elizabeth_mn

The Challenge: #5. July 27 - August 9 Pies! Make a pie! Meat, fruit, sweet, savory - but make sure it’s documented!

I wanted to do a savory pie because I love them so much and make them all the time anyway, but I knew I would have to dig deep for one that wasn’t meat, and then the almost-5-year-old (seriously, 5 already?!) piped up and requested strawberry.

None of my print cookbooks had anything; the closest was Mrs. Beeton’s jam tarts. I searched for “Victorian strawberry tart recipe” and came up with this page, which had a couple strawberry recipes but NO documentation. LAME. I cut and pasted the entire paragraph of text for one of the recipes into google search and came up with the source: The White House Cookbook from 1913.

The Recipe: Berry Tarts from the White House Cookbook

The first one was clearly the easier option, so I went with it.

The Date/Year and Region: American, 1913

How Did You Make It: I started with a simple baked tart shell. I didn’t use little ones because I don’t have teeny pans.

When it cooled, I cut the tops off the strawberries and arranged them in the shell. For some reason I used halves on the edges (no idea).

Sprinkled a few tablespoons of sugar over.

Here is where I deviated: I whipped the cream slightly. I really think today’s cream is too thin because it’s mechanically separated. If you ever buy non-homogenized milk, you can scoop the cream off the top, and it is thick. Modern “heavy cream” has all the fat, but it’s processed to be liquidy. I thought the tart would be way too runny with straight cream like that, so I whipped it very gently, just until it would hold a shape but still had a dropping consistency, then spooned it over the tart.

Here is a great pic my HB took of me shoving it in my face. So refined, huh?

The Girl approves.

Time to Complete: Counting time for the tart shell to cool, about 2 hours

Total Cost: Fresh strawberries aren’t cheap here even in summer, and neither is cream, so maybe $10-15 altogether.

How Successful Was It?: If I could take better food pictures this question wouldn’t be necessary. It was delicious! How can you go wrong with strawberries and cream? I ate two slices and had to talk myself out of a third.

How Accurate Is It?: I used my own crust recipe that I keep in my head, and I whipped the cream, so this probably counts more as an “inspired-by” than a faithful reproduction.