Tesco's 4 Crispy Bake Pork Pies

Like your favourite TV show returning after a long break, the first pie review for many months was always going to be a disappointment.

The first thing to note is that these Tesco pies came in a pack of four. The perfect party pack it would seem - but it would be a strange guest who wished such a mediocre pie on their friends or significant other. Unless you were in the strange position of organising catering for a party of bastards, this really is hard a pack to recommend.

It must be said that things started off well, with the pie proving a delight to slice open, for all but the most cack-handed of fans. However, the ease with which the pie can be cut appears to have come at the price of other (some would say more important) attributes.

For one thing, these crispy pork pies were not in any way crispy. How such a blatent miss-representation got past Food Standards I will never know. If anything the pastry was overly soft, with the liquid fat glaze on the exterior suggesting the jelly had some how penetrated the surface.

Adding further evidence to the wondering jelly theory is the total lack of lubricant around the perimeter of the meat. We went through several rounds of porking, but by the time the last portion came around it was just too dry to keep going.

The meat itself was also of a poor quality. Once again, the packaging had claimed the pork was seasoned, but frankly the only real flavour was that of the pastry. They may as well just remove the meat all together and add yet another lie to the label.

Overall, the lack of jelly and meat flavour created a very shallow pork pie experience. There was no meat flavour to cling on to, leaving just a dirty post-swallow feeling, with no lingering pork taste to make up for it.

Luckily for Tesco, a poor pork pie is better than no pork pie at all.

Flavour balance: Pastry 80%, Pork 15%, Gelatine 5%

Overall Score: 3/10