This is my first time trying to make Scotch Pies and I’m super excited to tackle this for my Scottish husband on his birthday 🎂. A Scotch Pie or Mutton Pie is a small, pastry meat pie filled with mutton (i.e. lamb) or other meat. The pies are often served at Football games and at the local chippy and can be held by hand. For the birthday meal, we plan to include beans (i.e. Heinz Baked Beans) and chips (i.e. French Fries), which is rather traditional accompaniments to the Scotch Pie.

For tonight’s pies, I used the traditional lamb and I added onion, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper and a wee bit of brown gravy. This mix was then stuffed into the pastry.  Typically it’s stuffed into the pastry with raw meat, but I precooked the meat mixture and allowed it to cool to room temperature before stuffing.

The pastry is the beauty of the pie, crispy, delicious and surrounding the meat completely. This is created with a warm dough which rather intrigued me. The traditional recipe calls for lard (i.e. rendered pig fat) and I was actually able to find it at the grocery store, who knew 😉. I warmed the lard with water and salt and added the warm liquid to flour.

Working with the pastry while warm, I created a pastry bowl used a large ball jar. This helped, but I struggled a bit with the perfection. If any followers have a better suggestion, please let me know 👍

Scotch Pies

This recipe will make 4 pies.

Prep time is ~90 minutes

Baking time between 45-50 minutes

If you want larger pies, you’ll need a large ball jar wrapped in plastic wrap. Note: If you want smaller pies, use a small ball jar and you’ll likely get 6 – 8 pies!!!  You’ll also need a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Ingredients for the meat filling

• 1lb of ground lamb or other ground meat
• 2 cloves of garlic, smashed and chopped
• 1 small onion, diced in small pieces
• Couple dashes of Worcestershire sauce
• 5TBSP of brown gravy
• Salt and pepper

Ingredients for the warm pastry

• 1 cup of water
• 1/2 cup lard or 1 stick of butter
• 3 1/3 cup of flour and extra for your surfaces and kneading
• Salt
• 1 egg yolk for pastry glaze

Instructions
1. Start by prepping your ball jar, your floured surface, the baking sheet and your ingredients.

2. Cook your meat filling first. I started by frying the onions in olive oil briefly before adding the other ingredients, excluding the brown gravy. Once the meat is cooked, drain the fat from the meat, as needed. Set aside and add the brown gravy. You want to add some liquid, but you don’t want the mixture soupy.  I added 5TBSP and that seemed sufficient.

3. Now time for the pastry. Heat 1 cup of water, the lard/butter and salt in a sauce pan. Remove from heat right before it boils. Meanwhile, put the flour in a heat resistant mixing bowl. Pour the hot liquid onto the flour and mix together with a wooden spoon. Once cool enough to handle, tip onto a floured surface and knead until you have a smooth, together dough.

4. Now you need to work quickly with the pastry. Cut off a quarter of the pastry and set aside. This will be used for the lids later.

5. Divide the remaining dough into four equal sections and form into a ball. Roll out each ball to a 7inch circle, about 1/4inch thick and form around a large plastic wrap floured ball jar with your hands.

5. The section you cut off at the start, now roll into four circle lids, 4inches. Place a 1/4 of the filling onto each pastry cup and place a lid on top of the filling. Seal the edges together using your fingers. Note: This part will set some work. I suggest having a bowl of warm water to help form the seal.

5. Put the pies on the baking sheet lined with parchment paper and fork a cross at the top to allow the steam to escape during cooking. Brush with beaten egg yolk and bake for 45-50 minutes at 400. You’ll know they’re ready when they’re golden-brown.

6. Serve hot. You can serve with additional brown gravy or brown sauce (i.e. HP Sauce).

Note: You can place the pies into the refrigerator until you’re ready to bake, as well, which is what I did and they still ended up crispy and did not leak the gravy.