A quick, cheap, working class dish — that’s the promise of pie and mash, a traditional Cockney meal consisting of a minced beef pie with mashed potatoes on the side and smothered in a parsley sauce. 

“It was almost like the original nutritious fast food of its day for working class Londoners,” Richard Holden, the Conservative MP for Basildon and Billericay, told As It Happens host Nil Köksal.

And the dish might soon gain protected status as a distinct traditional food, thanks to Holden.

Holden led a debate in parliament this week, petitioning for pie and mash (sometimes styled as pie ‘n’ mash) to be given the Traditional Speciality Guaranteed label by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). The designation would mean that only meals made to such specific recipes or methods could be labelled as Cockney “pie ‘n’ mash.” Such labels are enforced with periodic checks to make sure that manufacturers are sticking to the rules.

The goal is to celebrate the dish and the history behind it, Holden says. He adds that while other countries like France and Italy have some 800 protected dishes, the U.K. has under 100 with that designation.

“We need to really highlight some of these culinary traditions that we’ve got in the U.K. and talk them up wherever we can, particularly those with a special bit of history,” Holden said.

Other British delicacies given the Traditional Speciality Guaranteed label include Gloucestershire Old Spots pork and Bramley apple pie.

Pie and mash’s roots

The first recorded brick-and-mortar pie shop started in 1844. The pies were produced in advance, making it an easy dish to grab on the go, according to Holden.

Original pie and mash recipes were made with eel rather than minced meat — a staple food for working-class folks since the River Thames was full of eels at the time, according to Holden. Shops switched over to minced meat when the river became too polluted to host eels during the industrial revolution, Holden says. 

Though pie and mash is still often served with stewed or jellied eels on the side, Holden says the inclusion of eels won’t be part of the protected status. “I’m  not going to try and force feed anyone jellied eels,” Holden said.

More than a meal

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

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

Arment’s has been around since 1914, and while their location has changed over the years, the business has stayed in the Arment family. 

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

“We feel that we’re guardians of the pie and mash shop rather than owners,” says Arment of her store — which like many other pie shops is something of a community hub in the neighbourhood. “And the food is just part of that, it’s part of (Londoner’s) memories, it’s part of their childhoods and their everyday life.”

Protected status versus original recipes?

While Arment is in favour 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 could pose problems if the rules around what’s required to call a food pie and mash are too strict.

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

“Shop owners … are very guarded as to their recipes,” Arment said. “It runs along the same sort of form, but each recipe to each family is unique.”

Holden says he doesn’t intend for the rules to restrict mom-and-pop pie shops, and doesn’t think the status will do so. In fact, he’d hope to give artisan bakers who are making the dish fresh each day by hand an extra-special status.

“I really want to provide that recognition for those small family bakeries and the pie and mash shops which really provide this local produce,” Holden said.

Given the spirit of Holden’s campaign, Arment says she’s confident the status will be helpful to small businesses like her own.

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