Meat plate pie - wtf?!

[lechatnoir]

It's DH's birthday this week and I asked what he'd like for supper and he jokingly asked for this then saw my puzzled look and said 'oh don't worry steak and chips will be fine'. I'd love to surprise him with one but literally no idea what an authentic plate pie is (do you cook a pie on a plate is it literally mince and onion ) Not sure how much these vary region by region but he is from Wigan! No in-laws around to ask sadly.
Please help a southerner in need.

My late DM always made them with just with the pastry top. They were an integral part of my childhood, and I still have the pyrex pie plate she used.

My steak and mushroom pie (pastry bottom) on a pie plate, mine is metal. Had it about 35 years 😆

Hang on. If he's from Wigan you need to get this right

You need the enamel pie plate that Fairybatman gave a link for.

It's shortcut pastry bottom and top, crimp edges, glaze with egg, slit in the middle.

Be clear in your head what he asked for

-meat pie = braising steak and gravy or mince and gravy, find out what he likes

Potato pie = boiled potatoes and a bit of mince meat or corned beef at a push

Meat and potato pie = like a potato pie but more meat. Make sure you put salt and pepper in.

Whist pie = don't go there, buy them.

Or cheat. www.greenhalghs.com you can buy them there.
(I'm from Wigan we like pies 😂)

When I did Domestic Science at school we had to buy a pie plate so that we already had the right size for all pie and tart recipes.
Search Amazon for 8" pie plate.
And make sure that your pastry is made with half lard and half veg fat, and egg washed.

A plate pie has a pastry base so you'll need to precook your meat if you are using a sauce or gravy.

All of those of you dissing tinned stewing steak - you should know that the canning process is the perfect way of cooking that cut of meat. Long, slow and under pressure makes it perfectly tender. It just reflects snobbery around canned foods rather than understanding the cooking process.

We used to have this in 1980s Yorkshire. Mince and onions in pastry (made with lard) on a normal dinner plate. Serve with tinned veg (peas, carrots, potatoes) and instant gravy.

We also sometimes used tinned steak, but not often - this was just stewed steak in a can, no gravy. Having googled, it's possible it was an EEC surplus item. At the time there were things like the EU butter mountain. I think we had some in food parcels due to being a striking miner's family. It was quite nice, IIRC.

Agree that there's lots of snobbery about canned foods in the UK. It's an excellent preserving method without additives and n some countries, some items are very desirable, eg canned fish in Spain.

... and pastry made with half lard, half butter is beautiful

It's not snobbery for me. I only eat Britush meat and the tinned stuff often comes from Brazil - rain forest wrecking. I'm not wealthy I just end up not eating beef at all unless I can get stewing steak or mince from the reduced section.

I have no problems with tinned food generally.

My Mum used to make this, with braising steak, never used tinned meat though, and I am from Lancashire.

It was really good.

Not in this North , it would very rarely be tinned steak for us usually corned beef and potato or mince and onion - my favourite though is cheese and onion