Messages From Carrie
Poem - Making Pie Crust
July 21st, 2006
This is a poem I wrote last week at the Grunewald Guild. it's a little about making pie.
Making Pie Crust
First you take the flour
Wheat flour is best
Not the organic whole-wheat good stuff
But unbleached white flour
I'm sure there are recipes with fancy flours
But I don't know them
I only know the one my grandma told me
That afternoon in her kitchen
When I was eight years old
Mix one and 1/2 cup of flour
Then cut in 3/4 cup butter
A little butter flavored Crisco will do in a pinch
Or you can mix the two
Grandma used lard
I'm a vegetarian
Which confused her, but she was more tolerant than my mother
It wasn't grandma's job to keep me from protein starvation
Her job was to love me without condition
Even if I didn't eat pot-roast
Then I measure about a half teaspoon of salt in the palm of my hand
Better not to use artificial measuring devices at this point
It feels like bad luck
Or kind of wimpy
I add at this point a pinch-ish of baking powder
Some folks say that's cheating
There are rules in the making of a light and flaky piecrust
And I've never really been a person that cheats
But ideas of fairplay have historically been misused
And I don't see the harm really
So then you mix it all with a fork or your hand.
When the flour and the shortening is the consistency of sand
Add 5 tablespoons of cold cold water
Mix with your hands until it holds together in a smooth ball
Use more flour if it's too sticky
Add more water if too dry
You can never tell until you get this far into the process
If all you've done before was right
Your hands will get a bit gummy
You'll need to stop and wash them off
Little breaks in the action of any endeavor gives perspective
When my hands are clean and dry
I throw a little flour on a wooden breadboard
Small tools can make a difference at this juncture
I kneed the dough a little
But not too much, you can overwork something you care about
Until it's not fresh anymore
Then I shape the dough in a ball
Squash it a little
Then I begin to roll out the dough
with a heavy stone rolling pin that I've floured it to keep from sticking
Rolling pins have been much maligned in cartoons and 50's sit coms
Being ever used to whap on errant husband's heads
But I've never heard of such a thing actually happening
I think if some is really that mad
They get a gun
Or a restraining order
or leave
But rolling out dough is a joyous thing
Using even but steadfast pressure, flipping the dough
Tossing on a little flour with every flip
Until you have a thin even circle of dough
It is at this point I carefully fold the crust in half
Lift it with caution, and not small pride
Position it in the pie plate, so that when it is unfolded
The crust is centered and gently drapes the outer edge of the pan
I trim the crust with a short sharp knife
leaving about 1/4 inch overlapping the edge
then I tuck under a bit of the overlapping dough
Crimp the edges
by laying my little finger diagonally and rhythmically
Around the pie edge
This was how my grandma did it
This is how I do it
I think she took as much pride as I do
in a common job done well and Well done
She worked a good deal of her life as a hired cook in richer people's homes
So her crust was finer then mine.
I told her she was the best cook in all the world
She said I could sing
And that was better than being pretty