Pies
ASTE for pies should be one-fourth inch thick and rolled a little larger than the plate to allow for shrinking. In dividing paste for pies, allow more for upper than under crusts. Always perforate upper crusts that steam may escape. Some make a design, others pierce with a large fork.
Flat rims for pies should be cut in strips three-fourths inch wide. Under crusts should be brushed with cold water before putting on rims, and rims slightly fulled, otherwise they will shrink from edge of plate. The pastry-jagger, a simple device for cutting paste, makes rims with fluted edges.
Pies requiring two crusts sometimes have a rim between the crusts. This is mostly confined to mince pieces, where there is little danger of juice escaping. Sometimes a rim is placed over upper crust. Where two pieces of paste are put together, the under piece should always be brushed with cold water, the upper piece placed over, and the two pressed lightly together; otherwise they will separate during baking.
When juicy fruit is used for filling pies, some of the juices are apt to escape during baking. As a precaution, bind with a strip of cotton cloth wrung out of cold water and cut one inch wide and long enough to encircle the plate. Squash, pumpkin, and custard pies are much less care during baking when bound. Where cooked fruits are used for filling, it is desirable to bake crusts separately. This is best accomplished by covering an inverted deep pie plate with paste and baking for under crust. Prick with a fork before baking. Slip from plate, and fill. For upper crusts, roll a piece of paste a little larger than the pie plate, prick, and bake on a tin sheet.
For baking pies, eight-inch perforated tin plates are used. They may be bought shallow or deep. By the use of such plates the under crust is well cooked. Pastry should be thoroughly baked and well browned. Pies require from thirty-five to forty-five minutes for baking. Never grease a pie plate; good pastry greases its own tin. Slip pies, when slightly cooled, to earthen plates. 4 or 5 sour apples 1/3 cup sugar Apple Pie I 1/8 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon butter 1 teaspoon lemon juice ¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg Few gratings lemon rind Line pie plate with paste. Pare, core, and cut the apples into eighths, put row around plate one-half inch from edge, and work towards centre until plate is covered; then pile on remainder. Mix sugar, nutmeg, salt, lemon juice, and grated rind, and sprinkle over apples. Dot over with butter. Wet edges of under crust, cover with upper crust, and press edges together.
A Bake forty to forty-five minutes in moderate oven. very good pie may be made without butter, lemon juice, and grated rind. Cinnamon may be substituted for nutmeg. Evaporated apples may be used in place of fresh fruit. If used, they should be soaked over night in cold water.
The page is really two things: Farmer's general rules for handling pie paste, and a plain apple pie built on them. The rules still hold, but a few of the vessels and habits belong to a coal-range kitchen.
- Oven temperatureFarmer gives no numeric temperatures; "moderate oven" is conventionally read today as roughly 350-375F. For a double-crust fruit pie many modern bakers start hotter, around 425F for the first 15 minutes to set and brown the bottom crust, then drop to 350F for the balance of the 40-45 minutes.
- The perforated tin plateThe eight-inch perforated tin plate she specifies exists to vent steam from under the pastry so the base cooks through. A dark metal or ceramic pie dish on a preheated baking sheet or stone does the same job; a shiny aluminium plate is the one to avoid.
- Binding the rim with clothThe damp cotton strip, cut an inch wide and long enough to encircle the plate, is given as a precaution against juice escaping during baking; she notes squash, pumpkin and custard pies are less care when bound. A ring of foil or a purpose-made crust shield is the nearest modern kit, though those are aimed chiefly at over-browning rather than leaks.
- Never grease the plateThis is the instruction worth keeping. Pastry with a proper fat content releases itself; a greased tin makes the bottom crust fry and slump rather than crisp.
- Blind baking on an inverted plateDraping paste over an upside-down pie plate and baking it there gives a shell for cooked fruit fillings. Pie weights in a right-way-up tin achieve the same end and are less prone to sliding, but the inverted method still works if you prick well.
- Quantity of applesReckon on roughly 1 1/2 lb of prepared apple for the eight-inch plate she specifies, and choose a firm tart variety such as Granny Smith or Northern Spy.
- Sugar and thickeningA third of a cup of sugar is restrained by modern standards, and there is no flour or cornstarch at all; the general rules on the same page anticipate juice escaping from juicy fruit and prescribe the cloth binding. If your apples are juicy, a tablespoon of flour or two teaspoons of cornstarch tossed with the sugar will hold the filling without changing the character of the pie.
- Evaporated applesDried apple rings, soaked overnight in cold water as directed, still work and give a denser, more concentrated pie. Drain them well and taste before adding the full sugar.
- YieldOne 8- or 9-inch pie, six to eight servings. Cool at least an hour before cutting or the filling will run.
Fannie Farmer's pastry chapter reflects a moment when pie was daily food in New England rather than a special occasion, and it takes for granted the equipment of that kitchen: stamped tin pie plates, perforated for a crisp bottom, and the pastry-jagger, a small fluted wheel for cutting rims. The insistence on rims, and on wetting the under piece before pressing two layers of paste together, is aimed at a crust that will not separate and a plate that will not leak. Apple Pie I is deliberately the plainest version in the sequence; the note that a very good pie may be made without butter, lemon juice, or rind is Farmer's usual practicality. The advice to slip the baked pie onto an earthen plate once cooled belongs to the same practical strain.