Down the Rabbit Hole to Food Utopia
Here we deep dive into an ingredient or recipe or a food-related something. But just doing that opens sooo many more interesting "holes." I just looked over the edge of 5 of them. I am going to climb in later!
Our Thanksgiving Pie Table
I got to thinking about Thanksgiving past. Mostly because I have 22 people coming this year, and that seems like a lot of people! I began wondering how will every one fit in my house. Then I recalled holidays at The Farm. My grandparents on my dad's side— and btw, if anyone reading is a Lowrie, we are related. Anyway, my grandparents were dairy farmers with a small comfy house near Pleasant Grove/Stewartville area.It seemed as though there had to be at least 50 people at holiday get-togethers. How on earth did we all fit? My house is probably triple the size of my grandparents, so I have no earthly reason to think I have any space issues.
In the 60s and 70s, the kids actually played outside for even hours at a time. We would huddle in my grandparents' bedroom closet with our dolls. We played hide and seek under the mountain of coats on the bed or played board games in the tiny hallway outside the bathroom. I never once thought it was crowded. OK, boomer….
The reality is there was no way people could have eaten Thanksgiving dinner altogether. They ate in shifts. Also, it's likely the relatives came and went at different times. Meaning the kitchen was open all day long. And that included the dishwashing. I did my best to steal clear of the kitchen. There was no electric dishwasher; I'm talking ceramic sink with a dish bowl in it. The goal was to stay out of the kitchen. It was an easy task, except after round one of the dishes were washed and dried, the desserts were set up on the Thanksgiving Pie Table was set on kitchen table.
I had some anxiety over dessert time. Pie was served on the same plate dinner was on. IF I wanted to complain about that, I'd have an apron on, and my shift would begin. Also, they all said the same thing "it's going to end up in the same place anyway." So I learned to clean my plate. Hmmm, was there an ulterior motive there? I scraped every bit of gravy off to one side, so I had ample room for my chosen pie with no fear of touching anything dinner-related.
From there it was time to choose the pie. The dessert table was truly fabulous. There were cakes too. Always white (whatever that flavor is), marble and spice. But the pies were the superstars. Pumpkin, pecan, apple (my favorite, though pecan is right up there), blueberry, cherry, banana cream, coconut cream, and the elusive Black Bottom Pie. I never got to choose Black Bottom Pie. I'm not even sure the men did either. I know, cat's out the bag; it was the 60s; what can I say. The women were in the kitchen doing dishes. The men stayed at the dining room table or fell asleep on the floor in front of the tiny black and white television. Black Bottom Pie was the kitchen crew's pie; so, there were perks. I remember that when someone noticed there was just a single piece left, there was a mad dash of forks trying to spear the final piece for themselves. The first fork there was declared the winner. Needless to say, I became pretty curious about that pie. What made it so special? I recall it being obviously chocolate, but it seemed pretty detailed.
Here we go down the intended RH-Rabbit Hole…
First:
What is black bottom pie? It is a custard pie, the custard is divided, and chocolate is added to half. The chocolate half was spread on the bottom, becoming the black bottom. The top was vanilla custard, then usually topped with whipped cream and chocolate shavings.
Black Bottom Pie is thought to have southern roots because of the "black bottom," which supposedly resembled the dark, muddy southern parts of the Mississippi River. There are references to the pie dating way back to the early 1900s and 1910s. But the black bottom pie really took off over a dance called The Black Bottom in the 1920s.
Should you want to give that dance a try, here are some written instructions. Good luck.
Hop down front then Doodle back (Doodle means slide)
. Mooch to your left, then Mooch to the right
. Hands-on your hips and do the Mess Around,
. Break a Leg until you're near the ground (Break a Leg is a hobbling step)
. Now that's the Old Black Bottom Dance
Instructions for the Mooch are "Shuffle forward with both feet. Hips go first, then feet."
Like many culinary classics, tons of people claim to be the originator, and there are many variations. So it's a mystery of what the original pie actually looked like. I found recipes calling for chocolate cookie crust, gingersnap crusts, and a graham cracker crust. I also read there was a lemon layer rather than vanilla. In LA, back in the '30s, there was a Pie King, Monroe Boston Strause. He supposedly invented the graham cracker crust and the chiffon pie. He professes he created this whole Black Bottom Pie wonder. He actually refers to it as "our own dessert sensation," saying, "without doubt the most sensational pie that has ever been introduced, and is one of the outstanding originals of the writer" Well, OK, then.
