(no subject)
Pot pie
Most early cookbooks do not contain recipes for "pot pie." This was a description of cooking method rather than a recipe. Notes here:
"Potpie....A crusted pie made with poultry or meat, and, usually chopped vegetables. The term, which first appeared in American print in 1785, probably refers to the deep pie pans or pots used to bake pies in, and it has remained primarily an Americanism. The most popular pot pies have been chicken, Beef, and pork. The first frozen pot pie was made with chicken in 1951 by the C. A. Swanson Company."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 254)
"Pot pies have a long history in most Northern European cuisines, and if they were a specialty anywhere, it was in the British Isles. And a pot pie must be made in a pot that is completely lined with crust. Originally, this crust was not eaten; it was there to keep the taste of the iron pot away from the food."
---"ONE CRUST OR TWO?" Leslie Land, Los Angeles Times, September 24, 1992 (p. H11)
"Pot pies are as old as pastry-making itself. In the royal households of France and England, savory tarts were among a chef's most elaborate dishes...Sad to say, pot pies seem a relic of an age of family restaurants where a cook actually took his time to make such items--before such restaurants were conglomerated and homogenized. The last steamy gasp of the traditional pot pie may well have been the arrival of the frozen pot pie in supermarkets of the early 1950s, which made the idea of making one at home or in a restaurant obsolete, despite the lack of fresh flavor...Pot pies are as old as pastry making itself. And in the royal households of France and England, savory tarts were often among the most elaborate of dishes in a chef's repertoire, especially during the Elizabethan era, when the crusts would be decorated with heraldic devices, flowers, and curlicues of painstaking skill. Inside might be anything at all, including the famous "four-and-twentyblackbirds" or even a small child (unbaked and uneaten, I assure you). In America, where far more households had baking ovens than in Europe, the tart became known as the pot pie by the end of the 18th century, and was a fixture of American kitchens. In most cases it referred to a casserole dish topped with a pastry crust rather than to a mixture of ingredients baked in a pastry crust, so that the casserole could easily be hung above the fire or set on a grid to be baked by indirect heat. They were particularly welcome at church suppers because they were so easy to transport and were very festive at any family table."
---POT PIES , By: Mariani, John, Bellamy, Gail, Restaurant Hospitality, April 1998 (p. 80)
About chicken pot pie
Primary evidence suggests recipes for chicken pot pie (in concept, but not name) were known in England as far back as the Middle Ages. As one would expect, these early meat pies were quite different from ones we know today. Robert May's Accomplist Cook [1685] lists several recipes for poultry pies (chicken, turkey, pheasant etc.). These generally still relied on Medieval flavors: pepper, salt, nutmeg, orange juice, lemon, chestnuts, mace, sugar, gooseberries, barberries, grapes etc. Vegetables were sometimes employed:
" artichock bottoms, or the tops of boild sparagus...Otherways for the liquoring or garnishing of these Pies, for variety you may put in them boil'd skirrets, bottom of artichokes boil'd, or boil'd cabbidge lettice...whole onions being baked...Or bake them with candied lettice stalks, potatoes..."
---The Accomplisht Cook, Robert May, facsimile 1685 edition [Prospect Books:Devon] 2000 (p. 212-3)
The oldest American recipes we have specifically titled "pot pie" are from 1839
Most early cookbooks do not contain recipes for "pot pie." This was a description of cooking method rather than a recipe. Notes here:
"Potpie....A crusted pie made with poultry or meat, and, usually chopped vegetables. The term, which first appeared in American print in 1785, probably refers to the deep pie pans or pots used to bake pies in, and it has remained primarily an Americanism. The most popular pot pies have been chicken, Beef, and pork. The first frozen pot pie was made with chicken in 1951 by the C. A. Swanson Company."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 254)
"Pot pies have a long history in most Northern European cuisines, and if they were a specialty anywhere, it was in the British Isles. And a pot pie must be made in a pot that is completely lined with crust. Originally, this crust was not eaten; it was there to keep the taste of the iron pot away from the food."
---"ONE CRUST OR TWO?" Leslie Land, Los Angeles Times, September 24, 1992 (p. H11)
"Pot pies are as old as pastry-making itself. In the royal households of France and England, savory tarts were among a chef's most elaborate dishes...Sad to say, pot pies seem a relic of an age of family restaurants where a cook actually took his time to make such items--before such restaurants were conglomerated and homogenized. The last steamy gasp of the traditional pot pie may well have been the arrival of the frozen pot pie in supermarkets of the early 1950s, which made the idea of making one at home or in a restaurant obsolete, despite the lack of fresh flavor...Pot pies are as old as pastry making itself. And in the royal households of France and England, savory tarts were often among the most elaborate of dishes in a chef's repertoire, especially during the Elizabethan era, when the crusts would be decorated with heraldic devices, flowers, and curlicues of painstaking skill. Inside might be anything at all, including the famous "four-and-twentyblackbirds" or even a small child (unbaked and uneaten, I assure you). In America, where far more households had baking ovens than in Europe, the tart became known as the pot pie by the end of the 18th century, and was a fixture of American kitchens. In most cases it referred to a casserole dish topped with a pastry crust rather than to a mixture of ingredients baked in a pastry crust, so that the casserole could easily be hung above the fire or set on a grid to be baked by indirect heat. They were particularly welcome at church suppers because they were so easy to transport and were very festive at any family table."
---POT PIES , By: Mariani, John, Bellamy, Gail, Restaurant Hospitality, April 1998 (p. 80)
About chicken pot pie
Primary evidence suggests recipes for chicken pot pie (in concept, but not name) were known in England as far back as the Middle Ages. As one would expect, these early meat pies were quite different from ones we know today. Robert May's Accomplist Cook [1685] lists several recipes for poultry pies (chicken, turkey, pheasant etc.). These generally still relied on Medieval flavors: pepper, salt, nutmeg, orange juice, lemon, chestnuts, mace, sugar, gooseberries, barberries, grapes etc. Vegetables were sometimes employed:
" artichock bottoms, or the tops of boild sparagus...Otherways for the liquoring or garnishing of these Pies, for variety you may put in them boil'd skirrets, bottom of artichokes boil'd, or boil'd cabbidge lettice...whole onions being baked...Or bake them with candied lettice stalks, potatoes..."
---The Accomplisht Cook, Robert May, facsimile 1685 edition [Prospect Books:Devon] 2000 (p. 212-3)
The oldest American recipes we have specifically titled "pot pie" are from 1839