New Zealand meat pies recipe (2024)

Australian Gourmet Traveller recipe for New Zealand meat pies from Rockwell & Sons, Melbourne.

Aug 11, 2014 12:44am

By Casey Wall

  • 50 mins preparation
  • 2 hrs 45 mins cooking plus cooling, resting
  • Serves 12
  • New Zealand meat pies recipe (1)

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"I've always been fascinated with meat pies, but it's a chore to find good ones," says chef Casey Wall. "My Kiwi business partner, Manu, loves to talk up the pies of New Zealand and he's right. Petrol stations there serve better pies than a lot of Australian bakeries. This is my attempt to recreate one of the many pies we ate in Wellington."

Ingredients

  • 60 ml (¼ cup) vegetable oil
  • 500 gm minced beef
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, very finely chopped
  • 7 gm sea salt flakes
  • 20 gm cornflour
  • 1.2 kg butter puff pastry (see note)
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • 120 gm coarsely grated cheddar

Rich beef stock

  • 1 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 300 gm beef scraps (see note), cut into cubes
  • 100 gm piece of belly bacon, cut into 3cm cubes
  • 1 onion, unpeeled, thinly sliced
  • 5 garlic cloves, unpeeled, halved
  • 6 thyme sprigs
  • 3 fresh bay leaves
  • 1 tsp black peppercorns
  • 65 ml brandy
  • 65 ml Worcestershire sauce
  • 1.5 litres butcher-quality chicken stock

Method

Main

  • 1

    For rich beef stock, heat a stockpot over high heat, add oil (it should smoke slightly when added), then add beef and bacon, and brown well on all sides, scraping often to keep from catching on
    the bottom of the pan (8-10 minutes). Add onion, garlic, herbs and peppercorns and cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is tender (6-8 minutes; reduce heat to medium if necessary so you don't burn the bottom of the pan). Deglaze the pan with brandy and Worcestershire sauce, scraping the base of the pan, and reduce until liquid is almost evaporated (4-5 minutes). Add 250ml stock, reduce until evaporated (10-15 minutes), then add another 250ml stock and repeat. Add remaining stock and simmer over low heat until well flavoured (45-50 minutes). Strain through a fine sieve into a clean saucepan (discard solids) and simmer over medium heat until reduced to 275ml (8-10 minutes). Set aside.

  • 2

    Heat oil in a large saucepan over high heat, add minced beef and stir occasionally until cooked through (8-10 minutes), then drain in a sieve, reserving 1½ tbsp of fat. Return reserved fat to the pan, add onion and garlic and sauté until tender (8-10 minutes), then add beef, rich beef stock and salt and bring to the boil. Meanwhile, stir cornflour and 25ml cold water in a small bowl until smooth, add to beef mixture and stir continuously until sauce thickens (4-5 minutes), remove from heat and cool completely. Beef mixture can be made 1-2 days ahead and stored in the refrigerator.

  • 3

    Preheat oven to 180C. Roll out pastry on a lightly floured surface to 4mm thick (if you're using pre-rolled pastry, it will probably already be the correct thickness). Place on trays and refrigerate to rest (30 minutes). Cut out twelve 8.5cm rounds (these will be the tops) and twelve 13cm rounds from pastry (re-roll scraps and use for larger rounds if necessary). Line twelve 125ml muffin tins with larger rounds and divide half the cheese among lined tins. Spoon in beef mixture (freeze any leftovers for future use) and top with remaining cheese. Top with remaining pastry rounds, press edges together to seal and crimp with a fork. Brush with eggwash and bake until golden and puffed (25-30 minutes). Serve hot.

Notes

Note Order butter puff pastry from your local pâtisserie or use shop-bought pastry sheets, such as Carême. Order beef scraps from your butcher.
Drink Suggestion: In New Zealand these would be served with a Tui in the North or a Speight's in the South. We've gone with Two Birds Sunset Ale. Drink suggestion by Manu Potoi

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New Zealand meat pies recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is a New Zealand meat pie? ›

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. Meat pie. A typical meat pie with tomato sauce.

What is a meat pie called in America? ›

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.

What is in a 4 and 20 meat pie? ›

Water, Meat (Min 25%) (Beef, and / or Mutton), Wheat Flour, Margarine (Vegetable Oil and / or Animal Fat, Water, Salt, Emulsifiers (471, Soy Lecithin), Acidity Regulators (331, 330), Antioxidant (307b (Soy)), Colour (160a), Flavours), Thickeners (1422, 1412), Carrots, Textured Soy Protein (Soy, Colour (150a)), ...

What is the best pie in New Zealand? ›

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

How do you eat a New Zealand pie? ›

The pie is essentially eaten like a sandwich and never eaten with a knife and fork (like some of our Aussie friends). This leaves your other hand free to hold a chilled bottle of L&P to wash down the pie. The best bit? This delicious treat is a hearty staple that is perfectly fine to eat at any time of the day.

What is the number 1 pie in America? ›

Apple. There are five states they prefer apple pie to other flavors. Apples came to the United States with Europeans. Apple pie has English origins, according to Smithsonian magazine, but the dessert is an American classic.

What is the meat pie capital of the world? ›

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.

What is the most famous pie in the world? ›

Apple Pie. 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.

Which country invented the meat pie? ›

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.

What is a British meat pie called? ›

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.

What country eats meat pies? ›

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.

What is the best thickener for meat pies? ›

FINO PIE THICKENING is a balanced blend of cereals and starches especially designed for thickening and stabilising pie meat.

What is the name of the meat pie in Australia? ›

Here, 'meat pie' and 'pie' are interchangeable. If you ask for a pie, the standard steak version is the default. There aren't really any other fancy names for it, which is interesting given Aussie's love putting slang on just about every word (like 'snag').

Can you heat meat pies in air fryer? ›

A joy that is quashed by the relative difficulty of just heating the damn thing up. That is, until the dawn of the air fryer. Heat up slices of pie at 170°C in your air fryer for 4-5 minutes (or use your gadget's in-built reheat mode). They'll be warm all the way through and pastry will remain gloriously flaky.

What is the difference between New Zealand and Australian pies? ›

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.

Is Beef Wellington a meat pie? ›

Though no one knows the exact origin of the Beef Wellington, the dish evolved from a culinary tradition of wrapping savory meat in pastry. Some historians believe that it could be a sophisticated descendant of the English meat pie combined with the French technique of using puff pastry.

Where did meat pies come from in New Zealand? ›

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.

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