It's pies in a tin...!

I'm sure you're going to enlighten me - but to me it's merely the brand name of corned beef and steak and kidney pies and puddings in tins - none of which I have ever eaten.

Apart from the well known tinned steak pies etc, it has something to do with Uruguay I guess. To say pies would be too easy, as you must have a reason for testing our knowledge. I hope you can tell us more.

Keep coming with suggestions...

Isn't it a town in Uraguay, I think it was home to the meat processing industry for along time. Hence the name on the tin,

Didn't mean anything to me, not even the pies, but I've now looked it up. I seem to remember you mentioning it before in terms of Argentinian protests over the possibility of pollution, but according to Wikipedia, the results of a World Bank study say that's not an issue. What's happened?

Just means corned beef to me. I await your replies with bated breath.

Steak and kidney pies I used to love while a meat-eating youngster; well, I loved the puff pastry, not as keen on the steak, and tried to avoid the kidney!

To the farming community it was a bit of dirty word as the beef used comes from Uraguay and the Argentine where foot & mouth is endemic and until recently, there was very little traceability as to where the beef came from. Unlike British farmers that have to double tag calves from birth and register them for passports which accompany them from birth to slaughter.

During the last big Foot & Mouth epidemic when thousands of our cattle and sheep were slaughtered, Argentinian beef was being brought into the country and consumed by the British, most of who were totally unaware that Foot & Mouth was endemic in South America!

By the way, they are now operating traceability schemes and offering health assurances to importers, so if you've just bought some imported sirloin, don't be too alarmed!

In the West Nicholson area of Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) there were large cattle farms. I think they were owned by Fray Bentos, a company that made tinned corned beef and a spread for bread. I think Fray Bentos in Zimbabwe exported their products to other countries. For a while we lived at Sandawana emerald mine which was in the same area.

Well, I had to go look - as it seemed there was a little more to the name than than mere pies and corned beef - and this is what I found:


History
The town of Fray Bentos in Uruguay was founded in 1859 (some sources say 1857) as Villa Independencia. It was renamed to Fray Bentos in honour of a local religious hermit priest whose name that was (actually "Fraille Bento", meaning "Brother" Bento) who lived in a cave on the site. It is a port at the mouth the Uruguay River, opening onto the Buenos Aires bay on the Atlantic ocean.

It's only (160 km) 100 miles north as the crow files from Buenos Aires in Argentina. The 1996 population was 22,600. It's main industry is still meat processing.

The Fray Bentos Pies product line started in 1873 with tinned corned beef, made by the Liebig company in Fray Bentos.

The pies were made there as well. It was a company town. It was a model town, not an industrial looking town at all. There is a bandstand in the middle of the town, and a cathedral. In World War II, the factory employed 5,000 people.

1958 - production of the meat pies switched from Uruguay to England
1964 - Fray Bentos operations provide jobs for 40,000 people
1964 - their tinned corned beef was blamed for a typhoid outbreak in Aberdeen, Scotland. The cause was traced to impure water being used in processing at the Villa Independencia plant in Uruguay. Three people died. This caused Fray Bentos name a great deal of harm.
1993 - the company was acquired by Campbell's;

The corned beef is still made today in South America, but in Brazil instead.

You're all doing very well, and apart from corned beef, Helen is very much on the right lines. Ann (Gillyflower) knows a lot more. I'm in Fray Bentos now; it's a cold, misty, winter morning, but it should clear to a beautiful day. Last night the sunset was spectacular. Would you believe, I forgot my camera, but will try and borrow one! I'm about to embark on a day which during which I hope to learn an enormous amount! Will share with you when I get home.