Ah, the humble pie – a staple on any British pub menu – and a classic that comes in all shapes and sizes, flavours and flakiness.
Although we think pies should be championed year-round, National Pie Week encourages people to to eat, cook and celebrate the ever-so-tasty pastry dishes for seven whole days.
Whether a savoury pie, served with mash and peas floats your (gravy) boat; or you prefer to tuck into a sweet treat covered in custard – there’s a pie for any and every occasion.
But which city in the UK loves pie the most?
Our Master Bakers crunched the numbers – incredibly, π was no help here! – and with a little insight from Google Trends, we’ve identified where pie searches were at their highest over the last 12 months.
Which cities have their eyes on the pies? The results are in…
It’s official – Bristolians are the UK’s biggest pie-lovers for 2021 – with a mixture of North and South cities securing themselves a place in the top 10!
From across the borders, Edinburgh and Cardiff earned themselves a slice of the pie, making it into the top five with Plymouth and Bromley. The Northern cities dominated the second half of the leaderboard, rounded off by Manchester in tenth place, home to the annual World Pie-Eating Championships.
“We celebrate pies all year round here at The Billington Group, but especially during British Pie Week! It’s really interesting for us to see how the nation embraces pies and hats off to Bristol for clinching the top spot!
“We hope everyone tucks into a pie or two this week, and that soon we’ll be able to see them back on pub menus around the country, once their doors reopen! ” – Will Dickinson, Head of Development at Billington Foodservice.
A recipe for success…
So, now we know which cities love pie the most, but which pie recipes are people most in search of? Our experts looked more closely at Google Trends to find out!
When it comes to savoury pies, chicken pie recipe searches came out on top when compared to steak and vegetarian options, except for the week between Christmas and New Year where searches for steak pie recipes soared.
Next up, the sweetie pies of the pudding world! It doesn’t really come as a huge surprise that the classic apple pie has proven to be a consistently well searched-for pie recipe over the last year, with banoffee pie also proving popular.
Of course, there are spikes throughout the year for seasonal pie recipes, most notably in the lead up to Christmas where mince pie searches skyrocket, as well as at Halloween where people are looking for spooktacular pumpkin pie recipes.
Whichever pie tickles your fancy – whether it’s sweet or savoury; in shortcrust or puff pastry; served with chips and gravy, or mash and liquor like a propah East Ender – be sure you tuck into one during British Pie Week 2021!
Check out our range of pies over at Billington Foodservice – from classics like steak and ale, and chicken, ham and leek – to their meat-free range including mushroom and veg, and meatless steak and ale. They’re sure to leave empty plates and happy smiles all round!