{"id":101398,"date":"2026-09-04T02:00:06","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T06:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=101398"},"modified":"2026-03-16T22:12:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T02:12:44","slug":"making-shepherds-pie-from-an-1894-recipe-beef-or-lamb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/making-shepherds-pie-from-an-1894-recipe-beef-or-lamb\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Shepherd\u2019s Pie from an 1894 Recipe &#8211; Beef or Lamb?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"854\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/t1O1hcixZDU?si=OJ38fKs7Za_SQ8OK\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Tasting History with Max Miller<\/strong><br \/>\nPublished 10 Mar 2026<\/p>\n<p>Minced beef filling covered in browned mashed potatoes<\/p>\n<p><em>City\/Region<\/em>: North Ayrshire, Scotland<br \/>\n<em>Time Period<\/em>: 1894<\/p>\n<p>Cottage pie is made with beef, and shepherd&#8217;s pie is made with lamb. Or so they would have you believe. This division between mashed potato-topped meat pies is actually only about 50 years old. Before that, recipes for shepherd&#8217;s or cottage pie could call for beef or lamb, or didn&#8217;t specify a kind of meat at all.<\/p>\n<p>The clove and the mushroom ketchup are both present but not overpowering, and the potatoes are creamy and delicious. Shepherd&#8217;s pie is my absolute favorite way to make meat and potatoes, and this 1894 version holds up.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<p><em><strong>Shepherd&#8217;s Pie<\/strong><br \/>\nMinced beef or lamb; if beef, put in a pinch of pulverised cloves; if lamb, pinch of summer savoury to season it, very little pepper and some salt, and put in a baking-dish; mash potatoes and mix them with cream and butter and a little salt, and spread them over the meat; beat up an egg with cream or milk, a very little, spread it over the potatoes and bake it a short time, sufficient to warm it through and brown the potatoes.<br \/>\n\u2014 <strong>Irvine Herald and Kilwinning Chronicle<\/strong>, October 5, 1894<\/em><\/p>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>Ingredients<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<p><em>Filling<\/em><br \/>\n1 lb (450 g) cooked roast beef<br \/>\n1\/8 teaspoon ground cloves<br \/>\n1\/2 teaspoon pepper<br \/>\n1\/2 teaspoon salt<br \/>\n1 tablespoon mushroom ketchup*<\/p>\n<p><em>Mashed Potatoes<\/em><br \/>\n4 lbs (1.8 kg) gold or russet potatoes<br \/>\n3\/4 cup (175 ml) cream, room temperature or warm is best<br \/>\n1\/3 cup (80 g) butter, room temperature is best<br \/>\n2 tablespoons salt plus 1 teaspoon, divided<br \/>\n1 egg<br \/>\n2 tablespoons milk or cream<br \/>\n*This isn&#8217;t in this specific historical recipe, but it was in other recipes from the time, and it adds a delicious savory umami.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Instructions<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Preheat the oven to 400\u00b0F (205\u00b0C).<\/li>\n<li>For the filling: Mince the roast beef as finely as you can. Mix the minced beef with the ground cloves, pepper, salt, and mushroom ketchup.<\/li>\n<li>For the mashed potatoes: Peel the potatoes and chop them into small pieces, quarters or eighths, depending on the size of the potato.<\/li>\n<li>Add 2 tablespoons of the salt to a large pot of water and bring it to a boil. Add the potatoes and boil them uncovered for about 15 minutes, or until they can be easily pierced with a fork. Don&#8217;t cook them too long or they&#8217;ll be too mushy.<\/li>\n<li>When the potatoes are cooked, drain them and let them sit in the colander for 10 minutes so they can fully drain and some of the moisture evaporates.<\/li>\n<li>Put the drained potatoes back into the pot and mash them with a masher, or run the potatoes through a ricer.<\/li>\n<li>Mix in half of the cream, all of the butter, and the remaining 1 teaspoon of salt. Add more cream a little at a time until you get a nice stiff mashed potato. You may not need all of the cream.<\/li>\n<li>To assemble: Lay the meat down in an even layer in a 9 inch (23 cm) pie dish, or divide it between smaller individual-sized dishes like I did. Pack the meat down into the dish, then spread mashed potatoes over it. You want there to be about 1\/3 meat to 2\/3 potato. Make the mashed potatoes a little taller in the center of the dish and smooth.<\/li>\n<li>In a small bowl, beat the egg and mix it with the 2 tablespoons of milk or cream. Brush this mixture over the mashed potatoes, then use a fork to create some decorative lines in the mashed potatoes.<\/li>\n<li>Place the pie(s) onto a baking sheet to catch any drips. Bake for about 20 minutes or until they&#8217;re nicely browned.<\/li>\n<li>Serve them forth.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tasting History with Max Miller Published 10 Mar 2026 Minced beef filling covered in browned mashed potatoes City\/Region: North Ayrshire, Scotland Time Period: 1894 Cottage pie is made with beef, and shepherd&#8217;s pie is made with lamb. Or so they would have you believe. This division between mashed potato-topped meat pies is actually only about [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,74,7],"tags":[1276,1388,338,1442],"class_list":["post-101398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-britain","category-food","category-history","tag-cooking","tag-recipes","tag-scotland","tag-tastinghistory"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-qns","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101398"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101399,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101398\/revisions\/101399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}