Eat My Globe

The History of Cottage Pie & Shepherd’s Pie

Simon Majumdar (“SM”):

Hey, April.

April Simpson (“AS”): 

Yeah, Simon.

SM: 

Do you know why the pie left the house?

AS: 

I don’t know Simon. Why did the pie leave the house?

SM: 

Because it was meetin’ potato. Meet and. . .

AS:

Oh.

SM:

[Laughter]

Oh, that’s so good. That’s so good.

AS:

Send help.

SM:

[Laughter]

INTRO MUSIC

Hi everybody.

And, welcome to a brand-new episode of Eat My Globe, a podcast about things you didn’t know you didn’t know about food.

And today, we are going to delve into the origins of Shepherd’s Pie and Cottage Pie.

These nourishing dishes that sometimes get confused by cooks thinking they are the same thing. It has a regional heritage in Great Britain. And whose history is so fascinating that I thought I would share it with you all.

It involves the history of ground meat or minced meat as it is known in the U.K., the origins of mashed potatoes, what vegetables we can put in these dishes, and so much more. So why don’t we get into it.

As always, I always think that it’s better to start with a definition of all things involved. Otherwise, nothing will make sense. So, let’s start with the definition of what is a pie.

Our old pal, Merriam-Webster, says of the word “Pie,”

Quote

“a meat dish baked with biscuit or pastry crust.”

End quote.

This definition does not include the dessert pie, obviously.

While the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary says that the word

Quote

“probably [comes from] the same word as pie, used in the naming of birds; the various combinations of ingredients being compared to objects randomly collected by a magpie.”

End quote.

This means that the contents of a pie will be the equivalent of the bits and pieces garnered by a magpie to form the pie.

It came from the Latin word, “pica,” which means magpie. From “pica,” it became “pie” in Old French. Apparently, these birds were called “pies,” and were mentioned as such in 13^th century English writings. Its first use relating to a “pie” from a culinary point of view is likely to be in 1390 from a book that was written for King Richard II of England by his Master Cooks called, “The Forme of Cury.” The book contains recipes for “crustards” or “pies” where one such pie includes ingredients like loch, laumprons, and eels.

So, what is a Cottage Pie? According to the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, it is

Quote

“a dish of beef cut into very small pieces and covered with a layer of mashed potato.”

End quote.

According to John Ayto’s “The Diners Dictionary,” Cottage Pie was first mentioned when

Quote

“On 29^th August 1791 we find that enthusiastic recorder of all his meals, the Reverend James Woodforde, noting in his diary, ‘Dinner today, cottage-pye, and rost beef’.”

End quote.

One could even say that the Reverend got the PIE-ty started.

The Reverend James Woodforde was probably one of the earliest food bloggers. Don’t get me wrong. His diary, which spanned over 40 years from 1758 to 1802, discussed everything from the French Revolution, the American Revolution against Britain and, of course, food. Born in 1740 and died in 1803, he lived as a parish priest, and clearly a diarist. He lived in the rural area of Norfolk and wrote of his life there. His food entries were fascinating. In addition to his mentions of the aforementioned Cottage Pie, he also wrote of his meals involving mutton, roast chicken, apple pie, black currant tarts, pea soup, roasted swan, and mutton steaks, beef steak pudding, beef steak pie, roast duck, and more. It’s all very fascinating. And it seems he ate very well.

Anyway, while Reverend Woodforde’s entry may have been the first time we became aware of the term “Cottage Pie” appearing in writing, the dish itself obviously goes back further than that. John Ayto also does mention they do not know what this cottage pie entails.

With respect to Shepherd’s Pie, the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary says that it is

Quote

“a dish of lamb (= meat from a young sheep) cut into very small pieces and covered with a layer of mashed potato.”

End quote.

As we will see, the name “Cottage Pie” is older than “Shepherd’s Pie.” According to John Ayto, the term “Shepherd’s Pie” does not appear until the 1870s, almost a hundred years after we see “Cottage Pie” in print.

