Musselburgh Pie

01 / ABOUT THE DISH

About the dish

This traditional Scottish pie consists of a hearty filling made with thinly beaten slices of beefsteak that are rolled around mussels or oysters—which are often themselves wrapped in streaky bacon—and an egg-glazed, puff pastry top. As suggested by its name, the pie hails from Musselburgh, one of Edinburgh’s fishing ports which was originally known as Eskmouth, but was eventually renamed because of the abundance of mussels at the mouth of the River Esk. Musselburgh pie is said to have originated in the early 1800s and was invented by the local housewives who used to source the mussels from the said river, using them as a frugal way to bulk up their meat pies.