Raised Game Pie – medieval recipe (2024)

FAQs

How were pies made in medieval times? ›

Medieval pie crusts were often baked first, to create a "pot" of baked dough with a removable top crust, hence the name pot pie. The first unequivocal reference to pie in a written source is in the 14th century (Oxford English Dictionary sb pie).

Game pie is a form of meat pie featuring game. The dish dates from Roman times when the main ingredients were wild birds and animals such as partridge, pheasant, deer, and hare. The pies reached their most elaborate form in Victorian England, with complex recipes and specialized moulds and serving dishes.

The Ancient Egyptians were the first to invent a dish close to what we know as a pie today. They had a honey filling covered in a crusty cake made from oats, wheat, rye or barley.

In their new country, the colonists eventually had more access to sweeteners like maple syrup, molasses, cane sugar, and honey. Increased access to local fruits and squashes like pear, apple, quince, pumpkin, and blueberry also helped grow the popularity of sweeter pies.

Fast forward to Medieval times and pies had definitely become a thing. Fillings at this point included “…beef, lamb, wild duck, magpie, pigeon – spiced with pepper, currants or dates.” The Roman habit of using pastry as a vessel to cook the filling was commonplace.

In medieval England, they were called pyes, and instead of being predominantly sweet, they were most often filled with meat — beef, lamb, wild duck, magpie pigeon — spiced with pepper, currants or dates.

In 1968, Hasbro got in on the act with the release of the Pie Face Game, a cream-pie variant of Russian roulette.

1. Every player has a plate with five cherries on it. 2. The objective of the game is to be the first one to eat all five cherries.

One story is that it was called a "chest" pie, since it was made with anything found in your chest, or pantry, but because of the Southern accent, it turned into "chess." Another story is that a woman who whipped up the recipe called it "just pie," which with the Southern accent, it turned into "chess" pie.

Pie History

Egyptian “pies” were called galettes, with the crust consisting of ground oats, rye, wheat, or barley and contained honey on the inside. These pies were sweet in nature and evidence of them can be found on the tomb walls of the Pharaoh Ramesses II, who ruled from 1304-1237 BC.

Did they have pie in the Middle Ages? ›

History of the Pie in Europe

Pies were also not intended for eating - they were commonly used to help meats last longer on sea voyages as they could be stacked easier. By the Medieval period, pies were used as a centrepiece for large banquets for important people at exclusive events.

A coffin or coffyn referred to a container made of pastry, a precursor of the modern pie crust, and food was served in the coffin it had been cooked in. The first printed use of the word coffin as a box for a corpse appeared later, in the 16th century. Historians trace pies back to ancient times.

Native Americans created a blueberry baked dessert called Saututhig (say 'sawi-taw-teeg'), a simple pudding made with blueberries, cracked corn and water. Try this Blueberry Slump (cobbler) recipe, which may be related to the traditional Native American Saututhig.

Apple Pie. Apple pie is arguably one of the most popular pie flavors. A symbol of America, the apple pie was actually invented by the British. Apple pie is simply made with sliced apples on double-crusted pastry dough.

Few houses possessed an oven and householders who had one charged for its use or sold the bread they made to their neighbours. In some places there might be a communal oven, but using that also meant that money would change hands. A riskier option for those without an oven was to bake the bread in the embers of a fire.

As soon as mankind started using blunt tools, grains like oats, barley and rye were ground down, filled with honey and baked over hot coals to create an early form of pie called a “galette.” These galettes were popular, and would remain the primary form of pie made for over 4,000 years.

Meat pies could use any bits of meat or vegetables to create a filling. Butter or animal fats like lard or suet were most commonly used for pie crust. At royal feasts, pies were used to entertain! There are stories of real live birds being put in pies and when cut, they would fly open to the amazement of the feasters.