Looking for a traditional recipe please.
Having lived in the South West for 40 plus years I have had to learn how to make my own meat & potato pies but the family are wanting more veggie meals these days so I'm determined to make a Lancashire Cheese & Onion Pie this Easter Holiday weekend and any tips advice gratefully received. On this occasion I'm using ready made shortcrust (obvs) pastry. Mum says don't even think about putting potatoes in so I wont but I'm not sure I have ever even had a cheese & onion pie when up North as I'm a Meat and Potato or Meat Pie fan so would be very grateful for help. TIA

Whatever recipe you choose it has to start with plenty of genuine Tasty Lancashire cheese. Not sure that will be available in the south west !

Chop plenty of onions. Cook slowly in plenty butter, mix in some mash, cheese and cream.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/my_m ... _and_42949

Made this a few times and never had any complaints

X3 large onions and 400g of grated cheese minum in my cheese and onion pie

Whatever you do, do not put potatoe in it! First thing I ask at a pub/restaurant

Pie crust has to be right too.
Half fat to flour. And a pinch of salt.
Butter/Lard/Marg - Self Raising Flour.
Grease an ovenproof dish and roll out your pastry and put pastry on.
Add a layer of onions, boiled not fried. You don't want them burned.
Add your grated cheese and onions. Bit of mustard powder.
Good quality Lancashire cheese.
Pastry brush some milk around the edges of your base.
Put the lid crust on.
Heat and eat.

The best quality Lancashire cheese is by Dewlay Tasty Lancs based in Garstang .
Any other cheese makers who call it “Tasty” taste entirely different .

Pastry as above, then fry some onions in butter. Grate up lanky, and cheddar and mix with the onions. Pop the top on and crimp the edge. Bake ‘til golden.
You want mash? Serve it on the side, NOT in the pie. The pie is the star here, let it enjoy its moment.

Wallop it.

mikeS wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 28, 2024 6:41 pm

Pie crust has to be right too.
Half fat to flour. And a pinch of salt.
Butter/Lard/Marg - Self Raising Flour.
Grease an ovenproof dish and roll out your pastry and put pastry on.
Add a layer of onions, boiled not fried. You don't want them burned.
Add your grated cheese and onions. Bit of mustard powder.
Good quality Lancashire cheese.
Pastry brush some milk around the edges of your base.
Put the lid crust on.
Heat and eat.

You may wish to add some cheese sauce to the above.
For extra cheeseyness.

Plenty of Worcestershire sauce as well as English mustard

Make it simple with the least amount of ingredients no need to add loads of crap

Pastry
400 g plain flour
100 g butter
100 g lard

Filling
X3 large onions
400 g Lancashire Cheese, coarsely grated

Fry the onions in a little butter until light brown (don't boil them in water) once cooled mix into the grated cheese, the filling is made nice and simple

There are lots of variation to a C&O pie recipe, but I was always told to use 3 cheeses, a strong Cheddar, a favourite one (Lancashire in this house) and a coloured cheese (Double Glos or Red Leics here). Never include potato, but always an egg to help the cheese bind and the pie hold its shape.
I always include butter in my onions (which I chop and microwave for about 5 mins) and a taste of Worcester sauce and mustard
Happy pie making!

This is my favourite and has won several awards at the British Pie Awards see menu at https://greatnorthpie.co/menu/

I could've done with this thread being about 3 weeks earlier. I'm an experienced bread-maker but I've never really dabbled in pastry/pies before but I got a longing for a C and O pie and decided to make one. Unfortunately I dont have the recipe that my mother used when making us great pies but I found a recipe online using ready-made shortcrust pastry and pretty much followed that. Its simple if maybe a cop-out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SV3Q8S ... usyKitchen

I used crumbly Lancashire cheese and did add a bit of mustard, used pro-rated down quantities for the only shallow pie-dish I had. Turned out pretty decent tasting albeit not aesthetically pleasing .

