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Traditional British meat and potato pie with suet pastry

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This hearty meat and potato pie is a traditional Yorkshire dish made with steak and potatoes, covered in a soft buttery suet pastry crust. Serve with a bowl of mushy peas or your favourite vegetables for a deliciously comforting supper. Or as they say in Yorkshire ‘for a meal that will stick to your ribs’

A helping of meat and potato pie on a plate with vegetables.

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Table Of Contents
  1. Yorkshire meat and potato pie
  2. What you will need
  3. How to make a meat and potato pie
  4. Tips and FAQ
  5. Save for later
  6. Other hearty meals
  7. The recipe
  8. Traditional meat and potato pie

Yorkshire meat and potato pie

If there’s one thing you can say about Yorkshire people, it’s that we love a good meaty pie, and this meat and potato pie is one of the best. I’m never happier than when I’m presented with a plate of succulent meaty filling, covered with a layer of crispy pastry.

You can make a pie in so many different ways. Encase the whole thing in crispy shortcrust pastry, as in this Bacon and Egg Pie. Or you could just cover the filling with a layer of well-risen puff pastry, as in this Steak and Kidney Pie. You can make large pies, or individual pot pies, like these Beef Pot Pies with Pepper Sauce. Or even make a pie out of cheesy choux pastry as in Chicken and Mushroom Puff Pie.

But I’m here to tell you right now, that this old-fashioned meat and potato pie recipe that I am going to share with you today takes some beating. It’s covered with a layer of soft suet crust pastry that absolutely melts in your mouth

I’m also going to share with you my top tip for how to thicken gravy without using any flour or cornstarch.

This meat and potato pie is made from succulent cubes of beef, cooked to fork-tender perfection with lots of potatoes (it’s called meat and potato pie for a reason) and loads of thick meaty gravy. The pie is covered with a layer of buttery, soft suet pastry that soaks up the gravy like a sponge, as it bakes, leaving the underside of the pastry soft and full of flavour.

Believe me, experiencing a plate of meat and potato pie, with a generous helping of traditional British mushy peas, should be on everyone’s bucket list!

A meat and potato pie with one corner of the pastry cut away to show the filling.
Just look at how this pie is absolutely crammed with succulent meat and tender potatoes.

What you will need

Equipment

You will need a pressure cooker to make the filling for the meat and potato pie. I have an electric pressure cooker similar to this one and I love it. You can use a stove-top pressure cooker too. Just follow the manufacturer’s instructions for the timing for your particular brand.

If you don’t have a pressure cooker, you can make the filling in a large saucepan on the stove instead, and I’ve included instructions below.

You will also need a frying pan for browning the meat and onions, a sharp knife and a chopping board.

For making the pastry, you will need a mixing bowl.

And of course, let’s not forget a baking dish for baking the pie. You will need a dish approximately 12″ x 8″ x 2.5″ deep (or 30cm x 20cm x 6cm)

Ingredients

You can get the complete list of ingredients and full instructions for making this meat and potato pie on the printable recipe card at the end of this post.

This is a generous recipe and will easily feed 4 hungry people.

For the meat filling:

Ingredients for meat and potato pie filling.
I haven’t included salt in the photograph, but a small amount of salt does improve the flavour of the meat and potato filling.
  • Beef cubes – this is good quality stewing steak which is chopped into 1-inch cubes. You can use chuck, flank, or even topside for this pie.
  • Onions – roughly chopped. Don’t make them too small. They will soften and soak into the gravy on cooking.
  • Potatoes peeled and chopped into 1-inch pieces. Reserve one potato and grate it instead of chopping it. The grated potato will serve to thicken the gravy. You will need approximately 1 cup of grated potato.
  • Worcestershire sauce – Worcestershire sauce and meat and potato pie go together like bacon and eggs. I know people who add extra Worcestershire sauce when the pie is on their plate!
  • Tomato puree – (also known as tomato paste) this is highly concentrated tomatoes, and should not be confused with tomato ketchup or tomato sauce.
  • Dijon mustard – for a bit of a bite.
  • Beef stock – you can dissolve 1 stock cube per cup of water to make instant stock if you don’t have real beef stock to hand.
  • Salt – to your own taste
  • Sunflower oil for browning the meat.

