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A section for all you budding etymologists where each week the origin of a word or phrase is investigated.
This week it is.....Mince pies
Crumbly, fruity, spicy or boozy: nothing heralds the
arrival of Christmas more than a mince pie.
The ancestor of today’s sweet, dainty little mince pies
in their foil trays was the medieval Christmas pie. These
often contained meat - beef (if you could afford it) or
suet, mutton, goose or even sheep’s tongues if you
couldn’t. As well as being larger, these medieval mince
pies would have been oval in shape to represent Christ’s
manger, rather than round like the pies of today.
It was said that King Henry V was served mince pies as
part of his coronation celebrations, which took place
on the 9th April 1413. However, perhaps fittingly, the
event was somewhat marred by a snow storm. During
the Puritan era, Oliver Cromwell’s parliament made
many attempts to ban Christmas, and all the food and
festivities that went with it. On the 24th December 1652,
parliament proclaimed ‘no observance shall be had of the
five and twentieth day of December, commonly called
Chyristmas [sic] day’. Mince pies were subsequently
restored along with the monarchy.
Things had settled down by the 1800s and a recipe for
mincemeat from 1788 by cook Richard Briggs lists suet,
fat, currents, peel, apples, spices, brandy and sugar,
which isn’t so far from what we eat today.However, you
could still find recipes for mince pies containing meat
right up to the Victorian era. This recipe for a ‘plain
mince pie’ by Mrs. A. L. Webster, in ‘The improved
housewife’ from 1844 declares ‘Neat’s [sheep’s] tongue
and feet make the best mince pies.’
It is said you should eat a mince pie on every day of the
12 days of Christmas, and to refuse one is supposed to
be unlucky, and along with a nip of brandy and a carrot,
they’re left out as a thank you for Santa Claus. Other
such superstitions abound, such as only stirring the
mince mixture clockwise and not cutting a pie with a
knife. A more fun tradition was the annual Big Eat mince
pie eating competition held in Wookey Hole, Somerset.
The record currently stands at 46 pies in 10 minutes,
which is more than most of us eat in the whole month.
Merry Christmas!
Is there an English phrase or saying that you would
like to know more about?
Email it to us on submissions@awolonline.net
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