Comments On Article: Diary Reading For Rose And Emma January 26 - February 1, 1932 And 1933

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Hi all

I know this is ridiculous, but I have only made pastry about 2x in my life, and that looks different to pie crust if pie crust has an egg in it. I look forward to hearing about it tomorrow. The first time I made pastry I added too little fat and it was hard. The second time I made it it had too much fat and was so short it fell apart. Tasted good though. Since then I have bought ready made pastry. I really should try again.

Grandma Donna wrote,  Laura B, no egg in this crust, it is lard the size of an egg.  In the past many recipes gave description of size in comparison.  So here the amount of lard in the pie crust is the size of an egg.  The pie has come out beautiful!  It is sitting on my window ledge with the window opened slightly and the cold air is surrounding the pie.  I let it cool down over by the stove for about a half hour before I moved it to the window ledge.  Charles kept going over to smell and look at it.  He wanted to taste it so badly. Lol  I will move it to the fridge in a little while.  I can already tell you that the crust is so light and looks very nice.  We will see how it tastes this evening.  Let you know tomorrow. :)

I like vanilla tapioca pudding with either strawberry or rhubarb sauce. I wouldn't call it a simple dessert though, since you have to stand at the stove and stir and stir and stir. I've got some gooseberries (from my bush) that I froze last summer that need to be turned into a pie. I'll see how Mary's crust turned out and might try it. 

I make an easy dessert from a recipe I found in the More With Less cookbook (which has a lot of uses for leftovers as well as new-ingredient recipes).  I don't remember exact proportions, but it's a few (4?) cups of cut up fruit or berries, with blueberries being our favorite, and a sprinkled-on topping of flour, butter, sugar, probably a pinch of salt and I think one egg, mixed well with a fork.  Pour melted butter over the topping and bake for about 25 minutes.  Fast, easy, and yummy by itself or with ice cream or just cream over it in a bowl.  

in our family we have always made Crazy Cake.  This is also know as Wacky cake or Depression Cake.  I have my grandmothers hand written recipe.  It was the first cake I learned to make as a child.  When my girls left home I had to search to find a round glass pan like mine to bake it in to give to them.  Now my granddaughter makes this cake.

I am going to have to find some lard.  Mom always made pie crust with lard.  In recent years I have used butter as lard is hard to fine locally.  That low fat diet crazy did it in.  But lard make such a flaky crust

Speaking of old desserts, I made something last night that was so simple and so delicious!  What?  Whipped cream!  I had some leftover heavy cream.  Not much, but enough.  I had 2 apples that needed using so I made a small apple crisp and thought that whipped cream would taste delicious on it.  I'm telling you, I could've eaten just the cream as dessert!!!  I forgot how good it tasted, just by itself.  Nothing like the spray kind and definitely not like the tub kind.  Yum! 

There's just enough for a couple of dollops tonight.  We'll see if I can resist all day lol.....

Donna thanks for the correction, that follows. My Nan and mum made pastry with half lard and half butter. Theirs was always perfect, just crumbly enough.

Regarding GDonna's comment about people making pies as if they were no big deal, I once had a conversation with an elderly lady at a family reunion. She was in her late 80s or early 90s by the year 2000, so had probably begun housekeeping around 1930? (Math is hard.)

She told me that every single morning of the week, she make up a pie crust and set the prepared pan/crust in the cupboard just above her woodburning cookstove. She then saved any leftover fruit from breakfast or lunch. Just before supper she added sugar, thickener, etc., to the fruit, poured it into the crust, and baked it for supper. She said it was a daily occurrence. I was fascinated by 1) the fact that obviously making a pie crust was fast and routine for her, and 2) the fact that she was cooking enough food and variety thereof every day to have enough LEFTOVER fruit to make a pie by evening.

two thoughts I have are that the lard was maybe the side of a small or medium egg, not the whoppers we have now?  Anyone know?  And I’m betting the pie tins were 8” tins not larger?  Does anyone have knowledge about this?   Another observation from Sara’s diary entry yesterday….she wrote down she took a bath…..this was a notable occasion for the week?????

