POV: You're at a Medieval Thanksgiving and They Serve You a Pie Filled with Live Frogs 🐸

Picture this: you’re at a massive medieval feast. It’s basically Thanksgiving, but with more lutes and fewer awkward political conversations with your uncle. You’re decked out in your finest velvet, the wine is flowing, and you’re feeling like royalty. Then, the main event arrives. A servant carries out a massive, golden-crusted pie and places it in the center of the table. It looks incredible. Your stomach rumbles. The lord of the manor invites you, the guest of honor, to make the first cut.

You lean in, knife in hand, and slice into the flaky crust. But instead of a puff of steam, the pie… ribbits. And then it jumps. A dozen live frogs leap out of the pie, hopping across the table and into the laps of horrified guests. Welcome to dinner in the 16th century, where your meal was also the entertainment. And it was completely unhinged.

This Wasn't a Mistake, It Was a FLEX

Before you assume the cook made a terrible, terrible error, you need to understand the concept of the surprise pie. Known as an entremet in fancy circles, these dishes weren’t meant for eating—they were pure, chaotic dinner theater. In an era before TikTok and Netflix, the rich and powerful had to get creative to keep their guests from getting bored. And what’s more entertaining than a pie full of live animals?

This was the ultimate flex. It was a way for a lord or king to show off not only his immense wealth (pies were expensive!) but also the incredible skill of his kitchen staff. It took serious engineering to create a pie crust that could hold live animals without, you know, actually cooking them. This wasn’t just dinner; it was a status symbol. It was the medieval equivalent of hiring a celebrity to perform at your birthday party.

The OG Nursery Rhyme Was Real (Sort Of)

You know that nursery rhyme, “Sing a Song of Sixpence”?

Four and twenty blackbirds, Baked in a pie. When the pie was opened, The birds began to sing…

Yeah, that wasn’t just a weird fever dream someone had. That was a real thing. An Italian cookbook from 1549, the Epulario, gives explicit instructions on how to make a pie so that live birds could be placed inside and fly out when it was cut open. The trick was to bake a huge, hollow pastry shell (called a “coffin,” which is already a red flag 🚩) and then place the live birds inside through a hole in the bottom just before serving. The birds weren’t “baked” at all—they were just temporarily trapped in a pastry prison for the amusement of the dinner guests.

It Gets SO. MUCH. WEIRDER.

If you think live birds flying around the dining hall is where this trend peaked, you are adorably mistaken. Cooks were in a constant battle to one-up each other, which led to some truly bizarre pie fillings.

Surprise Pie Filling

The Vibe

WTF Level (1-5)

Live Frogs

Slimy, chaotic, and guaranteed to make someone scream.

🐸🐸🐸🐸

Live Snakes

Pure nightmare fuel. Sometimes used at weddings to “pass the time.”

🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍

Live Rabbits

A bit more fluffy, but still a recipe for chaos as they bolt across the room.

🐇🐇🐇

A Whole Dwarf

Not a typo. A person would be hidden inside a giant pie and leap out, often to recite poetry or perform a dance.

🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯

These pies were the pinnacle of a “look at me” culture. They were designed to create a spectacle, to generate shock and laughter, and to be talked about for weeks. The food itself was secondary to the performance.

So, What Did They Actually Eat?

Don’t worry, people weren’t actually munching on live frogs. The surprise pie was just the opening act. After the initial chaos, servants would clear away the animal-filled decoy and bring out the actual food, which often included pies filled with, well, cooked meat. But after seeing a dozen frogs leap out of the appetizer, you’d probably be a little hesitant to dig in.

So the next time you’re at a holiday dinner and your aunt brings her infamous mystery casserole, just be grateful. It might be dry, it might be weirdly sweet, but at least it’s not going to ribbit. Probably. 🙏

Sources & More Reading

1.CBC News - "New cookbook looks at old recipes — live frog pie, anyone?" A fun article that discusses the 17th-century recipe for live frog pie as pure entertainment and an “ice-breaker” at high-class meals. https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/new-cookbook-looks-at-old-recipes-live-frog-pie-anyone-1.1221470

2.History Undressed - "Four & Twenty Blackbirds" This blog post dives into the history of the nursery rhyme and confirms that not only birds, but rabbits, frogs, and even dwarfs were used in these entertainment pies. https://www.historyundressed.com/2008/02/four-twenty-blackbirds.html

3.Wikipedia - "Game Pie" Provides context on the types of birds and animals that were considered fair game for pies (both edible and for entertainment) and mentions the surprise pie served to a king. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_pie

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