Swell - The Lost Art of Pie Making: Made Easy

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DARN GOOD PIE

W hat is it with pie and perfect? Surely thats something modern cookbook authors have dreamed up. Sure, you probably want your neurosurgeon to get things exactly right, but not so with your pie baking. Save perfection for special uppity occasion tart-baking, and maybe pie contests. Its the old fashioned, light brown, flaky, slightly lopsided pie with the bubbled-over fruit filling that warms our hearts. No, were not going to make perfect pies, were going to make darn good pies! Your house will smell as good as a silver haired, loving, sweet-scented old timey grandmother. When your family and friends see your homemade blueberry pie summer-breeze cooling on the windowsill, theyll claim you as their new best friend. Why, before you know it, youll be whipping out those beauties in a flash saying, I cant stop baking pies!

Many of the recipes in this book come from historic sources. They are presented to you exactly as originally written in order to preserve the folklore of each recipe. Because our tastes have changed a bit over the years, any alterations Ive made can be found either in parentheses or as an authors note.

And, by the way, just in case you think pie will make you fat, listen to this. I like to stay slim probably more than I like to eat, but this project has presented me with the ultimate challenge. After all, Ive had to eat pie most every day for 6 months in order to be sure that all these pie recipes passed our rigid darn-good taste standards. One day, Ill write a book called, The Pie Diet, but for now, Ive devised a pie work-off system. Lets say you want to eat a nice piece of apple pie with a lattice-topped crust. In order to neutralize those 400 or so calories, you can:

Rearrange the furniture: 1 hr. 15 min.

Walk the dog: 1 hr. 45 min.

Swing dance: 2 hr.

Brush your teeth: 3 hr.

Iron: 3 hr. 15 min.

Kiss: 7 hr.

Well, Im the same size I was 100 pies ago. Ill leave the rest to your imagination! Enjoy!

AUTHORS NOTE ABOUT THIS REVISED 2014 EDITION

Ten years and a thousand pies after writing the first edition of The Lost Art of Pie Making, I've tweaked many of the recipes and I've also added a couple of new ones. For additional tips and never-ending pie making adventures visit me at my blog, www.logcabincooking.com.

THE LOST ART OF PIE

T ime was when an American womans worth was inextricably connected to her ability to turn out a dandy homemade pie with a flaky crust. Sure, men of yesterday frequently created attractive and tasty pies, but they were mostly doing a bit of artistic dabbling, for their worth was tied to being able to support the family and play a good game of golf with the boys.

Then along came the 1960s and 70s. Stampedes of liberated perky housewives traded in their aprons and rolling pins for psychedelic colored muumuus and jobs outside the home. And what did these women leave in their wake?

Just look at the wiggly red and green gelatin pies infused with bananas, strawberries, and artificial whipped topping squatting in store-bought pie crusts! These were bad times indeed, for lovers of down home old-timey pie.

By the 1980s, elaborate gourmet pies graced the covers of popular cooking and womens magazines. Now, women got up at 4 a.m., slid the Chocolate Mousse Raspberry Truffle Tart in the fridge before getting the family off to school, putting in a grueling day at the office, taking the kids to soccer practice, picking up the babysitter, and changing into the lovely-yet-casual black tunic top and stirrup pants. All fresh and ready to entertain!

Somewhere between gelatin pies and truffle tarts came a longing for the comfort foods and homey goodness of a simpler time. And that brings us to now. Pie is slow food in a too-fast world. Pie is a loving gesture. Good pie is simple and wholesome and real. You know what else pie is? Pie is sitting on the front porch glider having a lively conversation with family and friends, even though its hot outside and there are a few mosquitoes to swat. Its kids playing in the woods, crisp cotton sheets drying on the clothes line, crickets humming in the backyard, and time enough to play croquet. Pie is home.

THE PIE CONTEST

A bout a year ago, I became obsessed with pie. My family and several friends caught the pie fever as we took to the task of outdoing each other piewise. Well, it snowballed, and the piefest was born. Last July, with summer berries bursting on the vines, 75 contestants bedecked in pre-1970s attire, showed up at our door with some 42 homemade pies. The made-from-scratch gems were scattered throughout the house and yard, separated into 12 categories. Everyone was a judge, and the competition was fierce as we did our best to taste a bit of each and every one of the 42 pies.

The score cards were tallied, and retro prizes awarded in each pie category in addition to best looking pie, best costume, most creative, best crust, and the coveted best in show pie. Youll find several of the winning pie recipes as well as photos of the creators scattered throughout this book.

The second annual piefest promises to be even bigger and better as word is out now, and contestants are perfecting their pie baking skills and combing vintage clothing stores for just the right duds. In case you want to get pie fever going around where you live, Ive included a few suggestions for hosting your own piefest on the following page.

Rowdy contestants whoop it up at the July 2003 Asheville piefest

HOW TO HOST YOUR OWN PIE CONTEST

Invitations:

Send out 4 weeks in advance so contestants have a chance to practice pie baking and find their costumes. Old advertising cookbooklets contain fun graphics for your invitation.

Include and elaborate on rules like:

• Bring a pie that you bake (or a friend who bakes pie)
• No store bought crust or canned filling
• Come dressed in pre-1970 pie era attire

* Bring a pie that you bake (or a friend who bakes pie)

* No store bought crust or canned filling

* Come dressed in pre-1970 pie era attire