Tinned steak and kidney pie
I’ve been travelling overseas for the last five days. I really wanted to cook something for dinner, however, just before I took off for a meeting in Geneva, I’d received an e-mail from a friend and she described an experience with tinned steak and kidney pie.
This friend is a dear person who I’ve known for about eight years through social media. We’ve not met in person, but she is a wonderful human who is dedicated to her children, her partner, and her work.
The tinned steak and kidney pie is a Fray Bentos® pie and can be found in the supermarket aisles with other tinned meats like Spam and corned beef.
In my local Coles, it’s in aisle 7!
I figured a steak and kidney pie would best be eaten with mashed potato. Given the convenience of the tinned pie, I went with a ready-and-cooked (with microwave radiation) mashed potato.
To complete the triumvirate of convenience, I added some frozen vegetables, which I quickly cooked in boiling water.
As it turns out, my tiredness from jet lag was quite bad, so a meal of convenience was a good choice.
I feel a little cheeky adding a recipe card for this meal, but hey, what the heck, why not?
I bought all the ingredients from Coles.
No, Yummy Lummy is not sponsored by anyone.
Recipe
Fray Bentos Steak and Kidney Pie with mashed potato and vegetables
Yummy Lummy’s Fray Bentos Steak and Kidney Pie with microwave radiation mashed potato, and boiled frozen vegetables
Fray Bentos Steak and Kidney Pie
- 1 tin Fray Bentos Steak and Kidney Pie
Mashed potato
- 1 packet BIRDS EYE®️ microwave radiation mashed potato and butter
Frozen vegetables
- 1 handful Coles frozen peas and corn
FRAY BENTOS®️ Steak and Kidney Pie
- Preheat an oven to 180 °C/360 °F
- Use a tin opener to open the pie tin
- Cook the pie for 25 minutes at 180 °C/360 °F
Mashed potato
- Place the sachet into the microwave oven
- Cook on high for minutes
Frozen vegetables
- Boil some salted water
- Cook the vegetables until the vegetables are cooked
Plating up bit
- Put the hot tin holding the pie on a plate and add the mashed potato and vegetables.
- Don’t worry about the potato and other vegetables touching the outside of the tin. The heat from the oven cooking the pie should be enough to kill the majority of enteric pathogens (including bacteria and viruses).
Blogging bit
- Shoot a photograph and a short video because Google now wants video on recipe cards.
- Eat the meal.
- Wash the dishes (hint, wash as you cook, it makes life easier).
- Write the recipe.
- Write the blog post.
- Hit publish and hope this blog post gets shared on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.
I have no culinary training nor qualifications. This post is not intended to convey any health or medical advice. If you have any health concerns about anything you read, please contact your registered medical practitioner. The quantities are indicative. Feel free to vary the quantities to suit your taste. I deliberately do not calculate energy for dishes. I deliberately default to 500 Calories or 500,000 calories because I do not make these calculations.
Questions and answers
Have you heard of Fray Bentos before?
Nope. I have probably seen the tins in the supermarket when looking for Spam and tinned corned beef, but it never registered with me.
How convenient was this meal?
Put it this way: it was as easy as buying takeaway.
How was the meal?
It was delicious. I’ll definitely eat a Fray Bentos steak and kidney pie again.
Final thoughts
Have you ever eaten a tinned pie before?
Have you heard of Fray Bentos before?
Do you like kidneys?
Should I have added some instant gravy?
Sponsorship
Yummy Lummy has no sponsors, but maintaining a blog isn’t free. If anyone or any company would like to contribute, please contact me.
https://yummylummy.com/2018/09/08/queensland-nut-gentlemans-relish-beef-cheek-short-rib/
pies always good but have problems getting the puff pastry to cook right through . any tips on this
Hi Steve, no tips, I’ve found each time I cook one of these pies the pastry is flaky and crispy. I think it comes down to making sure the oven is hot enough. It may be worth using an oven thermometer and verifying you have the correct temperature.
I had a steak and kidney pie once in a pub in England and I loved it! I’m not sure if I recognized the taste of the kidneys because the overall flavors and texture were so incredibly balanced–and a flaky pie crust makes everything taste good. I’ve never tried a steak and kidney pie of the kind you describe here, but now I’ll have to check out the grocery aisles and see if there are any similar varieties I could try here in the US.
If you find one I hope you write about it 😃
Wow, if you removed the tin, you wouldn’t know it wasn’t made from scratch! Looks really good.
