The Four'N Twenty Meat Pie was invented in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia by LT. McClure in 1947. The meat pie is a very popular food product in Australia as strong demand for the pie saw production grow from 50 pies per day to 50,000 pies per hour in between the years of 1948 to 1998.
McClure took a sampling of his pies to the Royal Melbourne Agricultural Show where they proved very popular. Increasing demand for the pie caused McClure to eventually open a Melbourne bakery in a pavilion of the showgrounds, later moving to bigger premises in nearby Kensington several years later.
The Four'N Twenty Meat Pie is Victoria's best selling meat pie. It is considered a tradition to consume a Four'N Twenty Meat Pie at an Australian rules football match. While not as iconic outside of Victoria, Four'N Twenty pies are still the most commonly available brand in hotboxes in service stations and corner stores across the country.
In 2006, it was announced that the Four'N Twenty pie would begin being sold on the American market.
Famous quotes containing the words twenty and/or pie:
“Minerva House ... was “a finishing establishment for young ladies,” where some twenty girls of the ages from thirteen to nineteen inclusive, acquired a smattering of everything and a knowledge of nothing.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“Rice and peas fit into that category of dishes where two ordinary foods, combined together, ignite a pleasure far beyond the capacity of either of its parts alone. Like rhubarb and strawberries, apple pie and cheese, roast pork and sage, the two tastes and textures meld together into the sort of subtle transcendental oneness that we once fantasized would be our experience when we finally found the ideal mate.”
—John Thorne, U.S. cookbook writer. Simple Cooking, “Rice and Peas: A Preface with Recipes,” Viking Penguin (1987)