 Chicken and rabbit meat pie | |
| Type | Savory pie |
|---|---|
| Main ingredients | Meat, pastry |
A meat pie is a pie with a filling of meat and often other savory ingredients. They are found in cuisines worldwide.
Meat pies are usually baked, fried, or deep-fried to brown them and develop the flavour through the Maillard reaction. [1] Many varieties have a flaky crust due to the incorporation of butter to develop a flaky texture when baking.
The origins of the meat pie have been traced back to the Neolithic period, around 6000 BC. [2] Versions of what are now known as pies were featured on ancient Egyptian tomb walls, and in ancient Greek and Roman texts. [3]
The ancient Egyptians' diet featured basic pies made from oat, wheat, rye, and barley, filled with honey and baked over hot coals. [2] The Greeks used a flour-water paste resembling pie pastry, and filled it with meat. [4] These pies were usually fried or cooked under coals. The Romans adopted the Greek creations, using a variety of meats, oysters, mussels, lampreys, and fish as filling and a mixture of flour, oil, and water for the crust. [4] This 'pastry' cover was not meant to be eaten and was discarded. [3] [4]
In Northern Europe, cooks made pastry with lard and butter to make a stiff dough that could hold an upright pie. [5] These medieval pastry dishes were called "coffins/coffyns", that is, a basket or box, and 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 crusts were often made several inches thick to withstand many hours of baking. [6]
Some historians[ who? ] suggest the tough, almost inedible, crust was given to the servants while the lords and ladies of the house ate the contents. [4]
This pastry became a common dish in medieval times, and by the 14th century, came to be called a "pye" or "pie". Between 1387 and 1400, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote, in The Canterbury Tales , of a cook who "koude rooste, and sethe, and broille, and frye / Máken mortreux, and wel bake a pye". [3] The etymology of the word is unknown, but may be related to the magpie (also called "pie"), perhaps because both were spotted, or because the bird collects miscellaneous articles, and almost anything can be wrapped in pastry and cooked. [7] [3]
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. [4]
Pies were not popular in the United States until the 1800s,[ dubious – discuss ] and today most pies in the United States are meatless and sweet, except for pot pie. [5] In Canada, on the other hand, both English and French meat pie traditions have persisted, notably the iconic tourtière of French Canada.
The Natchitoches meat pie is one of the official state foods of the US state of Louisiana. [8]
The Nigerian meat pie, which evolved from the pasty, can be baked or fried with varied fillings such as minced beef with potatoes and carrots. [9]
Latin American meat empanadas may be pies or more often pasties; different pastry shells and fillings are used, and they may be baked or fried. Empanadas usually contain much 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. [10] 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.[ citation needed ]
The Australian version of Irish steak and Guinness pie has a filling of round steak with Guinness Stout Beer, bacon, and onions. It is served with potato chips and vegetables and is popular in Irish pubs. In Australia, the meat pie is a common convenience food often found in petrol stations, pubs, restaurants, bakeries, supermarkets and convenience stores.
Middle Eastern meat pies are called sfiha and contain ground beef, olive oil, plain yogurt, tahini, 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 dough. Indian meat pies are called samosa and usually contain peas, spiced potatoes, coriander, lentils, or ground beef or chicken and are often served with chutney.
In Turkmenistan, a meat pie is called ishlekli or a shepherd's pie. Traditionally, ishlekli was baked by shepherds, who buried it in the hot sand of the Turkmen desert and coals. Today, ishlekli is mostly baked in the oven, but the traditional method is still preserved by the Turkmen shepherds. [11]
Pastry refers to a variety of doughs, as well as the sweet and savoury baked goods made from them. These goods are often called pastries as a synecdoche, and the dough may be accordingly called pastry dough for clarity. Sweetened pastries are often described as bakers' confectionery. Common pastry dishes include pies, tarts, quiches, croissants, and pasties.
A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Sweet pies may be filled with fruit, nuts, fruit preserves, brown sugar, sweetened vegetables, or with thicker fillings based on eggs and dairy. Savoury pies may be filled with meat, eggs and cheese or a mixture of meat and vegetables.
