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A Codlin Pie

A pie made with small codlins stewed with vine leaves, sweetened with sugar, and baked in rich puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription

This recipe’s ingredient list has no crust or pastry, so it bakes more like a fruit dish than a pastry pie.

From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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The recipe

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the codlins

  1. Gather small codlins and place them in a clean pan with spring water.

  2. Lay vine leaves over the codlins and cover with a cloth to keep them in the steam.

  3. When the codlins soften, remove their skins.

  4. Return the codlins to the water with the vine leaves.

  5. Hang the pan high over the fire until the codlins turn a fine green.

Assemble and bake

  1. Remove the codlins from the water and place them in a deep dish, adding enough sugar to sweeten.

  2. Cover the codlins with rich puff paste and bake until golden.

  3. Once baked, remove the lid, cut the pie into small pieces, and arrange them inside the pie with points upward.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Small codlins
Provide the tart cooked fruit filling that softens and holds its shape under the crust.
Powder or loaf sugar
Sweetens the tart fruit to balance its sharpness.
Rich puff paste
Forms a flaky, golden crust that seals the fruit inside as it bakes.

The step that matters

Hang the pan high over the fire until the codlins turn a fine green. Gentle, indirect heat cooks the fruit through without breaking it down into mush, so the pieces keep their shape for the pie.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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