Turkey Cottage Pie - My Gorgeous Recipes (2024)

FAQs

Why does my mash sink in cottage pie? ›

To stop the mash sinking into the filling, allow the meat to cool before topping with the mashed potato.

Cottage pie or Shepherd's pie is a type of savory pie. It is made with minced meat, with mashed or sliced potato on top. It comes from the United Kingdom but was also popular in Ireland. The dish is now popular worldwide.

It is a dish that originated around the time that potatoes were introduced in the UK (in the late 1700s). Potatoes were affordable ingredients that were often used by the peasants, who lived in cottages. So, "cottage pie" was an easy to make, affordable dish invented to fill peasant tummies.

Shepherd's pie, cottage pie, or in its French version hachis Parmentier, is a savoury dish of cooked minced meat topped with mashed potato and baked, formerly also called Sanders or Saunders.

Reduce Them Over Heat

You can also thicken your mashed potatoes by continuing to cook them on the stove with the lid off. Heat draws the excess moisture out of runny potatoes, leaving you with a denser finished product.

These meaty, mince-filled and mash potato-topped pies are very similar, the difference comes down to the filling. Cottage pie is usually made with beef, whereas shepherd's pie is made with lamb. You can also add vegetables and aromats to the filling, such as onions, garlic, carrot, zucchini and rosemary.

Traditional in Britain, a Cottage Pie referred to a beef layer topped with slices of potato (recreating the tiles of a cottage) and a shepherds pie referred to a lamb layer with mash on top.

The name “cottage” was applied to this kind of meat pie around the time potatoes were being introduced in the UK, because they were an affordable for thing for peasants, many of whom would live in cottages, to eat.

The main difference between Cottage Pie and Shepherd's pie is cottage pie uses ground beef, and Shepherd's pie uses ground lamb. Both pies are cooked with vegetables and gravy and baked under a layer of mashed potatoes. To make Shepherd's pie using this recipe, simply substitute ground lamb.

Cottage Pie – comfort food central! This English classic has a deeply savoury beef mince filling smothered in gravy topped with creamy mashed potato, baked until golden. One of the best cosy foods to make with ground beef!

What is the Christmas pie called? ›

A mince pie (also mincemeat pie in North America, and fruit mince pie in Australia and New Zealand) is a sweet pie of English origin filled with mincemeat, being a mixture of fruit, spices and suet. The pies are traditionally served during the Christmas season in much of the English-speaking world.

The earliest pie-like recipes refer to coffyns (the word actually used for a basket or box), with straight sealed sides and a top; open-top pies were called traps.

Speaking of pie, the French also don't really have a word for pie. An enclosed tarte is usually how I describe it to French friends, but an American pie is usually a slightly less-formal affair with a crimped crust, and baked in a shallow dish with sloping sides.

A layer of frozen peas! I let the mince mixture sit for a few minutes and cool, add in a layer of frozen peas and then put the mash on in scoops before spreading them out - never sinks!

How do you keep shepherd's pie from falling apart? Make sure your casserole dish is the right size. You should also have firm mashed potatoes so it won't fall apart when you're serving. As you put the topping on, don't press too hard, using a gentle touch to smooth it out.

Unwanted lumps are a result of mashing undercooked potatoes, so the key to avoiding lumps is cooking the potatoes correctly. Make sure that your potatoes are all cut roughly the same size so they cook at the same rate. And unlike pasta, potatoes should be started in cold water.