Grandma Donna wrote, Dell O, my largest great depression pie pan is 9" from edge to edge with about 8" to just inside the lip edge.  My medium pie pan is 8" with a 7" fill area.  I feel you are right about this, these pans I have are from the 1930s and the ones people were using during the early 1930s they probably had them for years so from an earlier time. They could have been a little smaller than this but I figure the 8" would be the most common.  My pans from the more modern time are much larger and deeper. I actually have them in a post I did a month or so ago.  The bath part, it all depends how they got their water.  Hand pump outside?  Hand pump inside?  Running water but just did not bath as often as we do today.  I feel that Sarah did a wash bowl bath and a weekly tub bath possibly.  I don't know if you can remember the time before our eggs were the same size, medium, large or extra large.  But most dozen eggs were of different sizes very long ago, just like a chicken was whole and they did not sell just breasts or thighs etc.   Also many people had their own chickens as we did long ago, our chickens did not lay as large of an egg that we can buy today so I would guess a medium egg size for the lard.  That is just my guess.  I just went and found the post to the pie pans. https://gdonna.com/living-like-the-past/discussion...

I would be so fat if I made all these cakes and desserts!! Oh though, how I wish I could make just 2 servings worth every so often! ;)

Oh my heavens!  Indeed, that does speak to how commonplace it was to make a pie and how simple one could be - leftover fruit, sugar, thickener, etc...  Thanks so much for sharing.  It makes pie making a little less intimidating.  :0)

Okay I want to make that caramel pie!

Has anyone ever made one or similar one before? I'm not sure what the fox frosting is though?  I have never heard of frosting a pie ?

I've looked and looked online and found a picture of an "old fashioned caramel pie" that looks like the picture below.  However, the white dollops are only whipped cream.  I couldn't find anything for "white fox frosting".  Tried "white fat frosting", as well, as was wondering if what looked like an x was a t.  Of course couldn't find that, either, but was wondering if it is a white frosting with butter or shortening?  That said, like you, Diana, I've never heard of frosting a pie.  

This is when I wish my grandmothers and great grandmothers were still around, as I'd love to ask them!  Sure do find myself wishing I'd asked more questions when I was younger and had access to the wealth of knowledge that died with them - might make this study "easier" for me!

Thank you so much Gayle for doing some research for me...I am going to go ahead and make it today-- crust is cooling right now without the frosting and see how it turns out!

Oh my I just re-read the recipe as what we thought was an x is actually and R.... The white are egg whites as we used the yolk in the recipe...Because at the end of the sentence, it states to brown.  Cant brown frosting but can meringue-- so I  am thinking that what this must mean.

I started my handwritten recipe cookbook several years ago and regularly add to it when I find great recipes.  Since I dont consume regular flour as it bothers me, I use either gluten free or einkorn flour so recipes need to be adjusted.  I also like to use what we grow on our property such as duck eggs and goat milk so lots of notes from experiments in my recipes.  Hopefully, future generations will enjoy my cookbook when I am long gone.

So I made the caramel pie recipe..Oh my Oh my, it came out delicious.  Dont mind my mess of a pie crust! lol

Oh, how funny!  Indeed, that makes so much more sense!  I'm glad your pie turned out to be yummy.  :0)

I love your recipe book.  My mother-in-law recently gave me one written by her mother-in-law, my husband's grandmother.  What a treasure it is!  I am looking forward to trying out the recipes that she used frequently and were favorites of the family.  

I love this talk about the pies and the post! I'm going to make a peach pie tomorrow with my pie filling that I canned. I learned to make pies from my husbands Nana (Barbara). She learned and passed on the recipe from her grandmother. She was 92 when she passed in 2019. Our recipe is very old and simple and just the same as these other ones. The pies look wonderful! I'm anxious to try the pie recipe myself.