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Cheese and Potato Pie, Childhood Memories!

Cheese and potato pie was ever present on the school dinner menu as well as at home, it is essentially a cheesy mash bake and it is awesome!

It’s not refined in the slightest, it’s a baked cheesy mash with a little onion, a cheesy topping, and some tomato, which is completely optional.

Portrait image of cheese and potato pie bake topped with tomato slices and served with sausages and baked bean

Cheese and Potato Bake

The sight of cheese and tattie pie on the school dinner menu or my Mom talking about it being for dinner would have filled me with delight growing up!

For some strange reason, it is a recipe that kinda slipped from my consciousness over the years. Working on my cheese and onion pie and cheese and onion pasty rekindled a load of memories and I had to give it an itch!

It joins other childhood favourites like spam fritters, gammon, egg and chips, homemade crispy pancakes, savoury mince beef, canned corned beef hash and liver and onions, yes I loved liver as a kid!

The cheese and potato pie I grew up with featured no pastry, and no filling.

Many people use something similar to top shepherds pie or cottage pie. But as far as I am concerned that is just wrong!

But it is still a pie, us Brits are perfectly comfortable with being “liberal” with our food names. If you are ever find yourself in rural Hungary buy me a beer and let me explain British puddings to you!

I digress, cheese & potato pie is essentially a cheesy mashed potato bake. My US readers would probably call it a “casserole”.

I call it comfort food heaven and it’s super easy to make because you do not have to mess around with pastry.

If cheese is your thing you must check out my chicken parmo recipe! An incredibly indulgent dish of a fried breaded chicken breast covered in bechamel sauce and cheese.

Portrait overhead image of cheese and potato pie bake topped with tomato slices and served with sausages and baked beans

Frequently Asked Questions

What sort of potatoes should I use?

This recipe is as simple as it gets! It is essentially a cheesy mash but don’t tell anyone I said that!

As with all mashed potato recipes you need floury or mealy potatoes as my US readers would call them.

You are looking for something like King Edwards, Maris Piper, Russet or Idaho.

What sort of cheese should I use?

For me, it has to be a nice sharp mature cheddar cheese. I have experimented with both Wensleydale and Cheshire cheese, both are pleasing in this dish but not quite as satisfying as cheddar!

Good cheddar should have a firm texture and not be spongy.

It should be creamy but crumbly all at the same time. Most importantly it should scream savoury with just the slightest hint of sweetness.

Can I make this in advance?

Yes, you can build this dish and place it in the fridge for 2-3 days covered with film and then bake it when you are ready.

I personally do not like freezing mashed potato and that goes for this recipe too.

Do I have to use English mustard?

No, you can omit the mustard or scale it back to something a little less “pokey” if you wish. Anything from German or American mustard to dijon or even wholegrain mustard is fine.

Portrait image of cheese and potato pie bake topped with tomato slices with a spoon taking out a piece

Serving Suggestions

Growing up this would usually be served as a main course with peas and loads of tomato ketchup.

This recipe will serve 2 as a main and 4 as a side dish. Although I reckon I would eat it all myself if left to my own devices!

I usually serve it as an indulgent side dish and it usually gets trotted out when I make my homemade sausages.

Just to ramp up the Britishness I tend to serve it with baked beans too!

But it is also superb with baked beans, so good in fact that it was the seed of the idea behind my fish finger pie!

But if you wanted to get all wrapped up in some serious bean cooking then these baked beans with bacon sound incredible.

Landscape image of cheese and potato pie bake topped with tomato slices served with baked beans and sausages

Equipment Used

I only name-check brands of equipment if I think that they make a material difference to a dish. But if you have any questions feel free to ask them in the comments section below the recipe.

  • Stovetop.
  • Oven.
  • 20cm or 8″ saucepan.
  • 500-600ml (2 cup) baking dish.
  • Chopping board.
  • Kitchen knife.
  • Potato ricer or masher.
  • Mixing bowl.
  • Colander.
  • Weighing scales and or measuring jug, cups and spoons.
Square image of cheese and potato pie bake served with sausages and baked beans
Yield: 2-4 Servings

Cheese and Potato Pie Recipe

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes

Cheese and potato pie was one of my favourite meals growing up, back then it would have been served as a main with peas and ketchup. I now prefer to serve it as a side with sausages and baked beans, yes I am still a child at heart!

