A little slice of history

I thought I'd start off this post with a little pie history.  So in my second post I said, "pie really is a strictly American dessert."  Well, once I said that I decided to do a little research into pie's history and see when exactly it came about.  Turns out, I was basically wrong on that American thing.  Pies date back to ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, where dough was filled with nuts, dried fruits, seafood, and meat (beef, lamb and yes, magpie pigeon... yum) and used solely to cook what was inside.  Pies were often given as rewards for conquering an enemy.  The tradition was then passed to England, where meat became the customary filling.  The crust was known as a "coffyn" (cryptic, eh?) and was often thick, tough, and inedible (it just held the juices of the meat inside).

Pies even served as entertainment in England, where live animals (frogs, birds, rabbits) were put into pies and would subsequently pop out when sliced at a dinner banquet, to the immense delight of guests.  Occasionally, little people were also set into pies, and they would emerge and stroll along the tables, reciting poetry.  So basically I think we see where we get the strange idea of popping out of cakes.

Pies did eventually come to America, but the pumpkin pies we so often associate with the pilgrims on the first Thanksgiving weren't likely the case.  It is thought that the pilgrims did enjoy pie, but it was still the customary meat pie from England.  It wasn't until the 1800s that fruits became common in pie, and around that time that the crust became edible (it was also around this time that people stopped calling crust a "coffyn," to the delight of non-morbid pie eaters everywhere).  Pies have since flourished, and much like the original spreading of pie recipes hundreds of years ago, recipes have changed based on region and culture.

There!  A little pie history!  Does life get any better than that?  Well, a slice of pie itself helps, but still.

I thought it was interesting, and I hope you learned something!

So this week's pie was a Shaker Lemon Pie, coming from my sister's fiance, Jerry.  He sent along the actual history that came with the pie, so hooray!  History lesson #2!  I'm going to quote from the recipe here: "This recipe perfectly demonstrates the simplicity, wholesomeness, and ingenuity of the Shakers, who were renowned bakers and responsible for many culinary inventions, including the mechanical apple peeler (my kind of people!), the hand-crank egg beater, and the revolving oven, still used in many bakeries today."  It goes on to say that the resulting pie (which is basically lemon custard but using the whole lemon) "is a sweet-tart filling that is quite toothsome because of the use of the whole lemon, rind and all, which lends the filling the texture of marmalade."

Yes, rind and all.  "Toothsome" is a great word to describe this one.

So basically I sliced four lemons as thin as possible, removed the seeds, and then put them in a bowl with two full cups of sugar.  This mixture sat for almost four hours, and when I got ready to bake it, it had turned into a sugary liquid in which the lemons were tenderized.  I then added four eggs and mixed the whole thing together.

Sound a little odd?  I was extremely apprehensive about this all week, and even more so as I poured this liquidy/eggy/rind-y combination into my pie crust.

However, when I pulled it out of the oven, it smelled and looked amazing.  Golden on top, bubbly, and emitting wafts of lemon, I couldn't imagine it coming out any better.

So, nervous as to what the eggs, sugar, and lemon (that's literally all that went into this) would do when cooked together, I cut a slice and was incredibly surprised to see it almost custard-like (with added rinds, of course).  I was half expecting it to look like quiche... a weird quiche, I might add, but that's honestly what I pictured as soon as I added eggs into it.  Who knew?

Well, the rinds were tender enough, and the initial taste was comparable to lemon meringue, but in a flakier crust and minus the meringue.  However, a few bites later it got interesting.  The rinds themselves made the pie incredibly tart, and overall it was a bit overwhelming.  Part of the problem could have been my negligence of the line in the recipe that called for each slice to be served with un-sweetened whipped cream (oops!), but almost everyone who ate it pulled the remaining rinds out and ate just the custard and crust.

That's not all to say the pie was bad, it was just... different.  I got tons of compliments on the crust, which was nice, but the overall consensus is that a slice was a bit too much, so if I were to bake it again, I should either make small tarts (or use my bite-sized pan), or bake it as directed but without the rinds.

So, Jerry, it wasn't a failure!  It was just not an immediate success... I'll have to tweak it a bit for my tastes.

That's what I love about this idea... I'm not going to immediately love every single recipe according to the directions, but I'm taking notes and getting ideas for how to make them better.  Because of this, I think I'm really going to learn a lot about pies and how to make things my own.

And this lemon pie actually fit in well with the rest of my weekend... a little bitter, a little sweet.  Quick explanation (I know I'm starting to babble).  This Saturday was my first service event as coordinator and it was quite an experience.  We were supposed to go clean up the Illinois River, but the group that we worked with was incredibly disorganized and we wound up cleaning some back country road out in the middle of nowhere.  The morning started off foggy, and we had to drive almost three miles down this dirt road with trees lining both sides.  It was a horror film waiting to happen, I kid you not.  

Just imagine fog...

So the overall event, while entertaining, was not what I had expected, and therefore both bitter and sweet!  Ta-da, tying my life into pie!

Finally, I splurged on a new pie dish this week... the one I'm using, while great, is much larger and shallower than a typical pie dish, and for pudding/cream based pies, I decided I needed something that would make the pies a bit taller and fuller... who wants a thin, flat cream pie?

Not Paula Dean!!!  Hers was the prettiest dish, and therefore the one I had to buy.  And besides, I can't sacrifice the pan.  :)

I'm baking another pie tomorrow... my first extra one!  It's a birthday pie, and a blog will be sure to follow!