For the suet pastry

You can cheat and buy either shortcrust or puff pastry and use that to cover the pie instead, but honestly, this pastry mixes in minutes and it tastes so good!!!

  • Self-raising flour – if you don’t have self-raising flour just use plain all purpose flour and add 1 teaspoon baking powder to each cup of flour.
  • Beef suet – you can buy this in packets from your local supermarket. I use a brand called Atora Shredded Suet. It is available in both Beef and Vegetable varieties and you can order it from Amazon. I do recommend you try to get hold of some if you possibly can – the suet pastry really makes this dish.
Beef suet in a small white dish.
This is what the beef suet looks like when it comes out of the packet.
  • Butter – this is rubbed into the flour with the suet.
  • Cold water – for mixing into the pastry
  • Salt – if you have a problem with salt, you can leave this out, but it does enhance the flavour of the pastry.

How to make a meat and potato pie

Start by making the filling.

Diced beef being seared in a frying pan.

Chop the steak into 1-inch cubes, remove any fat and discard.

Heat the oil in a frying pan and brown the meat on all sides. Do this in batches so as not over-crowd the pan, otherwise you will end up with a lot of moisture in the pan which we don’t want. You should aim to get the pan quite hot and just sear the meat to seal it.

Transfer the browned meat from the pan into either a pressure cooker or a large saucepan.

Diced onions frying in a frying pan.

Peel the onions and chop them coarsely.

Fry them gently, in the same pan that the meat was cooked in, for about 5 minutes until they have started to soften and have picked up any residue left over from the meat.

Add them to the meat in the pressure cooker or saucepan.

A spoonful of diced beef and onions held over a pressure cooker.

Dissolve 2 beef stock cubes in 2 cups (1 pint) of boiling water.

Mix the remaining ingredients into the stock and pour it over the meat and vegetables.

Put the lid on and cook on the highest setting for 30 minutes. This is the ‘Stew’ function on my Pressure King Pro. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions for your own pressure cooker.

After 30 minutes release the pressure. The meat will be almost cooked and the gravy will be very runny.

Cubed and grated potatoes being added to the meat and potato pie filling.

Now stir in the cubed and grated and potatoes.

Adding grated potato is my secret tip for getting lovely thick gravy.

The grated potato will disintegrate as it cooks, and the starch that it releases will thicken the gravy perfectly.

Set your pressure cooker to a medium setting for 10 minutes. I use the ‘Meat’ setting on my Pressure King Pro.

A spoon of thickened meat and potato pie filling held over a pressure cooker.

After 10 minutes, release the pressure and check the consistency of the gravy.

If you find the grated potato has not thickened the gravy sufficiently, make a slurry with a tablespoon of cornstarch or cornflour and a couple of tablespoons of water and drizzle that slowly into the gravy over a low heat until the gravy thickens sufficiently. You may not need all the slurry, so don’t tip it in all at once.

Taste for seasoning and add more salt if necessary.

Meat and potato pie filling in pie dish.

Tip the filling into a baking dish.

Set aside to cool. This is important – you don’t want to put the pastry on top of the hot filling or it will melt before it gets into the oven and not rise properly. Let the filling cool down to lukewarm.

Cooking on the stove top

If you are making this dish on the stove, follow the above instructions until the stock has been added to the meat and vegetables.

Cover the pan with a tightly-fitting lid and simmer gently for at least 2 hours until the meat is tender. Keep your eye on it and top up with an extra cup of stock if necessary.

After 2 hours, add the potatoes and continue to cook until the potatoes are tender and the gravy has thickened. This should take 20 to 25 minutes.

Make the suet pastry and bake

This is my favourite recipe for suet pastry. The addition of butter adds extra flavour and the pastry bakes to a crispy softness that just melts in your mouth.

The texture of unbaked suet pastry is slightly different to normal pastry. It has quite a thick texture, with knobbly bits in it where the suet hasn’t broken down. Don’t worry – the suet will melt into the pastry as it bakes, producing a soft flaky texture.

Pre-heat the oven to 200F / 400C

Flour, suet and butter rubbed into breadcrumbs.

