This was the first time I’ve ever eaten a Steak and Kidney Fray Bentos Pie. Or indeed a Fray Bentos Pie.
My mother, who was a full time teacher, cooked our food from scratch every evening. She only opened the occasional tin of beans or bought some frozen peas. And would have been horrified that I baked this tinned pie for my evening meal.
The only reason for this family sin was that I had proper food in the fridge. I’d kept the Fray Bentos tin for the history part of my Food Talks. Looking in the Talks drawer its BB date was 11/2027 so into the airfryer it went.
But I’d forgotten to read the instructions on the tin bottom and didn’t want to tip it over as the juices might run out. So guessed 20 minutes at 190C. And kept checking every 5 minutes.
The golden pastry puffed up nicely golden. Was I supposed to egg glaze it?
Ready to eat, I scooped out the brown juices and piled flaky pastry on top, serving microwaved frozen peas to match this one off treat.
Thick, brown, Bisto-like gravy hid a few tiny lumps of meat and I assume the curdled beige pieces were minced kidneys. How did it taste? Well Ah Bisto! sums it up. The brown, glossy gravy was the best bit, but the pastry was splodgy, needing more cooking time. Most went in the bin, and I quietly thanked my mother for cooking fresh food for us for all those years.
Fray Bentos Pies have been and important part of our history since 1881- it says on the tin. And a valuable storecupboard resource in times of rationing and food shortages.
The story began with German chemist Justus von Liebig, who developed a way of making concentrated meat extract. In 1865, the Liebig Extract of Meat Company was established in London. An enormous factory in Uruguay processed South American beef for export to Europe.
By 1873, the company was producing tinned corned beef under the Fray Bentos name. In 1881, Fray Bentos was registered as a British trademark and Fray Bentos corned beef became an important food for British soldiers during the Boer War and both World Wars.
Fun fact – during the First World War, a British tank was even nicknamed Fray Bentos, because the crew felt rather like meat packed inside a tin!
Fray Bentos joins Bisto, Bird’s Custard, Rowntree’s Jelly, Salad Cream, Smash and Stork for stories for my food talks
More in my books – I taught them to Cook and Cream Horns and Vol au Vents.
