Growing up Sargents was the brand of frozen pies with which I was most familiar. So when they came out with this Sous Vide Slow Cooked Beef in their premium range in this stylish blue box, I was convinced to break from my newfound loyalty to Herbert Adams to give it a go.

These pies were about 10 cm in diameter and 4 cm in height with a strip of dried herbs dusted across the centre. To my disappointment, these pies don’t feature the slither of savoury, buttery shortcake emblazoned with their logo that sits atop every other Sargents pie and is also the best bit. These pies can be prepared in an air fryer following the instructions for a fan forced oven but cooking for only three quarters of the time.

Upon tasting, these pies have a flaky pastry lid with a firmer, sturdy base. The slow cooked beef (26.5%) is well seasoned with onion, black pepper and tomato flavours. The beef has a tender bite, although firmer bits of beef mince (8%) does make its presence known. Indeed, it’s the reason we avoid run-of-the-mill meat pies and here, it definitely detracts from the premium aspect of these pies.

This Sargents Sous Vide Slow Cooked Beef contained 400 g or 2 pies. It was produced in Australia and purchased in Sydney, Australia in 2019.