Let's talk about pies
August 29, 2017 9:17 AM   Subscribe

While some Brits dining out review (picture) what a pie is or is not (derails: cheesecake, tart, more tart, pizza, and quiche on AskMe, and pies, tarts and flans), other folk rank or make, or just eat, them. Or fight you. Pies can be famous or obscure or filled with bolognese. Elsewhere in pie nation, in Leicestershire Pukka Pies are improving while Melton Mowbray continues to be the world pie capital and the home of winners. Order in a Tipton pub ("all 4lb comes to your reinforced table") - a counterpoint - or in Wales enjoy a pastai, in Sheffield add Hendo's, or in Bristol - anyone for cricket? Further west, Chrissy was disappointed, while State Fair attendees were not surprised. And, as we near Christmas, enjoy the mighty British (and legal) mince pie.

* The funeral pie, also called a raisin pie, is often seen in Amish homes during a funeral.
* The bean pie is "made from cooked, mashed, small navy beans". Bean pies are commonly associated with African American Muslim cuisine.
* You can make a pie out of surplus green grapes.
* If a macaroni and cheese pie is topped with a bacon lattice, is it still a pie?
* The Retro Jello Strawberry Pie looks suspiciously like a flan.

The DIY Scotch Pie Company sell a controversial product:
"We supply do-it-yourself scotch pie, gravy pie and haggis kits for the foody gift market. We also sell bulk packs of premium scotch pie shells to caterers. Our shells are available in traditional or vegetarian recipes. All our seasonings are vegetarian so customers can create their own fillings to suit their own preferences. We encourage our customers to share their recipes with our Facebook community, and there have been some weird and wonderful creations. They range from a venison and red wine filling using our gravy mix to a half and half favoured by an Australian customer who likes to mix the traditional mince filling with black pudding. We have seen full cooked breakfasts made into pies. Macaroni cheese filling is very popular."

* "This is a very rich, creamy pie my mom used to make over 40 years ago for her St. Patrick's Day parties. I make a low-fat version of this for my family by replacing the ingredients with non-fat or low-fat creams."
* "Chess pie is a super-sweet Southern classic with two distinctive ingredients: cornmeal and vinegar. This chocolatey version takes the traditional chess pie up a notch, thanks to the addition of rich cocoa."
* "Molasses is the main ingredient in the Shoofly Pie, for which we can also thank the Amish (Pennsylvania Dutch, in this case). There are two types: “dry bottom” shoofly pie, which has the consistency of gingerbread, and “wet bottom”, which has a custard-like quality and comes topped with crumbs. There are a few theories about the name, the most convincing one being that the sweet molasses drew flies while pies were cooling, causing cooks to have to shoo them away."
* "Considered a 'lost dessert', this pie is filled with Nesselrode pudding, which is made with chestnut puree folded into a rich custard. Both the pie and the pudding take their name from Count Karl Nesselrode, a Russian diplomat and noted gourmand of the 19th century. According to The Food Maven, this pie enjoyed a bit of a heyday in the 1950s as an indulgent after-dinner treat. There was even a product called Nesselro, which made preparing the filling a snap."
* "To this hour, in any old and well-regulated family in New England you will find there is a traditional method of making the Marlborough pie, which is a sort of lemon pie, and each good housekeeper thinks her grandmother left a better receipt for Marlborough pie than anybody else did. We had Marborough pies at other times, but we were sure to have them on Thanksgiving Day."

Flickr has several groups dedicated to pictures of pies. These include Pie Club ("It's about pie, man. All about pie."), Pies and Tarts, Friends of pie ("If you're friends with pie, then you're friends with me."), and The Pie Maker ("Please post pictures of pies only. No Pizza."). Controversial addition: The Pasty Pool. Notes: unmoderated groups may contain non-pie pictures; random pie searches turn up lots of foot fetish pictures(!)

* The Banbury apple pie is a double shortcrust pie filled with sliced apple, dried fruit, brown sugar and sweet spices.
* In England's greatest county, the Droitwich Pie boasts pulled pork, chicken and bacon in chive cider Worcestershire Sauce gravy, and the Worcester Pie offers steak cooked with Worcester Blue cheese, Worcester Friar Tuck ale, mushroom, tarragon and Worcestershire Sauce jus.
* A traditional Yorkshire recipe for veal and ham pie (add pigs trotters to taste).
* In Glasgow, a foot long sausage roll - is this a pie? - costs a pound.
* Back in the USA, the The Blue Owl’s Levee High Apple Pie is indeed both high and contains apple.

From the Lancashire Pork Pie Appreciation Society, providers of the Lancashire Pork Pie Finder:
"It doesn’t do to focus too much on the negatives in this world, especially as simple pleasures are easy to find. For example, it is hard to imagine feeling more content than when eating a pork pie washed down with a good pint. However, as the saying goes ‘For evil to triumph it is only necessary that good men do nothing’. So, pie lovers should not stand idly by while their traditional pleasure and heritage is trampled on with the spread of expensive and exotic pies. Pictured opposite are two websites promoting pies and ‘ale’ in the so called ‘Northern Quarter’ of Manchester. Do not be tempted by this marketing nonsense. It is the same evil thinking that for some reason has seen beer renamed as ale. It is an appeal to the feeble minded, intended to make them think that such products are worth much more than normal beer and pies. The simple truth is that they taste worse and cost more. All pie lovers should strongly discourage this disturbing trend."

