Dr Mobeus
Lancashire Butter Pie
Butter pie is a Lancashire institution. It started life as the pie Catholic mill workers made on Fridays, when meat was off the menu, and it still feeds families for pennies today. The filling is nothing more than sliced potatoes, onions and butter, seasoned well and sealed inside shortcrust pastry. When the filling was thin it was nicknamed air pie, but made properly it is genuine comfort food.
The whole pie costs around £1.90 to make and cuts into four generous portions at about 48p each. That is less than a single supermarket pie from the chiller cabinet, and this one feeds four people.
The trick with butter pie is seasoning every layer. Potatoes drink salt, so be braver than feels natural, and get the slices thin so they cook through in the time the pastry needs to turn golden.
Lancashire Butter Pie
Ingredients
Method
- Rub 75g of the cold butter into the flour with a good pinch of salt until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the milk and bring everything together into a firm dough, wrap it and chill for 30 minutes.
- Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/Gas 6. Roll out two thirds of the pastry on a floured surface and use it to line a 20cm pie dish.
- Layer the sliced potatoes and onions in the dish, seasoning every layer generously and dotting the remaining 25g butter, cut into small pieces, over the layers as you go.
- Roll out the rest of the pastry and lay it over the filling. Seal the edges, crimp them with your thumb or a fork, and cut a small steam hole in the middle.
- Bake for 45-50 minutes until the pastry is golden and a knife slides easily through the potato layers with no resistance.
- Rest the pie for 10 minutes before slicing so the layers hold together. Serve with pickled beetroot, a fried egg or a big spoon of brown sauce.
Tips and Variations
Slice the potatoes as thinly as you can, around 5mm, so they cook evenly under the pastry lid. A little grated cheese scattered between the layers turns it into a cheese and tatie pie for a few pence more. Any leftovers are excellent cold in a lunchbox the next day, and the pastry freezes well, so make a double batch and keep one wrapped in the freezer for a busy night. Do not skip the resting time before cutting, or the filling will slump straight onto the plate.
