How to Make Pie and Mash at Home (According to a Brit)

@leytonstonepiemash

Mondays never looked so good 😍 #piemashandliquor #leytonstone #londonfood #piemash

♬ Isn’t She Lovely – Stevie Wonder

story by KALEA MARTIN • photo by GRUBBANA STUDIOS

I gotta hand it to the Brits for this one. I’d never heard of “pie and mash” until it casually slid onto my TikTok feed one night. Suddenly it felt very clear that us Americans have been sleeping on something major.

The plating is theater in itself. Mashed potatoes get ice-cream-scooped onto a plate before being doused in an almost neon green gravy called “liquor sauce” that floods the entire plate. Then, little individual pies get tipped out onto the pool of green, mopping it up in the process. The result somehow looks simultaneously like cafeteria food and a gourmet meal. Both traditional and rustic, yet I’d also believe you if you told me it was 3D-printed from the future. I knew immediately I had to taste whatever this was.

Perhaps my American perspective is laughably dramatic. I’m sure if you grew up eating pie and mash, the sight of it on social media wouldn’t make you do a double take. But for all the fellow Americans, I highly recommend you hop on this train if you haven’t yet. In a perfect world, I’d say drop everything and head on over to a traditional pie and mash shop in the the UK. But realistically, we’re cooking at home, so for now, a recipe will have to do.

Making British Pie and Mash at Home

After a bit of digging, I landed on a promising recipe from the blog Through Hazel Eyes that was posted nearly six years prior. The backstory sold me. “Me and my family ate at the Pie & Mash shop in Clacton-On-Sea nearly every Saturday, from when I was a baby to when I was in my early 20s,” wrote the recipe’s author, Shannon King. The COVID lockdown put a pin in her pie and mash outings, forcing her to come up with a homemade version. “I gave the extra portions to a friend and his Dad, who also grew up eating this dish, and they gave it a giant thumbs up!” Bingo. Shannon’s credentials spoke for themselves, and I knew this was the recipe to try.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a lifetime of pie and mash experiences to compare this recipe to. But I will say that it most definitely hit every craving those viral videos planted in my brain. Cozy, savory, comforting in that no-frills way that just works. You’ll have to try it yourself, and trust me, it’s worth it. Check out the full recipe below—and yes, I added the volume measurements for us Americans.

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Traditional Pie and Mash Recipe

Recipe by Through Hazel Eyes

Makes 4 Individual Pies (or 1 big pie for sharing)

Ingredients:

Filling:

• 1 tbsp Olive Oil
• 1 Onion, diced
• 2 Garlic Cloves, diced
• 500g (1.1 lbs) Minced / Ground Beef
• 1 tsp Mustard
• 1 tbsp Tomato Purée
• 2 tbsp Plain Flour
• 150ml (⅔ cup) Beef Stock
• Salt & Pepper, to taste

Suet Pastry:

• 250g (2 cups) Self-Raising Flour, plus extra for rolling

• 125g (¾ cup) Beef Suet

• Pinch of Salt

• 200ml (¾ cup + 1 tbsp) Water

Shortcrust Pastry:

• 150g (1¼ cups) Plain Flour, plus extra for rolling

• 75g (5 tbsp) Butter

• Pinch of Salt

• 2 tbsp Water

Mashed Potatoes:

• 2 Large Potatoes, peeled & quartered

• Knob of Butter

• 100ml (½ cup) Milk

• Salt & Pepper to taste

Parsley Liquor:

• 50g (3½ tbsp) Butter

• 50g (6½ tbsp) Corn Flour

• 500ml (2 cups) Chicken or Fish Stock

• ½ tsp Garlic Powder

• LOTS of Parsley (at least ½ cup), chopped

Preparation:

1.  Heat your oil in large pan over a medium heat, before adding your onion and garlic.  Allow to fry until the onions are soft and translucent, then add your minced beef.  Stir occasionally until your meat has browned, breaking up any clumps that may form.

2.  To the pan, add your mustard and tomato purée, ensuring it is thoroughly stirred into the mince mixture.  Stir in your flour so that all the meat is coated and fry for a further minute, before adding your beef stock.

3.  Once the stock has been added, bring the mixture to the boil and then reduce to a simmer.  Cook until the stock has thickened and season to taste with salt and pepper.  Set the mince aside while you make your suet pastry.

4.  Mix your flour, suet and salt in a bowl.  Slowly add your water, a little at a time while stirring, until the mixture begins to form a dough.  You want to add enough water to bind the mixture together, so that you can bring it into a ball, but not too much to make it sticky.  If you accidentally add too much water, just add in a touch more flour.

5.  Lightly dust a counter with the extra flour and roll out your suet into a large rectangle, roughly 2mm in thickness.  Lay the pastry over your pie dish(es) and very gently press down to ensure the bottom and sides are covered.  Cut off any excess pastry that overhangs the sides, leaving a 1cm lip of pastry over the edges.

6.  Fill the dish(es) evenly with the minced beef filling.

7.  For the shortcrust pastry top, gently rub together the flour, salt and butter in a bowl using the tips of your fingers, until it looks like breadcrumbs.  Be careful not to be heavy-handed here – the heat from your hands can cause the butter to melt and this will ruin your pastry.

8.  Add the water and kneed into a ball, before rolling out onto a flour-dusted counter.  Roll the pastry into a large rectangle, approximately 2mm thick.  Lay the pastry over your pie dish(es) and using a fork, crimp the lid to the suet pastry lip on the bottom.  Cut off any excess shortcrust pastry.

9.  Pre-heat your oven to Gas Mark 4-5 / 180 degrees C / 360 degrees F.  Place your pie dish(es) into a deep baking tray and gently fill it with boiling water, until the water reaches half-way up the pie dish(es).  Be careful not to get any water on your pies.  Place the tray into the oven for 30-40 minutes, until the shortcrust pastry has a brown and crispy top. 

10.  While your pies are cooking, prepare the mash and parsley liquor.  For the mash, bring a pan of water to the boil and add your potatoes.  Cook for around 20 minutes until they are soft, then drain off the water.  Add the butter and milk, and mash until all lumps are gone.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

11.  For the parsley liquor, melt the butter in a pan and then add your cornflour, whisking together to form a paste.  Add 100ml (about ½ cup) of stock and whisk thoroughly to ensure the flour does not clump.  Stir in the garlic powder and your chopped parsley, before adding the remaining stock.  Continue to whisk until you reach a sauce-like texture. 

12.  Once all the components are cooked, get ready to plate up!  Remove the pies from their dishes and transfer to your plate.  Scoop on your mash and pour over a generous helping of parsley liquor.  For the ultimate Pie & Mash experience, sprinkle with salt and white pepper, and add a splash of chili vinegar – perfect!