Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!

Leaving a mince pie out for Santa this year? I do hope so. This year’s Christmas Special is all about mince pies: the history and baking, as well as the confusion surrounding the fact that there’s no meat in them. Neil makes some early 18th-century-shaped pies and makes a sweet lamb mincemeat from the North of England. He’s on a mission to get the meat back into mincemeat AND to have them on the menu outside of the Christmas period.

A huge thank you to Ivan Day for his help regarding the making of those 18th-century pies.

*blog posts of recipes to accompany the episode will appear on Wednesday 20th December and Friday 22nd December 2023.*

Things mentioned in today’s episode:

Ivan Day’s blog post about mince pies

The Accomplisht Cook by Robert May

The Experienced English Housekeeper by Elizabeth Raffald

Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management

Receipts of Pastry and Cookery by Edward Kidder

Jane Grigson’s Orange Mincemeat

Mrs Beeton’s Mincemeat Recipe

Jane Grigson’s Gooseberry Tarts recipe

Ivan Day’s historical pie-making course

Neil’s appearance on the Full English podcast

Neil’s appearance on the Shackbaggerly podcast

Neil's A Dark History of Sugar talk

Neil's Museum of Royal Worcester talk

Previous episodes mentioned in today’s episode:

Pagan Lent and Easter (includes a section on hot cross buns)

Elizabeth Raffald with Alessandra Pino & Neil Buttery

Christmas Feasting with Annie Gray

Hogmanay and Hamely Kitchen with Paula McIntyre

Christmas Pudding

Neil’s blogs:

‘British Food: a History’

‘Neil Cooks Grigson’

Neil’s books:

Before Mrs Beeton: Elizabeth Raffald, England’s Most Influential Housekeeper

A Dark History of Sugar

Both are published by Pen & Sword and available from all good bookshops.

Don’t forget, there will be postbag episodes in the future, so if you have any questions or queries about today’s episode, or indeed any episode, or have a question about the history of British food please email Neil at [email protected], or on twitter @neilbuttery, or Instagram and Threads dr_neil_buttery. His DMs are open. He is also on BlueSky at @neilbuttery.bsky.social

You can also join the British Food: a History Facebook discussion page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/britishfoodhistory

Mentioned in this episode:

Fruit Pig are currently sponsoring The British Food History Podcast

Visit fruitpig.co.uk for more details of their products and journey, and to access their shop. Grant and Matthew are very kindly giving listeners to the BFHP a unique special offer: 10% off your order until the end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.