Meat pie
Encyclopedia
Umami
Umami , popularly referred to as savoriness, is one of the five basic tastes together with sweet, sour, bitter, and salty.-Etymology:Umami is a loanword from the Japanese meaning "pleasant savory taste". This particular writing was chosen by Professor Kikunae Ikeda from umai "delicious" and mi ...
pie
Pie
A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that covers or completely contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients....
with a filling of meat
Meat
Meat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs and offal...
and other savoury ingredients. Principally popular in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, meat pies differ from a pasty
Pasty
A pasty , sometimes known as a pastie or British pasty in the United States, is a filled pastry case, associated in particular with Cornwall in Great Britain. It is made by placing the uncooked filling on a flat pastry circle, and folding it to wrap the filling, crimping the edge at the side or top...
in the sense that a pasty is typically a more portable, on-the-go item, as opposed to a more conventional pie.
History
The beginnings of the meat pie can be traced back to the Neolithic Period, around 9500 BC. The ancient Egyptians' diet featured basic pies made from oat, wheat, rye, and barley, and filled with honey and baked over hot coals.These pies were eventually adopted by the Greeks, and it is there that a flour-water paste substance closely resembling pie pastry was created and was first filled with meat. In Greece, these pies were usually fried or cooked under coals. The Romans, tasting the delicacy from the Greeks, incorporated it into their own diet with little changes. According to the records kept by the wealthy, Romans used a variety of meats, oysters, mussels, lampreys, and fish as filling and a mixture of flour, oil, and water to keep it in. This 'pastry' cover was not meant to be eaten and was thrown away.
In combination with the spread of Roman roads, the invading crusaders encounter the dish and brought the recipes to Medieval Europe. In Northern Europe, cooks created the pastry using fats like lard and butter to make stiff dough to hold an upright pie. These medieval pastry dishes were called "coffins/coffyns", which means a basket or box. According to Janet Clarkson in Pie: A Global History, the "coffins" were:
- savory meat pies with the crusts or pastry being tall, straight-sided with sealed-on floors and lids. Open-crust pastry (not tops or lids) were known as "traps." These pies held assorted meats and sauce components and were baked more like a modern casserole with no pan (the crust itself was the pan, its pastry tough and inedible). These crust were often made several inches thick to withstand many hours of baking.
Some historians suggest the tough, almost inedible, crust was given to the servants while the lords and ladies of the house ate the contents.
This pastry became a staple dish in medieval times, and was eventually called "pyes" or "pies". The origin of this name comes from the type of meat commonly used as filling. Beef, lamb, and duck were employed, but a majority of the time it was the magpie pigeon that was the main ingredient. Magpies in medieval England were originally named pie. Some historians think that the popular usage of 'pie' birds led to the pastry dish being named pie as well. While etymologists suggest that pies were named after these birds "from a supposed resemblance between the miscellaneous contents of pies and the assortment of objects collected by thieving magpies." The first use of the word "pie" as food is referenced in 1303 by the Oxford English Dictionary; also stating that the term became popular and widely utilized by 1362.
The French and Italians specialized in redefining the pastry of the pie, making it flakier and tastier by new methods of adding butter, rolling, and folding the dough. In 1440, the Paris pastry guild was recognized and started to expand their product—and so something like the modern day crust began to be used.
Missionaries and explorers spread the meat-based pie dish across the global. The English Pilgrims of the North American colonies brought the recipes across the ocean with them. The crust of the pie was useful to preserve food during the long winter months in America (just as the pies were used in antiquity). But the pie was not considered popularly there until the 1800s, where today meat pies have lost their popularity to be replaced with sweet pies.
Today, there are different types and variations of meat-pies enjoyed all across the world.
Regional variations
The Natchitoches meat pieNatchitoches Meat Pie
The Natchitoches meat pie is a regional dish from northern Louisiana, United States. It is one of the official state foods of Louisiana.Ingredients include ground beef, ground pork, onions, peppers, garlic, oil, and a pie shell. Natchitoches meat pies are often fried in peanut oil because of that...
is one of the official state foods of the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
state of Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
. Natchitoches is a town in Louisiana, the name is pronounced Nacky-tosh. Meat pies are not common in most US cuisine, in contrast to the popular pot pies, though the distinction isn't very well defined.
