POLL for ENGLISH mners only - do you enjoy minced beef hotpot or minced beef stew?

[nappyaddict]

I've never cooked it before but was considering trying it. DP's not sure and thinks it might be one of those meals you would have had to have been brought up on to appreciate it. It's a traditional scottish/irish meal IIRC? I think it might be one of those things that doesn't look too appetizing but actually tastes really yummy.

Haggis is nice? Hard to make yourself though I suspect.

Haggis is lovely. It's DS1's favourite food. It's tricky to get a proper one down here though (note to my local butcher: it's not supposed to me wrapped in plastic).

Pasty? Pah!

(but basically same principle)

Food for factory workers that lived 10 to a room and had no cooking facilities, which were heavy on the potato with a bit of meat adding flavour. Food you could hold and eat.

My mother's version is a dish of mince, potato, a little carrot and onion in gravy with shortcrust pastry on the top. Served with red cabbage and greens.

throckenholt Which do you have?

I think minced beef hotpot would be nice - basically cottage pie filling but sliced potato instead of mash?

This pie looks nice so might try that too.

Not sure about the stew though. Would that still be your cottage pie filling but with mash/new potatoes on the side or is it a bit more watery/runny?

wheredidiputit Is this the sort of thing you have?

Do you serve mash on top the mince and yorkie or on the side?

dunno what you would call it - just mince, mushrooms, onions and carrots and gravy bunged in a casserole in the oven for a couple of hours. I like it with jacket potatoe and broccoli.

Easy, cheap, tasty and nutritious (I only use the best lowish fat mince - but that is personal choice).

or even jacket potato

I suppose that's minced beef stew/casserole isn't it :)

Do you have it as a topping to the jacket potato or do you have the jacket potato on the side iyswim?

Would you say it's cottage pie filling consistency or runnier?

Well if it's good enough for clebs

That recipe I posted was ok, but needed way more meat in my opinion, and more than 2 carrots.
Oh well, now I have tried it!

It's not mince stew/casserole though. It's just 'mince'. Tell a Scot you're having mince for dinner and they'll know what you mean. 'mince stew' will just confuse people and 'mince casserole' is just daft (casserole being posh stew and all).

dunno - I sometimes call it savoury mince ! It is casserole in that I use a le creuset casserole to cook it in . Consistency depends on whether I make the gravy too runny or forget to check and it dries out too much ! I don't follow a recipe - just know roughly what works for us.

I prefer putting it on top of my jacket spud, the rest of the family like it beside it. It is good with chips too - but equally would go with rice or pasta (jacket spuds I like because they go in the oven with it and I can forget about them all until it is time to stick the veggies on to steam :)).

Oh just remembered - sometimes I put spuds in the casserole as well - they soak up the gravy and tast yummy. We also make the same meal with chunks of meat (beef, lamb (I wish !), pork, venison (best ever !)) and chicken thighs. All yummy, all easy to do, and cheapish, and you can hide any veggies you like in there. One DS doesn't like carrots so I tend to finely grate them, I don't like mushrooms so I cut them up very small - they all blend into the gravy.

Whatever suits you.

Wrt the quality of the mince, my dad used to occasionally get sent to the village butcher by my gran to get a pound of mince (he was probably all of 7 years old).

To this day he remembers the instructions: "You've to get minced steak, not steak mince. Make sure he minces the steak in front of you, you've not to accept the mince from the tray. ". Poor dad. He says always hated getting sent to the butcher, my gran was so particular. The mince was vvvv tasty though.

If you want to use mince, why not just go for a mashed-potato topping and make a cottage or shepherd's pie? You can add whatever vegetables you like (may not be 'authentic', but ).

Ethnicity: brought up in England by Celtic parents

I have never eaten either. To be honest, I'm not really sure what either dish is.

Hope this helps.

Has anyone tried this mince dish?

You layer lamb or beef mince (with whatever diced/grated veggies you like) and par boiled sliced potatoes, ending up with potatoes on top. Then you pour cheese sauce over the top and cook. At the end you add grated cheese and brown under the grill.

Sounds like moussaka with potato instead of aubergine.

Or you can do it without cheese sauce and just put grated cheese on the very top.

layered cottage pie

That's what I thought Damsel I love moussaka but DP hates aubergine so this could be a good compromise.

Just had an idea. I have some left over chilli in the freezer. I could turn that into chilli cottage pie topped with sliced sweet potato or sweet potato mash couldn't I?

I personally have never heard of hotpot or stew with minced beef. Hotpot is with lamb or mutton and stew is with beef. I like beef mince cooked in gravy (like a cottage pie) though.

Like Damsel said - it's just mince, not mince stew or anything else

It's basically de-constructed cottage pie...

You make the mince pretty much how you'd make the bottom of a cottage pie, it can be a bit runnier because you don't need it to hold weight, but it varies depending on who makes it tbh and instead of mashing your boiled potatoes and faffing with the oven, you just put it all on a plate like that.

It's cheaper than stew and seems to go down better with small children than lumps of meat.

I am ein scottisher :) and would like to add my tuppence worth. for you mince stew/casserole/whatever to be authentic you need to serve it with mash and skirlie! At a push you can use mealey pudding:o

hope that helps!!

So we have established mince hot pot is just cottage pie/shepherds pie with sliced potato topping and mince stew is just mince

Which is basically cottage pie/shepherds pie filling and served with potatoes in whichever form you'd like on the side (and may be put in a yorkshire pudding)