Christmas Special 2023: Mince Pies
Description
Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!
Leaving a mince pie out for Santa this year? I do hope so. This year’s Christmas Special is all about mince pies: the history and baking, as well as the confusion surrounding the fact that there’s no meat in them. Neil makes some early 18th-century-shaped pies and makes a sweet lamb mincemeat from the North of England. He’s on a mission to get the meat back into mincemeat AND to have them on the menu outside of the Christmas period.
A huge thank you to Ivan Day for his help regarding the making of those 18th-century pies.
*blog posts of recipes to accompany the episode will appear on Wednesday 20th December and Friday 22nd December 2023.*
Things mentioned in today’s episode:
Ivan Day’s blog post about mince pies
The Accomplisht Cook by Robert May
The Experienced English Housekeeper by Elizabeth Raffald
Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management
Receipts of Pastry and Cookery by Edward Kidder
Jane Grigson’s Orange Mincemeat
Jane Grigson’s Gooseberry Tarts recipe
Ivan Day’s historical pie-making course
Neil’s appearance on the Full English podcast
Neil’s appearance on the Shackbaggerly podcast
Neil's A Dark History of Sugar talk
Neil's Museum of Royal Worcester talk
Previous episodes mentioned in today’s episode:
Pagan Lent and Easter (includes a section on hot cross buns)
Elizabeth Raffald with Alessandra Pino & Neil Buttery
Christmas Feasting with Annie Gray
Hogmanay and Hamely Kitchen with Paula McIntyre
Neil’s blogs:
Neil’s books:
Before Mrs Beeton: Elizabeth Raffald, England’s Most Influential Housekeeper
Both are published by Pen & Sword and available from all good bookshops.
Don’t forget, there will be postbag episodes in the future, so if you have any questions or queries about today’s episode, or indeed any episode, or have a question about the history of British food please email Neil at neil@britishfoodhistory.com, or on twitter @neilbuttery, or Instagram and Threads dr_neil_buttery. His DMs are open. He is also on BlueSky at @neilbuttery.bsky.social
You can also join the British Food: a History Facebook discussion page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/britishfoodhistory
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy