Rhubarb, going, going, ...

For the past weeks, I have been trying to make all things rhubarb. But because work always seems to get in the way of what is really important, I have only been able to make cobbler and pie.

Rhubarb seems to be one of those things that people either love or hate with nobody really on the fence. Growing up, I was introduced to rhubarb by way of pie and thought that was the way it was to be eaten. Later in life I was shocked to learn that you could have rhubarb jam, compote, cake, ...

The pie I grew up with was rhubarb and nothing but rhubarb. No rhubarb strawberry, rhubarb raspberry, rhubarb whatever. The pie was a simple pie that consisted solely of sour cream, sugar, flour, eggs, and of course rhubarb. You can check the recipe out on The Upper Krust web site. Simple as it is, the ingredient combination creates a pie of complex taste. The eggy custard filling creates just the right foil for the outrageous tartness of the rhubarb, creating a silky taste sensation with zing.

This year I thought I would branch out and try some variations on the recipe I grew up with. However, when combining rhubarb with strawberries or raspberries it seemed that there was a major war going on in your mouth, with each fruit vying for center stage. So back to the tried and true.

Rhubarb pie is the perfect "breakfast pie". Breakfast pie, for the uninitiated, is pie that begs to be eaten in place of the Danish or coffee cake that you would have with your morning cup of coffee. I am not sure what makes a breakfast pie a breakfast pie. Maybe it's entirely in the taste of the beholder. Maybe in this case you could say it's the eggs, but don't really think so.

As rhubarb season draws to a close, run to the nearest supply and make your favorite rhubarb pie and be sure to save some for breakfast.

In Praise of the Spatula

Several months ago I was visiting my brother who, like me, has some strong opinions about how things should be done in the kitchen. As I was scraping pie filling out of a bowl and into a pie plate with a wooden spoon, he pointedly remarked on how inefficiently I was carrying out the task at hand and shoved a rubber spatula my way.

A month or so after that incident, I still had not learned the lesson. We were at our mother's house this time, and once again I was pouring pie filling from a bowl into a pie plate, using a spoon to assist in the process. After emptying the bowl, my brother took a rubber spatula salvaged another 1/2 cup of filling from what I thought was a pretty clean bowl.

So what's the point. I now use a rubber spatula for everything from mixing ingredients to folding in ingredients to releasing a Bundt cake from the pan. The rubber spatula is an extremely simple but versatile tool that can bring simplicity and elegance to the most mundane and trivial of tasks. Sometimes we get caught up in thinking that the high tech cooking gadgets and toys are what are essential in creating the masterpiece when really all we need is a good spatula.

Butter or Vegetable Shortening

Over the holidays, I had a chance to visit with my family in Indiana. It was good see everyone and to talk about, of all things, pie and pie crust. During our discussions, my brother made a comment about using vegetable shortening in pie crust that got me to thinking. It has always been my opinion that butter alters the texture more than the taste and that the debate of when or if to use butter should revolve around that point. I felt that it was not about whether the extra crunch of a butter crust is better than the crunch of a vegetable shortening crust, rather it was about matching the right kind of crunch to the filling. It also seemed to me that vegetable shortening pie crusts were easier to roll out, came together quicker, and in general always were a slam dunk when it came to creating consistently great crusts.

I must admit, however, that in the back of my mind I always felt that there was actually a bit of a taste difference between the two, the butter crust having a cleaner taste, with the vegetable shortening crust having a bit of an after taste. In discussing the merits of the two ingredients, my brother outlined this very thought. It should be noted that he is an all butter crust maker. It sent me back to the kitchen to validate this thinking. Here is my conclusion.

If in fact, you take a piece of crust off the edge of the pie, especially a dark brown baked piece, there is a bit of after taste to be detected. For me, the taste is not apparent if you eat the crust with the filling or eat a less browned piece of crust. So while my brother, to a degree, is correct in his thoughts, I don't believe that it will deter me from baking most of my pies using either all vegetable shortening or half butter, half vegetable shortening. My mother, who has never made a butter crust in her life, always says, "Nobody ever complained about my pies", and she made quite a few pies.

While visiting my mother, we both baked pies. My mother used a crust that she had made ahead and had stored in the freezer for several days. I made mine on the spot. Hands down, my mother's crust was the best. Her crust still remains the goal in the journey toward making the perfect pie crust.

Keep on baking.

It's The Last Day Of The Year

It's December 31, and all in all it has been a good year. I finally got The Upper Krust web site (www.theupperkrust.com) up and running after four years of thinking about it and learning Html, Javascript, ASP, Photoshop, and other assorted applications and software.

I always had several goals in mind for creating the site. First, I simply wanted to learn how to build a site from scratch. While this goal probably contributed to the length of time that it took me to get the site up and running, it has certainly proven to be as rewarding as I had hoped it to be.

The second goal was to see if I could generate a discussion or even a debate around the topic of pie crust. There are a gazillion recipe sites already out there in Internet land, with many of them being quite spectacular. The world really does not need another recipe web site. So I decided to create a site and content around a niche subject and audience. Within this audience, I wanted to target two groups of people. The first group would be made up of people who have never baked a pie crust in their life, thinking that it was just to hard. I believe that they are the poorer for not having tried and to that end, the site is dedicated to getting people to at least give it a whirl once in their life. Then there are those who know everything and hopefully will sign up to tell me the errors of my thoughts and ways as it relates to making that perfect crust and pie. Within this discourse, I want to be proven wrong or right and hopefully learn a thing or two myself.

Then there is the humor of it all. The idea is to poke fun at those of us who would actually take the exercise of baking a pie crust just as ridiculously serious as we take ourselves, our work, and our place on this earth way too much of the time.

Finally there is the more wacko goal of trying to translate all this into "a way of life". For those that have no knowledge of the book "Zen And The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", you are going to struggle with this concept. Trying to find the perfect pie crust is really just a way of thinking that focuses on trying to move toward something that is beyond ourselves. Just as humor can strip away our bluster, never reaching, but always continuing toward and searching for pie crust perfection properly puts things into perspective, at least for me, as to where we truly stand in the bigger picture of life.

So there you have it. I have created a web site and a path toward true meaning in life all in one web project. As I said, it really was a good year.