Lihapiirakka, Finnish Meat Pies Recipe | Hank Shaw (2024)

FAQs

Which country has the best meat pies? ›

The base of meat pies is made with shortcrust pastry and the lids are made with puff pastry. For convenience, use store bought for both if you wish. In Australia, shortcrust pastry comes frozen in square sheets. If you're in the US or Canada, use refrigerated pie crusts (the rolled up type).

Meat pies are generally called pies, though can be called different things depending on the contents, Steak and kidney pie, meat and potato pie, Chicken and mushroom, Turkey, cheese and onion pie and so on. Sometimes the pie might reflect the gravy the filling was cooked in like Steak and Ale pie.

The first pies, called “coffins” or “coffyns” were savoury meat pies with the crusts or pastry being tall, straight-sided with sealed-on floors and lids. Open-crust pastry (without tops or lids) were known as “traps.” Historians believe that the Greeks actually originated pie pastry.

The clear winner for the United States as a whole was (not surprisingly) apple pie with more than 27% of sales going to the traditional flavor.

Natchitoches is the official Meat Pie Capital of Louisiana. Like so many Louisiana dishes the meat pie is a blend of various cultures. The recipe has evolved over the last 300+ years.

The most usual type of pie with meat in it in the US is the pot pie, which is baked in a dish, with a topcrust and sometimes but not always a lower crust. The filling often has vegetables as well as meat, and usually a lot of gravy—this is not usually a pie you eat by the slice.

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.

A Scotch pie is a small, double-crust meat pie, traditionally filled with minced mutton (whereby also called a mutton pie) but now generally beef, sometimes lamb.

Why is the bottom of my meat pie soggy? ›

If the bottom crust doesn't set before the filling soaks in, it's going to be gummy. A metal pie pan placed on a preheated surface will set the bottom crust quickest; once cooked, the liquids from the filling above won't soak in, and as a result: no soggy bottom.

While you can make a pork pie without the jelly, traditional pork pies have gelatin (some boiled pig trotters) added to preserve and keep the meat moist. You will often see a small hole in the lid of the pie where the jelly has been poured in.

In fact, the meat pie has become so loved in Australia that it has even been called the country's national dish! Paired with tommy sauce, it's hard to find a meal better… it's no wonder why on average Australians eat 270 million pies per year… that's a whole lotta meat and pastry!

The brand's name is a reference to the traditional English nursery rhyme Sing a Song of Sixpence, which includes the lyric "Four and twenty blackbirds / Baked in a pie". Some early logos alluded to this, with 24 blackbirds escaping from a pie and taking flight, although the current logo features only text.

The tale of Sweeney Todd, a barber who murdered and then cooked his victims into pies during the late 1700s, is one of the most macabre and sinister to have ever come out of London.

Argentina: A Beef Paradise

It's no secret that Argentine cuisine revolves around beef, and for a good reason. Argentina's grass-fed, free-range cattle are world-renowned for their tenderness and depth of flavor. Paired with the centuries-old tradition of asado (Argentine barbecue), it's a must-try experience.

The winner of the 34th Official Great Aussie Pie Competition has finally been unveiled. After a tough (but delicious) four days of judging, Paradise Bakehouse in Innes Park, Queensland has been chosen as the winner of Best Plain Meat Pie for 2023.