THE COOKBOOK TEST #0096: PIE MARCHES ON
INSTALLMENT #0096 (FREE) ALL HAIL THE PIE FANATIC! / MUCH ADO ABOUT LAYERS / BLACK BOTTOM PIE
Dear Readers,
PIE MARCHES ON appears to be the work of a lunatic. This book, originally written in 1939 and reprinted again in 1951 and 1954 brings a level of bombast, sincerity, intensity, self-importance, and obsession with detail to piemaking that one might generally associate with, say, heart surgery, professional hockey, or swordsmithing.
If you've learned anything from reading THE COOKBOOK TEST, it's that I generally respect this sort of attitude. I'll take a foaming-at-the-mouth culinary fanatic over some wishy-washy influencer any day of the week - I want someone who lives or dies by the science, who tests dozens of variations to find the One True Recipe, and who insists, at length, that there is a Right Way to Do Things and anyone who strays from the true path is unworthy of consideration.
The book's Foreword sets the stage beautifully:
We consider it a privilege to be able to offer this book once more to the bakers of America - to those in restaurants and hotels and other quantity feeding spots as well as to the retail bakers. It has been "out of print" far too long and the demand for it has steadily increased.
Monroe Boston Strause has indeed every right to the title of "The Pie King." Every baker in the United States and Canada or wherever he is known acknowledges him as such. They will tell you that every recipe is fool-proof. Mr. Strause explains that the reason for this is that he puts all his ingredients on a pound and ounce basis - no cups or teaspoons for measures. "The tea cup and teaspoon are the greatest enemies to a good pie," he declares. "Not only do they vary in size but a cup of flour dipped and a cup of flour packed are a whale of a lot different." He has reduced pie baking to an exact science and measures each ingredient with the care of a pharmacist.
Judging from what scores of pie bakers have told us, this is the most usable pie book in existence, and we are glad to be able to do our part in seeing that PIE MARCHES ON. — The Publishers
The book contains a lot of pies that look interesting, or "interesting," or semi-obsolete: Pineapple Cheese Pie, Fresh Grape Pies, or Dried Apricot Pie for example. Nothing about the book was necessarily selling me on testing it and writing it, however, until I stumbled up Black Bottom Pie.
at your service,
James
PIE MARCHES ON
MONROE BOSTON STRAUSE
AHRENS PUBLISHING | 1954
The introduction to Black Bottom Pie caught my attention because in a book full of bombast, it was the most bombastic. Here's a little sampling:
This is without a doubt the most sensational pie that has ever been introduced, and is one of the outstanding originals of the writer. Aside from being a sensation, I believe it brought the highest price that any pie ever sold at commercially: $1.90 for a nine inch pie retail, and the volume in which it sold made pie history.
Well, well. This sounds like a hell of a pie!
The Black Bottom Pie is a thing of layers: a frozen (or baked) graham cracker crust, a chocolate layer on the bottom, a boozy eggnog layer atop the chocolate, and whipped cream with chocolate shavings to finish the top.
It looked plausible enough, but as I translated the book's "huge table of ingredients plus pages of detailed instruction" format into a modern recipe, I noted that the amounts felt pretty scanty.
Sure enough, when I finished making the chocolate layer, it felt pretty insubstantial, and I wish that I'd followed my instinct and doubled it. To compensate, I did in fact double the eggnog layer and was ultimately glad for it - the finished pie looked and felt roughly pie-shaped, and it didn't shrink embarrassingly into the tin.
Although the pie looks like a ton of work (three layers and a crust) it's actually not horrible - each layer is just a bit of heating and stirring and whipping, and the graham cracker crust is simplicity itself. It's certainly one of the more difficult pies I've made and it left my poor kitchen in a state, but it wasn't an ordeal and I'd be willing to repeat it for a good cause.
After all that: How was the pie?
