Kat Robinson - Arkansas Pie: A Delicious Slice of The Natural State

Published by American Palate

A Division of The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2012 by Kat Robinson

All rights reserved

First published 2012

e-book edition 2012

Manufactured in the United States

ISBN 978.1.61423.782.2

Library of Congress CIP data applied for.

print ISBN 978.1.60949.876.4

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

To Kitty Waldon

my mom, whos put up with decades of oddity from me

For Hunter Robinson

my daughter, who will probably cause the same sort of havoc

Contents

Rison Country Store (Rison)

Country Village (Star City)

Rays and Piggy Sues (Monticello)

Amish and Country Store (Dermott)

Pickens Commissary (Dumas)

Sues Kitchen

Skinny Js

Godseys Grill

Chefs In

Ginas Place

Stobys (Conway and Russellville)

PattiCakes Bakery (Conway)

Opal Maes (Russellville)

Sweet Treats (Lamar)

Sassys Red House (Fayetteville)

Front Porch Diner (Springdale)

Paula Lynns Really Homemade Sandwich & Sweet Shop (Bryant)

Barrs Junction (Rosston)

Recipe for Possum Pie

An asterisk (*) denotes a listing that contains a pie recipe.

Foreword

If Im hungry and Im in Arkansas, I let Kat Robinson tell me where to eat. Id be a fool not to.

Over the years weve known each other, Kat and I have pushed a lot of food around on our plates, from stuff weve cooked ourselves to medieval feasts fit for kings and queens. Thats a lot of calories under the bridge, and I have grown to respect Kats sharp intellect regarding culinary matters. Not only does she know her herbs from her spices, she knows how to coax the most out of every ingredient. And she isnt afraid to give a frank, after-meal postmortem to account for the successes and failures of each individual disheven if shed cooked them herself.

That kind of humble self-realization does a cook well, and it does a food writer even better. It means that Kat knows whats important: good ingredients put together the right way to make the best food possible. That may mean adhering to the tenets of tradition and not changing Great-Grandmas biscuit recipe by one iota, and it may mean using your favorite cookbook as a mere framework upon which you improvise your way to a dish that barely resembles the original intent. After all, cooking is where the end truly justifies the means, and the only acceptable end is flavor.

Whats that you say? Presentation? Gentle Reader, if how your food looks is anywhere near as important to you as how it tastes, then I must suggest youre doing this whole eating thing wrong.

So: pie. As I once opined in a magazine column, Cakes are for occasions; pies are just because. That, to me, captures what is so essentially special about pie: it has no season, it needs no reason. It can be plain or fancy or easy or complex, and no one will judge you the harsher because it was one but not tother. Give someone a pie and you are giving them love, and they will love you right back.

Apple pie at Bettys Steaks and Chicken in Harrisburg. Kat Robinson.

Pie is always proper. Somewhere in the myriad permutations of the form is one that will make the perfect ending to whatever meal youre serving. And to tell the truth, even if you pick one that isnt a complete culinary match, nobodys going to complain. Its pie, for crying out loud!

So rejoice! This book that youre smart enough to be holding is your ticket to pie nirvana in the natural state. Kat has done all the hard work for you, clocking the miles and finding every last nook and/or cranny where pie is to be had in Arkansas.

Strawberry rhubarb pie a la mode at the Village Wheel in Bull Shoals. Kat Robinson.

But this is no mere listinguh-uh, nosiree. Its the map for a pilgrimage to every pie shrine in this unique, quirky, mysterious little state. And she doesnt skimp on the narrative either. In addition to sharing the stories of those folks who make and sell pies, as well as some of her own experiences, Kat lays before you a vivid, enticing image of every slice and slab in language thatll have you licking your fingersand quite possibly the pages.

Take her description of the Village Wheel restaurants strawberry rhubarb pie. Normally if I saw either a strawberry or a rhubarb on a plate, I wouldnt touch it. But Kats account of this particular pie is so poetically beautiful that the moment I read it, I had to fight off an urge to drive to Bull Shoals right away for a slice.

You, too, will experience this response as you peruse the pages and your eyes start feeding cues to your other senses. Youll smell the crusts being blind-baked, feel the fork drag through thick custard, taste the chocolate, the fruit, the nuts, the meringue

Dangit, Kat, now Im all hungry for pie again! Be ready to go in fifteen minutesIll buy if youll navigate.

Eric Francis

September 2012

North Little Rock, Arkansas

Introduction

Jelly pie. The heck is jelly pie?

That was my reaction to seeing a map produced by the ICanHasCheezburger.com folks and picked up by the popular food blog Serious Eats in early 2011. The map took each of the fifty states and correlated them with a popular dish in that state.

ExceptArkansas was identified with a dish called jelly pie. Ive lived in Arkansas my whole life. Both sides of my family have been in Arkansas for generations. And I had never, never heard of jelly pie.

I called my mom. I called friends. I posted on Facebook and asked questions on Twitter. I even mentioned it in a radio appearance. No one I knew or corresponded with had ever heard of it. I went back to the original post on the ICanHasCheezburger.com website and commented thusly:

I absolutely have to correct this.

Being a lifelong Arkansawyer, I heard the term jelly pie TODAY. Im now doing a search on it to see what can be done to fix this misconception.

Its true, Arkansas has no official state food. But there are foods that originate here. We host the Hope Watermelon Festival which claims the worlds largest melons and the Cave City Watermelon Festival that serves up the (academically asserted) worlds sweetest melons. We produce a fantastic amount of rice and soybeans.

Cheese dip was invented here in the 40s. The cheese-filled hot dog is one of our inventions. We love sassafras tea and rice smothered in chicken gravy (and rice with just sugar and butter to boot). Our state produces fabulous cheese straws, funnel cake mix, yellow corn grits and muscadine wine.

We like our piesoh heavens we dobut we prefer them meringued or creamed or with a little coconut in them. We also love our burgers, having an almost unreasonable number of burger offerings around these parts