As the sandwich celebrates its 250th birthday this year, you may have been hearing trivia about its origin. Legend has it that the Earl of Sandwich, an avid card player, needed an simple way to have something to take in without obtaining to set his playing cards down. He asked for a piece of beef between two pieces of bread, and the “sandwich” was born. According to our analysis, it was a equivalent need to take in a filling lunch effortlessly, without having making use of cutlery, which could have led to the origin of the chicken pot pie.

The Cornish Pasty – Parent to the Pot Pie?

A single of the earliest and most well-known variations of a rooster pie hails from Cornwall in Wonderful Britain. To this working day it is referred to as a Cornish “pasty,” and seems much more related to an Italian calzone, encased in a thick, closed crust. In contrast to a calzone or more present day versions on the pasty, it’s crammed with savory meat, vegetables and spices but no sauce or gravy as that would make it as well messy to consume by hand. Pasties have been a quite common lunch with Cornish miners, since they remain heat for a lengthy time in a lunch pail and are straightforward to reheat by putting on a shovel and keeping above a flame. Pasties also require no cutlery to take in, and could be held by their thick crusts by miners with dirty hands who would discard the crust following taking in the rest. Right now, pasties are Cornwall’s countrywide dish and account for six% of the foodstuff financial system.

Although the ingredients of any savory meat pie have been obtainable for hundreds of years in various countries, there are references in cookbooks from France relationship back to the 1300s. Pasties are also referred to in correspondence relevant to large ranking officers, the clergy, and royalty of the 1200s. It could not have been till the 17th and 18th centuries, nevertheless, that pasties turned frequent fare amid the functioning course. With this sort of an important spot in Cornish lore and as a “countrywide dish” of Cornwall, the neighboring county of Devon often competes for a function in pasty history.

Cornish Miners Get the Recipe on the Street

As tin mining was on the drop in Cornwall, the miners traveled for operate to other components of the world in the 1800s, and introduced their hearty lunch recipe with them. They settled in locations such as Australia, Mexico, the mid-western United States, and Pennsylvania. Although these locations are even now eating the pasty in a a lot more genuine form, some locations have done absent with the a lot more utilitarian characteristics, like the thick crust and lack of sauce.

don pie “Pot” Pies

The original savory pie makers of Europe would use a pot, and include a best and bottom crust to assist the pie hold its condition. Some American variations above the a long time have carried out absent with the bottom crust as it was no more time considered needed to try to eat this dish “on the fly” with out cutlery. A far more casserole-like dish which features a generous filling, which includes gravy, has turn out to be much more well-known. Also, the “pot” pie is typically connected with greens in addition to hen meat.

While the recipe and “use” may possibly have changed over the a long time, chicken pies are nonetheless witnessed as a wholesome, stick-to-your ribs food for the stop of a lengthy work working day. Also, as fans know, equivalent to Cornish pasties, hen pot pies are a single of the couple of main classes that will nevertheless be warm when you go back for seconds!