These older cooking shows were obviously more traditional and slow but actually included good basic cooking knowledge for the viewer. A lot of cooking programs you see a lot of people fail as they have not learnt basic cooking skills and practical knowledge.
I decided to make this exactly as shown resisting the temptation to add 21st Century tweaks and spices just plenty of salt and pepper and it was absolutely delicious. The meat and vegetables made a delicious light stock that kept the pie moist. I will definitely be making it again and I think the only thing I will add will be a dash of Worcestershire Sauce.
There will be people saying to add herbs etc. which is okay, but not this time. Sometimes it is nice to eat and taste simple unadulterated food. It is human nature to always be trying to make things better, but this often misses simple pleasures.
Made this tonight. Modified the recipe by adding spices and Worcestersire sauce. Also browned the beef with the onion. Only thing I would change would be adding extra ground (minceed) beef. Served it with gravy and it was excellent. Will make again.
TheRenaissanceman65 compared to eighty something, which she is now I believe, 41 is pretty young! Maybe for a 20 year old, it doesn’t seem young. I am 45 and I still feel like I am pretty young.
That pie was yearning for a bit of oregano, or even some parsley! But they didn’t use herbs and spices so profusely in the 1970s. She did use a lot of black pepper though, which adds a lovely flavour.
curious how afraid of herbs people were...I remember we had a spice and herb rack in our kitchen in the 70's , we hardly ever touched any of it apart from the mint
Me Mam used to make Slate Pie. She'd climb up on top of t'house and fetch down a couple of slate roof tiles and bake 'em in a crust of mud from the bottom of t'garden. We might have been poor but we were too drunk to know it.......
This is the first comment I've seen which seems to be in defence of Mary. All the others suggest it's Mary who is difficult to work with and often snubs, ignores or talks over Judith. Unless Thames TV enjoyed being sadists, they must've had some decent relationship for so many programmes to be made in the '70s with them together.
It was quite common back then. I have some cook books from my mom that we’re popular in the 50’s/60’s, and they would ask for things like “a few grains of black pepper”. And almost nothing else. Maybe some flakes of dried parsley occasionally. I think it had a lot to do with the price of some spices and herbs. Not sure.
No cheese. Nontraditional in this recipe. And remember these shows were veered towards the economic times of the 70's. Food shortages, electric blackouts etc. We had to make a lot go a long way, well my Mum did. Cheese was very much a luxury item then. Not that it would go anywhere near a Cornish Pasty style recipe.
This is why British food is known to be bland and boring. Plenty of seasoning...salt and pepper. No garlic no thyme no oregano no parsley I mean come on.....I’ll never understand why. Thank God this isn’t how we cook in my country!
I think lots of people think that, but if you ever tried it you might change you mind. The ingredients speak for themselves you don't need all those spices or herbs.
This programme was made in the 1970s - fifty years ago now. During that time the country was in a lot of upheaval; there were strikes and walkouts by many workers in the public sector, which meant disruption of things like rubbish collection, council services and even electricity supplies (there were regular power cuts, which meant hours without lighting, heating or cooking facilities if you didn't have gas appliances, two or three times a week at least.) So yeah, fretting about not having any oregano for our pie filling was pretty low down on the list of worries. And like I said - this was FIFTY YEARS AGO. Should us Brits assume that the food in other countries is exactly the same as it was fifty years ago? That Americans all live on hamburgers, the Italians eat nothing but pizza and pasta and that Chinese people eat nothing but rice and stir-fry everything in a wok? No, because that would be an example of us being shallow and stereotypical while thinking we're scoring superiority points. And that would be pretty embarrassing, wouldn't it?
