, Cardiff.  Handily located a short walk from Victoria Park (where I tend to walk Dick the dog on week day mornings – just had DNA test results back for him confirming he is 100% dickhead/mainly a Yorkie – pug cross), I often pop in to pick up a pie or 3 early doors (you need to get in early as they tend to sell out and in any event close at 1pm).

With British (proper) Pie Week having  finished the other week (3rd – 9th March), during said week, I bought a trio of Rees master-pie-ces in the form of their classic steak and gravy, a minced beef one and a (rather more off pieste, for me) lamb, mint and veggie number.

Classic steak and gravy – £4

Nice crisp bronzed (after an oven reheat) lid, with a pastry surround and bottom that is less crisp but not suffering from that clagginess you get from many a pie undercarriage.

On opening it up, the filling is a mix of rich (and nicely seasoned) gravy (replete with meat) and spoon tender chunks of beef (stewing) steak. 

Good pie this, with a nice pastry case and a compelling filling. In an ideal world, I would have welcomed a bit more of a steak to gravy ratio in the mix. At £4 (bearing in mind how much a standard supermarket sarnie costs these days) that, however, is probably a bit of an unfair ask.

Lamb mint and veg – £4 25

Again, a well-made pastry case and a really good gravy, this time with a pleasing thwack of mint in the mix. Not too much of said mint, such that it overpowered, but just enough to make its presence felt. I would say it entailed a blob of mint sauce in the gravy, with that tanginess you get from the vinegar in mint sauce

Lots (more than in the steak pie) of chunks of really tasty and tender lamb. The veggies (looks like those from a bag of frozen mix veg) were (to my mind) rather superfluous to requirements, although I counted them as all of my 5 a day (I mean they make this pie almost vegan), but were innocuous enough. The gravy was gloriously glossy and thick.

Minced beef and onion- £3.25

I spied in the shop a pot of pie gravy on sale and, with pie and mash one of nature’s perfect partners, I thought extra gravy would form the perfect piefecta.

The pie had the place’s trademark crisp pastry and an ample filling of minced beef and onion in a fulsome gravy

I went slightly OTT and poured all of the pie gravy on to the pie, peas and mash and bloody lovely it was too. Think, rich and really meaty, with a nice level of seasoning.

In an increasingly barmy world, it is gratifying to know that you can buy pie gravy. To me, this clearly indicates there is a (benevolent, albeit possibly working from home in their pyjamas) God!

The verdict

Proper butchers and purveyors of proper pie are increasingly rare these day. People for some unknown reason seem to increasingly buy meat from supermarkets, with meat of dubious origins such as mince extruded from god knows what. In this place, when I go in early, they mince beef  up for me so I know exactly what goes into it. This is what I want in terms of meat I eat, rather than frankenfood from an ff’ing bioreactor vat. I suspect said frankenfood will turn us all into zombies given time and I will not be eating any such muck.

Local butcher, greengrocers, bakers etc  should really be the main stay for consumers in the UK and a good one is worth it weight in gold. Rees is definitely a butcher to cherish, with cracking pies and lots more to boot.

The prices may have gone up recently, on average by 50p, but boy are they still a bargain.

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