Yorkshire was once famed for its often-massive festive pies, as Robin Longbottom explains

FROM the 18th through to the beginning of the 20th century, Yorkshire was famed for its Christmas pies – which were often of mammoth proportions.

The largest pies – first recorded in the 18th century – contained boned fowl, such as a turkey, goose, chicken, partridge and a pigeon, all stuffed within one another in accordance with their size. The whole was cooked in very thick pastry made by melting lard in boiling water and mixing in flour; the crust was hand-raised and when it was cool the filling was put in and the top crimped on. The case was then elaborately decorated with designs in pastry and placed in a large oven to cook for up to four hours. Before the pie was finally removed from the oven the vent hole in the top, to let the steam out, was finally sealed with pastry. The pie was then removed and allowed to stand and go cold, hence the term stand pie. The meat, now completely sealed in its pastry case, would keep for several weeks.

The development of large cast-iron ovens and the coming of the railways in the 19th century brought about a great demand for these festive treats which were packed into cases, or hampers, protected by hay and sent to London, Dublin, Liverpool and other cities and often shipped as far as India.

No ovens large enough to cook a huge pie have survived in the Keighley area but a number of smaller beehive ovens dating from the 17th and 18th centuries can still be found in many former yeomen's houses. They were made of stone and either built into the side of an ingle nook fireplace or located in an adjoining room. These ovens had a square doorway and were heated by building a fire inside them. Bundles of dry sticks, called faggots, were used for fuel – these burned very quickly and at high temperature and were almost smoke free. They were continually fed into the oven until the desired temperature had been reached. There was no chimney, and it was essential that the stone of the oven absorbed sufficient heat to radiate into the oven to cook the food. Before the baker put in his pie, or pies, the fire was raked out and a damp mop run around the oven floor to remove as much ash as possible. The entrance to the oven was then sealed with a wooden door held in place by clay, known as dittin, or with surplus pastry if there was no dittin available.

Knowing both when an oven was hot enough and when the pies were cooked was down to the baker’s experience, but many women would have watched the process from childhood, and it would have been second nature to them. Neighbours without the benefit of an oven would also be offered the use of one in return for either goods, or money, giving the housewife a little, often-welcome extra income. An oven at Far Deansfields in Oakworth was located in the entrance porch making it convenient for general use.

Bread, cakes and other savoury and fruit pies were also baked in the oven, but it was probably more regularly used for bread. Bread from a beehive oven was first sliced horizontally, with the ‘upper crust’ going to the family and the bottom – which had been in contact with the oven floor – going to the servants and farm labourers.

When a Christmas pie was ready to be eaten it was broken open, as in the nursery rhyme Sing a Song of Sixpence, and the meat removed and sliced ready for the plate. The pastry would then be left for the servants or handed out to the poor; this was particularly the case with the great Christmas pies eaten in the cities.