pie are squared

You'll recall my life-enhancing musings on the heat-retention capacities of food back in the early days of this blog; here's another example. On the rare occasions when I indulge in the delicious lard-based products sold by Gregg's the bakers (of which there is a branch only a short drive from the office), and on the still rarer occasions when one pie just doesn't seem like it'll be enough (in my defence I'm playing golf tonight so I won't be eating again until late), I have the opportunity to sample the Chicken Bake and the Steak Bake at the same time. And, without exception, by the time I get to eat them, the chicken one is just a bit less warm than one would ideally like, while the steak one remains hotter than the sun.

Now obviously there are a few potential confounding factors here, so I've repeated the experiment three or four times over the past couple of years and got the same results every time. So what's the explanation? The external pastry covering is pretty much the same for both, they're stored in the same keep-stuff-warm glass cabinet thingy before being sold, and they were presumably cooked under similar conditions (i.e. in a hot oven). Maybe it's something to do with the colour of the gravy?