I Pie - Recap

Alton visits a diner whose patrons are gobbling down pies of every sort. Apparently the place is famous for its pie. So why is Alton unhappy with his slice of lemon meringue? The crust is limp, the meringue is weeping and a layer of water between meringue and custard practically guarantees the pie will disintegrate on the fork. Alton’s determined to build a pie lacking these unwholesome qualities. The key is smart tools, thoughtful ingredients, and tasty science. Used together these will create a pie that looks and tastes like... Good Eats.

The earliest known pie recipe dates all the way back to Roman civilization. The Romans filled a rye crust with a mixture of goat cheese and honey. The medieval period contributed humble pie – meats and other edibles baked into a crust. Sometimes one side of the crust would contain a savory meat filling and the other side a sweet dessert filling. The pie crust served as a convenient way to transport this lunch to the workplace. The term pie may be a contraction of “magpie” and may date from this custom. A magpie is a bird that collects shiny objects, so a collection of different food may have once been referred to as a magpie.

Modern pies generally fit into two categories: cream pies and fruit pies. The lemon meringue pie is probably the best known of the cream pies. A lemon meringue pie starts with a well-prepared crust. Crust is a mixture of fat, flour, salt, and just enough water to unite these ingredients. Alton chooses a lard and butter mixture that he refrigerates. He also measures his flour by weight, eliminating the packing uncertainty that comes with volume measurements. Alton uses a food processor’s “pulse” function to combine the ingredients, using as many pulses as necessary and no more than that.

Alton refrigerates his dough before rolling it out. When he rolls it, he cuts the sides from the plastic bag he used for refrigerator storage, and rolls the dough into a dish through the plastic. This prevents the dough from sticking to the rolling pin. When the crust is rolled out flat enough, he inverts a pie pan onto it, flips the whole thing, peels the plastic from the bottom of the crust, then puts another pie pan on top, flips again, and the crust is in the pan and ready to bake.

Lemon custard can turn a crust soggy. To avoid this, Alton blind bakes his crust. A piece of parchment goes on top, then Alton fills the pie pan with black beans (they can be reused for this purpose, but don’t eat them once they’ve been baked like this – they won’t taste very good.) Those who prefer may use pie weights – ceramic coated metal beads designed for blind baking. Alton disdains pie weights as unitaskers.

Alton prepares the meringue next. The first and most important step is to start with a bowl that contains no traces of fat. Meringue is foam made of egg proteins. Nothing will collapse it faster than fat. Alton puts egg whites and a little cream of tartar into a bowl, then beats it until peaks start to form, slowly adding sugar. The meringue will keep until the custard is ready; Alton prepares it first so it is ready as soon as the custard is in the crust.

Alton mixes cornstarch, water, sugar and a little salt in a pot. He brings this to a boil and then gradually adds it to the eggs – a process called tempering – so the eggs don’t curdle. The goal is to slowly bring the eggs to the temperature of the hot liquids. Do this two quickly and the egg proteins will congeal. Once the eggs are added, Alton cooks the mixture for another minute; this denatures certain proteins that would digest the starch (amylases found in the eggs, mostly). The custard depends on the starch. Once that cooking is done Alton finishes with lemon juice, lemon zest, and butter. Always, Alton advises, use fresh lemon juice and fresh lemon zest. The flavor of these ingredients is owed to their aromatic oils. Such oils evaporate quickly.

Alton adds the custard to the crust and tops with the meringue while the custard is still hot. He slides that into the oven and bakes it until the meringue is just golden brown.

The right tools, ingredients, and most importantly techniques ensure a delicious pie that won’t weep, separate, or turn soggy. The kind of pie that keeps people away from diners once they realize that truly good pie is Good Eats.

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