Food Notes: 10/29

Meat pie, fish, candy, and more.

It finally got cold enough outside for cozy cooking. I decided to go big with a shepherd’s pie, although in this case, I actually made a cottage pie. Cottage pies are made with beef, even if American menus will call any pie topped with mashed potatoes a “shepherd’s pie.” If it’s not clear, the shepherd part refers to lamb or mutton. The basic filling is made with ground (“minced”) meat, onions, and peas, and then topped with mashed potatoes and cooked until the edges are crispy.

The potato-topped pie party doesn’t stop there. Pork-filled pies are sometimes called swineherd pie or stye pie. But don’t call them a pork pie — that’s pastry wrapped around minced pork. If you make the same with goat meat, you’d be right to guess the term is goatherd pie.

Cumberland pies are filled with meat, sometimes chunks whole pieces rather than mince, but the mashed potato topping receives a layer of breadcrumbs to help with crisping. If meat isn’t you thing, there’s always a farmer’s pie. The term isn’t universal, but often refers to a filling made with only vegetables.

If you want to be a bit more adventurous, you could try Hunter’s Pie, a term sometimes applied to cottage pie made from venison. And during my research, I came across a Findus Pie, a recipe filling made from horse meat. The joke is that Findus, a Swedish frozen food company, was caught in a horse-meat scandal; some of their products were tested and contained mostly horse.

Ironically, mincemeat pie is a sweet dessert rather than a pie made of minced meat. These pies did originally included minced meat, as well as spices, suet, and dried fruit. Over time, the meat was dropped, but the name was kept and the sweeter version became a common Christmas treat.

My cottage pie includes a lot more vegetables than a traditional British recipe. I added mirepoix of celery, carrot, and shallot, plus some garlic and a chopped up leek. I dropped in a tablespoon of tomato paste for good measure. As for the mashed potatoes, I mixed in sour cream and Parmigiano-Reggiano. I also served the dish with a gravy on the side with roux, beef stock, and seasoning.

What I like about cottage pie is there’s no pastry involved. The mashed potatoes can be a simple recipe. Lately if we have mashed potatoes, my wife insists on Alison Roman’s slightly more complicated recipe. While these are butter-milky delicious table potatoes, there’s no reason to go through the complicated process for a whipped topping. The Parmigiano cheese adds all the extra flavor you need, and you don’t want to overwhelm the pie filling.

Where are the bar hooks?

Maggie Hennessy at Bon Appétit gripes about how some bars don’t bother installing hooks. Personally this is my second biggest bar gripe, right after “why is there no foot railing on the bar?”

Fish Eating Fish

Apparently, farmed fish are eating a lot more fish than has previously been thought. On the plus side, some of this feed is bycatch, the accidentally caught fish commercial fisherman bring to the surface so there’s less waste.

Candy, Candy, Candy

Eater does a big deep dive into New York City candy in this multi-part project looking at old and new candies.

Chocolate Becomes a Luxury Again

Chocolate prices have been sky-high lately thanks to a bad harvest. The chocolate shortage, and higher prices, are expected through next year.

Cool to be a Nerd

A box of Nerds hard candy was always a trick-or-treat treasure, but apparently in recent years, Nerds Gummy Clusters have become the it-candy of the season. It’s not the firsts time the brand introduced a softer candy, but this one took off generating $500m in profit.

The Best Tacos in Texas

Taco maven José Ralat has a new list of the best tacos in Texas right now. Eat up. He’s previously written a book about the history of American tacos, which made me want to both eat tacos and chat with him.

The Best Pizza in New York

These click-bait pizza articles just keep coming. Now it’s the New York Times with a top 25. At least none of them are in New Jersey.