These surprise pies seem to have been popular in the Middle Ages. They were
as Ralph suggests a prebaked case with various fillings - one
recipe suggests live frogs and adds that when you open this it will have
all the ladies hopping about too. Another had a dwarf inside...
Susan Weingarten
Safed
Israel

On Thursday, February 5, 2015, Ralph Hancock <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> Helene Whittaker wrote:
>
>>   Is this what "four-and-twenty blackbirds baked in a pie" refers to?
>>
>
> I think not in this case. Of course it doesn't make sense as it stands:
> people did eat blackbirds, but these couldn't have been baked and singing.
> But a dish with a blind-baked piecrust over live blackbirds would have been
> just the thing for a fancy showpiece at a nobleman's grand meal.
>
> Huff paste pies were big ugly utilitarian objects, the medieval equivalent
> of catering-size food cans, and would not have appeared on a fashionable
> table. The contents would have been decanted and served more elegantly.
>
> RH
>
> ------------------------------
>
> To unsubscribe from the ANCIENT-FOOD-TECH list, click the following link:
>
> http://listserv.dartmouth.edu/scripts/wa.exe?TICKET=NzM1NjYzIFdlaW5nYXJ0ZW4uc3VzYW5AR01BSUwuQ09NIEFOQ0lFTlQtRk9PRC1URUNIIC7Q1TH1WyYr&c=SIGNOFF
>


-- 
Dr Susan Weingarten
tel:+972 4 6821395
mobile:+972 [0]507 537 184

########################################################################

To unsubscribe from the ANCIENT-FOOD-TECH list, click the following link:
https://listserv.dartmouth.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=ANCIENT-FOOD-TECH