An Herb Pie For Lent

This recipe was served at Fort York’s Queen Charlotte’s Birthday Ball in January. It comes from a fascimile of the 1769 edition of Elizabeth Raffald’s The Experienced English Housekeeper (East Sussex: Southover Press, 1997, with an introduction by Roy Shipperbottom) page 76.

Elizabeth Whittaker (1733–1781) was an experienced housekeeper who began her career at Arley Hall in Cheshire where she met and married John Raffald, the head gardener on the estate. In 1763, after they moved to Manchester, Elizabeth opened a confectionary shop which also sold cold dishes, preserves and condiments. She added a registry office (employment agency) for servants in 1764. The first edition of The Experienced English Housekeeper was published by subscription in 1769. The cost of the book was 5 shillings and she successfully sold 800 copies. Raffald’s cookbook was unique for the late 18th century because she did not borrow any of the recipes for her book from other authors. She made it very clear that her first edition included only original recipes. In the second edition she added another 100 recipes to the original 800 and gave credit to a “noble generous minded lady” (referring to Lady Elizabeth Warburton of Arley Hall, to whom she dedicated her cookbook) and other “worthy ladies.” There were seven editions published in her lifetime and an eighth appeared posthumously.

The original recipe read as follows: Take lettuce, leeks, spinach, beets and parsley, of each a handful. Give them a boil, then chop them small, and have ready boiled in a cloth one quart of groats with two or three onions in them. Put them in a frying pan with the herbs and a good deal of salt, a pound of butter and few apples cut thin. Stew them a few minutes over the fire, fill your dish or raised crust with it, one hour will bake it. Then serve it up.

Here is the modern equivalent:

4 onions, chopped
4 cups groats (steel cut oats) 1 litre
1 head Boston lettuce 1 head
6 leeks 6
2 cups spinach 500 ml
2 cups parsley 500 ml
2 cups beet greens 2 cups
6 apples, finely sliced 6
1 tbsp. salt 15 ml
2 cups butter 500 ml

Place groats and onions in 2 cloths and boil them approximately 1 hour or until they are tender. Set aside to cool. Finely chop the herbs and blanch them. Drain. Melt butter in large frying pan or sauté pan and add groats, herbs and apples. Stew mixture until well combined. Place in two, unbuttered 33 cm x 23 cm (13″ x 9″) pans. Bake at 180 °C (350° F) for one hour or until pie is lightly browned. Serve immediately. You may also bake this pie in a crust. The recipe can be easily halved.