A love affair with a good Kiwi mince pie
As an Italian immigrant with a passion for food, I recently embarked on a journey to appreciate the most humble and seemingly common food in New Zealand – the mince pie.
My guide for this food learning experience was Andy MacDonald, an outdoor lover from Nelson who once owned a company that made dried food for hikers, but who now works as a photographer.
Appreciating simple food is not as simple as you might think, especially today with contemporary cuisine reimagining all the traditional, staple dishes.
But Andy convinced me that the mince pie could be the closest thing Aotearoa New Zealand had to a national dish – but please don’t hold it against him – so I took up the challenge to find out what makes a great pie.
The first problem was we didn’t know where to start. We live in New Plymouth but with Andy being from the South Island and me from Italy we didn’t have a strong understanding of the local pie scene.
So we decided to go to the place everyone goes to when they have futile, seemingly unsolvable problems – the internet.
After we posted on social media, Andres Pies, Blagdon Bakery, Coronation Bakery and Smoko were the most commented-on bakeries, and the price range of their pies varied between Andres’ $4.90 and Blagdon’s $6.
Because I am a foodie who likes respecting the traditional way but only had my first pie in Australia a few years ago, I decided to call Peter Gordon to get some tips on appreciating flaky pies and flavourful mince.
Gordon, a chef who has been in love with pies his whole life, said to look out for the golden ratio
The pastry could not be too thin, nor too thick, not have too much gravy, nor too much meat – and the colour had to be even.
‘‘There is no right or wrong with flavours, and pastry is equal to filling,’’ Gordon said, but the key was balance that filled your mouth with taste.
Now, I have been raised eating different regional Italian dishes every day (and yes, my mamma will always be the best chef in the world) so one could say I have an experienced palate, but I thought I needed another opinion. Just to be sure.
I phoned Bakels Supreme Pie Awards’ chief judge Tim Aspinall for help.
There were three things that should be looked for in a mince pie, Aspinall said. These were, as you might expect, bottom pastry, filling and top pastry.
Aspinall, who has been a judge of the Bakels awards since they were established and chief judge for the past six years, recommended a twoto-one ratio for mince and gravy.
Now better prepared to understand what we were eating, Andy and I embarked on our pie eating journey.
We made sure to follow their suggestions and took decent mouthfuls of rich gravy and buttery pastry, deeply conscious of the textures and tastes we were experiencing and the sounds of satisfaction we were making as we tried four of Taranaki’s best.
So which pie was the best? Well, that’s a hard question to answer because they were all pretty good. But we might have a winner.
Blagdon hit my foodie spot with its balanced flavours and Smoko had the best crust in town. And although Andres’ pie was as golden as an ingot and has been delighting New Plymouth mouths for decades, the mince pie we liked the most was from Coronation Bakery.
It’s hard to put into words what we experienced when eating this pie, but the look we exchanged after cutting it open and wolfing it said it all. This was the one pie we had been looking for – the ultimate Kiwi culinary experience.
Appreciating simple food is not as simple as you might think, especially today with contemporary cuisine reimagining all the traditional, staple dishes.