Latin American meat empanadas may be pies or more often pasties
Pasty
A pasty , sometimes known as a pastie or British pasty in the United States, is a filled pastry case, associated in particular with Cornwall in Great Britain. It is made by placing the uncooked filling on a flat pastry circle, and folding it to wrap the filling, crimping the edge at the side or top...
; different pastry shells and fillings are used, and they may be baked or fried. Empanadas usually contain lots of onion and green or red pepper, in combination with meat or fish. Empanada dough takes many forms, from those made with cornmeal to puff pastry. Ground beef with olives, fried egg, pulled pork, diced steak, even cheese and salami are used in Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Puerto Rico and Peru for example.
Other well known varieties of meat pie include British meat pies
Steak pie
A steak pie is a traditional meat pie served in Britain. It is made from stewing steak and beef gravy, enclosed in a pastry shell. Sometimes mixed vegetables are included in the filling. Steak pie is subtly different from Steak and kidney pie...
, French-Canadian meat pie
Tourtière
A tourtière is a meat pie originating from Quebec, usually made with minced pork and/or veal, or beef. It is a traditional part of the Christmas and/or Christmas Eve réveillon and New Year's Eve meal in Quebec, but is also enjoyed and sold in grocery stores all year long...
, and the Australia and NZ meat pie. An Irish meat pie is the Steak and Guinness Pie which consists of Round steak with Guinness Stout Beer, bacon
Bacon
Bacon is a cured meat prepared from a pig. It is first cured using large quantities of salt, either in a brine or in a dry packing; the result is fresh bacon . Fresh bacon may then be further dried for weeks or months in cold air, boiled, or smoked. Fresh and dried bacon must be cooked before eating...
, and onion
Onion
The onion , also known as the bulb onion, common onion and garden onion, is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium. The genus Allium also contains a number of other species variously referred to as onions and cultivated for food, such as the Japanese bunching onion The onion...
s. It is served with potato chips and vegetables and is very popular in Irish Pubs in Australia. In New Zealand, the meat pie is a common convenience food often found in petrol stations and convenience stores and was once sold in a chain of restaurants
Georgie Pie
Georgie Pie was a fast food chain owned by supermarket operator Progressive Enterprises that hoped to be "New Zealand’s own homegrown alternative to the global fast-food industry giants such as McDonald’s, Pizza Hut and Burger King."-History:...
.
The Nigerian "meat pie" is similar to the Jamaican beef patty
Jamaican patty
A Jamaican patty is a pastry that contains various fillings and spices baked inside a flaky shell, often tinted golden yellow with an egg yolk mixture or turmeric. It is made like a turnover but is more savory. As its name suggests, it is commonly found in Jamaica, and is also eaten in other areas...
. It can be baked or fried, and the filling can be almost anything from corned beef (the most widely used) to just onions and tomatoes.
Middle Eastern meat pies are called Sfeeha and contain ground beef, olive oil, plain yogurt, tahini
Tahini
Tahini or sesame paste , is a paste of ground sesame seeds used in cooking. North African, Greek and West Asian tahini is made of hulled, lightly roasted seeds. East Asian sesame paste is made of unhulled seeds. The Arabic word tahin simply means flour.Tahini is a major component of hummus and...
, allspice, onion, tomatoes and pine nuts. Greek meat pies are called kreatopita and contain ground beef, onions and feta cheese. The filling for kreatopita is wrapped in phyllo
Phyllo
Phyllo, filo, or fillo dough is paper-thin sheets of unleavened flour dough used for making pastries in Middle Eastern and Balkan cuisine.-History:An early, thick form of phyllo appears to be of Central Asian Turkic origin...
dough. Indian meat pies are called samosa
Samosa
A samosa is a stuffed, deep fried,snack that is very popular in the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, Central Asia and Southwest Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, the Mediterranean, the Horn of Africa, North Africa and South Africa...
and usually contain peas, spiced potatoes, coriander, lentils, or ground beef or chicken and are often served with chutney.
