Vinegar Pie? Yikes. It’s Pie-day Friday
First Things First, What?
Vinegar Pie? What, are we being punished?
Not exactly, but it is a clever “make-it-work” trick. It’s existence usually gets blamed on our favorite era of American food history, the 1930s aka The Great Depression aka the reason why my grandma flipped out at my sister once for using too many paper towels (she was using a LOT of paper towels.)
However, when poking around in the books, it sounds like this pie pre-dates the Great Depression by over 50 years, as do quite a few other “desperation pies.” A handful of these pies, namely, are shoo-fly pie, milk pie, and mock-apple pie, in which crackers are substituted for apple.
The easiest reference to find for vinegar pies is in one of my childhood favorite books, Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder. She just talks about food the WHOLE TIME. That book is a classic, and in it, her future husband Alonzo eats vinegar pie and he is into it.
Oh, and apparently, his name is actually “Almanzo”? I am just now finding this out, and unlike his feelings regarding vinegar pie, I am not into it. I always called him Alonzo, and I’ll defiantly stick with that. (from beyond the grave, Laura Ingalls Wilder shakes her fist.)
As for what qualifies a vinegar pie, the common thread is it’s a sweet custard pie, lightly seasoned with vinegar to give it a gentle tartness. Recipes often contain apple cider vinegar, or occasionally white vinegar. The recipe in my 1936 Household Searchlight Recipe book calls for it to be covered with meringue.
My Great Grandmother’s Recipe (and a challenge for you)
My great grandmother’s recipe, pictured below, also calls for meringue, and for the addition of lemon extract…making me think she was trying to imitate the flavor of a lemon meringue pie without the expense of all those lemons.
I haven’t tested that recipe yet, but would love for you to give it a-go. Send me pics!! I’ll publish it on here and call you blessed. Do it do it do it!
If you want to give Grandma Little’s recipe a-try, here it is transcribed and typed up in big text for your little eyes:
1 cup sugar and 1 1/2 cups boiling water. Let come to a boil add 3 tablespoon corn starch to 1/2 cup water and dissolve, stir into boiling sugar and water, boil until clear. Add 2 tablespoons butter, yolks of 3 eggs beaten a little, 3 tablespoons vinegar, 1 teaspoon lemon extract, pinch of salt. Stir into the cornstarch mixture, but do not boil. Pour into unbaked pie shell, bake in rather slow oven. Beat whites of 3 eggs until stiff add 9 tablespoons sugar, spread on baked pie, return to the oven until golden brown.
If you do decide to embark on the Great Grandma Little Vinegar Pie Challenge, here are some of my thoughts about it (though keep in mind, I myself haven’t tested this recipe at all yet, but still, these might be of help.)
- When she says “Add 2 tablespoons of butter, yolks etc.”, I think she means “Add them together into a separate bowl first” and not just right into the cornstarch mixture on the stove (as made clear by the following direction, but it reads pretty confusingly.)
- Also, instead of just dumping it into the corn starch mixture, I’d temper a bit of the boiling cornstarch/sugar/water into the bowl with butter and yolks first. Then proceed to add the rest of the mixture.
- She keeps it cryptic with “rather slow oven.” My heart is saying that means between 300 and 325. I’d bake it at 315.
- BUT, after you add the meringue, crank that puppy up to 375, then return the meringue covered pie to the oven. You definitely want the meringue to get some nice color.
So…is it any good?
As previously established, Alonzo/Almanzo loved the pie, but I kind of get the feeling Laura’s Farmer Boy loved eating anything that stood still long enough.
But I can stand here in front of you today and say to you truly: vinegar pie is good and tasty and I’d eat it again!
The version I made can be found in the book Rage Baking (check out this cookbook; it’s pretty neat). Their version contains brown butter, and I think it’s a very worthy addition to the pie. As the pie bakes, the butter rises to the top, giving it a crackly, buttery top.
You’re probably asking why I made this pie and not my OWN great-grandmother’s recipe, like some vile betrayor of family heritage. Well, I’ll tell you why: I didn’t realize she had this recipe until after I had already made this one, and just haven’t gotten around to it yet. My aunt alerted me to her recipe’s existence. So there you have it.
