In New Zealand if someone says to you ‘Would you like a pie?” or even a piece of pie, they will be talking about a savoury pie – meat pies, chicken pies or bacon and egg pies and the whole gamut of concoctions in between. A pie has pastry on the bottom and the top and usually a stew like filling, making a hot parcel of deliciousness. Usually they are small single serve pies and will be piping hot and bought at bakeries, corner stores or service stations where they sit drying out for hours in a special pie oven and then eaten using the brown paper bag as a holder and crumb catcher. Perfick.
In Auckland Airport the last eatery before the gate sells Pies. We love them so much that when we leave home we leave with the taste of rich hot heavy gravy in our mouths with gold flakes of hot pastry clinging to our lips like treasure.
If someone in the US says do you want pie? They will mean a very sweet concoction like banana cream, or key lime or coconut something. These are sweet and usually creamy like cheese cake. But without the cheese. I cannot eat the American Pie, I am not a dessert person but I am sure that some of them are quite divine. They are simply called Pie. Would you like to come in and have some Pie? They would say.
Apple Pie on the other hand is just called Apple Pie, everywhere.
So, now that we have the semantics of pie and pies out of the way, here is how to make a Bacon and Egg pie. And no I was a good girl and did not spend hours in the kitchen for you as I had already made one the other day. I just lay about on the couch and wrote it for you.
Oh, look! I just happen to have one prepared.
Bacon and Egg Pie is usually for lunch or a light supper and is served in slices with a salad.
Bacon and Egg pie.
Line a pie dish (or in this case a roasting pan) with pastry. Here is the recipe I use. It makes a lovely pate brisee, very close to the regular old pie crust that is used for good old mince and cheese pie in NZ (mince is ground beef) but without the fancy name. I make my pastry in small batches in my small food processor because I HATE the big Kenwood one I have, HATE IT, so many parts you would not believe. And if I make the pastry in smaller batches then it is mixed, pushed into a ball, wrapped and back in the fridge before it even realises it has been morphed into pastry. And all the ingredients stay cold.
Then onto the lower pie crust I sprinkle a thinly sliced raw onion. Then cover the bottom with freshly cubed and pan fried bacon, don’t be stingy. (Though I fry the bacon first to get most of the fat out.) Then sprinkle with frozen peas and parsley.
Now add your eggs one at a time until the above ingredients are covered in eggs. See below. I used 10 eggs in this one. Shake the pan slightly so the eggs ooze over all the other ingredients in a most undignified fashion.
Then take a spoon and gently muddle the egg yolks in. Not mixing, just kind of introducing the yolk to the white. This is what makes this bacon and egg pie special, in our family we do not mix the eggs first. We crack them straight into the pie. We give the egg white a voice of its own. Grind pepper all over the surface and a little salt if you like.
Cover and seal with another layer of your pastry. Brush with egg white for shine and lightly sprinkle with a little rock salt.
Bake at 375 for about 40 minutes.
There now.
Yesterday was a grim, overcast drizzly day that murmured along like a muddy stream without much volume at all. John drove to the airport in the late afternoon to pick up his son, home on furlough. So I carefully pulled on my clown suit, picked up my shepherds crook, told Boo to stay inside and mind his Baby as he is just too jumpy for me at the moment and prepared to do the slowest round of chores in the western world, John had put every thing up high for me so there was to be no bending.
Then out of the misty gloom came my favourite neighbour with bags of stale buns and odd bits of out of date pieces from the food pantry where she works, for the pigs. She was shocked to hear I had come a cropper. So we teamed up and got everyone fed without any problems at all.
How was that for perfect timing! Must be the Fellowship Bubble at work again.
Have a lovely day.
Your friend,
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
98 responses to “How to make Bacon and Egg Pie”
I wondered about the recipe when you mentioned it the other day. This sounds great! I’ll make it for my family. Thank you.
You are very welcome Rosemary. As you will know the timing of the cooking will depend on your oven (you must miss your magnificent italian oven). Have a lovely day.. c
You should really go get an x-ray.
The pie sounds wonderful.
I am improving just a little every day. Don’t worry Eva. All is in hand.. c
Aaaahh! Pie! And chicken, leek and mushroom, and steak and kidney, and steak and mushroom. And in Australia, you couldn’t let pie pass your lips without the mandatory blob of ketchup and/or mushy peas, although perhaps in New Zealand you’re more civilised and don’t need these garish delights. I’m glad you’re feeling better enough to be gently mobile again.
