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Glite Dictionary
cottage pie

cottage pie

1 1.6
A baked dish of minced meat, usually beef, topped with mashed potatoes
  • noun
  • /ˈkɒtɪdʒ paɪ/
  • UK
translation icon : pastel de carne
  • For dinner, I made a delicious cottage pie using minced beef and topped it with creamy mashed potatoes.

Then there is a shepherd's pie or a cottage pie.

Examples

  • Dinner tonight was a cottage pie, nothing in it that wasn't suitable, and the potato topping was mashed cauliflower.

    Blog text (12)

  • Lamb and beef and then cottage pie is just beef.

  • Yo, what's the difference between shepherd's pie and cottage pie?

    iBoy (2017)

  • Then we're having chicken and sweet potato on Tuesday, Turkey mince, cottage pie, just a little bit healthier on Wednesday.

  • I don't know, but I would smash your mom's cottage pie.

    iBoy (2017)

  • We made turkey cottage pie with the leftover turkey, plus turkey hash and turkey in lettuce cups.

    Blog text (26)

  • Shepherds look after sheep, not turkeys, and shepherd's pie is always made with lamb/mutton mince in the UK, so I would describe this as a cottage pie, which can be made with any other meat or meat substitute.

    Blog text (9)

  • The children enjoyed their meal of cottage pie paired with a side of peas and carrots.

  • Last weekend, we had cottage pie at the local restaurant, and it was the best one I had ever tasted.

Synonyms

shepherd's pie
vscottage pie
7 2.3

A baked dish of minced meat and vegetables topped with mashed potatoes

uses beef more often and omits emphasis on vegetables or gravy under the mash

Surface Forms

cottage pie singular
cottage pies plural

Morphology

cottage + pie

The components 'cottage' + 'pie' give a general clue — a home-style or rustic pie — so learners can infer it is a savory, domestic dish. However, the precise form (minced meat baked and topped with mashed potatoes rather than a pastry crust) is not predictable from the words alone, and culinary naming varies cross-linguistically, making the exact meaning only partially transparent to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Cottage pie may come from a simple meal made in small country homes where cooks in poor cottages put minced meat into a dish and covered it with mashed potatoes. That's why the name links cottage meaning 'small house' and pie, and today it means 'a baked dish of minced meat topped with mashed potatoes'.