Cottage Pie

Cottage pie or shepherd's pie is a meat pie with a crust of mashed potato.

The term cottage pie is known to have been in use in 1791, when the potato was being introduced as an edible crop affordable for the poor (cf. "cottage" meaning a modest dwelling for rural workers).

In early cookery books, the dish was a means of using leftover roasted meat of any kind, and the pie dish was lined with mashed potato as well as having a mashed potato crust on top.

The term "shepherd's pie" did not appear until 1877, and since then it has been used synonymously with "cottage pie", regardless of whether the principal ingredient was beef or mutton. Because of the synonymous use of Shepherd's pie, and Cottage pie, people have confused the two as being the same. More recently, the term "shepherd's pie" has been used when the meat is lamb, the theory being that shepherds are concerned with sheep and not cattle. This may, however, be an example of folk etymology.

Read more about Cottage Pie:  Variations

Famous quotes containing the words cottage and/or pie:

    After the planet becomes theirs, many millions of years will have to pass before a beetle particularly loved by God, at the end of its calculations will find written on a sheet of paper in letters of fire that energy is equal to the mass multiplied by the square of the velocity of light. The new kings of the world will live tranquilly for a long time, confining themselves to devouring each other and being parasites among each other on a cottage industry scale.
    Primo Levi (1919–1987)

    Let’s not talk about Communism. Communism was just an idea, just pie in the sky.
    Boris Yeltsin (b. 1931)