Carrot Pie

Pies are found all over 19th century cook books and menus. This past Saturday we found ourselves making Carrot Pie from The Frugal Housewife, 1841. Lydia Child instructs that carrot pies are made the same as pumpkin or squash pie. 

Child's Receipt

 As the receipt reads, first peel your carrots. Put them on to boil until tender enough to mash smooth. Add eggs and milk together and stir into smooth mashed carrot. Spice as suggested. 

Peeling Carrots

Ovens heating. 

The pie crust was made very easily using flour, butter, and water. Rolled out and placed in the dish to be baked, I was quite happy with how well it turned out.  Pie crusts & I do not always get along well, as they have a tendency to tear.  Add your carrot mixture to the pie crust- it does not require a top. Then place in a quite warm oven. The pie baked for around a hour. 

Pie crust rolled & place in pan. 

Finished Pie! 

Proud of her pie! 

The pie turned out wonderful! It is always a task to get a nice crust to crisp enough and not burn, and we did a great job at getting it the perfect time!

A nice wedge of Carrot Pie. 

Pumpkin this, pumpkin that

Now that fall is here I have pulled a compilation of pumpkin reciept's to try! I have found a variety of pie & pudding reciept's over the past few days. Here is a sampling of what I have found from a few go-to books.

Confederate Receipt Book, 1863

I did make this pumpkin bread a few years ago for a shortages program. I used canned pumpkin & not fresh. The result was a heavy, "gummy" bread that received mixed reviews. 

The Housekeeper's Encyclopedia, 1861

The Virginia Housewife, 1838

The Practical Cookbook, 1850

To Make a Cheshire Pork-Pie

So this recipe is a little older than the 19th Century, but I still wanted to try it. Besides, meat pies are timeless! After searching the books & finding many, many pies I still had not found one that I really wanted to try. Sure there were ones that looked good, and I have an idea for my next one, but this one sounded super good. I found the recipe on the Colonial Williamsburg Colonial Foodways page. The cool thing about the CWCF page is that they have already done the hard work for you! They give a period recipe, and the modern conversion for you, super easy!
 On to the pie! Today's recipe comes from "The Art of Cookery Made Plain & Easy", 1784.

So in the original recipe we need pork, pippins (apples), crust, seasonings & white wine. Luckily, we can still get all of these things today with ease!

Pork & Apples Layered in crust

I chose a thin cut pork chop, a little over a pound ended up being six pork chops. I seared them in the skillet as recommended by CW to ensure that the meat was fully cooked.  Don't forget to season them with salt, pepper, & nutmeg!! While the pork was cooking I started the crust. I chose to make the No. 1 Common Paste from The Practical Cook Book as made in the Apple Pie.  However, for this crust I only added about 3 cups of flour, and it was greatly improved!

So with the crust done & the pork seared, the apples pealed & sliced. Now time for assembly  I was using a deeper pie dish, about 8" wide and 3 or 4" deep to make sure I had enough layering room.

The bottom crust was already in the plate, and had been in the fridge while peeling & cutting apples.
 The dish was then layered with pork (3 chops on bottom) then apples & sugar, and the other 3 chops, followed by the rest of the apples.  When the layers are all in the plate, you add the wine.  I was able to find a "Rhine Wine" as CW called for, I had never heard of it, though I am not a wine person. I added a little over half a cup since I had a deep dish pie. Top crust added & closed.

Into the oven at 350 for about 40 minutes. It was a waiting game for this one, I was so ready to eat it, as was DH!  So as soon as I pulled it out of the oven he was ready to eat it. We did let it cool for a few minutes before I cut into it.  One thing I have noticed is that this crust does not really brown, so it looks almost the same coming out of the oven as it does going in! I did rub a little butter on the top crust when it was right out of the oven this time.  It smelled wonderful!  It was wonderful! The spices & wine & apples all work together to give a great sweet, but not too sweet taste. "These pork chops are amazing" So I had a pleased husband.

Dished out & ready to eat!

What I learned from this pie, next time cut the pork into smaller chucks rather than leaving the pork chop whole, it would really help the serving& eating of the pie. Maybe less apples, I used four, and it did seem a little apple heavy. And maybe a little less wine. The pie was very liquid-y, and that could have been from the apples, but since I used about 3/4 cup of wine, next time maybe only a half?
Over all, this was one of the tastiest  things tried so far!

No. 3 Apple Pie

In preparation of an upcoming event, I decided to try some new recipes, one of those being apple pie. I have never made an apple pie, so this would be my first adventure, and for some reason I seem to have better results with recipes that are 150+ years old, I don't know why, so please don't ask (however, my DH has a theory on this).
 So, the crust.
I chose a simple recipe for the crust and pie out of  "The Practical Cook Book", 1850. It seemed simple enough, and since I can't really have a food processor at a Civil War event I needed a new crust recipe (my usual crust recipe came out of a Woman's Day magazine from last year).  So I chose "No. 1 Common Paste".  Converted to modern measurements it called for 2 sticks of butter ( I used unsalted at room temp to blend better), 4 cups of flour, 1 Teaspoon of salt, and about  1 cup of water.  I mixed the dough with my hands to make sure I had a good consistency. I turned it out on my wooden board that I kneed my bread on. It was almost too much dough for the small board, so I halved it to form a top & bottom crust. With the bottom rolled out nicely, I placed it in my lightly floured pie plate.  Crust, successful, so far....

 The pie. I chose again out of the same book for the pie. "No. 3 Apple Pie" sounded good. The recipe did not specify what apples to use, I chose Gala, they have a sweet taste that I really enjoy.  Peeled and sliced 3 large apples were enough to fill the crust. I heaped them into the crust. Since there were no measurements for the spices, I guessed. I chose the molasses from my cabinet that my grandpa brought me last year from the mountains (that is some good stuff!!!). I drizzled until the apples looked nicely covered. Then added the cinnamon, sprinkling it over the molasses. I did not have any allspice, so I dashed in a pinch of nutmeg,and the salt.  It looked so good at this point that I decided to snap a picture! My DH was excited at this point too, despite the mess I was making in the kitchen. It smelled good too! I was giddy at this point, it really looked like pie! 
I rolled out the rest of the dough for the top crust, and pinched it together on the sides, pulling off the excess dough as needed. Cutting a slit in the top as directed for steam to escape. Hmm, this may actually work!

The pie went in a "Moderate Oven" which means anywhere from 350-375. Mine was set at 350. Baked for 45 minutes, the crust did not really brown, except part of the edges. I wasn't sure when I took it out of the oven, it looked the same as when it was put in.  We let it cool for a bit before being too excited to wait any longer. It smelled so good as I cut into it! We scooped out some! IT WAS PIE! I made a successful pie! The apples were so good! The crust was a little bland, but after it soaked in the syrup it was nice too! 

For the future pie I think I will use a bit less flour. It was too much for the size of my pie plate. I may add a little sugar to the crust as well since it was a bit bland. But with less flour it may have more flavor too. I may let it cool longer too. The insides were a bit runny, which I noticed later after cooling became more like syrup. Other than that, it was good experience, and I plan on making it again soon!!