National Dish Australia: Meat Pie (Recipe)
In this article
The meat pie is what Australians eat standing up at the football, and any account of it that leaves out the sauce is incomplete. Mince in gravy, pastry lid, tomato sauce squirted on top. Around 270 million of them are sold a year in a country of 27 million people.
About Meat Pie
The Australian meat pie is a single-serve pie about the size of a fist, with a shortcrust base and a puff pastry lid. The filling is minced beef in a thick gravy, seasoned simply. It is not a fancy object and it is not trying to be.
The recipe below uses puff pastry throughout, which is the quicker home version. Bakeries use shortcrust underneath because it holds the gravy without going soggy.
Ingredients (serves 1–2)
- 250 g beef mince
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp vegetable stock
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 pinch salt and pepper
- 1 roll puff pastry
- 1 egg (for glazing)
Shopping for the ingredients
Use mince with some fat in it, around 15%, because very lean beef gives a dry filling. Ready-rolled puff pastry from the chilled cabinet is what most Australian home cooks use and there is no shame in it. Worcestershire sauce is doing more work here than its quantity suggests; it supplies most of the savoury depth.
Preparing the dish
Cook the filling first and cool it completely. Warm filling turns the pastry base to paste before it reaches the oven, which is the main reason home-made pies leak. If you have time, make the filling a day ahead and chill it: cold, set filling is much easier to spoon into pastry.
Step-by-step instructions
- Fry the onion and garlic in a little oil until soft and translucent.
- Add the beef mince and brown it, breaking it up so it stays crumbly.
- Stir in the Worcestershire sauce, vegetable stock and spices, mix well and leave to simmer.
- Roll out the puff pastry and line a greased pie tin with it.
- Spoon the meat mixture into the tin and fold the pastry over the top.
- Brush with beaten egg and bake at 200°C for about 25–30 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown.
Gluten-free / lactose-free version
Gluten-free puff pastry is sold frozen in most supermarkets now and works, though it browns faster and needs watching. Use a gluten-free Worcestershire sauce, since the standard product contains malt vinegar from barley. The filling has no dairy, so choose a dairy-free pastry and the pie is lactose-free.
Tips for vegans and vegetarians
Lentils and mushrooms in the same gravy make a genuinely good pie. Brown the mushrooms hard first for depth, use a vegan Worcestershire sauce, and glaze with plant milk instead of egg. Many Australian bakeries now sell a version of this, which was not true ten years ago.
More tips and tricks
Cool the filling. That is the one rule that matters. Cut a small vent in the lid so steam escapes rather than lifting the pastry off. And thicken the gravy more than seems right: it loosens in the oven, and a runny pie is a failed pie.
Adapting the recipe to your taste
Chunky steak instead of mince makes the version most bakeries charge more for. Cheese and bacon on top is standard at any Australian bakery. A splash of dark beer in the gravy turns it towards a beef and ale pie.
Ingredient substitutions
Lamb mince works and is closer to a shepherd’s pie in flavour. Soy sauce can stand in for Worcestershire. Beef stock in place of vegetable stock gives a fuller gravy.
Drink pairing ideas
A cold lager is the honest answer, since this is football food. A robust Shiraz suits it at the table. Milky tea is what it goes with at a country bakery at eleven in the morning.
Serving and presentation ideas
Eat it in the hand, from a paper bag, with tomato sauce on top. That is not a serving suggestion, it is the correct method. On a plate it gets mashed peas and mash, which makes it a pie floater in South Australia when the peas are a soup and the pie floats in it.
A bit of history
The pie came with British settlement and became something separate. Sargent’s began selling them in Sydney in the 1890s, and the single-serve hand pie fixed itself into Australian life from there. It sits at the centre of Australian cuisine in a way that says something about the country: unpretentious, portable and argued about mainly in terms of which bakery does it best.
More recipe ideas
Summary: Meat Pie
The Australian meat pie is minced beef in thick gravy under a pastry lid. Cool the filling before it goes in, thicken the gravy hard, vent the top, and eat it with tomato sauce.