* The Lincolnshire Poacher is a vegetarian pie containing Lincolnshire Poacher cheese.
* Pie shops are returning to Nottingham. She said: "Pie is great, it’s wholesome food".
* The Gloucestershire Squab Pie, a dish found in rural parts of Gloucestershire, contains the nocturnal squab. This is traditionally caught between dusk and dawn, when it emerges from the trees on the banks of the River Severn it sleeps in during the daytime, using a truffin-can while shouting "Squab out!"
* From Northern Ireland, the traditional Steak, Oyster and Guinness pie.
* The Likky pie consists of stewed leeks and bacon under a shortcrust pastry with a hole. When near-cooked, whole egg and cream are poured in to form a custard.

Pies have been a staple food in recent and more distant times. In the USA, both Pennsylvania and Maine lay claim to the Whoopie Pie. Going further back, in Ye Olde Englande, Peacock Pye and Swan Pies were an option for the aristocracy, but here's a recipe from 1596 for a vegetarian pie. Some pies of bygone times took a long time to prepare. Historically, Denby Dale have been making giant pies since 1788; this is the origin of the golden rule of "one man, one pie".

* The vinegar pie "has a bit of vinegar to give it that nice tart apple taste".
* The Cornish Stargazy pie is so named because the fish are looking at the sky.
* The Grandma pie is sort of like a pizza, but it isn't.
* The Schadenfreude pie is the pie to enjoy while you are reveling in the horrible misfortunes of others.
* The Dorito and onion pie is arguably a quiche. A variation is the nacho pie.

(A pie is a dish where the filling is completely enclosed in pastry. Shame on the BBC.)

(Post title because the schoolkids who walked past my house in 1991 used to sing this song to this title.)
posted by Wordshore (109 comments total) 104 users marked this as a favorite
 
::Slow golf clap.::

Congratulations, you have just won MetaFilter.
posted by briank at 9:31 AM on August 29, 2017 [20 favorites]


Pie is best food. All kinds of pie.
posted by Artw at 9:34 AM on August 29, 2017 [2 favorites]


(quietly comes in, lays a Canadian tourtiere and a Natchitoches meat pie on the table, leaves)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:36 AM on August 29, 2017 [7 favorites]


Dang. Now I want pie.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 9:36 AM on August 29, 2017 [2 favorites]


They should have sent a poet.
posted by delfin at 9:40 AM on August 29, 2017 [4 favorites]


In Australia, a pie warmer is in every neighborhood deli/milk bar, serving all sorts of meat pies. Slather them with ketchup/sauce of course!
posted by shanewtravel at 9:41 AM on August 29, 2017 [6 favorites]


Is tamal de cazuela a pie or a casserole? (I vote pie; either way it's delicious and you should make it. Everybody should have a bag of masa harina in the house.)

There's so much to unpack in this post. But I will say that I don't generally dig sweets, but shoo-fly pie (wet) and pecan pie? I could eat a whole pie. No question.

Every year at Thanksgiving (and usually St. Patrick's Day) I make a pair of chocolate pecan pies. Sometimes there's a lot of bourbon in the filling. Sometimes there's not (and, once, there was Gosling's rum when I ran out of bourbon and it was damn good, too). But the crust is always homemade, and lately it's been all-butter (since I can't be bothered to keep lard around), and they get eaten faster than any other dessert.
posted by uncleozzy at 9:50 AM on August 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


When come back, bring pie.

Wordshore, this is the ULTIMATE PIE POST. So many marvelous links to follow!

There is a PBS documentary about American Pies that aired last spring, I shall have to scare up a link to it.
posted by suelac at 10:15 AM on August 29, 2017 [2 favorites]


In Fall River, MA, a decrepit mill city, there is a tiny hole in the wall bakery, Hartley's Original Pork Pies, and all they do are British style meat pies, most famously their pork pies, tho they do chicken and salmon as well. They've been in business more than a hundred years, using the same recipe for the pork pie all the while. I'm going there for lunch tomorrow.
posted by Slap*Happy at 10:16 AM on August 29, 2017 [8 favorites]


MeFites of MetaFilter: what is your regular pie? And, if different, your favorite pie eating experience ever?
posted by Wordshore at 10:21 AM on August 29, 2017


I've had funeral pie, but not at a funeral. The pictures in your links don't show the distinctly mucoid (but yummy) filling. A slice is pretty nasty looking and could have earned it its morbid name, even if it wasn't severed at funerals.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 10:25 AM on August 29, 2017 [2 favorites]


MeFites of MetaFilter: what is your regular pie?
In the summer, a peach pie, sometimes with blueberries or ginger. In the winter, a maple-walnut pie (which is like a pecan pie but better because it has maple syrup instead of golden syrup). Sometimes a chess pie (though my recipe has no vinegar): it's a low-volume rich custardy pie with lemon and corn meal.

My pie crust is generally the Cook's Illustrated recipe from The Best Recipe, which calls for a LOT of butter, but I often use vodka so I can handle the pastry a bit more without having it bind up.
posted by suelac at 10:26 AM on August 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


Or fight you.

I seriously thought they were going to have a pie fight. I was disappointed.
posted by dlugoczaj at 10:30 AM on August 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


We were always sure grandmothers Grasshopper pie used real grasshoppers.
posted by sammyo at 10:33 AM on August 29, 2017 [2 favorites]


You forgot the pie floater mate!

A traditional Australian-style meat pie, usually sitting, but sometimes submerged (sometimes upside down) in a bowl of thick pea soup

hotdog : baseball :: Australian football : pies

After the war we took in many Vietnamese refugees. A lot of them started bakeries because they learnt all about french pastry from their colonial masters. The story my mate tells me is that when his parents got here, they saw someone eating a dodgy mass produced pie (likely a Four'N Twenty). They new they'd be okay in Australia if we're willing to eat that. There are Vietnamese bakeries all over Brisbane and that's where you get the best pies.

