cottage pie

plural cottage pies

1. countableuncountableA meat pie having a mashed potato crust covering a mixture of beef (typically minced) and vegetables.

   When cold they are used for russoles, minced cutlets, croquettes, cottage pies, and souffles.

   1903 January, Mary Caldwell, “The Diet Kitchen”, in The Trained Nurse and Hospital Review, volume 32, page 184

   3 more examples

   Cottage Pie.— Mince any kind of cold meat together (beef, mutton, veal, pork, or lamb), put it about an inch or and inch and a half deep in a pie dish, and cover it with gravy; don't spare salt and pepper; cover it over with mashed potatoes smooth at the top, and cut it across in diamonds with a knife; bake till it is crisp and brown at the top.

   1873, Godey's Magazine, volumes 86-87, page 82

   The recipes are of dishes suitable to the varying means of working men, such as cottage pie, haricot beans, scrap-bread pudding, Exeter stew, poor man's goose, and many others, combining economy and palatableness.

   1883, Fanny L. Calder, “Practical Cookery in Elementary Schools”, in Good Words, page 60

   So it was the Kawaki Tribe's intention to bake a cottage pie on an open campfire to scare off the queen of the witches, and without Moussaka to give orders, the witches would have no idea what to do, working with their own initiative.

   2013, Lauren West, The Wrath of Margaret, page 81