Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy

My 21st birthday.

It may not have as much significance now as it did in my generation but it was a big deal, a very big deal. A coming of age, adulthood, eligibility for the keys of the door, being taken seriously for the first time even if , at heart, still a bit of a daft, floppy haired delinquent.

A good few of my friends celebrated in big style with a large gathering of family and friends, some with their wives, girlfriends and one or more of their known children if they had been early starters in such endeavours well before their contemporaries.

Others of my peer group marked the event with a big purchase, perhaps a car, a downpayment on that Swedish Hi-Fi System or even the presentation of a hard saved deposit to the Building Society Manager towards a first time buyer mortgage.

In contrast I had made the choice of being a hard-up student and on the actual day of my 21st I found myself in the cramped, slug trailed kitchenette of a small terraced house in Lincoln where I was nearing the end of a 12 month work placement which was 75% of the way along my intended career path.

It was a depressing squalid residence but it was all that my weekly Housing Benefit of £26.50 could stretch to.

I was however lifted out of any low spirits or propensity to wallow in self pity by the prospect of my meal for one birthday feast.

I was bearing witness, through the grease streaked smoked glass of the oven door to the glorious incarnation of a Fray Bentos Steak and Kidney Pie.

It had been a case of carefully levering off the stiff plated lid with a barely functioning tin opener, careful not to slice an artery or lose a precious digit and avoid an evening sitting around in Accident and Emergency with a blood stained tea towel wrapped around an appendage.

The surface of the exposed pie crust was suety and uninspiring but yet presenting the tantalising prospect of a luxury and quality meal when that puff pastry erupted over the mushy under layers to reveal the rich mulchy gravy and succulent chunks of steak and if fortunate at least one lump of kidney shaped meat in the mix.

It was the closest thing to a love affair in a tin.

The 30 minute cooking time in the revolutionary self contained oven dish was ample in which to prepare the classic accompaniments of  marrowfat peas and instant Smash. There could even be time to whisk up an Angel Delight dessert.

I had been brought up in a household with a Fray Bentos Pie never more than a few yards away in a larder, store cupboard or in the cardboard box in the understairs as part of the survival kit in the event of a Nuclear War, which in the 1980's was a looming prospect.

The product ebbed and flowed in its popularity in the UK dependent on celebrity endorsement, albeit low key, and placement in popular entertainment, often being the butt of jokes about what the ingredients were.

For a few years it was distinctly unfashionable being seen as a lazy option, a class specific fare or just too highly processed and gloopy to be anywhere near healthy. There may have been some justification in the latter claim in that a standard 475 gram pie contains around 600 calories which are a tangible proportion of the recommended daily amount.

I hesitate to comment on those other key dietary features of salt content, sugar, additives and preservatives which are so closely scrutinised and agonised upon in our health conscious society.

Such issues are not however at the forefront my own thoughts when consuming a Fray Bentos Pie.

To its credit, since its launch in its original Steak and Kidney format in 1961 I have not been made aware of any significant recalls on public safety grounds which is quite remarkable given the intricate mechanics of a modern production line where nuts and bolts could shear off or glass shards cascade to contaminate.

One consumer contacted the customer services department of the manufacturer enquiring whether it was possible to use a tinned pie with a sell by date some 11 years prior. It appears that it was perfectly fine. That gave me great confidence in the longevity of at least some of the contents of the post- Nuclear attack ration supplies.

The origins of the product are defined by its name, that of the Liebig Extract of Meat Company, out of Fray Bentos, Uruguay.

The brand was founded in 1899 for the export of South American beef to Europe and with the manufacturing process transferring to the slightly less exotic surroundings of Hackney, London until acquisition by Campbell Soup Company in 1993. After buying out Premier Foods in July 2006 the brand was taken over by Princes Foods in 2011 and then reputedly sold based on an asking price of £30 million to the Baxters empire who opened a factory in Scotland to churn out 67,000 pies a week.

The average supermarket price of under £2 has brought about a recent resurgence in pie consumption as part of the austerity and recessionary trend. It embodies all of the qualities of a quick and filling meal even if not too much of the body parts of a cow.

Some of us, however,  have been faithful to the ethos of the Fray Bentos Pie for much longer, through good times and bad.