Dear Sarge, my wife has just read your posts and has commented on the fact that you cannot have shepherds or cottage pie without having a proper Roast Sunday dinner with either Lamb or Beef first! You see Sarge whilst the meat is cooking slowly the men go to the pub for a few pints and a chat. As I do the cooking in my house when we come back the vegetables go on and the Roast potatoes and parsnips go in, then the Yorkshire Puddings. Set the table make the mustard and the Horseradish sauce for Beef or mint sauce for Lamb.
Then as you get everything out of the oven to serve put the Apple pie in. What Heaven.
The reason shepherds pie and cottage pie was made is because Monday was washing day for the women. They did not have washing machines or tumble dryers everything was done by hand and took a day to do. so the meat and the veg that was left from Sunday dinner was used to make a shepherds or cottage pie as it was quick and easy and already cooked. That is the History of it and originally came from the poor north of England.
In Lancashire there were a lot of cotton mills and the mill owners were ruthlessly greedy, so they built these small houses for their workers who worked 12 hour shifts six days a week for a pittance. The children did as well, they had to do 12 hour shifts as well. The houses had no kitchens in at all. So the people developed the Lancashire Hot Pot. This is a layer of sliced potatos at the bottom then Lamb and vegetables, more potatos, then Lamb and vegetables and the final topping of potatos and filled with a nice gravy.
You see the Bakers fired their stone ovens up at 7:00 pm as all the bread had to be ready for 5:30 am as the people had to be in work for 6:00 am til 6:00 pm. As stone ovens take a long time to cool down they used to make a Lancashire hot pot and put it in the bakers oven when they collected their bread, and leave it all day. Then they would pick it up on their way home at 6:00pm and they had a hot meal. it is but a simple and cheap dish as you only use cheap cuts of meat, but it is still very popular even now!
Sorry to bore you with the History of little things like this.
Regards.
Neil.
