I’m trying to imagine if Anne Boleyn ever sat down to a meal like this before.. it’d be so cool to see her with her family happy and having a meal for Christmas.
“Mincemeat” traditionally did not refer to minced (ground) meat in the modern sense (i.e. animal flesh). It simply denoted any edible item finely chopped or minced (“meat” being the Medieval/Early Modern English word for food in general). Flesh-meat was certainly part of it - especially offal or organ meat - but it could be any edible; of course, dried fruits, nuts, sugar, spices, honey, syrup, and anything rare, exotic, and costly featured prominently in the minced mixture of ingredients of this luxuriously festive dish.
I love the commitment to the t-shirts despite the very cold temps. If you do another video like this, I think you'll need to look into warmer branded merch.
My household is very partial to medieval and Tudor cookery, and standing crust meat pies are one of our favorites. So, I clicked on the video for that. I was absolutely tickled then, to see the buttered beer come up. My wife found that exact recipe a few years ago and it has become our beverage of choice to have after Christmas dinner. I happened to be drinking some leftover with a slice of modern mince pie while I watched this! I was also amused seeing the stuffed eggs. Living in the American South, deviled eggs are ubiquitous for almost any feasting occasion, so they looked very familiar... up until the ingredients were listed. I will absolutely have to try that version now!
Fantastic video with a really interesting expert guest and Weald and Downland is a super place to visit at any time of year. They do some great themed events too.
This is awesome! I was thinking about trying this myself and couldn't come across any videos doing a pre-Victorian recipe, so this is greatly appreciated thanks😋
As far as the pastry goes, I’ve heard on the Townsends channel that the term “coffin” was used synonymously with “box” or “container” up until about the early 19th Century. I’d be curious to find out why the meaning changed.
They long haired guy stoking the fire: I drive past him most days in Singleton on his way to the fabulous Weald and Downland Open Air Museum 🤘🙌🤘👍 Dude, you’re a history legend.
wish i was over there trying these i am no great cook but i love giving it a try at cooking different foods around the world for my kids and especially historical recipes while we study history !!! I would love the book when it comes out.
Been transitioning to incorporating animal fats with olives, coconut oil, and avocadoes to my diet since being diagnosed with diabetes. Feel more satiated and less hungry and my ldl cholesterol is at healthy levels
Wait, wait! You can't end this without explaining what is that white, disc shaped dish with the green, red (-dish pink) and cream Tudor rose molded on it. You see it in the foreground during the Tudor feast at around 30:34. Is it a cake? A marzipan confection? Or something else altogether? Honestly, it looks like the most tempting of all the viands on table!
@@chimpaflimpno. Look at the depth, or lack thereof I should say ... They may not have had baking powder or chemical leaveners but they DID know how to use yeast. It was most likely marchpane or marzipan as its known today. This is extremely labour intensive to make without machines so was only brought out for special occasions.
@@chimpaflimpno. Look at the depth, or lack thereof I should say ... They may not have had baking powder or chemical leaveners but they DID know how to use yeast. It was most likely marchpane or marzipan as its known today. This is extremely labour intensive to make without machines so was only brought out for special occasions.
Sometimes, I suspect I must've been a Tudor courtier or probably, one of the Tudor princesses (sarcasm of course) because I'm so overly obsessed with this period - anything belonging or related to that particular dynasty and the time period itself rouses so much curiosity, and of course an admiration that I have for no other historical specimen.😂
Lovely! Interestingly, the word 'chewet' is used in Shakespeare, Henry IV Part Something, wherein Prince Hal is telling Falstaff to shut it, by saying "Peace, chewet" Some think 'chewet' to mean some kind of noisy bird, but having seen this, I'm going with the pie theory.. Nice film, thanks indeed and Merry Christmas to one and all! Ho, ho and indeed ho! 🎄🌟👍
32:35 Perhaps someone should do some research: Service à la française (in the French style) is when several dishes are served at the same time; service à la russe (or in the Russian style) is what we consider the modern way of sequential courses served by a waiter/waitress. and didn't catch on in Europe until the 19th century (France was particularly slow to introduce service à la russe.)
