SUMMER EQUALS PIE EQUALS SUMMER
by Anita Rafael
You could say that pie made of fruit fresh from local orchards and farms is summer, and no one would argue with you, either, if you said that pie is an American birthright: The pursuit of happiness and pie.
It can’t be a backyard picnic in June without a strawberry pie. It can’t be 4th of July without a sour-cherry pie or a blueberry pie. It can’t be a supper by the lake in August without a blackberry pie. As American as apple pie – there it is.
How the classic fruit-filled pie came to be somehow completely ours, even though ancient Egyptian recipes for pie-like pastries are the earliest known, is a matter of serious conversation among the founders and members of The American Pie Council. (Yes, there really is such an organization and its oh-so-worthy mission seems to be more pie for everyone.) The group says it is “committed to preserving America's pie heritage and promoting American's love affair with pies.” The annual National Pie Championships, where of amateur, professional and commercial pie bakers compete for the best pie prize, is their Kentucky Derby, and their quarterly newsletter, Pie Times, is well… good enough to eat.
It can’t be a backyard picnic in June without a strawberry pie. It can’t be 4th of July without a sour-cherry pie or a blueberry pie. It can’t be a supper by the lake in August without a blackberry pie. As American as apple pie – there it is.
How the classic fruit-filled pie came to be somehow completely ours, even though ancient Egyptian recipes for pie-like pastries are the earliest known, is a matter of serious conversation among the founders and members of The American Pie Council. (Yes, there really is such an organization and its oh-so-worthy mission seems to be more pie for everyone.) The group says it is “committed to preserving America's pie heritage and promoting American's love affair with pies.” The annual National Pie Championships, where of amateur, professional and commercial pie bakers compete for the best pie prize, is their Kentucky Derby, and their quarterly newsletter, Pie Times, is well… good enough to eat.
When is National Pie Day? Mark your date books now for National Pie Day– it is January 23rd, registered by The American Pie Council. Their top tips for celebrating pie day are to first, make pies and eat them, and second, give other people pie.
No one appreciated the notion that a homemade pie is might indeed be more than a mere dessert than the legendary humorist and author Mark Twain. During an extended stay in Europe in 1878, he wrote A Tramp Abroad, a book about his adventures. In it, he mulled over what he missed about home, too, and he even compiled a menu of all the foods he wanted hot, ready and waiting on the table for him the moment he set foot back on U.S. soil. On the mouthwatering list is not one, but five of the pies he missed most. Twain evidently had a serious craving for homemade pie – “Apple pie … Peach pie. American mince pie. Pumpkin pie. Squash pie.”
A Vermont housewife, itemizing her baking for the year 1877, counted that she had made 421 pies for her family. In fact, old-timers in northern New England calculated that a pie a day per person was just about the right amount of pie to keep a hard-working family happy.
For some cooks, each pie is a solemn tribute to mothers everywhere, and to them, a homemade pie is an expression of pure love. “I remember my mother’s pies,” says Paul Bergeron of Sakonnet River Pie. “and when she served them, she would take out the first piece and look underneath to be sure the bottom crust was not soggy. It was always perfect.” His mother’s pies, made with a simple, flaky pastry, inspired his recipes when he began his Little Compton pie-making business three years ago. It all started when, one weekend in July, he set seven fresh pies out on the low stone wall where Swamp Road meets the road to Sakonnet Point.
“He put the pies under wire-mesh pie-domes, and left a cash box next to a small black and white sign with the price.* In an hour, the pies were gone and the cash box, all on the honor system, was full,” says Chuck Hamlin, the marketing director of Sakonnet River Pie. The following day, Bergeron set more warm, fresh blueberry pies out on the wall, and in the blink of an eye, those were picked up by more drive-by customers. The next weekend, someone who had apparently become instantaneously addicted to Bergeron’s pie, left a slip of paper inside the cash box asking for “one berry pie (the best in the world!) for tomorrow.” Hamlin, who has preserved the hand-written note says, “It was our first order and first consumer testimonial.” To make it all legitimate, Sakonnet River Pie was launched.
