Four ‘n’ twenty pies

Posted: 12/06/2011 4:50:48 p.m.

Pies are such a versatile food solution it is no wonder they are still a staple of our lives today with the amazing variations we now can enjoy and create. A far cry from their origins in Egyptian times when, after they created flour and began coating it in nuts and sweet treats baking what we know as sweet pastries. It took the Greeks to add a little fat to the pastry, wrap it around meat to seal in the juices and hey presto – a lightweight sealed food holder for long sea journeys.
Earliest pie recipes refer to ‘coffyns’ which actually is the word for a basket or a box, with straight sealed sides and a top - open top pies were ‘traps’. Flour was expensive too, so reusable earthenware cases with lids were developed so only a pastry base was needed. No surprise then, when the Anglo Saxons thought to mash up some of the abundance of spuds thereabouts and use these for a topping instead of pastry and another legendary pie is created which lists today in the top ten as shepherds pie or cottage pie.
While the commoner was using poatotes and lamb’s meat, the Royalty were using peacocks and songbirds which were considered a delicacy. In fact European royal cooks placed whole cooked birds on top of the pie to identify its contents – remember these pies were very sizeable feeding the whole banquet hall! This then lead in pre Victorian times, to the adaptation of a porcelain ornament in the shape of a singing bird, placed under the lid of the pastry to release steam and identify a high quality pie.
The success of creating a mouth watering pie is the temperature of the fat, too warm and it will ooze out and melt all over the oven tray. I find a short crust pastry made with vinegar creates flakey layers with a rough puff top producing the best stock standard pie. The filling has to be just right upon the first mouthful, nothing worse than a lob of oozy goop with missing pieces of chunk. My Mum was never shy of packing in the flavour.