Queen Victoria’s 1887 Pie is Re-Created for New Television Series: The Great Northern Cookbook
Denby Dale, the UK’s only designated “Pie Village”, revived a 220 year old tradition of making whopping great pies by recreating the famous pie made in 1887 to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee.
Nestled in the picturesque dale of West Yorkshire, the village is famous for baking enormous pies to celebrate national special occasions and events - not your normal run-of-the-mill pies, but monster pies to feed an entire village.
The pie “dish” alone weighed 1.5 tons, the meat and potato filling used 1.8tons of meat & gravy and 300kg of potatoes topped with 185 kg of shortcrust pastry.
The village came out in force to help local craft bakers Denby Dale Pies to make the 3.8 ton pie for a new Channel 5 programme, The Great Northern Cookbook, which celebrates traditional Northern fare and will be aired in January, presented by Sean Wilson, Coronation Street star, turned food lover.
Andrew Hayes, Managing Director of Denby Dale Pies and chief pie maker (and taster!) on the day said, “It was a bit of a tall order to replicate the 1887 pie, but folks really came out to help us to make the pie a special village occasion, we held a meeting at Pie Hall to ask locals to help us bake the pastry toppings for the pie.”
“The finished pie looked like a patchwork quilt made of pastry as people personalised their pastry squares to reflect 2012. Olympic rings, Jubilee coronets and even a plea to “Save our Library” chequered the 8ft round pie top. We paraded the pie down Main Street on a tractor lead trailer and served the pie to locals at the famous village “Pie Hall.”
We tried to copy the historical account of the original recipe of the 1887 pie.
“We made the pie from an adapted the recipe that used 435kg of beef, 63kg kilos of turkey, 34 pigeons, 36 fowl, 3 hares, 49 rabbits, 10 grouse and 21 ducks. It was quite an operation to get all the meat prepped and ready and properly cooked. We kept a careful eye on cooking temps, as the original pie made in 1887 took so long for the villagers to make, it went rancid and had to be buried in the woods in Denby Dale. Mercifully, with the wonders of a modern kitchen, the 2012 pie took 10 hours to cook and it tasted delicious. The whole village came out to feast on the pie and the whole process of making the pie brought the community together.”
Denby Dale, the UK’s only designated “Pie Village”, revived a 220 year old tradition of making whopping great pies by recreating the famous pie made in 1887 to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee.
Nestled in the picturesque dale of West Yorkshire, the village is famous for baking enormous pies to celebrate national special occasions and events - not your normal run-of-the-mill pies, but monster pies to feed an entire village.
The pie “dish” alone weighed 1.5 tons, the meat and potato filling used 1.8tons of meat & gravy and 300kg of potatoes topped with 185 kg of shortcrust pastry.
The village came out in force to help local craft bakers Denby Dale Pies to make the 3.8 ton pie for a new Channel 5 programme, The Great Northern Cookbook, which celebrates traditional Northern fare and will be aired in January, presented by Sean Wilson, Coronation Street star, turned food lover.
Andrew Hayes, Managing Director of Denby Dale Pies and chief pie maker (and taster!) on the day said, “It was a bit of a tall order to replicate the 1887 pie, but folks really came out to help us to make the pie a special village occasion, we held a meeting at Pie Hall to ask locals to help us bake the pastry toppings for the pie.”
“The finished pie looked like a patchwork quilt made of pastry as people personalised their pastry squares to reflect 2012. Olympic rings, Jubilee coronets and even a plea to “Save our Library” chequered the 8ft round pie top. We paraded the pie down Main Street on a tractor lead trailer and served the pie to locals at the famous village “Pie Hall.”
We tried to copy the historical account of the original recipe of the 1887 pie.
“We made the pie from an adapted the recipe that used 435kg of beef, 63kg kilos of turkey, 34 pigeons, 36 fowl, 3 hares, 49 rabbits, 10 grouse and 21 ducks. It was quite an operation to get all the meat prepped and ready and properly cooked. We kept a careful eye on cooking temps, as the original pie made in 1887 took so long for the villagers to make, it went rancid and had to be buried in the woods in Denby Dale. Mercifully, with the wonders of a modern kitchen, the 2012 pie took 10 hours to cook and it tasted delicious. The whole village came out to feast on the pie and the whole process of making the pie brought the community together.”.
