Pie and Mash with Parsley Liquor

The dish of the London eel-pie shops: a minced beef pie and a scoop of mashed potato flooded with parsley liquor, the luminous green parsley sauce traditionally made from the cooking liquor of stewed eels, a working-class East End classic

Origin: London, England

From the journey of Parsley.

Pie and mash is the historic working-class dish of London, served since the nineteenth century in the tiled, marble-countered pie-and-mash shops of the East End and the south. A simple minced-beef pie and a scoop of mashed potato are the foundation, but the thing that makes the dish, and gives it its unmistakable look, is the liquor: a thin, luminous, pale-green parsley sauce, traditionally made from the cooking water of the stewed eels that the same shops sold, thickened lightly and turned vividly green with a great deal of chopped parsley. Ladled generously over the pie and mash, the parsley liquor is the soul of the meal and the reason the dish is unlike any other. It is comfort food of the most local kind, bound up with the history of London and the Thames eel trade, and the parsley is its defining flavour and its colour.

Ingredients

Pie and mash

4 individual minced beef pies (shop-bought or homemade)
1 kg floury potatoes, peeled
60 g butter
100 ml warm milk

Parsley liquor

30 g butter
30 g plain flour
500 ml fish, eel, or vegetable stock
1 very large bunch parsley, finely chopped (about 50g)
1 tbsp malt or white vinegar, to taste
0.5 tsp salt

Method

Boil the potatoes in salted water until tender, drain well, and mash with the butter and warm milk until smooth. Keep warm. Heat the pies through as needed.
Make the liquor: melt the 30g butter in a pan, stir in the flour, and cook for 1 to 2 minutes to a pale roux without colouring.
Whisk in the stock gradually until smooth, then simmer for 4 to 5 minutes until lightly thickened (it should stay pourable and thin, not gloopy).
Stir in the very generous quantity of chopped parsley and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, until the liquor turns vividly green. Sharpen with the vinegar and season with salt.
Plate up: a pie and a scoop or smear of mash on each plate, then ladle the hot green parsley liquor generously over the top.

Notes

Authentic liquor was made with the water left from stewing eels; fish or eel stock recreates that, but vegetable stock makes a fine vegetarian liquor. The defining features are the thin consistency, the vivid green from a large amount of parsley, and the sharp note of vinegar. Serve with jellied or stewed eels alongside for the full East End experience, or just the pie and mash.

The Gastrographer

Name: Pie and Mash with Parsley Liquor
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 4
Cuisine: England
Ingredients: 4 individual minced beef pies (shop-bought or homemade); 1 kg floury potatoes, peeled; 60 g butter; 100 ml warm milk; 30 g butter; 30 g plain flour; 500 ml fish, eel, or vegetable stock; 1 very large bunch parsley, finely chopped (about 50g); 1 tbsp malt or white vinegar, to taste; 0.5 tsp salt

Mapping Culinary History

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control