A Commonplace Book of Pie
Visit the link below to download the full version of this book:
https://homemader.com/shop/a-commonplace-book-of-pie/
Click Download Now
A Commonplace Book of Pie
by Kate Lebo
with illustrations by Jessica Lynn Bonin
Copyright 2013 by Kate Lebo
Illustrations copyright 2013 by Jessica Lynn Bonin
All rights reserved
ISBN 978-0985041670
First (1) edition
A Chin Music Press original
Chin Music Press, Inc.
2621 24th Ave W.
Seattle, WA 98199-3407
USA
www.chinmusicpress.com
“Lemon Meringue” originally appeared in the summer 2013 issue of Gastronomica magazine.
Printed in the USA.
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication data is available.
Contents
Dedication
Before You Begin
Pie is best
What’s your favorite?
Rules of Thumb
Facts of Pie
Recipes
Notes on Pie
How to Eat Pie
What phrase best describes your thoughts on pie?
Thank you
“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first
invent the universe.”
− Carl Sagan
Before You Begin
The difference between superlative pie and a wish for cake is crust.
Understand that pie is a generous but self-centered substance. It likes
attention, not affection. Do not hug your crust. Do not rub its back or five
its high. Don’t fuss with refrigerators every step of the way. Keep the water
and butter cold, and remember what a wise baker once said: The goal is pie.
Pie is best
a) hot
b) cold
c) with whip
d) a la mode
e) all of the above
What’s your favorite?
Apple Pie
Banana Cream Pie
Blackberry Pie
Blueberry Pie
Cherry Pie
Chocolate Cream Pie
Coconut Cream Pie
Cranberry Pie
Key Lime Pie
Lemon Meringue Pie
Lemon Shaker Pie
Lingonberry Pie
Mincemeat Pie
Mud Pie
Mumbleberry Pie
Orange Cream Pie
Peach Pie
Peanut Butter Pie
Pecan Pie
Plum Pie
Pumpkin Pie
Raspberry Pie
Rhubarb Custard Pie
Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
Vanilla Cream Pie
Rules of Thumb
1. Share your pie.
2. Never promise to make pie and fail to deliver on that promise.
3. Do not cut pie while it is still hot or the filling won’t set properly. It is
okay to break smaller pieces of the crust off for taste-testing purposes.
4. Do not put a butter crust pastry pie in the refrigerator. Refrigeration
ruins pastry and introduces off-flavors.
5. Do refrigerate your pie, regardless of pastry type, if it contains
significant quantities of dairy.
6. When making crust, the butter must be cold. This bears repeating.
7. The butter must be cold.
8. The water you use to make pie dough must be icy cold. Ensure
frigidity by filling a cup with water, adding three ice cubes, and
freezing it while preparing the flour and fat.
9. When serving pie, do not smash your crust between a chef’s knife and
fork, or gouge it with a spoon, or balance it on the blade of a butter
knife. Use a pie server.
10. Pies can take four hours to make. Forgive the pie maker her tardiness.
Facts of Pie
“We ought to make the pie higher.”
− George W. Bush
“Rilke was devoted to polishing furniture. Jackson Pollock baked pies.”
− David Markson
Pumpkin
Contrary to popular opinion, pumpkin pie-lovers are adventurous, quizzical,
good in bed and voluminously communicative. No need to ask a pumpkin
pie-lover if he’ll call ahead for reservations. He’ll arrive at the restaurant
early, order a drink and have the waitstaff in his fan club before you get off
work. By the time you arrive he might even have the hostess’s number. Do
not trust him to say the right thing to your parents; do trust him to charm
your friends. Consider for a moment a can of Libby’s pumpkin puree, how a
pumpkin does not have a choice, but if it did, it could become a porchlight
or a smear on the street. It could be hollowed and hallowed and filled with
soup and served in a bistro to people who do not smash pumpkins. It could
rot, unsold, in the field, or fill this can of future pie. Do you see now why
pumpkin pie is not boring? If it were, more people would know how to talk
to bartenders.
