I haven’t yet found evidence of Pere Botero’s cauldron in accounts of the 1251/1320 Shepherds’ Crusade, but at least this meme will encourage children who suspect that – denuded of the genitive apostrophe-s – shepherd’s pie is exactly what it purports to be: minced shepherd with boots and gravy, topped first with potato mash and then with a layer of grated cheese, baked until brown, and forced down one’s throat by a dietary zealot. Think I’m kidding you? Here’s old rent-a-quote Radulph from Caen in Amin Maalouf’s The Crusades through Arab eyes:

In Ma’arra our troops boiled pagan adults in cooking-pots; they impaled children on spits and devoured them grilled.

Boring gits will now point out that Radulph was writing about the year 1098, not 1251, and that there is moreover no record of unethical culinary relationships involving pastoralists during that campaign. Fair enough, but then you also need to acknowledge that shepherd-eating is an enduring theme in European folklore. I’m not talking so much about stuff like George Borrow’s rejection of such stories in The Zincali: An Account of the Gypsies of Spain as about the adoption by the Fourth Lateran Council of transubstantiation, the principal shepherd-eating myth in European culture. This doctrine was made official in 1215, and after 36 years French shepherds may have decided they’d had enough.

Tags: George Borrow
Categories: Late Middle

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1. Michel
   February 11th 2004 13:49

   Yes, but where was it made originally?!

   I’ve always thought it’s origin was England?

2. Trevor
   February 11th 2004 17:24

   Anywhere where you could find sheep, veg, a pan and a fire, I guess. Maybe the British were just best at marketing their brand. Anyone know names for it in other languages?

3. Marion
   May 25th 2004 18:30

   The Canadian French for this is pâté chinois – Chinese Pie, literally translated. One of the francophone ladies at the office told me it was named this because it was a common dish fed to the Chinese labourers who built the railway across our country, beef and spuds being two things we Canadians have lots of.

4. Trevor
   May 26th 2004 09:33

   Dutch Chinese taart is, on the other hand, a pork and rice dish of, I presume, Javan origin.

5. J Paul
   August 17th 2004 18:44

   Have you read the History House thing on the Children’s Crusade?

6. Trevor
   August 17th 2004 19:01

   No, hadn’t seen that, but it’s a great site. Yet more proof that Texas is the centre of global learning.

7. Joe
   October 3rd 2004 22:21

   WHy is it called Shepherd’s pie?

8. Greg
   October 26th 2004 03:20

   I want to know information about the dish shepherd’s pie from ireland. i.e. why is it made in ireland, climate type for cooking, why the ingredients are found in ireland, etc.

9. The Prandial Post
   January 15th 2004 20:59 By hook or by crook
   If you hadn’t sussed already, Trevor-the-Baldie’s blog is a remarkable mix of spurious trivia and really really odd historical facts, as well as a mix of English, Spanish, Catalan and Dutch (it’s ok, each has its own RSS feed). Today’s gem: Shepherd’s …

10. kalebeul » Dogs’ bollocks
    April 10th 2005 23:01

    [...] ting bull’s testicles is going out of fashion in Spain, the castration fetish crowd (shepherd, anyone?) are popularising meatballs elsewhere. Bu [...]

11. Andrew
    April 11th 2006 11:58

    Called hâchis parmentier in metropolitan French. Named after Parmentier who first brought the potatoe back from France and planted it in the Elyseen fields (Champs Elysees).

12. kalebeul » How to make head cheese (queso de cerdo)
    November 2nd 2006 21:10

    [...] In Argentina. In Kilburn (thanks Dave). (First mention in Corde is in Ventura de Peña y Valle, Tratado general de carnes (1832). That marrano means pig as well as a renegade converted Jew is probably explicable in non-cannibal terms, although with these Frankish types you never know.) « Ciutadans mainly took votes off PSC « [...]