The humble meat pie is important in Australian culture. We are the world's biggest consumer of meat pies with over 250 million eaten each year. Originally brought to Australia by the early settlers, pies gained quick acceptance due to their basic and economical use of readily available ingredients.

The first recorded mention of pies was in 1850 in the Melbourne Argus which said that the councillors would rather have  meat pies from the pub opposite than the food provided in civic chambers. Mutton was used in Australia’s first pies, and by the mid 1800s pies were often sold as lunches in hotels.

Meat Pie (Photographer Mim)

Meat Pie (Photographer William Gould)

 

There are many pie-makers with nation-wide distribution. Today's meat pies come as a basic beef meat pie and in a variety of styles: steak and onion, streak and kidney, curried beef, beef and tomato and onion, beef and vegetables, bacon and egg, potato, chicken, seafood and vegetarian varieties, and of course the pie floater.

Pies in the Oven (Photographer Robyn Lee)

In early 2007, after three months research and an estimated three million Australian dollars to launch it, an Australian pizza company released what they considered a distinctive Australian taste in the form of a pie on top of a pizza.

Within a few months of the pizza’s release, and without explanation, it disappeared from the company’s menu. This pizza’s base came covered with beef mince, onions and peas.  It was topped with thick pastry and tomato sauce

Pizza Pie (Bill and Nicola Donnelly)

Link to Photographers 

Mim

Robyn Lee
  

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