Beef and Guinness Pie

The story

Beef braised in stout under a pastry lid is a newer dish than it looks. The Irish stews recorded in the 19th century were made with mutton or lamb, potatoes, onions and water. Beef was out of reach for most families, who would not slaughter their only dairy cow, and the earliest printed recipe, in Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery of 1874, calls for mutton chops. The stout came from Dublin, where Arthur Guinness began brewing at St. James's Gate in 1759 on a lease of up to 9,000 years at £45 a year. Nobody has pinned down when cooks first poured it over beef, but the dark beer does two jobs in the pot, tenderizing the meat and adding roasted, malty notes as it reduces. Many Irish pubs now serve beef and stout alongside the older lamb stew. Irish recipes for the pie are close cousins: ILoveCooking.ie braises steak pieces with onion, carrots, parsnips, celery and a whole can of Guinness before topping them with puff pastry, while chef Laoise Casey adds bacon, mushrooms and a splash of port to her St. Patrick's Day version. Both serve it with mashed potatoes. Braise the filling a day early and the pie needs only half an hour in the oven while you set the table.