When is a pie not a pie?

The meat is plopping away. We’re having a Beef in Red Wine Pie. I’ve not made one in ages. Needless to say the first stage is too cook the stewing beef in a mix of stock & red wine, along with some onions & mushrooms. This is a long process to get the meat tender. It will then have to cool down before I encase it in shortcrust pastry.

I always think a pie is somehow quintessentially British. You don’t seem to come across them in other parts of the world, regardless of whether you use pastry or top them with potato. In France you get a quiche. In Italy & Spain you get equivalents to pasties. For that matter samosas are the spicy Indian equivalent to a pasty. But always they seem to be equivalents to pasties rather than pies.

One of our friends insists that a pie to call itself a pie has to have pastry top and bottom. I wouldn’t go as far as that but I do insist the pastry should be cooked with the filling, not separately & just plonked on top to serve. To me that is a casserole or stew with pastry, not a pie. Yet these days that is what so often passes as a pie in pubs. I understand it does make it easier to make a vast pot of stew, serve some up & put a bit of cooked pastry on top.

I also accept potato can go on top. We love our shepherd’s pies, Hampton pies (corned beef underneath) & fish pies. All are easy to prepare earlier, then popped in the oven later to warm through. All delicious.