Pie and mash has an illustrious history, and Gerald Lynch knows all about it. Eat the past. Then use his pie guide to fill your belly.

(Main photo: Kake Pugh)

“Pie, mash and liquor: that’s what I like” sang Cockney icons Chas and Dave about an iconic Cockney meal. An institution maintained by a love of cheap, honest, hearty grub, and by pride in east London’s cultural history, pie and mash is as integral a part of East End lore as the Krays or Pearly Kings and Queens.

Pie and mash will always be associated with London’s working class. Its popularity coincided with the growth in heavy industry in London during the 18th and 19th centuries, when the docks and shipping routes along the Thames led to the most were populated by polluting industries setting up shop in the East End.

Large numbers of the working classes moved there, while the middle and upper classes moved to the smog-free West. Pies filled with eels (the only fish that could survive in the horrendously polluted Thames) and accompanied by mash, were an affordable alternative to West End delicacies.

By the early 20th century, the decline in street pie and eel traders meant the white-tiled, wooden benched pie house was one of the few places you could enjoy the dish. Today’s pies are generally filled with minced beef and a little gravy, served with mash and topped off with liquor and parsley sauce.

The exact recipes of each pie and mash shop are closely guarded secrets, particularly the near-luminous liquor. Preparation is key, a serious art even. And finding the perfect balance between pepper, malt and chilli vinegar to adorn your dish is a personal preference. But the battle between lashings of vinegar, a hail of pepper or a détente between the two is a war that connoisseurs will wage for all time.

Pie and mash shops have always had stiff competition from cafes, fish and chip shops, and the now omnipresent Grotty Fried Chicken shop. But I am overcome by a terminal sadness that only Albert Steptoe shares when I picture an East End overrun by sterile, phoney chain joints instead of the traditional pie and mash shop.

The meal fuelled the resilience of the blitz, and powered the human engines of the industrial revolution. To see its home-grown charm smothered by conveyor belt corporations muscling in on weakened territory is a travesty. At a time when local businesses need extra commerce as much as our pockets need great, affordable food, there’s never been a better time to eat like an icon. Here are five pie and mash shops we like.

1/ G. Kelly’s Noted Eel and Pie Shop
Roman Road Market
Established in 1937, G. Kelly’s is one of the most well regarded of all East End pie houses. With its white-tiled décor and wooden benches it has the most authentic interior of any of the restaurants on this list. Pie and mash is £2.70, but the robust menu also includes sausage and mash, eels, vegetarian pies and desserts. Friendly, bright and clean, it deserves particular praise for its fluffy, ever-so-slightly-peppery mash.

2/ Maureen’s Pie and Mash
Chrisp Street Market
With over 30 years serving the community and the same lovely ladies behind the counter as when I was a whipper-snapping schoolboy, Maureen’s is a great little pie shop. With regulars who would go hungry before eating anywhere else, the quality of the food is consistently high, and at £2.40 for pie and mash, affordable. They also offer melt-in-the-mouth salt beef sandwiches which threaten to put the local Greggs out of business.

3/ G. Kelly’s Noted Eel and Pie Shop
Bethnal Green Road
Not to be mistaken for it’s Roman Road sister-shop, G. Kelly’s on Bethnal Green Road has an ambience all of it’s own. The bustle and banter of local street traders make for laughs as loud as the food is good. Busy market days can often find punters spilling out onto the street.

4/ C.A and D.J Blackwill
Chrisp Street Market
Consistently long queues attest to the quality of the Blackwill pie house in Chrisp Street Market. Relatively expensive compared to the other pie and mash shops listed here (£2.80 for “one and one” as the regulars call it) they do however offer a special OAP’s meal-deal with pie, mash, desert and a drink for £3.95.

5/ Peter’s Pie and Mash
Shadwell
Beneath the shadow of Shadwell station railway arch, what Peter’s Pie and Mash lacks in location it makes up for in value. Pie and mash is £2.20 in Peter’s Pie and Mash, and the extensive menu means you often find commuters dashing in for jacket potatoes, breakfasts and take-away sandwiches. At times it feels and looks more like a café than a proper pie and mash shop, but the pies are among the tastiest you’ll find. The staff are friendly and funny, and will happily stop for a cup of tea and a chat while you eat if the shop is quiet.