Place the flour, salt, suet and butter into a mixing bowl and rub together with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

The suet will not break down completely, but this is normal and expected. It will melt into the pastry as it bakes.

A ball of suet pastry.

Add three-quarters of the water and mix with your fingers until the dough comes together in a soft non-sticky ball.

If you need the remaining water, add it a tablespoon at a time so that you don’t make the dough too sticky.

Cover the dough with plastic wrap and leave it to rest for half an hour.

Suet pastry rolled into a rectangle next to a rolling pin.

Dust your work surface lightly with flour, and roll out the pastry into a rectangle large enough to cover your baking dish.

Suet pastry laid over a meat and potato pie.

Lay the pastry carefully over the pie dish. It’s fine if the pastry rests on top of the meat and potato filling.

Meat and potato pie covered in suet pastry, ready for the oven.

Use a fork to press the pastry against the sides of the pie dish. Trim away any excess pastry with a sharp knife.

Prick the top of the pastry with the fork to allow any steam to escape while it is in the oven.

Brush the top of the pie lightly with milk.

A cooked meat and potato pie.

Bake in a preheated oven (200C/400F) for 25 to 30 minutes until the pastry is cooked and golden brown.

Remove the pie from the oven and serve hot with your favourite vegetables.

The traditional Yorkshire way of serving it is with mushy peas.

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Overhead shot of meat and potato pie on a plate with vegetables.

Tips and FAQ

Can I freeze meat and potato pie?

If you want to freeze the unbaked pie, my advice would be to assemble the pie in a large disposable aluminium pie dish. That way your baking dish can remain in your cupboard 🙂 .
Just wrap the cooled assembled pie in a layer of tinfoil and cover with one or two layers of plastic cling film before freezing.
You can freeze this pie for up to 3 months.
To use, remove from the freezer and allow to defrost in the refrigerator then bake according to the recipe instructions.
Alternatively, you could just freeze the cooled filling. When you are ready to make the pie, defrost the filling in the refrigerator, pour into a pie dish, cover with pastry and bake according to the recipe instructions.

Can I make this in advance?

You can make both the filling and the pastry up to 2 days in advance and store them (separately and covered) in the fridge.
When you are ready to make the pie just tip the meat into a pie dish and top with the pastry and bake as per the recipe instructions.

Do I have to use suet pastry?

You don’t HAVE to use suet pastry, but then you won’t get the lovely soaked-up gravy and suet combination. You could top the pie with puff pastry or shortcrust pastry instead.

Save for later

If you would like to try this meat and potato pie yourself, why not save the recipe to one of your Pinterest boards. Just click on the image below.

Alternatively, you can save the recipe by clicking on the floating heart icon on the right-hand side of the screen.

Other hearty meals

If you enjoyed this traditional Yorkshire meat and potato pie, perhaps you’d like to try one of these too.

The recipe

A meat and potato pie with one corner of the pastry cut away to show the filling.

Traditional meat and potato pie

This hearty meat and potato pie is a traditional Yorkshire dish made with steak and potatoes, covered in a soft buttery suet pastry crust. Serve with a bowl of mushy peas or your favourite vegetables for a deliciously comforting supper. Or as they say in Yorkshire 'for a meal that will stick to your ribs'
Recipe by: Veronica
Main Course
British
Calories 758
Prep 20 minutes
Cook 1 hour 20 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 40 minutes
Servings: 4 people
Print Pin Comment Bookmark
4.87 from 23 votes

(Click the stars to rate this recipe)

Equipment

Ingredients

Pie filling

  • 1¼ pounds 570 grams stewing steak cubed
  • 1½ lb / 680 grams potatoes approximately
  • 2 medium onions chopped
  • 2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce
  • 2 tablespoons tomato puree
  • 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
  • 2 beef stock cubes
  • 2 cups boiling water
  • ½ teaspoon salt or to taste
  • 1 to 2 Tablespoons Sunflower oil for browning the meat and onions

Suet Pastry

  • 1½ cups / 200 grams self-raising flour
  • ½ cup / 100 grams beef suet
  • 2 ounce 60 grams butter
  • ¼ cup cold water
  • ½ teaspoon salt

