Penelope's Recipe Box

A Brief History of Pie - Medieval Black Currant Apple Pye

The Greeks invented pie crust. For Greek warriors, pie was takeout. Then the Romans knocked it off and took it all over the world. Although the Roman fascination with plumbing and bathing never really caught on in England, the conquerors’ pie shells did. In the 15th century, English and European pyes were everywhere, except they were shaped more like shoeboxes with lids on the top and bottom.

Somewhere around the 14th century, pies developed a big entertainment component. At the French court of Charles V (1364–1380) chefs began making elaborate sotelties or tableaux in piecrust. The Duke of Burgundy’s chef made what was his day’s version of the Guinness Book of Records pie: large enough to be cut open to reveal 28 musicians sitting inside, plus a captive girl (representing the “captive” church of the Middle East) who emerged wearing we don’t know what, but it must have been something.

From the 15th to the 17th centuries, “animated pyes” continued to be the hot banquet entertainment. Small animals and even small people were “baked” in them. A little minstrel would jump out and walk the length of the table reciting poetry or doing tricks. We won’t talk about how these pies were actually baked. Life was cheaper back then. In fact, the Entertainment Pie was probably the precursor of the naked girl in the cake at bachelor parties, but let’s get on with this week’s recipe.Penelope’s Medieval Black Currant Pie, with honey and fruit standing in for sugar, is a nod to those dark centuries before Marco Polo had enough of being a cultural shut-in and went off to find sugars, spices, and women his mother probably wouldn’t like.