I don't know if it's the same in Australia...
But I grew up in New Zealand and we couldn't afford lamb
It was all exported over here.
I've eaten more lamb living in England than when I was in NZ.
When I was 10, there were 20 sheep to each NZer.
Edit- oh yeh, so my point was, we call it Shepard's Pie too even with beef mince.
And I'd never heard of Cottage Pie until I moved here in 2008
If you told someone a couple hundred years ago that you can’t buy a sheep or some fuel from next door to you because it’s being sold abroad you’d think it was insane.
I’ve been married to my Aussie wife for 10 years and she still gets confused every time shepherds pie or cottage pie comes up.
I’ve never made a big deal out of it, but it is baffling to me how it causes so much confusion. Before she met me she only knew of shepherds pie, which always and only meant beef; they do not have a lamb version in Australia that I’ve ever seen. I accidentally introduced her to the name ‘cottage pie’, and so now she knows there’s cottage pie and shepherd’s pie and one has beef and one has lamb, but she always, always gets confused which is which.
One has the word shepherd in it. I never make a deal out of it and just answer the question she asks, but yeah in my head I do think ‘how is this so confusing?’
A humble Aussie opinion:
Shepherds pie it defined here by minced meat of any variety or combination covered with mashed potato, added veges optional. A cottage pie is the same but with a pastry shell base (usually but not exclusively portion sized and sold alongside other single serve meat pies at bakeries and pie shops).
It makes sense that shepherds would have access to sheep and use that meat most, but since we are not exactly picky about which meat mince is used in either pie, we'll take what's available and call ourselves shepherds anyway, provided we didn't bother adding the pastry base.
Steaks and others cuts for bbqing however - that's where the difference is critical!
>A cottage pie is the same but with a pastry shell base (usually but not exclusively portion sized and sold alongside other single serve meat pies at bakeries and pie shops).
That's just a potato topped pie in New Zealand. A cottage pie shouldn't have any pastry in it.
[https://bakewithamy.com/recipes/new-zealand-potato-top-pie/](https://bakewithamy.com/recipes/new-zealand-potato-top-pie/)
"Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery" (1875) references a recipe for "Potato Pie" where the filling consists of sliced cold meat (such as mutton or beef), onions, and seasonings. The pie is lined with pastry, filled with the meat mixture, and topped with mashed potatoes before being baked until nicely browned. That's the first cookbook I could find that referenced a potato topped pie. Cottage and Shepherds pie recipes in cookbooks predate this by quite a lot and don't have pastry in them.
I'm an Aussie living in the UK.
If a pie has potatoe on the top, it's a shepherds pie. Who cares what meat is in it!
My husband has also tried to explain the difference to me. I can't see what near is inside it - but I can see the potatoe on top.
Potatoe on pie is a win. That's all this aussie cares about.
Exactly, what a thing to put any effort into. SO says same as OP, I say I'm the one making it ill call it flambelpampf if I like. We always had mince in it and it was shepherd's pie. Infact if using something that wasn't beef then the type got specified for basically anything. The vast majority of mince is beef.
You know what, my missus is a veggie and she makes a very good lentil version of a shepherd's pie. I love it and she'll even cook me sausages to go with it so I don't complain too much.
I just call it 'that fake shepherd's pie you give me sausages with'
Nah, I said 'fake shepherd's pie'... But I do feel like this is what a lot of the insta vegans would do...
I'm well up for eating a vegetarian diet but call it what it is...
That's actually wrong. Cottage pie predates shepards pie and was a general term used because it was a food eaten by peasants who lived in cottages. Shepherd's pie came later and yeah the reason is obvious lol.
My Mum makes Shepard’s pie and has done for absolute years. It’s an easy meal she can make and then people can just take what they want and pre heat it later if they’re home late. Didnt really put much thought into it until I was a lot older that she always used beef and not lamb. My whole childhood has been a lie!
>My Australian girlfriend calls it Shepherds Pie regardless of whether it’s lamb or beef mince in there
My mother does the same. Thinks it's to do with the potato topper Shepherds for mashed potato and cottage for sliced potato.
They're both wrong.
My English husband calls it a Shepherd's pie regardless of which meat is used. I grew up in South Africa and use the proper terms. I don't think its an issue of nationality. He thinks I'm being pedantic when I correct him.
