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. The meat used may be either previously cooked or freshly minced. The australian mince pie meats are beef or lamb.

The term was in use by 1791. Parson Woodforde mentions “Cottage-Pye” in his diary entry for 29 August 1791, and several times thereafter. He records that the meat was veal but he does not say what the topping was. According to the American Merriam-Webster dictionary the first known use of the term was in 1854. In British usage in the 1850s the term referred to a Scottish dish that contained a mutton and diced potato filling inside a pastry crust. More recently “shepherd’s pie” has generally been used for a potato-topped dish of minced lamb. The dish is named after Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, who popularised the potato in French cuisine in the late 18th century.

It is documented from the end of the 19th century. In some recipes a layer of sauté potatoes is put in the cooking dish before the meat filling and mashed potato topping are added. There are no universally agreed ingredients for any of the three dishes. The 24 recipes cited in the table show the varieties of titles and ingredients recommended by cooks and food writers from Australia, Britain, Canada, France and the US. Pies of this name exist in two versions: traditional Cumberland pies, still served in Cumbria, have a pastry case, but others have a lamb or beef or pork-sausage filling covered by mashed potato topped with cheese and breadcrumbs. Meat, often veal, stewed in a tomato-based gravy and layered several times between mashed potatoes. The name, indicating “hidden”, describes the way sun-dried meat is covered with a layer of manioc purée.

The filling is similar to that of a cottage pie, with the addition of sliced hard-boiled eggs. Made with any of several meats, with vegetables such as carrots and green peas and boiled eggs, all topped with mashed potato. Also known in Canada as shepherd’s pie, consisting of a bottom layer of beef, a middle layer of creamed sweetcorn, topped with mashed potato. Also called shepherdless pie: a vegetarian version made without meat, or a vegan version made without meat and dairy.

Jane Grigson noted that to make the dish go further some recipes put in a bottom layer of potato before adding the meat and top layer. The term appears in a French source in 1900 and an English one two years earlier. Alexandre Dumas wrote, “When you have veal, beef, chicken, game or scraps of meat left over from dinner the night before, all you have to do is chop these left-overs neatly, and there are tools for that, until the whole forms a complete mixture. In Mère Biasin’s version, rather than a single layer of ragout and a single layer of potato, there would be several alternating layers of each, with a potato one on the top. For me, the best shepherd’s pie is made with leftover roast lamb, either shoulder or leg. In fact, I remember my sister and myself holding back on a Sunday lunch in case there wasn’t enough left to make the pie.

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