< img src=" https://ourgrandmotherskitchens.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/PIE-INGREDIENTS-to-use.jpg 591w, https://ourgrandmotherskitchens.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/PIE-INGREDIENTS-to-use-300x225.jpg 300w "alt= "" width =" 591" height= "443"/ > I have actually never been an excellent fan of pie. I know it is probably heresy to write this in New England, where pie was king in the 19th century and still holds quite a bit of sway. I like fruit, but I do not see the point in frustrating it with pastry by putting a crust below it– and usually a crust above it too.
I do embrace pie at Thanksgiving, however. Thanksgiving is about tradition. In my household, as in a lot of, pie becomes part of that tradition.
So at this time of year I haul out my rolling pin and my household dish book. I often make apple pie, which my loved ones like, or pecan pie, which pleases my Southern sister-in-law. Pumpkin pie is a household preferred, and nobody has actually ever turned down my first-rate key-lime pie, with its pleasing combination of sweet and tart.
I’m sure readers have their own special family pies, desserts without which the fourth Thursday in November simply wouldn’t feel like Thanksgiving. Leave a comment to let me understand what yours is!
This year I’m twice as welcoming tradition by preparing my granny’s Mock Cherry Pie.
At the turn of the last century, this pie was incredibly popular in the United States. Curators at the University of Michigan composed in 2014 that they had recipes for Mock Cherry Pie in a number of classic cookbooks, including the Female’s Home Receipt Reserve from 1902 and a 1920 Boston Cooking School Cookbook.
My grandmother may undoubtedly have actually learned to make this pie at the Boston Cooking School, where she studied with creator Fannie Farmer the summer before her (my granny’s, not Fannie Farmer’s) wedding in 1912.
Unlike Mock Apple Pie, which traditionally uses crackers or bread crumbs as a substitute for the apples and thus eliminates the last vestige of nutrition from a pie’s mix of sugar and carbs, Mock Cherry Pie replaces fruit for fruit.
Our cherry season here in New England is brief, possibly a number of weeks at many. Unless they had sufficient cherries in their orchard to can them, New Englanders generally had no other way to find these fruits out of season.
Mock Cherry Pie utilizes fruits that would have been available at this time of year to cooks in these parts: cranberries and raisins.
I love cranberries so I would probably call this Cranberry and Raisin Pie. In deference to my grandma and to Fannie Farmer, nevertheless, I am using the original name.
Both my grandma and Miss Farmer (as she is constantly hired our home) helped form the method I prepare. They emphasized balanced meals, yet each had a craving for sweets. To my grandmother, Clara, no dinner was total without a salad and a dessert.
They both delighted in New England’s bounty however adapted their cooking as the seasons flew by.
I never fulfilled Fannie Farmer, and I learned that my grandma had studied with her only when my granny’s dementia had clouded her memory. Sadly, then, I couldn’t elicit any stories about the cooking school from her. However, Miss Farmer was important in my household as I was maturing.
We had various editions of the The Fannie Farmer Cookbook on our cookbook rack. It is still the cookbook I seek advice from more than any other work. Some cooks grew up with The Pleasure of Cooking. We owned a copy of that work and did look at it from time to time. Fannie Farmer was our cooking bible, however.
At this time of year when thankfulness is highlighted, I am happy for both of these practical, generous New England cooks, who affected my approach to food. Delighted Thanksgiving from my household to yours!
By the way, I’ll be serving gingerbread, checking out from my brand-new book, and signing cookbooks this Saturday, November 26, at 12:30 p.m. at the Buckland (MA) Public Library. Please join us if you’re around! And naturally if you want to purchase a copy of my book and can’t come, you may do so at my website. I’ll more than happy to inscribe it to you or as a present for somebody.
< img src= "https://ourgrandmotherskitchens.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Tinky-with-her-Pieto-use.jpg 591w, https://ourgrandmotherskitchens.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Tinky-with-her-Pieto-use-300x225.jpg 300w" alt ="" width= "591" height=" 443"/ >
Clara Engel Hallett’s Mock Cherry Pie Active ingredients:
2 cups cranberries, cut in half
1 cup raisins
1-1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon flour
1 pinch salt
1 double 8-inch pie crust
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Combine the filling components and allow them to sit for a couple of minutes in a bowl. (My grandmother never told me why she did this; my guess is that it was to let the raisins soak up a few of the water and plump up.)
Place the mixture in the bottom crust, and cover it with another crust or a lattice top. Puncture holes or cut slits in the top crust to let steam escape.
Location the pie on a rimmed cookie sheet; it tends to leakage while baking. Bake it for 10 minutes; then reduce the heat to 350 degrees and bake for another 35 to 45 minutes. Serves 6 to 8.
See me make this pie here.
Tags: Clara Engel Hallett, Cranberry Raisin Pie, Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Pie
This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 23rd, 2022 at 8:51 am and is filed under Cakes, Pies, and Pastry, Cranberries, Holiday Foods.You can follow any actions to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
I have actually never been a terrific fan of pie. I understand it is probably heresy to write this in New England, where pie was king in the 19th century and still holds a fair bit of sway. I enjoy fruit, however I don’t see the point in frustrating it with pastry by putting a crust
