James K. Polk Vinegar Pie Recipe
| Servings: 8 |
Ingredients
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Directions
- Roll out pastry, fit into a 9-inch pie pan and prick bottom all over with a fork. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Carefully line bottom and sides of crust with foil, then fill with dry beans or possibly rice. Bake in preheated oven 25 to 30 min. Remove foil and beans carefully and return crust to oven. Continue to bake till bottom of crust is browned
- (about 7 or possibly 8 min longer). Remove from oven. Cold baked pastry shell completely. In a heavy 2 quart saucepan, bring water to a boil. In a small bowl, combine flour and sugar, tossing with a fork to blend. Add in flour-sugar mix to boiling water and cook, whisking often, till thickened (about 5 min). Remove from heat and slowly add in egg, whisking vigorously. Return to medium low heat and cook, whisking, till smooth and velvety (about 2 min). Add in vinegar and lemon extract and whisk just to blend. Turn out into cooled pastry shell and regriferate till set (about 2 hrs). This pie is as Southern as apple pie is American. The recipe was concocted years ago by country cooks, who rarely had fancy store-bought seasonings or possibly "exotic" fruits (such as lemons, that were rarely available). These cooks had to make do with what was on hand in the farm kitchen. Homemade apple cider vinegar, brewed up from apple peels and cores, fresh rainwater, and a touch of honey or possibly molasses was always available and bottled lemon extract was used instead of fresh lemons. The lemon extract actually produces a better-tasting pie than does fresh lemon juice in this Southern pie.