Hmmm, what to make for tea. A mouse announcement requests the Cheese and Onion Pie which went down so well a couple of months back. Regrettably my section of the house recipe book seems not to have survived the great cull of November 2010 so its back on t’interweb to try to find the recipe I used.
A few are quite useless and others suggest making your own pastry. That is not required with so many good ready-made frozen products about. The recipe key is to boil/simmer the onions in water to soften and reduce their harshness. You could fry them but it would not be authentic.
OK , you need the following
- 1 8 inch or similar pie dish
- 400 grams short crust pastry ( ready-made is fine )
- 400 gms Good cheese such as a mature Cheddar, grated
- 200 gms of white onion sliced thinly
- 2 beaten eggs
- 1 teaspoon english mustard, salt & pepper
Next, boil/simmer the onions in a pan of water for around 10 to 15 minutes. Drain and allow to cool.
Whilst cooling, flour your surface and rolling-pin and roll out the pastry to line the base of the pie dish/tin . Reserve some pastry for a lid
Combine in a bowl, the grated cheese, onions together with a teaspoon of English mustard and plenty of salt and pepper. Finally mix in most of the 2 beaten eggs to help bind the mixture during cooking.
Next, add the cheese and onion mixture to the pastry case in the pie dish, smoothing out to an even fill. Then add your pastry lid overlapping the pie dish , then crimp the edges with a fork to seal the base and lid.
Cut off excess pastry with a knife.
Finally cut some small holes in the pastry lid to allow steam and excess moisture to escape and brush with the reserved beaten egg to give a golden brown colour when finished.
Place in an oven for about 30 to 35 minutes at around 200 degrees.
After baking, allow another 15 minutes to rest the pie .
I serve this pie with some oven roasted tomatoes and perhaps chips or new potatoes.
The pie is nice enough to eat cold enough the next day.
Mellor View 
sounds delicious but why boil the onions instead of sauteeing them in oil?
That would work too, but boiling them to soften the onion was more traditional in North West England. The only foods that ever got suateed ( or fried) were fish and chips.
Sounds like the pie my mum used to make but she’d use Cheshire cheese coz we were Cheshire folk:-)
Fair enough! As lancashire peple we could have used our own variety too, but pperhaps a bit too crumbly and salty ( as well as expensive)
Thanks for this. I wanted to make a cheese and onion pie like my old mum’s and this was really helpful!!
Thanks Brian, lots of people seem to read this post but few comment. Its nice to know it’s helpful!
I used your recipe and won a cheese and onion pie-making competition in December!! Thanks!
Congratulations and thanks for letting me know. Feedback is very important!
Thanks for this, Im from Oldham and now live on the Isle of Man – last time I actually had this was at my Granpas funeral… mum used to sell 1 in her chippy and I have promised to make my boyfiend one, he wants his with beans!
xx
good choice
It was a success 🙂 …he actually made me add also just one potato chopped in with the mixture, I said Id rather keep it nice and simple and serve with homemade chips instead but thats what my manx man wanted! – was still declicious, with the bit i had left I made a mini one to take for my parents to try and mum said she did hers with baked tomatos, I said thats what you had done 🙂 xx thanks for this proper tea!
Pie turned our brilliantly. Many thanks for a great recipe.
Thanks very much, glad you enjoyed it
I have made this pie many times now and it is a huge favorite of family and work colleagues alike, I have made 2 for our work lunch tomorrow – at the request of many. The others are bringing in salad, beans and chips to go with it:)