Bakery meat pie
A small individual pie with golden puff pastry, filled with a thick, savoury beef stew. You hold it in your hand, bite, and add a squirt of sauce. Comforting, salty, deeply umami.
A small individual pie with golden puff pastry, filled with a thick, savoury beef stew. You hold it in your hand, bite, and add a squirt of sauce. Comforting, salty, deeply umami.
When the analysis drags on and time flies, I dash to the campus bakery and grab a meat pie. You eat it standing up, burning hot, with a squirt of tomato sauce — and the first bite always reminds you it's too hot. It's no fuss, it's quick, and it recharges you to go back and face a column of data. Eat it with two hands, trust me.
- •Beef for stewing — a generous portion (filling)
- •Onion — one (aromatic base)
- •Beef broth — a bowl (stew)
- •Puff pastry — enough to line and cover (envelope)
Bakery meat pie
A small individual pie with golden puff pastry, filled with a thick, savoury beef stew. You hold it in your hand, bite, and add a squirt of sauce. Comforting, salty, deeply umami.
Why this dish? The ordinary urban lunch eaten "on the go" between analyses: the meat pie is the national street snack, sold at campus bakeries and eaten standing up, topped with tomato sauce.
When the analysis drags on and time flies, I dash to the campus bakery and grab a meat pie. You eat it standing up, burning hot, with a squirt of tomato sauce — and the first bite always reminds you it's too hot. It's no fuss, it's quick, and it recharges you to go back and face a column of data. Eat it with two hands, trust me.
Ingredients (period version)
- Beef for stewing — a generous portion (filling)
- Onion — one (aromatic base)
- Beef broth — a bowl (stew)
- Puff pastry — enough to line and cover (envelope)
Ingredients
- Beef for braising (chuck) — 500 g, diced (filling)
- Onion — 1, sliced (aromatic)
- Beef broth — 300 ml (sauce)
- Flour — 1 tbsp (thickener)
- Worcestershire sauce — 1 tbsp (umami)
- Shortcrust pastry — 1 roll (pie base)
- Puff pastry — 1 roll (lid)
- Egg wash — 1 (glaze)
- Tomato sauce (ketchup) — to serve (accompaniment)
Method
- Sear the beef dice, add onion and sweat.
- Sprinkle with flour, add broth, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, then simmer covered for 1.5 hours until the meat shreds and the sauce thickens. Let cool.
- Line individual pie tins with shortcrust pastry, fill with the cooled stew.
- Cover with puff pastry, seal the edges, poke a hole in the centre, brush with egg wash.
- Bake at 200°C for about 25–30 minutes until puffed and golden.
- Rest 5 minutes (the filling is volcanic) and serve with a squirt of tomato sauce.
How it was made : The Australian meat pie descends from British pies but became a national dish, sold in bakeries, stadiums, and service stations. Adelaide's "pie floater" even serves it floating in pea soup.
The contemporary twist : Current café "gourmet pie" version: stout-braised beef with melted cheese, or rosemary lamb — the pie has become a chef's playground.
Colin MacLeod · Charactorium
