batalia pie a dish with a puzzling name which was current in the 17th and early 18th centuries in England. The name, which is often spelled ‘battalia’, is derived by the NSOED via French béatilles from the Latin beatillae, meaning small blessed objects or trifles (originally nuns’ pincushions, rosaries, and the like, but hijacked by cooks for delicious trifles of offal). Thus this pie would be one containing especially fine titbits such as cockscombs and sweetbreads. An early recipe by robert may is indeed full of trifles (and a lot of poultry), as is Rabisha’s contemporary ‘battlely’ pie. Both also call them ‘bisk’ pies (see bisque) and John Nott (1726) gives two recipes, one for fish which incorporates battlements and towers in the pie-case (as, too, did Rabisha), which would suggest an alternative origin for the name if the correct one had not already been established. At the same time, John Evelyn recorded a beatillo pie (rather closer to the French original) and in the 1720s Eliza Smith thought hers good enough to be served as a bride pie for a wedding feast. By the middle of the 18th century, the term had largely dropped from English usage.
