A New Standard in Pie

As September was the blog's one year anniversary/birthday, I figured the best food to mark the occasion would be a combination of what we are: Bacon and Pie.

As much as I want to make nothing but pumpkin pies for the next three months now that fall is here and pumpkins are on sale at the grocery store, a bacon and pumpkin pie combination just sounded a bit off. Bacon and apples had a much better ring to it, and pears were on sale, so the Apple and Pear Pie with Bacon was the final verdict.

I typically use Granny Smith apples for my apple pies because their tartness pairs well with the extra sugar that gets added in. Since my pears were pretty soft and ripe to begin with, I wanted to get the apple to roughly the same consistency as the pears right at the beginning of the baking process. Cooking down the apples with the bacon (some nice thick-cut black forest bacon) seemed like an obvious and delicious decision.

Overall, the apple-pear-bacon turned out really nice. I went light on the bacon this round because I was worried about making the pie too savory, and I think next time (and there will be many future next times) the pie could have benefited from some more bacon. More bacon is always a good thing.

In other pie-related news, I recently had the privilege of receving my grandmother's pie cookbook (from 1965):

 

It has seen better days, but I think it just adds to the charm. The book's authors were not joking when they claim this as the "complete" pie cookbook as there are over 700 recipes included. Very impressive collection. I thought about maybe trying to bake my way through the book, but then realized that a pie each week would take about 14 years, and a pie a day isn't feasible either. I'm really excited about using and adapting recipes from 45+ years ago and hopefully I can make the book last another 45 years.

--Isaac.