4:10:38 PM |
The Online Magazine FOR and ABOUT Southside Virginia |
3/28/2024 |
||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
My Truce with Pie Crusts
By Gertrude M. Slabach
I dont do pie crusts. Wait a minuteI take that back. I do make pie cruststhey just dont always turn out very well. It seems that when it was my turn or opportunity to learn, I was playing outside, reading a book, or cleaning bathrooms. Thats right. I never could stand a dirty bathroom. So whenever company was coming, I gladly scoured and scrubbed while someone else tackled the necessary baking. Youd think having grown up in a Mennonite, country home, that is one thing I would have learned. I didnt. Dont get me wrong. Im fairly proficient in the kitchen. I can bake bread, rolls, pastries, and various desserts. I can make a decent pie. Its just the crust that boggles me. Yet, for me, the crust is often the key to a good pie. Oh sure, I know I can buy those store-bought things or the ready-made crust that one can roll out and make it look like its homemade. But for a person who was raised on homemade, real lard-laced pie crust, I can tell a fake every time. I am plainly, simply, unashamedly partial to homemade, especially when it comes to a pie crust. So I keep tryingand sometimes succeedingwith those pie crusts. Ive tried many recipes: the one that calls for boiling water; the recipe from Taste of Home or Better Homes or Southern Living; and the Never Fail Pie Crust (the one with eggs and vinegar in the recipe). Lately Ive just gone to dumping things in like my sisters do. Ill admit that I dont know what Im doing, but it makes me feel good to see that it turns out as well when I dump as when I use a recipe! One day a few years back my sister-in-law came to help me. They were moving out of the area, and I had informed Regina she could not move until she taught me how to make a pie crust. Regina knew how to make a pie and a crust, for shed learned one Saturday when she insisted her mother teach her. That day in their Pennsylvania home, her mom supervised as her eleven-year-old daughter rolled out fourteen pie crusts in one afternoon. I always made a bunch at a time and put them in the freezer, her mom explained. Being a ministers wife, I never knew when I was going to have company, and it took two pies just to feed my family, so I liked to keep them on hand. So Regina left her packing that day and showed up at my house, recipe in tow. She tried to figure out what I was doing wrong and demonstrated her method. I tried to copy her, and for the most part, it worked finewhen she was standing beside me. Ive come to figure out that youve got to have that touch when it comes to making a pie crust. I tend to want to use the touch Ive learned in kneading bread dough or biscuits. My mother used to caution me to toss the pea-sized crumbs lightly with water, a little at a time. It was like telling an elephant to tiptoe around marshmallows. I dont have that touch even though I think I can still learn. Yet I still make piesand I make my own crusts. Ive had days when my crusts were pretty good. Matter of fact, just the other week after making seven (yes, seven) strawberry pies in four days, one of my kids told me this is the best pie crust you have ever made, Mama; the texture is just right and its not too thick or too thin. The problem was, I hadnt used a recipe and I didnt know what I had done to make it turn out just right. So therein is my dilemma: how do I copy a success when I dont know what I did to succeed? Most of my sisters can outshine me with one hand behind their backs in turning out a pie crust. They dump and sift and blend their way to perfectly formed pie crusts without even thinking about what theyre doing. The other day my sister had the nerve to comment on facebook that she loves to make pie crusts if she has the time. All the time in the world doesnt guarantee me success in this department! I cant multi-task when Im making a pie crust. Granted, any other day in the kitchen, I can be hard-boiling eggs, steeping five gallons of tea, kneading bread, and tossing a salad while talking on the phone. But when it comes to making pie crusts, I have to focus, and I have to do it alone. If you bother me, youll get the blame for causing a distraction. Thats why I sent my daughters to western Maryland to visit their grandmother and aunts one week in the summerto learn more about sewing and bakingand especially how to make a pie crust. I figured since I didnt really know how myself, it would be better all around if somebody else taught them. So now sometimes my oldest will mix the dough, and I get to roll it out. Once during our courtship, Dave mentioned to me that when he was a teenager, he could put an entire pie away on a Sunday afternoon. After Dave and I were engaged, I told him that if he