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The dish's story
The capital's most famous traditional pie and mash house, run by the Manze family since Italian immigrant Michele Manze took it over in 1902; the London Museum calls its Tower Bridge Road branch the oldest pie and mash shop still serving, known for eels and parsley liquor.
📋 London Museum🍴 Traditional London recipe (M. Manze's own shop recipe is proprietary and not published)
📋 recipe source: BBC FoodIngredients
- • Olive oil 1 tbsp
- • Onion, chopped 1
- • Garlic, finely chopped 2 cloves
- • Minced beef steak 450 g
- • English mustard 1 tsp
- • Tomato purée 1 tbsp
- • Beef stock cube 1
- • Brown ale 150 ml
- • Beef stock 100 ml
- • Plain flour 2 tbsp
- • Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- • Self-raising flour (suet pastry), plus extra for dusting 350 g
- • Beef suet 225 g
- • Softened butter, for greasing large knob
- • Ready-made shortcrust pastry 450 g
- • Free-range egg yolk, lightly beaten 1
- • Large potatoes, peeled and chunked 2
- • Hot milk 100 ml
- • Butter (for mash) knob
- • Chilli oil (optional) drizzle
- • Butter (for liquor) 50 g
- • Cornflour 50 g
- • Chicken stock 500 ml
- • Parsley leaves, chopped generous bunch
- • Roasted garlic cloves, puréed 1-2
- • Jellied eels, to serve optional
Method
- 1 Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat; fry the onion and garlic for five minutes until softened. Add the mince and cook for five minutes, stirring occasionally, until browned. Stir in the remaining filling ingredients, season, and leave to cool.
- 2 Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas 4.
- 3 Sift the self-raising flour into a mixing bowl with the suet and season. Mix in about four tablespoons of cold water until you have a moist but firm dough.
- 4 Roll the suet dough to 2 mm thickness on a lightly floured surface.
- 5 Generously butter two individual pie dishes and line each with suet pastry, covering the base and sides completely. Divide the filling between the dishes.
- 6 Roll out the shortcrust pastry to 2 mm thickness and cover both pies, pressing the edges to seal. Brush generously with egg yolk and make a steam hole in the centre of each lid.
- 7 Place the pie dishes in a deep-sided roasting tin with boiling water halfway up their sides (avoiding pastry contact). Cook for 20-30 minutes until the pastry is crisp and golden and the filling steaming.
- 8 Meanwhile, steam or boil the potatoes for 20 minutes until tender. Scald the milk, then mash the potatoes with the hot milk, butter, salt and pepper until smooth. Drizzle with chilli oil if desired and keep warm.
- 9 For the parsley liquor: melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat and whisk in the cornflour to form a paste. Gradually stir in the stock, bring to a simmer, then add the parsley and garlic, stirring until thickened.
- 10 Serve the hot pies with mash, parsley liquor, and jellied eels alongside.