Q&A for How to Make Meat Pies

The flour is mixed with pinch of salt and later margarine or butter to make the dough.

An egg can be used, but not too many eggs, maybe only up to 1-3 eggs.

Yes, you can.

You can use a pot/frying pan on top of a stove as long as it has a cover.

Yes. Add desired seasoning to the pastry (dry seasonings to the flour), or seasonings (dry or wet) to the filling.

Baking powder is used to puff bread and other pastries up. Since a meat pie does not need to puff up, baking power is not needed.

Oil can be substituted for the melted butter. Both will help the meat cook nicely and stay moist.

Make sure the filling is just moist enough, and you don't have too much liquid floating around in the filling. If you do use liquid, don't add water on its own, and thicken the filling with flour or a thickener first - before adding it to the pastry to cook. Place pies into an already hot oven.

These are savory pies and not meant to be sweet.

No, you cannot add milk to the dough in place of water as that will affect the final consistency.

Yes you can, but make sure to coat the pie with 1-2 raw eggs before baking it, so it'll be a bit crispy.

Might be due to greasing. When you grease your pie dish, dust it with flour and then place the pie dough into it. Also, make sure your pie dough isn't very buttery. Use only very cold butter; room temperature butter is not good for pastry. One tip is after rolling and placing the pastry dough into the dish, refrigerate it for one hour and then immediately place it cold in the preheated oven. Poke several tiny holes with a fork and place a bag of beans so it doesn't puff up. The beans give weight and also heats the pie crust better, and it will come out crispy! If your dough is too thin, the pastry will burn. Too thick and it won't cook fully and be soggy and half-baked.

You can use a pot or frying pan on top of a stove, as long as it has a cover.

No. It needs to cook evenly on all sides, and for that you need an oven.

Yes, it's similar to pan-frying dumplings. Just be sure to take into account the size of the pie when determining how long you'll need to fry it.

You can use olive oil in the filling, but not in the crust recipe.

No. The oil is not a solid at room temperature. A good alternative is a vegetable shortening.

I would recommend making smaller meat pies (with the same filling and crust) that are sealed completely around the edges. You can then fry those in oil without issue.

You should bake the pies at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the crust is golden brown.

The filling could be too wet and the excess steam is keeping the dough soggy, or you may need to add vent holes (if you haven't already).

Yes, you can fry it on the stovetop with vegetable oil.

You may need more liquid. Try adding an additional tbsp. of water at a time until you have the right consistency.

This recipe does not require milk.

Yes, you can use different fillings for this, such as vegetables without meat, although they wouldn't technically qualify as "meat" pies anymore.

The flour used is wheat flour. I would not recommend bread flour, as the gluten content is too high and will make for a tough pie crust. Corn flour would not be good for pies, as it has no gluten, but can be used to make empanadas, which are similar.

Yes; it should be a hand-sized pie, though (no more than 7 inches long), and use deep oil or it will burn on the bottom.

Yes, you can. You would also need 125 ml of water.

You can fry the fillings if you want to, but sometimes your pies will have soggy bottoms if you do this, so make sure to thicken the filling.

Sure, that's a personal preference. You might want to just cut off a quarter and try the butter first in case it's something you really don't much like.

I would suggest using all-purpose flour.