Q 01/05

The first known use of 'pie' (1303) is in the accounts of a priory in which English county?

A) Cornwall

B) Yorkshire

C) Devon

D) Norfolk

Answer · why

B) Yorkshire

Bolton Priory kept the books; the word may come from the magpie, a bird that collects odds and ends, like a medieval pie's mixed fillings.

Q 02/05

What was the medieval name for the stiff, often inedible pastry case that held a pie's filling?

A) A tureen

B) A trencher

C) A pottle

D) A coffyn

Answer · why

D) A coffyn

The word meant a basket or box; open-topped pies were called 'traps', and the case mainly served to preserve the filling.

Q 03/05

The expression 'to eat humble pie' comes from a pie made with what?

A) Stale bread crusts

B) Boiled turnip tops

C) Chopped animal offal

D) Cracked marrow bones

Answer · why

C) Chopped animal offal

'Umbles' were the innards; umble pie was food for the lowly.

Q 04/05

Evidence of early sweet pastries appears on the tomb walls of which pharaoh?

A) Ramesses II

B) Tutankhamun

C) Sneferu

D) Akhenaten

Answer · why

A) Ramesses II

He ruled from 1304 to 1237 BC; the first written Roman pie was rye dough filled with goat's cheese and honey.

Q 05/05

Apple pie recipes were first recorded in the 14th century in which country?

A) The United States

B) England

C) France

D) Germany

Answer · why

B) England

The Forme of Cury gives a recipe with apples, figs, raisins and pears in a pastry 'cofyn'.