Tea at Trianon: How to Make the Perfect Pie

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, March 18, 2022

How to Make the Perfect Pie

From Country Life:

Charlie Bigham is getting into the spirit of helping out. His range of pre-prepared dishes (‘please don’t call them ready meals’, we’ve been warned, and we can see why he might want to avoid that stigma) has long included several traditional pies. The range includes the best-selling Steak & Ale, the deliciously punchy Chicken, Ham & Leek pie and the truly magnificent Chicken & Mushroom pie (the latter two both scooped prizes at last year’s Great Taste Awards). They’ve also got a newly-launched Sharing Steak Pie, which has a very different feel and filling to the usual Steak & Ale, but we thought it was superb. (Read more.)