If you want to add crust decorations to the top like I did, here’s how to get them to stay on top and not sink:
- Cut out your bits, fridge them til they’re firm.
- Bake until only lightly brown. Pull from oven.
- Wait until pie looks about 80% baked, then quickly decorate top of pie with baked crust bits. Finish baking the pie.
What Crust To Make
Your favorite all-butter pie crust recipe will work well here, and I would fully blind-bake the crust to ensure a crispy bottom. Grandma Little’s recipe does call for an unbaked pie shell…that makes me nervous, but these are the risks we take when recreating historical recipes.
I wanted to test the crust recipe in Rage Baking, which makes use of a food processor. I used to love making crusts in a food processor, but the past five years I’ve drifted away from it. It was interesting going back to a processor to make this crust, and I’m pretty sure I overworked the crust. It was tasty and baked up well, but was much more on the shortbread spectrum than the flaky crust spectrum, which is the end I like to hang out at.
And I think that’s why I tend to not bother with the food processor anymore: it’s too easy to over-cut your butter into the flour, and seems like an unnecessary risk.
But follow your heart here, okay? There are 1000 perfectly fine ways to make a pie crust in America, and only you know the way you’re able to make it the best. So get in there and give it a thwack.
But if you’re stuck, here’s my personal pie crust recipe.
Theresa’s All Butter Pie Crust Recipe
Equipment
- Box Grater (optional)
- Stand Mixer with paddle attachment (optional)
- Plastic wrap
Ingredients
- 18 oz all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 12 oz cold unsalted butter
- 6 oz cold water (have this much on hand. Might need more or less)
Instructions
- In large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar and salt
If using box grater:
- Grate butter into flour mixture, stopping half way through to clear out the grater and mix butter into flour mixture with fingers. You want to avoid building a big butter block inside the grater. Make sure grated butter is evenly dispersed throughout flour.
- Slowly incorporate water into mixture, starting by adding 3 TBSP, then adding 1 T at a time after that. Dough should be just starting to come together, and look like a big, shaggy mass. Lightly bring it together with your hands, being careful not to melt the butter with you fingers. Ready a piece of plastic wrap on a clean counter surface, and with a small amount of ceremony, dump the shaggy mass of dough onto the plastic wrap. Using the plastic wrap to help, bring the dough together a bit more, and mold into a flat disc. Chill dough in fridge for about an hour before using (the dough will need to temper on counter for about 1/2 hour before using.)
If using stand mixer:
- Put flour mixture into bowl of stand mixer, fitted with paddle attachment. Chop your cold butter in 1/2" cubes. Add butter to stand mixer, and paddle on medium speed until butter is roughly pea-sized. There can still be a few biggish chunks of butter – be careful not to overmix your butter in to the flour, otherwise the crust will turn out more shortbread like.
- Slowly incorporate water into the dough, starting with 3 TBSP, then adding 1 TBSP at a time after that. Use short bursts of power on your mixer to sort of pulse the dough, looking out for over-mixing. Dough should be just starting to come together, and look like a big, shaggy mass. Ready a piece of plastic wrap on a clean counter surface, and with a small amount of ceremony, dump the shaggy mass of dough onto the plastic wrap. Using the plastic wrap to help, bring the dough together a bit more, and mold into a flat disc. Chill dough in fridge for about an hour before using (the dough will need to temper on counter for about 1/2 hour before using.)
To Blind Bake Crust:
- Preheat oven to 375. Roll dough out 1/8", line pie shell, and crimp as desired. Place in fridge or freezer until thoroughly chilled.
- Pull crust out of fridge, and line with piece of parchment that's larger than the shell by at least 6 inches. Fill parchment liner with baking beans, rice or sugar (you can save the roasted sugar and use it recipes! Thanks to Stella Parks for that awesome trick.) Parchment should be completely weighed down. Bake lined and filled shell in oven for about 30 minutes, or until sides are golden brown and baked.
- Pull shell out of oven, and remove parchment. Allow beans/rice/sugar/whatever to cool entirely before repackaging. Put shell back in oven to finish baking, about 10 more minutes. Bottom of crust should be light golden brown and fully baked.