Pie and mash is a traditional working-class food, originating in the East End of London. Pie, mash and eel shops have been in London since the 19th century, and are still common in East and South London and in many parts of Kent and Essex. The shops may serve stewed or jellied eels.
History
During the Victorian era, industrial air pollution tended to be worse in the east and southeast of London because of the prevailing westerly wind, with the result that the East End was settled more by the working classes, while the western part of the city was home to higher social classes. The working class were poor and favoured foodstuffs that were cheap, in plentiful supply and easy to prepare. The savoury pie had long been a traditional food, and its small handsized form also made it a transportable meal, protected from dirt by its cold pastry crust, and filled with cheap minced meat, usually mutton. Adding cheap mashed potatoes, together with a sauce made with fish stock and parsley, made it a plate-based sit-down meal. Jellied eels are often associated with pie and mash, as European eels cooked in gelatine also became a common worker's meal, since eels were one of the few forms of fish that could survive in the heavily polluted River Thames and London's other rivers at that time. Supply was plentiful through the late 19th century, particularly from the Dutchfishing boats landing catches at Billingsgate Fish Market. Since 2010, as revealed in a joint study by the Zoological Society of London and the Environment Agency, the number of eels captured in research traps in the River Thames fell from 1,500 in 2005 to 50 in 2010, meaning most eels used in pie and mash shops are now from the Netherlands and Northern Ireland.
Composition
The main dish sold is pie and mash, a minced-beef and cold-water-pastry pie served with mashed potato. There should be two types of pastry used; the bottom or base should be suet pastry and the top can be rough puff or short. It is common for the mashed potato to be spread around one side of the plate and for a type of parsley sauce to be present. This is commonly called eel liquor sauce or simply liquor, traditionally made using the water kept from the preparation of the stewed eels. However, many shops no longer use stewed eel water in their parsley liquor. The sauce traditionally has a green colour, from the parsley.
Shops
Before shops became common, trading took place from braziers or carts. It was not until late Victorian times that shops began to appear. The first recorded shop was Henry Blanchard's at 101 Union Street in Southwark in 1844 which was described as an "Eel Pie House". The shops have become part of the local community and heritage of their area, for example, L. Manze in Walthamstow became Grade II listed by English Heritage in 2013 due to its architectural and cultural significance. Traditionally, pie and mash shops have white tile walls with mirrors, and marble floors, tables and work tops, all of which are easy to clean. They give the shops, hardly ever called restaurants, a late Victorian or Art Deco appearance. Because of the large number of pleasure boat steamer companies offering Sunday trips on the River Thames, many Eastenders used them to explore the more gentrified west of London. The result was that many also wanted their traditional foods of ale and pie and mash, resulting in the renaming of both a hotel that they frequently visited and the island on which it sat in Twickenham to Eel Pie Island in the early 1900s.
Mail order
More Londoners are moving to the suburbs and England's rural counties are gaining in popularity. To cater for this exodus of Londoners, mail order pie and mash companies have set up and traditional pie mash and liquor can be delivered anywhere in the UK.
Side dishes
and cockles are other London specialities often sold in pie and mash shops, usually bought ready prepared from wholesalers. Chilli vinegar, originating from the spice trade imports to the London docks, is also traditionally served with all these dishes. Prior to the introduction of chilies to the vinegar in recent years, the vinegar of choice was a plain malt vinegar like Sarsons. Many traditional shops serve "Non-Brewed Condiment" which is very similar to vinegar but produced by a different process. Trading Standards in the UK ruled that it cannot be labeled "vinegar" hence the current name. In recent years, some pie and mash shops have started to offer a broader selection of pies, including vegetarian and chicken versions, to serve a broader range of customers. Fruit mince pies were already available in many shops as a dessert.
