Good recipe, but not REAL shepherds pie. Real shepherds pie is/was completely encased in a crust, so that the shepherd could carry it in his bag, and then hold it in his hands to eat. And yes, it usually contained lamb.

This sounds like a good recipe. I won't even tell you how my mother made Shepherds Pie, you would all go screaming out of the room!!

I was so happy to be educated by the real recipe. I made this recipe exactly in the pains taking away it was written. I brought it to a community dinner and I never heard so much raving and praising in my life and I'm not a bad cook by any stretch of the imagination I totally agree Americans stick cheese on everything and it's not necessary to force it on the rest of the world. Especially when they're presenting you with a historically correct recipe. I never had lamb in my life. And of course most shepherds don't Shepherd cattle. That I appreciated the reminder on. If you can't respect other people having the kindness to give you something genuine go through the McDonald's drive-thru. Yep I said it.

I can't remember right now whether I quadrupled this recipe or what but I had two deep lasagna pans full of it. And I mean those lasagna pans were 5 in deep if they were an inch. I ground my lamb in my Vitamix myself. I did everything as old school as I could. Yes anybody can do any variations of any recipe they so choose. But for the people that use artificial vanilla flavoring and they throw in the low-fat oleo margarine and whatever else they do God bless you. But I don't want to eat your cooking unless I'm starving to death and I have no choice yep I said it again. If I remember correctly these instructions even went so far as to say to cook certain things separately in the cast iron pan before you add them to the baking mixture because it made a difference. I don't know how much more you could expect of someone then to give such detailed instructions and encourage you that it will make a difference.

I'm very thankful for this recipe and I'm about to make it today. After all it's almost spring. Nope I've never been to England I'm not a brit. I'm barely been out of my home state. And I like it that way. There's no place like home. :)

I used ground beef and put cheese on top. Everybody loved it! British food leaves a lot to be desired, most of it is pretty bland.

Yeah. Boiled bird bones in weak broth.

I'm sorry but you are so wrong, this is not true REAL ENGLISH SHEPHERDS PIE but the real pie DOES NOT have CHEESE!!! Where is all the spices that should be in here. There is nowhere near real Shepherd's pie. You need to look in to a real English cookbook or leave visit England as I did for a 2 years.

I have made this recipe for Christmas dinner the last 5 years and it is the best shepherds pie! I use cheddar cheese to finish it off, everybody raves about it.

Shepherds Pie was traditionally made on a Monday to use up the remainders from the Sunday roasted joint. The meat would have been minced in a hand mincer which would have been attached to the kitchen table and turned by hand as the meat was pushed into the top....fresh mince (ground) meat would not have been used, so the process of cooking slowly in the oven for 2 hours is in actual fact doing to the mince as the joint would have been cooked in the first place. The cooked meat, onion and the rich left over gravy would have been added and topped with a simple mashed potato ( definitely no cheese) Give the slowly cooked method a try ....... the taste is completely different.

Shepherds pie was originally made from what ever was left over from Sundays roast, lamb or beef, which ever we were able to get during the war, of course sometimes the roast had to stretch to Tuesday so it was cold meat and bubble and squeak Monday and then what was left of the meat Tuesday's Shepherds pie. Those were the day's when we enjoyed just having meat in any form.

I am going to send all of you into a tizzy. I am making this dish with Rabbit instead of Lamb. lol!

I am now bloody confused, so I am going to have fish and chips and chuck some spears...

Simply superb!!! Just reading it is like reading a music score by a musician. I can taste your recipe in my mind. Well done.

Good cold weather food

Thank you for all the awesome ideas! It goes to show individuality and personal preference. I love to cook all different kinds of food. I put beef pot roast in "My Pie" as I call it so there is no problems. When you put all those ingredients together it's awesome and I like my own flare to it.

I was born in Florida, USA. My ancestry comes from Ireland, Scotland, and Germany. I've only tried Shepherd's, or more likely Cottage Pie a few times. Once from "The Tilted Kilt" restaurant and several at "Finnegans Bar and Grill" at Universal Studios in Orlando. But talking to many people about this dish, there are a bunch of different variations. I prefer the one at Universal. This sounds like a recipe that most people put their own spin on. Is that correct? Is there an actual definitive recipe?

Had to add my Mum's as well as I can remember as it sounds different. She used leftover roast, put is through the hand meat grinder, browned it, added onion and shredded carrot. Added water, Bisto and/or Oxo. Cooked it in oven in casserole dish for quite a while. Towards the end put mashed potatoes on top, let them brown. Also made gravy to pour over on plate. Serve it with peas and gravy "call it supper".