How Mouth-Burning Meat Parcels Became a National Dish

Long before the meat pie made its mark on Australian lunch counters and footy stands, it started in a very different place: ancient Egypt. Thousands of years ago, Egyptians wrapped meat in oat or barley dough and baked it over fire.

It was simple, filling, and above all, portable. This idea spread to the Greeks, who refined it with olive oil, and eventually to the Romans, who brought it across Europe.

But it was the British who took the pie and made it something recognisable: firm, thick hot-water crusts filled with game, beef or kidney, and built to last.

Often the crust wasn't even meant to be eaten. It was just a vessel, a kind of edible Tupperware, for workers, travellers, and coal miners.