Talk:Pie bird/Archive 1

Pie bird
Why is it shaped like a bird other than the name? Isn't there a more efficient shape?


 * The idea that efficiency has provenence over decoration is a fairly modern concept, and is still by no means universal. People have always enjoyed decorating objects with practical uses, and I don't see why this would be an exception.
 * Peter Isotalo 12:30, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Real Birds in a Pie
This article might mention that cooks have experimented with putting real live birds in pies. an excerpt from Robert May's 1660 The Accomplisht Cook(sic) describes baking live frogs and birds into a pie for startling effect.

Dialectric (talk) 18:33, 17 January 2008 (UTC)


 * But the subject of this article isn't related to baking real birds in pies, it's an article on ceramic bird-shaped pie vents. - super &beta;&epsilon;&epsilon; cat 23:06, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Actually, that reference cites to putting the live birds and frogs into a hole cut into the bottom of an already-baked pie. The frogs/birds would not survive the baking process, and thus would not result in May's goal of impressing the ladies. That said, while an interesting excerpt, it is indeed off topic.

Satinlatin (talk) 05:56, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

16th century and Robert J. Leigh?
I'm puzzled by this unlikely date and name. As far as I can see from skimming the article history, if there was ever a source for the date it was a now-dead webpage from an antique dealer. The name is probably a hoax. I'd like to cut that sentence back to "Pie birds are steam vents that have been placed in the center of fruit and meat pies during cooking since Victorian Times" unless someone knows better. Lelijg (talk) 13:32, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

Removed text and citation
Removed the following text: The Oxford English Dictionary comments that the word pie itself (in the culinary sense) may be connected with 'pie' as the name of a variety of birds, in particular the magpie, and also comments on a putative relationship between the similar terms haggis and haggess (another obsolete name for a magpie). It doesn't really apply to this article, but rather to an article on pie (or haggis)--unless an editor is suggesting that pie funnels were shaped like birds beginning in the 1930's or 40's because a designer happened to give weight to the possible etymological relationship between pie-the-food and pie-the-bird. But I did leave the statement about "Sing a Song of Sixpence" since it is so familiar in English and pertains to the question: why a bird shape?

Also removed a citation of OED for the expression "pie funnel." The OED entry on Pie Funnel is deep in the "Pie" entry, gives a bare definition which is much expanded in this article, does not give earliest attestation--in essence adds little or nothing. I expect "pie whistle" and "pie chimney" will be challenged before pie funnel. Richigi (talk) 23:31, 28 October 2012 (UTC)

Regional?
Are these much more commonly encountered in particular parts of the English Sprachraum? I've never even heard of them, and I'm a pie-loving pie-eater from New England, possibly the most pie-positive region of the United States. 206.208.105.129 (talk) 17:37, 29 June 2016 (UTC)