Mince pie

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Mince pie
Six mince pies on a plate, sprinkled with sugar and with one broken open
A plate of mince pies
TypePie
CourseDessert
Place of originEngland
Main ingredientsMincemeat

A mince pie (also mincemeat pie in North America, and fruit mince pie in Australia and New Zealand) is a sweet

Christian symbolism of representing the gifts delivered to Jesus by the Biblical Magi.[1] Mince pies, at Christmas time, were traditionally shaped in an oblong shape, to resemble a manger and were often topped with a depiction of the Christ Child.[1]

The early mince pie was known by several names, including "

Puritan authorities. Nevertheless, the tradition of eating Christmas pie in December continued through to the Victorian era
, although by then its recipe had become sweeter and its size markedly reduced from its once large oblong shape. Today, the mince pie, usually made without meat (but often including suet or other animal fat), remains a popular seasonal treat enjoyed by many across the United Kingdom and Ireland.

History

Britain

The ingredients for the modern mince pie can be traced to the return of European

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'."[5]

Christmas Pie, by William Henry Hunt

The modern mince pie's precursor was known by several names. The antiquary

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."[13]
Some considered them unfit to occupy the plate of a clergyman, causing Philo-Clericus 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.[11]

Home-made mincemeat

In his essay The Life of Samuel Butler,

Victorian age, the addition of meat had, for many, become an afterthought (although the use of suet remains).[17] Its taste then was broadly similar to that experienced today, although some 20th-century writers continued to advocate the inclusion of meat.[18]

A batch of modern-day home-made mince pies

Although the modern recipe is no longer the same list of 13 ingredients once used (representative of Christ and his 12 Apostles according to author Margaret Baker),

urban myth.[21]

New England

Mincemeat pie was brought to

American holiday of Thanksgiving. The ingredients for New England mincemeat pie are similar to the British one, with a mixture of apples, raisins, spices, and minced beef serving as the filling.[22] Later recipes sometimes omit the beef, though "None Such" (now owned by The J.M. Smucker Company
), the major brand of condensed American mincemeat, still contains beef. New England mincemeat pies are usually full-sized pies, as opposed to the individual-sized pies now common in Britain.

See also

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ The full quotation reads "We have never been witnesses of animosities excited by the use of mince-pies and plumb-porridge; nor seen with what abhorrence those who could eat them at all other times of the year would shrink from them in December. An old Puritan, who was alive in my childhood, being, at one of the feasts of the church, invited by a neighbour to partake of his cheer, told him, that, if he would treat him at an alehouse with beer, brewed for all times and seasons, he should accept his kindness, but would have none of his superstitious meats and drinks."[14]

Notes

  1. ^ Traditionally beef suet, although many modern recipes use vegetable suet
  1. ^
    ISBN 9781476605739
    . It was fashionable at Christmastime to bake a mince pie in the form of a manger topped with an image of the Christ Child fashioned from dough, for the spices and sweetmeats were held as symbols of the Magi's gifts.
  2. ^ a b c Timbs 1866, p. 149
  3. ^ a b John 2005, p. 78
  4. ^ Selden 1856, p. 27
  5. ^ Dyer 2007, pp. 458–459
  6. ^ Brand 1849, pp. 527–528
  7. ^ Ayto 1990, pp. 184–185
  8. ^ Markham & Best 1994, p. 104
  9. ^ Brand 1849, p. 530
  10. ^ Lee 1854, p. 141
  11. ^ a b Chambers 1864, p. 755
  12. ^ Quote taken from Lewis, Thomas (1720), English Presbyterian eloquence, printed for T. Bickerton, and reproduced in Brand 1849, pp. 527–528
  13. ^ N/A 1744, p. 500
  14. ^ Butler & Johnson 1807, p. 21
  15. ^ "Grubstreet Journal, Dec. 27. No. 209. On Christmas Pye", The Gentleman's Magazine, hosted at bodley.ox.ac.uk, pp. 652–653, December 1733, retrieved 24 November 2010
  16. ^ Baker 1992, pp. 32–33
  17. ^ Stavely & Fitzgerald 2004, p. 220
  18. ^ Hirst, Christopher (4 December 2011), "Sweet Delight: A Brief History of the Mince Pie", independent.co.uk, The Independent, retrieved 7 December 2011
  19. ^ Baker 1992, p. 33
  20. ^ George, Colin (11 January 2012), Booming Mince Pie and Coffee Sales Boost Greggs, nebusiness.co.uk, retrieved 14 November 2012
  21. ^ Clare, Sean (6 April 2012), "Illegal Mince Pies and Other UK Legal Legends", bbc.co.uk, BBC, retrieved 14 November 2012
  22. ^ a b Peggy M. Baker (November–December 2002). "Thanksgiving and the New England Pie" (PDF). Pilgrim Hall Museum. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2012-12-22. Retrieved 3 December 2015.

Bibliography

Further reading

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