A teetotal pieman in Billingsgate has a pony and “shay cart.” His business is the most extensive in London. It is believed that he sells 20s. worth or 240 pies a day, but his brother tradesmen sell no such amount. “I was out last night,” said one man to me, “from four in the afternoon till half-past twelve. I went from Somers-town to the Horse Guards, and looked in at all the public-houses on my way, and I didn’t take above 1s. 6d. I have been out sometimes from the beginning of the evening till long past midnight, and haven’t taken more than 4d., and out of that I have to pay 1d. for charcoal.”
The pie-dealers usually make the pies themselves. The meat is bought in “pieces,” of the same part as the sausage-makers purchase—the “stickings”—at about 3d. the pound. “People, when I go into houses,” said one man, “often begin crying, ‘Mee-yow,’ or ‘Bow-wow-wow!’ at me; but there’s nothing of that kind now. Meat, you see, is so cheap.” About five-dozen pies are generally made at a time. These require a quartern of flour at 5d. or 6d.; 2 lbs. of suet at 6d.; 1½ lb. meat at 3d., amounting in all to about 2s. To this must be added 3d. for baking; 1d. for the cost of keeping hot, and 2d. for pepper, salt, and eggs with which to season and wash them over. Hence the cost of the five dozen would be about 2s. 6d., and the profit the same. The usual quantity of meat in each pie is about half an ounce. There are not more than 20 hot-piemen now in London. There are some who carry pies about on a tray slung before them; these are mostly boys, and, including them, the number amounts to about sixty all the year round, as I have stated.
The penny pie-shops, the street men say, have done their trade a great deal of harm. These shops have now got mostly all the custom, as they make the pies much larger for the money than those sold in the streets. The pies in Tottenham-court-road are very highly seasoned. “I bought one there the other day, and it nearly took the skin off my mouth; it was full of pepper,” said a street-pieman, with considerable bitterness, to me. The reason why so large a quantity of pepper is put in is, because persons can’t exactly tell the flavour of the meat with it. Piemen generally are not very particular about the flavour of the meat they buy, as they can season it up into anything. In the summer, a street pieman thinks he is doing a good business if he takes 5s. per day, and in the winter if he gets half that. On a Saturday night, however, he generally takes 5s. in the winter, and about 8s. in the summer. At Greenwich fair he will take about 14s. At a review in Hyde-park, if it is a good one, he will sell about 10s. worth. The generality of the customers are the boys of London. The women seldom, if ever, buy pies in the streets. At the public-houses a few pies are sold, and the pieman makes a practice of “looking in” at all the taverns on his way. Here his customers are found principally in the tap-room. “Here’s all ’ot!” the pieman cries, as he walks in; “toss or buy! up and win ’em!” This is the only way that the pies can be got rid of. “If it wasn’t for tossing we shouldn’t sell one.”
To “toss the pieman” is a favourite pastime with costermongers boys and all that class; some of whom aspire to the repute of being gourmands, and are critical on the quality of the comestible. If the pieman win the toss, he receives 1d. without giving a pie; if he lose, he hands it over for nothing. The pieman himself never “tosses,” but always calls head or tail to his customer. At the week’s end it comes to the same thing, they say, whether they toss or not, or rather whether they win or lose the toss: “I’ve taken as much as 2s. 6d. at tossing, which I shouldn’t have had if I had’nt done so. Very few people buy without tossing, and the boys in particular. Gentlemen ‘out on the spree’ at the late public-houses will frequently toss when they don’t want the pies, and when they win they will amuse themselves by throwing the pies at one another, or at me. Sometimes I have taken as much as half-a-crown, and the people of whom I had the money has never eaten a pie. The boys has the greatest love of gambling, and they seldom, if ever, buys without tossing.” One of the reasons why the street boys delight in tossing, is, that they can often obtain a pie by such means when they have only a halfpenny wherewith to gamble. If the lad wins he gets a penny pie for his halfpenny.
For street mince-meat pies the pieman usually makes 5lb. of mince-meat at a time, and for this he will put in 2 doz. of apples, 1lb. of sugar, 1lb. of currants, 2lb. of “critlings” (critlings being the refuse left after boiling down the lard), a good bit of spice to give the critlings a flavour, and plenty of treacle to make the mince-meat look rich.
THE COSTER BOY AND GIRL TOSSING THE PIEMAN.
[From a Daguerreotype by Beard.]
The “gravy” which used to be given with the meat-pies was poured out of an oil-can, and consisted of a little salt and water browned. A hole was made with the little finger in the top of the meat pie, and the “gravy” poured in until the crust rose. With this gravy a person in the line assured me that he has known pies four days old to go off very freely, and be pronounced excellent. The street piemen are mostly bakers, who are unable to obtain employment at their trade. “I myself,” said one, “was a bread and biscuit baker. I have been at the pie business now about two years and a half, and I can’t get a living at it. Last week my earnings were not more than 7s. all the week through, and I was out till three in the morning to get that.” The piemen seldom begin business till six o’clock, and some remain out all night. The best time for the sale of pies is generally from ten at night to one in the morning.