(I wouldn't feed a Four'N Twenty to the dog).
posted by adept256 at 10:40 AM on August 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


It's pretty arguable whether a certain pie shop in Melton has the best pork pies - I've never rated them and I used to live near the town. But it's pretty much a matter of taste re spices, what sort of pastry, how the meat is cut, how much jelly etc...

Our family follows the local East Midlands tradition of eating pork pie and toast for breakfast every Christmas morning. Done it for as far long as I can remember.

As a kid I was always fascinated by the similar veal and ham/gala pie how they got the egg all the way though.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 10:44 AM on August 29, 2017 [2 favorites]


Ha, I missed the edit window. We don't eat Australian football at the pie.
posted by adept256 at 10:45 AM on August 29, 2017 [2 favorites]


MeFites of MetaFilter: what is your regular pie?

Banana cream, year round.

Pumpkin and pecan, September through December.

Everything else I like qualifies as some kind of tarte. (I think. I am no expert on such things. I just know that they are delicious, these confections.)
posted by Hermione Granger at 10:50 AM on August 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


Pizza pie?
posted by blue_beetle at 10:52 AM on August 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


Lincolnshire Poacher: come for the pie, stay for the broadcast!
posted by stannate at 10:54 AM on August 29, 2017 [3 favorites]


I get into the idea of meat pies in the winter because they're filling and comforting. Although my biggest go-to is actually a pasty - a vegetarian one that I got from one of the Moosewood cookbooks, with carrots, celery, leek, parsnip (which I use to replace the called-for turnips, since turnips give me seriously bad tummy trouble) and a ton of cheddar cheese. Tourtiere, either as a pie or in pasty form, is a very, very close second, in a nod to my New Brunswick-born grandma; and the Natchitoches meat pie is a close third.

....It's occurred to me that I have the ingredients for the fillings for the cheese pasties and the Natchitoches pies at home RIGHT NOW. (I'm going to cheat and pick up premade pie crust.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:54 AM on August 29, 2017 [3 favorites]


My partner runs a savory pie food truck in Seattle, which led to a really interesting legal battle with Washington State about "when is a pie not a pie." See, Washington State sales tax law exempts "bakery items" from sales tax, going on to specify a number of examples: "The term "bakery items" includes bread, rolls, buns, biscuits, bagels, croissants, pastries, donuts, Danish, cakes, tortes, pies, tarts, muffins, bars, cookies, or tortillas." (emphasis mine.) So my partner figured, great, he didn't have to charge sales tax on his pies. They're very clearly pies by any of the definitions cited in this post--traditional butter-based pie crust on both top and bottom. As long as he didn't hand his customers a fork to eat their pie with, as specified in RCW 82.08.0293 (2)(b)(ii), he was in the clear.

However, a couple of years in, an auditor came by and explained that when they said "pie", they didn't mean that sort of pie. The legal argument seems to be that the intent of the law was to exempt side dishes and desserts, not things that can serve as a meal in themselves. The people who wrote the law were Americans, and when Americans say 'pie' they mean 'dessert'. So in Washington State, a lamb-and-potato pie or vegetable-curry pie doesn't count as a pie, because it's a lunch. Language, and law, are weird.
posted by fermion at 10:55 AM on August 29, 2017 [16 favorites]


In Australia a 'pie' with no leading adjective is presumed to be a meat pie. I don't know why it doesn't catch on over there. It's pastry, meat and gravy. Seems pretty obvious.
posted by adept256 at 11:01 AM on August 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


As long as he didn't hand his customers a fork to eat their pie with, as specified in RCW 82.08.0293 (2)(b)(ii), he was in the clear. ... The legal argument seems to be that the intent of the law was to exempt side dishes and desserts, not things that can serve as a meal in themselves.

I can sort of see their point: that way lies things like Cornish pasties, and Jamaican patties, possibly even roti and burritos. Imagine, a samosa, tax-free.
posted by bonehead at 11:06 AM on August 29, 2017 [2 favorites]


A pie is a dish where the filling is completely enclosed in pastry.

so a pasty then
posted by poffin boffin at 11:09 AM on August 29, 2017 [6 favorites]


EmpressCallipygos mentions tourtière above but I'll fill it out a bit as I think it might be one of the greatest Canadian culinary inventions (sorry haters better even then poutine and Map-O-Spread).

Being French Canadian, tourtière has always been a critical part of my food culture, especially at Christmas. But I've known many non French Canadians to have incorporated it into their own foodways. I've met more than a few Canadians who use Mme Benoit's take on the classic for the odd Christmas or Thanksgiving gathering.

The tourtière has a storied history but one fraught with debate. Every family, region and community has a variation that they hold as definitive. The simplicity of the dish allows for a lot of versatility and innovation - for instance this recent glammed up recipe in the Globe and Mail (I can just see my great grandmother crinkle her nose at the thought of fish sauce in her tourtière). And there is the endless debate how to eat it and with what (the endless ketchup vs fruit ketchup vs gravy arguments)!
posted by Ashwagandha at 11:10 AM on August 29, 2017 [8 favorites]


Also in Fall River, "Landry's Meat Pies" are a pretty good take on tourtière, tho a bit on the bland side for my taste.
posted by Slap*Happy at 11:15 AM on August 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


The best pie shop in Cumbria (and beyond) is Gosforth Bakery. Here's a photo.
posted by quarsan at 11:22 AM on August 29, 2017 [2 favorites]


MY GOD. IT'S FULL OF PIES.

Tasty post.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:28 AM on August 29, 2017 [2 favorites]


A pie is a dish where the filling is completely enclosed in pastry.

poffin boffin: so a pasty then

STAY AWAY FROM CORNWALL

This has been your friendly warning service.
posted by biffa at 11:34 AM on August 29, 2017 [6 favorites]


In Fall River, MA, a decrepit mill city, there is a tiny hole in the wall bakery, Hartley's Original Pork Pies, and all they do are British style meat pies, most famously their pork pies, tho they do chicken and salmon as well.

