40,000 festive pies the limit for family bakery

The humble mince pie is a traditional Christmas staple and a Nelson based bakery has made an incredible 40,000 in the countdown to the big day on Monday.
Sales assistant Anne Marie Heseltine samples one of the mince pies at Oddie's shop in Scotland Road, Nelson.Sales assistant Anne Marie Heseltine samples one of the mince pies at Oddie's shop in Scotland Road, Nelson.
Sales assistant Anne Marie Heseltine samples one of the mince pies at Oddie's shop in Scotland Road, Nelson.

The pies are made at Oddie’s Bakery and supplied to its 16 shops across East Lancashire, including those in Burnley and Padiham.

Bakery manager Andy Howes said: “In the fortnight before Christmas we’ll easily bake 20,000 and in December we do 40,000 and they will all be gone by the start of January.

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Minced pie ingredients can be traced back to the middle ages, when returning crusaders brought with them recipes containing cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg.

Other names for the mince pies include Mutton pie, Shrid pie and Christmas pie and in the North of England goose was used in the pie’s filling in the 17th century.

Andy added: “The ingredients in Oddie’s mince pies include Irish Bramley apples, sultanas, currants, mixed peel, raisins and vegetable suet, but the spices we add are top secret – and that is what gives it the distinct flavour.

“We bake 10,000 mince pies at a time over four production runs and sometimes customers order them frozen to bake themselves at home for a special occasion.

“We do 40,000 in December and last year they’d all gone by the start of January.

“I think our record year was 80,000 mince pies.”