wanted a wife who did pie crusts, he had asked the wrong person to marry him. He looked at me as though I had lost my mind. I dont know why, he replied, obviously choosing his words carefully, any man would think that being able to make a pie crust would be a deal breaker. He said anybody could make a pie crust for him, but not anybody could be his wife. He wasnt worried about my pies (or the lack thereof). When it came to having company, he didnt care whether or not pie was on the menu. In fact, he said I could buy one from the store if I wanted. Fancy that. Who would want to serve a store-bought pie when the taste in no way compares with homemade?! There are so many other things you can make; why does it matter if you dont want to serve pie to company? he assured me. He was right (he usually is). Through the years (twenty-five of them) he has not once criticized my attempts or compared my ability (or lack thereof) to anyone elses expertise. And so, while Im humbled by the fact that I have still not perfected a recipe or technique, Ive learned a few things in my pie-crust-making process. Ive learned that perseverance brings results. While Im still not a great pie crust maker, I usually manage to get the crust into the pan in one piece. Im getting better; and, while practice hasnt made my crusts perfect, it has made them better than before. But then, come to think of it, I had no place to go but up in this department! Ive learned that I need to do the best I can with what I have. Since my crusts arent the most symmetrical, I dont have to use a crust on the top. I can get the taste about right, but getting it rolled out without tears and cracks betrays me. I make a mean crumb topping, and it belies the struggle Ive had to get the crust just right. Plus, there are plenty of pies (pumpkin, chocolate chiffon, peanut butter, and others) that dont need a top crust. What the bottom looks like doesnt change the taste. Ive learned that friends and company really dont care to see how much I can impress them. Theyd rather feel comfortable dining at my table than thinking they had to be impressed with my baking abilities. Ive learned that its not okay to give up too soon; I might never achieve, but it would be dishonest to say I cant. Rather, I can continue to say, Ill keep trying. And if I decide Ill never get there, its okay to admit that I dont have that touch. Ive learned I dont have to be ashamed or embarrassed that I was born and raised Mennonite (and still am) and have yet to complete that perfect pie crust. Ive got a few other abilities, and I can admire those pie crust people without feeling jealous or envious. Ive learned to admit Im not an expert, admire others abilities, and affirm the things that I'm able to do well. So when Im in a hurry or dont have much time, I dont even consider making a pie. There are plenty of other baked goodies out thereall of them homemade. Ive learned that life is like a pie crust. The ingredients might be exact and complete, but handling them incorrectly will cause a flop. Life is not so much about what comes my way; rather, it is how I respond to and handle those events and circumstances that will define its outcome. Ive learned that even homemade doesnt hold a candle to opening my heart and my home to those who need a welcoming place to relax and enjoy friendship and camaraderie. If Im focusing on the food instead of the guests, Im losing even if the food is great. I figure when I face the end of my life, it really wont matter whether or not I ever learned to make a pie crust. It wont even matter if I served store-bought or homemade. What will matter is how Ive responded to those who can do it better than I. It will matter if Im been jealous or tried to belittle the abilities of those who can outdo my pie crust making. Ive learned that its okay to do what I do well; its okay to keep trying to do what I don't do well; its okay to accept the fact that while I might excel in some things, I will never be master of all. Im just not that perfect, even though Id still like to make that perfect crust.
__________
Born and raised in western Maryland, Gertrude Slabach has claimed Southside Virginia as home for over twenty four years. She is an RN and works part-time at Fuller Roberts Clinic in South Boston, Virginia. Gertrude and her husband Dave have six children; four sons and two daughters. She is the author of three books: Aren�t We Having Fun Dying?!, Southside Glimmers, and Always Mama�s Girl. The books can be purchased at Windmill Farm Bake Shop, the South Boston-Halifax County Museum, or by contacting her at:
Read more about Gertrude Slabach's Books in print here >>> __________ |
|
||||||||
|
||||||||||
Discover Southside
PO Box 1061 South Boston, VA 24592 URL: http://www.discoversouthside.com Copyright © 2008-11 Discover Southside - |