Crimp My Pie

I have never really gotten the point of the whole food presentation thing. I refuse to subscribe to Gourmet, can't afford it anyway. In my humble opinion food is to be eaten not looked at. Sure there are reasonable limits to how you put something on the table to eat. I would agree that it should not look like something that cat just dragged in. However, when it looks that good I am not convinced that it is going to taste that good.

You can gussy up a pie with a fussy upper crust, you know, a crust that has also sorts of designs cut out. I guess that is cool, but not sure that I get the point. Are you going to eat it or look at it.

There is one one design aspect, however, that may be worth paying attention to and does make some sense. I am speaking to the edge or the crimp on the crust. I have used the technique that my mother showed me (click here to examine and learn the technique) for years. While effective, it does not always add to the overall visual impact of the pie.

Recently, I have been using a slightly different approach that you see in many cookbooks, magazines, and blogs. You take the crust that is hanging over the edge of the plate (you need at least 1/2 inch), bring it up, fold it, pinch it, and tuck it back down into the pie plate. There are many examples of this technique on the web.

So, even though I am not convinced that fancy makes anything better, I will have to admit that taking some time and care in crimping your pie crust does add a certain something to your pie.