Thanks, Rose. It was a remarkably quick and easy meal to prepare. The looking and tasting good to convenience ratio was very high 😃
I’ve never eaten them, bu my husband loves Fray Bentos pies – the chicken and mushroom one in particular. Years ago, an aunt of mine used to make kidney soup as the first course for our Christmas dinner, and I remember eating it and the taste vaguely. I can eat liver, but I’m too squeamish these days to eat kidneys, given their function…
Thanks Emma. It seems we can only get steak and kidney here in Australia.
I’m a fan of a lot of offal. I don’t mind liver but I really like brains. Kidneys certainly have a funny texture, but in a pie with steak and lots of gravy and puff pastry, it’s hard to notice.
I like it! I’d have half a pie and half a plate of steamed veggies! Perfect!!
Thanks Michele. I need to get into the nutritionist mindset 😃
Next time I’ll have half and keep the other half for later.
Thank you for the trip down memory lane Gaz, because we used to eat Fray Bentos pies all the time growing up. But they offered the plain beef one in Australia back then, so we had that one. It would be a Saturday lunch item, paired with oven baked chips. My dad was English, so I think it was something he yearned for from the UK, so it became a staple in our house. That, and HP sauce… Bovril…. Branston Pickle… Spam… Worcestshire sauce in our V8 juice… I could go on!
Thanks, Kirsty. I’m just so happy I’ve now found out about these wonderful pies. I hope they continue being available here. I really enjoyed the steak and kidney pie. It seems other varieties aren’t readily available here. I may need to find a way to get other varieties sent to Australia 😃
Funnily enough I think it sounds like a great meal – looks it too. I love frozen peas and corn.
For something relatively cheap, frozen peas and corn are great with any cooked meal I reckon. The green and gold makes me feel I’m adding a little Australia to a meal 😂
My brother introduced my husband and I to Fray Bentos. He was making an early morning trip to his local Aldi to buy a couple of tins when they were on special. We thought if he liked them so much we should give the steak and kidney a try. As you say they are the ideal convenience food. It still amazes me that a pie from a tin could be so delicious.
I was surprised at how good it was. The pastry was nice.
Fray Bentos is actually a place in Uruguay (I think). These pies have been going strong in the UK for donkey’s years. One of my husband’s guilty pleasures is eating them. The trouble is that the pastry tends to be rather soggy.
Thanks, Katherine. I was surprised at the quality of the pastry. Rather than using a benchtop toaster oven, I went with a proper fan-forced oven. The pastry puffed up nicely and remained flakey. I wasn’t expecting so much pastry compared with the steak and kidney. That said, I was really happy with the pie as a whole. It was certainly a treat.
I’ve never eaten one of these although I have seen them. Kidneys are just not my favourite offal at all. Gary when you say you’re not sponsored by anyone, when you click through you ask companies to be welcome to contribute. So does that mean you’re not currently sponsored by anyone and would like to be? 🙂
Thanks, Lorraine. Kidney has a funny texture, I know if I was offered a choice between kidneys and lamb’s brains (especially if crumbed in white sauce), I’d go with brains every time.
I feel like in a weird space Lorraine. I’m not interested at the moment (with a full-time public service job) to solicit requests for sponsorship. I know how much work goes into trying to make any income from a blog. You have my deepest admiration and respect for how hard you work to keep Not Quite Nigella as successful as it is. I’m also aware that because I mention where I purchase my groceries (as a way of helping readers see how convenient home cooking for one can be), that I need to make it clear that I’m not sponsored. That said, if Coles wanted to ask me to do product reviews, I would probably accept the offer.
I do get invitations to review some things or asked to provide photographs or video in return for exposure, but I resist those invitations because the request is usually for the original files. I’m not that interested in entering into contracts for the use of my original files, and so far, no one has ever offered to pay for my the files. While I don’t think my photographs or video are that good, I’m conscious that some people rely on their creativity for income, and it would be wrong for me to give a false impression to commercial entities that they can simply get free advertising in exchange for ‘exposure’ and to remove the creative control from the owner of the work. I hope that makes sense.
I’ve actually never eaten tinned pie before, and have not heard of Fray Bentos. Kidneys, they are okay for my liking. Gravy always goes well with pie and mashed potato 😀 I really like gourmet-kind of pies where you get from the supermarket and heat up. The Woolies near my work do heated pies in their hot food section and sometimes I’ll grab one for a quick and easy lunch, which is also tasty. It can be easy to eat pies and eat them lots…
Thanks, Mabel. I agree, I probably should have added some gravy. I love meat pies, and I probably need to be more discerning. Those gourmet ones are amazing. I’m also partial to a pork pie served at room temperature with a little cheese on the side.
A good pie is a beautiful thing.