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Copyright © 2025 Foodies Only
Copyright © 2025 Foodies Only
7 min
19/01/2026
It’s raining baked goodies in here, both sweet and savoury, with each country adding their special touches! Pies have been around for a long time, and are still being made with an age‑old tradition: filling hollowed-out doughs (may or may not be covered with an intricate design) and baking them. These baked goods reflect how people live, celebrate, and eat stuffed doughs, whether as a street‑side breakfast staple, a rich family dessert drenched with syrup, or a savoury pastry that’s part of holiday spreads and daily meals.
‘Pies’ does not automatically translate to sweet nothings like the American favourites of apple pie, pumpkin pie or pecan pie. The world does its pies differently, and some countries are absolutely in love with their savoury dishes like the French quiche or the Lebanese Sfiha. These pies might not look like much, as their exterior tends to be bready or crusty, and the focus zooms into their fillings, which range from sweet to salty. These pies boast about their local flavours and ingredients, where they can be a full meal, a comfort dish, or an emblem of the region’s heritage.
One of the most popular pies in the world, quiche is a classic French pie with roots in the medieval region of Lorraine, which fused Germanic and French ways of cooking. Quiche has a buttery pastry crust filled with a creamy custard of eggs and cream, often with savoury bits like bacon, cheese, leeks, mushrooms, or herbs, then baked until golden and silky. Thanks to its high-calorie nature, it often features on brunch menus, bistro spreads, and special celebrations. There is a wide variety of this delicious pie, from quiche Lorraine, quiche Florentine, to quiche Provençale.
This Russian pie could either be sweet or savoury, depending on the stuffing. Beyond Russian, you will also find it being a part of Slavic cuisine, often seen as a symbol of home and hospitality. The pie’s exterior is made with yeast, shortcrust, or puff pastry. If it’s savoury, you get a filling of meat, fish, mushrooms, cabbage, or potatoes, and if it’s sweet, you get fillings like apples and berries. Pirog can be closed or open‑faced, and while simple versions accompany stews and soups, elaborate ones are served at celebrations and family feasts across the region.
This is perhaps the most common pie, loved worldwide, thanks to the abundance of apples in specific regions and pie-making traditions. It’s called apple pie in the United States, Milopita in Greece, Appeltaart in the Netherlands and Szarlotka in Poland. Apple pie began as an European dessert, with early medieval cooks using pastry mainly as a container to preserve fruit fillings. By the 1500s, Dutch bakers were weaving latticed tops with thick apple slices, raisins, lemon, and spices like cinnamon and nutmeg, yielding richly flavoured pies still served with cream. Settlers brought apple pie to America, and the word spread from there.
This one’s more than just cheese bread and is Georgia’s most famous pie, which reflects centuries‑old dairy traditions. Its name literally means cheese (khacho) and bread (puri), and the pie is topped with melted cheese, eggs and butter. Some versions are boat‑shaped and filled with molten sulguni and imeruli cheeses and topped with a raw egg (Adjaran khachapuri), while others incorporate potatoes or herbs. Gustavian bakers once saw it as symbolic of celestial bodies – the circular form linked to the sun or the moon. It is also found in the former Soviet areas in Russia.
This pie originated in the 15th century in Eastern Lebanon's Beqaa Valley, with the earliest documented recipe appearing in a 13th century cookbook. The dish consists of flatbread topped with ground lamb, tomato, onion, pine nuts, and spices. Lebanese versions include pomegranate molasses and sumac, while Syrian and Jordanian preparations emphasise herbs. Late 19th century Levantine immigrants brought sfiha to Brazil, where it became popular fast food, spawning creative fillings like ricotta, sausage, and palm heart. The pie also spread across the Middle East from Armenia to North Africa. In Turkey, similar dishes are called lahmacun or pide.
Pastilla likely arrived in Morocco from Muslims leaving al-Andalus in the 16th century or earlier. During the 1492 fall of Granada, the Moors brought their recipes, including pastilla, to Morocco. Sephardic Jews also contributed to its development. Traditional Fez versions use pigeon or chicken with eggs, almonds, saffron, nutmeg, ginger, and cinnamon, wrapped in paper-thin warqa dough and topped with powdered sugar. There’s also seafood pastilla, which contains fish, shellfish, and vermicelli, served spicy rather than sweet. This pie is reserved for weddings, holidays, and special occasions.
The term ‘shepherd's pie’ appeared in 1877 in an English cookbook, attributing it to Scotland. The dish emerged in late 18th century Britain as a frugal way to use leftover roasted meat, topped with affordable mashed potatoes instead of expensive flour pastry. Irish workers couldn't afford beef exported by British landowners, so they used cheaper lamb, making shepherd's pie distinctly Irish. Shepherd's pie traditionally contains lamb or mutton, minced, with the pie casserole layers also having onions, carrots, celery, Worcestershire sauce, and gravy beneath creamy mashed potatoes. Popular throughout British pubs and homes, the dish remains comfort food for many.
Italy's oldest dessert traces back to Ancient Rome, where crostata began as a simple dish made with just flour, water, and honey baked together. This tart evolved through Renaissance kitchens, appearing in manuscripts by Martino da Como and papal chef Bartolomeo Scappi. The buttery pasta frolla crust cradles anything from traditional apricot jam to creamy ricotta filling. There are many variations within the country, with Rome's custard-style crostata contrasting with the south's ricotta version made with chocolate or candied fruit. Beyond Italy, immigrants brought crostata to Argentina, where it became pastafrola filled with dulce de leche.
Former NSW Premier Bob Carr dubbed the meat pie Australia's ‘national dish’ in 2003, and for good reason – Aussies devour 270 million pies annually, roughly 12 per person. These pies are filled with minced beef and gravy, which arrived with British colonists, but Australians made them distinctly their own. The first steam-powered wheat mill opened in Sydney in the 1800s, sparking a pie revolution that continues today. At AFL Grand Finals, 90,000 pies disappear from stadium kiosks, usually drowned in tomato sauce. The annual Great Aussie Pie Competition, launched in 1989, crowns the nation's best meat pies, which still runs to date.
Chile's beloved corn pie is a delicious product of conquest and resistance. When Spanish colonisers hired Mapuche cooks, they fused the local corn obsession with Spanish meat stews called picadillo, creating a mestizo dish. The Mapuche had cultivated choclo – large, starchy Andean corn – for millennia, while Spain contributed beef, spices, and baking techniques. By the 19th century, Chilean cookbooks like El Cocinero Chileno documented pastel de choclo as a humble staple. Today, this summer favourite layers spiced ground beef (pino), chicken, hard-boiled eggs, olives, and raisins beneath a creamy corn purée, baked in clay dishes.
From flaky to hearty, sweet to savoury, pies have been stretched and rolled through centuries, crossing borders and blending cultures into every golden-baked bite. Whether you're team lattice-top or full-coverage crust, pies prove that the best stories are told between layers. So grab a fork, scroll through a recipe and get baking or sampling these pies by breaking through their buttery shell. After all, life’s too short to keep your cravings at bay.