TL;DR
Shepherd’s pie is a layered crustless pie, consisting of a gravy-like ground meat layer and a mashed potato layer. A traditional British or Irish shepherd’s pie is made with lamb meat, and the one with beef is better known as a cottage pie.
The rest of the world just calls them all shepherd’s pie, even the ones prepared with ground turkey or chicken meat. But these are correctly called cottage pies.
I make my cottage pie with ground beef, as you can see in the recipe. It just tastes better in my opinion!
