January 09

Anniversary of Jack Horner's Death
 
 

Little Jack Horner sat in the corner
Eating his Christmas pie,
He put in his thumb and pulled out a plum
And said "What a good boy am I!

Yes, Virginia, there really was a little Jack Horner. He was the 5"1" steward to Richard Whiting, the last Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey before the Henry XIII dissolved all of the English monasteries. When Whiting got wind of Henry's plans to remove him as abbot, he tried to bribe the monarch by sending him a "trick pie", the type made for special feasts and filled with live birds, butterflies, frogs, dwarfs, and other creatures. These pies which were two-three times the with of traditional pies with steeper sides and were filled with flour before they were baked. After baking, a large circle was cut in the bottom crust, the flour was removed, and the pie was filled with various creatures.

Trick pies were the Renaissance equivalent to the contemporary celebratory cakes which house scantily clad girls in the cart below the cakewho pop through the false top at the appropriate signal. In Epulario;s The Italian Banquet (1516),  the author provides a recipe  "To make pies that the birds may be alive in them and fly out when it is cut up":

 
"Make the coffin [piecrust] of a great pie or pasty. In the bottom thereof make a hole as big as your fist, or bigger if you will. Let the sides of the coffin be somewhat higher than ordinary pies. Which done, put it full of flour and bake it, and being baked, open the hole in the bottom and take out the flour. Then, having a pie of the bigness of the hole in the bottom of the coffin aforesaid, you shall put it into the coffin, withal put into the said coffin round about the aforesaid pie as many small live birds as the empty coffin will hold, besides the [small] pie aforesaid. And this is to be done at such time as you send the pie to the table, and set before the guests: where, uncovering or cutting up the great lid of the pie, all the birds will fly out, which is to delight and pleasure show to the company. And that they be not altogether mocked, you shall cut open the small pie."		  

Instead of birds, the Abbot of Glastonbury's pie contained deeds to twelve of his estates as a present to Henry. The delivery of the pie was entrusted to his steward Thomas (whose nickname was Jack) Horner who opened the pie and removed the deeds of Mells Manor in Somerset and left the other eleven. Henry was impressed with the gift and thanked the abbot, not referring to the total number of deeds. When the abbot died a few months later, Horner appropriated the manor for himself and the property remained in the Horner family for more than 200 years.

The sudden source of Horner's wealth was highly suspect and was the source of the double entendre of the word "plum" in the rhyme. The rhyme became the source of the used of "plum"  for an office, position, or other reward given for political reasons. As a side note, when "plum" is used in reference the English cooking, it refers to currents or raisins. Therefore, a plum pudding is a raisin pudding and a plum pie is a raisin pie.

The Christmas pie in the Jack Horner rhyme was mincemeat pie.  Mincemeat pie was also the more respectable sibling of the humble pie. Humbles or numbles are internal organs of game and were often baked into a pie and served to the servants while their masters ate pies made from more succulent parts. Often, as a punishment for rowdiness, children were forced to eat humble pie instead of their family's regular meal. 

Mincemeat pies were forbidden during the Reformation because of their religious significance. The Christmas mincemeat pie came about at the time when the Crusaders were returning from the Holy Land. They brought home a variety of oriental spices. It was important to add three spices (cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg) for the three gifts given to the Christ child by the Magi. In honor of the birth of Jesus, the mincemeat pie was originally made in an oblong casings (cradle shape) with a place for a Christ Child figurine to be placed on top. The figurine was removed by the children and the cradle (pie) was eaten in celebration.

In the 17th century England, mincemeat pies were generally made from venison. In the 19th century, Sweeney Todd's paramour, Mrs. Lovett, couldn't afford venison, so she used pussy cats and human flesh in her pies. The following recipe uses beef instead, and doesn't smell up the neighborhood like Mrs. Lovett's pies did.

 

Old English Mincemeat Pie
 
Ingredients
 
2 9" pie crusts
1&1/2 lbs  beef stew
1 cup apple cider
4 Granny Smith apples, pared, cored, finely chopped
1&1/3 cup sugar
2&1/2 cup dried currants
2&1/2 cup dark raisins
1/2 cup finely diced dried apricots
12 oz mixed candied orange and lemon peel, finelydiced
 		 1/4 lb butter
1 lb sour cherry preserves
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup heavy cream
extra sugar to sprinkle on top crust


 
 
Instructions
 
  1. Heat beef stew and 1/2 cup cider in large Dutch oven to boiling, reduce heat and simmer covered until meat is tender when pierced with a fork, about 20 minutes.
  2. Remove meat to work surface, coarsely chop and return to pan. Stir all remaining ingredients into meat. Heat to simmering. Cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, over low heat until very thick, about 1&1/2 hours.
  3. Refrigerate mincemeat in  a container or jar with tight-fitting lid at least one week before using. Mincemeat will keep in refrigerator up to three weeks.
  4. Preheat oven to 340º F.
  5. Put mincemeat into an unbaked pie shell and put pastry on top and crimp edges and poke several holes in top pastry.
  6. Brush top with cream and sprinkle with sugar.
  7. Bake 40 minutes.
  8. Protect the edges of crust the last 15 to 20 minutes with aluminum foil to keep from becoming too brown.