I’ll be the first to admit that I love a good story behind a recipe. However, what winds me up no end are stories that have been made up to make a recipe appear more ‘authentic’ than it actually needs to be.
And so we have Chipstead Churdles. Chipstead is a small village in Surrey, southeast of Croyden. Churdle Pies are also claimed by Sussex, though I have yet to find any recipe predating this one.
These little triangular pasties are a pleasant way to enjoy the classic and flavoursome combination of liver and bacon, aside from the traditional grilling. As you’ve probably already surmised, they have also managed to develop quite a colourful, and largely fictitious, provenance. Touted online as ‘an ancient recipe’, ideal for the farm worker to stuff into his pocket as he headed out to the fields, no-one seems to know specifically where and when they date from, although I’ve read many a vague “…Seventeenth century…” claim.
Even without any provenance, neither the shape nor the style of the pies would appear to support this. These are tricorn-shaped pies – although easy to form, hardly the most robust nor the most practical of shapes – with the top being left open to be filled with a cheese and breadcrumb mixture (this crunchy topping being much more of a 20thC style). Any farm worker worth his salt would end up with a pocketful of crumbs within an hour.
No, in actual fact, the recipe actually originates in Doreen Fulleylove’s “Simple Country Fare” (1970). Now to me, that’s not that long ago – good gravy, I remember 1970 – but then I have to stop and remind myself that that is now over fifty years ago.
The Churdles name, however, can be traced back much further, all the way to the 1920s. In his fabulously-titled “Away Dull Cookery!” (1932), Earle Welby recorded an entertaining nonsense menu devised by the dramatist Henry Arthur Jones for his grandchildren. It is, perhaps, the greatest menu I have ever read, and I reproduce it below:
- Pickled Trunnions
- Filets of Poucher Bonne Femme
- Baked Banbury Mush
- Squibbles on Toast
- Truffled Guffins
- Boogoose Bordelause
- Varicose Beans
- Danderchits in Aspic
- Wombles
- Stuffed Spanish Crippets
- Churdle Pie
- Mulligatawny Fritters
- Nostrum Roes à la Diable
- Piblets
- Trundleberry Gin
It’s on my ever-lengthening list of Things To Do to devise and make dishes for this menu.
But back to the Chipstead Churdles. It seems to me that a far more likely scenario would be for the name Churdle to have been borrowed to grace a heretofore unnamed but very toothsome pie. And there’s nothing wrong with that at all.
Chipstead Churdles
The savoury flavours of liver and bacon are here paired with mushroom, onion and sharp apple to make for a lighter and fresher mouthful.
1 onion
30g unsalted butter
200g smoked back bacon, rind removed
200g lamb’s liver
60g mushrooms, chopped
1 small Bramley apple, peeled and finely chopped
2-3tbs chopped parsley
½tsp ground black pepper
½tsp salt
4tbs fresh breadcrumbs
4tbs finely grated strong cheddar cheese
1 large egg for glazing
- Peel and chop the onion finely.
- Melt the butter in a frying pan and add the onion. Fry gently for 8-10 minutes until softened and translucent.
- Add the bacon and fry for a 1-2 minutes and then turn the slices over.
- Add the liver and fry for 2 minutes, turning the slices over after 1 minute. This should cook the liver enough to remain pink in the centre. As it will be cooked again during the baking of the pies, you don’t want to overdo it at this stage.
- Lift the meat from the pan and chop finely.
- Scrape the cooked onion and butter into a bowl and add the chopped meat.
- Stir in the mushrooms, apple, parsley and seasoning. Set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C Fan.
- Roll out the pastry to a thickness of about 5mm.
- Cut 8 circles of pastry 10-12cm in diameter. You can make 4 large pies, but the larger the pie, the more difficult the pastry is to handle.
- Divide the filling into 8 and add one portion to the middle of each circle of pastry.
- Damp the edges of the pastry with water.
- Pinch the edges together to make a triangle base, folding the sides of the pastry inwards and pressing the edges together to make a three-cornered hat shape. Leave the middle of the pie open.
- Mix the cheese and breadcrumbs and sprinkle one spoonful over the opening at the top of the pies, and transfer the pies to a baking sheet lined with baking parchment.
- Whisk the egg with a tablespoon of water and use it to glaze the sides of the pies with a pastry brush.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes until crisp and golden. Turn the baking sheet around after 15 minutes to help even the browning.
- Cool on a wire rack.
- Serve warm.
Deja Food 