For those of us north of Boston, there is Thwaite's Market in Methuen, which has also been around for about 100 years.
posted by briank at 11:35 AM on August 29, 2017 [3 favorites]


This is one of the yummiest posts I've ever consumed.

You're doing the Lord's work. Bless you.
posted by Fizz at 11:35 AM on August 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


Oh, and right in Boston, there's KO Pies (one in Southie, one in Eastie), for those looking for real Australian meat pies.
posted by briank at 11:39 AM on August 29, 2017 [2 favorites]




Gawd... I could really do a mince pie now. No, make that three.
posted by Mister Bijou at 11:45 AM on August 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


> MeFites of MetaFilter: what is your regular pie? And, if different, your favorite pie eating experience ever?

My favorite regular pie is the Apple Sour Cream Pie from Foster's Market here in Durham, North Carolina. I've been known to go there and come back with no pie if they don't have any Apple Sour Cream Pie that day.

My favorite pie eating experience so far was the buttermilk corn pie from Scratch Bakery, also in Durham. The pie has a sweet, creamy filling with a discernible corn taste. Actually I like all of their buttermilk pies.

Mmm pie.
posted by research monkey at 11:49 AM on August 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


I made a chocolate chess pie for a holiday once and someone said it was like a brownie in a pie crust. I am not a big fan of cake and brownies (too dry), but that was an apt description. Target sells a milk bar pie mix from the actual Milk Bar (tm) so you can make their Crack Pie at home. It is really, really good. The oatmeal cookie crust is the hardest part.
posted by soelo at 12:07 PM on August 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


I'm making a peach pie today, with some of the 10 pounds of peaches I picked up in southern IL last week while there for the eclipse. If I'm really good today, I'll get the crust prepared before my friends show up, so I can put lard in it (my vegetarian-but-food-nerd guest said it was okay as long as she doesn't know about it). I'll probably be running late and end up with all butter, though. I've adapated my grandmother's "traditional" recipe and usually use half butter, half lard instead of the Crisco I was taught to use. Not gonna lie, though, I love that partially hydrogenated soft-but-flaky crust. Mine is good but it's not the same.

My "regular" pie is generally a fruit pie; I love making them but I only do once or twice a year. I've got my grandma's old rolling pin but since she collected antiques, at least 5 other family members do, too.
posted by jeweled accumulation at 12:12 PM on August 29, 2017 [2 favorites]


How many people have ever tried a mock apple pie? I like Ritz just fine, but I don't know if I could stomach it.
posted by soelo at 12:12 PM on August 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


I've adapated my grandmother's "traditional" recipe and usually use half butter, half lard instead of the Crisco I was taught to use. Not gonna lie, though, I love that partially hydrogenated soft-but-flaky crust. Mine is good but it's not the same.

Ha! I'm glad I'm not the only one messing with my grandmother's beloved pie crust recipe. She also used Crisco--and was quite clear that you needed to use the butter-flavored kind. I gotta say, when I do half & half lard & butter, it's basically perfect. I don't have any lard on hand right now, though I've got some leaf fat in my deep freeze waiting to be rendered.

Favorite pie: strawberry rhubarb, thickened with tapioca, topped with a twisted lattice crust, brushed with milk and sprinkled with chunky sugar
posted by carrioncomfort at 12:21 PM on August 29, 2017 [3 favorites]


My fav is mince pie. (No meat. I'm veggie.) Raisins and currants and apples and pears and nuts and any other dried fruit I have on hand and spices and whatever dark alcohol I feel like splashing in.

Otherwise, something egg custardy is good.
posted by greermahoney at 12:29 PM on August 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


My best pie is Banbury Apple Pie, basically an apple pie with some lemon and/or orange juice & zest, raisins (which soak up the juice) and brown sugar and cinnamon, done in layers rather than chunks. Always full butter in the pastry plus an egg. I don't put lard in sweet pies, I would only consider then for savoury, but since we never have any in they tend to get marge.
posted by biffa at 12:31 PM on August 29, 2017 [1 favorite]




When I make pie crust I do 1/3 lard & 2/3 butter - personally I've found this ratio works better than half and half.

> I don't put lard in sweet pies, I would only consider then for savoury

I do use lard in sweet pies, when they have a strongly spiced filling (e.g. apple, pumpkin). I used to get this pure white lard for baking from Rose's Meat Market and Sweet Shop, but they've recently gotten rid of their retail butchery operation and become a restaurant, so I don't know where I'll source my lard now.
posted by research monkey at 12:37 PM on August 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


A 4 lb. pie? Man, I don't know but that doesn't sound like a good idea.
posted by tommasz at 12:41 PM on August 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


Yeah. Should be at least 5 lbs.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 12:47 PM on August 29, 2017 [12 favorites]


soelo, it doesn't taste anything like Ritz crackers. It does indeed taste like apple, but the texture is off. It's more like applesauce pie. The crackers get soggy, they don't have the resistance of apple slices.
posted by domo at 12:50 PM on August 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


CTRL/F: Chocolate Pie

0 results

Oh, MeFites, I'll come back because I'm just about to leave work, but chocolate pie (chocolate cream pie if you're puttin' on airs) is a staple in my Southern family and I have JUST ABOUT re-created my MaMaw's unbelievably delicious version.
posted by cooker girl at 1:30 PM on August 29, 2017 [2 favorites]


MeFites of MetaFilter: what is your regular pie?
I like most pies made with fruits, so I favor whatever is in season, but blackberry is my favorite.
I usually make several blackberry pies in the summer. Apple pie in the fall. In the winter I make at least one Shaker lemon pie (aka Ohio lemon) because I can always get lemons. If I am feeling weird, pineapple pie.

