Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Mom and Apple Pie

When she was alive, my mother made what I considered the best apple pie in the world.

The key to its flaky crust (even on the bottom) was in her fingers. She never used a recipe but knew by the feel of the dough when it was just right.

"When it's too wet you feel it's gooey," she told me. "If it's too dry, you can't roll it out. Then it crumbles too much."

She was 63 then and I was 23, interviewing her for an article I was writing for The Community Press, where I had landed my first job as a reporter.

"I have the feeling — how it's supposed to be," she said.

This small German woman had never even tasted pie before coming to America in 1952.

"I learned how to make it in my second year here," she said. "A neighbor girl came over and showed me how."

She had watched the girl — "I don't remember her name, but she was a very nice girl" — as she carefully measured the ingredients.

"I couldn't read the recipe. That's why I had to see it — what she put in," my mother recalled. "That's why I never used a recipe. I couldn't read English."

At the time she could hardly speak English, and the neighbor girl had to show her, rather than tell her, how to make the pie.

"She measured everything. At first I measured everything, too, but then I just used my own judgment."

If you asked my mom, "How much flour?" or "How much sugar?" she would say, "Until it looks right."

I could never master it, but I did pick up a little secret for anyone who aspires to flaky-crust perfection.

"What makes the best pie is to use lard and shortening together," she told me.

This was not something the neighbor girl taught her, though. She discovered it on her own.

"I didn't have enough shortening one time," she said, "so I had to use half lard."

Don't have any lard on hand?

Get some.

4 comments:

Michelle Parkinson said...

Amen to that. Real women make pie dough, the rest of us just envy it!

Greg Bardsley said...

"Until it looks right." -- That's exactly the same way I roll with my guacamole. ... And you're right, Al. Lard is fantastic stuff, unless you're a coronary artery. A friend of mine and I once planned to bottle, market and distribute little "gourmet jars of lard." But it wasn't to be.

Steve said...

Al, your mom sounds exactly like my mother in law. She came from Austria in the early 50s and makes a killer apple pie, too. And she definitely makes everything from scratch and from the heart...you can't get her to be too specific on the recipe. Damn, I want some pie now!

The Jantzen family said...

Awww! It makes me miss her even more. She sure could make anything taste amazing!! I wish she were still here, so I could learn from her.