I'm a British expatriate living in Germany where Mince Pies are unknown, & I seldom visit the UK the last time being in Jan 2017, but my German wife has acquired the ingredients and makes them with meat like they should be made.
OMG!!! I remember my parents drinking warmed beer mixed with froth made of eggyolks whipped with sugar, when I was a child! I did not realised it was a Tudor invention. I immediately send my mum a voice message to inform her, so she knows those traditions existed also in Poland of 1980-ties.😁🤣
Like three hundred fifty five days a year the only use it gets is being looked at and explained. That's why he was saying it's such a privilege to actually use it. It's like George Washingtons estate or Thomas Jeffersons here in the USA. They keep a whole bunch of the rooms on static display including the kitchens. This place is basically the same. I presume they allowed history hit to record this because it's a useful education tool
How I love watching documentaries about food in different times in history. 💯💯👏👏👏. Always wonder what kind of food people eat in different times in history.
"Cold" It is -40C outside right (-20F + a 40mph winds)now i have victorian boiler heat in a genuine Queen Anne-- it is 58 on the 1st floor 60 on the second and 70 on the 3rd
Correction . Mince pies still have meat in the filling , minced suet UNLESS one orders completely non traditional vegan mince pies which are called mixed fruit pies .
Do you make the fruit ones, or with meat like on the program? My grandmother used to make the mince pies that were fruits & spices. She was from Michigan.
32:49 the one thing the fella got wrong. It is Russian Service that brought courses to fine dining, not the French. The French way of eating is everything at once, which is why the English adopted it so early on, i.e. long before the Tudors and well after. The Russians revolutionised dining in the 19th Century with "courses", and it took over the entire western world.
This is very well presented and edited with the star of the show Alex the chef (and of course the food). Oddly I feel very hungry right now. Great work everyone and thanks for sharing.
If it not one of my favourite local history buff? From the Wimborne militia. Though I recognise the face and name? Funny as I believe one time I had a conversation about minced pies? Now he’s making a trad pie? Excellent! Found on Christmas Eve no less. Yep traditional mince pice had meat until Cromwell band it! It more funny for me seeing this. as it reminds me I haven’t eaten a mice pie since I was ten. Currently unlike too? But that meaty pie looks tasty? Great to see a pie master at work! Yes he dab handy with a lot of thing. One of the local polymaths. A very well verse one if I recall? Certain bars know his talents well! Works hard and players even harder! Great work! Nicely done! Love to see what you do next!
Guessing most pastry at the time was basically just dross and primarily used to just hold heat / steam inside so the contents didn't burn or dry out. A bit like how some recipes use clay/mud or leaves to cook something.
The Tudors ate better than most people do today., I mean look at all that non processed food.. the crap we eat and drink today reads more like a science experiment
I always wondered what a mince meat pie was, no I know, and it does sound pretty good. It is nice to see a genial professional chef that enjoys his work, rather than the obnoxious tv "reality chefs" seen on today's cooking shows.
me and friends wanted to make a Tudor holiday feast this year. then we realized how much effort it will be. Instead we're just making chili, but we will wear puffy shirts still.
I wonder if that's where the kiwi and aussie mince pies came from, ours are mince (beef mince usually) in a gravy often with cheese in pastry served hot and as a savoury food not a sweet pie, I wonder if it came form the fruit mince pie but before it was mostly fruit.
It certainly dispels the myth that Brit’s like bland food, when we’ve used and imported spices and dried fruits for centuries, but only if you were rich enough to afford them of course.
So interesting. I am half English and half indigenous American. I am proud to be descended from both despite the complicated confluence of history I find myself to be! haha I am lucky because both cuisines are top notch and the techniques and methods combine well.
I make a hot water pastry using lard/dripping much like this. It's completely different to a pastry made with only water which most people are familiar with. The texture is great, crumbly yet firm, it doesn't get hard and "tooth breaking", and has masses of flavour. The nearest thing to compare would be a pork pie pastry and everybody eats that don't they? So when they keep on saying "the pastry wasn't eaten" I'm a bit sceptical. Yes, if it were made with water, but lard/dripping?
