A Dish with Real Standing in Scotland

Ask anyone in Scotland what they sat down to on New Year's Day and the answer will very often be steak pie. It turns up at family gatherings, at christenings and birthdays, and in the queue at the butcher's on a Friday afternoon. It is the kind of food that is not trying to impress anybody, which is precisely why it does.

The traditional Scottish version is a family-sized affair rather than a row of little individual pies: a deep dish packed with beef that has been cooked down until it gives way under a spoon, all held in a dark, glossy gravy, then covered with pastry. Puff pastry is common enough, and a good butcher will sell you a ready-made lid, but a suet crust is the older and, to my mind, more satisfying option. It is lighter than you might expect, slightly crisp on top, and it soaks up the gravy in a way that puff simply will not.

Choosing the Beef and Building the Gravy

This is a slow-cook dish, so you want a cut with plenty of connective tissue. Chuck steak or blade is ideal, and braising steak will do at a push. Avoid anything lean and expensive — it will turn dry and sulky after two hours in the oven. For a pie serving six, allow around 1kg of beef, cut into generous 4cm chunks. Larger pieces stay juicy; small dice turn to shreds.

Brown the meat properly, in batches, in a heavy casserole with a little beef dripping or oil. Crowd the pan and it will steam rather than colour, and you will lose the deep flavour that makes the finished gravy taste like something. Set the beef aside, then soften two large sliced onions in the same pan, scraping up the crusty bits as you go.

Return the meat, then add:

• 2 tablespoons plain flour, stirred through the meat and onions and cooked out for a minute
• 500ml good beef stock, plus a splash more if needed
• 1 tablespoon tomato purée
• A teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce
• A bay leaf and a few sprigs of thyme
• Salt and plenty of black pepper

Some cooks add carrots; in the west of Scotland that is close to heresy, but a couple of sliced ones will not ruin anybody's afternoon. What you should not do is over-season at this stage. The gravy reduces as it cooks, and it is far easier to add salt later than to take it away.

The Long, Slow Cook

Cover the casserole and put it into an oven at 150°C (130°C fan, gas mark 2) for 2 to 2½ hours. Alternatively, simmer it very gently on the hob with a lid on, stirring now and then so nothing catches. You are looking for meat that yields to a spoon and a gravy that coats the back of it.

When it is ready, taste and adjust — a little more Worcestershire, a knob of butter swirled in at the end, a pinch of sugar if the tomatoes have left it sharp. Then, and this matters, let the filling cool completely before it goes anywhere near pastry. Hot filling will melt the fat in the suet crust before it has had a chance to set, and you will end up with a sad, greasy lid.

Making the Suet Crust

Suet pastry is about as simple as pastry gets. For a lid over a 1.5-litre pie dish you will need:

• 350g self-raising flour
• 175g shredded beef suet (vegetarian suet works perfectly well)
• A good pinch of salt
• Roughly 150ml cold water, added gradually

Mix the flour, suet and salt, then add the water a little at a time until you have a soft but not sticky dough. Bring it together lightly with your hands — do not knead it enthusiastically, or the crust will turn tough. Wrap it and rest it in the fridge for 20 minutes, which makes it much easier to roll.

Assembling and Baking

Spoon the cooled filling into a deep pie dish, leaving a good centimetre of headroom. Roll the pastry out on a floured surface to a thickness of about 5mm and a little wider than the dish. Brush the rim of the dish with beaten egg or milk, lay the pastry over, and press it firmly down all the way round. Trim the excess, then crimp the edge with your thumb and forefinger, or press it with the tines of a fork.

Cut two or three slits in the top to let the steam out, and brush the whole lid with beaten egg. Bake at 200°C (180°C fan, gas mark 6) for 35 to 40 minutes, until the pastry is risen and properly golden. If the edges start to catch, cover them loosely with foil. Let the pie stand for ten minutes before you cut into it — the filling will be molten straight from the oven.

Serving, Sides and Leftovers

Neeps and tatties are the classic accompaniment, boiled and mashed separately with plenty of butter and white pepper. Buttered greens, peas, or a pile of chips are all entirely acceptable. In a butcher's shop you will often be offered a tub of gravy on the side, and I would not argue with that: this pie is rich, but it is never swimming.

The pie can be made in stages. Cook the filling a day ahead and keep it in the fridge, or freeze it for up to three months; assemble and bake on the day. A fully assembled unbaked pie freezes well too — add ten minutes to the baking time and start it from frozen. Any leftovers reheat gently, covered, in a low oven, though the pastry will never be quite as crisp as it was the first time round.