Meat · Recipe · Britain · Reference page

Shepherd's pie

Name: Shepherd's pie
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 80 min
Total time: 90 min
Yield: 6
Ingredients: 1 tbsp sunflower oil; 1 piece medium onion, finely chopped; 1 piece large carrot, finely chopped; 675 g lean lamb mince; 100 g green peas; 2 tbsp plain flour; 2 tbsp tomato ketchup; 2 tbsp brown sauce; 2 tbsp freshly chopped rosemary; 1 piece lamb stock cube, crumbled; 360 ml hot lamb or vegetable stock; salt and pepper; 675 g floury potatoes, peeled and cut into medium chunks; 450 g swede, peeled and cut into small chunks; 100 ml milk or single cream; 50 g butter; 2 tbsp chopped parsley or chives

shepherd's pie

Lamb mince simmered with onion, carrot, peas, rosemary and stock, sharpened with ketchup and brown sauce, then covered with a mash of potato and swede and baked until the top is brown. The recipe is from Simply Beef & Lamb, the consumer site of AHDB, the UK's statutory levy board for farming.

Editorial illustration of the documented recipe; not a photograph of a kitchen-tested result.

Servings: 6
Preparation: 10 min
Cooking: 1 h 20
Total: 1 h 30
Difficulty: Easy

Equipment

Large pan for the filling
Large saucepan and masher for the topping
1.7 litre ovenproof dish

To drink & serve with

Editorial suggestion: buttered green vegetables.

Substitutions

Lamb mince → Beef mince, which makes the dish a cottage pie.
Swede → All potato for a plain topping.
Plain flour (gluten-free) → Cornflour; and check that the stock cube and brown sauce are gluten-free.

Common mistakes

Leaving all the fat in: the filling turns greasy.
A runny filling: simmer until the gravy coats a spoon before topping.
Mash that is too wet: it will not brown.

Storage & reheating

Refrigerate within 2 hours and eat within 2 days; reheat once, until piping hot in the centre.

Safety

Contains gluten (flour; often brown sauce and stock cubes), milk (milk, butter) and possibly celery (many stock cubes): check labels. Minced lamb must be cooked right through.

Allergens

Gluten · Milk · Celery

Check labels: stock, bacon and sauces can contain further allergens.

Lamb under a potato crust

Shepherd's pie is minced lamb in gravy under a crust of mashed potato; made with beef it is called cottage pie. The version here comes from Simply Beef & Lamb, the consumer website of AHDB Beef and Lamb, part of the UK's Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board. It adds two homely British touches to the gravy, tomato ketchup and brown sauce, and lightens the topping by mashing swede with the potato.

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A filling thick enough to hold the mash

The filling is thickened with flour and simmered for 20 minutes before the mash goes on, and half the fat from the browned mince is poured away. The topping is spread or piped and scored with a fork, and the pie is baked uncovered for half an hour, until the ridges brown.

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