Ingredients

  • 400g (3 Small-Medium) Potatoes
  • 75g (½ Stick + 1 Tbsp) Butter
  • 1½ Tbsp English Mustard
  • 150g (1½ Cups) Sharp Mature Cheddar
  • 75g (½ Cup) Onion
  • 1 Egg
  • 1 Tbsp Milk
  • 1 Tomato
  • Salt to taste

Instructions

  1. Bring a 20cm or 8" saucepan of well-salted water to the boil. I use 1 teaspoon of salt in a pan this size.
  2. Add on the potatoes whole and unpeeled and boil until cooked, this should take around 30-35 minutes.
  3. Halfway through cooking the potatoes peel the onion and drop it into the pan.
  4. Drain the potatoes, prick them with a fork and peel off the skin.
  5. Mash the potatoes or pass them through a potato ricer.
  6. Add the butter, almost all of the cheese and the mustard and mix well.
  7. Beat the egg with the milk.
  8. Add in the beaten egg and milk, then mix well, you should have quite a "wet" mash.
  9. Chop the onion into a 1cm (½") dice and mix that through the potatoes.
  10. Have a taste here and add more salt if required although it should not be!
  11. Place the mash into a greased or buttered casserole dish (around 0.5 litres in size) and top with the remaining cheese.
  12. Slice the tomato into 3-4mm (⅛-¼) thick slices and add them to the top of the mash.
  13. Bake in an oven at 200°C or 400°F for 15-20 minutes.

Notes

Nutrition calculated for 4 portions, this will serve 4 as a side and two as a main.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

4

Serving Size:

1

Amount Per Serving: Calories: 418Total Fat: 59gSaturated Fat: 34gTrans Fat: 2gUnsaturated Fat: 19gCholesterol: 249mgSodium: 1216mgCarbohydrates: 52gFiber: 6gSugar: 6gProtein: 28g

Calorific details are provided by a third-party application and are to be used as indicative figures only.

Did you make this recipe?

If you made this recipe, I'd love to see what you did and what I can do better, share a picture with me on Instagram and tag me @krumplibrian and tell me how it went!

Rosemary Finch

Friday 10th of January 2025

I used to love this as a child. I'm from the West Midlands, not that I think this has any bearing on how to serve the pie. My mom served it with home made parsley sauce and peas, I still serve it that way, and still love it as much as when I was a child. Real comfort food.

Brian Jones

Monday 13th of January 2025

Oooo you were posh lol 🤣 the only time that I saw parsley sauce growing up was on them frozen cod in parsley sauce dinners, and they were only for grown ups!

Sounds delicious though, especially with sweet peas, love it 😁

This definitely seems to be a Midlands thing, I was chatting with my aunt and uncle just before Christmas and my uncle (from the North East) had never heard of it (neither had my wife who is from the North West) and he was very confused, my aunt shared my love for it.

All the best.

Brian

CTM

Friday 13th of December 2024

My mum always made us this dish she called it cheese goulash. We always had it with bread and butter and tomato sauce. (Just the cheesy mash nothing else addded) We made sandwiches with it. Delicious 😋 I still make it now one of our favourite comfort foods. We are from the midlands.

Brian Jones

Monday 23rd of December 2024

Awesome, that's a name that I've not come across, I completely forgot about piling this into bread and dipping the sarnie into baked beans... magic memories :D

TK

Wednesday 23rd of October 2024

Lovely throwback to when I was small growing up in the UK.... Vegan now though... Why do you use the egg in the recipe... Can I use a flax egg instead?

Brian Jones

Wednesday 23rd of October 2024

Glad to bring back some memories, the egg changes up the texture a little and enriches the mash, I've never tried any egg substitutions... but my Mom never used egg in hers, my Nan always did though, so you could skip it.

But if you did try the egg substitution, please let me know how it goes, I'm always interested in vegan/vegetarian substitutions people use in my recipes :)

All the best.

Brian

H

Tuesday 10th of September 2024

Had this as a child, and my girls have grown up with it too. Pure comfort food. Eating it now, googled to see if anyone else knew about it, as I don't know of anyone personally.

Brian Jones

Thursday 19th of September 2024

Hey H... This recipe is a curious one, it seems to be very Midlands centric, most of the people that have commented on it are either form the Birmingham/Black country are or have families with links to that area, my wife is form Lancashire and she had never heard of it before we met.

Enjoy the retro food memories.

Brian

Julia Hale

Thursday 18th of July 2024

I make this often but fry the onions with bacon and mushrooms in butter, add them to the mashed potato and cheese and grate a shed load of cheese on top. I grill the cheese until crispy and serve with whatever I have on hand, sausage and beans or corned beef fritters are favourites

Brian Jones

Saturday 20th of July 2024

Ain't it magic, proper school dinner nostalgia.

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