Devizes pie

Devizes pie
Type Savoury pie
Place of origin England
Region or state Devizes, Wiltshire
Main ingredients Offal, huff paste
Cookbook:Devizes pie  Devizes pie

Probably created in the 15th century, the Devizes Pie consists of offal, such as calf head,[1] cooked in a case of hard huff paste. It is associated with the town of Devizes, Wiltshire, England. The details of the dish had supposedly been lost for generations—although it appears in a recipe book of 1830[2]—until a recipe was discovered in the 1960s and the dish was then served in the Bear Hotel in Devizes for several years. After falling out of fashion again, it was revived in 2006 as part of the Devizes Food and Drink Festival. In 2009 it was claimed to ease the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome due to the high quantities of nucleotides in the offal.[3]

A recipe published in The Times in 1956 specified the main ingredients as thin slices from a boiled calf’s head with the brains and tongue cut into strips. Also slices of cold cooked bacon and lamb and rounds of hard-boiled eggs.[4]

References

  1. Schwabe, Calvin W. (1995). Unmentionable cuisine. University of Virginia Press. p. 18.
  2. Mrs. Dalgairns (1830). The practice of cookery: adapted to the business of every day life. R. Cadell. p. 247.
  3. "Old Devizes recipe fights new disease". The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald. 10 April 2009. Retrieved 2011-09-04.
  4. "Huff Paste". The Old Foodie. Retrieved 2011-09-04. (citing The Times, 19 November 1956)