Why mince pies

We guess the sound of eating something with mince in it as a light afternoon snack isn't actually all that appealing. The BetterMaternityCare campaign are planning to march! Check out our exclusive interview with Linda Kelly from Women Ascend here. Jade Hayden. The iconic mince pie. You either love it or you hate it. Vicky Phelan to focus on quality of life over "putting body through torture". Eamonn Holmes quits This Morning after 15 years. Fruity, boozy little mouthfuls, mince pies will doubtless make an appearance on every table this holiday season, making spirits bright and then going straight to your hips.

The diminutive treats are so omnipresent it's easy to take them for granted, but they have a long history, which saw them morph from hefty ground-mutton goodies into today's dainty tarts. They've even been caught up in some intriguing, longstanding legends, which reveal perhaps more about people's prejudices and desire for a good story than about the dessert itself.

Pies as a culinary art form are old inventions, although they haven't always involved buttery, flaky pastry. For many centuries, they seem to have been primarily shells of flour and water paste wrapped around a filling to keep it moist while baking. The cases, which could be several inches thick, according to Janet Clarkson, author of Pie: A History, were perhaps not even intended to be edible.

Even once fat had begun to be added to the dough, bringing us into the realm of modern pastry, a pie crust was still sometimes considered more as a kind of primitive Tupperware.

A well-baked meat pie, with liquid fat poured into any steam holes left open and left to solidify, might even be kept for up to a year, with the crust apparently keeping out air and spoilage. Early mince pies were much bigger than modern treats - and had a sweet and savoury meat-based filling Credit: Alamy. To make these morsels, cooks were instructed to grind up pork, hard-boiled eggs, and cheese, before mixing them with spices, saffron, and sugar. Other recipes redolent of today's mince pies include one that appears in Gervase Markham's The English Huswife, published in In this recipe, an entire leg of mutton and three pounds of suet go in, along with salt, cloves, mace, currants, raisins, prunes, dates, and orange peel.

They were big, sturdy things — these pies were not finger food, but enough to serve many diners at once. By the midth Century, there appears to have been some connection made to Christmas, although people certainly ate mince pies at other times as well — Samuel Pepys had mince pies at a friend's anniversary party in January of , where there were 18 laid out , one for each year of the marriage.

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Contact Us. View Category. Current Vacancies FAQs. Home Shop Our Company. Media Careers Contact Us. Return Shop. Categories What's Going On. Share the page. Next Article. Mince pies throughout history For hundreds of years the delicious mince pie has been enjoyed as a tasty, warming and filling treat — early on as a main dish, now most often to finish off a meal or to serve up as a treat.

Traditions, folklore and superstitions As with many traditional recipes, especially the ones we make and enjoy around big holidays or life events, mince pies are steeped with tradition and customs.

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