Is Pouring Soup on Pies A Thing?

October 30, 2016 2:00 PM

I'm from Scotland, live in Utah, and recently came across this local company who assert that they make "authentic Scottish Meat Pies." That as may be, but they then continue with the following suggestion: "Top it with chili, soup or gravy for a great meal!" As a bona fide Scotsman, I'm pretty 100% sure nobody in Scotland tops their meat pies with chili or soup (although possibly with gravy). Is this a thing? I have never seen a pie served in a small bowl of soup either, as the picture suggests. How do you eat/ serve your pies?
posted by 7 Minutes of Madness to Food & Drink (24 answers total)

The pie floater (a meat pie covered in thick pea soup) is a thing in a few localised regions of Australia.
posted by EXISTENZ IS PAUSED at 2:03 PM on October 30, 2016 [10 favorites]

Pie and beans, and only UK style baked beans thankyouverymuch. Or fried.

Floaters are an Australian oddity.
posted by scruss at 2:05 PM on October 30, 2016

In South Australia, there is a thing called a pie floater. Basically a meat pie put in a bowl of pea soup. As far as I know, neither Scottish or Utah cuisine.
posted by antipodes at 2:06 PM on October 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

My experience in the US is that will put chili on anything. Pies are certainly within the realm of possibility.
posted by fshgrl at 2:15 PM on October 30, 2016 [10 favorites]

Response by poster: Wait: you serve your pie with baked beans on the top? Nice.
posted by 7 Minutes of Madness at 2:16 PM on October 30, 2016 [4 favorites]

Response by poster: For what it's worth, in my neck of the woods (West Lothian) we mostly ate pies by hand, straight out of the bakery, still hot. Kinda thought serving them on a plate and eating with a knife & fork was a bit, you know, posh....
posted by 7 Minutes of Madness at 2:22 PM on October 30, 2016 [6 favorites]

I'm from California and live in Australia, have never heard of this, and have also never heard of a "floater". I grew up going to the local highland games in CA which featured a red double-decker bus that served pies and other hot food - I assure you, no soup or chili in sight. I think it's weird too.
posted by jrobin276 at 2:35 PM on October 30, 2016

At risk of turning this into ScotchPieChatFilter - having been raised in England and now transplanted to Scotland, Scotch pies are one of the many things that I thought were unique to Beanoland, having grown up reading the Beano. The pies Pieface hankered after so badly looked like no pie I'd ever seen, with their raised edge and straight sides and little hole in the middle. When I moved up here I realised they weren't just from comic land, they were REAL PIES, but from Scotland, same as the Beano. It was almost as amazing as it would have been to see Minnie the Minx walking down the road towards me, made flesh.

It wasn't just the pies - there are all sorts of turns of phrase I once thought belonged to Beano characters but are actually Scottish ("amn't I?" instead of "aren't I?", "That needs done" instead of "That needs doing" etc). I makes me very happy to be living in Beanoland.
posted by penguin pie at 2:45 PM on October 30, 2016 [10 favorites]

I feel like you should have included the entirety of the rather surprising serving suggestions:

Place in bowl, top with chili, gravy or pour on the tomato soup, and/or top with cheese, onions, hot sauce, even ketchup! A lot of our customers also like them with a simple beef broth poured over the pie.

(Canadian, UK parents and partner, normal people do not put those things on pies; they are on the side of your plate and knife-and-forked, or eaten out of hand. Canadians sometimes put cheddar cheese on slices of apple pie, but of course that's a very different thing pie-wise)
posted by kmennie at 3:00 PM on October 30, 2016 [3 favorites]

Wait now, wait. I am also Canadian, Ontarian with French Canadian parents, and meat pies were a common meal growing up. And weather Scotch or tourtière, meat pies were always liberally topped with ketchup. It's tradition!
(I have also done cheese, BBQ/hot sauce, and not yet chilli, but probably will soon)
posted by rodlymight at 4:08 PM on October 30, 2016 [4 favorites]

I haven't run into pie floaters in the US specifically, but I have encountered a few Australian Pie Shops. Maybe this is a thing in Utah?

Also, I think there are a few trends in American fast-casual dining that make "put soup on your pie" an idea that a restaurant could have:

Firstly, the mention of chili makes me thing they're trying to upsell people on an add-on condiment not unlike a chili dog, chili fries, etc. I've never thought to add chili to pie, but, OK. I can see how there's a progression there.

Secondly, the mentions of chili and gravy make me think this might be a "meat lovers" thing, or a "man food" thing.

Thirdly, I've definitely seen the concept of creative sauce and condiment choices to top a menu item. In fact earlier today I was at a pizza place where one of the choices is of a selection of "drizzles" AKA sauces that sit on top of the toppings in addition to the sauce which is already traditional between crust and cheese. If the pies can't be easily dipped into sauce, putting a sauce on top is a no brainer in terms of food trends.

