Is a shell just a vessel meant to hold something more divine or the outside is equally important? Let’s make a meat pie to find it out!

Historians suggest that meat pies were first made not as a whole meal, but the crust was only used as a vessel to cook the ingredients inside. This one inch or thicker almost inedible crust was of course discarded by the lords and ladies, and was given to the servants to bask in the favor of their lords.

It may sound as a tremendous extravagance to anyone hooked on gluten to simply waste crust on servants but in an era when baking meant wood fired ovens and the complete lack of temperature control, chefs had to be creative preparing the dishes by all means possible.

In the 15^th century the French pastry guild recognized the buttered, folded and as a result flakier dough as something worthy to be used for their creations and the conquest of the pie slowly began.

Since then, pies are made in many shapes, forms, sizes and flavors by many nations across the globe. Although once popular in America, the meat pie lost its charm and crusts are mostly stuffed with sweet fillings.

In other countries including Britain, Canada, New Zealand or Australia or the whole of Latin-America meat pies’ popularity never waned and still going strong today with a wide variety of filling and even pastry to choose from.

What’s the secret of meat pies?

Traditional American pie recipes build on the Ancient recipe of flour and water by simply adding butter to it, not surprisingly skipping on the French invention of folding the dough a couple of times, essentially creating something we nowadays call puff pastry.

Making puff pastry is a bit of a hassle comparing it to simply buying a sheet in the shop and use it whenever we need it. If we have some time that could be the case when preparing the beef for the pastry, we just as well fold some puff pastry that we can use to top our pies.

The best thing with meat pies is, that we can prepare them quickly too. Not just by using ground meat instead of the whole pieces but by freezing the meat in batches and using them up with freshly prepared or bought dough.

Of course, if we can put up with a slightly soggy crust in exchange for almost instant gratification then we can simply freeze the meat pie as it is, and use it up in case of an unplanned event of binge-watching session crashes in on us.

Ingredients

(12 Meat pies)

Beginner

Filling

½ cup / 150ml Oil or lard
1 Onion (diced)
2 Carrots (diced)
1 stalk Celery (diced)
1 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Black pepper (optional)
3 cloves Garlic
2 Tomatoes (200g)
1 teaspoon Paprika
1 lb / 500g Ground meat
½ cup / 150ml Red wine

Dough

2 Puff pastry dough
1 Egg yolk

Advanced

Dough

1½ cup / 150g Flour
2 tablespoon / 25g Butter
2 teaspoons / 6g Baking powder (follow instruction on packaging)
1 Egg
2 tablspoons / 30ml Water

Filling

1 big Onion (200g) (diced)
2 oz / 90g Lard or Cooking oil
¼ Pepper (20g) (diced)
2 teaspoons Paprika (7g) (ground)
2 cloves Garlic (7g) (diced)
¼ Tomato (50g)
2 teaspoon Salt (10g)
½ teaspoons Black pepper (1g)
½ teaspoons Cumin (1g) (optional)
1 Carrot
1lb / 500g Beef cubes (diced)
¼ cup Red wine
½ cup Water (approx)

Top

1 Puff pastry dough
1 Egg yolk

How to make Meat pie

Beginner

Filling

Heat oil in a pan, on high temperature saute the diced onion, carrot and celery until the onion gets a glassy / translucent look for about 3- 5 minutes.
Mix in salt, black pepper and tomatoes then reduce the heat to medium/low and stir fry until the onion starts to caramelize for about 10 – 20 minutes.
Mix in the paprika, garlic and ground meat.
Increase the heat and brown the meat evenly. That should take about 5 minutes.
Add the optional red wine and water.
On medium heat reduce the amount of liquid to about half or less.

Dough

The quickest and easiest method is to simply use store bought pastry but making our own traditional dough isn’t that hard either. We make muffin sized meat pies but if we are in the rush just use a standard pie tray. Unroll the puff pastry.
If we are lucky enough to have big cookie cutters that cover the bottom of our baking form, use them. Otherwise just cut the dough to size by whatever means possible.
Cut out the lids too.

Assembly

Fill the dough up with the filling.
Place the lid on and close it by pressing around the edges. Try to seal it tight.
Beat egg yolk and brush the top of the meat pies then put them into a 360°F / 180°C preheated oven until the top is golden brown for 30 – 40 minutes.
Sometimes they stick to the side of the baking form a bit but with a gentle prying they come out nicely.

Enjoy!

Advanced

Filling

For more detailed instructions check out: How to make Beef goulash

Saute onion until it gets a translucent, glassy look then add diced pepper, paprika, garlic, tomato, salt, black pepper, cumin and carrot.
Add the meat and mix all together well.
Pour wine and water until the meat is submerged. Put the lid on then cook on low heat until meat is soft and melting tender for about 3-4 hours. Stir occasionally and refill liquid if it reduces below ¾ of the meat. Let it cool for 20 minutes before using it.

Dough

Knead flour, butter, baking powder, egg and water together.
On a lightly floured surface roll it out to a about a ¼” / 0.5cm thickness.
If we are lucky enough to have big cookie cutters that cover the bottom of our baking form, use them. Otherwise just cut the dough to size by whatever means possible.
Cut the lids out too. For the lids we can use the same dough but also puff pastry that gives additional texture to our pies.

Assembly

Fill the dough up with the filling.
Place the lid on and close it by pressing around the edges. Try to seal it tight.
Beat egg yolk and brush the top of the meat pies then put them into a 360°F / 180°C preheated oven until the top is golden brown for 30 – 40 minutes.

Enjoy!

Notes: It’s recommended to make bigger batches of filling, especially from the beef stew as it takes ages to get it ready. Both ground meat and stew filling can be frozen and used up later either as meat pie fillings or in whatever other recipes. The unused dough can be kept in the fridge for about a week and used up anytime for fresh meat pies or other recipes like pies, tarts or turnovers.