Steak braised in a dark English ale for three hours, into puff pastry, into a hot oven. The British pub pie, made properly at home for less than the pub charges.
Why you should cook this
The steak and ale pie is the close English cousin of the Beef and Guinness, and people argue about which is better with the energy of two football fans who have both had four pints and have decided this is the hill. The truth is they are different drinks of the same family, and both are excellent in different ways. The Guinness pie is darker, sweeter, with the iron-and-burnt-toast note that only stout can give. The steak and ale is sharper, drier, more bitter, with a clean caramel rather than a treacle finish. If you have made one, you owe yourself the other.
The ale matters. Use a dark English-style ale: Toohey’s Old, James Squire The Chancer Barrel-Aged Porter, or any of the dark ales at the fancy bottle-shop section. Avoid lager (too hoppy and sweet for braising), avoid IPAs (way too bitter once reduced), avoid stout (too heavy, that is the Guinness pie). The Australian craft beer scene now does enough English-style dark ales that you do not need to buy something imported, though a tin of Old Speckled Hen at $6 from Dan Murphy’s is also a fine choice for the cook who wants the full British experience.
Mushrooms and pearl onions go into the filling alongside the beef, alongside a bay leaf, thyme, English mustard, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar. Three hours of slow braising. Cool the filling, into pie tins (individual or one big), pastry on top, into the oven. Twenty-eight minutes at 200°C fan-forced. The pastry should be amber, the gravy should be visibly bubbling at the rim, and the kitchen should smell like a Sunday in the Cotswolds even if you are in Marrickville and there is a tram going past.
What to drink with it
A second pint of the same ale you used to braise it. Or, if you want wine, a Coonawarra cabernet sauvignon. Cape Mentelle Cabernet Merlot at $40 is the everyday option, Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon at $130 is the celebration pour. A McLaren Vale GSM also works. For non-alc, a properly cold ginger beer with a wedge of lime cut as if you were going to put it in a Mexican beer.
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Notes from the kitchen
Brown the beef in batches in a hot Dutch oven. Crowded meat steams, steamed meat is grey, grey meat does not pie. After the meat is browned and set aside, brown the mushrooms in the rendered beef fat for six minutes until deeply amber. Set aside with the meat. Then the onions, then the garlic and tomato paste. Then the flour. Then the ale, scraping the bottom of the pot to release every dark bit of fond. Reduce the ale by half before adding the stock. This is the step that turns “beef in beer” into “pie filling.”
Cool the filling completely before pastry goes on top. Hot filling under cold pastry will steam the bottom of the pastry and you end up with a soggy, undercooked pastry layer that has not had a chance to puff. Cool. Pastry. Egg wash. Steam slit. Hot oven. The pie should rest for ten minutes after coming out of the oven so the filling sets up and does not pour out the moment a fork goes in.
Two things that go wrong
Filling tastes flat or one-note
Probably too much ale and not enough seasoning. The ale should reduce by half before stock is added. Worcestershire, English mustard, brown sugar, and a generous amount of black pepper round it out. Taste the filling before it goes into the pie tin. Adjust before, not after.
Pastry is pale and undercooked
Oven not hot enough, or pastry was too thick, or you did not egg-wash. 200°C fan-forced minimum. Pastry should be 5mm thick. Egg wash twice for the deepest gold.
Variations worth knowing
Steak, ale and Stilton
Crumble 100g Stilton or a sharp Roaring Forties blue into the filling at the end. The cheese melts into the gravy and turns the whole pie into an absolute knock-out winter dish. Not for everyone but everyone who likes it loves it.
Mini hand pies
Roll the filling into individual hand pies, sealed crescents, baked on a tray. School-lunchbox-sized. Freeze raw, bake from frozen, eat for the next six lunches.
Lamb shank version
Braise two lamb shanks in the ale instead of beef. Pull the meat off the bone after braising, return to the gravy, into the pie. Slightly more delicate, slightly more refined, equally good.
Leftovers and make ahead
Better the next day, room temperature, with a sharp salad and a cold beer. The pastry stays surprisingly crisp if it has been properly cooked the first time round. To reheat hot, cover with foil and warm at 180°C for 12 minutes, then uncovered for the last 5 to crisp the top. Filling alone (no pastry) freezes for three months. Make a double batch of filling. Eat half tonight, freeze half for a Tuesday in August when winter has worn you down to the studs.
The recipe
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Ingredients
Method
- Pat the beef dry. Season generously with salt and pepper.
- Heat the oil in a heavy Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Brown the beef in three batches, 5 minutes per side. Set aside.
- Brown the mushrooms hard for 6 minutes in the same pot. Set aside with the beef.
- Add the pearl onions, brown for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and tomato paste, cook 1 minute.
- Sprinkle in the flour, stir for 1 minute. Pour in the ale, scrape the pot, reduce by half (about 8 minutes).
- Return the beef and mushrooms. Add stock, brown sugar, Worcestershire, mustard, thyme, bay.
- Cover, simmer over the lowest heat for 2.5 to 3 hours, until the beef collapses to a fork.
- Cool completely. Refrigerate overnight if possible.
- Preheat oven to 200°C fan-forced. Spoon the filling into a deep pie dish (or 6 individual tins).
- Lay the puff pastry over the dish. Trim, press to seal. Cut a 3cm steam slit.
- Mix the egg with milk. Brush generously.
- Bake 28 to 32 minutes until deep amber and bubbling at the edges.
- Rest 10 minutes. Serve with mash and peas.