Yorkshire Christmas pie

A Yorkshire Christmas pie, or just Yorkshire pie is an elaborate standing pie, composed of a series of birds enclosed within one another in the manner of a Russian Doll; e.g. a poussin in a pigeon, in a partridge, in a goose, in a turkey. This bird amalgamation is placed in a dish with pieces of gamebird and hare, topped with pastry and basted liberally.

History In the Middle Ages, elaborate dishes were prized as the centrepieces of English feasts and celebrations. At Christmas, large standing pies were one such dish. A record from a Christmas feast in 1394 London described spiced capon, hare, partridge, pigeon, pheasant, and rabbits with offal and meatballs in a sauce cooked with pickled mushrooms, that was then set in pastry "made craftily in the likeness of a bird's body" including a feathered tail. By the 17th century, elaborate preparations had become rare in English cookery; in the case of pies, attributed to the invention of potting meat by historian C. Anne Wilson. Despite this, the Christmas pie preparation continued to be made in the form of the Yorkshire Christmas pie, which reached the height of its popularity in the 18th century.

One recipe for "A Yorkshire Christmas-Pye" was included by Hannah Glasse in her 1747 The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy:

Glasse's final remark referenced what remained a common practice into the late 19th century, made possible in the 18th century by the construction of roads able to support a fast and stable journey. Even with these new roads, the journey remained rough, and the pastry was made thick to protect its contents. Intended as a container rather than food, it was not eaten. Over the 18th through late 19th centuries, transport of the pies shifted from coach to train. Accompanying the pies, York ham was often sent as a secondary present.

In the winter conditions of Christmas-time London, Yorkshire Christmas pies would keep for long periods, and records describe families still eating pies they received for Christmas in early February. The inclusion of goose, and the fat it contained, was another element contributing to the dish's preservation. At serving, some pies were taken apart and carved before eating, in cases where chefs had not boned the birds.

Goose pie A smaller pie which Glasse called "A Goose-Pye" has been characterized by culinary historians Keith Stavely and Kathleen Fitzgerald as a simpler version of Glasse's Yorkshire Christmas pie. This pie required a cook enclose a pickled dried tongue in a fowl, which was then stuffed in a goose. Later in the century, "Yorkshire Goose Pye" was the name Elizabeth Raffald gave to a recipe in The Experienced English Housekeeper (1769), closely resembling Glasse's recipe for Yorkshire Christmas pie including detail on making the pie suited for travel.

In 1806, Maria Rundell published her book A New System of Domestic Cookery, including recipes for "Green-goose Pie" and "Duck pie" made in the manner of Glasse's smaller Goose-Pye with pickled calf tongue at their centre. Elaborating on such preparations, Rundell describes a tradition of pie-making in Staffordshire, to the north-west of London: "The large pies in Staffordshire are made as above: but with a goose outwards, then a turkey, a duck next, then a fowl; and either tongue, small birds, or forcemeat, in the middle."

Recipes for smaller pies continued throughout the century, including one in The Practice of Cookery (1830) by Mrs. Dalgairns in England, which was copied and included in The Cook's Own Book, a text published in Boston, Massachusetts in 1832 and credited to a "Mrs. N. K. M. Lee". Cookbooks in the US continued to feature such recipes into at least the 1850s, in the works of Eliza Leslie in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Mrs Bliss in Boston.

In literature and letters References to Yorkshire Christmas pies, sometimes under the name Yorkshire pies, appear in literature and letters throughout the 19th century. In Tom Brown at Oxford, an 1861 novel by Thomas Hughes, it is said "Then there would be a deep Yorkshire pie, or reservoir of potted game, as a piece, de resistance". In the 1855 short story "The Holly Tree", Charles Dickens describes a character's encounter with such a pie:

Mention of Yorkshire Christmas pie also appears in the letters of J. M. W. Turner in 1845, where he expresses thanks for the gift of one from Yorkshire.

Modern In modern times, the practice of making Yorkshire Christmas pies has been revived by some cooks. One such version was sold in the UK in 2004 for about £100, and placed pork stuffing in a pigeon, in a pheasant, in a chicken, in a small turkey, all in a goose. All the birds were boned. Another, cheaper version was also available, enclosing a pigeon in a chicken in a duck, with sage and apple stuffing positioned throughout.

A dish eaten in France, , was described by Jane Grigson as similar, though without the element of birds being enclosed in each other. The turducken retains the practice of enclosing a series of birds within each other, though it lacks the paste surrounding the main bird in the Yorkshire Christmas pie or its pastry.

Yorkshire Christmas pie

Bron en licentie