Given that the British national cuisine these days is largely Indian influenced and indeed our national dish is chicken tikka masala, I think that opinion might be a generation out of date.

As preservatives.

Surely you're familiar with Chaucer?

Last Nyte I dyde a monstrose Shitte
That fylled up þe Looe
Mayhappe I sholde have ate þe Korma
Nat þe Chycken Vindalooe

That was not specified in the recipe.
I wonder what I would have come up with, had I tried it out, taking it literally.

Nice thread.

It triggered me to look up Reis Casimir, a popular Swiss dish served in the 60s to 80s, that mixed chicken and fruit in its curry sauce. I loved it.

https://www.google.ch/amp/s/cuisineh...z-casimir/amp/

Too bland for me. I didn't know it was invented by Ueli Prager though, interesting. Yep, it used to be very popular. But then Mövenpick simply was.

Silberkugel is also a creation of Mövenpick and their Silberbeefy with coleslaw is still my favorite burger .... which I thought brings us back to the subject until I saw the title of this was mince pies. Ooops, sorry.
With amused pleasure I just found out, the Silberbeefy is protected
Vier Zürcher Ikonen offiziell geschützt (German .... see no. 4)

Here you go:

https://www.myexpatshop.com/index.ph.../?q=mince+pies

I get my Bacon and Sausages here - very good ;-)

Thanks, didn't know that address before.

If I can combine it with buying some crumpets I'll try a mince pie at his place. He got me with mentioning serving it with clotted cream.

Tip, never bother providing these to a multi-cultural team.
Once had someone within a team of about 20 (with people coming and going within offices), and NO-ONE went for a single mice-pie.

They sat there for weeks, untouched. Finally put them to rest during the donators vacation break (in the bin).

Chocolates, mandarines, nuts and other goodies are good. Minced pies are not.

Actually, saffron was used as a medicine, not a preservative. But it's a myth that spices were used simply as preservatives or to cover the taste of bad meat. Medieval European cooking (including English) used spices intensively and over all social classes according to price, taste and fashion.

That didn't make sense to me either. Salt was used as a preservative (and still is) - hence the very high value of salt at the time.

Aren't minced pies a bit like Birnewegge (dried-fruit filled rolls)?

Used for flavour and preservatives. The higher the social rank, the more they were used. It was a means of showing wealth, like salt and, much later, sugar. Salt was very highly prized, yes, (used as currency and for trade IIRC) but pepper was the pinnacle, especially imported stuff, but I can't remember where from.

Saffron was used as a dye too.

Medicines were mostly herbal... willowbark and all sorts of roots we have lost the names for.

Much more moist (suet and brandy) and spicy.

Black pepper comes from Kerala (if I have that correct), india

I just realized nobody here ever mentions brandy butter. I used to love that stuff!!

I saw some in Globus today. Don’t think I’ve ever had it.

Thanks for the suggestions folks - will be ordering from one of the local supplier sites people suggested.

Did try Globus in Glattzentrum a few weeks ago - didn't have any then but might have been a little early (though they had plenty of Cmas tat in store already.