Instructions

Pie Filling

  • Cut the meat into 1-inch cubes
    1¼ pounds 570 grams stewing steak
  • Heat the sunflower oil in a frying pan and brown the meat in batches. Place browned meat in a pressure cooker or saucepan and set aside.
    1 to 2 Tablespoons Sunflower oil
  • Fry the onions in the same pan for about 5 minutes until they start to turn brown. Add to the meat in the pressure cooker
    2 medium onions
  • Dissolve the stock cubes in 2 cups of boiling water.
    2 beef stock cubes, 2 cups boiling water
  • Add the Worcestershire sauce, tomato puree, Dijon mustard and salt to the stock and stir well. Pour the stock over the meat and onions.
    2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce, 2 tablespoons tomato puree, 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard, ½ teaspoon salt
  • If using a pressure cooker – cook the meat on the highest setting for 30 minutes ('Stew' function on my Pressure King Pro)
  • If cooking in a saucepan on the stove-top – cover with a lid and simmer for 2 hours. Check occasionally and top up with extra stock if it starts to boil dry.
  • Peel the potatoes and chop all except one into chunks. Grate the remaining potato. This will help thicken the stock. (You will need about 1 cup of grated potato)
    1½ lb / 680 grams potatoes
  • Add the potatoes (both chopped and grated) to the meat.
  • If using a pressure cooker – cook the meat and potatoes for a further 10 minutes on medium setting ('Meat' setting on my Pressure King Pro')
  • If cooking in a saucepan on the stove-top – cover with a lid and boil for 20 to 25 minutes until the potatoes are soft and the gravy has thickened.
  • Taste for seasoning and add more salt if necessary.
  • Tip the meat and potato mix into a large pie dish and allow to cool.

Suet Pastry

  • Preheat oven to 200°C / 400°F
  • Mix the flour, salt and suet together in a mixing bowl.
    1½ cups / 200 grams self-raising flour, ½ cup / 100 grams beef suet, ½ teaspoon salt
  • Add the butter and rub into the flour to form breadcrumbs
    2 ounce 60 grams butter
  • Add sufficient water to make a soft dough. Do not add the water all at once. Use about 3/4 of the water and add the rest as needed.
    ¼ cup cold water
  • Place the pastry on a floured surface and roll out with a rolling pin or press out with your fingers until the pastry is large enough to cover your pie dish.
  • Place the pastry on top of the pie. It should rest on the surface of the meat.
  • Use a fork to press the pastry aginst the edges of the pie dish. Trim away any excess pastry.
    Prick holes on top of the pastry with a fork and brush the pastry lightly with milk.
  • Place in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes until the pastry has turned golden brown.
  • Remove from oven and serve with mushy peas or your favourite vegetables.

Notes

When browning the meat, do it in small batches.  You just want to sear the outside of the meat.  If you overcrowd the pan the meat will start to boil and release its juices.
This pie needs a lot of liquid, as some of the liquid will soak up into the pastry while it is in the oven.
Cooking time if making on the stove is 3 hours.
You shouldn’t need to add any thickening agent.  The grated potato will cook away and thicken the gravy naturally.  If you use a waxy potato, it may not have sufficient starch to thicken the gravy.  In this case, just make a slurry with cornstarch and water, and drizzle that into the gravy, stirring over a low heat, until the gravy thickens sufficiently.
Packets of beef suet are available from Amazon.  The brand I use is called Atora Shredded Suet and is available in both Beef and Vegetable varieties.  You can use either variety for this pastry.
Calories are based on the assumption that this pie will feed 4 people.

Nutrition

Calories – 758kcal | Carbohydrates – 82.9g | Protein – 43g | Fat – 27.9g | Saturated Fat – 8.8g | Cholesterol – 32mg | Sodium – 824mg | Potassium – 870mg | Fiber – 7g | Sugar – 6.5g | Vitamin D – 8µg | Calcium – 47mg | Iron – 4mg

I am not a nutritionist. The nutrition information has been calculated using an on-line calculator, and is intended for information and guidance purposes only. If the nutrition information is important to you, you should consider calculating it yourself, using your preferred tool.