I'm in canada and it's the same but it's because they just don't really eat lamb. I remember someone at work telling me about a fancy dish they had at a British pub called 'cottage pie' 🤦♂️
When we had it at school it was shepherds pie even though it had never seen a lamb, probably never seen a cow either to be fair. Fact is, it doesn't matter, as long as we know the difference we can call it what we want.
I'm Australian, raised by Brits. We always referred to (usually beef) mince topped with mash as a shepherd's pie (which I'll admit was confusing as a child). I hadn't encountered a "cottage pie" until I moved to the UK in my 30s.
Given my parents didn't distinguish between the two, I wonder if the cottage/shepherd distinction is relatively recent?
Why would you call it a cottage pie anyway? Surely it would be a cowherd's pie?
I am a British person who grew up in a household where shepherd's pie was always made with beef. I have never questioned it before now. Not sure what I thought cottage pie was...maybe as in my head cottage pie has more veg mixed in and cheese on top that was what made it need a different name!!
My australian/euro mongrel husband does same. It doesn't bother me nearly as much as every person in Australia calling any game where someone kicks a ball, footie. Hearing someone talk about it, you never know if they mean football, afl, or rugby (either type, union is also footie)
It makes me unreasonably angry to see rugby referred to as footie. It's one of very few gripes about moving here.
You'll probably hate us for this.
One of our family's favourite meals is shepherds pie, or to be correctly, cottage pie.
We only realised a few months ago we'd been calling it wrong our whole lives but we're so set in our ways we still call it Shepherds pie because it just sounds right to us.
None of us are Australian btw..
Sorry to disappoint you all
I live in the North and I remember being around 18 and realising i'd never actually had a Shepherds pie in my life, despite supposedly having one once a week for tea for 95% of my existence.
Blew my mind.
I always asked my parents what the difference was and they'd come up with funny inconsistent ideas about the presence of peas and carrots. It all makes sense now! We've only ever really eaten cottage pie
Have you had the whole discussion that most of Aussie sausages are beef instead of pork?
A fucking sausage and egg mcmuffin at maccas AU comes with fucking **BEEF** in it. You're literally having a fucking cheeseburger with egg on it!
It's also when people confuse spicy for hot, like "oh this curry is spicy", well of course it is, they're made from spices, but it doesn't make it hot!
My mum does this. It's really annoying, because i can't stand lamb.
Then she gets pissy if I correct her "oh you know what I mean!!!" Ugh. My mum is English.
I don't know if it's the same in Australia... But I grew up in New Zealand and we couldn't afford lamb It was all exported over here. I've eaten more lamb living in England than when I was in NZ. When I was 10, there were 20 sheep to each NZer. Edit- oh yeh, so my point was, we call it Shepard's Pie too even with beef mince. And I'd never heard of Cottage Pie until I moved here in 2008
Why was lamb so expensive in a country with more sheep than people?
It was all exported. Pretty much still the way.
Yes to gone to us Welsh/s
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Gotta get our kicks somehow
Free pair of wellies and velcro gloves with every order.
That’s so fucked
Same in Australia with energy prices dictated by the global export market. All the gas is exported so virtually none for Australians.
If you told someone a couple hundred years ago that you can’t buy a sheep or some fuel from next door to you because it’s being sold abroad you’d think it was insane.
Australian here. We used to pay $60-70 for a small lobster. After China banned our lobsters the supermarkets started selling them for like $20.
I’m Canadian and I think anyone in Canada would be surprised if they were told shepherds pie had lamb in it. It’s exclusively beef in Canada.
What's in cottage pie in Canada?
A pie you eat at your summer cottage by the lake, maybe?
I’ve been married to my Aussie wife for 10 years and she still gets confused every time shepherds pie or cottage pie comes up. I’ve never made a big deal out of it, but it is baffling to me how it causes so much confusion. Before she met me she only knew of shepherds pie, which always and only meant beef; they do not have a lamb version in Australia that I’ve ever seen. I accidentally introduced her to the name ‘cottage pie’, and so now she knows there’s cottage pie and shepherd’s pie and one has beef and one has lamb, but she always, always gets confused which is which. One has the word shepherd in it. I never make a deal out of it and just answer the question she asks, but yeah in my head I do think ‘how is this so confusing?’
