Pie in the sky: Meat-and-potato pastry ventures into the stratosphere

A meat-and-potato pie in northern England has boldly gone where no pastry delicacy has gone before: into (near) space.

Organizers of the World Pie Eating Championship attached the heaven-bound savory treat to a weather balloon, allowing it to rise 30 miles into the stratosphere. Footage of the oven-baked carnivore’s delight has now gone viral.

According to Tony Callaghan, pie master of the World Pie Eating Championship, the project was scientifically motivated. “I thought, 'I’m going to send a pie into sky,'” he said. “Everyone said, ‘Are you going barmy? Why are going to send a pie into [the] sky?’ [But] I wanted to send the pie into space to see what the pie would come back like.”

Fortunately, Callaghan's curiosity was rewarded when the low-earth orbiting steak confection survived reentry and was recovered by his team. However, he says that although it is in one piece, no one has yet had the courage to sample the juicy, one-time sputnik.

The World Pie Eating Championships 2016 will be held at Harry's Bar, in Wigan, England, on Dec. 20.