My pie crust tip is to use cultured butter for the crust.

As for what counts as a pie, I'm not particular.
posted by surlyben at 1:30 PM on August 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


I made a chocolate cream pie not long ago; but I did a non-traditional crust from the James McNair Book of Pies. Instead of a short-crust pastry (as Mary Berry calls it), I mixed almond flour, some ground almonds, flour, sugar, almond extract, and eggwhite together, and lined the pie tin with it. Which then gets baked for about half an hour.

It's an excellent crust for a cream pie (I have also used it for banana cream) because it's so crunchy and doesn't get soggy. Also tastes great.

My mother's pie crust recipe (which she got from her MIL) was all Crisco, no butter. My current version is about 2/3 butter, 1/3 shortening: that way you get the butter flavor and the flakiness from the shortening. I would like to try it with lard at some point, but I have too many vegetarians in my life...
posted by suelac at 2:37 PM on August 29, 2017 [4 favorites]


Vol-au-vents for all!
The mere suggestion of a spaghetti bolognese pie would cause a diplomatic incident with my Italian in-laws
posted by fregoli at 2:47 PM on August 29, 2017 [2 favorites]


My regular pie.

It gets irregular favourites, when it does, it pleases me to know that somewhere out there a Mefite is thinking of making a pie.

Also, Red Leicester...
posted by Helga-woo at 2:49 PM on August 29, 2017 [2 favorites]


A friend who was associated with the Nation of Islam vouchsafed to me that they only sell bean pies. They don't actually eat them, too sweet and so bad for the constitution.
posted by 1adam12 at 2:55 PM on August 29, 2017 [2 favorites]


Update: I am still not eating pie. Why is this? I blame all of you.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 2:59 PM on August 29, 2017 [2 favorites]


MeFites of MetaFilter: what is your regular pie?

Whattaya got?
posted by soundguy99 at 3:00 PM on August 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


soelo, my sister made a mock apple pie once, out of curiosity and an excess of Ritz crackers. It was tasty enough, but tasted more like commercial apple filling, the kind you get in commercial apple bars or whatever, than apple pie.
posted by tavella at 3:34 PM on August 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


My regular pie.

Oh, that is an excellent AskMe question on pies from billiebee - am delightfully wading through the comments on there now.
posted by Wordshore at 3:36 PM on August 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


I make a pretty good apple-cranberry pie with a streusel topping. When I'm in a savory mode, I make a vegetarian variant on a Chinese curried beef paste poured into a western pie shell, because I'm lazy.
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:51 PM on August 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


I'm delighted Schednfreude pie made the cut here. That is all.
posted by jscalzi at 4:53 PM on August 29, 2017 [4 favorites]


The line about bean pie being a Muslim African American staple stood out for me. As a child, I had only experienced beans in sweets in North Asian cuisine, and seen seen white friends go "wtf" at the idea. Then I went to college and saw that the Portuguese also used it (via Japanese contact?). And today, another cuisine!
posted by batter_my_heart at 4:54 PM on August 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


Up on the Maine coast one year, I made a mussel pie, it was pretty dang good. You know, crust on the bottom, freshly cooked mussels, (sauteed in wine garlic and basil,) cream, roux, celery, onion, red peppers, and so forth. However I just saw crawfish pie, and I have to go out of state to gather some of those. I must make this. It is never an authentic recipe if they use instant bisquit mix, or evaporated milk. Emeril has a good looking recipe. I can see fresh fennel in this thing.

I love quince pie, I made a quince marmalade, not very sweet, that just converts to quince pie with pecans, and bottom crust, frangipane topping.
posted by Oyéah at 5:03 PM on August 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


I'm delighted Schednfreude pie made the cut here. That is all.

Schadenfreude Pies: We always serve you right.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 5:08 PM on August 29, 2017 [6 favorites]


*sigh* I wish I liked pie.
posted by JanetLand at 5:12 PM on August 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


I have not baked a pie in quite a long time, but when I have, it's been from scratch.

Then yesterday, I went to the local supermarket and ended up having to go down an actual aisle for baking soda (I just shop the perimeter 99.999% of the time). And in this aisle, there was a shelf of lard. Real lard. Lard that wasn't artisinal or boutique and, most importantly, not $15 a pound.

Finally, I will be able to make a proper apple pie this autumn, and a proper chicken pot pie. Because using shortening for the crust is simply not to be borne. Butter and lard in a 1:1 ratio! The current unpleasantness notwithstanding, I intend to have several good pies before the end of the year (and I'm happy to see all these links to new-to-me recipies)!
posted by droplet at 7:19 PM on August 29, 2017 [4 favorites]


FINE! I have been lurking for years and a post about pie has caused me pay up my fiver.

Pie is integral to stretching food for several meals for us. It's based on the time when my folks raised a turkey for thanksgiving, which ended up too big for our household oven, and resulted in POUNDS of leftover meat. So my mom made endless turkey pies and we ate them all winter.
Lately, I get my chicken from the farmers market, which is typically sold as a whole bird. So dinner one is roast chicken, with lots of various vegetables we have on hand. That night I pick the meat, and plop the bones in the crock pot with water. The next day I use the leftover meat, leftover veggies, a gravy from the homemade broth and a homemade crust and make a delicious chicken pie, which we then eat over the course of several days.
(I do something similar with pork shoulder, its rendered lard, and making lard-buttermilk pork biscuits the next day)

My favored crust recipe is all butter from Smitten Kitchen, which always seems to be tasty, although the dough can get a little wet.

When feeding lots of people I love to make an apple slab pie, which is definitely for crust lovers.

