An early English saying was, “The devil himself dare not appear in Cornwall during Christmas for fear of being baked in a pie.”
Historical records show that living creatures from blackbirds to pheasants, from foxes to rabbits, and in one case even a dwarf, were cooked into Christmas pies at temperatures not hot enough to kill them.
Then, as a festival highlight, the crust was broken, and the enclosed creatures would fly, hop, or run among the guests.
Those were some of the bizarre ingredients of history’s most exotic Christmas pies.
Related Posts
-
When did the Christmas Song “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” become Part of the Christmas Tradition?
Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer made his debut in 1939. Not surprisingly, Rudolph was originally created as part of an ad campaign. The Chicago-based Montgomery Ward department store asked an employee, veteran copywriter Robert…
-
How Much Do All the Gifts Cost in the Christmas Song “The Twelve Days of Christmas”?
Because the golden rings are pheasants and not jewellery, the most expensive item in "The Twelve Days of Christmas" is seven swans a-swimming, at US$7,000, followed by ten lords a-leaping and nine ladies…
-
Where Did the Christmas Cake Tradition Come From and What Does Fruitcake On Christmas Symbolize?
A dish of porridge that once ended the fast on Christmas Eve evolved into a pudding with dried fruits and spices as a tribute to the Wise Men. By the sixteenth century, the…
-
Why Is Christmas Celebrated on December 25th and How Was the Date For Christmas Decided?
Early scholars believed that prophets died on an anniversary of their birth. Once they established Good Friday as either March 25 or April 6, they reasoned that Christ's incarnation was nine months later,…
-
Why Do We Have Different Measuring Cups For Wet and Dry Ingredients When Cooking?
That depends on what your definition of “is” is. A cup is indeed a cup throughout the land: eight U.S. fluid ounces, whether wet or dry. But you may be wondering: If a…
-
History of Christmas Cards
No one could fail to notice that most Christmas Cards today have nothing whatsoever to do with Christ or Christianity. But did you know that Yuletide greeting cards were secular from their inception?…
