Category Archives: Pies

18th Century Pasties, Part One

Posted on June 3, 2013 by Kevin Carter

Say the word “Pasty” (pronounced “past-ee”), and you’ll likely receive a passionate Pavlovian response from hungry folks from several regions of the U.S. (i.e., Michigan’s U.P., or parts of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Montana, and California). Echoes of the lip-smacking cheers reverberate … Continue reading →

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Standing-Crust Pie Recipes

Posted on May 28, 2013 by Kevin Carter

In my last (rather lengthy) post, I shared a recipe for a large standing crust from Mrs. Frazer’s 1791 cookbook, “The Practice of Cookery.” Rather than leave you standing there with an empty pie shell, I thought it would be … Continue reading →

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A Large Standing Crust

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Kevin Carter

In earlier posts, I offered recipes for a small standing crust — perfect for individual-serving meat pies, a short crust, as well as a puff pastry. These recipes were versions of the three types of crusts used probably most often in 18th … Continue reading →

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Parmesan Cheese Tart

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Jon Townsend

  Ok, I am obviously some kind of cheese pie freak, and I admit this is my third cheesecake type recipe in the last couple of months, but you will just have to bear with me. In the past, we … Continue reading →

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Another Cheesecake

Posted on March 11, 2013 by Jon Townsend

This “cheesecake” is easy and tasty.  As you can see from the above recipe from Eliza Smiths 1739 “The Compleat Housewife”, it is basically a 1/3 potato, 1/3 egg and 1/3 butter tart with some sugar and nutmeg added for … Continue reading →

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A Pork Pie with a Standing Crust

Posted on February 11, 2013 by Kevin Carter

In a previous post, I presented three common types of pastry crust used in the 18th century: the standing crust, the puff paste, and the short paste. These are fairly broad categories of crusts, and recipes for numerous variations for … Continue reading →

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Suet, Part Four: A Few Recipes.

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Kevin Carter

While perusing several 18th century cookbooks, I’ve identified and included below a selection of recipes using suet. I chose these recipes because they seem to be fairly typical representations of food categories which commonly use suet: puddings, dumplings, pastry crusts, … Continue reading →

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The Christmas Pie

Posted on December 19, 2012 by Kevin Carter

In most English societies, for centuries Christmas has been a time of gatherings, and food, and festivities, and traditions, and family. For many people in the eighteenth century, Christmas was celebrated much differently than it typically is today. Remnants of … Continue reading →

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Three Dozen Mince Pie Recipes Later — the Fallacy of Precision

Posted on December 7, 2012 by Kevin Carter

I recently completely a side-by-side comparison of a number of 18th and early 19th century recipes for mince pie — 36 recipes in all from 24 different sources. I have to admit that when I get involved in something like … Continue reading →

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A Puff Paste Recipe (with a secret confession)

Posted on November 26, 2012 by Kevin Carter

Our third video series, “18th Century Cooking with Jas. Townsend & Son,” is embarking on a closer look at the three more common types of pastry crusts used in 18th century cookery: the standing crust, the puff paste, and the … Continue reading →

Posted in Baking, Ingredients, Pies, Recipe, Video | Tagged , , , , , | 15 Comments