I have also been preserving apple pie filling in the fall, which makes doing an apple pie super easy, and the canning process precooks the apples so you don't get the gap in the top crust.

...I have yet to perfect my edge pinches, so that always looks like a hot mess.

And I love my mom's chocolate pie, which is the premade oreo crust, jello pudding, chocolate chips and aerosol whipped cream.

PIE! :D
posted by Hermeowne Grangepurr at 7:24 PM on August 29, 2017 [12 favorites]


MeFites of MetaFilter: what is your regular pie?

...
My, my MeFi regular pie
May have cider, fruit inside 'er
Maybe just a shoofly
posted by eponym at 7:42 PM on August 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


I used to find sour cream raisin pie but haven't seen it for years here west of the Cascades. It was different to me but pretty tasty (though I like raisins so..).

My favorite pie was my late mother's apple pie. If she were making it for many people, she'd make it in a sheet pan, that was awesome. So much delicious pie all in one place....
posted by Rufous-headed Towhee heehee at 7:48 PM on August 29, 2017 [2 favorites]


posted by Hermeowne Grangepurr at 7:24 PM on August 29

gasp
posted by Hermione Granger at 7:50 PM on August 29, 2017 [19 favorites]


I'm surprised that two of the most common pies of my childhood, blueberry and rhubarb, haven't come up yet. Are they really that unusual or regional? Can't be.

Pie is integral to stretching food for several meals for us.

Indeed, I hardly ever made pies until the time I spent being really poor, and needed a way to use up all that canned fruit from the food bank and also deal with the fact my sweet tooth didn't know I had no money.
posted by traveler_ at 7:55 PM on August 29, 2017 [2 favorites]


Oh. OH.

So, there's another pie. Actually it's a tart; it was something I had in a little cafe in Paris last time I was there, it was one of the pies o' the day and they called it a "tarte au choco crumble". I asked for a clarification, and they just pointed to where it sat on the table.

It was basically a chocolate cream pie, with the cream bit super thick, with a chocolate cookie crumb crust, with yet more chocolate cookie crumbs covering the top. I think my travel journal describes it as "chocolate mousse and a Mississippi mud pie having sex on your tongue".

I have been trying to figure out how to hack this since and I think I might be close.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:02 PM on August 29, 2017 [3 favorites]


I was just listening to George Carlin the other night and he was talking about all of the expressions involving cake like "takes the cake" and ...all the other ones I can't remember right now, anyway, then he was like "what about PIE"? So...here we go...it's all about pie!:)
posted by bquarters at 8:38 PM on August 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


Update: the peach pie turned out great. We ate some right out of the oven with ice cream on top.

The edge-crimping comment reminded me, because every time I make a pie I want to do something fancier but I was just taught to crimp it down with a fork. Which works and is easy, but I want to get better at other methods. I'll just have to make a lot more pies and practice.

And yeah, not enough love for rhubarb! Growing up we had rhubarb growing in the back yard, and I baked a lot as a kid in those pre-internet days. I love plain rhubarb pie.
posted by jeweled accumulation at 9:37 PM on August 29, 2017 [2 favorites]


I used to live in Lancaster County, PA, and I really miss the shoofly pies.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:47 PM on August 29, 2017 [2 favorites]


*sigh* I wish I liked pie.

I love pie not wisely but too well.

If you want to know how well, this wondermark provides a reasonable facsimile of my feelings.
posted by mark k at 10:35 PM on August 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


I saw that Morrisons' foot long sausage roll in Edinburgh a couple of weeks ago. It looked awful, haven't seen it since though so maybe it has been discontinued already.
posted by epo at 2:22 AM on August 30, 2017 [1 favorite]


MeFites of MetaFilter: what is your regular pie?

Mine's a lamb and rosemary, ta.

The bakery near our place does amazing pies. I can't do a four and twenty any more.

When I bake them at home though it's more likely to be sweet than savory. My husband has started regularly baking cherry pies and they are better each time he does them. I more often make lemon meringue, or lately, because I harvested 30kg of the bastards, sweet potato.
posted by lollusc at 2:39 AM on August 30, 2017 [1 favorite]


Had some cherry pie from the Co-op last night - not in honour of this thread, it was just in the fridge and needed eating (also we went from a pavement melting bank holiday weekend to instant autumn yesterday so was in the mood). Yeah, the Co-op does good pie.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:48 AM on August 30, 2017 [1 favorite]


My wife makes amaaazing pies.

In the summer it's strawberry rhubarb, with rhubarb from the front garden and berries we pick at a local farm (40+ pounds this year!). There are three extra pies in the freezer right now, with bags of frozen, chopped fruit to make more over the winter.

In fall it's apple pies when we get home from the orchard, and a couple more of those will go in the freezer, too.

Her dad loved pie and her mom never cared to bake them, but we are blessed by those strong hands. <3

(Also, I make ice cream to go with the pies. Oh, yeaaaaaah.)
posted by wenestvedt at 3:39 AM on August 30, 2017 [2 favorites]


Mine's a lamb and rosemary, ta.

(runs over with notebook titled "Recipes" on the cover, flips open to an empty page and looks at you expectantly while holding a pen)

Go on....
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:30 AM on August 30, 2017 [5 favorites]


My specialty is chocolate pie spiced with cinnamon, cayenne, and smoked paprika. The filling has the consistency of a truffle, very dense and rich. All butter crust with a whole egg. On request I add a peanut butter layer, and I switch to black bottom lemon when I want something lighter.

I used to make a pie every week in the summer and bring it to my neighborhood bar to share with whatever friends were free and the bartender. Haven't done it at all this year though
posted by (Over) Thinking at 5:13 AM on August 30, 2017 [1 favorite]


Mine's a lamb and rosemary, ta.

