SOME THINGS ARE worth turning on the oven for in August. Pie is one. Summer, perhaps even more than fall, is ripe with pie possibilities: fragrant peach, juicy blackberry, tart-sweet cherry, or strawberry-rhubarb. More obscure fillings might include green tomatoes or Concord grapes. On the hottest nights, I have seen warm pie disappear faster than the vanilla ice cream on top, with nary a complaint--except perhaps from the cook who was in the hot kitchen.
Our national dessert, in fact, has its floury roots in the warm climates of Greece and Italy. Among the first to perfect flour-grinding techniques, the Greeks made fine honey pastries that were famous in the ancient world. Political and cultural conquests had royal Roman tart bakers trying new pie ingredients such as cheese, wine, olive oil, milk, and spices. Their huge pies enveloped fish, songbirds, ham, or figs in a pastry crust. The culinary custom spread with the Roman Empire.
The French developed pastry making into an art, and William the Conqueror--accompanied by his pastry chef--took pie to England, where herb tarts, custards, and small meat pastries became standard fare. The Pilgrims brought treasured family pie recipes with them to the New World and adapted to local ingredients such as molasses, sweet potatoes, and fruits. Scarce food could be stretched to serve more people when sauced and served with a double crust or topped with mashed potatoes.
Our American forebears happily ate pie for breakfast, lunch, and supper. One of the few things I know about the grandfather I never met is that he wanted my grandmother to make him a pie every day. My grandmother taught me properly to reverence this food, and gave me her time-tested recipe for a flawless pie crust--that most feared kitchen art.
Some people still make pastry with lard, while others use a mixture of vegetable shortening and butter. Many recipes call for vinegar or lemon juice to tenderize the crust, but Grandma and I simply make ours out of flour, salt, shortening, and water. In addition to the steps listed in the recipe below, I recommend the following tricks when making pie crust. (I will leave the fillings to your own imagination and cookbook research.)
1) After making the dough, divide it in half and roll each half into a ball. On a floured surface, press one ball flat with your hands, molding any escaping crumbs back into the circle. Take a rolling pin (or wine bottle) and begin to work the circle larger, using smooth outward sweeps. Keep the rolling pin clean of dough bumps, and flour it occasionally.
When the circle is 8 inches across, fold it in half, then half again. Start over rolling a circle. While this one-time folding makes it harder to achieve a perfect circle, it makes the finished crust more flaky.
2) My favorite part of making pie is "fancying it up": crimping the edges; weaving a latticework top; cutting a design or alphabet letter in the top crust; laying pastry leaves around the rim; or pressing a herringbone design with a fork on the inside rim.
3) Don't burn the pie! Often a piece of foil is needed halfway through the baking process to keep the crust from burning.
I hope you are tempted to make a pie, if not now, then later this year when apple, pear, pecan, or pumpkin pie will be in season. Of course, there's always chicken pot pie, but that's another story....
Flaky Pie Crust
· 2 cups flour
· 3/4 tsp. salt
· 3/4 cup shortening
· 1/4 cup ice-cold water
Mix flour and salt in a bowl. Cut in the shortening with a fork. When crumbly, squeeze a little in your hand. If it holds together in a ball, you are ready to add the water. If not, cut in more shortening until it does. Do not over-handle dough.
Carey Burkett, former assistant to the editor at Sojourners, was an organic vegetable farmer in Hallettsville, Texas when this article appeared.
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