Pie & mash with parsley liquor
An individual pie filled with minced beef, sitting on a bed of mashed potatoes, all drowned in the famous 'liquor': a green parsley sauce, vinegary and comforting. The eternal Londoner's lunch.
An individual pie filled with minced beef, sitting on a bed of mashed potatoes, all drowned in the famous 'liquor': a green parsley sauce, vinegary and comforting. The eternal Londoner's lunch.
This, my love, is the real taste of home, from north London. When I was a kid, pie & mash was the people's canteen, no fuss at all. You get your pie, your smooth mash, and you flood the whole lot with liquor — that green parsley sauce with a dash of malt vinegar, don't be shy with the vinegar, eh. It looks a mess on the plate, I'll give you that, but it's pure love. Eat it hot, that's what keeps you going on a rainy London day.
- •Minced beef — according to appetite (pie filling)
- •Shortcrust and puff pastry — for lining and covering (crust)
- •Potatoes — a large portion (mash)
- •Fresh parsley — a large handful (liquor)
- •Malt vinegar — a dash (liquor acidity)
Pie & mash with parsley liquor
An individual pie filled with minced beef, sitting on a bed of mashed potatoes, all drowned in the famous 'liquor': a green parsley sauce, vinegary and comforting. The eternal Londoner's lunch.
Why this dish? Pie & mash is the iconic working-class dish of north and east London — exactly Adele's homeland, born in Tottenham. Served in working-class 'pie shops' since Victorian times, it is the street and canteen food of the modest London neighborhoods she comes from.
This, my love, is the real taste of home, from north London. When I was a kid, pie & mash was the people's canteen, no fuss at all. You get your pie, your smooth mash, and you flood the whole lot with liquor — that green parsley sauce with a dash of malt vinegar, don't be shy with the vinegar, eh. It looks a mess on the plate, I'll give you that, but it's pure love. Eat it hot, that's what keeps you going on a rainy London day.
Ingredients (period version)
- Minced beef — according to appetite (pie filling)
- Shortcrust and puff pastry — for lining and covering (crust)
- Potatoes — a large portion (mash)
- Fresh parsley — a large handful (liquor)
- Malt vinegar — a dash (liquor acidity)
Ingredients
- Minced beef — 500 g (filling)
- Onion — 1 (aromatic base)
- Shortcrust pastry — 300 g (base) (bottom crust)
- Puff pastry — 250 g (lid) (top crust)
- Potatoes — 800 g (mash)
- Butter and milk — 50 g + 100 ml (creamy mash)
- Flat-leaf parsley — 1 large bunch (liquor)
- Flour and stock — 2 tbsp + 400 ml (liquor thickening)
- Malt vinegar — 1 tbsp (acidity)
Method
- Sauté onion and minced beef, season, simmer 20 min then cool.
- Line individual pie tins with shortcrust, fill with beef, cover with puff pastry, glaze and bake at 200°C for 25-30 min.
- Prepare a smooth mash with butter and milk.
- For the liquor: make a light roux, add stock, stir in finely chopped (or blended) parsley until green, finish with malt vinegar and pepper.
- Plate: mash, inverted pie on top, and a generous ladle of hot green liquor.
How it was made : Pie & mash originated in Victorian London in the 1850s. Originally, the liquor was not a parsley sauce but the cooking water of eels, cheap Thames fish, gelatinous and thickened with parsley. As eels became scarce, parsley and stock liquor took over.
The contemporary twist : Serve as a 'street food revisited' in a kraft box, with liquor in a pipette for self-dosing acidity.
Sources : Chris Clark, The London Pie and Mash Shops (documentary study) · Jane Grigson, English Food (1974)
Adele · Charactorium