AGENT_CLARET wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 28, 2024 7:08 pm

Make it simple with the least amount of ingredients no need to add loads of crap

Pastry
400 g plain flour
100 g butter
100 g lard

Filling
X3 large onions
400 g Lancashire Cheese, coarsely grated

Fry the onions in a little butter until light brown (don't boil them in water) once cooled mix into the grated cheese, the filling is made nice and simple

I feel my arteries tightening just reading that.

There must be 3000 kcal+ in some of these recepies!

LeadBelly wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 28, 2024 7:49 pm

I could've done with this thread being about 3 weeks earlier. I'm an experienced bread-maker but I've never really dabbled in pastry/pies before but I got a longing for a C and O pie and decided to make one. Unfortunately I dont have the recipe that my mother used when making us great pies but I found a recipe online using ready-made shortcrust pastry and pretty much followed that. Its simple if maybe a cop-out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SV3Q8S ... usyKitchen

I used crumbly Lancashire cheese and did add a bit of mustard, used pro-rated down quantities for the only shallow pie-dish I had. Turned out pretty decent tasting albeit not aesthetically pleasing pie3.jpg
.

Look delicious.

Boss Hogg wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 28, 2024 7:56 pm

I feel my arteries tightening just reading that.

You obviously haven't watched Burnley enough this season then!

I never cook the onions always found if you chop them small enough they cook through, never put mash in it, that's just not Northern.

Cut up and met some cheese. Peel and chop an onion and make some pastry.

Put the cheese and onion in the pastry put in oven and you have Cheese and onion pie.



I have no idea. Don't like cheese or onions.

I was brought up on my mum's cheese and onion pie and not surprisingly nothing can match it. I think in the 50's/early 60's cheese was more expensive than onions and the cheese was fairly chunky, so plenty of onions and chunky cheese giving a slightly crunchy taste. The pastry was delicious but wasn't too smooth or washed with butter. My better half gets nearer than anything some of the local offerings have been, the worst of which have consisted of a smooth pastry dome a lot of empty space, with a liquid filling at the bottom.

Dyched wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 28, 2024 6:15 pm

Chop plenty of onions. Cook slowly in plenty butter, mix in some mash, cheese and cream.

I'm a chef.
And what he said apart from cream.
Don't actually make mash, just add some mashed potatoes to the cooked onions, add the cheese, then fill the pies!

AGENT_CLARET wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 28, 2024 7:08 pm

Make it simple with the least amount of ingredients no need to add loads of crap

Pastry
400 g plain flour
100 g butter
100 g lard

Filling
X3 large onions
400 g Lancashire Cheese, coarsely grated

Fry the onions in a little butter until light brown (don't boil them in water) once cooled mix into the grated cheese, the filling is made nice and simple

Why do you feel the need to add something that you don't need to do?
That's like giving someone directions and saying "drive left down the high street" " don't walk left down a completely different street "

Loyalclaret wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 28, 2024 6:35 pm

Whatever you do, do not put potatoe in it! First thing I ask at a pub/restaurant

And whatever you do don't put an "e" on the end of singular potato!

My Mrs boils the chopped onions in milk until they're soft

Putting potato in a cheese n onion pie could only have been to thicken it out and save cost on less cheese.

Not for me.

if using lancashire cheese in a pie it has to be tasty rather than crumbly.

as someone said further up i would do half lancs and half cheddar.

Putting potatoes in a cheese and onion pie should be an arrestable offence.

FCBurnley wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 28, 2024 6:09 pm

Whatever recipe you choose it has to start with plenty of genuine Tasty Lancashire cheese. Not sure that will be available in the south west !

I found some "Proper Tasty" Lancashire in Tesco's and to my now Southern palate really nice and a big step up from what I normally get. Butlers Farmhouse Preston apparently.

Thank you everyone for the replies. Considering I have never even fancied a cheese and onion pie I'm now ridiculously excited about making a couple this weekend. I will be keeping it simple and WONT be putting potatoes in. I've now seen two versions of Simon Hopkinson's recipe so will be doing it along those lines. I will report back but not likely to post a photo as presentation not my strong point and LeadBelly has set the bar high.
PS Not worrying about calories on an Easter Weekend. UTC

Don’t forget to put two raw eggs into the mixture to bind it together.

