Livers of fat geese. There's a pie!

"Now, look here!" he said. "In this paper," which was nicely folded, "is a piece of the best plum-cake that can be got for money — sugar on the outside an inch thick, like fat on mutton chops. Here's a little pie (a gem this is, both for size and quality), made in France. And what do you suppose it's made of? Livers of fat geese. There's a pie! Now let's see you eat 'em." 

"Thank you, sir," I replied; "thank you very much indeed, but I hope you won't be offended — they are too rich for me." 

"Floored again!" said the gentleman, which I didn't at all understand, and threw them both out of window.

Bleak House (1853) 

Charles Dickens

tens of thousands of Aussie pies

For the first half of the 1900s only fish and chips challenged the pie as the natural choice for Australians bent on instant gratification of their hunger pangs. In fact, when they opened Parliament House in Canberra in 1926 the organisers decided to feed the multitudes with tens of thousands of Aussie pies. Unfortunately, they grossly over-estimated the number of visitors who would flock to the heart of new democracy. The great earth movers employed to lay the foundations of Parliament House had to be revved up again to bury thousands of left-over pies. The place of burial is said to be beneath the present Treasury Building so in more ways than one the great Aussie pie lies at the foundation of the country's economic health.

Robert Macklin (2012)

The Great Australian Pie: a history and culinary adventure

I discussed this book here.

See also the Guardian on the Australian pie.

Happy Australia Day!