After a pie is taken from the oven, it should not be removed from the pan in which it is baked until it is served. In fact, pie with a tender crust cannot be handled easily and so should be cut while it is still in the pan. Often it is best to serve a pie warm. When this is to be done, it can be served immediately upon being taken from the oven, or if it has been baked for some time and is cold, it may be set in the oven and reheated before serving. Such treatment will freshen any pie that has become more or less stale and, as is well known, pie is much more palatable when it is warm and fresh than when it is cold or stale. In case pies must be kept before being served, they should be stored in a place that is both cold and dry. A refrigerator is too damp and for this reason should not be used; but any other cool place that is sufficiently dry will be satisfactory.
79. Several ways of serving pie are in practice. This dessert may be baked in attractive dishes especially designed for this purpose and then served from them at the table, or it may be baked in an ordinary pie pan and then placed on a plate larger than the pan for serving. Pie of the usual size is generally divided into five or six pieces, a sharp knife being used to cut it. If possible, a pie knife, which is narrow at the end of the blade and gradually grows broader until the handle is reached, where it is very broad, should be provided for the serving of this dessert, for it helps very much in handling the triangular pieces that are cut from a large pie. The plates on which pie is served should be at least as large as salad plates. Very often, instead of serving it from the pan at the table, it is put on plates in the kitchen and passed at the table. Pie is always eaten with a fork, one that is smaller than a dinner fork being used.
80. With most pies containing fruit filling, a small piece of cheese, preferably highly flavored cheese, may be served. This makes a very good accompaniment so far as flavor is concerned, but is omitted in some meals because it may supply too much food value or too much protein. However, if the fact that a high-protein food is to be served at the end of the meal is taken into account when the remainder of the meal is planned, there need be no hesitancy in serving cheese with pie. Of course, when cheese is to be included in the meal in this way, the portions of the protein foods served with the main course should be smaller.
81. A very attractive as well as appetizing way in which to serve pie is known as pie à la mode. This method of serving, which is often resorted to when something extra is desired, consists in placing a spoonful or two of ice cream of any flavor on each serving of apple or other fruit pie. Pie served in this way is high in food value and is a general favorite with persons who are fond of both ice cream and pie.
PASTRIES AND PIES
EXAMINATION QUESTIONS
(1) (a) What is pastry? (b) What is the principal use of pastry?
(2) How should the use of pastry with meals be governed?
(3) What may be said of the flour used for pastry?
(4) Discuss the shortenings that may be used for pastry.