Scottish Mince Recipe with Tatties - My Kitchen Love (2024)

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A Scottish Mince and Tatties recipe for a comfort food meal that is a family favourite meal my Nana made. It’s a comforting Scottish mince recipe that is a warm hug during the chillier months.

Scottish Mince Recipe with Tatties - My Kitchen Love (1)

This postis in memory ofmy brother. He passed awayvery suddenly and tragically in 2008 when he was 28 years old and this week he would have turned 37. This Scottish Mince recipe with Tatties (or just plain “Mince” as we called it) was his favourite meal that our Nana would make him.

I don’t want to go on for very long about this dark period in my life. I don’t like talking about it, I don’t like writing about it.

What I much prefer to do is remember the good times with my brother andI know that he would have always wanted me to choose hope, love, and happiness aboveof sitting in the depths of grief.

Scottish Mince Recipe with Tatties - My Kitchen Love (2)

The instant I start making this meal, I can recall what the dinner plates looked like at my grandparent’s house. Memories flood in from the stash of Scottish mints in their car to how high the tree was in their yard that I would climb.

But most of all, I remember my brother enjoying this meal with such delight (he wasn’t the best eater in our family, that was clearly my role).

Isn’t funny how a taste or a smell can take you so far back down memory lane? My youngest daughter is the most like my brother. The twinkle in their eyes, their joy for life, the glee over this dish.

Lucy went crazy for it and would not stay down off the table long enough for me to photograph it. So, not only do you get see this bowl of tastiness, but you get to see a lot of Lucy’s tiny hands.

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Scottish Mince and Tatties is basically ground meat and potatoes. There are countless (and often controversial) versions ofthe recipe. The recipe shown here is the closest I can get it to my Nana’s.

She sadly passed away a number of years before my brother and so I’ve been trying to replicate it while carefully questioning any Scottish person I run into about this dish since I don’t have a solid referral source for it.

I will say that using OXO gravy mix was the turning point for me, some say that Bisto Gravy is the key to this dish. I find that Bisto creates such a thick gravy that I prefer OXO, but the ultimate choice is yours and what’s available to you.

Bisto is harder to come by for me as I’m in Canada, not the UK, and Bisto is also crazy pricey for me given that it’s an import.

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If you’ve never had this dish before, then I don’t think the type of beef broth you use will matter all that much. Since I grew up on it, the slight nuances are a factor for me and that’s why I use that mix specifically. The vegetables are a big controversial portion of the dish.

I like it with more vegetables versus less. I pack onion, carrots and peas into the dish for some sort of nutritional value.

Even when I have all this veg, I still usually serve a simple green salad on the side. My kids always eat salad so it’s an easy out for me.

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My husband obviously loves this dish; it’s literally meat and potatoes so he’s very pleased when he arrives home from work to this on the dinner table.

Baby Lucy totally went crazy for this dish. She loves meat and potatoes so it’s not a stretch to assume she would be into it, I was surprised at the quantity she ate of it. A lot.

The 3 year olds were into the meat portion of this dish. One loved the entire dish and the other loved the meat portion (she doesn’t like potatoes unless they are french fries).

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Other comfort food meals:

  • Belgian Beef Stew
  • Beef Stroganoff
  • One Pot Broccoli and Cheese Pasta

*** This post was originally written in November 2016 and was updated with some new photos and formatting in October 2020.

4.96 from 21 votes

Scottish Mince Recipe with Tatties - My Kitchen Love (7)

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Scottish Mince and Tatties

Prep Time

5 mins

Cook Time

45 mins

Comfort food of mince and potatoes! Ground beef is cooked in a luscious gravy and served over classic mashed potatoes.

Course:Main Course

Cuisine:scottish

Keyword:mince, mince and tatties

Servings: 4 servings

Author: Samantha

Ingredients

Mince:

  • 1lb(454 gr) extra lean ground beef
  • 1mediumyellow onion, finely chopped
  • 2mediumgarlic cloves, minced
  • 2tbspcornstarch
  • 1/4cupdry red wine
  • 1cupbeef broth (I use OXO Beef and I use 2 small packages (4.5 grams each) per 1 cup of water)
  • 2mediumcarrots, peeled and chopped into small pieces (around 5 cm)
  • 1cupfresh, canned or frozen peas
  • 2tbspWorcestershire sauce

Potatoes:

  • 4largerusset potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters
  • 2mediumdried bay leaves (optional)
  • 1tspkosher salt
  • 2tbspunsalted butter
  • 1/2cupwhole milk
  • 1/2tspfresh ground black pepper

Instructions

Mince:

  1. Brown beef in a large skillet over medium-high heat, breaking meat up with a wooden spoon if necessary. Once beef starts to brown add onions to the skillet. Cook for a few minutes until vegetables start to soften, but not brown. Add garlic and cook stirring for 1-2 minutes. Add wine and deglaze pan by scraping the bottom with spoon. Allow wine to reduce and evaporate by more than half.

  2. Sprinkle cornstarch over beef and vegetables, and stir to fully coat ingredients (and avoid any cornstarch lumps).

  3. Slowly add beef broth, starting with a tablespoon or two and gradually increasing quantity. Once broth is added, bring pot to a boil and reduce heat to low.

