Savoury slice of heaven: Murray Bridge’s favourite food turns 50

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Murray Bridge’s greatest contribution to Australian cuisine is 50 years old this week – or that’s what they’re saying, anyway.

Nobody knows exactly when the first savoury slices were sold, but the general consensus is that it was sometime in the early 1970s.

So the owners of McCue’s Bakery, self-proclaimed home of the savoury slice, decided to draw a line in the sand and say its milestone birthday was this month.

The salty lunchtime staple is virtually unknown outside the Murraylands, but almost every local would know the basic recipe: meat pie filling in between two slabs of pastry, with cheese and bacon on top.

Celebrity chef Adam Liaw described it a few years ago as a cross between a pie, a lasagna and a ham and cheese roll: “iconic”.

In case you’re not already in the know – and you need more carbs in your life – a savoury slice is often eaten sandwiched in a buttered bread roll, with a squirt of tomato sauce.

According to McCue’s Bakery co-owners Tony and Kirsty Schenscher, savoury slices were first sold at Nancarrow’s Bakery in the old Ruge’s Arcade, which used to be on Murray Bridge’s main street.

The recipe at that time was a little different.

“When it first began, I remember this very well, it was an individual pastry,” Mr Schenscher said.

“(It was) more like a pasty, but square, and the tomato used to be separate.

“Over the years, as it became more popular, it was made into a tray which was then cut up into slices.”

The invention might have disappeared into the mists of time were it not for school canteens stocking savoury slices by the dozen.

Just as foreigners marvel at Australians who have been brought up eating Vegemite, suddenly a generation of Murraylands schoolchildren grew up eating savoury slices, and its legend was assured.

Over the years, the bakery business would pass through the Nancarrow, Pearce and McCue families, and amalgamate with Klingberg’s Bakery on Adelaide Road.

The Schenschers took over the bakery now known as McCue’s, and took custody of the savoury slice tradition, in 2019.

Mind you, there is still the occasional disagreement about who was really responsible for inventing the iconic dish.

Ivan Nancarrow and Rodney McCue are the bakers most commonly credited, but some fans of Tailem Bend Bakery suggest its former proprietors made their own version around the same time.

Tailem Bend’s senior baker, Jake Coombe, said he was aware of the speculation.

He suspected that the Richards family had made Tailem’s first savoury slices during the 1970s, and had passed their tomato-and-onion-heavy recipe down to the Millards, Miks and McEntees, then to his family a decade ago.

But he doubted anyone would ever solve the mystery of who baked first.

“We’ve been doing them for as long as I can remember, and before I was born,” he said.

“A lot of older bakers I’ve worked with here say it started out here, but it’s his word against his word with the old bakers.

“I don’t think anyone will know the truth now.”

So long as the iconic food kept bringing customers into bakeries around the Murraylands, he said, that was just fine – “(McCue’s) are successful, we’re successful, happy sailing”.

Whatever its origin, savoury slices baked in Murray Bridge are now sold as far afield as Strathalbyn, Walker Flat, Karoonda and in the Riverland.

Dozens and dozens are baked and eaten every day, and several million of them have probably been ingested over the past 50 years.

Satirical news publication the Adelaide Mail even suggested once that Murray Bridge should build a Big Savoury Slice as a tourist attraction, “at least two stories high (with) a gift shop and lookout point at the top”.

Mr Coombe said tourists often asked about the savoury slice when they visited Tailem Bend, tried one, then came back for a four-pack before they hit the road.

Like Krispy Kreme doughnuts in the 2000s, travellers would have to bring a box every time they crossed the border.

“I’ve got family in (Western Australia) and every time I go I’ve got to take some with me,” he said.

“Thinking about it makes me want to eat one now...”

Mr Schenscher said he once tried making savoury slices at a bakery in Adelaide where he used to work, but it never caught on.

Customers didn’t get it.

Perhaps the dish will forever remain a quirk of the Murraylands diet, then.

Maybe it’s better that way – we can keep them all to ourselves.

“It’s pretty unique to have a product that’s still around after 50 years and still going strong,” Mr Schenscher said.

“There wouldn’t be many products around South Australia which have survived all the trends.”

• Get a savoury slice: Visit McCue’s Bakery, Tailem Bend Bakery or any of their stockists around the Murraylands.

Correction: The name of the bakery owned by the Nancarrow family has been corrected at the request of the McCue family. This story was also updated to include quotes from Jake Coombe after its initial publication.