I think every NZer but me slathers the poor things in Tomato Sauce. But i hate the stuff. Mushy peas though were practically unheard of when i was there. Though i used to have them in England alongside a pie and I love them. c
Yummy! Sounds like a delicious, hearty meal! 🙂
That’s very interesting. I was expecting something quiche like, because in England back in the 60’s a bacon and egg pie was often a quiche – somewhere during the 70s it became continental and changed it’s name. Out of interest I Googled bacon and egg pie and discovered all sorts of versions. I’ll have to try making yours 😉
I bet there are as many versions as there are mothers.. we love mums because of the un mixed white, it makes the pie lighter.. c
I do love your pie Celi. We also call refer to savoury pies as pies and the other sweet ones we usually give a full name to like apple pie or skip the pie part for example lemon meringue.
How lovely that more helping hands arrived – YAY and I am sure John’s son will lend a hand while with you.
Have a super weekend and rest as much as you can until you are 100% better.
🙂 Mandy xo
I am going to order all the hay for next week and he is going to help John to load it so that will be a bonus.. c
You can do it, it just takes more time… I was still a Seafood Manager when I did my back in…had to set the case every morning (I took one day out, right after it happened). Getting the boys from the back of the store to bring things out for me was my saving grace…
Love your pie recipe…I think it’ll be a hit around here!
I am thrilled at how much resting the back helps. It really is working, as you say, patience is the key.. c
Thanks for the pie
to try
A pie is topped
A tart is not,
and could be either.
savoury or sweet
served cold or hot.
I’m so glad you’re getting some help. Foul weather here again, We;re off to the depot vente try to sell some of the excess stuff which is stopping us from sheltering the car in the garage.
Love,
ViV
Yep, pies are usually savoury and meaty here too, and the sweet versions are called tarts – except for cheese cake 🙂 Hope TTT will help with feeding and filling water troughs for you. Laura
Was that now necessary.??? Here I am stuck at home with out transport and all I want is a pie.. a rich hot heavy gravy pie with gold flakes of hot pastry clinging to my lips like treasure.
hope your neck is starting to feel better bulldog!.. c
It’s getting there thanks Cecilia…
Ah yes, (unbeaten) egg and bacon pie is the way to go.
Australians call it ‘mince’ too. ‘Ground beef’ sounds like it could just be a mush coming out from beneath very heavy, rotating metal plates.
For me – PIE – either needs to be chicken pot, apple or CHERRY (TART TART CHERRY)….. But you say Egg Pie – quiche – I’m all in.
I wonder if you left the yolks in tact how it be? My hubby loves almost set yolks – where 95% or more is solid…. hum. May try this next week as I have a whole wonderful thankful week off work. (work as in the 7 – 4ish job in an office M-F)….. I’m never really off WORK totally.
I make quiche too but it has quite a different base, and the topping is cheese.. if you do get to try it you will see that is quite different from quiche.. i hope you do get some time off.. c
Yum yum and yum again. I remember the first time I saw a “quiche” with unbeaten eggs at my high school’s french department bake sale. I thought it was an “affront” to pie-dom. But now, a zillion years later, I know better! Your pie looks like a winner to me, and seeing as winter is upon us with gales and frigid air and wet stuff spattering about, I think it’s only a matter of days before I make that myself. So happy to have a proper crust recipe!!! Amazing what you can do, Celi, with a busted butt!!
my poor little busted butt!.. c
p.s. have to admit, I’m with Patr all the way. Chicken Pot or Cherry…those are the ones that make my heart and stomach sing arias.
John makes a great Cherry Pie. c
That is a seriously good looking pie…I have to try it. Like you, I cannot eat the American sweet pie.
You’re sounding better or are you just being a brave little soldier:)
I believe that i get a bit better every day, and yesterday I stayed on the couch as often for as long as i could.. but it feels like a punishment!..c
America is a huge melting pot! Depends on where you live and your culture! Everyone calls pie such as Celi’s savory pie something different! Patties, Pastries, Pasties, Tarts, etc…all good! Mmmm…the meat patties that I had in Miami made by Jamaican transplants! My French side of the family makes quiche and meat tourtieres! The Italians in the east call pizza “pizza pie” and make a delicious sweet rice pie and oh spinach pie! The Portugese on the eastern seaboard make a delicious salmon pie and yummy sweet custard pies! The beauty of this country is we all have our own idea of pie and not all of it is sweet! Sweet pies actually orginated in Medieval England. My English side of the family makes squash pie! Sweet pies in America are a pretty recent addition! Many American pies are made from local ingredients. All our amazing immigrants brought their pie heritage with them! This is how we got all the different delicious sweet and savory pies here! I love being an American it is the land of so many different peoples all enhancing this beautiful country!
For me? All good! 🙂
That is very true, and the food is wide and varied, what I was referring to was how Pie in America refers to a sweet pie and A Pie in NZ means a meat pie. I don’t mean to say that any one countries pie is better than another. It was really a discussion of Semantics. Labels. Colloquialisms. I am so sorry if it sounded like a criticism. c