Mince pie

An individual mince pie

A mince pie, also known as minced pie, is a small British sweet pie traditionally served during the Christmas season. Its ingredients are traceable to the 13th century, when returning European crusaders brought with them Middle Eastern recipes containing meats, fruits and spices.

The early mince pie was known by several names, including mutton pie, shrid pie and Christmas pie. Typically its ingredients were a mixture of minced meat, suet, a range of fruits, and spices such as cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Served around Christmas, the savoury Christmas pie (as it became known) was associated with Catholic idolatry and during the English Civil War was banned by the Puritan authorities. Nevertheless, the tradition of eating mince pies at Christmas continued through to the Victorian era, although by then its recipe had become sweeter, and its size had reduced markedly from the large oblong shape once observed. Today the mince pie remains a popular seasonal treat enjoyed by families across the United Kingdom.

History

The ingredients for the modern mince pie can be traced to the return of European crusaders from the Holy Land. Middle Eastern methods of cooking, which sometimes combined meats, fruits and spices, were popular at the time. Pies were created from such mixtures of sweet and savoury foods; in Tudor England, shrid pies (as they were known then) were formed from shredded meat, suet and dried fruit. The addition of spices such as cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg was, according to the English antiquary John Timbs, "in token of the offerings of the Eastern Magi." Several authors, including Timbs, viewed the pie as being derived from an old Roman custom practised during Saturnalia, where Roman fathers in the Vatican were presented with sweetmeats. Early pies were much larger than those consumed today, and oblong shaped; the jurist John Selden presumed that "the coffin of our Christmas-Pies, in shape long, is in Imitation of the Cratch [Jesus's crib]", although writer T. F. Thistleton-Dyer thought Selden's explanation unlikely, as "in old English cookery books the crust of a pie is generally called 'the coffin.'"

Christmas Pie, by William Henry Hunt

Mince pies were known by several names; by 1596 they were called mutton pies, and sometimes Christmas pies. Gervase Markham's recipe for mince pie, published in 1615, recommends taking "a leg of mutton", and cutting "the best of the flesh from the bone", before adding mutton suet, pepper, salt, cloves, mace, currants, raisins, prunes, dates and orange peel. He also suggested that beef or veal might be used in place of mutton. In the north of England, goose was used in the pie's filling, but more generally neat's tongue was also used; a North American filling recipe published in 1854 includes chopped neat's tongue, beef suet, blood raisins, currants, mace, cloves, nutmeg, brown sugar, apples, lemons, brandy and orange peel. According to John Brand, in Elizabethan and Jacobean-era England they were also known as minched pies. During the English Civil War, along with the censure of other Catholic customs, they were banned: "Nay, the poor rosemary and bays, and Christmas pie, is made an abomination." Puritans were opposed to the mince pie, on account of its connection with Catholicism. In his History of the Rebellion, Marchamont Needham wrote "All Plums the Prophets Sons defy, And Spice-broths are too hot; Treason's in a December-Pye, And Death within the Pot." Some considered Christmas pies unfit to occupy the plate of a clergyman, causing Isaac Bickerstaff to comment:

The Christmas-pie is, in its own nature, a kind of consecrated cake, and a badge of distinction; and yet it is often forbidden, the Druid of the family. Strange that a sirloin of beef, whether boiled or roasted, when entire is exposed to the utmost depredeations and invasions; but if minced into small pieces, and tossed up with plumbs and sugar, it changes its property, and forsooth is meat for his master.

Home-made mincemeat

In his essay The Life of Samuel Butler, Samuel Johnson wrote of "an old Puritan, who was alive in my childhood ...would have none of his superstitious meats and drinks." Another essay, published in the December 1733 issue of The Gentleman's Magazine, explained the popularity of "Christmas Pye" as perhaps "owing to the Barrenness of the Season, and the Scarcity of Fruit and Milk, to make Tarts, Custards, and other Desserts", but also possibly bearing "a religious kind of Relation to the Festivity from which it takes its Name." The author also mentions the Quakers' objection to the treat, "who distinguish their Feasts by an heretical Sort of Pudding, known by their Names, and inveigh against Christmas Pye, as an Invention of the Scarlet Whore of Babylon, an Hodge-Podge of Superstition, Popery, the Devil and all his Works." Nevertheless, mince pies remained a popular treat at Christmas, although post-Reformation they lacked any signs of Catholic idolatry, and generally were smaller and sweeter. People began to prepare the fruit and spice filling months before it was required, storing it in jars, and by the Victorian era the addition of meat had, for many, become an afterthought. Today the mince pie remains a popular Christmas treat, although as the modern recipe is no longer the same list of 13 ingredients once used (according to author Margaret Baker, representative of Christ and his 12 Apostles), it lacks the religious meaning contained therein.

References

Footnotes

Notes

Bibliography

• Baker, Margaret (1992), Discovering Christmas Customs and Folklore (third ed.), Osprey Publishing, ISBN 0747801754
• Brand, John (1849), Observations on the popular antiquities of Great Britain, Bohn
• Butler, Samuel; Johnson, Samuel (1807), Poetical Works: With the life of the author, vol. 1–2, Printed for Cadwell and Davies, etc and Samuel Bagster
• Chambers, Robert (1864), The Book of Days, W. & R. Chambers ltd
• Dyer, T. F. (2007), British Popular Customs - Present and Past - Illustrating the Social and Domestic Manners of the People, Read Books, ISBN 1406778990
• John, J (2005), A Christmas Compendium, Continuum International Publishing Group, ISBN 0826487491
• Lee, N. K. M. (1854), The Cook's Own Book, and Housekeeper's Register, C. S. Francis and Co.
• Markham, Gervase; Best, Michael R. (1994), Michael R. Best (ed.), The English Housewife, McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP, ISBN 0773511032
• N/A (1744), The Harleian Miscellany, Gray's Inn, London: Printed for T. Osborne
• Selden, John (1856), The Table-Talk of John Selden, London: J. R. Smith
• Stavely, Keith W. F.; Fitzgerald, Kathleen (2004), America's founding food: the story of New England cooking, UNC Press Books, ISBN 0807828947
• Timbs, John (1866), Something for Everybody (and a Garland for the Year), London: Lockwood and Co.

Further reading

• Brand, John; Ellis, Henry (1841), Observations on popular antiquities: chiefly illustrating the origin of our vulgar customs, ceremonies, and supersititions, Charles Knight and Co. {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |Volume= ignored (|volume= suggested) (help)
• Hottes, Alfred Carl (2004), 1001 Christmas Facts and Fancies 1937, Kessinger Publishing, ISBN 1417976500

External Links

• Pie Club - Mince Pie Reviews and much, much more