MeeActon1 wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 29, 2024 9:54 am

Don’t forget to put two raw eggs into the mixture to bind it together.

Can I be honest and say I'm not sure about mixing the onions and cheese together like in the video. Hopkinson's recipe calls for a layer of onions, a layer of cheese and another layer of onions and layer of cheese and something in me likes that idea. I just wonder if mixing it and adding eggs to bind will make it a bit quichey. This is only a comment not a criticism and as I say I am not remotely a cheese and onion pie afficionado. What do others think?

Woody9229 wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 29, 2024 10:06 am

Can I be honest and say I'm not sure about mixing the onions and cheese together like in the video. Hopkinson's recipe calls for a layer of onions, a layer of cheese and another layer of onions and layer of cheese and something in me likes that idea. I just wonder if mixing it and adding eggs to bind will make it a bit quichey. This is only a comment not a criticism and as I say I am not remotely a cheese and onion pie afficionado. What do others think?

I get where you’re coming from and had similar concerns and thought it was akin to witchcraft in a C&O pie, but it doesn’t, it makes the mixture firmer. Individual preference I suppose.

A bit of mustard is a must.

Tall Paul wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 28, 2024 6:23 pm

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/my_m ... _and_42949

Made this a few times and never had any complaints

Thanks Tall Paul. Mrs B decided to have a go at this recipe today and we had it for tea. I have to say it was delicious and some left over too.

AGENT_CLARET wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 28, 2024 7:08 pm

Make it simple with the least amount of ingredients no need to add loads of crap

Pastry
400 g plain flour
100 g butter
100 g lard

Filling
X3 large onions
400 g Lancashire Cheese, coarsely grated

Fry the onions in a little butter until light brown (don't boil them in water) once cooled mix into the grated cheese, the filling is made nice and simple

How many is this supposed to feed?!

By her own admission, Mrs " Clarets4me " is no Delia Smith, but her Cheese & Onion Pie is the food of the Gods, and in part, responsible for my current waistline ..

Shortcrust Pastry, Tasty/Crumbly Lancashire Cheese, finely chopped raw onions, and two eggs to bind. Salt and Pepper to season, and an egg wash to brown up the pastry ! Two weeks ago, we ordered Cheese & Onion Pie in a Manchester Restaurant prior to seeing Peter Kay, which arrived choc full of lumps of potato, and a molten liquid cheese sauce that had had a " brief encounter " with an onion .. her views on their version of a Cheese & Onion Pie were unprintable ..

When mixing the cheese with the softened onions need seasoning well salt and pepper .. little things make a big difference .: I like Worcester sauce and mustard but not sure should use both in same pie ..make sure your pastry spends at least 30 minutes resting in the fridge and don’t add too much water to the pastry mix .: the easier to roll the worse the pastry

For those of us who can’t get Lancashire (tasty crumbly or otherwise) cheese, what’s a good substitute? I saw cheddar above but 100% cheddar seems a bit boring. I’m surrounded by Mexican cheeses but unless you’re getting the one that’s like feta they are either super bland or more like cream.

Where has Cheese & Onion Pie been all my life? It was so good so good as Neil Diamond would say! Easiest pie I have ever made especially using ready made shortcrust pastry. This will be the first of many I am sure. I pretty much followed the Simon Hopkinson method. Gently fried the onion then added small amount of water and loads of seasoning and let them cool . Mainly good quality Lancashire Cheese but added a very good red cheese at the last minute which worked well. Did a layer of onion then cheese and repeat and that also seemed to work. Thank you for all your contributions. Much appreciated. UTC.

It's before 9am and I want pie looks great

Well done Woody! That pie looks the business! complete with pastry decoration too, gets you 9/10 and that’s only because we can’t taste it but it sounds amazing!!
I’ve been wanting cheese n onion pie since the start of this thread…….must get my act together.

UTC

Is anyone bringing any samples of their Cheese and Onion pies for tonight?