Secret recipe for famous Pirie Pie sold to country’s top butcher shop

The secret recipe for Scotland’s five times World Scotch Pie Champion has been sold in a deal involving two of the country’s leading independent butchers.

James Pirie and Son’s world-beating pie is just one of the closely guarded award-winning recipes being sold by the Angus business to the UK’s Butcher Shop of the Year – McCaskie’s Butcher and Café of Wemyss Bay.

The multi-award-winning Inverclyde butcher takes over the brand, coveted recipes and intellectual property of Pirie’s.

Pirie’s closed its business and Newtyle shop earlier this month when owners Alan and Norma Pirie retired after hugely successful careers in the industry.

McCaskie’s will increase production of the internationally renowned Pirie Pie – along with other leading Pirie favourites – at their state-of-the-art small batch production unit in Wemyss Bay.

McCaskie’s managing director Nigel Ovens said: “Given Pirie’s fabulous heritage, McCaskie’s absolutely intends to protect and promote the brand name and recipes, honouring the legendary status owner Alan, his father Jim and wife Norma have established over the past 64 years.”

The record-smashing Pirie Pie lifted the World Scotch Pie Championship in 2024, 2023, 2021, 2020 and 2018. 

Pirie’s recipe book also contains the secret to their national title-winning sausages, pies, bacon and haggis.

McCaskie’s, the current Scottish Black Pudding Champion, has an equally impressive track record of winning national awards for their range of products – including Scotland’s most awarded haggis – with its own family recipe book, dating back generations, under lock and key.

Nigel said they were “delighted” to have brought both leading brands together, creating a catalogue of more award-winning recipes than any other butcher.

“We have a long-standing friendship with the Pirie family and, as they head off to enjoy a well-deserved retirement, McCaskie’s will ensure that their life’s work lives on,” he said.

“We’re delighted that Alan will initially act as consultant to our team to ensure the Pirie branded products taste exactly as they always have.

“It’s a real honour to be entrusted with iconic products such as the world-famous Pirie Pie and we intend to make the family proud as we take their brand forward.”

Sealing the deal this week, Alan Pirie said: “We can’t think of a better company than McCaskie’s to continue the Pirie brand and recipes.

“Not only are they officially the Best Butcher Shop in the UK, but they have a formidable catalogue of national award-winning products themselves.

“Our families share the same values and commitment to the highest standards of both product and service and we’re reassured that the Pirie legacy will be in safe keeping at McCaskie’s.”

McCaskie’s immediate plans are to focus on building a relationship with Pirie’s existing wholesale clients and broadening the distribution of the products to speciality retail outlets and the hospitality sector.

A new James Pirie and Son website will be launched soon, offering a full range of Pirie products which enjoy national award-winning status such as pork and beef sausages, haggis, speciality pies and bacon.

Pirie’s range of pies will also make a welcome addition to McCaskie’s growing range of products available in their shop.