A pie bird, pie vent, pie whistle, pie funnel, or pie chimney is a hollow

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...

device, originating in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, shaped like a funnel,

chimney A chimney is an architectural ventilation structure made of masonry, clay or metal that isolates hot toxic exhaust gases or smoke produced by a boiler, stove, furnace, incinerator, or fireplace from human living areas. Chimneys are typic ...

, or upstretched bird with open beak used for supporting or venting a

pie A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Sweet pies may be filled with fruit (as in an apple pie), nuts ( pecan pie), brown sugar ( sugar pie), swe ...

. Occasionally other whimsical shapes are used.

History

Pies with top crusts need to be vented, to allow steam to escape. Funnel-style steam vents have been placed in the center of fruit and meat pies during cooking since Victorian times; bird shapes came later. The bird shape was likely inspired by the "four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie" from the nursery rhyme " Sing a Song of Sixpence"; that "the birds began to sing" suggests a means for a vent.David McCormick,
Flights of Fancy: Pie Birds Are Functional, Whimsical Collectibles
; Antique Trader, May 13, 2020; accessed 2021.03.02; and works cited therein. Pie funnels were used to prevent pie filling from boiling up and leaking through the crust by allowing steam 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 occasionally known as "crustholders". Older ovens had more problems with uniform heating, and the pie bird prevented boil-over in pie cooking. The traditional inverted funnels, with arches on the bottom for steam to enter, were followed by

birds; and from the 1940s they have been produced in a multitude of designs.

Creigiau Pottery Creigiau is a dormitory settlement in the north-west of Cardiff, the capital of Wales. The village currently has about 1,500 houses and a population of approximately 5,000 people. The Cardiff electoral ward is called Creigiau/St. Fagans. The vi ...

of South Wales produced a 'Welsh Pie Dragon' in copper

lustreware Lustreware or lusterware (respectively the spellings for British English and American English) is a type of pottery or porcelain with a Metal, metallic glaze that gives the effect of iridescence. It is produced by metallic Oxide, oxides in an Cer ...

. 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.

References

Kitchenware Cookware and bakeware {{cooking-tool-stub