  4. Simmer, uncovered for about 20 minutes, until sauce has thickened and reduced slightly. Add carrots, peas and Worcestershire sauce. Cook for 15-20 minutes, until carrots have reached desired tenderness.

  5. Season lightly with salt and pepper.

Potatoes:

  1. Meanwhile, place potatoes and bay leaves (if using) into a large sauce pan and cover with 2-3″ of cold water. Add 1 tsp of salt and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to a strong simmer and cook for around 20-25 minutes until tender.

  2. Drain water and let potatoes air dry in the strainer (do not rinse!). Add milk and butter to pan and cook over low heat until butter has melted and milk has warmed. Return potatoes to mean with milk and butter and mash until desired consistency has been reached. Season with salt and pepper

Assembly:

  1. Serve mince over tatties and garnish with chopped fresh parsley if desired.

Enjoy! xo

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Scottish Mince Recipe with Tatties - My Kitchen Love (2024)

FAQs

What is mince and tatties made of? ›

Mince and tatties is a Scottish dish which consists of ground beef and mashed potato. Other vegetables or thickening agents are sometimes added to the dish as well.

How to make minced beef tender? ›

Simply add 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda to 1 pound of ground beef for more tender meat with better browning.

How to cook mince for dummies? ›

Add a dash of oil to a hot pan & add your mince. Stir to make sure the mince doesn't stick to the pan and browns evenly. If too many juices escape, pour the mince into a strainer to remove liquid and then add just the mince back into the pan until it's browned on the outside.

When was mince and tatties invented? ›

An economical dish, dating back to the 18th century, when the potato was first introduced to Scotland.

What does mince mean in Scotland? ›

nonsense, rubbish. Apart from haggis, mince and tatties is one of Scotland's most iconic national dishes which has nurtured many generations of Scots. Mince is so embedded in the national psyche that it has developed many unusual and inexplicable meanings.

What type of meat is mince? ›

Ground meat, called mince or minced meat outside North America, is meat finely chopped by a meat grinder or a chopping knife. A common type of ground meat is ground beef, but many other types of meats are prepared in a similar fashion, including pork, veal, lamb, goat meat, and poultry.

Why do you put baking soda in mince? ›

The baking soda also helps stop protein molecules from bonding excessively, which keeps everything nice and tender, and squeezes water out, too. ATK recommends using ¼ teaspoon for every 350g of mince. Simply toss the bicarb through your raw meat, wait just 15 minutes, then away you go as per normal.

How do you make minced meat taste better? ›

Cooked ground beef really doesn't have any real taste so it is necessary to season it up. You can use just salt and pepper or you can add virtually anything to it like jalapenos, peppers, onions, etc. Try using fresh onion rather than powder.

How long should you cook mince for? ›

Mince is cooked when the temperature has reached 75°C. If you don't have a thermometer, ensure it's been simmering on the heat (it should be bubbling gently) for at least 15 minutes. If you're cooking meatballs or meatloaf, use a thermometer to check the temperature or cut open to check it is cooked through.

Why do you fry mince first? ›

Also, the onions would express water, which would lower the temperature to simmer or steam, preventing the beef from browning. For these reasons, it is common to sear or brown the ground (minced) meat, and then add the onions to cook through when it is done or nearly done.

What is Tatties in Scotland? ›

Neeps are mashed swede or turnips, and tatties are mashed potatoes. Confusingly, people in Scotland refer to what the English calls turnips as swedes, and what the English call swedes as turnips.

What is haggis made of? ›

haggis, the national dish of Scotland, a type of pudding composed of the liver, heart, and lungs of a sheep (or other animal), minced and mixed with beef or mutton suet and oatmeal and seasoned with onion, cayenne pepper, and other spices. The mixture is packed into a sheep's stomach and boiled.

What is Tatties made of? ›

It's not a dish. It's a foodstuff. 'Tatties' is short for potatoes, and is used in Scotland, Nothumberland and Cumbria. Though there is a dish 'neeps and tatties' (bashed up or mashed turnips* and potatoes), the word alone is used for any kind of potato.

What is mince made of UK? ›

Ground beef, minced beef or beef mince is beef that has been finely chopped with a knife, meat grinder (American English), mincer or mincing machine (British English). It is used in many recipes including hamburgers, bolognese sauce, meatloaf, meatballs, and kofta.

Is mincemeat just ground beef? ›

The terms “ground meat” and “minced meat” are sometimes used interchangeably. But they indicate two techniques for processing raw meat: ground meat is an emulsion of lean meat and fat, whereas minced meat is finely chopped skeletal-muscle meat. Ground meat is consistent and smooth; minced meat is choppy and textured.

Why is it called mince meat? ›

The "mince" in mincemeat comes from the Middle English mincen, and the Old French mincier both traceable to the Vulgar Latin minutiare, meaning chop finely. The word mincemeat is an adaptation of an earlier term minced meat, meaning finely chopped meat. Meat was also a term for food in general, not only animal flesh.

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