Pie And Dead Horse
Sun Herald
Sunday April 21, 2002
I'VE NEVER liked meat pies, though I have eaten many. At school there was one day a week when we were allowed to buy pies for lunch, which we all did, simply because it was considered a big treat. If your stomach wasn't already churning from the gristle and foul gravy, the urban pie myths did the trick. There was one about a human finger, with nail polish, found inside a pie, and another about a rat's tail, or a bandaid. Yet we ploughed on, gagging, in honour of a great Australian tradition.
Now we learn our misgivings were not just schoolgirl neuroses. Choice magazine last week published a study of 18 brands of frozen meat pies, showing the ``meat" can actually be fat, gristle, meat scraps and trimmings, every disgusting part of the animal except the foetus. And the animal could be buffalo, camel, deer, goat, hare, pig, poultry or rabbit.
In fact, a food analyst quoted by Choice coined a new term for the contents of one pie: ``gristle exudate", a spongy composition of minced gristle and connective tissue.
Cheese and tomato rolls are looking good at this stage.
© 2002 Sun Herald