Shepherds Pie: what is the authentic dish and how is it made?
When my brother-in-law and sister-in-law are in town, my husband and I like to go out to dinner with them. We decided to go to a local golf club for a night of comfort food. My sister-in-law ordered Shepherds Pie, a historic dish made with lamb, vegetables, and mashed potatoes.
But this main course did not resemble the historical recipe; had been Americanized. “What does this taste like?” I asked.
“It’s meatloaf with mashed potatoes on top,” my sister-in-law replied. “This is good, but it’s not Shepherds Pie.” Her comment made me curious about the history of food. I knew that Shepherds Pie is not a pie at all, but rather a meat casserole or hot plate, as we say in my home state of Minnesota.
According to the Cooks.Com website, Shepherds Pie is a British dish made with lamb. Its cousin, Cottage Pie, is made with beef. Contrary to what some believe, none of them have cheese. “If you see cheese near a recipe for either,” the website says, “accept the US obsession with adding cheese to anything that moves…”
Mark R. Vogel offers a brief history of the dish in his Food Reference website article, “The Good Shepherd.” Vogel says the recipe originated in the “heart of the Scottish countryside,” which is lamb country, and is a traditional way to use up leftovers. He thinks the recipe dates back to the 1870s. Although vegetables are added today, the original dish was meat, gravy, and potatoes.
Vogel uses ground lamb for his recipe and adds onions, carrots, and celery. He tells how to make homemade gravy from beef broth and mashed potatoes with heavy cream. Now that’s comfort food!
Paul Merrett’s recipe for the classic dish is posted on the BBC website. His recipe calls for garlic, fresh rosemary, parsnips, snap peas, and diced tomatoes, and it’s more of a modern patty. Some websites say the recipe is British and others say it is Scottish. In my search for information on the historic dish, I came across a recipe for Ratatouille Shepherds Pie, which is about as far from a meatloaf as you can get.
I make Shepherds Pie the old fashioned way. My interpretation is based on a recipe from “Fannie Farmer’s Cookbook: A Legacy of Fine Cookery for a New Generation of Cooks.” Like so many leftover-based dishes, there are no precise measurements. I have about three cups of cubed lamb to start with. If I’m short on sauce, I sauté some meat in a cast iron skillet, skim it off, and make more sauce from the juices and chunks of meat in the pan.
I put the sauce, meat and a box of thawed carrots and peas in a saucepan and cover the mixture with mashed potatoes. You can make mashed potatoes from scratch or use dehydrated mashed potatoes. Bake the casserole in a 375 degree oven for 35-40 minutes. Comfort food at its best, Shepherds Pie has stood the test of time and new versions are sure to follow.
Copyright 2010 by Harriet Hodgson.