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Daily Maverick
20-06-2025
- General
- Daily Maverick
Cottage Pie, Shepherd's Pie: what's in a name?
Once upon a time, there was only Cottage Pie, no matter what meat was used in it. The term 'Shepherd's Pie' would only surface six decades later. So, when next an uppity food snob corrects you for calling a lamb version 'Cottage Pie', correct them right back. Cottage Pie dates to early 1790s England and had been around for six decades before Shepherd's Pie came along, the latter only appearing in the 1850s. For a very long time both were called Cottage Pie, because regardless of what we call it, it really is the same thing, whether the meat is beef or mutton. Cottagers in Britain in the late 18th century made potatoes a key part of their diet, so it made its way into various dishes, not least 'Cottage Pie', and whether the meat in it was beef or lamb, or for that matter venison nabbed in the wilds for the pot, it was simply the name of a 'pie' the cottagers made and ate. 'Pie' being a broader definition, for the British, than merely a description of a dish with a pastry crust; just as 'pudding' in the land of Blighty could be savoury or sweet. By the 1850s people began making a distinction if the meat in its making was lamb/mutton, which explains why even now many people are happy to call either of them 'cottage pie', given that the name does not indicate any type of meat. The 'Shepherd's Pie' entry in Wikipedia makes the puzzling claim that 'since the 21st century' (like, right now), 'the term shepherd's pie is used more commonly when the meat is lamb'. In the UK, that is. Honestly, does it really matter? Either way, it's the same thing: A layered 'pie' (we would say 'bake' in our time) of savoury minced/ground meat below, containing onions, other vegetables and aromatics, almost always including Worcestershire sauce, and creamy mashed potato on top, with or without cheese added. Some of the better recipes today call for Cheddar cheese to be grated and stirred into the mash before covering the top, and for beaten egg yolk to be brushed over to give it a pleasing golden glow. But it wasn't always layered in this way. Wikipedia explains that in earlier forms it was a way to use up leftover roasted meats, which were ground (after having been cooked, obviously). Mashed potato was used to line the bottom and sides of a dish, the meat was spooned in the middle, and it was topped with more mashed potatoes. Meanwhile, a Cumberland Pie can be either lamb or beef, with vegetables, but there's an extra topping of breadcrumbs mixed with grated cheese. Here's how I made a Cottage Pie this week: Ingredients 800 g beef mince/ ground beef 3 Tbsp olive oil 2 medium onions 2 or 3 garlic cloves 1 stick celery 2 carrots 2 lemon leaves (or bay) Zest of 1 lemon, grated finely 1 x 400 g can chopped tomatoes 2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce Salt and pepper to taste For the topping: 700 g potatoes, peeled 2 heaped Tbsp butter 4 Tbsp cream 1 cup/ 225 g grated Cheddar Salt and pepper to taste 2 egg yolks Method Peel the potatoes and cut into smaller chunks. Boil them in plenty of salted water until al dente. Drain and reserve. Preheat the oven to 220℃ or a little higher. Chop and dice the onions, garlic, carrots and celery and sauté in olive oil until softened. Add the lemon leaves (or bay) and grated lemon zest and cook, stirring, for a minute. Add the tomatoes and Worcestershire sauce, season with salt and pepper, then add the minced beef and work it with a wooden spoon so that it does not form clumps. Simmer on a low heat for about half an hour for the meat to cook through and tenderise. Stir now and then to ensure it does not catch at the bottom of the pot. Mash the potatoes on a low heat, adding the butter and stirring until it melts and is absorbed, then adding cream and cooking until that has melted into the mash. Season to taste with salt and pepper; it's important to taste the mash while adding the salt until the right level of saltiness is achieved, so add only a little at a time, taste, add more, and so on, until you're happy with it. Grate the Cheddar and stir it into the mashed potato. Grease a suitable oven dish. Spoon in the meat mixture. Spoon the mash over the top and work it to all edges and corners, as evenly as possible. Beat the egg yolks with a fork and brush it all over the topping. Use a fork to make patterns on top of the mash. Bake until the topping turns golden. For me it took about 40 minutes, but all ovens are different so just check it every five minutes until it looks perfect. It doesn't need an accompaniment. DM
Metro
13-05-2025
- Health
- Metro
The unhealthiest supermarket ready meals revealed
