Shepherd's Pie, real winter comfort food:How do YOU make it?

I learned how to make this from my British husband: ground beef, some onion, Bisto gravy, and mashed potatoes. I've been upgrading it gradually over the years but haven't strayed too far from his original (although I've never used Bisto ). I'll bet many of you have some wonderful variations! Would love to hear about them.

The standard that my mother used to make and I also made for my kids was ground beef & onions browned together in a cast iron skillet, add a can of tomato soup and a package of green beans. When hot, top with mashed potatoes and bake on the oven until a light brown crust formed on the potatoes. My son, Pete, who now lives in WA called me a few months ago and actually asked me for the recipe. I also used to make chili with beans in the cast iron skillet and top it with Jiffy corn bread batter (mixed with a can of creamed corn) and bake it until the corn bread was done. Good winter meals and the kids loved them.

Apologies for being pedantic, but somebody is going to point it out. What you're asking about is actually "cottage pie", shepherd's pie is always made with lamb.
If you prefer the beef, I can find our recipe and post it later. In the meantime, would be interested in how your recipe has evolved over the years.

What you're asking about is actually "cottage pie", shepherd's pie is always made with lamb....

I know. The term has been misused. Like goulash.

FWIW I see oodles of variations and it can be a useful cupboard emptier.

Some like a light layer of cheese on top when doing the final blast in the oven

beans can be a fun variant, completely against tradition, but that's fine. We'll also throw mushrooms in, or sweetcorn/peas, but on the whole I think they're better as the veggie accompaniment, rather than being in the dish itself.

Tips for the gravy include adding some of the more interesting 'relishes' (not pickles, the ones I'm thinking of are as runny as Worcester Sauce). Hendersons relish from Sheffield would be ideal but might not even be made anymore & even back in the 80s was never seen outside Yorkshire. Also, to help bind the mince, Marmite/Bovril can be very useful. For some extra tang, a little balsamic vinegar can also help. Subtle spice can also work, but IMO it's good to keep it as an almost hidden accent.

regards

Ian

The problem with my recipe is with finding a real shepherd to cook...

Mark Lipton

[Jenise]

Katie,

I had never even heard of Shepherds Pie until I moved to England for a year in the 80's--came back a fan. It tends to be a dish I only make about once a year, though, and usually spurred by having some kind of extra gravy from some other meat dish that didn't get overly doctored with wine or other seasonings. I usually mix beef and turkey to keep it light along with some frozen peas, and I usually add chopped sauteed onions and a bit of parmesan cheese to the mashed potatoes for some extra attitude. I'll also stiffen them with dehydrated mashed potatoes and an egg yolk so that they'll cut cleanly into squares.

Most unusual Shepherds Pie I've ever had? Made with duck confit, at Lumiere Bistro in Vancouver before the chef took off and the place closed. Can't think of his name, but notably he appeared on Iron Chef back in the day and beat Bobby Flay, I believe it was. Oh wait--Rob Feeney, I think.

ok, technically, it's not Shepherd's Pie but we call it that at home (hey, it's my home and I'll call it anything I want ). We use leftover meat ragu, even Bolognese (ours is always very thick), put in a baking dish, spoon mashed potatoes on top, cover with breadcrumbs and bake for 30 minutes.

The problem with my recipe is with finding a real shepherd to cook...

Mark Lipton

The world could have done without that!

Apologies for being pedantic, but somebody is going to point it out. What you're asking about is actually "cottage pie", shepherd's pie is always made with lamb.
If you prefer the beef, I can find our recipe and post it later. In the meantime, would be interested in how your recipe has evolved over the years.

Yes, even in the pubs there doesn't seem to be any consistency on what it's called.
When we do Shepherd's Pie here it's a destination and not a side trip. Brown the ground beef; take a huge onion, thinly sliced and cook til camelized. To make a brown sauce - start with a roux, add beef broth, a couple shakes of Worcestershire sauce, a bit of whatever red wine I'm drinking, and a quick wink of Kitchen Bouquet Browning & Seasoning sauce to give it a dark brown color. I use Yukon Gold potatoes and mash them with warmed butter and half n' half. The ground beef and carmelized onion are mixed into the brown sauce and then into a casserole dish. My husband always carved his last initial into the mashed potatoes and then sprinkled Parmesan cheese on top. Don't ask me why the initial is carved into the mashed potatoes. Maybe his mother did it that way!

It may be a regional thing but, when I grew up in England, Cottage pie was made of a layer of beef, gravy and onions topped with mashed potatoes. Shepherds pie was the same, except it had a layer of vegetables between the meat and potato layers.
My family recipe was always made with leftover roast beef ground, added to the leftover beef gravy, then mixed with sauteed onions ( lightly browned ). The next layer was a mix of diced carrots and celery with peas. Finally the mashed potatoes. Baked in a 350º oven until bubbling and lightly browned on top.
I now add diced purple-top turnips to the other vegetables.
I think that the overall impact would be quite different if you start with raw ground beef. Maybe better or worse, but not traditional.
You could add a little Worcester sauce to the meat and gravy, but, even better is to put a little HP sauce on the top at the table.

The Aussie version, according to my Maureen Simpson cookbook, on "Australian Cuisine" uses minced roast lamb, onion, carrot, fresh tomato, celery, tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. The onions are chopped and sweated in a little butter, then added to all the other ingredients and the mix is spread into a greased pie dish. Potatoes (we use Dutch Creams) are peeled, boiled, then mashed with butter, salt and pepper (no milk) and piled on top of the meat, fork swirled, and then the whole thing is baked in a hot oven for 45 minutes. We love this and make it all the time..

In my youth Shepherds & Cottage Pies were one way of using leftovers from the Sunday roast, the meat minced and then mixed with other ingredients, similarto Cellia's version.

Call it what you like at home, but non-lamb versions have a perfectly good name in Cottage Pie.

There are people who don't like lamb and they'd pass on Shepherds Pie while happy to order Cottage Pie.

The lamb content is the reason for the 'shepherd' part of the name

I remember shepherd's pie from my childhood, a way everyone's mum used up the leftover roast lamb. We rarely have leftover roast lamb, and I personally can't stand the taste of re-cooked or re-heated roast meat of any species, so we don't do that. Occasionally in winter I make a shepherd/cottage pie, using fresh minced beef or lamb. I like to make the mince very spicy - lots of tomato paste, cumin, coriander seed, cloves, allspice, a touch of chilli, maybe some dried basil or thyme - whatever occurs to me at the time - with onions, garlic and maybe some green peas if I have any to hand. Then it goes into a deep pie dish with mashed potato on the top. Sometimes I add mustard to the potato; sometimes the mash is a blend of potato and pumpkin, potato and carrot, or potato and kumara. Sometimes some grated cheese gets incorporated into the mash. It's never the same twice, and always a "thrown-together" effort.