(runs over with notebook titled "Recipes" on the cover, flips open to an empty page and looks at you expectantly while holding a pen)


I go to the shop, pay $5, and eat? I'm sure there are lots of good recipes, but I've not tried them. Pies are about convenience.
posted by lollusc at 5:25 AM on August 30, 2017


The secret to the best apple pie (and perhaps other fruit pies that typically end up watery or with a wet bottom crust) is making the filling mixture (apples, sugar, spices, lemon juice, etc) and letting it marinate overnight. Then you drain all the liquid from the mixture into a pan, and reduce it by half to two-thirds, until it's almost syrupy. Stir that beautiful, concentrated apple-y, spice-y flavor back into the filling, and proceed. It's so, so much better than your typical 'throw filling into crust' sad, wet version, or the 'attempt to thicken with flour or cornstarch' goopy version.
posted by rachaelfaith at 6:09 AM on August 30, 2017 [7 favorites]


I go to the shop, pay $5, and eat?

(beat; wordlessly flips book closed)

Pies are about convenience.

I actually think pies are about get in mah bellay.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:14 AM on August 30, 2017 [8 favorites]


I make fruit pies frequently, since they are so easy and quick once you know what you are doing. Once or twice a year I might make a savory pie, but that takes enough work that I don't bother often.

My partner runs a savory pie food truck in Seattle, which led to a really interesting legal battle with Washington State about "when is a pie not a pie."

I was going to say, wow, last time I was driving around there I saw that truck, what a neat random MetaFilter connection! But then I checked on google, and there appear to be a whole bunch of savory pie food trucks in Seattle, so go figure. That's too bad the sales tax exemption didn't stick; as a person who likes savory pies, I would be in favor of that.

A pie is a dish where the filling is completely enclosed in pastry.

That would seem to include any number of items that are at best second- or third-cousins to pie, like calzones and samosas.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:18 AM on August 30, 2017 [1 favorite]


Why am I late to all the good food posts?

Anyway, it's my mission to make all sorts of old-fashioned pie recipes. I've got a color-coded spreadsheet and everything! (If you're anywhere near me please consider this an invitation to come over at eat pie at my house.)

Of the ones on Wordshore's list, Marlborough Pie is delicious, particularly if you make it in the fall and make your own applesauce (but it's also tasty with jarred applesauce).

Other "old" pies I've made that I also consider worth a taste are Bob & Andy Pie (cinnamon), Funeral Pie (raisin, I add rum, it's great), and the Shoofly Pie. There's also the Bourbon Pecan, which I made with too much molasses in it the first time (I will get it right next time).
posted by PearlRose at 8:00 AM on August 30, 2017 [2 favorites]


MeFites of MetaFilter: what is your regular pie?
The Salty Honey pie — honey vanilla custard with flake salt sprinkled on top — by Brooklyn's Four & Twenty Blackbirds is my go-to nowadays.
But my favorite pie of all-time is the blackberry + black raspberry pie with the lattice crust that my mom used to make, with a scoop of Breyer's vanilla bean ice cream on top.
posted by D.Billy at 8:45 AM on August 30, 2017 [1 favorite]


There's also the Bourbon Pecan, which I made with too much molasses in it the first time

Huh, I have a bourbon pecan pie recipe, but it does not call for molasses. I think that would be too strong, and you wouldn't be able to taste the bourbon.
posted by suelac at 10:05 AM on August 30, 2017 [2 favorites]


Huh, I have a bourbon pecan pie recipe, but it does not call for molasses. I think that would be too strong, and you wouldn't be able to taste the bourbon.

I made this one here, from a John Besh recipe. Granted it was a while ago, but it wasn't terrible. The spices from the molasses complimented the woody, smoky bourbon reasonably well. Instead of doing a 50-50 split though, I'd probably do a 1 cup corn syrup to 1/2 cup molasses, or maybe a 1.25-.25.

There is a PBS documentary about American Pies that aired last spring, I shall have to scare up a link to it.

I don't think this is the one you're talking about, but I just watched A Few Good Pie Places on PBS Streaming over the weekend. It's delightful and also made me want pie.
posted by PearlRose at 10:21 AM on August 30, 2017 [1 favorite]


I don't think this is the one you're talking about, but I just watched A Few Good Pie Places on PBS Streaming over the weekend

Maybe? I can't tell. It had a lovely lesbian couple in Vermont or Maine who sold their pies on the honor system in a little shack by the side of the road; and a hipster pie shop in Seattle with a blueberry-pineapple-coconut pie. And a black woman who bought back the shop her grandparents had owned, and turned it into a local coffee/pie shop--her elderly mother spends the day hanging out with the customers.

At any rate, it's well worth watching. And it certainly makes me want to make pie.
posted by suelac at 10:37 AM on August 30, 2017 [1 favorite]


Stop this madness, can't you see I have work to do?
posted by theora55 at 11:44 AM on August 30, 2017 [2 favorites]


Pecan pie enthusiasts: next time you make pies, throw a couple handfuls (handsful?) of semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips or chunks on the bottom before you add the pecans and filling.
posted by uncleozzy at 11:52 AM on August 30, 2017 [2 favorites]


At any rate, it's well worth watching. And it certainly makes me want to make pie.

Yep, the documentary I linked to was it! That blueberry-pineapple-coconut pie is on my list to make ...someday. Hey! Maybe today, since I actually have blueberries in my fridge at the moment.

They also made A Few Great Bakeries, if you're into that kind of thing.
posted by PearlRose at 1:23 PM on August 30, 2017 [2 favorites]


Here's a great read and a great take on mincemeat.

