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 often consumed as a takeaway food snack. This variant of the standard meat pie is considered four and twenty aussie pies. It was described by New South Wales Premier Bob Carr in 2003 as Australia’s “national dish”. Manufacturers of pies in Australia tend to be state-based, reflecting the long distances involved with interstate transport and lack of refrigeration capabilities in the early years of pie production.
Many pies sold ready-to-eat at smaller outlets are sold unbranded and may be locally produced, produced by a brand-name vendor, or even imported, frozen pies heated prior to serving. An Australian meat pie was produced in 1947 by L. Due to its relationship with Australian rules football, Four’n Twenty has iconic status in Victoria. In South Australia, Balfours and Vili’s have been making pies for over a century. Both of these pie makers supply pies to various venues hosting Australian rules football games. Produced in Western Australia, Mrs Mac’s Pies are sold nationwide, found mostly in service stations and corner stores, competing with other brands in the contested takeaway hotbox market on the basis of quality and fillings other than the normal fare. In Victoria, some of the well known and famous pie makers include the makers of two of Australia’s most famous pies – Four’n Twenty and Patties – both manufactured by Patties Foods in Bairnsdale.
In Tasmania, the main manufacturer of pies is National Pies. National Pies make typical beef mince pies, as well as “Cottage Pies”, which are topped with mashed potato. National Pies’ mince pies are rectangular in shape, as opposed to most other brands, which are round. Australian meat pies were introduced into the United States in 1994 by Mark Allen, of Boort, Victoria, when he and his wife, Wendy, began operation of Pacific Products, Inc. In 1977, during the time that American fast food restaurants moved into New Zealand, Progressive Enterprises created Georgie Pie, a fast food restaurant with a menu based on meat pies.
According to a 2003 study, the average Australian eats more than 12 meat pies each a year. According to a 2004 study, the average New Zealander eats 15 meat pies a year. Kangaroo meat, a leaner alternative, is also sometimes used. Started in 1990 and held annually since, the Great Aussie Pie Contest was created to find the best everyday commercially produced meat pie produced in Australia, to promote the higher quality pie production as well as attempting to increase media attention upon the foodstuff, the iconic meat pie often dwarfed by the omnipresent advertising of fast food chains.