By Henry Sutton
What is a Yorkshire Christmas Pie? A simple version involves a boned and stuffed pigeon wrapped inside a boned duck, which is itself wrapped inside a boned goose. This lot is then placed in an enormous pie dish with joints of rabbit and forcemeat plugging up the gaps and short crust pastry placed on top. Fancier versions include partridges, woodcocks, snipes, grouse, widgeons and calves feet.
The recipe dates from the early 18th century, and recorded versions of it appear at festive banquets at Windsor Castle (www.windsor.gov.uk) and Castle Howard (www.castlehoward.co.uk). However, the place where it was most treasured was Harewood House (www.harewood.org), just north of Leeds. Home to the Earls of Harewood, this magnificent mansion, built from honey-coloured York stone, has the finest 18th century kitchen in the country. Now beautifully restored, the enormous room features highly elaborate masonry work and a domed ceiling in the shape of the Sistine chapel.
Not content with the architecture the owners then installed a succession of brilliant French chefs, the most famous being Louis LeComte, who largely wrote the most successful 19th century cookery book of all time, Encyclopaedia of Practical Cookery, and took the Yorkshire Christmas Pie to new heights, literally. However, to get anywhere near one today you’d have to pay a visit to Ivan Day’s Historic Food Centre (www.historicfood.com) at Wreay Farm, Penrith, on the edge of the Lake District National Park. His 17th century farmhouse is equipped with a wide range of antique kitchen utensils and ranges, while Day specialises in recreating culinary delights from the past using only traditional methods.
Pies, however, are very much a Yorkshire thing. While not especially associated with Christmas Pies, the pretty village of Denby Dale, with its 19th century stone viaduct stretched across the Dearne Valley, in West Yorkshire, is nevertheless recognised as creating some of the world’s biggest pies. To date some 10 monster pies have been produced over the last 200 years, the latest weighing in at 12 tonnes and being over 40ft long. This was to celebrate the Millennium and The Queen Mother’s 100th birthday. However, this jumbo legacy does thrive day to day in the form of the Denby Dale Pie Company (www.denbydalepie.co.uk), which exports its more modest, but no less tasty beef and potatoe pies across the county and beyond.