Blackbird Pie Recipe

Traditional Blackbird Pudding Recipe from Somerset

Exmoor is primarily an upland area made up mainly of small villages and hamlets. The largest settlements are Porlock, Dulverton, Lynton, and Lynmouth, Simonsbath and Wheddon Cross.

This recipe is taken straight from the handwritten recipe book of my Great Grandmother, who was born and bred in the Brendon Hills of West Somerset, and is at least one hundred years old. This recipe is untested! Comments most welcome.

Eight Blackbirds
Half a pound of Bacon
Half a pound of Liver
One Onion
A handful of chopped field mushrooms
Pepper and Salt
One gill of Brown Sauce
Suet Paste

Grease and line a pint and a half pudding basin with good suet paste. Bone and clean the blackbirds, stuff each one with liver (of a paste-like consistency), wrap each blackbird up in a thin strip of bacon, season each piece with pepper and salt. Put some pieces of bacon in the bottom of the basin, put the rolled-up birds in neatly, sprinkle over the chopped onion and mushrooms, pour in the brown sauce, fill in with any pieces of bacon left over. wet round the edges of the paste, put on the top crust, tie it up in a cloth tightly, plunge into boiling water and boil gently for two hours.

Sing a song of sixpence a pocket full of rye,
Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.
When the pie was opened the birds began to sing,
Oh wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king?
The king was in his counting house counting out his money,
The queen was in the parlour eating bread and honey
The maid was in the garden hanging out the clothes,
When down came a blackbird and pecked off her nose!

Comments

Name: Brenda Dixon
Message: I think the liver paste just means mashed up liver.

Thanks for the suggestion, Brenda. That was probably what was meant..

I wonder what sort of liver might have been used? Pork? Lamb? Beef? Suggestions, welcome?

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Exmoor is a National Park situated on the Bristol Channel coast of south west England. Exmoor is located in two counties, with 71% of the park located in Somerset and 29% located in Devon