Review: Pies, Savory and Sweet (Easy, Cheap Comfort Eats) by Cynthia Hill Durham
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 11 2, 2013
This is very interesting reading. Some of the recipes are antiques-the Eggless Pumpkin Pie, for instance. "Mock" Pumpkin Pie-with apples, although why you would want to do that escapes me. It is grated apples mixed with spices and evaporated milk, and I suppose it's called a mock pumpkin pie because it's essentially that with grated apple swapped for the pumpkin. There are people who don't like pumpkin, of course. It sounds good, but ever since I made the "Mock Apple Pie" on the Ritz cracker box when I was a kid, anything with "Mock" in the title has activated sirens and red warning flags. Even my father wouldn't eat  the "Ritz Mock Apple Pie" after tasting it, and he would eat almost anything.There are recipes for almost any type of pie crust that you can think of, including one from the War Board In WWI that uses cottage cheese and rice flour which I have been meaning to try.There are the usual fillings, but also some less usual ones. At the risk of sounding like Bubba Gump, there are recipes for: Orange cream pie, Orange custard pie, Date Custard Pie, Ripe Tomato Pie, Half-Green Tomato Pie, Apple-Lemon Meringue Pie, Green Pumpkin Pie, Prune-Applesauce Pie, Fig-and-Cranberry Pie, Rhubarb-Lemon Pie, Grape-Nuts Pie, Ham Dump Pie, Tuna Dump Pie, Medieval Hamburger Pie, Shrimp Pie, Rumpsteak and Oyster Pie, Rabbit Bacon Pie and Pigeon Pie. Never fear, there are also plenty of apple, cherry, lemon, rhubarb, pecan, chocolate, banana and butterscotch pies as well.The recipes are easy to follow, and although there are no pie illustrations, there are very nice old-fashioned illustrations throughout, especially if you are viewing it in color, which I'm not.