In 1877, Scottish author E.S. Dallas published the book, “Kettner’s Book of the Table,” which says

Quote

“In Scotland they produce….such a stew, cover it over with a crust, and call it shepherd’s pie….The shepherd’s pie of Scotland is too farinaceous—potatoes within and paste without.”

End quote.

For those wondering what the word, “farinaceous,” means, it means starched. That is because, as E.S. Dallas says, there’s potatoes inside and outside.

It is believed that Shepherd’s Pie originated in northern England and Scotland. And both Shepherd’s Pie and Cottage Pie were named for the people who created them. That is to say, the poorer “Shepherds,” and rural people who lived in “Cottages” throughout the United Kingdom where they used leftovers. Merriam-Webster describes these cottages as

Quote

“the dwelling of a farm laborer or small farmer.”

End quote.

So, that means that the Cottage Pie was the pie of rural farmers.

I can only imagine that these dishes were made by people who, as families did, went to church and put their “joints” on, as we still call them in the U.K., into the oven of the village baker.  As The Spruce Eats puts it

Quote

“The less well-off did not have the luxury of a large fireplace or the money for much meat. For many, a smaller weekly roast would be dropped off at the baker's en route to church and cooked in the cooling bread ovens (bread was not baked on a Sunday).”

End quote.

As the week went by, the remains of the meat would be used in a Cottage Pie or a Shepherd’s Pie.

They did this because meat was expensive – it was like highway RIBbery.

[Sigh]

By the way, I have previously talked about the history of beef in a two-part episode of Eat My Globe, as well as an episode on the history of lamb. These meats have a very long and very interesting background so do make sure to check them out.

But back to our pies, shepherd’s and cottage dwellers used minced beef or lamb – or what my American friends call ground beef or lamb – for the pies. Back in the day, they minced or ground their meat by manually using a knife. But an invention helped made their life a little bit easier.

The meat mincer or meat grinder was first created in the 1800s by, here goes, Karl Friedrich Christian Ludwig Freiherr Drais von Sauerbronn, wow, or thankfully Karl von Drais, as he is now known.

But, he is most known as the father of the bicycle. He invented the “Laufmaschine,” a German word translated to “Running Machine,” in English, or as it is known in England, the “Dandy Horse.” It had two wheels but no pedals, so I imagine he operated it by kicking his feet off the ground then running or gliding as he sat on his machine. He received a patent for this invention in 1818. It became the precursor of the modern day bicycle. Apparently, just like his meat grinder invention, he did not get rich off this creation either. Instead, his contemporaries did not appreciate his creativity and he was also subjected to political persecution. In the end, he died destitute and without any friends or family nearby.

While Karl von Drais may not have found success with his meat grinder, I imagine that his machine improved the lives of the shepherd’s and cottage dwellers by making it easier for them to grind their meat at home. And, of course, we should also all be thankful for his invention that allowed us to have the option of consuming our proteins in a minced or ground state. So, thank you, Karl von Drais.

So, now, we’ve got the meat, let’s talk about the crust of these pies for a moment, shall we?

The original crust for these pies was a pastry crust. However, most accept now that they are made of mashed potatoes.

Potatoes originated in the Bolivian-Peruvian-Chilean Andes. And apparently, the potato is related to the tomato. About 9 million years ago, a wild tomato in the Andes hybridized with an Etuberosum, which is a plant that looks like a potato plant but without producing the tubers or potatoes. One could even say that the Etuberosum is an imi-TATER.

AS:

[Laughter]

SM:

Oh dear.

Anyway. A gene from the tomato and a gene from the Etuberosum combined together to form the potato. Isn’t that amazing?

Even today, the Andes is still home to over 4,000 types of potatoes. In addition to that, there are still about 180 wild species of potatoes. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, as of 2024, potatoes ranked number three as the most consumed food globally. Now, if you want to hear about the full history of potatoes I really do suggest that you listen to my very first podcast which was about the story of Fish and Chips. I have to say that I did a deep dive into the potato in that episode, so do check it out. It’s a good episode.

