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

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