Commercial products
Meat pies are generally sold at select retailers and online as bulk orders. Prepackaged as frozen foods, serving sizes are available in 4.5, 9, or 28 oz. as entrees and appetizers. Specialty shops like Down Under Bakery, in New York City, and Lasyone's Meat Pie Restaurant in Natchitoches, Louisiana serve meat pies as an eat in restaurant, delivery and catering service.Theatre and film
In various stage and film adaptations of the tale of Sweeney ToddSweeney Todd
Sweeney Todd is a fictional character who first appeared as then antagonist of the Victorian penny dreadful The String of Pearls and he was later introduced as an antihero in the broadway musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and its film adaptation...
, Todd's clients are killed, and later baked into meat pies by Todd's accomplice, Mrs. Lovett
Mrs. Lovett
Mrs. Lovett is a fictional character appearing in many adaptations of the story Sweeney Todd. She is most commonly referred to as Nellie, although Margery, Maggie, Sarah, Shirley, Wilhemina and Claudetta are other names she has been given. First appearing in the penny dreadful serial The String of...
, as seen especially in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a 1936 British film produced and directed by George King.-Plot:The film features Tod Slaughter in one of his most famous roles as barber Sweeney Todd. Sweeney Todd was wrongly sentenced to life in prison. After his release 15 years later, he begins...
.
See also
- Game pieGame pieGame pie is a form of meat pie featuring game. The dish dates from Roman times when the main ingredients were wild birds and animals such as partridge, pheasant, deer, and hare. The pies reached their most elaborate form in Victorian England, with complex recipes and specialized moulds and serving...
- Meat doughnutMeat doughnutA meat doughnut is an everyday Finnish dish sold in supermarkets and often available hot from street kiosks selling fast food. It is a form of savoury meat doughnut made from doughnut dough and filled with a mixture of minced meat and cooked rice and cooked by deep frying...
- PastyPastyA pasty , sometimes known as a pastie or British pasty in the United States, is a filled pastry case, associated in particular with Cornwall in Great Britain. It is made by placing the uncooked filling on a flat pastry circle, and folding it to wrap the filling, crimping the edge at the side or top...
- Pie floaterPie floaterA pie floater is a meal available in Australia, particularly South Australia which consists of the traditional Australian style meat pie sitting, usually inverted, in a plate of thick green pea soup. It is typically covered with tomato sauce and, although subject to the taste of the individual...
- Pork piePork pieA pork pie is a traditional British meat pie. It consists of roughly chopped pork and pork jelly sealed in a hot water crust pastry . It is normally eaten cold as a snack or as part of a meal.-Types:...
- Pot piePot pieA pot pie is a type of baked savory pie with a bottom and top completely encased by flaky crusts and baked inside a pie tin to support its shape....
- Scotch pieScotch pieA Scotch pie is a small, double-crust meat pie filled with minced mutton or other meat. It may also be known as a shell pie or a mince pie to differentiate it from other varieties of savoury pie, such as the steak pie, steak-and-kidney pie, steak-and-tattie pie, and so forth...
- Shepherd's pieShepherd's pieCottage pie or shepherd's pie is a meat pie with a crust of mashed potato.The term cottage pie is known to have been in use in 1791, when the potato was being introduced as an edible crop affordable for the poor Cottage pie or shepherd's pie is a meat pie with a crust of mashed potato.The term...
- Steak pieSteak pieA steak pie is a traditional meat pie served in Britain. It is made from stewing steak and beef gravy, enclosed in a pastry shell. Sometimes mixed vegetables are included in the filling. Steak pie is subtly different from Steak and kidney pie...
- Steak and kidney pieSteak and kidney pieSteak and kidney pie is a savoury pie that is filled principally with a mixture of diced beef, diced kidney , fried onion, and brown gravy...
- TourtièreTourtièreA tourtière is a meat pie originating from Quebec, usually made with minced pork and/or veal, or beef. It is a traditional part of the Christmas and/or Christmas Eve réveillon and New Year's Eve meal in Quebec, but is also enjoyed and sold in grocery stores all year long...