I saw on some historical cooking show a menu for a banquet, it might have been Tudor, I don't remember the exact era and one of the dishes was porpoise cooked in galantine sauce. Could you do a program on how to cook porpoise properly. I know for sure you cannot get it in Tescos or even Waitrose or Sainsbury's I have to look for a good fish monger.
Imagine the first madman in the 1500’s who realised you can actually eat the pastry too , what a rebel 🤣🤘🏻 . Happy Christmas all
to be fair the flour commonly used must've had insects and other foreign objects in them, pie crusts were simply used to store the filling
Absolute madlad
Misspelled "genius".
Probably some poor desperate starving bloke.
*1500s
Alex is a great guest! Needs his own show!
Yes, lessons with the Tudor cook
Alex Compiani,needs to have a youtube cooking channel. Especially for those of us who don't use other social media.
Brilliant video! Alex is such an entertaining and knowledgable historic chef! Really enjoyed this!
Alex came across as so gentle and sweet in the way he presented this with you! Great video!
I’m trying to imagine if Anne Boleyn ever sat down to a meal like this before.. it’d be so cool to see her with her family happy and having a meal for Christmas.
“Mincemeat” traditionally did not refer to minced (ground) meat in the modern sense (i.e. animal flesh). It simply denoted any edible item finely chopped or minced (“meat” being the Medieval/Early Modern English word for food in general). Flesh-meat was certainly part of it - especially offal or organ meat - but it could be any edible; of course, dried fruits, nuts, sugar, spices, honey, syrup, and anything rare, exotic, and costly featured prominently in the minced mixture of ingredients of this luxuriously festive dish.
I love the commitment to the t-shirts despite the very cold temps. If you do another video like this, I think you'll need to look into warmer branded merch.
Noted!
@@HistoryHit I'm pretty sure the "t-shirts in all weathers" is part of the reason some of us watch items featuring these two presenters...
My household is very partial to medieval and Tudor cookery, and standing crust meat pies are one of our favorites. So, I clicked on the video for that. I was absolutely tickled then, to see the buttered beer come up. My wife found that exact recipe a few years ago and it has become our beverage of choice to have after Christmas dinner. I happened to be drinking some leftover with a slice of modern mince pie while I watched this!
I was also amused seeing the stuffed eggs. Living in the American South, deviled eggs are ubiquitous for almost any feasting occasion, so they looked very familiar... up until the ingredients were listed. I will absolutely have to try that version now!
Can you pick me up from the airport? I'm hungry! 😄😁
Fantastic video with a really interesting expert guest and Weald and Downland is a super place to visit at any time of year. They do some great themed events too.
Some truely excellent Tudor treats :) Many thanks for the video folks!
chudor, lol.
This is awesome! I was thinking about trying this myself and couldn't come across any videos doing a pre-Victorian recipe, so this is greatly appreciated thanks😋
Let us know how you get on!
Great vid, and I love learning about the origins of words and sayings, ie. upper crust.
Now I know where the term upper crust comes from, very interesting. Thanks for the wonderful video, much appreciated. Merry Christmas!
Same to you!
As far as the pastry goes, I’ve heard on the Townsends channel that the term “coffin” was used synonymously with “box” or “container” up until about the early 19th Century. I’d be curious to find out why the meaning changed.
Chests used to be called coffers. Wonder if the words have the same root 🤔
Townsends is a great channel, one of my favourites. Tasting History with Max Miler is another great food history channel.
They long haired guy stoking the fire: I drive past him most days in Singleton on his way to the fabulous Weald and Downland Open Air Museum 🤘🙌🤘👍 Dude, you’re a history legend.
wish i was over there trying these
i am no great cook but i love giving it a try at cooking different foods around the world for my kids and especially historical recipes while we study history !!! I would love the book when it comes out.
