Issues → July/August 2011 → Food →

Homemade Blueberry Pie

by Aimee Seavey

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New England in August is awash in blueberries, and you haven't tasted blueberry pie until you've eaten one homemade with fresh, local fruit. I was fortunate enough to get my hands on an authentic classic Blueberry Pie recipe for inspiration, thanks to the new book Northern Hospitality: Cooking by the Book in New England by Keith Stavely and Kathleen Fitzgerald.

You would think that my love for history and food would mean I frequently borrow recipes from the past, but that's not entirely true. The first time I got my hands on a vintage cookbook (a 1923 edition of the Fannie Farmer Boston Cooking-School Cook Book) I cracked it open, eagerly skimmed the pages, and frowned.

Yes, there were recipes, but they were short and choppy with barely any direction. Just a few sentences per dish, with ingredients like "one yeast cake," measurements like "a teacup of milk," and instructions like "roast in a slow oven until golden." Hmmm. Better put away my digital scale, measuring cups, spoons, and any hope of I had of knowing what temperature to preheat the oven.

While difficult to follow literally, these brainteaser recipes are terrific for historical inspiration, serving as valuable reminders of not only what folks were eating, but about the cooks themselves. An enormous amount of cookbooks today focus on starting with the basics, then teaching us "how to cook everything" with numbered steps and careful illustrations, leaving nothing left to chance. Good cooking has a lot to do with instinct and flexibility, something Stavely and Fitzgerald encourage by providing the recipes verbatim, but also adding their own commentary to put the recipe into historical context and fill in the gaps, often with a healthy dose of humor.

When the subject turns to pies in Part 2, Chapter 12, Stavely and Fitzgerald reveal that until the nineteenth century, consuming fresh fruit was actually considered unhealthy, so it was often used to make pies. It was important for all New England housewives to have a constant supply of pies, both sweet and savory, at the ready for her family and guests. More than just nourishment, a supply of pies was proof that "for yet another year, the family and its farm were thriving."

I was delighted to adapt the recipes in Northern Hospitality for Blueberry Pie and its accompanying "No. 8 Tart or Pudding Paste" from the 1850 Practical Cook Book by Mrs. Bliss. The recipe is simplicity at its finest: fresh fruit, sugar, flour, butter, water, salt, and egg.

My sister and I had plans to pick local Massachusetts blueberries in early August, but alas the weather refused to cooperate, so we purchased them already-picked from the fruit farm instead. In-season is in-season no matter who does the picking.