There’s more than one way to eat a pie - local variations and personal preferences included. When eaten in the hand the quality of the casing and stickiness of any sauce might make all the difference between a happy meal and much slurping followed by finger licking as the substandard pie dissolves into the palm of the hand, sauce included.
As an aside gourmet pies may come in a porcelain pot with no casing. Just a puff pastry or other top to seal in the goodness. Spoon my choice of eating implement. Sauce to suit usually included with the order.
For some of us perhaps an extra splash of Mexican chilli sauce would also be welcome. Tolerance for spices varies in our household. Providing the choice of the right sauce caters for all preferences.
We have a favourite breakfast pie - the Ned Kelly a beef steak pie with bacon, cheese and whole egg topping in place of the pastry cap. Hard not to reach for the tomato or Worcestershire sauce or which ever one might top bacon and eggs with. Chilli jam also goes great with the egg topping.
Generally prefer chunky beef to mince with a curry or pepper sauce but a nice lamb rosemary or chicken camembert also hits the spot. If it’s plain I may add Spicy Red sauce. The sign of a good pie for me is a light flaky pastry that doesn’t break your teeth and doesn’t ooze everywhere. I also have memories of having a pie floater from the cart in the middle of the street at 2am in the city but alas it is there no more.
Mr Z is the pie eater in our family and lately prefers the Baked Provisions frozen pies in either Curried Chicken & Veg or Steak & Bacon. Unfortunately no longer stocked by our shop as they were dearer than Mrs Macs & 4’n’20. He refuses sauce. I rarely eat a pie but have tomato sauce on plain pies.
more attention to the handling of a pie…a crumbly pie that lets the filling run down ones arms is a turnoff even if the taste is good…a good pastry should allow for a pie to be eaten with one hand and remain a pie instead of a handful of stew.
During a recent holiday along the coast from Sydney up to the Queensland border, we had an excellent chunky steak pie bought at the Dorrigo Bakery in Dorrigo and another excellent pie - steak and egg pie at Nimbin. There was whole egg in the pie. On a recent trip back from Victoria we went off the highway to look at the small town of Chiltern. There we bought a delicious steak and kidney (with chunks of steak and chunks of kidney) pie from the Chiltern Bakery. Those 3 pies are more than we have bought in the previous 20 years!
Homemade beef, mushroom and egg pie I always serve with a “sauce” of sour cream with finely chopped spring onions and pickled cucumbers.
Shop bought beef pies and sausage rolls do need a generous blob of tomato sauce in my experience
Actually my favourite pie is home made egg and bacon - flaky pastry, pieces of bacon on base, then eggs, more bacon strips. Finished off with salt and pepper and most importantly finely chopped parsley. This does not need sauce of any description.
Pie Floater is great, or was, back in the day - big night, feeling merry, standing at the pie cart on Victoria Square or outside the Adelaide Railway Station at some ridiculous hour … Haven’t had one in some years, the pie carts of old seem to have vanished. I guess these days its all about avocados and the like …
For sauce? Mrs Balls !!! or something from Beerenberg, so many choices, but always in moderation - unless its a bad cardboard pie, in which case skip the pie and the sauce
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