A version cooked before it meets the crust.
Here’s an odd, early variation from the March 21, 1872 edition of the Williamsport (Indiana) Warren Republican:
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Pies for Dyspeptics.
A writer in the Rural New Yorker says: Now, I contend that wheaten grits, or cracked wheat, boiled, is a healthy diet for a dyspeptic–better than medicine, and very palatable, with a sauce of milk or cream and sugar. If they will persist in partaking of pastry, in the form of pies, allow me to give a few recipes, preferable to the much used and abused lard pie crusts: Cream Pie Crust.–Take equal quantities Graham and white flour, wet with thin, sweet cream, roll thin, bake in hot oven, as common pie crust. Or take a piece of bread dough, after it has risen, and roll in a small piece of butter; roll out as pie crust. Pumpkin Pie.–Stew, sift, add as much boiling milk as will make it about one-third thicker than for common pumpkin pie; sweeten with sugar or molasses, bake in a hot oven. Or add rolled cracker or flour to the sifted pumpkin; add milk to the thickness of common pumpkin pie. Squash and sweet potato pie are made in the same way. Cranberry Pie.–Stew, strain through sieve, add sugar; bake on under crust. Peach Pie.–Small, juicy peaches; fill pie dish; sprinkle sugar, a little flour, a tablespoonful of water; cover; bake one hour. Apple Pie, in the same way, with cream crust. |
This recipe is from the 35th page of the notebook; here’s the page in full (click to enlarge).
Click to expand a longer explanation...| In the words of the seller: I acquired this book from the great granddaughter of the woman who wrote this book back in a small Nebraska town in the 30’s. She belonged to that generation of rural housewives who worked tirelessly to make ends meet and “keep body and soul together” for their families working the farms. Later addendum: [A]fter a conversation I had with a friend’s sister who used to live in North Eastern Colorado, given the type of recipes listed we decided it might be from a small town there, i.e., Sterling or Fort Morgan. Also North Platte or Scottsbluff, Nebraska. Even Cheyenne, Wyoming. If you Google a map of Sterling, Colorado and pull back, you will see all these little towns in that tri-state area. |
Cranberry Pie
1-1/2 c. sugar
2 c. cranberries
1 Tbsp. flour
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. cold water
2 egg yolks
1 Tbsp. butter
Cook water and sugar until it spins a thread; add berries and cook until they stop popping. Add flour and egg yolks and cook three minutes.
Take off stove. Add butter, vanilla. Cool a little and put in baked pie crust. (Meringue.)