[Sca-cooks] In the "I didn't know that" section ...

[Christiane]

I was poking around online for some modern Italian Easter bread recipes, when I found these nice recipes for beet green pie and onion pie (similar to things that were cooked in period). Each call for 12 eggs, and are specifically spring recipes. Some interesting notes about pre-modern-era egg production in Italy are in the article:

http://italianfood.about.com/od/vegetablepiesandmore/r/blr0798.htm

So all those eggy pies really showed off your wealth. And if you were a poor peasant family with only two or three laying hens, a pie like this really was a holiday treat!

Of course, those of you on the list who keep chickens probably already knew this. But as a suburban-bred girl, I didn't! ;-)

Gianotta