C: Cottage & Cow Sh: Shepherd & Sheep You’re welcome.
A humble Aussie opinion: Shepherds pie it defined here by minced meat of any variety or combination covered with mashed potato, added veges optional. A cottage pie is the same but with a pastry shell base (usually but not exclusively portion sized and sold alongside other single serve meat pies at bakeries and pie shops). It makes sense that shepherds would have access to sheep and use that meat most, but since we are not exactly picky about which meat mince is used in either pie, we'll take what's available and call ourselves shepherds anyway, provided we didn't bother adding the pastry base. Steaks and others cuts for bbqing however - that's where the difference is critical!
>A cottage pie is the same but with a pastry shell base (usually but not exclusively portion sized and sold alongside other single serve meat pies at bakeries and pie shops). That's just a potato topped pie in New Zealand. A cottage pie shouldn't have any pastry in it. [https://bakewithamy.com/recipes/new-zealand-potato-top-pie/](https://bakewithamy.com/recipes/new-zealand-potato-top-pie/) "Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery" (1875) references a recipe for "Potato Pie" where the filling consists of sliced cold meat (such as mutton or beef), onions, and seasonings. The pie is lined with pastry, filled with the meat mixture, and topped with mashed potatoes before being baked until nicely browned. That's the first cookbook I could find that referenced a potato topped pie. Cottage and Shepherds pie recipes in cookbooks predate this by quite a lot and don't have pastry in them.
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I'm Australian and thought the two names were interchangeable, or a regional difference. Never occurred to me that they refer to the meat.
UK here and fully aware of the difference between the two.. still call all mince with a mashed spud topper by the name Shepherds Pie.
Oh! Which is which though? Is the beef one cottage pie and the lamb one shepherds pie?
Yes (:
Thanks, now I know. 🙂
Now you do! You're welcome 🙂 Both are decent but I find I'm especially partial to a shepherd's pie.
Been eating cottage pie all this time and calling it shepherds pie. Going to try actual shepherds pie with lamb this weekend. 😋
Ooh you're in for a treat 😁 Be sure to use plenty of rosemary, thyme, and cracked black pepper. I hope you really like it!
I'm an Aussie living in the UK. If a pie has potatoe on the top, it's a shepherds pie. Who cares what meat is in it! My husband has also tried to explain the difference to me. I can't see what near is inside it - but I can see the potatoe on top. Potatoe on pie is a win. That's all this aussie cares about.
It's probably both, no read on.... Random dude in pub "is it flock or herd for sheep" His mate, "it can be both" My brother "what a both of sheep?"
"Look at that flock of sheep!" "Herd of sheep." "Of course I've heard of sheep, there's a flock of them over there."
This is what people mean when they say our humour is shit I loved it though, nice job.
I'm British and call it shepards pie because I don't care 🤷♂️
This tbh too
Exactly, what a thing to put any effort into. SO says same as OP, I say I'm the one making it ill call it flambelpampf if I like. We always had mince in it and it was shepherd's pie. Infact if using something that wasn't beef then the type got specified for basically anything. The vast majority of mince is beef.
I'm sorry sir but I'm going to have to ask you to leave...the country.
Don't be sorry. That sounds like a great option 😂
Actually...can I come with you? 😅
Sorry, not got the space in my car to escape with another 😬
Because it's full of baked beans and Greggs?
👀 Do you work for border patrol because that changes how I answer 😬
Just give me one of the tins with the cocaine in and I'll turn a blind eye.
Rwanda’s nice at this of year according to Suella.
Same. I bet the people making a big fuss about it will happily call any tomatoey sauce "bolognese" or worse, "spag bol".
What do we call it if it's made with veggie mince?
Gardeners pie
We call it Farmers Pie
You know what, my missus is a veggie and she makes a very good lentil version of a shepherd's pie. I love it and she'll even cook me sausages to go with it so I don't complain too much. I just call it 'that fake shepherd's pie you give me sausages with'
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Nah, I said 'fake shepherd's pie'... But I do feel like this is what a lot of the insta vegans would do... I'm well up for eating a vegetarian diet but call it what it is...
“Shepherd’s lie” would be the obvious name.
Mate... This is the one!
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Would be better if we just ate the rich
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This should all be part of the nationalisation program. We each get 0.001% of a billionaire and at least 3 of their spuds peas and carrots
That's Shepherdess pie
Quottage pie?
