Four'n Twenty, stylised FOUR'N TWENTY, is an Australian brand of

meat pie A meat pie is a pie with a filling of meat and often with other savory ingredients. They are found in cuisines worldwide. Meat pies are usually baked, fried, or deep fried to brown them and develop the flavour through the Maillard reaction. Ma ...

s and

sausage roll A sausage roll is a savoury pastry snack, popular in current and former Commonwealth nations, consisting of sausage meat wrapped in puffed pastry. Sausage rolls are sold at retail outlets and are also available from bakeries as a take-away food. ...

s, owned by parent company

Patties Foods Patties Foods, is an Australian food manufacturing company that produces meat pies, baked goods, frozen fruits, and pre-made desserts. Patties Foods is represented in the Australian market by the Four'n Twenty, Patties, Herbert Adams, Nanna's, ...

. The classic Four'n Twenty pie is filled with mutton and beef (a minimum of 25%, per

Food Standards Australia New Zealand Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) (Māori: ''Te Mana Kounga Kai – Ahitereiria me Aotearoa''), formerly Australia New Zealand Food Authority (ANZFA), is the statutory authority in the Australian Government Health portfolio that is ...

regulations), mostly shoulder meat, in a spiced gravy with carrot and onion. The crust is a flour and margarine

shortcrust pastry Shortcrust pastry is a type of pastry often used for the base of a tart, quiche, pie, or (in the British English sense) flan. Shortcrust pastry can be used to make both sweet and savory pies such as apple pie, quiche, lemon meringue or chicken ...

, with the upper crust additionally rolled and folded to make it slightly flaky. Other fillings include chicken and vegetable,

pulled pork Pulled pork is an American barbecue dish, more specifically a dish of the Southern U.S., based on shredded barbecued pork shoulder. It is typically slow-smoked over wood (usually outdoors); indoor variations use a slow cooker. The meat is th ...

, and

grass-fed There are different systems of feeding cattle in animal husbandry. For pastured animals, grass is usually the forage that composes the majority of their diet. Cattle reared in feedlots are fed hay supplemented with grain, soy and other ingredi ...

Angus Angus may refer to: Media * ''Angus'' (film), a 1995 film * ''Angus Og'' (comics), in the ''Daily Record'' Places Australia * Angus, New South Wales Canada * Angus, Ontario, a community in Essa, Ontario * East Angus, Quebec Scotland * An ...

beef. Australians have the highest per-capita meat pie consumption in the world, and Four'n Twenty pies are considered iconic, particularly in the context of football matches. They are often served with

tomato sauce Tomato sauce (also known as ''salsa roja'' in Spanish or ''salsa di pomodoro'' in Italian) can refer to many different sauces made primarily from tomatoes, usually to be served as part of a dish, rather than as a condiment. Tomato sauces are c ...

. The brand's name is a reference to the nursery rhyme ''

Sing a Song of Sixpence "Sing a Song of Sixpence" is an English nursery rhyme, perhaps originating in the 18th century. It is listed in the Roud Folk Song Index as number 13191. The sixpence in the rhyme is a British coin that was first minted in 1551. Origins The r ...

'', which includes the lines "Four and twenty blackbirds / Baked in a pie". Some early logos alluded to this, with 24 blackbirds escaping from a pie and taking flight, although the current logo features only text.

History

The Four'n Twenty pie was created in

Bendigo, Victoria Bendigo ( ) is a city in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, located in the Bendigo Valley near the geographical centre of the state and approximately north-west of Melbourne, the state capital. As of 2019, Bendigo had an urban populat ...

, Australia by Leslie Thompson McClure in 1947. Initially called the Dad & Dave Pie after the name of his cafe, McClure renamed the pie using the nursery rhyme suggestion from an employee. At that time, production was around 50 pies per day. 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 open a bakery in a pavilion of the showgrounds in 1949, then a factory in nearby Union Road,

Ascot Vale Ascot Vale is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Moonee Valley local government area. Ascot Vale recorded a population of 15,197 at the 2021 c ...

in 1953, and eventually a larger factory in

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...

. In 1960, McClure sold his stake in Four'n Twenty to the Victorian arm of

Peters Ice Cream Peters Ice Cream is an Australian ice cream brand, now a subsidiary of European food firm Froneri. It was originally developed by an expatriate American, Frederick (Fred) Augustus Bolles Peters in 1907, using his mother's recipe. History The c ...

. Peters' subsequent owner,

Pacific Dunlop Pacific Dunlop was a highly diversified Australian conglomerate company that operated in, among other things, the Automotive, textile, electronics and biotechnology industries. Products commercialised included tires, car batteries, cables, clot ...

, sold the brand to

Simplot The J. R. Simplot Company (commonly referred to as Simplot) is an agribusiness company headquartered in Boise, Idaho. History Simplot was founded in 1929 by 20-year-old John Richard Simplot near the agricultural community of Declo in south ...

in 1995, and Simplot in turn sold Four'n Twenty and several other bakery brands to

in 2003. Patties expanded their

Bairnsdale Bairnsdale () ( Ganai: ''Wy-yung'') is a city in East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia in a region traditionally owned by the Tatungalung clan of the Gunaikurnai people. The estimated population of Bairnsdale urban area was 15,411 at Ju ...

manufacturing facility and consolidated Four'n Twenty production into it, closing the Kensington plant. The new plant can produce 21,000 pies per hour, 24 hours per day. In 2006, the brand announced that the Four'n Twenty pie would be sold on the American market. In 2017, to celebrate Four'n Twenty's 70th anniversary, the brand launched the Four'n Twenty Cheese and

Vegemite Vegemite ( ) is a thick, dark brown Australian food spread made from leftover brewers' yeast extract with various vegetable and spice additives. It was developed by Cyril Callister in Melbourne, Victoria, in 1922. A spread for sandwiches, t ...

Pie. Later in 2017, Four'n Twenty launched the Topper, a crispy

breaded Bread crumbs or breadcrumbs (regional variants including breading and crispies) consist of crumbled bread of various dryness, sometimes with seasonings added, used for breading or crumbing foods, topping casseroles, stuffing poultry, thickeni ...

pocket with lasagna,

macaroni and cheese Macaroni and cheese (also called mac and cheese in Canada and the United States and macaroni cheese in the United KingdomBBC, RecipesMacaroni Cheese/ref>) is a dish of cooked macaroni pasta and a cheese sauce, most commonly Cheddar sauce. The ...

, or chicken cordon bleu fillings. On 21 April 2019, Four'n Twenty launched its brand of meat pies in Japan, with a Four’n Twenty Day celebration at the World Beer Museum in Tokyo. In 2020, Four'n Twenty introduced a

vegan Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan. Di ...

-friendly meat-free pie to the market, said to have the same "taste, texture and flavour" as the original.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://pattiesfoods.com.au/four-n-twenty Australian brands Australian pies Bakeries of Australia Brand name pies Products introduced in 1947