Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose…and sometimes you fall in between. That’s how my modern rendition of Lydia Child’s tomato pie turned out – in my opinion, at least.
In her book, the American Frugal Housewife, Child mentions various methods for making squash pies. But in an endnote, she writes that stewed and salted tomatoes can be “prepared the same as rich squash pies, only an egg or two more,” (pg. 115).
I was intrigued. In the past, I’ve been pleased with other historical recipes that break modern expectations of which foods should be sweet or savory.* Furthermore, I like pumpkin pie and I like tomatoes, so how bad could a tomato pie be?
Not horrible. But I didn’t think it was fantastic either. There were mixed reviews among my taste-testers…so maybe you just need to try it for yourself;)
In case you desire to create a tomato pie, here is what I did based upon this 19th century recipe:
Tomatoes make excellent pies. Skins taken off with scalding water, stewed twenty minutes or more, salted, prepared the same as rich squash pies, only an egg or two more….
For common family pumpkin pies, three eggs do very well to a quart of milk. Stew your pumpkin, and strain it through a sieve, or colander. Take out the seeds, and pare the pumpkin, or squash, before you stew it; but do not scrape the inside; the part nearest the seed is the sweetest part of the squash. Stir in the stewed pumpkin, till it is as thick as you can stir it round rapidly and easily. If you want to make your pie richer, make it thinner, and add another egg. One egg to a quart of milk makes very decent pies. Sweeten it to your taste, with molasses or sugar; some pumpkins require more sweetening than others. Two tea-spoonfuls of salt; two great spoonfuls of sifted cinnamon; one great spoonful of ginger. Ginger will answer very well alone for spice, if you use enough of it. The outside of a lemon grated in is nice. The more eggs, the better the pie; some put an egg to a gill of milk. They should bake from forty to fifty minutes, and even ten minutes longer, if very deep.
Lydia Maria Child, The American Frugal Housewife
After reading that misleading but very informative receipt (recipe), I decided on this method:
First, blanche your tomatoes. Child doesn’t mention how many – I chose five, which, combined with the rest of my ingredients, actually made two pies.
Once the tomatoes are blanched and peeled, mash the tomatoes until only small chunks remain. Feel free to blend them to ensure a smoother pie filling.
[Technical issue: unfortunately, many of my photos would not load, so this spare collection will have to do for now. The center photo is the pie mix before I added the tomatoes.]
In a separate bowl, whisk together some milk and eggs – I used four, which comes out to Child’s recommendation of one egg per gill (1/2 cup) of milk. More eggs probably would have been better.
Add to the milk and eggs molasses, salt, cinnamon and ginger. Avoid scrambling your eggs by adding small amounts of the pie mixture to the tomatoes while stirring. Once the tomatoes are successfully incorporated into some of the egg mix, pour them into the rest of the filling.
Line a pie plate with your favorite pie crust (I left my to chill in the refrigerator for too long – freeze it if you’re going to make it a few days apart).
The bake! Mine took about 60 to 70 minutes.
Unfortunately, I cut the pies too soon after they exited the oven – they were not set. Though they settled more after cooling, an additional egg or two would aid the firmness. Furthermore, the piecrust in the glass pie plate was crisper than the cast iron one, if you have an option.
As I mentioned before, these pies were by no means repulsive – some found them delicious! They were a combination between tomato soup and pumpkin pie. I’m all for trying new foods, but tried-and-true foods are sometimes still the best.
Full recipe to come!
*My previous savory/sweet mix-ups include onion pie – a family favorite – chicken and cranberry pie, and salmon with cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, etc. Keep your eye out for those recipes in the future!
