Huge Cottage Pie
Prep
20m
Cook
40m
Total
60m
Bigly says
We need to talk about cottage pie. The HUGE one. And before we go any further, we have to address it — we have to address the elephant in the room, because the elephant is angry and the elephant has opinions — cottage pie is NOT shepherd's pie. They're not the same. They've NEVER been the same. Cottage pie uses BEEF. Shepherd's pie uses LAMB. The shepherds had sheep — that's why they called them shepherds, very important detail, the etymology checks out — and the cottage people had cows. Or beef. Or whatever the cottage people had. Look, the point is, people on the internet have been getting this wrong for DECADES and the so-called recipe sites have done NOTHING to fix it. Sad. Total embarrassment. We'll fix it here. Today.
The British — and let me say, the British, very nice people, great accents, the food gets a bad rap but it's actually unfairly maligned, the meat pies alone are an achievement — the British have been making cottage pie for hundreds of years. HUNDREDS. They've been making this since before the printing press. The Vikings probably had a version. The CAVEMEN probably had a version with mammoth instead of beef, which honestly, mammoth cottage pie, that sounds INCREDIBLE, somebody clone a mammoth, let's go. And every single one of those cottage pies was just building. Building toward this one. Right here. The one I'm giving you.
My cottage pie has LAYERS. The bottom layer is rich, savory ground beef with deeply browned aromatics, Worcestershire, a splash of red wine, and just enough peas and carrots to make you feel like you got your vegetables in. The top layer is — and this is the part that matters — buttery, cheesy, fork-fluffed mashed potatoes piled high, with peaks and ridges that go GOLDEN BROWN under the broiler. People take one bite of this pie and they make a sound. An involuntary sound. A sound their bodies make without their permission. Tremendous sound. Believe me.
Ingredients
- 2.5 lbYukon Gold potatoes, peeled and quartered
- for water plus 2 tspkosher salt
- 6 tbsp, dividedunsalted butter
- 1/2 cupwhole milk, warm
- 1 cup, dividedsharp cheddar, grated
- 1 tbspolive oil
- 1 largeyellow onion, finely diced
- 2 mediumcarrots, finely diced
- 2 ribscelery, finely diced
- 3 clovesgarlic, minced
- 1.5 lbground beef, 85/15(beef, NOT lamb — this is cottage pie, that is a hill I will die on)
- 2 tbsptomato paste
- 2 tbspall-purpose flour
- 1/2 cupdry red wine(or extra beef broth if you'd rather)
- 1.5 cupsbeef broth
- 2 tbspWorcestershire sauce
- 1 tbspfresh thyme leaves(or 1 tsp dried)
- 3/4 cupfrozen peas
- 1/2 tspblack pepper
- 1egg yolk(for the potato top — gives it that glossy golden crust)
Steps
- 1
Place the potatoes in a large pot, cover with cold water by 2 inches, and salt the water generously. Bring to a boil and cook 15-18 minutes until fork-tender.
- 2
Drain the potatoes and return them to the hot empty pot for 30 seconds to dry. Mash with 4 tablespoons of the butter and the warm milk until smooth. Stir in 1/2 cup of the cheddar, 1 tsp salt, and the egg yolk. Set aside.
- 3
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- 4
Heat the olive oil and remaining 2 tablespoons butter in a large oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, carrot, and celery. Cook 6-8 minutes until softened and starting to brown at the edges.
- 5
Add garlic and cook 1 minute. Push the vegetables to the side and add the ground beef. Break it up and let it sear undisturbed for 2-3 minutes before stirring. Cook until browned and no pink remains, 6-8 minutes total. Drain excess fat if needed.
- 6
Stir in the tomato paste and cook 1-2 minutes until brick-red. Sprinkle the flour over the meat and stir 1 minute.
- 7
Pour in the red wine and scrape up any browned bits. Simmer 1 minute until reduced. Add beef broth, Worcestershire, thyme, remaining 1 tsp salt, and pepper. Simmer 5-7 minutes until thickened and saucy — should be loose but not soupy.
- 8
Stir in the frozen peas. Remove from heat.
- 9
If your skillet isn't oven-safe, transfer the filling to a 9x13 baking dish. Spread the mashed potatoes evenly over the top, sealing them to the edges so the filling doesn't bubble over. Drag a fork across the surface in waves to create ridges (the ridges are what brown).
- 10
Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup cheddar over the top. Bake 25-30 minutes until the filling bubbles at the edges and the potatoes are starting to color.
- 11
Switch the oven to broil and broil 2-3 minutes until the peaks of the potatoes are deeply golden brown. Watch closely — it goes from golden to charcoal in 30 seconds.
- 12
Rest 10 minutes before serving so the filling sets up. Scoop and serve.
One more thing
That is cottage pie. Real cottage pie. The kind the British have been quietly perfecting for hundreds of years while everybody else was distracted by trends and food fads and 'deconstructed' nonsense, which by the way, if I see one more deconstructed anything on a menu I am going to LOSE IT, just make the pie, stop showing me the pieces of the pie next to each other on a plank of wood like a puzzle, MAKE THE PIE — and you, on a Tuesday night, in your kitchen, are going to make this and it will be better than every cottage pie in every pub in London. End of discussion.
★ QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS ONE? ★
Ask Bigly about Huge Cottage Pie.
Substitutions, what to serve it with, why other chefs are wrong about it. He's got opinions.
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