| History of the Pot Pie
Savory pies are as old as written history, dating back to the ancient Greeks
who first put cooked meats into an open pastry crust. The Romans are
credited with adding the top crust, thereby giving the savory pie its more
familiar enclosed appearance and enabling this very portable meal to
traverse the length and breadth of their empire.
Nearly every culture has its own adaptation of the meat pie . . . but it was
in England that the idea gained true popularity; where the savory pie has
been a traditional dish since the time of Henry the Eighth. Magnificent"game pies" were featured prominently at medieval banquets. Today, the"steak and kidney" pie and the "cornish pasty" are probably two of the
best-known varieties. The pasty—a self contained, complete meal for the
tin miners of Cornwall—originally had mutton and potatoes at one end and
jam in the other. The miners' initials would be pressed into the dough to
identify the owner.
Another empire, the British, carried the meat pie across the seas along with
its settlers who took their traditional pies to Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. In the mid-nineteenth century, Cornish miners emigrating to the
New World introduced the pasty to the upper peninsula of Michigan,
where it remains a local specialty of the state.Here at The Cravey, we've added our own interpretation to the concept. |
