3rd Annual Pieathalon – Fidget Pie
One of the first blogs I ever followed was Yinzerella’s retro-food extravaganza Dinner is Served 1972, which was her attempt to go through a set of index card recipes from that year. But it wasn’t food that we bonded over, it was our mutual love of professional football. Unfortunately, she’s a Steelers fan but we’re still buds despite that.
She sent me an email a month or so ago asking if I wanted to participate in the Third Annual Pieathalon.
It’s a celebration of all kinds of pie – sweet, savory, somewhere in between – where all kinds of good folk submit an old-school pie recipe, cook one assigned to them, and then post about it. I didn’t participate in the first two – I think because of my patented brand of laziness – but she still invited me this time. I think it’s either she forgot I was still on the distribution list or she was being super polite. Anyway, she caught me at a time where I had a ton of energy – enough to reply “yes.” That wore me out enough to where I barely got my pie done in time.
I instantly started to feel a whole bunch of remorse on the decision. First off, I’ve lately taken this whole lazy blogger thing to new depths. Second, as I’ve said before – I’m not a baker. In fact, I’m one of the worst. Ever. So the thought of failing at another crust really bummed me out.
Another reason I felt I was completely ill-suited for this celebration is that I’m not into retro-food. I like to think of it in musical terms – hearing The Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back” pop on the radio at an unexpected time can be a joyous experience for me. But for every great song like that, there are a dozen more like this –
My apologies if you’re one of those people who like this song when it comes on the radio. By the way, how is AM radio these days?
Then I thought maybe I’m being my usual pigheaded foodsnob. Who’s to say that there can’t be an incredible lost treasure of a recipe out there in some dusty, pre-internet cookbook?
So I decided to go for it.
The recipe I submitted was for Heidenische Kuchen. I chose it because it kinda sounded like “Hedonist” and it was retro. I mean really retro. As in it was from a cookbook from the Medieval Ages. My apologies to Kelly at The Velveteen Lounge Kitsch-en who had to make it.
The recipe I got back is for Fidget Pie and was submitted by Cathy who writes The Battenburg Belle from the way off, magical land of England. She got it from the Hamlyn All Colour Cook Book which was first published in 1970.
That’s probably the biggest reason why I’m not too fond of retro recipes – I was already alive by that point and it may just be that I’m only cool from a “golden oldies” standpoint.
UGH.
As far as pies go, this is in the “somewhere in between savory and sweet” category. It has apples in it, so maybe it’s a dessert? But it also has bacon and onions. There isn’t a consensus on how the name came to be, but it was originally made during harvests to feed hungry workers. So I guess it’s savory?
Here’s the recipe she sent in –
Fidget Pie
Filling
1lb streaky bacon ( I used thick sliced bacon)
8oz onions
1lb cooking apples (I used Granny Smiths)
salt and pepper
½ pint cider
Pastry
8oz plain flour
pinch of salt
4 oz butter
2 tbsp water
Glaze
1 egg, beaten
1 – Preheat oven to 220°C/425°F/gas mark 7.
2 – Remove rind from bacon and dice. Peel and chop onions. Core and chop apples. Mix well together and season. Put into a 2 pint pie dish and pour over the cider.
3 – Sieve together flour and salt. Rub in butter until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Mix with water to form a firm dough.
Roll out and cover pie. Make four cuts out out from the centre, about 3 inches long. Fold back the triangles of pastry to expose the filling. Roll out the trimmings and cut out crescents, using a fluted cutter. Brush with beaten egg and place around edge of the pastry.
4 – Brush pie with egg glaze and bad in a hot oven for 20 minutes, then lower the heat to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4 and bake for a further 30 minutes until pastry is crisp and golden.
Some notes – I used Granny Smith apples and thick-sliced bacon. I also had to use way more than 2 Tablespoons of water for the dough. Maybe measuring spoons are like money and 2 Tablespoons went a whole lot further in 1970.
So here’s what the picture in the book looked like
And here’s how mine turned out.
