As we celebrate the British Pie, Andrew Webb stops to consider a kitchen heirloom from his family's past.
This is my grandmother’s enamel pie tin. It's over 50 years old and has held more pies than I’ve probably had hot dinners. What’s interesting is that this pie dish, a mere 8” across, fed the whole family at meal times, with each portion of pie accompanied by heaps of mashed potato and plenty of veg.
A good hearty pie eaten communally not only sticks to the ribs, but helps bond a family together. For me, few things say ‘love’ more than a homemade pie.
A generational thing
Pastry
The filling
Tell us about your kitchen hierlooms
And thus the world turns: my mum has an old ‘Milk’s Gotta Lotta Bottle’ tea towel, the colours now faded, which perhaps one day my daughter will covet. Or maybe the small wooden spoon that’s been worn down on one side from years of stirring pans?
Often in the settling of one’s affairs the kitchenware is given scant thought, and it’s off to the tip or the charity shop with it. Yet for me, these are the objects that have the most of a person’s life in them; the knives, spoons and utensils they held and cooked with, and fed and cared for their family with.
I’m sure your family has its own kitchen heirlooms, lurking in the corner. I’d love to hear your stories in the comments section below.
Chip pan photo courtesy of Hayford Peirce.
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