This 1960s Pie Used Ground Beef In A Very Unusual Way

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When we think of pies, we often focus on the filling first. Apple pie, blueberry pie, pecan pie, and even savory recipes like cheesy spinach tarts and chicken pot pie highlight the center of the dish. In 1960, Better Homes and Gardens switched things around when they printed a recipe for something they called country pie, but if we're being direct, it's a meat crust pie. Rather than the traditional buttery flaky pastry crust you'd expect in a pie, this recipe uses ground beef, bread crumbs, tomato sauce, chopped green pepper, onion, and assorted spices to create a meatloaf-like shell.

The beef mixture is pressed into a pie plate to create a unique crust that holds the filling, which is essentially cheesy tomato rice. As the beef layer bakes, it keeps the rice-forward center in and traps all the flavors. After about 25 minutes in a 350 degrees Fahrenheit oven, the result is an open-faced meat pie more closely aligned with a casserole. Although once the generous sprinkles of cheddar cheese bubble up on top, it almost feels like another pseudo alternative to pastry crust. If it weren't for Better Homes and Gardens dubbing it the country pie and the final recipe instructions noting "Cut into pie-shaped pieces," readers might not have even considered this beefy baked dish a pie at all.

Convenience and novelty seemed to rule cookbooks and magazines around this era, with shortcut ingredients like Minute Rice and Hunt's Tomato Sauce being shilled as necessities on the grocery list. Food brands were still figuring out the best marketing techniques, and sharing new recipes was one of the most popular ways to grab the attention of 1960s housewives flipping through pages of their favorite digest. This country pie recipe was really an advert for the aforementioned products, highlighting both Minute Rice and Hunt's front and center. "And you'll make the savory filling double-quick — but only with Hunt's Tomato Sauce and Minute Rice," the Better Homes and Gardens advertisement read.

There are plenty of obscure recipes floating around vintage magazines and dated cookbooks, but only a select few caught on enough to prevail in this century. Shepherd's pie comes close to the same vicinity as meat crust pie with its stewed beef bottom layer, but few modern recipes utilize meat in this way. Better Homes and Gardens positioned country pie as a quick, mindless dinner made with ingredients that folks likely already had on their grocery list. But the fact that it hasn't really stood the test of time and shows no sign of a comeback probably means it's not as tasty as a more traditional savory pie recipe.