Australian · Main
Aussie Meat Pie
- Advanced
- 60 min
- roughly 3 of 4 for cost
Leads with savory depth stacked from the pantry’s bass notes, richness that coats and comforts.
Ingredients
- 700 g beef chuck, cut into 1 cm dice
- 2 tbsp beef dripping
- 1 large brown onion, finely diced
- 40 g plain flour
- 500 ml beef stock
- 2 tsp dark yeast extract
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tbsp tomato sauce
- 1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
- 2 tbsp cornflour slaked in 50 ml cold water
- 500 g shortcrust pastry
- 375 g all butter puff pastry
- 1 egg, beaten with a pinch of salt
The skills inside
Pie crust & blind bakingSweating aromatics: soft, never brownedSteaming: basket, leaf and lidThe overnight rest: letting a dish marryKnife cuts: dice, julienne, bias
Allergen screen
Found: gluten · dairy · egg · fish
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Brown the diced beef hard in the dripping in two batches until each piece is crusted and the pan base is dark; a crowded pan greys the meat and the gravy tastes of nothing.
- Soften the onion in the same pan, stir in the flour and cook it out for two minutes, then whisk in the stock, yeast extract, Worcestershire, tomato sauce and pepper and return the beef.
- Simmer covered on the lowest heat for about 2 hours until a cube crushes between finger and thumb, then stir in the slaked cornflour and cook until a spoon dragged through leaves a parting that closes slowly. 120 min
- Cool the filling completely, ideally overnight in the fridge, until it can be spooned out in a solid block.
- Line the tins with shortcrust, blind bake at 200C (390F) for 15 minutes until the base looks dry and sandy, fill cold, lid with puff, seal the rim, egg wash and cut a steam vent. 15 min
- Bake at 200C (390F) for 25 to 30 minutes until the lid is risen and mahogany and gravy just blips at the vent. 30 min
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the techniques it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Pie crust & blind baking 29 recipes
- The shell goes into the oven cold and the oven is fully up to heat, so the structure sets before the fat has time to melt out of it.
- Lined and weighted right into the corners rather than heaped in the middle, so the sides are held against the tin as the fat softens.
- Docked where it is not meant to puff, and the base stays flat rather than lifting into a dome under its own steam.
- The weights come out and the base gets dry heat of its own before anything wet arrives. Pale and damp is not baked, and a filling will not finish it.
- The edges are set and coloured and the shell releases from the tin rather than gripping it.
Where it goes wrong It went in warm, or the weights only filled the middle. The sides slump down the tin before the pastry sets, so the case is shallower than it should be, the filling overflows it, and the base is still raw underneath: the soggy bottom, arrived at three ways at once.
The overnight rest: letting a dish marry 29 recipes
- Cooled quickly before it went in (spread out, decanted, or stood in cold water) rather than carried to the fridge hot in the pot it was cooked in.
- Protected from the rest of the fridge once cold: covered, or given space where nothing strong is sitting beside it. A rest this long is long enough to take on whatever it shares the shelf with, and some dishes want the open air.
- Given the whole time. This is the one technique whose entire content is waiting, and cutting it short leaves the dish exactly as it was when it went in.
- Brought back deliberately: reheated gently, or brought up to the temperature it is meant to be eaten at, rather than served straight out of the cold because it is late.
- Tasted and corrected AFTER the rest. Seasoning and brightness both flatten in the cold, so the dish is finished at the end of the wait rather than at the start of it.
Where it goes wrong It went into the fridge hot and covered. It held its own heat for hours in the range where food spoils, and the lid sweated and dripped back into it all night: what comes out is duller and wetter than what went in, which is the exact opposite of the point.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Cabernet Sauvignon or Malbec
- Also Right
- Tempranillo (Rioja Reserva)
- From the Taps
- Amber ale
- Zero-Proof
- Sparkling water, make room
Tannin binds to seared protein and fat: each bite softens the wine, each sip resets the palate: the steakhouse equation.
Saved on this device and kept across visits: export from My Menu to move them.