Fourthly, there's TOTALLY a food trend where a food that is often paired with soup is served either dished up in soup like the Australian pie floater, or something like "soup in a bread bowl", soup "shooters" with a little finger sandwich on the side, etc.

So, yeah, while I don't think this is necessarily a thing, it is totally a thing somebody would come up with based on other things that really are things.
posted by Sara C. at 4:48 PM on October 30, 2016 [2 favorites]

Coming to second Pie Floaters as an Australian dish, (meat pie in pea soup) specifically the state of South Australia though it may be in other states. It is very much a late night I'm going to regret this in the morning or night shift food. Served upside down soup poured over it & with the option of brown vinegar (like you'd do with mushy peas with fish & chips) or tomato sauce.
posted by wwax at 5:00 PM on October 30, 2016

Baker's pies you might be able to eat hot out of the shop, but butcher's pies come cold.

A pie roll is perfect for street eating, as long as you put enough vinegar on it.

(I'm from Glasgow; can't you tell? #ScotchPieChatFilter)
posted by scruss at 7:05 PM on October 30, 2016

This person writes about eating that specific brand of meat pie with soup. Think it might be a regional thing or a just that company's customers thing. http://www.potsandpins.com/blog/2010/08/meat-pies-with-tomato-sauce.html
posted by TestamentToGrace at 7:31 PM on October 30, 2016

Are you sure they were suggesting that putting the soup on top was a Scottish thing? I feel like Americans like to take something authentic and then add a local twist to it that they know locals might like. Maybe "floaters" or putting chili on everything is popular in where you live in Utah?
posted by Toddles at 7:45 PM on October 30, 2016

If you read the company's About Us page, you will see the interesting changes they have made and how Aussie Pies are a big part of that change. Given that, I would go with the suggestions that this is an Australian concept (along with the US idea of using chili as a condiment for the other option). It sounds like they are trying to expand the market and so getting people to start using the pies in soup is a good way to do that. It might also help them seem authentic to ex-pats and anyone who's spent time in Australian or NZ. But my guess is that this is an idea that came to them as they studied the market. It's also possible it is popular in one of the other states to which they now send their pies.
posted by Chaussette and the Pussy Cats at 9:12 PM on October 30, 2016

In the same vein as the floater is adding mushy peas to your pie. Cut off the top, ladle in the peas, sit the lid on top of the peas. Add sauce, vinegar, whatever.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 9:53 PM on October 30, 2016

The pie floater (a meat pie covered in thick pea soup) is a thing in a few localised regions of Australia.

I'm not sure if this is the origin of the Australian pie floater, or just convergent evolution, but (pork) pie dumped into a bowl of peas mushed until they were basically like split pea soup was a very common Bonfire Night dish in Yorkshire when I was growing up.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 1:34 AM on October 31, 2016 [1 favorite]

My husband is Scottish and it's definitely A Thing to serve their pies (Killie pies ftw) with beans on top and a grind of fresh pepper. I recommend.
posted by like_neon at 3:57 AM on October 31, 2016

(pork) pie dumped into a bowl of peas mushed until they were basically like split pea soup was a very common Bonfire Night dish in Yorkshire when I was growing up.

I'm in Yorkshire and today on the Halloween canteen menu along with other vaguely ghoulish offerings was "Steak and kidney pie, R.I.P (resting in peas)" and this consisted of a raised pie, dumped in a pile of mushy peas.
posted by emilyw at 6:01 AM on October 31, 2016 [2 favorites]

Regrettably, this has happened to me in London. A pie served in a dish filled with some kind of broth covering it to a depth of 3 inches. No one ever asked my permission for this abomination.

And don't get me started on pot "pie".
posted by welovelife at 7:15 AM on October 31, 2016 [1 favorite]

Traditional Pie and Mash shops in East London serve their pies in a big green pool of parsley sauce called 'liquor'.
posted by EXISTENZ IS PAUSED at 6:49 PM on October 31, 2016 [2 favorites]

liberally topped with ketchup

Woah there Ti rodlymight - define "liberally". A bit of ketchup is acceptable but swimming in it? No way. The closest thing I've seen to the OP's request here in Canada is how Métis in Manitoba eat a slice of tourtière drenched in gravy. When I first saw that I was pretty shocked that we had never developed that innovation.
posted by Ashwagandha at 10:57 AM on November 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

I think that the suggestion to "Top it with chili, soup or gravy for a great meal!" has more to do with the fact that this is a long standing Utah company than with any ties to Scottish tradition. Mormon food can sometimes seem like an afterthought—packaged and processed foods thrown together into bland dishes and stretched to feed piles of kids. Dumping a can of chili or soup from the food storage pantry on the pie would effectively and efficiently fill one up. Thus fulfilling the unfortunately frequent goal of Mormon cooking. Oh, and welcome to Utah!
posted by Jandoe at 10:09 PM on November 3, 2016 [1 favorite]