New Zealand Meat Pie Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is a New Zealand pie? ›

They're talking about the humble meat pie, which has been part of New Zealand's cuisine since the early British settlers, with the year 1863 being the earliest mention. The inside scoop. The single-serve portion culinary delight is just the right size to hold in your hand and eat from a paper bag.

Historians have recorded that the roots of pie can loosely be traced back to the ancient Egyptians. The bakers to the pharaohs incorporated nuts, honey, and fruits in bread dough, a primitive form of pastry. Drawings of this can be found etched on the tomb walls of Ramses II, located in the Valley of the Kings.

A pot pie, in US and Canadian dialects, is a type of meat pie with a top pie crust that is commonly used throughout the continent, consisting of flaky pastry.

Put down your steak and cheese, Aotearoa: the best pie in the land is roast duck, onion and mushroom.

Big Ben pies are proudly baked right here in New Zealand and have been since 1969! We have baked all our pies with 100% pure, NZ beef and chicken. As natural tinker's we like to try and make things a little better all the time.

Australians each eat an average of 12 meat pies a year, that's 270 million pies, while in New Zealand they are even more popular, with the average Kiwi eating 15 meat pies, which is 66 million a year.

The city of Natchitoches in northern Louisiana (named after the Natchitoches Indian tribe, pronounced NAK-uh-tush) offers a regional delicacy popular since the late 1700's – the Natchitoches meat pie.

The meat pie, past and present

Food historian Andre Tabar, who has written a book about the New Zealand pie's history, was able to trace the dish as far as early European settlement: a newspaper advertisem*nt from 1863 being the earliest mention he discovered.

Steak and ale pie is a traditional British dish where a perfectly cooked pastry shell is filled to the rafters with tender slow-cooked steak, gravy and various vegetables. The early versions of this British staple were first recorded in the 18th century, where a beefsteak pudding was combined with suet.

Ground beef with olives, fried egg, pulled pork, diced steak, even cheese and salami are used in countries such as Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Puerto Rico and Peru. The Australian version of Irish steak and Guinness pie has a filling of round steak with Guinness Stout Beer, bacon, and onions.

Are meat pies healthy? ›

Sadly, they're not great as a regular part of your diet. An average individual meat pie provides around 450kcal, but the biggest problem is the 12g of saturated fat inside it – that's more than half the daily guideline. If you have buttery mashed potato or chips on the side, the fat content of your meal is even higher.

In Australia and New Zealand, a meat pie is a hand-sized pie containing diced or minced meat and gravy, sometimes with onion, mushrooms, or cheese and is often consumed as a takeaway food snack. This variant of the standard meat pie is considered iconic.

Apple pie is arguably one of the most popular pie flavors. A symbol of America, the apple pie was actually invented by the British. Apple pie is simply made with sliced apples on double-crusted pastry dough.

Lolly Cake, a popular New Zealand dessert, is a no-bake treat made from crushed malt biscuits, condensed milk, butter, and colourful fruit puffs called Eskimos. It's chilled in the fridge, then sliced and served as a sweet indulgence.

New Zealand offers a range of iconic dishes such as pavlova, hāngī (a Māori earth-oven-cooked feast), and kumara (sweet potato). Popular treats include hokey pokey ice cream and Whittaker's chocolate.

While pies are a whole different ball game

You wouldn't think that a meat pie could be so different across the ditch, but they are. Australians use short pastry on their pies, whereas NZ uses a more flaky pastry.