It’s that time of year. The cold is on the way, so it’s time for you to start thinking about adding some comfort food to your in-store selection, and plenty of it!

The humble steak pie has been a staple of British cuisine for generations. You can find some sort of variation on this blissfully beefy bake in any good butcher’s shop, chippy, or football ground around the UK, so it’s definitely a safe bet when it comes to satisfying hungry customers!

Here at Butchers Equipment Warehouse we’d highly recommend adding some steak pies to your selection of edible treats, so we’ve come up with a truly delicious steak pie recipe for you to add to your selection of tasty in-house treats.

Ingredients

You’ll need a few bits and bobs to get started, and this particular recipe will serve about eight people, so obviously you’ll need to multiply the ingredients accordingly to meet the demands of your customers should the pie prove popular.

For the filling

  • 2 tbsp - vegetable oil
  • 1kg -  braising steak
  • 1pinch - salt
  • 1pinch - pepper
  • 1 onion (chopped)
  • 2 garlic cloves (chopped finely)
  • 2 tbsp - plain white flour
  • 1 tbsp - Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 tbsp - tomato purée
  • 1 tsp - dried mixed herbs (rosemary and thyme)
  • 250g - mushrooms (sliced)
  • 2 large carrots (sliced into small circles)
  • 500ml - beef stock

For the pastry

  • 75g - butter
  • 300g - plain white flour
  • 1 pinch - salt
  • 75g - lard
  • 5 tbsp - warm water

Cooking method

To start, preheat your oven to about 160 degrees Celsius, and grab a large, rectangular oven-proof dish to cook your pie in. For this particular recipe, we’d recommend a dish at least 25cm in length, with plenty of depth for the filling.

Next, make the filling. To do this, heat up a flameproof casserole dish on your hob and add a tbsp of oil. Once the dish is hot, add your braising steak to it and give it a good brown on all sides (feel free to add more oil if you feel you need it!). Once the beef has been nicely browned on all sides, remove it from the pan and set it aside to rest. From here, add your chopped onion to the pan and cook for 2-3 minutes until soft. Once your onions have started to soften, add your chopped garlic, carrots, and mushrooms to the pan and fry everything together for about 5 mins until soft.

From here, you’ll want to add your braising steak back into the pan, along with the flour and a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper. Don’t worry if it doesn’t look particularly appetising at this point! It’s not supposed to just yet.

Lower the heat of the pan to a medium level, and mix together your beef stock, tomato puree, mixed herbs and Worcestershire sauce in a jug. Pour the liquid over the meat and veg and stir everything together.

Bring the filling to the boil, then take it off the hob and place it into the oven, covered, for about 1 hour 30mins. By the time this is done, your meat should be nice and tender, and your gravy should be lovely and thick.

On to the pastry. While the filling cooks in the oven, mix together the lard and the flour until it resembles a sort of bread crumb substance. Then, add the warm water and bind everything together with your hands - this is your pastry. Once you’ve made that, wrap your pastry in cling film and place it in the fridge to rest for 1 hour.

Once the filling is cooked, take it out of the oven and allow it to cool. Turn the temperature of your oven up to 190 degrees Celsius.

Roll out your pastry and cut off about a third of it (but don’t throw it away!). Lay the larger piece of pastry in the large oven-proof dish, don’t worry if the edges of the pastry flop over the sides. From here, fill the dish with your cooled filling. Lay the third of pasty over the filling, and seal the with your fingers. Trim away any excess pasty that’s probably flopping over the side.

From here, prick a few holes in the top of your pie so that the steam can escape when you cook it. Brush the pastry with some milk and place it in the oven for 30-40 minutes, and you’re ready to serve!

We guarantee your customers will love this delicious winter warmer. It’s cheap, easy to make in bulk, and well worth the effort. However, in order to create this delicious pie, you’ll need some quality butchers equipment to help you make it the very best it can be. That’s where we can help!

For over 30 years, we’ve supplied tried-and-tested, five star rated brands to our clients. With our extensive range of butchers machinery, butchers accessories, and butchers knives, we know our butchers equipment inside out. Give us a call on 01254 427721 and we’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have!