cottage pie

Noun

cottage pie (countable and uncountable, plural cottage pies)

1. A meat pie having a mashed potato crust covering a mixture of beef (typically minced) and vegetables.
   • Cottage Pie.— Mince any kind of cold meat together (beef, mutton, veal, pork, or lamb), put it about an inch or and inch and a half deep in a pie dish, and cover it with gravy; don't spare salt and pepper; cover it over with mashed potatoes smooth at the top, and cut it across in diamonds with a...1873, Godey's Magazine, volumes 86-87, page 82
   • The recipes are of dishes suitable to the varying means of working men, such as cottage pie, haricot beans, scrap-bread pudding, Exeter stew, poor man's goose, and many others, combining economy and palatableness.1883, Fanny L. Calder, “Practical Cookery in Elementary Schools”, in Good Words, page 60