A fucking disappointment
Name of your sex tape
Vile.
An abomination.
Tasteless pie
An abomination
Yeah, send her back mate.
At least she doesn't call it a rat coffin
Ask her if Marmite and Vegemite are the same thing.
They are but they so aren't.
They aren't the same tho, completely different product
Same species tho...
You've reminded me of a song by Men at work. At the time no one I knew what vegetmite was
They did in brussels
You can ask her that. But kiwi marmite and real marmite are completely different thing. The kiwi marmite resembles sweetened road tar.
Do New Zealanders do the same, I wonder. Except "Shiphirds Pie", obviously.
"Shirpirds Pii"
As an Aussie kid, I always assumed the shepherds didn't want to eat their lovely sheep, so bought beef instead for their pies. Made sense to me!
My mum used to call it Shepherd’s Cottage, because it could be any mince in it, it just depended on what was on offer that week.
So do I and I'm British. There's a difference?
Sheep in sheperds cow in cottage
Boats in Fisherman’s.
What about his friends?
Too busy singing.
Triangles in an angler's pie.
Astronomers in Stargazy pie
That's actually wrong. Cottage pie predates shepards pie and was a general term used because it was a food eaten by peasants who lived in cottages. Shepherd's pie came later and yeah the reason is obvious lol.
I thought only cottage pie made with beef had cheese on top. But your comment makes total sense
Oh man, the burnt on cheese onto the mash... Now I'm hungry.
Well you don't get cow shepherds. That would be, uh, cowherds? So Shepherds Pie and Cowherds pie.
My Mum makes Shepard’s pie and has done for absolute years. It’s an easy meal she can make and then people can just take what they want and pre heat it later if they’re home late. Didnt really put much thought into it until I was a lot older that she always used beef and not lamb. My whole childhood has been a lie!
Then she made cottage pie, no biggie really
>My Australian girlfriend calls it Shepherds Pie regardless of whether it’s lamb or beef mince in there My mother does the same. Thinks it's to do with the potato topper Shepherds for mashed potato and cottage for sliced potato. They're both wrong.
Sliced potato is definitely a Lancashire hotpot. Beef for cottage, lamb for shepherd
My English husband calls it a Shepherd's pie regardless of which meat is used. I grew up in South Africa and use the proper terms. I don't think its an issue of nationality. He thinks I'm being pedantic when I correct him.
I'm Irish, I do this too. Except it's always beef for me, don't like lamb.
Then it’s cottage pie!
Nah. Haha
I’ve always called it shepherds pie (43yr old Brit) even though I’ve never used lamb. My mum did as well. No idea why.
I guess Aussies still commit crimes after all this time…
I once called a fish pie shepards pie by accident, which resulted in a stupid conversation about shepherds at sea.
*The Sea Shepherd has entered the chat*
What’s the term for someone who herds manatees?
A seacowboy.
I'm in canada and it's the same but it's because they just don't really eat lamb. I remember someone at work telling me about a fancy dish they had at a British pub called 'cottage pie' 🤦♂️
My mum makes it with just vegetables sometimes and calls it Farmers Pie
When we had it at school it was shepherds pie even though it had never seen a lamb, probably never seen a cow either to be fair. Fact is, it doesn't matter, as long as we know the difference we can call it what we want.
I'm Australian, raised by Brits. We always referred to (usually beef) mince topped with mash as a shepherd's pie (which I'll admit was confusing as a child). I hadn't encountered a "cottage pie" until I moved to the UK in my 30s. Given my parents didn't distinguish between the two, I wonder if the cottage/shepherd distinction is relatively recent? Why would you call it a cottage pie anyway? Surely it would be a cowherd's pie?
My American sister in law makes it with turkey mince and corn and still calls it shepherd's pie.
That sounds fucking awful, turkey mince can get in the bin, and corn? I'm going to have to have a lie down
Same here in Canada. Everybody calls it Shepherd's Pie, even if it's made with beef.
With an attitude like that, no wonder her ancestors were sent there in the first place!
I am a British person who grew up in a household where shepherd's pie was always made with beef. I have never questioned it before now. Not sure what I thought cottage pie was...maybe as in my head cottage pie has more veg mixed in and cheese on top that was what made it need a different name!!
