Cherry Pie
Seed the cherries first, then scald them in their own juice. Sweeten liberally and pour into a deep pie plate lined with a rich paste. Dredge with flour, cover with a top crust and bake. Scarlet or short-stem cherries are best. It is necessary to scald most fruits, as otherwise the pastry will burn before the fruit is thoroughly done.-Mrs. S. T.
A terse late-19th-century fruit pie that assumes you know pastry and can judge a wood-fired oven. Two things need translating: the scalding step and the near-total absence of quantities.
- The hinge: scaldingCherries are heated in their own juice only until they release liquid and soften, a few minutes, not boiled to sauce. Mrs. S. T.'s reasoning still holds for a deep pie in a hot oven, though many modern recipes instead lower the heat after the first 20 minutes.
- Quantities are missingFor a 9-inch deep plate, figure roughly 5 to 6 cups pitted sour cherries and 1 to 1 1/4 cups sugar; sweet cherries need considerably less. "Sweeten liberally" fits sour pie cherries, which the recipe's own choice of varieties suggests.
- "Dredge with flour"This means scattering flour over the sweetened fruit as a thickener, about 3 to 4 tablespoons for a deep pie. Cornstarch or tapioca gives a clearer set if you prefer.
- Rich pastePeriod shorthand for a short crust made with a high proportion of fat to flour, usually lard, butter, or both. Any all-butter or butter-and-lard pie dough works.
- OvenNo temperature is given. Start at 425F for 20 minutes to set the bottom crust, then drop to 350F for another 30 to 40 minutes until the filling bubbles thickly through the vents.
- Scarlet and short-stem cherriesScarlet and short-stem -- Old market names for tart red cherries, most likely of the Morello or Amarelle sort, though the names cannot be matched confidently to particular types. Montmorency is the usual modern stand-in; sweet cherries such as Bing will make a flatter, cloying pie unless you add lemon juice.
- PittingSeeding cherries by hand is slow. Frozen pitted sour cherries are perfectly good here; thaw and drain, and use the drained juice for the scalding step.
- YieldOne deep 9-inch pie, six to eight servings. Cool at least two hours before cutting or the filling will run.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1879), compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree, gathered contributions from some 250 Virginia housekeepers, which is why so many entries are signed with initials and written in the clipped shorthand of one cook passing a method to another rather than to a beginner. Sour cherries were a dooryard crop across the upper South and ripened in a comparatively narrow early-summer window, so cherry pie was a seasonal marker in the same way that mince pie belonged to winter. The instruction to scald the fruit points to the realities of the range of the period: a deep uncooked filling in a fierce oven left the cook choosing between a scorched crust and raw fruit, and pre-cooking the cherries removed the choice. "Scarlet" and "short-stem" are nursery and market names of the era for tart red cherries rather than modern cultivar names.