I’m actually impressed that the crust was edible – a monstrous victory for me – and tasted good! The filling was also pretty tasty which, given that it contains a pound of bacon, is not surprising.
But…
Is it supposed to be a soup? I went back to the instructions and re-read them several times to see if I missed a line for adding cornstarch or some thickener. Apples are juicy, and that juice has to go somewhere. And how was a worker supposed to eat the thing? There wasn’t a bottom crust (which would’ve been soaked anyway) so maybe with a spoon for the filling and dipping the crust like bread?
Well, the flavor combination did taste good and it sure was fun participating. From the emails that went back and forth, it sounds like a really fun group of people, so maybe there’s something to retro recipes.
I can’t wait to read some of the other submissions. Check ’em out –
- Yinzerella at Dinner Is Served 1972 (www.dinnerisserved1972.com) Peanut & Beer Pie
- Poppy at Grannie Pantries (http://granniepantries.blogspot.com/) Lemon Meringue Pie
- Kelly at Velveteen Lounge Kitsch-en (http://velveteenloungekitsch-en.blogspot.com). Heidenische kuchen (Heathen Cake)
- Greg at Recipes4Rebels (www.recipes4rebels.com) Fluellen’s Pie
- Taryn at Retro Food For Modern Times (http://www.retrofoodformoderntimes.com) making Lemon Potato Pie
- S S at A Book of Cookrye (abookofcookrye.blogspot.com) Perpetrating Chocolate “Pie”
- Silver Screen Suppers (www.silverscreensuppers.com) making Creme De Cacao Pie
- Battenburgbelle (battenburgbelle.com) has the pleasure of making Fatty Arbuckle’s Delight!
- John The Hedonizer is making Fidgety Pie. Www.foodandwinehedonist.com
- Susie at Bittersweet Susie (https://bittersweetsusie.wordpress.com_ made Star Gazy Pie
- Ruth at Mid-Century Menu (http://www.midcenturymenu.com) Brandy Apple Pie
- Surly at Vintage Recipe Cards (http://www.vintagerecipecards.com) Transparent Pie
- Erica at Retro Recipe Attempts (http://retrorecipe.wordpress.com) made Mai Tai Pie!
Happy Pieathalon Day!
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21 comments on “3rd Annual Pieathalon – Fidget Pie”
Leave a Reply to tarynnicole Cancel reply
wine century
Doppel Member, Baby!
YAAAAAS!
You know what I think was missing from this recipe?
UNFLAVORED GELATIN. You know it’s true.
Thanks for joining this year!!!
That could be it… Thx for the invite, was glad I could do it this time!
At least yours seems a bit more set up than mine! The chunks surely help.
Bacon chunks always help!
Hmmm Bacon pie soup!
When u put it that way …
Yours looked pretty damn good – I agree though that tired hungry farmhands would be mighty annoyed by the soupiness slopping all over their dungarees!
Thx!! Those high maintenance farmhands…
I’m impressed…for a self-described non-baker, you replicated that dish perfectly! I guess owning a “fluted crescent- shaped cutter” wasn’t all that necessary…
Thx!! I used to work at Williams-Sonoma and have seen just about every gadget known – and own way too many. No idea what that thing is!
Bacon and Apple, Id’ eat it in a pie or drink it in a soup! Your pie looks amazing! xx
PS Your comment about measuring spoons going further in the 1970’s cracked me up!
Thanks, that was a last minute addition!
Apparently that was a lot better than I’d have expected. Between the pound of bacon and the cider, I’d have expected a soggy grease-bomb of mushy fruit. Is the soupy runoff you got any good?
The “broth”? So-so. And to be honest it wasn’t that good on the second day.
Soupy runoff! This post is making my tummy rumble here in the magical land of England. Mmmmm bacony, appley soup pie. Yum!
Trying to decide whether Soupy Runoff should be a name for my next band.
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Looks great, even if it’s a little soupy!
Thanks!
That is strange — that much liquid, plus what the onions and apples release, and no thickener at all? Maybe it’s so they have something to drink while they eat their pie. Weird! But looks tasty nonetheless…
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