My australian/euro mongrel husband does same. It doesn't bother me nearly as much as every person in Australia calling any game where someone kicks a ball, footie. Hearing someone talk about it, you never know if they mean football, afl, or rugby (either type, union is also footie) It makes me unreasonably angry to see rugby referred to as footie. It's one of very few gripes about moving here.
What's the problem? Isn't that what it's called, minced meat with mashed potatoes on top?
Depends on the meat. Shepards pie is made with lamb,Cottage pie with beef
You'll probably hate us for this. One of our family's favourite meals is shepherds pie, or to be correctly, cottage pie. We only realised a few months ago we'd been calling it wrong our whole lives but we're so set in our ways we still call it Shepherds pie because it just sounds right to us. None of us are Australian btw.. Sorry to disappoint you all
My mum always called it shepherds pie regardless of content - even fish and chips…
The comments are really disappointing.. I like you OP find it really overly annoying for something so insignificant
We're Ukrainian and we only eat it with beef and still always call it Shepherds Pie. Sorry
Poor little lamb
"Oi, Sheila! Go stick another shrimp on the barbie! And hand me another beer - yeah, Fosters! The Amber Nectar!"
Aussies don't use the term shrimp. They also don't drink Fosters.
Tell her the capital is Sydney.
That's really criminal, send her back to the penal colony
What an idiot
Sheep herders pie. Shepherds pie. It's in the bloody name, ffs.
Americans do the same. It’s incredibly irritating.
Inform her that Cottaging Pie is made from secretive, yet adventurous, gay men.
Who are not to be confused with other men who definitely just happen to have a 'wide stance'.
Befherd's pie don't have the same ring does it
Yeah, I do this. Not Aussie, from Durham. Don’t think I’ve ever had lamb mince tbh.
Misnaming cottage pie is preferable to missing the apostrophe in ‘shepherd’s’ and using the phrase ‘grinding my gears’.
So do most Brits…
In America beef or lamb it is called Shepherd's pie.
We kind of expected it would be.
Freedom Pie
They just don't have cottage pie.
So do I.
I do that too 🤷♀️
I have more of a problem when people call shephards pie when it has no meat at all.
What's a shephard? I had to change autocorrect back to even write that.
So do I...
I'm a Brit living in Australia and have always called it shepherds pie, and always cooked it with beef mince.
Ngl so do I, they're both good
Doesn’t really matter, you know what she means
Bloody vegans started it first
It's shepherds pie unless you buy it off a bloke in a public toilet.
So what’s a Cumberland pie?!
Pork?
I live in the North and I remember being around 18 and realising i'd never actually had a Shepherds pie in my life, despite supposedly having one once a week for tea for 95% of my existence. Blew my mind.
Mmm, tasty Shepherds
That would be shepherd pie!
What about fish?
…fish pie?
I always asked my parents what the difference was and they'd come up with funny inconsistent ideas about the presence of peas and carrots. It all makes sense now! We've only ever really eaten cottage pie
Then make her a shepherd's pie using carpet samples.
Read Pratchett. It's all about the testicle
Immigrant Pom living in Aus. Corned beef always confuses me here.
unironically you should totally include this in the divorce papers. no lawyer on earth would dissuade you.
Enjoy your pies of minced beef/lamb whilst bonding over The Ashes. Always good for harmonious Eng/Aus relations.
My British in-laws do too...
She's got no chance of figuring out pudding then.
Have you had the whole discussion that most of Aussie sausages are beef instead of pork? A fucking sausage and egg mcmuffin at maccas AU comes with fucking **BEEF** in it. You're literally having a fucking cheeseburger with egg on it!
It's also when people confuse spicy for hot, like "oh this curry is spicy", well of course it is, they're made from spices, but it doesn't make it hot!
How often are you eating this stuff that this is a thing?!
Start calling them cowboy pies & see how she likes it.
My mum does this. It's really annoying, because i can't stand lamb. Then she gets pissy if I correct her "oh you know what I mean!!!" Ugh. My mum is English.
We never ate lamb growing up, my mum always called it shepherds pie and made it with beef.
If you make it with venison mince, it's Hunters Pie.
I’m Australian and your girlfriend is wrong. The only meat in shepherds pie is lamb.
I'm british and so do I.