[Sca-cooks] Theatre food in Elizabethan England

Johnna Holloway johnnae at mac.com
Fri Feb 26 16:53:46 PST 2010


Strange thing about the baked blackberry and elderberry pies--

They turn up as ingredients for wines but I didn't find pies in MWBoC.

In EEBO-TCP (pre 1700 English books), a search on "elderberry" within  
full text, near within 40 characters "pie"
turns up 0 as in zero matches. Same result for blackberry.
Black near pie doesn't yield any recipes.

Black tart stuffe is made of prunes.

OED suggests blackberries may also be 1578 Lyte Dodoens vi. iv. 661  
The Bramble or Blacke berie bushe.
  or
the Black Currant (Ribes nigrum), the `blackberry' of sense 1 being  
there called `Brambleberry'; formerly in some localities the Bilberry,  
or Blaeberry; also, according to some, but perhaps erroneously, the  
sloe or fruit of the Blackthorn.


1567 Maplet Gr. Forest, The blackberie tree is after his sort bushy  
bearing that fruite that eftsones refresheth the Shepherde.


1597 Gerard Herbal (1633) 1417 We in England [call them] Worts,  
Whortleberries, Black-berries, Bill-berries.
So maybe we need another sort of berry pie searched???

Someone was going to buy the book. It's on Amazon.

Not heard a report on it.

Johnnae



On Feb 26, 2010, at 6:32 PM, Daniel & Elizabeth Phelps wrote:

> Two questions:
>
>
> Baked blackberry and elderberry pies
> Can anyone suggest a suitable recipe/recipe source.
>
> and,
>
> Regards:
>
> "The Rose and the Globe: Playhouses of Shakespeare's Bankside,  
> Southwark."
>
> Anyone take a look at this book?
>
> Daniel



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