![]() The word humble, is normally applied to a person of ‘lowly position in society' or an expression of ‘self-deprecation’ and has a totally unconnected derivation from the word umbles. 'A numble pie' could easily have become ‘an umble pie' and the act of transformation of similar words is referred to as metanalysis and commonly occurs in the English language. It is possible that it was the pies that caused the transition from numbles to umbles. "Mrs Turner came in and did bring us an Umble-pie hot out of her oven, extraordinarily good." "I having some venison given me a day or two ago, and so I had a shoulder roasted, another baked, and the umbles baked in a pie, and all very well done." Samuel Pepys, the well-known writer and gourmet, makes many references to such pies in his diary for example, on 5th July 1662 he wrote: Umbles were used as the basic protein ingredient in pies for the lower classes, although the first record of 'umble pie' in print is as late as the 17th century. There were a great many references to all words in Old and Middle English publications from 1330 onward. Later in the 15th century these cuts had adopted the casual overall term of umbles, although all of the words continued to be used in various district locations for some time. of animals, especially of deer, these cuts are now referred to as offal or lights and are rarely available for general sale, except through game butchers. ![]() The British are well known for their liking for offal, cooked in a variety of ways, particularly liver, kidneys and heart, but the ingredients of Humble Pie brings this to a whole new level.ĭuring the 14th century, the numbles (or noumbles, nomblys, noubles) was the name generally given to the heart, liver, intestines, entrails etc. The unpalatability of crow cooked in this way is not difficult to imagine, but what about humble pie? From the mid-19 th century, in the USA, anyone who had occasion to 'eat his words' by humiliatingly accepting and publically stating they were wrong, would be said to 'eat crow' (originally to 'eat boiled crow'). Returning for a moment to the expression, various nations had different interpretations of the words and in many cases it meant to eat something unpleasant by means of a penance or punishment.
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