Currant Pie Recipe – Year 1896
Posted by Warren
Makes one 9-inch pie, double crust, berry filling
The Boston Cooking-School Cookbook, by Fannie Merritt Farmer, 1896
I bet you will never find a currant pie in your local grocery store in the frozen section. You got to at least try it once.
What are Currants?
They are small berries.
Perhaps currants are one of the traditional fruiting shrubs grown for years for jams and jellies. This small berry is easy to pick from the bush and requires little preparation besides washing before eating. These sweet, succulent little berries are perennial favorites of birds, too, so beware of a little competition during the harvesting period.
Red Lake Red Currant:
Are Large, dark red berries. These berries are excellent for jelly, preserves, and muffins. They ripen in July.
Consort Black Currant:
Are medium clusters of soft, black berries with a a very prominent sweet flavor which is also very good for jams, jellies and juice. They ripen in July.
White Imperial Currant:
These are loose clusters of white, translucent fruit with a pink blush. They have the richest and sweetest of all currants. They ripen in July.
Currant Pie Recipe of 1896
The Boston Cooking-School Cookbook, by Fannie Merritt Farmer, 1896
Currant Pie.
Pie Ingredients
1 cup currants.
1 cup sugar.
1/4 cup flour.
2 egg yolks.
2 tablespoons water.
Pie Directions
Mix flour and sugar, add yolks of eggs slightly beaten and diluted with water. Wash currants, drain, remove stems, then measure; add to first mixture and bake in one crust; cool, and cover with Meringue I.
Cook in slow oven until delicately browned.
A Cookbook with vintage pie recipes
Fannie Farmer, the author of this cookbook, is perhaps the best known of the great American culinary authorities of the turn of the 19th to 20th centuries. And this book is arguably the best known and most influential of all American cookbooks.
It has been in print from its first appearance in 1896 until the current day, although the newer editions are updated and revised so that Fannie might not easily recognize them. From its first printing it was a bestseller.
The first edition of 3000 sold out quickly. It was reprinted twice in 1897 and once a year thereafter until 1906. It was then revised for the next edition. New and revised editions, in multiple reprints, continue to be published. It was reprinted in England and translated into French, Spanish, Japanese and Braille.
Afraid of Losing
Little, Brown, the publishers, evidently was afraid of losing their money on a cookbook. They required Fannie to pay for the first printing herself. However, Fannie was smart and kept ownership of the copyright on the book. Thus, she became wealthy while Little, Brown regrets this error to the day of death.
Blueberry Pie Recipe
—Ingredients and instructions are not the actual vintage recipe but is provided for reference purposes.
Filling
5 cups blueberries
You may add
1/2 teaspoon of grated lemon zest
for extra flavoring.
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 pinches ground cloves
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon cold unsalted butter (dotting top)
Directions
1. Prepare the pastry: Roll the pastry and line a 9-inch pie plate with the bottom crust. Roll out the remaining dough for the top crust. Chill the pastry.
2. Preheat the oven to 400° F.
3. Clean berries if picked fresh from the wild and drain.
4. In a large mix the blueberries, sugar, cornstarch, and the rest of the dry ingredients.
5. Toss lightly.
6. Drain the juices from the pear mixture into a sauce pan and allow to cook down about on medium-low heat.
7. Pour the filling into your uncooked pie crust.
Dot with butter and top it with the second crust. Trim and crimp the crust; chill the pie for at least 10 minutes.
8. Cut vent slits in the top crust. It is your option to sprinkle it with sugar or brush the top with heavy cream.
9. Bake the pie on a baking sheet for 10 minutes or until the crust looks dry, and starts to blister. Turn the oven down to 350° F, and bake for at least 30 to 40 minutes more or until the crust is golden brown, and visible juices start to bubble.
10. Cool the pie completely before cutting for at least a few hours. Serve it at room temperature or slightly warm. Store the pie uncovered in a cool place up to three days.
Berry Pie Recipe Success
This pie tasted delicious with almost any berry combination of fresh, frozen or canned berries.
A lattice top works beautifully with currant pies. The opening allow the venting of the steam during the baking process and the display of its colorful content.
If your are going to use frozen berries, they must be partially thawed prior to mixing the filling.
If your like a more texture less runny pie, no soggy bottom, dice or grate some apples in the filling.
