Is the meat pie actually Australian? And is it even a dish?

The dish

Meat pie, Australia

Footy staple … a pie and sauce.Credit: iStock

Plate up

Two quick questions. Is the meat pie actually Australian? And is it even a dish? We’ll begin with the latter. Is it a real dish? Is this beautiful pillow of pastry – short crust on the bottom, golden-brown puff for the lid – filled with chunks of slow-cooked beef luxuriating in rich gravy, the whole lot slathered with slightly sweet tomato sauce a proper, unique foodstuff worthy of national obsession?

Of course it is. Though, anyone who has eaten a meat pie in Australia would realise it rarely hits those heights of artisanal brilliance. What you’re more likely to get is a lukewarm sack of soggy pastry filled with minced cow noses (or whatever off-cuts are handy) in suspicious gravy, topped with a squelch of home-brand sauce. Still, at the footy, or on a road trip, there are few things better.

First serve

There’s a chance the meat pie might not be a distinctly Australian invention. You could point to the remains of meat pies that have been discovered in 8000-year-old Egyptian tombs, or the pies written about by ancient Greeks and Romans (who didn’t eat the pie crust, but rather used it as a vessel for cooking and carrying). Pies were popular in Britain in the 14th century. The French invented flakier pastry in the 15th century. Galicians invented empanadas. In Fujian, China, the hujiao bing emerged. So no, Australia did not invent the meat pie. It was, however, popularised here by such historic brands as Four’n Twenty, Sargents and Balfours. Their sales at train stations and footy grounds propelled the snack to icon status.

Order here (and there)

We could dedicate this entire section to discovering Australia’s best meat pies. For brevity, let’s go with the recent winners of the Great Aussie Pie Competition: Buddy’s Bakery in Melton, Victoria, and Jack’s Bakery in Halls Head, Western Australia.

One more thing

Probably Australia’s most famous pie brand, Four’n Twenty, was founded in Bendigo in 1947 by Leslie Thompson McClure, a cafe owner and former dairy farmer. McClure would eventually sell his stock in Four’n Twenty in 1960 to Peters Ice Cream for £600,000 – the equivalent today of more than $21 million.