Pie and mash, a traditional Cockney dish, may be given protected status in Britain

A quick, cheap working-class dish – that’s the promise of Pie and Puree, a traditional Cockney meal consisting of a mince pie with mashed potatoes on the side and smothered in a parsley sauce.

“It was almost like the original, nutritious fast food of the time for working-class Londoners,” said Richard Holden, the Conservative MP for Basildon and Billericay. As it happens host Nil Köksal.

And thanks to Holden, the dish could soon gain protected status as a traditional dish.

Holden led a debate in Parliament this week, petitioning to have pie and mash (sometimes stylized as pie ‘n’ mash) given the Traditional Specialty Guaranteed label from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). The designation would mean that only meals prepared according to such specific recipes or methods could be labeled as Cockney “pie ‘n’ mash”. Such labels are enforced with periodic audits to ensure manufacturers are following the rules.

The goal is to celebrate the dish and the history behind it, Holden says. He adds that while other countries such as France and Italy have around 800 protected dishes, the UK has fewer than 100 with that designation.

“We really need to highlight some of these culinary traditions that we have in Britain and talk about them wherever we can, especially those that have a special bit of history,” Holden said.

Other British delicacies to have been awarded the Traditional Specialty Guaranteed label include Gloucestershire Old Spots pork and Bramley apple pie.

The roots of pie and mash

The first registered physical cake shop started in 1844. The cakes were produced in advance, making them an easy dish to take on the go, according to Holden.

Original recipes for pie and mash were made with eel rather than mince – a staple food for working-class people as the River Thames was full of eels at the time, Holden said. Shops switched to ground beef when the river became too polluted to support eel during the Industrial Revolution, Holden says.

Although pie and mash are still often served with stewed or jellied eel, Holden says the inclusion of eel will not be part of the protected status. “I’m not going to try to feed anyone jelly eel,” Holden said.

More than a meal

Cheryl Arment, co-owner of Arment’s Pie & Mash House, supports the protected status.

“I think that’s excellent,” says Arment. “It’s such a part of our heritage and kind of woven into our fabric that I think it would be good to give it national status.”

Arment’s has been in business since 1914, and although the location has changed over the years, the business has remained in the hands of the Arment family.

In her shop, Arment says it’s not uncommon to see four generations of family members sitting around a table and sharing a meal, or to see old friends having lunch and reconnecting with the place where they grew up over a traditional dish.

“We feel like we are the guardians of the pie and mash shop and not the owners,” Arment says of her shop, which like many other pie shops is a community center of sorts in the neighborhood. “And the food is just part of that, it’s part of (Londoners’) memories, it’s part of their childhood and their everyday lives.”

Protected status versus original recipes?

Although Arment is in favor of the status, she is cautious about how the status is implemented. Protected status requires some standardization of a dish’s recipe or ingredients, which can pose problems if the rules around what’s required to call a food pie and mash are too strict.

She doubts families would want to reveal their exact recipe – which in her family’s case is a 110-year-old secret.

“Shop owners… are very careful when it comes to their prescriptions,” Arment says. “It’s the same shape, but every recipe for every family is unique.”

Holden says it doesn’t intend for the rules to restrict mom-and-pop shops, and doesn’t think the status will do that. In fact, he hopes to give artisan bakers, who make the dish fresh by hand every day, an extra special status.

“I really want to give that recognition to those small family bakeries and the pie and mash shops that really provide these local products,” Holden said.

Given the spirit of Holden’s campaign, Arment says she is confident the status will be useful for small businesses like hers.

“If it’s a more general standardization, I think only good could come from that,” Arment said.