Readers... it was OK. Both the whipped cream and eggnog layers were looser than I would've liked, resulting in a pie that was closer to the classic slapstick pie-in-the-face "pie" than an "honest to goodness sliceable piece of pie" pie. You can see from the photo that my result wasn't much to look at:
As for taste: Pretty good. The nutmeg and booze of the eggnog layer was lively and balanced, respectively. The chocolate and graham cracker both supported the creaminess of the top two layers pretty nicely, and the overall flavor package was sound. It would be interesting to try the pie again with the chocolate layer doubled and either less whipped cream to finish, or a thicker and heavier whipped cream. Preferably both, to be honest.
The recipe below, should you choose to attempt it, has a doubled chocolate layer and a doubled eggnog layer. I think this will yield for you a pie more balanced than the one I made, which - again - wasn't too bad even in its rough-cut format.
BLACK BOTTOM PIE
Crust
2 Tbsp + 1 tsp shortening
1 2/3 Tbsp butter
1/8 tsp salt
4 oz. graham crackers, crushed to crumbs
1 Tbsp water
2 tsp corn syrup
Chocolate layer
2/3 cup water
5 Tbsp + 1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 oz. good chocolate plus more chocolate for shavings
8 tsp corn starch
2 Tbsp milk
2 Tbsp heavy cream
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 egg whites
4 Tbsp sugar
+ 2 Tbsp sugar
Eggnog layer
2/3 cup water
5 Tbsp + 1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
A couple drops of yellow food coloring (optional)
10 tsp corn starch
2 Tbsp milk
4 tsp heavy cream
2 tsp brandy or rum
1/4 tsp finely ground nutmeg
4 egg whites
3 1/2 Tbsp sugar
+ 3 1/2 Tbsp sugar
Whipped cream layer
1 1/2 cups whipping cream
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tsp vanilla extract
CRUST: Blend shortening, butter, and salt and then mix in graham cracker crumbs. Next, mix water and corn syrup, and add to graham cracker mixture. Pack crust into bottom of pie tin (not the sides) and freeze.
CHOCOLATE LAYER: Combine in pan: water, sugar, salt, chocolate. Heat slowly to melt chocolate completely, then boil.
Dissolve cornstarch in milk. Add this to boiling mix slowly, stir and cook until thick and clear.
Remove from heat and add heavy cream and vanilla.
Whip in stand mixer with whisk attachment: egg white and 2 Tbsp sugar. When egg white is beaten stiff, add 1 Tbsp sugar and beat until sugar is thoroughly dissolved.
Fold whipped egg white mixture into chocolate mixture. Pour onto frozen graham cracker crust and mound slightly into center of crust. Refrigerate pie.
EGGNOG LAYER: Bring to boil in pan: water, sugar, salt, food coloring. Dissolve cornstarch in milk. Add this to boiling mix slowly, stir and cook until thick and clear.
Remove from heat and add heavy cream, brandy or rum, and nutmeg.
Whip in stand mixer with whisk attachment: egg white and 5 tsp sugar. When egg white is beaten stiff, add another 5 tsp sugar and beat until sugar is thoroughly dissolved.
Fold whipped egg white mixture into eggnog mixture. Add 1 1/2 times eggnog mixture as you added of chocolate mixture, mounding slightly in center of pie tin. Return to refrigerator to chill.
WHIPPED CREAM: When pie is thoroughly chilled, mix in standing mixer bowl with whisk attachment to stiff peaks: whipping cream, sugar, and vanilla extract.
Spread whipped cream on pie, and shave onto whipped cream layer additional curls of chocolate (using butter knife to shave and a flat spatula to move shavings).
Return pie to refrigerator, and serve cold.
PIE MARCHES ON
(BUY IT / ***BORROW IT*** / SKIP IT / SCRAP IT)
Strong "borrow it" recommendation for the ferocity of its writing, the novel format, and interesting varieties of pies it contains. Most of the pies look pretty plausible, and while the formatting makes it kind of hard to use, you can with work translate any of its recipes into something usable in the home kitchen. If I were talking to a pie-baking professional I would upgrade this to a strong "BUY IT" recommendation - everything is scaled up to x6 or x12 recipe amounts already and the level of detail in the instructions is highly useful and downright educational.