On top of that, it sold it for $1.90 a pie retail, and that was the highest price any pie ever sold for. So his recipe for the pie could not be sensational on its own it had to start with a graham cracker crust. So, of course, it did.
While Monroe is boasting away in California, Duncan Hines is traveling around the United States. Duncan Hines wasn't a chef; he was a businessman just looking for a decent meal on the road.
RH #1 I never knew there was a guy named Duncan Hines, let alone that he was a traveling salesman. It turns out he was basically the first Zagat, sort of restaurant reviewers.
RH #2. The Zagats were a married couple, both lawyers, who consider themselves serious gourmands. They reviewed restaurants, wrote a book, and so on.
OK, back to Duncan. He, too, considered himself an authority on eating. I can relate. He wanted to locate a tasty restaurant meal, in 1935, for under a dollar and a quarter and tell us all about it. So he was the first Restaurant Critic. Duncan had his first slice of black-bottom pie at an Oklahoma diner. He said this is "one of those marvelous creations that have somehow managed to keep its light under a bushel" He later wrote a book called The Adventures of Good Eating.
RH#3 Also in his book, he references The Hotel Anderson in Wabash MN He enjoyed many things there, including the cream of peanut soup.
And yes, Duncan Hines did end having a connection to cake in the end.
Back to Back Bottom Pie…
There's always a restaurant or two that will insist on being the official mastermind behind the recipe. One to make that claim is the famous Brown Derby in Los Angeles. Originally located at 3427 Wilshire Boulevard in a building that was shaped like a man's derby hat. The Derby was around for 60-years before it finally closed its doors in 1985. The menu was famous for many well-known items, including signature cocktails, the Cobb Salad, and guess what? Black Bottom Pie.
RH#4, Wait, Cobb Salad? So wasn't it Larry David's grandfather that created the Cobb Salad? or was that Bingo?
Then there's Weidmann's Restaurant in Meridian, the oldest restaurant in Mississippi. Before your dinner, you were presented with a crock of peanut butter and some crackers. This practice dates back to World War II, when there was a butter shortage, and the owner substituted peanut butter.
RH #5 What? Peanut butter and cracker appetizers, I need to know more.
Back to Weidmann's The Black Bottom Pie has this official title Weidmann's World Famous Black Bottom Pie, and it's basically heaven on a plate.
Wiedmann's was first opened in 1870 by Swiss chef Felix Weidmann. In 1923, Felix's grandson Henry Weidman took over. There were several owners over the years. It was and still is a local favorite and still serves their famous black bottom pie.
So there you have it. No objective evidence as to what the original recipe was. But my family's original had a pastry crust, no gingersnaps, graham crackers, or even chocolate wafers. I knew there was not a lemon layer, but the details were still a little sketchy.
I contacted my cousin Jenny; she's always baking something, it seems. She is much younger than I, and I didn't know if she would remember the pie table at my grandparents. However, the pies table continued over the years at her grandmother, my aunt Lorraine who I knew loved desserts! Jenny would have run into Black Bottom at some time! It was uncanny that when I texted Jenny, she responded that she just was looking through her Grandma's recipe box and saw the Black Bottom Pie recipe. As a kid, she said she was told she would never like Black Bottom Pie, so just stick with pumpkin. So, the foolery had continued on. She said there was some controversy regarding the amount of chocolate in the black bottom. Her Grandma had a preference for dark chocolate and a dark color on the bottom. Her mother, however, added more milk to get a milk chocolate flavor. I actually remember it that way. Here's the part that I believe made the pie very special and also a labor of love. The vanilla custard was divided, chocolate was added to one half. Mind you, it was homemade custard (no instant pudding mix here, folks). So after the custard was layered, the recipe now called for meringue. That's a whole nother recipe, bowl, and layer to whip up. Rum extract was added to the meringue. After setting up in the icebox, a thin layer of whip cream went on top of that. Jenny said she made the pie a few years ago and was out of rum extract. She wanted to surprise her Grandma with the pie and thought, what would Lorraine do if she was out of extract? Use real rum! A tablespoon was added and though a bit softer than the original. It was claimed to be even better than the original.
Move over, Duncan, Monroe, and all you others. Jenny may just have created THE Black Bottom Pie. Cudo’s to you Jenny and you better have told the grand kids this pie was not for them.
So, here's our family recipe card. Hand-written in old-time-y penmanship that looks a lot like my Grandma's.