"Don't worry, the partridge isn't real" ... Let's chop up a dead lamb 🤣
Probably mentioned it More for sanitary reasons
Hahaha exactly
One of the "BEST" videos thus far.....
@6:50 animal fat (and butter) is incredibly healthy. It's about time we remembered that
Yo ABSOLUTELY!!!
Been transitioning to incorporating animal fats with olives, coconut oil, and avocadoes to my diet since being diagnosed with diabetes. Feel more satiated and less hungry and my ldl cholesterol is at healthy levels
Thank goodness! I learned that when I was learning about Keto foods. Bacon is also good!
There was a motive to demonising animal products that wasn't based on improving (human) health.
Invisible Jiu Jitsu - It depends...
That Tudor cook is a honey
He is that
Yep
all three are ...
So enjoyablem from the making of the "coffin" to sealing the oven with clay to a toast with butter beer! Kudos to the silent fire man!
Wait, wait! You can't end this without explaining what is that white, disc shaped dish with the green, red (-dish pink) and cream Tudor rose molded on it. You see it in the foreground during the Tudor feast at around 30:34. Is it a cake? A marzipan confection? Or something else altogether? Honestly, it looks like the most tempting of all the viands on table!
I was thinking the same! I was like, Wait! What about that dessert? 😋
From the look of it, I would presume a Christmas cake with marzipan icing.
@@chimpaflimpno. Look at the depth, or lack thereof I should say ... They may not have had baking powder or chemical leaveners but they DID know how to use yeast. It was most likely marchpane or marzipan as its known today. This is extremely labour intensive to make without machines so was only brought out for special occasions.
@@chimpaflimpno. Look at the depth, or lack thereof I should say ... They may not have had baking powder or chemical leaveners but they DID know how to use yeast. It was most likely marchpane or marzipan as its known today. This is extremely labour intensive to make without machines so was only brought out for special occasions.
Marchpane
I enjoyed every bit of this video, and learned a bunch about where mince meat pie originated! Well done!
Liked the cameo from time teams Phil Harding on the oven behind!😂
Stop blaming the fat for the crimes of the carbohydrates.
Well said 👍👍
Wonderful presentation! Merry Christmas!
Thank you! You too!
Great job..... Really informative and entertaining. Just how it should be . Inspiring and makes you want to get your hands stuck in .
Cheers Robert!
Meat is often served with fruit sauce so it isnt that much of a stretch. That fire oven heating method looks lethal though.
Sometimes, I suspect I must've been a Tudor courtier or probably, one of the Tudor princesses (sarcasm of course) because I'm so overly obsessed with this period - anything belonging or related to that particular dynasty and the time period itself rouses so much curiosity, and of course an admiration that I have for no other historical specimen.😂
Nutmeg is from Indonesia, untill planted in the West Indies. Pepper is from India. Long pepper is also from India, but reached Europe in Roman times
Was going to post the same thing! The poor geography was really bothering me.
I clambered out of bed like a feral beast to watch this. Was a good choice.
Merry Christmas gentlemen! 🥧 🎄🎁
Felix Saturnalia.
Lovely! Interestingly, the word 'chewet' is used in Shakespeare, Henry IV Part Something, wherein Prince Hal is telling Falstaff to shut it, by saying
"Peace, chewet"
Some think 'chewet' to mean some kind of noisy bird, but having seen this, I'm going with the pie theory.. Nice film, thanks indeed and Merry Christmas to one and all! Ho, ho and indeed ho! 🎄🌟👍
I think the guy in the costume actually took this seriously and I applaud him. Hope he comes for your jobs
I hope the book materialises, I for one would buy it. Thank you, I enjoyed the cookery class.
32:35 Perhaps someone should do some research: Service à la française (in the French style) is when several dishes are served at the same time; service à la russe (or in the Russian style) is what we consider the modern way of sequential courses served by a waiter/waitress. and didn't catch on in Europe until the 19th century (France was particularly slow to introduce service à la russe.)
Great video, always amused to see times like these where the guys seem utterly unable to do things like cutting things up well or doing basic pastry.