So, how did potatoes become associated with Cottage Pie and Shepherd’s Pie?

Potatoes arrived in Europe through a system called the Columbian Exchange, which was coined by historian Alfred W. Crosby in1972. I have talked a lot about the Columbian Exchange in past episodes but as a recap, it was a system that brought items from the New World – like chili peppers, corn and, of course, potatoes, among other things – to the Old World, while at the same time, taking things like horses, pigs, sugar, and yes, diseases – to the New World.

Once potatoes reached Europe, it became a part of the diet in Britain. So, it is no wonder that Cottage Pie and Shepherd’s Pie would make full use of this potato.

The original dish of Shepherd’s Pie was apparently topped with potato pastry. According to John Ayto’s “The Diner Dictionary,”

Quote

“It is clear. . . that the Scottish version [of Shepherd’s Pie], at least, was topped with a pastry crust rather than the now characteristic mashed potato.”

End quote.

However, I should note that our diarist, Reverend Woodforde, was not only eating mashed potatoes in 1782 well before he even mentioned Cottage Pie in 1791, he was also a spec-TATER.

Gah.

In any event, we know that mashed potatoes are now the norm for these pies. The first recipe of Mashed Potatoes I could find was from Hannah Glasse’s book “The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy,” which was published in 1747. Her recipe is not dissimilar to the mashed potato we would make today.

Quote

“BOIL your potatoes, peel them and put them into a sauce-pan, mash them well; To two pounds of potatoes, put a pint of milk, a little salt, stir them well together, take care they don’t stick to the bottom, then take a quarter of a pound of butter, stir in and serve it up.”

End quote.

So, I imagine that this type of recipe was eventually used to top up the Cottage Pie and the Shepherd’s Pie. But one thing you need to do is make sure that you use a fork to create peaks and ridges to the mashed potato topping.

Finally, let’s think about the vegetables that go into a Cottage Pie or a Shepherd’s Pie. When I make my recipes, I tend to go old school and simply put in some English peas and carrots. I also tend to enrich the gravy by adding Worcestershire sauce, tomato puree and maybe some Dijon mustard along the way with herbs like rosemary. I also put a lot of Cheddar cheese in the mashed potato as well. This works well with both the beef and lamb versions.

Nowadays, Shepherd’s Pie and Cottage Pie have gone all over the world. They make a fine one in India which includes cumin, ginger, garlic, turmeric and chili powder. And the French make their own version of a shepherd’s pie which is known as “Hachis Parmentier.”

In gastropubs around the world, they will also have a Shepherd’s Pie or Cottage Pie. They will have it in every supermarket in the U.K. And also, there are so many recipes for it online and in cookbooks.

Which just about makes me think, I might just go to my own recipe and go and make one of these beautiful pies.

Do you want to join me? Check it out at Simon Majumdar dot com forward slash shepherds dash pie.

See you next week folks.

OUTRO MUSIC

SM:

Make sure to check out the website associated with this podcast at www.EatMyGlobe.com where we will be posting the transcripts from each episode, along with all the references and resources we used putting the episodes together, in case you want to delve deeper into each subject. There is also a contact button, so please do let us know if there are any subjects that you would like us to cover.

And, if you like what you hear, please don’t forget to join us on Patreon, subscribe, recommend us to your family and friends and give us a good rating on your favorite podcast provider.

Thank you and goodbye from me, Simon Majumdar, we’ll speak to you soon on the next episode of EAT MY GLOBE: Things You Didn’t Know You Didn’t Know About Food.

CREDITS

The EAT MY GLOBE Podcast is a production of “It’s Not Much But It’s Ours” and “Producer Girl Productions.”

We would also like to thank Sybil Villanueva for all of her help both with the editing of the transcripts and her essential help with the research.