Who stopped eating all the pies? Pub diners lose their appetite for British favourite

THE humble pie may have had its chips after pub diners voted it one of their least favourite classic pub dishes.

Just 5 per cent of diners named the traditional British dish as their preferred pub meal, found research by consumer analyst Mintel. Instead, the most popular option was steak, a healthier but pricier dish which was named by a quarter of respondents.

Steak pipped roast dinners, chosen by one in five, or 19 per cent, of diners, followed by burgers, 15 per cent, and fish and chips, picked by 14 per cent as their first choice. The Lancashirebased Pork Pie Appreciation Society last month had to cancel its annual charity pie competition after 25 years, owing to a lack of members.

For decades, the event could be relied upon to attract hundreds of visitors each year to the Old Bridge Inn in Ripponden.

The Mintel report found that it is female diners between the age of 25 and 44 who are doing their bit to keep the pie tradition alive, with 9 per cent saying pies were their favourite pub classic. Middle to high earners with jobs paying between £50,000 and £75,000 a year were also disproportionately likely to be pie lovers, with 8 per cent picking it as their top menu choice.

Nicola Knight, an independent restaurant expert, said: “What consumers really won’t stomach is being served a dish that is disappointing quality and value for money, and this could be why some ‘old style’ pies have fallen out of favour.

“Also, considering the number of new cuisines and dishes which have appeared on our high street menus in recent years it is not surprising that the figure is low.

“Traditional British favourites are definitely coming under pressure from exciting new flavours like American, Japanese, Korean and Middle Eastern.”

Pies are going out of favour in pubs. It is little consolation that pubs that do not even serve pies are going out of favour more quickly. Part of the problem is pub pies. They used to be of a nasty squashy kind in a plastic wrapper and held prisoner in a hot cabinet on the counter. Now there is a mendacious sort where the filling is put in a little dish and a separately baked pastry crust is put on like a straw hat. So there are pies and pies. But this is almost sacred ground, as pies enter the consciousness of the British child early via nursery rhymes about four-and-twenty blackbirds or Jack Horner. The great point in these rhymes is that they seem to make little sense. It seems that we need to eschew rationality or narrow calculation of calories and open up to our inner pie. It’s the most natural thing in the world – as easy as pie.