Page 13 - Pie It Forward: Pies, Tarts, Tortes, Galettes, and Other Pastries Reinvented
P. 13
PIE: Think what you may, but yes, I’ve been
known to house live songbirds in my day. What’s
more, minstrels used to hide in me and pop out to
sing a ditty or two between the MANY courses of
Henry Tudor’s dinner parties. A naked lady
jumping out of a cake is quaintly 1950s. Jumping
out of a pie, however, is old-school 1480s.
When the birds weren’t living, they were still
displayed in all their whole, feathered glory; the
carcass that had once encased the yummy
contents of a pie would be draped over the pastry
to identify and adorn it. King Henry VI’s
coronation was celebrated with peacock pie, and
the English went on making these bird pies until
Victorian times. They couldn’t stop themselves
from shoving all manner of songbirds into a
piecrust (even when it was illegal to fell the sweet
warblers). Thankfully, the tradition of “dead bird
