Pastry
Rule for lining Plate and making Cover for Pie with Two Crusts Roll the paste one quarter inch thick. Cut paste an eighth of an inch larger than plate. Cut strips three quarters inch wide for a rim. Cut upper crust at least one eighth inch larger than plate. Arrange lower crust on plate, wet edges with cold water, lay strips of paste or rim on this, taking care to lap and seal the ends with cold water. Fill the pie with whatever material is to be used. Cut little slits in center of upper crust. Lay on pie; wet edges of rim. Have all edges even, leaving fullness in center to allow for shrinking. Press edges lightly but firmly.
Rule for making a Pie with Under Crust only Roll paste one eighth inch thick. Cut one inch larger than plate. Spread on plate; fold edge under, making paste the size of plate. This edge may be fluted or plain. Chill before filling.
This is a method page rather than a full recipe: the "paste" itself is made elsewhere in the book, and what is given here is the assembly. The measurements are unusually precise for 1907, and they are worth following.
- "Plate" means pie tinA pie plate of this period is a shallow tin or enamelled dish; the recipe gives no size, but 8 or 9 inches across was the usual range. A modern metal or glass pie plate behaves the same; deep-dish pans will need more filling and a longer bake.
- "Paste" is pie doughPaste here means pastry dough, which is made elsewhere in the book; this page covers only the assembly. Any all-butter or lard-and-butter short crust works with these instructions.
- The rim strip is the hingeThe rim strip -- The three-quarter-inch band of pastry laid on the wetted lower edge doubles the thickness at the seal and gives the top crust something to grip, which helps a two-crust pie hold its filling.
- Cold water, not egg or milkThe recipe specifies cold water for wetting and sealing both the rim and the edges of the top crust.
- "Fullness in center to allow for shrinking"Lay the top crust on slack rather than stretched. Pastry pulled tight over the filling contracts as the gluten sets and tears away from the rim, taking the seal with it.
- Chill before fillingFor the single-crust shell this is not optional. Thirty minutes in the refrigerator, or fifteen in the freezer, sets the fat so the fluted edge holds its shape instead of slumping down the side of the plate.
- Two thicknesses, deliberatelyA quarter inch for a two-crust pie, an eighth for a single shell. The recipe gives no reason for the difference.
- YieldA pie of either kind cuts into six to eight wedges, depending on the size of the plate.
Cookbooks of this generation taught in parts: one page taught you the paste, another taught you what to do with it, and the fillings followed as a list. Lowney's, published by the Walter M. Lowney Company of Boston to promote its chocolate and cocoa, was written in that New England school-of-cookery style associated with Fannie Farmer and the Boston Cooking School, where exact fractions of an inch and level measurements had recently replaced instructions like "a piece of butter the size of an egg." The insistence on a separate pastry rim is older than the measuring cup, though; it is often said to be a survival from the days when pies were built as sealed containers meant to hold liquid, and it remains the most reliable way to close a juicy fruit pie.