Or, to put it more politely, the earnest, home cook, social media recipe commenters.
Today for brunch I made this corn and tomato pie, by way of Gourmet, by way of Laurie Colwin & James Beard.
It’s supposed to look like this:
Or this:
But mine looked like this:
Right – soupy. What a bring down for a semi-pro like me.
It’s because I believed the commenters, who were kvetching about soggy bottom crust. I should have believed Gourmet, or if not Gourmet, then definitely Colwin and Beard, who were both absolutely topnotch recipe writers. I searched my cooking magazine collection diligently, looking for the original August 1992 Gourmet, where Colwin’s recipe was published, and couldn’t find it. The August 2009 re-issue, which is what I used, says “What’s integral here is a very thin biscuit crust instead of one made of pastry dough.” I should have realized that is code for the filling will bake down into the biscuit crust, in a way that it would not do with pastry. Lead astray by the commenters, I put a layer of cheese in the bottom of the pie, like I would do for a pastry-lined quiche crust, to protect it from the wet filling – and I am just sure that’s why my pie came out soupy.
I’m also pretty sure, strongly suspect, that in her original recipe, Colwin included instructions for the home cook to layer the ingredients in the shell in the order given, which is tomatoes, corn, and cheese ON THE TOP. But the only way to find out is to go to a library, and get the original 1992 magazine in print, and check. I might just have to try that … but, the campus library that has the old hardcopy Gourmets is getting re-carpeted this summer, so I’d have to get the volume I need paged up. Oh, my, how quaint and pre-digital.
PS. so the pie firmed up considerably as it cooled, and Mark and I had it for dinner on Thursday, with collards with bacon. He doesn’t really like leftovers and he doesn’t really like greens, so even though I was trying to compensate with the addition of bacon, he got the look on his face that he gets when I announce it’s leftovers or too much vegetables, for dinner. Personally, I thought the pie tasted better leftover than it had for Sunday brunch – the corn and tomatoes and crust had made friends.
