Pie and Mash on-line

[Rik vonTrense]

To be any authority on pie 'n mash you have, of course, need to have been born in the East End of London.

They were originally eel pies, the meat came much later. mind you even I don't know if they left the bones in the eels when they were filling the pies.

This is how the parsley liquor came to be served with the pies and mash,
eel pies were sold by street vendors as a cheepo meal for the poor, the come in and sit down shops came later.

The liquor is just the water and seasonings with parsley and a bit of flour added, that the eels were cooked in. Then stewed eels that had gone cold and the cooking water had turned to jelly was found to be a tasty dish when served with vinegar and pepper with a piece of bread as a filler and this is how the jellied eels were born. They found their way outside the ale houses and taverns for hungry drinkers.

Besides being very nutritious they were also very cheep as you could fish in any old sewer or stream and catch them. The marshlands of the east side of London from Hackney to Soufend were teeming with them and you could just go about picking them up.

But like oil, eels are disappearing, the growing population and the realisation that the poor were onto a good thing, is now shared by many continentals who smoke them......not as roll ups but for the taste.

You will find Pie and Mash shops all over the costal resort towns, they are there just as the fish and chippies are there to satisfy the holidaying Londoners appetites.

Some pie and mash shops even served soda peas these were the dried peas that were soaked overnight in bicarbonate of soda and boiled up as an addition to mash on yer plate.

This is written by one who was brought up on Muvver Ollies Pie and Mash
late of Rathbone Street Canning Town when it was a busy market street between the two world wars that is..............


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[Paul Kribs]

Pie and mash shops are still about.. I believe the Manze's is still in Deptford. We even have a Simple Simon's in Passey Place in Eltham, although they also do sausage and mash with brown gravy etc. In my early days, a shopping trip to Woolwich with my mother would always lead to a sit-down in Manze's..
With reference to Eel Pies, I know there is an island in the Thames at Richmond called Eel Pie Island, which was named after a tavern (now demolished) famous for its eel pies, that attracted steamers full of day-trippers.

Regards, Paul Kribs

[Simon S]

In the early eighties there used to be about half a dozen pie and eel shops in Roman Road (Mile End/Bethnal Green area) which all belonged to different members of the same family, I haven't been down there for at least twenty years so I don't know if they still exist. I was a service engineer for Hobarts, the commercial catering equipment people, and used to visit them all to service the food mixers.

Simon

[roseway]

Being a man of culture, I prefer the gourmet version of pie & mash: pie & chips.

Eric

[moggy]

Well you learn something new everyday, I had never heard of pie n mash (in the context of eels) before, so it is not just the American who didn't know what it is. But then I am a northerner, which would explain it.

[roseway]

But then I am a northerner, which would explain it.

What's the supply of woad like these days?

Eric

[Wohoki]

I have to grow my own. Hard times.

[pokerpete]

In the early eighties there used to be about half a dozen pie and eel shops in Roman Road (Mile End/Bethnal Green area) which all belonged to different members of the same family, I haven't been down there for at least twenty years so I don't know if they still exist. I was a service engineer for Hobarts, the commercial catering equipment people, and used to visit them all to service the food mixers.

Simon

A service engineer for Hobarts eh. Very interesting. No probs with anything really, but those SE302 roller clutches on site used to drive me round the twist.
A pal of mine was your Big Chief Ian Garner. When Hobart decided to concentrate on the catering aspect, he offered me the Meat
Machinery section for nothing. Unfortunately I was getting divorced at the time. What he really wanted was for me to give up my agencies with Biro and Butcher Boy, and make a fist of the Hobart stuff using an agency system instead of a directly employed sales force.
Interesting days. Ians brother Howard, who was a rep. for Hobart, now has had his own company for years known as Superior Food Machinery.

[pokerpete]

Well you learn something new everyday, I had never heard of pie n mash (in the context of eels) before, so it is not just the American who didn't know what it is. But then I am a northerner, which would explain it.

Now then lad, I'm also a Northerner, but have lived darn 'ere for 20 years.
Landan is the bees knees. Driving round it everywhere and everyday to sort out food machinery was not a job it was a pleasure.
Apart from not getting Hollands, pigs belly, cow heel, various tripes, and bulls balls, it's a grand life.

[pokerpete]

Outside of London, nobody ever bothers with it.

pokerpete I have noticed that you tend to make sweeping statement's that bear very little relationship to the truth.

Pie and mash if done right is a regional delicacy, that is served up all along the southeast coast as well as London. To my knowledge there are two pie n mash restaurants in Clacton and one a couple of miles up the coast in Walton on the naze for instance.

For our American members, pie and mash is a minced beef meat pie filled with a dark rich gravy topped with a parsley sauce made with an eel stock, served with stewed eel's and mashed potato's. Delicious when sprinkled with malt vinegar and pepper.

Why don't you tell RVT his post his a sweeping statement? When basically his applies in the same context as mine.
What's the point of having a meat pie full of gravy, and when you cut into the pie you eat it with parsleysauce. That doesn't make sense.
Now then shut up and listen. For the meat pie content use 100% of minced beef, and 50% of minced pork, plus salt and white pepper.
Use a bridie (mutton pie) pastry shell which is a thin walled case in a similar vein to a hot water pastry.
The result will be a crunchy shell containing the meat filling, and no doubt be better than the gravy slop mixed in with the liquer.

[Oddley]

Now then shut up and listen

As you seem to have resorted to insulting remarks, I have decided not to discuss this topic with you anymore.

[vinner]

Eric:

I almost hate to ask................ what is woad?

[jpj]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woad

[pokerpete]

Now then shut up and listen

As you seem to have resorted to insulting remarks, I have decided not to discuss this topic with you anymore.

Oh, what a house of jollity you are.

[roseway]

I almost hate to ask................ what is woad?

The wikipedia entry gives you the formal answer, but my reference was simply a little joke at the expense of northerners, suggesting that they still paint themselves with woad like the ancient Britons supposedly did.

Eric