Cottage Pie

Name: Cottage Pie
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 1 h
Total time: 1 h 25 min
Yield: Serves 4–6
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 700g beef mince (15% fat); 2 onions, chopped; 2 carrots, diced; 1 tbsp flour; 1 tbsp tomato purée; 400ml beef stock; 1 tsp Marmite; 1 bay leaf; few shakes Worcestershire sauce; Topping: 1kg potatoes, 50g butter, splash of milk, 50g grated cheddar (optional)

The beefy sibling of the shepherd’s pie — humble cottage cooking from the days when potatoes were the poor man’s roof. Deeply savoury and endlessly comforting.

Prep: 25 min
Cook: 60 min
Total: 85 min
Yield: Serves 4–6
Difficulty: Moderate
Era: Georgian

Ingredients

700g beef mince (15% fat)
2 onions, chopped
2 carrots, diced
1 tbsp flour; 1 tbsp tomato purée
400ml beef stock; 1 tsp Marmite
1 bay leaf; few shakes Worcestershire sauce
Topping: 1kg potatoes, 50g butter, splash of milk, 50g grated cheddar (optional)

Method

Oven200°C400°FFan 180°CGas 6

Brown the mince hard in a hot pan — colour equals flavour. Drain excess fat.
Add the onions and carrots; cook 10 minutes until sweet and soft.
Stir in the flour and tomato purée, then the stock, Marmite, bay and Worcestershire sauce. Simmer 25 minutes until rich and thick.
Mash the potatoes with butter and milk; season assertively.
Assemble in a baking dish, rough up the mash with a fork and scatter over the cheese if using.
Bake at 200°C / 400°F (fan 180°C, gas 6) for 25 minutes until golden and bubbling.

Oven temperatures are given in Celsius, Fahrenheit, fan and gas mark throughout. Quantities are metric, as cooked and written in the UK.