Pirozhki are Eastern European baked or fried yeast-leavened boat-shaped buns with a variety of fillings. Pirozhki are a popular street food and comfort food in Eastern Europe.
An empanada is a type of baked or fried turnover consisting of pastry and filling, common in Spain, other Southern European countries, North African countries, Latin American countries, and the Philippines. The name comes from the Spanish empanar, and translates as 'breaded', that is, wrapped or coated in bread. They are made by folding dough over a filling, which may consist of meat, cheese, tomato, corn, or other ingredients, and then cooking the resulting turnover, either by baking or frying.
A rissole is "a ball or flattened cake of chopped meat, fish, or vegetables mixed with herbs or spices, then coated in breadcrumbs and fried."
A pot pie or potpie is a type of savory pie, usually a meat pie, covered by a pie crust consisting of flaky pastry. Pot pies may be made with a variety of fillings including poultry, beef, seafood or plant-based meat substitute fillings, and may also differ in the types of crust.
A turnover is a type of pastry made by placing a filling on a piece of dough, folding the dough over, sealing it, and then baking or frying it. Turnovers can be sweet or savoury and are often made as a sort of portable meal or dessert. They are often eaten for breakfast.
A bridie or Forfar bridie is a Scottish meat pasty that originates from Forfar, Scotland.
A curry puff is a snack of Southeast Asian origin. It is a small pie consisting of curry with chicken and potatoes in a fried or baked pastry shell. The consistency of the curry is quite thick to prevent it from oozing out of the snack. Pap or puff reflects the Fujian Chinese dialect 泡 ('pop'), which means 'bubble, blister, puffed'. It contains influences from Indian, Malay and Chinese cuisines.
Tatar cuisine is primarily the cuisine of the Volga Tatars, who live in Tatarstan, Russia, and surrounding areas.
Bosnian cuisine is the traditional cuisine of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is influenced by Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian and Balkan cuisines.
The Natchitoches meat pie is a regional meat pie from northern Louisiana, in the United States. It is one of the official state foods of Louisiana.
Pastel is the Spanish and Portuguese word for pastry, a sugary food, and is the name given to different typical dishes of various countries where those languages are spoken. In Mexico, pastel typically means cake, as with Pastel de tres leches. However, in different Latin American countries pastel can refer to very different sugary dishes, and even to non-sugary ones as well. In some places, like Brazil, a pastel can refer to both a sugary and non-sugary food, depending on the filling used.
Chilean cuisine stems mainly from the combination of traditional Spanish cuisine, Chilean Mapuche culture and local ingredients, with later important influences from other European cuisines, particularly from Germany, the United Kingdom and France. The food tradition and recipes in Chile are notable for the variety of flavours and ingredients, with the country's diverse geography and climate hosting a wide range of agricultural produce, fruits and vegetables. The long coastline and the peoples' relationship with the Pacific Ocean add an immense array of seafood to Chilean cuisine, with the country's waters home to unique species of fish, molluscs, crustaceans and algae, thanks to the oxygen-rich water carried in by the Humboldt Current. Chile is also one of the world's largest producers of wine and many Chilean recipes are enhanced and accompanied by local wines. The confection dulce de leche was invented in Chile and is one of the country's most notable contributions to world cuisine.
Speķrauši or speķa pīrādziņi, sometimes also colloquially known simply as pīrāgi or pīrādziņi, are Latvian oblong or crescent-shaped baked bread rolls or pastries filled with finely chopped fatty bacon cubes and onions. They range from five to thirteen centimetres in length, depending on if they are intended as a snack or a more substantial meal. Smaller speķrauši are often prized for their daintiness and are considered the work of a skilled cook.
Regional street food is street food that has commonalities within a region or culture.
Samsa from the Persian "Samosa" is a savoury pastry in Central Asian cuisines. It represents a bun stuffed with meat and sometimes with vegetables.
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