Unless otherwise stated, a cup is the standard US cup containing 240 ml. In all my recipes this cup is assumed to hold 140g of flour. For help converting other ingredients between cups, grams, ounces and other measures, see my recipe conversion calculator.
All my recipes are developed and tested at sea-level. For tips on adjusting recipes for high altitudes see my post on baking at high altitudes.
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About VJ

In my previous life, I was an IT Consultant. Now that I've swapped an office for a kitchen I have a lot more time to spend on things that interest me such as trying out new recipes. Most of my cooking is based around quick and easy meals, and you'll probably find a little South African influence creeping in due to the many years I spent there.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Lynda

    4 stars
    Cooked this today and it tasted amazing / just one question please – how thick should the diet pastry be – mine was quite think and didn’t have the soft underside I was expecting- think it may be been too thin? Thanks

    Reply

  2. Andy

    5 stars
    My mum used to make a meat and potato pie every week for 20 kids at the home she ran. It was legendary. When she passed away recently my kids thought they’d not have grandma’s pie again. This recipe is as close to hers as I’ve found. They love it. My 9 year old now makes it with me. Thank you!

    Reply

  3. steve

    5 stars
    My Mum, Nan, and Aunty were all from Yorkshire and all made meat and potato pie the proper way. If you struggle for suet then use lard (grated from freezer)

    The one think that is missing is Hendersons relish!! From Sheffield, anyone who knows Meat and potato pie in Yorkshire will have a bottle of Hendersons in the cupboard just for that! You can now find it onloine 🙂

    Reply

    • VJ

      Good tips Steve – especially the one about the lard – I must try that!
      Re your comment on Hendersons relish, hubby swears by Worcestershire sauce – I guess it’s a regional thing 🙂

      Reply

  5. Bernadette halliwell

    5 stars
    Made this for tea tonight and oh my it was delicious and so tasty it was polished off quickly by all thanks for the recipe going to be trying a few more soon

    Reply

  6. Zoe Jarvis

    5 stars
    Made this for tea tonight had to replace onion for onion powder as my son hates onions but it was still very tasty and he loved it thanks

    Reply

    • VJ

      5 stars
      That’s the beauty of this pie – you can swap out the ingredients and it still tastes good. How about trying chopped celery in place of the onions next time?
      VJ x

      Reply

    • Vicky

      My children hate onions to so I soften them first and blend them into the stock before I add it, they don’t have a clue there eating them, I actually do this with all veg they don’t like, blend them into a sauce and add it to faves like pasta etc, what they can’t see they can’t dislike 🤫

      Reply

  7. Amanda

    5 stars
    I made this today and had some trouble getting it to thicken up because of the kind of potatoes I had. I scooped out a bit of the liquid and made a slurry and that seemed to help. Suet is somewhat hard to come by here so I just used a regular pie crust. The flavor is phenomenal and suits my meat and potatoes husband. When he’s snoring an hour after dinner then my dear we have a winner!

    Reply

    • VJ

      I’m so pleased it turned out well for you. This is my hubby’s favourite meal and his standard answer whenever I ask ‘what would you like for dinner’! The potatoes I use are quite ‘fluffy’ and disintegrate into the gravy if they are grated. I also didn’t realise that suet isn’t as readily available in the US as it is here in the UK. I use a brand called Atora Shredded Suet. I’ve googled it, and if you want to make the original version of my pie with traditional suet you can order it from Amazon. I’ll update the recipe to reflect your comments. I do appreciate constructive criticism 🙂

      Reply

  8. Melanie Powell

    Absolutely gorgeous, I have made this three times in a matter of weeks. My family love it! Thank you for the recipe x

    Reply

    • VJ

      Thank you so much for the lovely comment. I love it when I get such positive feedback. I’m always so worried that I might have made a mistake with the recipe and cause someone to have a disaster 🙂 .

      Reply

    • VJ

      Hi Dawn, I’m so glad you asked that question. I have just had a look at the recipe, and I think I might have been a bit over-generous with the amount of meat I allowed 🙂 . 600g would be a more realistic amount for 4 people, which would be 150g per person, rather than 250g, and I am going to update the recipe to reflect this.
      To answer your question you will need 150g of meat per person, so for 40 people you would need 150g x 40, which works out to 6 kg.

      VJ x

      Reply

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