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Show PUMPKIN Pic AND POLITICS - - - - America's two most popular holiday desserts pumpkin and mince pie are much more than traditional holiday fare. During nast centuries both have had political and religious implications. Lone before the Pilgrims ob- 1 served our first Thanksgiving, i politics entered into the eating of pumpkin pie in England in i 1433. An act of Parliament that year forbadt the eating of pumpkin pump-kin pies by everyone below the rank of Baron. Prior to that they were sold by street vendors in early London. It was customary for the purchaser to stick his finger into the filling and pour some sweet juice into the opening. open-ing. From this custom came the expression, "having a finger in the pie." Such a small thing as the shape of a mince pie caused the Puritans to abolish, for several years, the observance of Christmas Christ-mas in the United States. In 1 G.TO. Colonial "pye bakers" reduced re-duced the size of the hitherto huge mince pies. They began to make them smaller and baked them within a crust shaped like a manger. This was too much for the i Puritans. They outlawed the ob- ) servance of Christmas because they thought that the manger-shaped manger-shaped pies were sacrilegious. But mince pie survived, and Christmas managed to outlive the controversial storm. As many as 26 ingredients were used in the pumpkin and mince pies baked by the Pilgrims. Pil-grims. Today's housewife doesn't have to look for the spires, herbs and other ingredients essential to the baking of holiday pies. Her baker supplies a finished product which truly can be termed a kingly dish, not only a 4 Baronial delight. |
