Beef chuck slow-braised in Guinness for three hours, into a dish, puff pastry on top, into a hot oven. The pub pie that earns the second pint.
Why you should cook this
The first beef and Guinness pie I made was on a Saturday in June, in a Glebe terrace whose oven door had a habit of swinging open ten minutes into any cook unless you wedged a cast-iron pan against it. I had four hungry mates coming over and I had made the filling the night before, which is the only intelligent thing I have ever done in advance. The filling had become deeper, darker, and somehow better in twelve hours of fridge time. The pastry was Pampas frozen puff because the day got away from me.* The pie came out, the oven door behaved, and four people ate in mostly silence except for the occasional muffled noise of approval. That is the bar for this dish.
(*Make the filling the day before. Always. The flavour develops in a way that no amount of time in the oven can fake. This is a pie that rewards planning ahead, and I say that as a man who does almost everything at the last minute.)
The Guinness is the whole game. The bitterness of the stout balances the sweetness of the slow-braised onions and the richness of the beef fat. Use the regular Guinness Draught, not the Foreign Extra, which is too aggressive for a pie and tastes vaguely of motor oil after three hours of reduction. A pint goes in the pot. The other pint stays with the cook. This is the rule.
For the meat, chuck or oyster blade. Both have the connective tissue that breaks down properly under long heat. Cut into 4cm cubes, brown hard in a hot pot, deglaze with the stout, simmer with onions, garlic, thyme, bay, brown sugar and beef stock for three hours until the meat collapses to the back of a fork. Cool. Into the pie dish. Pastry on top. Into a 200°C oven for thirty minutes. The pastry should be amber and the gravy should be bubbling visibly around the edges before you pull it out.
What to drink with it
A pint of Guinness, obviously. If you want wine, a Barossa shiraz with the same kind of dark fruit weight as the stout: Penfolds Bin 28 at $32 is the workhorse, Henschke Mount Edelstone at $130 is the night-out version. A McLaren Vale GSM also works. For a non-alc, a properly cold ginger beer with an aggressive ginger note, Bundaberg or Fever-Tree, with a wedge of lime.
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Notes from the kitchen
Brown the meat in three batches, never crowded, in a hot pot with a tablespoon of oil. The maillard crust on each cube is half the flavour of the final pie. Do not rush this step. Each batch takes five to six minutes per side. After the meat, brown the onions hard in the rendered beef fat until they are properly amber. Light-coloured onions in a pie filling read as undercooked even if the meat is right.
The pastry needs to be cold when it goes on. Roll it out, cut to size, slide back into the fridge while the filling cools. Cold pastry on hot filling collapses; cold pastry on cool filling rises. Brush with egg wash for the burnished gold finish. Cut a 3cm steam slit in the centre. Without it, the pastry domes up and then collapses dramatically as it comes out of the oven, which is funny exactly once.
Two things that go wrong
Soggy bottom
Filling went in too wet, or pastry went in too thin. The filling should be thick enough to mound on a spoon. The pastry should be at least 5mm thick. If you are using a base layer of pastry as well as a top, blind-bake the base for 12 minutes before filling.
Pastry pale and undercooked
Oven not hot enough, or you opened the door too early. 200°C fan-forced minimum. Do not open the door for the first 20 minutes. The egg wash is what gives the gold finish, do not skip it.
Variations worth knowing
Steak and ale (English version)
Swap the Guinness for a dark English ale (Toohey’s Old or a James Squire Porter). Add a tablespoon of English mustard to the gravy. Slightly drier, slightly sharper, equally good.
Lamb and stout
Replace the beef with lamb shoulder cubed, swap thyme for rosemary. Two and a half hours of braising rather than three. A bit more delicate.
Mushroom and stout (vegetarian)
Skip the beef, double the onions, add 800g mixed mushrooms (browned hard) and a tin of butter beans. Use mushroom stock and a stout to braise. Same pie, no animal.
Leftovers and make ahead
Better the next day at room temperature, with a sharp salad, for lunch. The pastry holds up surprisingly well overnight. To reheat hot, 180°C for 15 minutes covered with foil for the first 10 minutes, then uncovered for the last 5 to crisp the top. The filling alone (without pastry) freezes for three months. Pull from freezer, into a fresh pie dish, fresh pastry on top, into the oven. A meal you cooked once that becomes two dinners and one lunch.
The recipe
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Ingredients
Method
- Pat the beef cubes dry with paper towel. Season generously.
- Heat the olive oil in a large heavy pot over medium-high heat. Brown the beef in three batches, 5 minutes per side, deeply caramelised. Set aside.
- Add the onions to the same pot. Cook over medium heat for 12 minutes, stirring, until deeply amber. Add the garlic and tomato paste, cook 1 minute.
- Sprinkle in the flour, stir for 1 minute. Pour in the Guinness, scraping the pot. Reduce by a third (about 6 minutes).
- Return the beef. Add stock, brown sugar, thyme, bay, Worcestershire. Bring to a simmer.
- Cover and simmer over the lowest heat for 2.5 to 3 hours, stirring once an hour, until the beef collapses to the back of a fork.
- Cool completely. Refrigerate overnight if possible.
- Preheat oven to 200°C fan-forced. Spoon the filling into a deep oval pie dish (about 1.5L).
- Lay one sheet of puff pastry over the dish. Trim the edges, press to seal. Cut a 3cm steam slit in the centre.
- Mix the egg and milk. Brush the pastry generously.
- Bake for 30 minutes until the pastry is deep amber and the gravy is bubbling around the edges.
- Rest for 10 minutes before serving with mash, peas and a pint.