In apple-pie order

nej, det är varken mig eller mitt hus det ska handla om i dag — fastmer om pajer i största allmänhet och uttrycket “In apple-pie order” i synnerhet.

Första belägget för uttrycket kommer från Pasley's Private Sea Journals, 1780:

"Their Persons Clean and in apple-Pie order on Sundays."

Det finns två teorier om ursprunget, båda troliga även om inget av dem går att belägga:

French cap-à-pie (“head to foot”)

French nappe plié ("folded linen")

The term apple-pie bed originates from around the same period, which gives a bit more credibility to the "folded linen" origin.

Jo, det finns fler teorier, även om de förefaller vara senare efterkonstruktioner, som:

It has also been suggested that “Apple-pie order” may be a corruption of alpha, beta, meaning as orderly as the letters of the alphabet.

The saying, “To have everything in apple-pie order, “ is supposed to have its origin from the following circumstance. It was the custom many years ago to take off the top crust of an apple-pie and mash up the fruit with sugar and cream, then cut the crust into triangular pieces and stick them end downwards into the fruit in various patterns, as circles, crowns, stars & c.

Men ordet paj då, undrar vän av ordning — varifrån kommer det? Enligt “The Oxford English Dictionary” var ordet i bruk — och populärt -1362, men tycks ha funnits redan 1303.

"Pie...a word whose meaning has evolved in the course of many centuries and which varies to some extent according to the country or even to region....The derivation of the word may be from magpie, shortened to pie. The explanation offered in favour or this is that the magpie collects a variety of things, and that it was an essential feature of early pies that they contained a variety of ingredients....Early pies were large; but one can now apply the name to something small, as the small pork pies or mutton pies...Early pies had pastry tops, but modern pies may have a topping of something else...or even be topless. If the basic concept of a pie is taken to mean a mixture of ingredients encased and cooked in pastry, then proto-pies were made in the classical world and pies certainly figured in early Arab cookery."

---The Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] (p. 602-3)

Och vad i all världen är en pajtratt eller pajfågel?

A pie bird, pie vent, pie whistle, pie funnel, or pie chimney is a hollow ceramic device, traditionally from Europe and shaped like a bird. Pie birds are steam vents that have been placed in the center of fruit and meat pies during cooking since Victorian Times although some historians, such as Robert J. Leigh, claim a much earlier provenance, e.g. the 16th century.

Pie funnels were used in baking pies and prevent the pie from boiling over in the oven by allowing the steam created when the fruit filling or other contents are cooking to escape from inside the pie. They also supported the pastry crust in the center of the pie, so that it did not sag in the middle, and are hence also known as "crustholders". Older ovens had more problems with uniform heating, and the pie bird prevented boilover in pie cooking.

Traditionally they were most often made in the shape of a bird or an inverted funnel with arches on the bottom for the steam to enter, but they have always been produced in a multitude of designs. This trend has been particularly noticeable in recent times, due to their increasing popularity as gifts and collectors' items rather than simply utilitarian kitchen tools.