The Medieval Pie and Sour Sugar

A love of pies has always been apparent in British food culture. Traditionally, the pie recipe was created before the use of cutlery. The purpose of the pie was to be rich, nourishing and easy to eat with the fingers. Elisabeth Ayrton’s The Cookery of England (1974) opens its chapter on pies by writing that, "[t]he meat pie attained its full perfection only in England and holds its pride of place from the middle ages until the nineteenth century" (85). The "pride" that Ayrton discusses is interesting when considering the evolution of pies and their constant changing ingredients. Throughout her cookbook, Ayrton attempts to recreate and establish new recipes for the medieval pie; Considering this idea of the medieval pie and the origins of the infamous food item, Chef Heston Blumenthal filmed a documentary on his recreation of the medieval pie. 

The opening page to Aryton's chapter on "Pies"

In the opening to the video when Heston begins talking about the pigeon pie, he reads his recipe from the very book which is being discussed in this post. During the video when Heston mentions taking the pies to a tasting at a football match, he comments on how people are "used to such low pie standards". It’s comical that Heston comments on the standards within today’s society, when Ayrton herself comments on the unappealing taste of the medieval pie. Ayrton establishes that, "I have faithfully made Gervase Mackham's Chicken Pye, and it is very sweet , rather too rich with butter, and all flavour of the chicken is lost" (86). Later on in her discussion of the Medieval pie Ayrton addresses the struggles that modern cooks faces with the strange notion of adding sugar and currents to supposedly savoury recipes. 

It is through this removal of a method in Ayrton's writing that I might suggest that Ayrton assumed that her readers would be uninterested in trying the traditional recipe. Upon reading it’s evident that there are moments in the opening to the chapter that Ayrton attempts to evoke disgust among her readers. One way in which Ayrton achieves this is by listing the innards of the animals which traditionally made their way into British recipes. One suggestion as to why Ayrton includes this pre-history to the pie before presenting her own recipes is firstly to provide the reader with a knowledge of what they're eating, but my assumption is that she includes these disgusting recipe's in order to make her own seem more  appealing.

The struggle between sweet and savoury that Ayrton discusses in the opening to her cookbook is one that I can relate with. Personally, the thought of a mince pie for example is completely disgusting; the combination of both sweet and savoury disturbs my taste buds greatly. The pie is neither a sweet, nor a savoury dish; it is sometimes served with cream and sometimes served with potatoes. What has become apparent from Ayrton and Heston's dishes is that the pie is complex; it is neither one thing nor another. The pie is not a dessert, nor is it just to be served with potatoes and gravy. It is so much more than that...





Works Cited: 

Ayrton, Elisabeth. The Cookery of England. 1974. Andre Duetsch Limited. BAS Printers Limited. London. Print. 

Blumenthal, Heston. Youtube. 'Heston's Pigeon Pie'. May 10th 2010. Web. 01/04/15.