I always hated "mincemeat" as a kid. It was never all that good, homemade or jarred.
Then I tried this recipe and I realized why the early American fixation with the dish. It is amazing.
posted by Seamus at 1:33 PM on August 30, 2017 [2 favorites]


If you want a recipe for Momofuku Milk Bar's Crack Pie, they are out there. Time consuming, but not too difficult. Warn people to take small pieces.
posted by Seamus at 2:07 PM on August 30, 2017 [1 favorite]


Pie report! OK! So prompted by this thread, I went to pick up some pies at The Orginal Hartley's Pork Pies. The last time I had one, I was ten. I couldn't remember if I liked it or not.

Hot and fresh from the oven... it was horrible. The pork was this bland mystery meat ground pork swimming in its own grease. I mean, the crust was ethereally good, but the filling was not doing it, criminally under-seasoned. The chicken pie was better, until you realized it was canned chicken and a tiny bit of canned veg. With just enough gravy. That gravy. The pastry and gravy forgave all other sins.

So I let the partly-eaten pork pies cool their heels in the fridge, and re-examined them for a cold supper.

OH IT'S SO GOOD! The loose minced pork solidifies into this seasoned mass of delicate and delicious meat, and its juices have had time to infiltrate the crust without removing its crispness...

$2.25 each, cash only. You'll only need one, no matter how big you think your appetite is. Just don't eat it hot.
posted by Slap*Happy at 8:02 PM on August 30, 2017 [1 favorite]


“It's just after I see a movie, I like to go get a piece of pie and talk about it. It's sort of a little tradition I have. Do you like to get pie after you see a good movie?”
Yes, I do, Clarence; yes I do. That was the moment I fell in love with that movie.

"Worcester Pie offers steak cooked with Worcester Blue cheese, Worcester Friar Tuck ale, mushroom, tarragon and Worcestershire Sauce jus."

OMG! I've never really liked savory pies, but that sounds delicious.

"MeFites of MetaFilter: what is your regular pie?"

Sour cream blueberry pie and sour cream cherry pie. Also key lime pie. Pies are far superior to cakes as a dessert. And I like cake. But I love pies.

When I was a child, there was a pie bakery/diner in Albuquerque where they offered something like forty different pies. I yearn for that wonder of my youth. Where are all the pie shops? Or just one?
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 12:54 AM on August 31, 2017 [1 favorite]


"Worcester Pie offers steak cooked with Worcester Blue cheese, Worcester Friar Tuck ale, mushroom, tarragon and Worcestershire Sauce jus."

OMG! I've never really liked savory pies, but that sounds delicious.


It is. Because Worcestershire.
posted by Wordshore at 3:13 AM on August 31, 2017 [1 favorite]


I'm just wondering why the recipe settles for anything less than Worcestershire mushrooms and Worcestershire tarragon.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 4:05 AM on August 31, 2017 [1 favorite]


I'm just wondering why the recipe settles for anything less than Worcestershire mushrooms and Worcestershire tarragon.

So foolish! Sad.
posted by Mister Bijou at 4:21 AM on August 31, 2017 [1 favorite]


How could I forget! Pork And Apple Pie With Cheddar Sage Crust. Dinner and dessert.
posted by carrioncomfort at 8:56 AM on August 31, 2017 [1 favorite]


If a macaroni and cheese pie is topped with a bacon lattice, is it still a pie?

Ask the Nobel Prize Committee when they award the prize.
posted by theora55 at 11:23 AM on August 31, 2017 [1 favorite]


I make apple pie, lots of apples, a little lemon juice, not too much brown sugar, and I never thought to add sherry. Now I need some pie apples. Maybe I could make that Marlborough pie with almond milk, since I don't eat dairy.

Strawberry pie, nostalgic or otherwise, should not be made with jello. Why combine the flavor of actual strawberries with nasty fake strawberry flavor? It should be made with cornstarch-based red glaze. And heaps of whipped cream on top. Pies that involve cooking strawberries are uncalled-for.

I quite like chicken pot pie with what is essentially chicken stew and a puff pastry top. I don't really care if it's a technical foul, it's tasty. All those meat pies. I think I need to start making steak, mushroom, and ale pie, maybe add some winter veg.

Wordshore, this is a genuinely inspired and inspiring post. Thank you. Should you ever visit Maine, I'll make you pie. not whoopie pie.
posted by theora55 at 12:14 PM on August 31, 2017 [1 favorite]


What a fantastic post!! Nicely done, wordshore!

sour cream raisin pie

Of all the recipes I've googled thanks to this post, that's the one I'm going to try first. Can't imagine what it tastes like.
posted by zarq at 2:37 PM on August 31, 2017 [1 favorite]


Kiwis are really into pies - Judging the Best Pie 2017 and Category winners.
posted by phigmov at 10:58 PM on September 2, 2017 [2 favorites]


Kiwis are really into pies

The Aussies too... Remember Richie Benaud talking about the team having pies during the tea break in cricket matches in Australia rather than the English tradition of sandwiches
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:48 AM on September 3, 2017


Been pointed out (fair enough) that for completeness, the post should link to the 2013 AskMe "Is a quiche classified as a pie?"
posted by Wordshore at 11:27 AM on September 7, 2017


MetaFilter owner/moderator pie.
posted by Wordshore at 1:00 PM on September 23, 2017


I just now discovered that there's such a thing as a beef, Stilton, and Guinness pie. With mushrooms! Mmmm...

I have never liked savory pies, but a Stilton pot pie could convert me.

God, I love Stilton. (I was just googling for where to find Stilton around here.) BTW, the best blue in the states, in my opinion, is Maytag Blue and I just now saw that they're finally about to resume shipping their cheese this week. Hooray!
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 2:06 PM on September 24, 2017


I have a fond memory of eating Stilton while hiking the coastal path in Wales.
posted by Chrysostom at 6:35 PM on September 24, 2017


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