Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
If you would like to write a summary for this topic, email phil [at] gyford [dot] com
Annotations
-
Mince pies (or shred pies as they were also known, because the meat was shredded with a knife) were not just eaten at Christmas.They were a savoury-sweet mixture of meat, fruit and sugar, and one might be as much as 20lbs in weight; not so surprising when a recipe could include a whole leg of lamb, as well as suet, currants and prunes. Only a bread oven would be big enough, in those days, to accommodate such a pie. Over the years the content changed to leave us with our meatless mincemeat (How did the E.C. miss that one?).
-
mince pies in Pepys times.
See in the BBC site:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A663626
and find some hare raisins pig pies! -
OED
minced pie
mince pie, n.
[DRAFT REVISION Sept. 2009 Go to earlier version of entry ]
1. a. A savoury pie containing minced meat, esp. beef; a meat pie. Now chiefly Sc. and N.Z.
1573 C . HOLLYBAND French Schoole-maister 94 O Lorde, he hath supped up all the brothe of this mince pie. 1768 T. HULL Royal Merchant III. ii. 48 Hig. Oh the pies! the piping hot mince pies! Prig. The fine fat poultry!b. A pie or tart containing mincemeat (see MINCEMEAT n. 1b), usually one eaten during the Christmas season and also (in N. Amer.) at Thanksgiving.
In Britain, the pies are now usually small, round covered tarts; elsewhere they are often traditionally larger.
{alpha}
1604 T. DEKKER News from Graves-end Ep. Ded. sig. B3, Ten thousand in London swore to feast their neighbors with nothing but plum-porredge, and mince-pyes all Christmas.1662 S. PEPYS Diary 6 Jan. (1970) III. 4 We have, besides a good chine of beef and other good cheer, eighteen mince-pies in a dish, the number of the years that he hath been married.
1673 T. SHADWELL Epsom-Wells IV, in Wks. (1720) II. 247 For currants to make mince-pyes with.
1600 S. ROWLANDS Letting of Humors Blood Epigram viii. sig. A7v, He liues not like Diogines on Rootes: But proues a Mince-pie guest vnto his Host.