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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Cheese and Potato Pie Recipe
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
- Bring a 20cm or 8" saucepan of well-salted water to the boil. I use 1 teaspoon of salt in a pan this size.
- Add on the potatoes whole and unpeeled and boil until cooked, this should take around 30-35 minutes.
- Halfway through cooking the potatoes peel the onion and drop it into the pan.
- Drain the potatoes, prick them with a fork and peel off the skin.
- Mash the potatoes or pass them through a potato ricer.
- Add the butter, almost all of the cheese and the mustard and mix well.
- Beat the egg with the milk.
- Add in the beaten egg and milk, then mix well, you should have quite a "wet" mash.
- Chop the onion into a 1cm (½") dice and mix that through the potatoes.
- Have a taste here and add more salt if required although it should not be!
- Place the mash into a greased or buttered casserole dish (around 0.5 litres in size) and top with the remaining cheese.
- Slice the tomato into 3-4mm (⅛-¼) thick slices and add them to the top of the mash.
- 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:
4Serving Size:
1Amount 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.
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.
Stella
Thursday 23rd of May 2024
We were taught in cooking class in high school, in the early 90's, a similar dish, and it was called 'sausage and bean bake' Cook sausages, place in an ovenproof dish, pour over a can of baked beans, then put cheesy mash on top and bake it for about 30 minutes!
Brian Jones
Monday 3rd of June 2024
That sounds awesome and verry similar to fun a fish finger "pie" recipe that I have on my site :D
Jonny
Tuesday 16th of April 2024
OMG Brian, talk about nostalgia, this really is going too take me back in time.
This is a dish that I would crave has a kid, and I would deffo be going back up for seconds at school.
I recall the days of getting back from school walking up the entry of our terraced house and the smell of Cheese and Potato Pie wafting in my face, even on a hot summers day I would want to scoff the lot.
So I had my school dinner version, my mums version, then my grans version, then my best mates mums version...
Grans version, only used leeks instead of onions, always served with sausages and no toms on top of the pie.
School dinner version, was very basic (but still very nice) it would depend on what dinner lady cooked it, but you knew you would 100% be getting spam fritters with it and baked beans.
Mums version, leeks & onions, toms on top, lots of mustard but not too strong, a real heavy topping of cheese that would crunch when you chopped into it, with a side of spam fritters and baked beans or sometimes just baked beans.
Best mates mums version, so my mates mum was Spanish, in the bottom of the glass dish would be, minced beef with onions, topped with a layer of plum tomatoes and I think some red peppers, with probably some paprika dashing about, the topping was the same has most cheese and potato pies but just more toms on top. The whole dish had a hint heat but not too spicey or over powering. She would always serve a side of greens with it.
Not sure how she did it but the mash would never get soggy from the juices at the bottom of the dish.
All of the above used a strong Red Leicester Cheese has that's a midlands thing.
I'm really looking forward at giving your recipe a go.
Brian Jones
Sunday 21st of April 2024
Hey Jonny...
Glad this recipe triggers memories, this is wee slice of nostalgia is the most popular recipe on my site, probably for that reason... childhood food memories are awesome and I love them.
Like you there were so many memories of this growing up, this is a bit of a mash up between my Nans and my Moms version with a liberal sprinkling of grown up me ;)
Your Spanish mates Mom's version sounds awesome :D
I'm a Brummie and loads of my friends parents used Red Leicester but I was bought up with sharp cheddar, I think my Mom used to get loads of it from her brother who was a butcher and it was always really sharp and crumbly.
Enjoy.
Brian