Blog: Pay your respects to the Pie Lady

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Categories: FoodSep 22, 2008 @ 9:21pm

Pay your respects to the Pie Lady

By Tom Stauffer

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Tom Stauffer

Tom Stauffer is the Citizen's food writer.

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Known far and wide for the homemade pies she made for decades at her Mount Lemmon Cafe, Pam Rinella left this mortal coil early Sunday morning.

Do something nice for friends and family in Pam's honor. Make them one of her pies. She gave us this recipe as part of a profile we ran on her May, 31, 2006.

Mount Lemmon Cafe Blackberry Pie

1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell

Pie Crumbs

4 cups sugar
4 cups flour
1/2 pound butter at room temperature

Filling:

2 1/2 pounds fresh or frozen blackberries
1/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon (or more) butter at room temperature

For crumbs, mix sugar and flour. Add butter and work through gently with hands until butter is incorporated.
Butter bottom and sides of pie shell (not pan).
For filling, pour half the berries into shell, scatter sugar over berries and flour over sugar.
Add remaining fruit and sprinkle with pie crumbs.
Bake on middle rack of oven one hour for fresh berries or 1 1/2 hours if using frozen berries. Keep an eye on the juices and place pie on a baking sheet when the juices begin to spill over. Pie is done when juices are bubbling, thick and clear. Crumbs should be golden brown. Serve with vanilla ice cream and eat immediately - pie doesn't last in the refrigerator.

Tags: Eat Tucson

COMMENTS

Red Star

Sep 23, 2008 @ 3:39pm

Interestingly, the recipe provided by the food reviewer doesn't take altitude into account. And other things...

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stauffer

Sep 23, 2008 @ 9:22pm

"And other things ..." ?

Could you be a little bit more vague, Dabilita?

Oh, and the recipe is good for an elevation of 2,349 feet. Adjust the measurements with this formula:

4 TBs = 6.594(change in altitude)/(degrees Kelvin - 695.487)(your state of mind)

Tom Stauffer
food writer
Tucson Citizen

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Red Star

Sep 24, 2008 @ 10:42am

For those more serious about cooking at altitude than the food reviewer, Colorado State's page at:

http://urc.colostate.edu/titles/P41.html

may be helpful.

Susan Purdy's "Pie in the Sky - Successful Baking at High Altitudes" seems to get high reviews at Amazon.com (to the extent that reviews are valid).

food writer wonders, "Could you be a little bit more vague..." and the answer is that the "vagueness" was inspired by this from the recipe he chose to publish: "Bake on middle rack of oven one hour..." with no mention of oven temperature setting.

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samlig

Sep 29, 2008 @ 11:46am

A real cook doesn't need to know specifics about a recipe. Real cooks can _extrapolate_. You cook pies until they are done. A real cook knows their oven and adjusts cook times mentally and, for new recipes, watches like a hawk and waits until it looks and smells right, making adjustments as necessary. For example, if the crust is browning too fast, wrap the edges with aluminum foil (and maybe lower the temperature).

For this recipe, if you go the frozen blackberry route, I recommend thawing the blackberries by putting them in warm (not hot) water (if you are in a hurry) or cool water (if you have time). This will help remove any remaining pesticide and allow you to use the lower cook time, which is typically better for the crust since it won't burn as easily.

This recipe calls for a lot of butter. I'd try this recipe as-is once but, depending on the richness, I can see attempting to scale back aspects of the butter and introduce alternatives such as milk/condensed milk.

Brown sugar and vanilla could offer interesting experiment options too.

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ketsl

Nov 16, 2008 @ 6:07am

Red Star wrote:For those more serious about cooking at altitude than the food reviewer, Colorado State's page at:

http://urc.colostate.edu/titles/P41.html

may be helpful.

Susan Purdy's "Pie in the Sky - Successful Baking at High Altitudes" seems to get high reviews at Amazon.com (to the extent that reviews are valid).

food writer wonders, "Could you be a little bit more vague..." and the answer is that the "vagueness" was inspired by this from the recipe he chose to publish: "Bake on middle rack of oven one hour..." with no mention of oven temperature setting.

Did you go to CSU?

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