Grape Pie and Other Recipes

By Susan M. Thigpen © 1999

Online: January, 1999

I remember my aunts talking about my grandmother making a grape pie when they were little girls, but they didn't know how it was made or what went in it. I never ran across a recipe for Grape Pie until a e-mail showed up a few days ago.

Our thanks to Vicky Fretwell of Northport, Alabama for sharing these recipes with us. She found them in the HOME COMFORT COOKBOOK, Copyright 1938, by the Wrought Iron Range Company of St Louis, Missouri.

GRAPE PIE

4 cups blue grapes
1 Tbsp quick cooking tapioca
1 tbsp grated orange rind, or 1/2 tbsp grated lemon rind
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice

Stem grapes and slip pulp out of skins. Cook pulp, covered, until seeds loosen. Press it through a coarse sieve to remove seeds. Mix strained pulp with skins, sugar, tapioca, lemon juice and rind.

Line a pie pan with pastry, fill with grape mixture. Cover with lattice or top crust. Bake in hot oven 10 minutes, then lower heat to moderate and bake until done- about 15 to 30 minutes longer.

MOLASSES CRUMB PIE

3/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp each nutmeg, ginger, cloves
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp shortening
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup boiling water

Prepare crumbs by creaming shortening, adding sugar, flour, salt and spices.
For liquid, dissolve baking soda in water, add molasses and egg.

Line deep pie dish with rich pastry. Sprinkle bottom thickly with crumb mixture. Pour on some of liquid mixture and continue alternating ingredients until crust is filled, having crumbs on top.

Bake in hot oven until crust begins to brown. Reduce to moderate heat and continue baking until filling is firm, about 25 to 45 minutes altogether. May be spread with sweetened whipped cream, sprinkled with nutmeg and cinnamon.

PEAR CHIPS

8 lbs sound, firm pears
4 lbs sugar
1/4 chopped ginger
4 lemons

Peel pears, remove stems, quarter and core. Cut into small pieces. Add sugar and ginger and allow to stand over night. In the morning, quarter lemons, remove seeds and cut into small pieces. Add lemons to pears and cook very slowly for 3 hours. Pack in sterilized jars and seal.

Peaches may be prepared in the same way.