My Pie Story: Don’t Do What I Did

Another Way for week of October 28, 2023

My Pie Story: Don’t Do What I Did

We had an early Thanksgiving meal at our house, in order to catch some out-of-state kids and grandkids, and we all looked forward to a sumptuous meal. It was toned down a bit because afterall, it was only October and we also want to celebrate in November! We ended up with around 20 people at our long long dining room table.

For me, I enjoy it all, but there’s nothing that can top a dessert of fresh delicious apple pie (warm) with ice cream.

So what happened at our early Thanksgiving?

Let me back up. When I was dating my husband-to-be, I made the “mistake” of making him an apple pie in the apartment where I was living with a roommate, Mary Ellen. I served it to him on a Sunday and he was an immediate fan.

In fact, his family’s fall butchering day was coming up. His mother had died several years before I ever met him. Stuart said she was a great pie baker when she was young before stricken with rheumatoid arthritis, which made all housework, cooking and other activities very difficult for her.

So he finagled me into making at least four apple pies for the family meal after the hog butchering. He said they had Stayman apples at his house and they had an ample supply of lard in the basement from previous days of butchering.

Well, baking day (the day before butchering) I went to his father’s house and they brought up the lard from the basement. But, as you might guess, the lard was a little rancid but I forged on and peeled apples and made pie crusts until I was more than a little exhausted. And nervous. What would the oldish lard taste like baked in the pie?

I shouldn’t have worried: the pies tasted fall-apart-rich and yummy sweet. They were a little rancid to my tongue.

Fast forward about 48 years. I still make pie and I was excited to make two apple pies for our early Thanksgiving-ish meal. I drove to three orchards to find the Stayman apples that we all love, and finally brought home a beautiful bushel of delicious tart apples.

The morning of our meal, I was up early to get the pies going and used my favorite recipe, barely looking at the ingredients. I’d made pies for over 48 years, after all.

We sat down to our supper of turkey breast, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, my sister-in-law’s macaroni and cheese (which is to die for!), green beans, corn, cranberry salad, other veggies and grapes, hot rolls and more desserts than we could possibly consume. Then I brought out the pie, and served it with vanilla ice cream. When I finally got to sit down with my piece, I was a little disappointed. Something didn’t taste quite right. It was okay, but not great. People said it was “delicious” and I served about eight or so pieces.

The next day, I dug out the recipe I shared in my Whatever Happened to Dinner cookbook (Herald Press, 2010). There, third item on the list, was the call for one cup of sugar. I told my husband, “I now know what was wrong with the pie! I forgot the sugar!” He agreed it was not very sweet. Then I thought back to watching them bake in the oven and I thought the pies did not appear as juicy and bubbly as they usually did.

Of course, all of us could do with less sugar, so we ate both pies over the next several days and probably helped those with diabetes issues; but, it was quite disappointing after my long wait and anticipation.

Moral: Don’t forget the sugar. Maybe use only ½ to 2/3 cup sugar and maybe live longer when avoiding too many sweets.

But I do plan to make MORE pie for November 23 and this time, I’ll put in the sugar!

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Most of us cooks have disaster stories to tell, or hide! I’d love to hear your worst baking story, or funniest disaster in cooking. Tell all here!

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Find the recipe with this link: https://tinyurl.com/StaymanApplePie. Or write to me at Another Way, P.O. Box 363, Singers Glen, VA 22834, or email anotherwaymedia@yahoo.com.

Another Way is a column by Melodie Davis, in syndication since 1987. She is the author of ten books, most recently Memoir of an Unimagined Career. Another Way columns are posted at FindingHarmonyBlog.com a week after newspaper publication.