Featured Victorian Jagging Iron

Here's something you don't see every day. Victorian-era jagging iron, which despite its name, is actually made of brass! I think it's very cute!!



I can't wait to actually use it!

 

For other language-impaired folks...

Jagging Iron
A wheel with a zigzag or jagged edge for cutting cakes or pastry into ornamental figures.

 

That's right. It's for crimping, sealing and decorating things like cookies, pie-crusts, pasties, etc.

I'm helping to cater a family event in a few weeks' time, so I'll use it then, when I make the pies for dessert

 

Jagging iron was a new term for me! I had to look it up. This one is a real cutie. Other names used for this utensil down through the ages have been: pie crimper, coggling wheel, dough spur, runner, etc...

--- Susan

 

Yes, they're called many things. Pastry crimpers, pie crimpers, etc. I've always called them jagging irons. I think it's an English (British) term. Pastry crimper is probably American.

I suspect that this came as part of a set of jagging irons (each one with a different, decorative stamp at the end for patterning and whatever), but...eh.

I found this in a junk-box at the local flea-market. Once I've cleaned it properly, I'll use it when I make apple pies

And when I do, I'll post the results so that you'll see the effect of using a 150-year-old kitchen tool!

 

Shangas, I love the way you get so excited, happy, pleased with your finds.

You will be sharing one of those apple pies with us when it is properly crimped and baked, won't you (and I don't mean just a photo of one)?????

Just curious but . . . do you use "shields" on the (crimped) edges of your pies while they are baking (so the edges aren't too brown)?

 

thanks for sharing! love learning about food related antiques : )
http://foodhistorjottings.blogspot.com/search/label/Jagging Iron
http://www.michaelfinlay.com/MF_WEBSITE_TRIAL/PUBLICATIONS_1.html

 

That is a lovely crimper...but how do you use the non-wheel end? I have a small collection of them and I knew they were for crimping pastry, but I don't know exactly how they work. Can anyone help and explain that in detail?

Edited to add: I just clicked on Tallcakes' links and see that the other end makes pastry leaves for embellishment. But I am still mystified by the crimping end.

 

It's not a British term, I've never come across it at all. I own a wooden equivalent and we call them pie or pastry cutters or crimpers. Still sold here.

 

the 'wheel' end is used to cut pastry (cookies, crackers, pasta) and get a fancy edge; just roll the cutting edge of the wheel thru the rolled out pastry and cut to size desired.

 

Thanks! I'll share photographs, yes. I've only made a few pies in my lifetime (I'm still practicing), but I am getting better at them. I tried making a custard tart once. It came out delicious, but I didn't understand the importance of pie-weights back then, and the crust caved in! I was able to rescue it, but it wasn't pretty...

LOL. Trust Ivan Day's website to come to the rescue

For those who don't know, Ivan is a preeminent British food historian and chef. He's appeared in *MANY* historical documentaries, cooking, baking, and talking about the history of cooking and food.

 

Interesting. I'm addicted to food and cooking programmes here, including food history - I did food chemistry as a subject years ago - and I've never come across him at all. I'll have to keep an eye open for him. Don't know if it gets rebroadcast, but the BBC do a crackinh radio show called the Food Programme, originally devised by a brilliant bloke called Derek Cooper.

I like Annie Gray and Ruth Goodman, who've made some major TV here. There's also a terrific food blogger called Kerstin Rogers, who I've met - and then, there's the classic Mary Berry and (the late) Marguerite Patten, of course. She wrote the definitive tome on preserves, which I rely on. The cookery book collection is over 200, I think.

We call them baking beans here.

This website is food preparation porn: http://www.lakeland.co.uk/ Best company out there for foodie things, many of which are actually useful. Best customer service on the planet. I had a thing that broke, phoned them, NO proof of purchase to hand, and they simply sent another one.

 

Ivan has appeared in...

"Royal Upstairs Downstairs"
"Eat like a King"
"Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner"
"The Supersizers..." (Victorian episode).

And probably a few others which I can't remember. He's very interesting.

 

Ah, OK. I saw the Royal Upstairs Downstairs shows and episodes of Supersizers, but the other shows weren't on mainstream TV here. Looks as though Eat Like a King was Food Network, which is American. So that explains it!

 

there's the classic Mary Berry and (the late) Marguerite Patten...

Owned, the classic Mary Berry has been appearing here in the states, of late... My daughter LOVES to imitate her and now comments on everything I bake: "a lovely crumb...", "a fine bake...", "positively scrummy!" We do get a kick out of her!

 

Hi,
I like cookery shows but the Two Fat Ladies always had me in stiches. That motor cycle that they rode in still kills me.
greg

 

I remember Two Fat Ladies. Sadly, they're both dead, now. Clarissa Dickson-Wright (the surviving fat lady) died a few months back.

 

Hi,
RIP Clarissa.
greg

 

What I like about people like Mary Berry is that they're true cooks, who understand the fundamentals of food, as well as the science of it. They know the real basics and how to cook family food. Patten was like that, too.