1607 Pie

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They do not sell stocks in the gift shops at Williamsburg, I checked. Last weekend my two younger children and I escaped Washington to Williamsburg where the weather was ten degrees warmer and the beach at Yorktown was beckoning. I packed a picnic lunch and a cooler full of food along with my electric skillet so that I could cook dinner in our hotel room in order to save money so that we can escape more often. The weather was perfect and we saw many things while there.

For one, we visited Jamestown where I was more interested in how food was cooked way back then. This man dressed in 17th century garb, I call these people Pretenders, talked to me at length about the food of the early settlers and how things were preserved and cooked. His question to the children was, “What is easier to make, a meat sandwich or a meat pie?” They answered meat pie. Good job class. The reason was of course that bread is much more time consuming to make than a pie dough. Right.

After seeing all the work that goes into even making a simple pasty (pahsty), or hand pie, I was very thankful for my own servants- dishwasher, garbage disposal, washing machine, dryer, KA mixer, oven, and cooktop. Those people worked VERY hard back then. All the food made by the Pretenders is eaten by other Pretenders who are pretending to be various people at Jamestown. I like pretending.

The night after our trip, I decided to make pasties like the Pretender and right away I wanted to march back to him and ask, “What is even easier than making hand pies?” Making one giant meat pie.

I browned some ground beef with onions and tiny diced potatoes. Seasoned it all with thyme, salt and pepper figuring I will stick to what they had back then. I made my own crust by hand using flour, salt, and butter with a little cold water. My own 1607 Pie was very good served with ketchup or barbecue sauce, which they did not have back then but I figured none of them would ever find out.

1607 is the time Jamestown was settled. Plymouth schlymouth, Virginia is where is all began.