“He put the pies under wire-mesh pie-domes, and left a cash box next to a small black and white sign with the price.* In an hour, the pies were gone and the cash box, all on the honor system, was full,” says Chuck Hamlin, the marketing director of Sakonnet River Pie. The following day, Bergeron set more warm, fresh blueberry pies out on the wall, and in the blink of an eye, those were picked up by more drive-by customers. The next weekend, someone who had apparently become instantaneously addicted to Bergeron’s pie, left a slip of paper inside the cash box asking for “one berry pie (the best in the world!) for tomorrow.” Hamlin, who has preserved the hand-written note says, “It was our first order and first consumer testimonial.” To make it all legitimate, Sakonnet River Pie was launched.
Last year, Bergeron and Hamlin rehabilitated a small outbuilding on the property into a state-inspected commercial kitchen for Sakonnet River Pie. More like a petit temple to pie-baking, the compact, and highly efficient “cook-house” designed by Rumford architect Stephen Greenleaf, evokes Little Compton’s coastal farm character.
Bergeron says he grew up on pie, rather than on rich, decadent cakes, so he understood that there had to be a difference between the common pie, and what he wanted a Sakonnet River Pie to be. Here is where he advises pie-lovers to take notes. Raising the bar to its highest point of perfection, Bergeron shuns those throw-away aluminum foil pans. All his pies are baked and sold to customers in thick, oven-proof pie plates. The traditional glass plate makes the pies “real” and customers cheerfully redeem their empties for a credit towards their next purchase or for cash.
Secondly, the fruit he uses is native and unconditionally fresh. Every pie-person knows that the flavor is in the freshness, and Bergeron is one of the regulars at Middletown’s Sweet Berry Farm, at Richard Hart’s in Tiverton and at Old Stone Orchard in Little Compton.
Finally, Bergeron has made an art form of the lattice design for the upper crust. “See?” he says, “It’s not just strips going across one way and then the other way, it’s actually woven, over and under.” If Sakonnet River Pies could have his signature, that would be it, and it is a voluptuous one at that. **
Like most enthusiastic chefs, Bergeron, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, willingly shares his best blue-ribbon secret. After washing the fruit gently, he tosses it lightly with the sugar and spices his recipe calls for, and lets it macerate for 10 minutes. Next, he drains the liquid, heats it to a boil, and then allows it to cool. When he fills the pie crust, he adds the fruit, then pours just the right amount of the cooled fruit syrup over the fruit, and finally, dots it all with butter before adding the top crust.
“Never cook the fruit first,” Bergeron says. To which the hungry and homesick Mark Twain might have added, “…and bring a pie with you wherever you go.”
Bergeron says he grew up on pie, rather than on rich, decadent cakes, so he understood that there had to be a difference between the common pie, and what he wanted a Sakonnet River Pie to be. Here is where he advises pie-lovers to take notes. Raising the bar to its highest point of perfection, Bergeron shuns those throw-away aluminum foil pans. All his pies are baked and sold to customers in thick, oven-proof pie plates. The traditional glass plate makes the pies “real” and customers cheerfully redeem their empties for a credit towards their next purchase or for cash.
Secondly, the fruit he uses is native and unconditionally fresh. Every pie-person knows that the flavor is in the freshness, and Bergeron is one of the regulars at Middletown’s Sweet Berry Farm, at Richard Hart’s in Tiverton and at Old Stone Orchard in Little Compton.
Finally, Bergeron has made an art form of the lattice design for the upper crust. “See?” he says, “It’s not just strips going across one way and then the other way, it’s actually woven, over and under.” If Sakonnet River Pies could have his signature, that would be it, and it is a voluptuous one at that. **
Like most enthusiastic chefs, Bergeron, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, willingly shares his best blue-ribbon secret. After washing the fruit gently, he tosses it lightly with the sugar and spices his recipe calls for, and lets it macerate for 10 minutes. Next, he drains the liquid, heats it to a boil, and then allows it to cool. When he fills the pie crust, he adds the fruit, then pours just the right amount of the cooled fruit syrup over the fruit, and finally, dots it all with butter before adding the top crust.
“Never cook the fruit first,” Bergeron says. To which the hungry and homesick Mark Twain might have added, “…and bring a pie with you wherever you go.”
Pie crust, like most simple pastry, is made of flour, fat, and water. However, pie crust wasn’t always meant to be edible. Sometimes it was just used as a “lid” for the cooking pan. Medieval cooking texts typically explain how to lay the fruit (or meat for a savory pie) in a "coffin,” a long narrow baking dish, and cover it with a thick crust, vented a little with some holes to let the steam escape. Baked in or near open flames and ash, the crust became blackened, dry and hard, so it was lifted off the “pye” and thrown away.
