Shepherd's pie when the potato was being introduced as an edible crop affordable for the poor (cf. "cottage", meaning a modest dwelling for rural workers). The term "shepherd's pie" did not appear until 1854, and was used synonymously with cottage pie, regardless of whether the meat was beef or mutton. In the United Kingdom, the term "shepherd's pie" is now commonly used when the meat is lamb. In early cookery books, the dish was a means of using leftover roasted meat of any kind, and the pie dish was lined on the sides and bottom with mashed potato, as well as having
Battalia pie Battalia pie In English cuisine, battalia pie (obsolete spelling battaglia pye) is a large game pie, or occasionally a fish pie, filled with many small "blessed" pieces, "beatilles", of offal, in a gravy made from meat stock flavoured with spices and lemon. The dish was described in cookery books of the 17th and 18th centuries. Confusion with words for battle led to the pie being crenellated, or shaped to resemble a castle with towers. A battalia pie was so named because it was filled with "beatilles", small blessed objects (from Latin "beatus", blessed) such as, according to the Oxford English