Monday, May 5, 2014

Four & Twenty Blackbirds

... baked in a pie


So goes the nursery rhyme.  Political satire?  Recruitment song for pirating?  Or just a nursery rhyme?  Any way you look at it, we all know the lyrics (or at least some of the lyrics).

Here is a pie bird, wrangled from a friend.


Ceramic pie bird, hollow from top to bottom to allow steam to escape


Pie bird filling, from this recipe by Tracy in Australia.  When I looked at the ingredients listed, she calls for one red capsicum.  Yes, indeed, she means one red pepper.

Chicken cooked in a pie shell, complete with pie bird for venting steam.


Pretty tasty, almost as good as a Marie Calendar chicken pot pie, but with far fewer calories. Pie birds make a great gift for the culinary inclined; mine is named Natalie and sits on the kitchen window shelf when not in a pie.

PS: remove it prior to cutting your pie.

5 comments:

  1. What an interesting gadget! I never knew these existed.

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  2. I thought you were kidding about the pie bird! Then, I read on. This is a great idea Nancy! And, your pie really looks good. My husband makes chicken pie sometimes...I'll have to get him a pie bird! Have a great week! ♥

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  3. I ordered a couple of pie birds off of Amazon:) LOVE them! That pie makes me hungry! Enjoy your day dear Nancy, HUGS!

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  4. hehe yes draw and paint her..not my chicken just a web picture..
    love pie birds(:) and your paintings(:)
    hugs,Patty

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  5. My mother has a pie blackbird and I always loved him peeping through the pie crust as a child! Fascinating about the origins of the nursery rhyme - there are quite a few that are not quite what they seem. Do you know the origin of "here we go round the mulberry bush"? Supposed to allude to the knights who murdered Thomas À Becket in Canterbury cathedral cleaning themselves up after their dirty deed by the mulberry tree that grew in the cloisters and to which they had tethered their horses. There is still an ancient mulberry bush there today that may even be descended form the original one. The "cold and frosty morning" is because the Archbishop was murdered during the wintertime. I loved the idea of "Sing a song of sixpence" being a pirate recruitment drive! E x

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