Thanks! I tried making it yesterday & today. I made small muffin sizes incase we didn’t like it. Lol
I'm a British expatriate living in Germany where Mince Pies are unknown, & I seldom visit the UK the last time being in Jan 2017, but my German wife has acquired the ingredients and makes them with meat like they should be made.
OMG!!! I remember my parents drinking warmed beer mixed with froth made of eggyolks whipped with sugar, when I was a child! I did not realised it was a Tudor invention. I immediately send my mum a voice message to inform her, so she knows those traditions existed also in Poland of 1980-ties.😁🤣
Why would I be worried if the partridge is real. Are we that afraid of nature? I would love to try some of those foods.
They were for show only. It was mentioned in the beginning of the video. I almost missed it as I am easily distracted.
Lol pretty sure it would rot and be a health hazard if you just left a real one there for museum display purposes 😂
Like three hundred fifty five days a year the only use it gets is being looked at and explained. That's why he was saying it's such a privilege to actually use it. It's like George Washingtons estate or Thomas Jeffersons here in the USA. They keep a whole bunch of the rooms on static display including the kitchens. This place is basically the same. I presume they allowed history hit to record this because it's a useful education tool
way to mention heston now i want triple cooked fries lol
Alex is awesome. More please.
How I love watching documentaries about food in different times in history. 💯💯👏👏👏. Always wonder what kind of food people eat in different times in history.
So THAT'S where we get the term "upper crust" from! Fascinating.
History hit is at its best when the presenter is enthusiastic and knowledgeable rather than enthusiastic and vacant minded.
Man I love this channel
Gee thanks for the heart!
Looking forward to seeing the cookbook you mentioned.
Everything looks so delicious.. what a great video ❤❤❤❤
"Cold"
It is -40C outside right (-20F + a 40mph winds)now i have victorian boiler heat in a genuine Queen Anne-- it is 58 on the 1st floor 60 on the second and 70 on the 3rd
It’s freezing here now. We got down to -2 F with wind chill We are usually in the 100’s all summer. This is crazy
Love your work 👍
Merry Christmas to you too🎄🎄🎄🎀🎀🎀🎁🎁🎁
Surely the pie would have been served cold, with savoury jelly to set it.
Correction . Mince pies still have meat in the filling , minced suet UNLESS one orders completely non traditional vegan mince pies which are called mixed fruit pies .
What is the official name for the wooden tamper/mould that you use for the pastry case please? Excellent inspiring video. Thank you.
I think they're called a 'pie dolly'. At least that's what they call wooden moulds used to form a round pork pie.
@@ncross1857 Thank you - they are - they mostly come round though, rather than rectangular.
In PA Dutch country we make Mince Pies year round
Indulgent bastards
Do you make the fruit ones, or with meat like on the program? My grandmother used to make the mince pies that were fruits & spices. She was from Michigan.
@@paigetomkinson1137 The fruit and spice ones.
@@TheCynthiaRice Nice!
brilliant video love the old ways real food
32:49 the one thing the fella got wrong. It is Russian Service that brought courses to fine dining, not the French. The French way of eating is everything at once, which is why the English adopted it so early on, i.e. long before the Tudors and well after. The Russians revolutionised dining in the 19th Century with "courses", and it took over the entire western world.
It is truly a treat to watch this. ❤
Awesome host/cook need more content from Alex!
Fantastic thanks for sharing 👍
Thanks for watching
Ryan Gosling has had a massive career change!
Love that in wall pizza oven!
Alex is great and so patient. The other two are annoying.
This is very well presented and edited with the star of the show Alex the chef (and of course the food). Oddly I feel very hungry right now. Great work everyone and thanks for sharing.
