tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8745493398948198755.post793663331169565036..comments2024-03-28T12:23:06.497-07:00Comments on Food History Jottings: Shaped Minc'd Pies AgainIvan Dayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03500437663759868535noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8745493398948198755.post-6446501636927435512011-12-25T00:25:35.626-08:002011-12-25T00:25:35.626-08:00Plumcake has quite rightfully just pointed out tha...Plumcake has quite rightfully just pointed out that I may be giving you a false impression of the amount of evidence indicating that cradle shaped mince pies existed in the early modern period. The only author who categorically states that pies were made in this form is Selden. The two others I cite, P.C. and Hannah Bisaker, say nothing at all about cradles. P.C. simply states that minced pies could be boat shaped and the wonderful Hannah includes an elliptical minced pie design among many other more complex designs. <br /><br />Plumcake points out that the real originators of the myth about minced pies being in the form of the Bethlehem manger, were the nineteenth century antiquarians who misunderstood the meaning of the word 'coffin', which originally meant any kind of pie case, round, square, oblong, eccentrically shaped etc., not necessarily coffin shaped. She cites the following sources -<br /><br />'According to Selden's "Table Talk," the coffin shape of our Christmas pies, is in imitation of the cratch, or manger wherein the infant Jesus was laid. The ingredients and shape of the Christmas pie is mentioned in a satire of 1656, against the puritans.'<br />William Hone, The Every-Day Book (1825~26) December 25, Christmas-Day<br /><br />Selden tells us mince-pies were baked in a coffin-shaped crust, intended to represent the cratch or manger in which the Holy Child was laid; but we are inclined to doubt his statement, as we find our old English cookery-books always style the crust of a pie 'the coffin.'<br /> Robert Chambers, Book of Days (1869) December 25th <br /><br />In Fletcher’s Christmas Day (1656) we have the ingredients and shape of the Christmas pie particularised-<br /><br />Christ-mass? give me my beads: the word implies<br />A plot, by its ingredients, beef and pyes.<br />The cloyster'd steaks with salt and pepper lye<br />Like Nunnes with patches in a monastrie.<br />Prophaneness in a conclave? Nay, much more,<br />Idolatrie in crust! Babylon’s whore<br />Rak’d from the grave, and bak'd by hanches, then<br />Serv'd up in Coffins to unholy men;<br />Defil'd, with superstition, like the Gentiles<br />Of old, that worship'd onions, roots, and lentiles!<br /><br />John Brand & Henry Ellis, Popular Antiquities (1888), p.284Ivan Dayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03500437663759868535noreply@blogger.com