Magpie Monday for Less than Four and Twenty!

I finally got one!!  No not the pie silly !!

Magpie Monday actually is responsible for this wishlist buy, as I wanted  a pie funnel for ages, it helped make me go for it and as usual I wanted more than just an EBay bargain, see below.

 Ultimately I would've liked one of the blackbird type pie vents, my granny had one and she sang Four and Twenty blackbirds as she popped the poor little bird in, to be encased in pastry and boiled in hot beef. Poor thing always looked desperate, the beak open as if shouting "Get me out, its bloomin hot in here!"

I love making pies sweet and savoury, in order to let the steam escape and get a crisp top, I have been fashioning a pastry chimney which makes my pie creations look a bit naff. I spend time covering my filling making it look good, often crimping the edges,  then because there is this crater in the middle which if made any smaller collapses in, the pie just isn't as tidy as I would like.

See the steak and ale pie above not as nice looking with a hole in the middle!

OK the pie is tasty but I also want it to look cute, I of course could have bought a modern Kitchen Devils pie vent, but I do like vintage pieces in the kitchen.

Its a white stoneware pie  funnel, a popular design made in  the 1930-1940s and is marked by the maker Nutbrown who are a well known English pottery and kitchenware company.

Its made in Staffordshire home of the potteries. There are lots of these going on Ebay but I did not want to pay over the odds, some have been fetching over £10.

 

Even though the seller has other pie funnels on for more, I got his/her fabulous Fat Fingers moment where in a slip of the keyboard, was listed as a pie fubnel so scooped this one for £1.99  and £1.50 post and packing. If you are saying What is Fat Fingers? click the phrase and help yourself to others mistakes.

(It pays to read back what you type, says me queen of the blunder!!)

So there you go, my pies will look pretty and I snaffled a bargain.

For more bloggers Magpie Monday purchases this week pop over to  see lovely Liz at Me and My Shadow