The UK's unhealthiest ready meals have been revealed, with one offering containing more salt than two margarita pizzas. Campaign group Action on Salt analysed 1,511 ready meals sold across 11 major retailers, including Tesco, Aldi, Lidl and M&S. Iceland was named the worst performing supermarket, with 84% of its ready meals considered to be high in salt, including the Taste of Italy vegetable lasagne, which has 3.9g per 400g. That's 5.4 times as much salt as the Weight Watchers butternut squash and spinach lasagne, which the study recommends as a healthier alternative, with just 0.72g. However, it was the Cottage Pie by ready meal brand Royal that came out saltiest in show overall, with 6.12g per 400g serving, which is saltier than two margarita pizzas combined and exceeds the recommended daily limit for an adult of 6g salt per day. The study found more than half (55%) of UK ready meals are 'excessively' high in salt content and one in five microwave meals are high in salt, fat and saturated fat – which necessitates three red warning labels on the packaging. Aldi, Lidl, Marks and Spencer and Sainsbury's followed Iceland, with more than 50% of their ready meals ranking high in salt (at 70%, 64% and 54% respectively), while Morrisons performed slightly better at 40%. However, it's worth noting that some supermarkets have contested the findings. A spokesperson from Iceland told Metro: 'This report is inaccurate, selective, and not supported by a fair reading of the underlying data. Its lazy analysis is based on a sample of just 69 Iceland products – significantly fewer than the 190 to 194 products analysed for other major retailers. 'Drawing headline conclusions from a much smaller sample undermines the reliability of any ranking or comparison,' they added. 'Iceland performs better than, or on par, with other major supermarkets and manufacturers in regard to calorie content. In fact, 90% of the products that Iceland sell are classified as 'healthy' under the government nutritional profile model.' It's bad news for the Marks and Spencer's chicken and bacon pasta bake, too, which has 3.52g (per 400g) of salt per serving, while the lamb hot pot has 3.38g (per 450g) and the 'best ever' mac and cheese 3.30g (per 375g). Think a curry would be safer? It's time to reassess, as the Royal chicken tikka masala with saffron rice has 4.68g per 400g, while its less salty alternative, Lidl's high protein chicken tikka masala with rice and vegetables, has 6.5 times (or 3.96g) less at 0.72g. Lily Keeling, a registered nutritionist for Green Chef, previously told Metro: 'Ultra-processed foods are often calorie dense but lack nutrients. They are almost always convenient, have a long shelf life and are flavour enhanced to taste good, making them prevalent in our diets. 'After eating them for a few days, they can cause greater spikes in blood sugar and lead to hunger pangs returning quickly, making us less energised and never satisfied. This cycle can lead to overeating, as we consume food at a pace that is too quick for our brains to recognise how full we are.' Kerry Beeson, a nutritional therapist at Prep Kitchen, also warns that when you first start eating UPFs, you might initially feel a 'boost' due to the high sugar/salt or caffeine content they contain and this 'tricks' you into thinking the food is good for you, when it's not. She explained: 'Caffeine is a stimulant, which gives us an energy boost, and sugary foods result in a spike in our blood sugar which has a similar effect, or sugar rush. The ingredients in these foods can also act on the 'reward' cycle in our brain, stimulating the release of neurotransmitters like dopamine which make us feel good. Unfortunately, these effects are short-lived, and we soon come crashing down to feel tired and sluggish.' Notably, Charlie Bigham's chilli con carne was also given a red label for salt content at 2.52g per 400g. By comparison, Morrisons' counted chilli has 0.89g per 350g – 1.63g less. 'At Charlie Bigham's, flavour always comes first. We make food which is as tasty as possible, listening carefully to consumer feedback on the taste of dishes to make sure they reflect consumer palette,' said Patrick Cairns, CEO of Charlie Bigham's. 'We have been slowly reducing the amount of salt we put in our food and will continue to do so.' To mark Salt Awareness Week (May 12-18), Action on Salt is demanding that the UK government 'get tough' on the food industry and end 'voluntary inaction.' 'With over half of ready meals found to be unacceptably high in salt, consumers' health are being put at serious risk, often without realising it. It should not be this hard to eat healthily,' said Sonia Pombo, head of impact and research at the organisation. More Trending 'We now need the government to stop pandering to industry interests and introduce mandatory salt reduction targets with real consequences for non-compliance. Enough is enough.' For Dr Pauline Swift, chair of Blood Pressure UK, the survey is a 'stark wake-up call,' considering that excess salt consumption is 'directly linked' to raised blood pressure – a risk factor for strokes, heart disease, and kidney disease. View More » 'Given it is estimated that around 4.2 million adults in England are living with undiagnosed high blood pressure, the government must act now to enforce stronger salt reduction targets and protect public health before even more lives are needlessly lost,' she said. Royal cottage pie – 6.12g / 400g Royal chicken tikka masala with saffron rice – 4.68g / 400g Sainsbury's free from spaghetti bolognese – 4.35g / 300g Iceland (Taste of Italy) vegetable lasagne – 3.9g / 400g M&S chicken and bacon pasta bake – 3.52g / 400g M&S lamb hot pot – 3.38g / 450g M&S Our Best Ever mac and cheese – 3.30g / 375g Kershaw's homestyle beef dinner – 3.10g / 400g Bistro by Asda fish pie – 2.9g / 400g Charlie Bigham's chilli con carne – 2.52g / 400g. Do you have a story to share? Get in touch by emailing MetroLifestyleTeam@ MORE: Urgent recall for sandwiches and snacks over listeria outbreak with 10 hospitalized in US MORE: Trump calls European Union 'in many ways nastier than China' MORE: McDonald's brings back Pokémon Happy Meals — with toy that 'sells for thousands'
