Homity pie

"quiche mistranslated by a rugged, carb-addicted farmhand."

Jimi Famerewa/The Guardian

In this week's Guardian Feast Newsletter, appeared this - to my potato freak eyes - a glorious concoction. It turns out it was Marmite and leek homity pie from a guy called Jimi Famurewa who had been messing with (the marmite) a supposedly much-loved British pie of potatoes, leeks and cheese. But I had never heard of it, so my interest was piqued - maybe that was just a marketing ploy I thought.

Was it really British for a start? 'Homity' sounded American to me, but I guess that was just the closeness to 'hominy' as in grits which are definitely American.

In the introduction to his recipe he mentioned that he first came across it in the now trendy Deptford, in the old railyard where an old railway carriage or two had been converted into a café with plans to extend into the surrounding area with markets, film, music ... Deptford is one of those previously - maybe still - poor areas of London on the wrong side of the river downstream towards Greenwich. Once the home of Royal Navy dockyards it played a part in my family's history where poverty stricken battlers lived. Probably now being gentrified to the detriment of the poor who have been moved elsewhere whilst their council flat homes were demolished. But I digress.

It was here that Jimi Famurewa first tasted homity pie:

"a hulking great wedge of pastry with a crumbly, butter-rich shortness, generously filled with soft hunks of potato suspended in a set, sweetly lactic cheese and leek sauce. Homity was, to my vegetarian option-averse sensibilities, a total revelation."

And so he set about making his own version - with its trendy umami hit of marmite - and also to investigating its history. And so have I, because honestly I had never heard of it. If, as it turns out, it was a product of WW2 scarcity I would have thought that my family - definitely down in the battler section - would have known of it. And my mother loved to make pastry. But I'm sure it was an unknown in our household.

More specifically than general WW2 scarcity, it's invention is credited to the Land girls - the women who became farmhands during the war whilst the men were away. Some say it was even more specific - the Devonshire land girls - because in some places its called Devon pie. Mind you I did find one source that said that it was also sometimes credited to the Romany peoples. Gypsies. I have a few of them as ancestors too.

It's a pie of pastry - usually wholemeal - with a filling of chunks of potato and odds and ends of cheese. Leeks also seem to be standard, and it's also all bound together with cream, although I wonder about that because I truly do not remember there being cream available in that period of rationing after the war, so surely it wasn't available during the war either? Dried milk perhaps? You'd also have to wonder whether resourceful poor housewives hadn't been making this sort of thing ever since they had access to ovens.

That name - I only found one suggestion as to how it came about - and to be honest it's one I don't quite understand, but here it is:

"Legend has it that the name "homity" derives from the acronym "HOw Many In Takes Today?", a question the Land Girls were asked to ensure they consumed enough calories to sustain their strenuous work." Baked To Taste

Then we jump a decade or so to 1961 and Carnaby Street, the oh-so trendy fashion street in oh-so trendy London - centre of the 60s youth universe really - and one of the very first vegetarian restaurants called Cranks. And I do remember that name, which was apparently chosen because vegetarians of the day were often called cranks.

"we gaped in wonder at the relaxed rusticity of Cranks. So earthy, yet so sophisticated. Soup and bread - did invention know no bounds? ... We were high in fibre and low in doubt. And above all, we were warm" Dan Glaister/ The Guardian

The original Cranks was sold way back in 2001 I think to Guinness and then sold, several times over until now it is owned by a company called All About Food Ltd. who sells 'healthy sandwiches and suchlike.

I mention Cranks because it was Cranks who made 'homity pie' famous. A fame that passed me by, in that I never went there, but then I never shopped in Carnaby Street - Sainsbury's was my food shopping destination - and fashion - well I made my own clothes - as I still did not have a lot of money. Also, perhaps more importantly the Sunday newspaper magazines where I got most of my 'news' about food seemed not to be interested in vegetarian food - this was the realm of Elizabeth David, Robert Carrier et al. who were all about the Mediterranean.

Nevertheless today when I went searching for recipes I found lots and lots, with the interesting omissions of Jamie and Nigel - both of whom are pretty British and pretty much into pies.

So what is Homity pie? Are there rules? Well no - mostly I think because this is a recipe born out of scarcity and so you would always use what was to hand. This is Tom Hunt's version of Homity pie - The Guardian's 'waste not want not' man, and I think he stays pretty close to the brief, of potatoes - chunks of - and bits and pieces of cheese that are lurking in the pantry - also in chunks. Leeks - roughly chopped are also a regular, as also are cream and herbs - usually thyme and parsley. But as he says actually you can use whatever you have to hand:

"it’s also a fantastic base for using up other root vegetables besides potatoes – celeriac, for example, bring earthiness, beetroot turns the entire filling a vibrant purple, while salsify adds a nutty note. Use whatever you have to hand, and waste nothing."

I don't think any Brit just after WW2 would have heard of either celeriac or salsify. Or maybe they did, then they disappeared, and then they came back again.

I don't think I saw anyone go as far as beetroot though - or even carrots. No - potatoes, cheese, leeks and cream seemed to be the regular things in a very rough and ready pastry tart - for it's a tart not a pie. There is no pastry on top. Occasionally people mashed the potatoes, although chunks of cooked potatoes really seem to be the thing. Spinach often seemed to creep in. Occasionally mushrooms. So I'll end with what looked to me to be the most tempting:Homity pie - The Hairy Bikers/BBC who added spinach and touch of nutmeg; Homity Pie - The Darling Academy - my 'ordinary' blog representative who added mushrooms and had no pastry; Homity pie - Barney Desmazery/BBC Good Food; Homity Pie - Tamsin Day-Lewis/Ericka Eckles; Homity pie - Good Housekeeping - photograph it with a glass of wine and it looks classy; Homity Pie/Riverford Organic Farmers who have a quick TikTok demonstration and a recipe elsewhere I think.

I might have a go at one of them sometime - maybe The Hairy Bikers or Tom Hunt because I do love a tart loaded with potatoes and cheese and some kind of alium. Besides it's a really quaint name.

Yesterday's contribution to modern food - I don't think I like the idea of red wine in a cake. Cardamom - fashionable. Pear - not fashionable but I do love them.

YEARS GONE BY

November 8

2024 - Radicchio - from weed to luxury item

2023 - The passing of friends - and time

2022 - Nothing

2021 - What's your signature dish?

2020 - Missing

2019 - Vincotto/vino cotto/sapa

2018 - A word from Yotam Ottolenghi

2017 - Nothing

2016 - Japanese food