If it not one of my favourite local history buff? From the Wimborne militia. Though I recognise the face and name? Funny as I believe one time I had a conversation about minced pies? Now he’s making a trad pie? Excellent! Found on Christmas Eve no less. Yep traditional mince pice had meat until Cromwell band it! It more funny for me seeing this. as it reminds me I haven’t eaten a mice pie since I was ten. Currently unlike too? But that meaty pie looks tasty? Great to see a pie master at work! Yes he dab handy with a lot of thing. One of the local polymaths. A very well verse one if I recall? Certain bars know his talents well! Works hard and players even harder! Great work! Nicely done! Love to see what you do next!
Guessing most pastry at the time was basically just dross and primarily used to just hold heat / steam inside so the contents didn't burn or dry out. A bit like how some recipes use clay/mud or leaves to cook something.
No refrigerator at the time, probably made the food last longer.
@@cindimams4394 Yes, that too, because it sealed the meat and would at least last for a week on a shelf. They were very clever.
I wonder roughly what temperature that oven is at.. thinking about replicating this but with a charcoal bbq
The Tudors ate better than most people do today., I mean look at all that non processed food.. the crap we eat and drink today reads more like a science experiment
Loved this!
Loved it! Definitely a subscriber…Merry Christmas 🎄🕊💝🇨🇦☃️❄️
That was SO interesting! I agree.... who WAS the madman that first actually ATE the pastry too!
It's a PESTLE! Not a Pessle! As in Mortar and Pestle...sheesh!
The notion of Uppercrust totally makes sense.
Wonderful!
Merry Christmas!
I always wondered what a mince meat pie was, no I know, and it does sound pretty good. It is nice to see a genial professional chef that enjoys his work, rather than the obnoxious tv "reality chefs" seen on today's cooking shows.
Great show and so interesting.
me and friends wanted to make a Tudor holiday feast this year. then we realized how much effort it will be. Instead we're just making chili, but we will wear puffy shirts still.
I wonder if that's where the kiwi and aussie mince pies came from, ours are mince (beef mince usually) in a gravy often with cheese in pastry served hot and as a savoury food not a sweet pie, I wonder if it came form the fruit mince pie but before it was mostly fruit.
Nice job, I learned several things in the video...
Why would we 'worry' if the partridge was real?
That yeah after that sip was 😂
I do believe that that's a Tod Cutler Medieval cleaver...
I didn't know Cutler makes cutlery
I was looking for Tod's makers mark too 😅
We also added sewage. Thats what I heard so I'd to re watch that piece!
It certainly dispels the myth that Brit’s like bland food, when we’ve used and imported spices and dried fruits for centuries, but only if you were rich enough to afford them of course.
So interesting. I am half English and half indigenous American. I am proud to be descended from both despite the complicated confluence of history I find myself to be! haha I am lucky because both cuisines are top notch and the techniques and methods combine well.
Well you have a new follower, chef!
Jeez guys: suet is bird food as far as I know. Love the show ❤❤
Like he said, I can imagine them giving each other pork 🎄
I make a hot water pastry using lard/dripping much like this.
It's completely different to a pastry made with only water which most people are familiar with. The texture is great, crumbly yet firm, it doesn't get hard and "tooth breaking", and has masses of flavour. The nearest thing to compare would be a pork pie pastry and everybody eats that don't they?
So when they keep on saying "the pastry wasn't eaten" I'm a bit sceptical. Yes, if it were made with water, but lard/dripping?
Pretty much after the filling inside was eaten the coffin was given as "broken meats" to the poor, and they would have eaten it.
Thoroughly charming!
Thanks!
Good stuff chef. excellent,. I know it will taste good because I have eaten lots of Alexis's food
Oh God. I can imagine myself time traveling and trying to fit in and just eating the hard pastry as everyone stares at me like I’m an idiot.
Is there a recipe to follow so qe can try cooking these at home? Id love to try them myself
I saw on some historical cooking show a menu for a banquet, it might have been Tudor, I don't remember the exact era and one of the dishes was porpoise cooked in galantine sauce. Could you do a program on how to cook porpoise properly. I know for sure you cannot get it in Tescos or even Waitrose or Sainsbury's I have to look for a good fish monger.
Fun video. Interesting.
Ok, up until I could hear them chewing, this was great!
very interesting, very fun