Scottish Steak Pie Recipe - Scottish Scran (2024)

Scottish Steak Pie is THE dish to have on New Year’s Day. Who knew?

Well, not us, until we saw everyone buying them on New Year’s Eve here in Scotland and wondered what was going on. This is a different, larger pie to the traditional Scotch Pie. If you want to make one of those you can find our recipe here.

If you don’t know, New Year’s in Scotland is a pretty big deal. It even has its own name, Hogmanay, and the party lasts for more than just the one night!

Pin for later!

Scottish Hogmanay (New Year) Traditions

There are all sorts of traditions associated with Hogmanay. Aside from holding hands and singing Auld Lang Syne, it was a time for cleaning the house to be ready for the new year, as well as clearing any debts.

Then there’s “first-footing” where the first person to cross the threshold after midnight determines the good luck of the household for the year. Ideally, it would be a tall, dark, handsome man, carrying gifts of whisky, black bun (a fruit cake wrapped in pastry), coal, and salt.

So how does steak pie fit in? It turns out that because New Year’s Day wasn’t always a holiday in Scotland and people were too busy to cook with everything going on, they would buy a large steak pie from their local butcher to have something to eat after all the celebrations.

However, a traditional Scottish Steak Pie is pretty simple to make and not available everywhere, so we figured we better have a recipe so you can make your own!

Made with melt-in-your-mouth beef stew topped with a flaky puff pastry lid, this delicious meat pie can be made at any time of the year of course, but it’s definitely one to bring out for Hogmanay!

Things you’ll need to make a Scottish Steak Pie

• Large Pot/Pan
• Mixing Bowl
• Pie Dish – We used a round 22cm (8.5inch) tin

Ingredients for Steak Pie

We used a 22cm diameter pie dish, adjust the ingredients to suit your dish. The filling can be reheated and eaten as a stew if you make too much!

• 800g Diced Beef Stewing Steak (Approx 2lb)
• 2 tbsp Plain Flour
• 2 tbsp Olive Oil/Butter
• 2 Large Roughly Chopped Onions
• 500ml Beef Stock (Approx 2 cups)
• 35ml Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce, Pronounced – Wooster-sher ( Approx 0.14 cups)
• 1 tbsp Tomato Puree
• 1 tsp Dijon Mustard
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Puff Pastry

We cheated by buying our puff pastry as the purpose of this dish is ease and simplicity, do feel free to put us to shame and make your own pastry though!

In the UK pre-made pastry is usually found in the chilled section of the supermarket, but we’ve since been told that most of the rest of the world buys theirs frozen! You’ll want to allow the pastry to thaw before you make this, so take it out well in advance to ensure you can roll (if necessary) and place on the top of the pie.

• 375g Ready Rolled Puff Pastry (Approx 13.2 oz)

Adding Sausages

Many Scots swear by a Steak and Sausage pie, rather than just steak alone. We don’t mind adding sausages also, but personally like to have just steak most of the time. However, this recipe is easy to adapt if you want to! We’ll share more in variations below, but you can add 4-6 sausages if you like as well.

How to make Steak Pie step by step method

The great thing about this recipe is that the pie filling can be prepared in advance giving it time to thicken up, this will help you make a really tasty pie and save time. This preparation will then leave you to just pop it in the oven to be ready to serve.

Firstly take your mixing bowl and toss the beef in the plain flour, this will help insulate the meat while browning as well as helping the sauce to thicken. You can season the flour to help add an extra depth of flavour if you’d like.

Heat your pan and oil/butter, once hot add the onions and cook until soft.

Once the onions are soft add the beef to brown it, this should only take a few minutes.

This process of browning simply means to lightly cook the surface of the steak to caramelize it and add a richer flavour to the meat.

Once browned add the stock, Worcester Sauce, Tomato puree, Dijon mustard and seasoning.

Bring the mixture slowly to the boil.

Once it begins to boil reduce the heat and allow to gently simmer for 2.5 hrs.

During this time stir occasionally and, if like us, you have a gas stove that doesn’t have a low enough setting to simmer keep rotating the pan to avoid too much heat in one place.

If you’re adding sausages (see variations) then you can chop and add them about halfway through cooking. If they have a high fat content you may want to fry off in a separate pan or even boil for 10 minutes to remove some of the fat so that the pie won’t get too greasy.

Once the sauce is good and thick and the meat is breaking apart nicely tip the mixture into the pie dish, it should be roughly 3/4 full.

Preheat your oven to 180°C or 356°F, approx gas mark 4.

Cover the top of the pie dish with the rolled puff pastry, use your thumb or a fork to push down or crimp the edge of the pastry along the rim of the dish, helping to seal the mixture and the flavour in.

Make a hole in the centre of the pie to allow steam to exit during cooking.

Place your pie into the preheated oven for roughly 30 mins or until the pastry has risen and is golden brown.

Variations

As with many of our other savoury Scottish recipes, like Cullen Skink and Scotch Pies, we stuck to the most traditional way of making the dish. In this case that meant just using beef stock and a couple of other flavourings we enjoy for the sauce of the pie. It makes for a delicious beef pie, but there are some additions or changes you can make if you like too.

Adding sausages

As mentioned, many Scots like to have a Steak & Sausage pie, and you’ll see these sold in abundance around Hogmanay as well.

You can chop and add around 4-6 sausages, depending on size. We would suggest adding these partway through the whole mixture cooking, so they don’t break down too much.

If you are using sausages with a high fat content then consider boiling for 10 minutes or frying off in a pan before adding, so not too much fat goes into the pie which can cause it to be greasy.

Extra vegetables

Some recipes call for carrots or mushrooms, so you can slice and add these to the pie too.

Adding alcohol

For a more modern take on the steak pie, you can opt to use red wine or ale in place of some of the stock. We would suggest about 1/3 red wine to 2/3 stock or half and half for ale. The alcohol will burn off during the cooking but you’ll be left with a depth of flavour from the wine or beer.

Haggis & Steak Pie

Of course, you can also add some haggis for a steak and haggis pie!

Loved this recipe?
Join us in our Scottish Scran Facebook Group for more recipes, stories and chat
Learn more

recipe card