Nothing says Australian cuisine more than enjoying a meat pie at the pub, servo, local bakery, school canteen or even at home.
But while we can all agree that meat pies are the best, it turns out there's more than one way to eat this iconic Aussie snack.
Take Redditor u/Psilocybinxox, who shared their go-to method, which involves cutting the top off and adding sauce to the inside.
They then asked Australians to share their meat pie eating methods to determine which is superior. Here are the responses!
1. "Take a bite, scald mouth on molten gravy, chew like a psychopath, flick the pastry flakes off me, repeat until no pie."
—u/nickcarslake
2. "Our local bakery keeps their pies at non-volcanic temperatures — just on the safe limit, I reckon. The filling is well-flavoured and doesn't really need sauce. The trick is to suck as you bite when eating it whole to stop any drips."
—u/veginout58
3. "Pick it up in your hand and start eating from the side closest to you. Take your time, it will be hot at first. Pair with chocolate milk."
—u/Lasiorhinus
4. "Put sauce on it, pick it up, bite down and swallow. I don't put the sauce on the inside or cut the crust off."
5. "I break the top off, add sauce and eat it like the best goddamn chip you've ever had. I don’t scoop out the filling though — that’s wild."
—u/hoagoh
6. "Hold it upside down and eat it from the side. Pour tomato sauce into the exposed meat every couple of bites."
—u/healofmyshoe
7. "It depends [on] how the sauce is dispensed. If it's in a little pack you rip the top off, then sauce on top of the pie. If the sauce is in a squeeze bottle, some people use the nozzle to punch a hole in the middle and inject sauce in that way."
"If you're at home, slip a spoon around the edge and slice the top off, then scoop out some of the filling onto it and have a 'meat pie pizza'. That works best if the pie has chunks of meat, rather than mince."
8. "Tomato sauce on the top, spread around with your finger, but not too close to the edges. As you eat, start at one edge — then, to prevent it from leaking out, you've got to tip it back, so that the sauce starts sliding off the top in that direction."
"It's now a balancing act between the meat leaking out into your hands [and] the sauce sliding off onto your clothes."
—u/ImCalledKeys
10. ""Cut top off, let cool, eat filling with fork and then crust."
—u/Liara_Bae
11. "Leave [the] pie to cool while you have a durry. After that, pick up the pie gently. Eat around the edge at first, taking care to not burn yourself with the molten insides. Burn yourself anyway, say "fuck it" and shove the rest into your mouth, followed by a cool drink of your choice. And then finally, have another durry."
12. "Take off the lid, put sauce on the meat (unless it's a curry pie), use the lid to scoop up some of the meat and eat that, then ready the rest of the pie."
—u/Chryssie
13. And lastly, my personal favourite from the Reddit thread: "With caution. Australian pies can be venomous."
Note: Reddit submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.