Afra Lineberry, Agee to her family, opened The Jerre Anne Bake Shoppe in St. Joe, Missouri, in 1930. It was the last stop on the trolley line. Conductors would leave their cars running while they ran into Agee’s for a cup of coffee and a piece of pie. “It seems like I just always knew how to make a good pie crust. It may take a little practice for some, but the only time to get excited about a pie crust is when you’re eating it,” Agee used to say. The little shop grew to be a smashing success, and by 1990, with Geraldine Lawhon (Agee’s niece) running the place, it was selling 625 pies at Thanksgiving alone. Sadly, The Jerre Anne closed its doors in 2008. When you eat Agee’s pie, send your thanks heavenward.
This pastry dough calls for pastry flour, a special flour that you may not already have in your pantry, but the results are well worth acquiring it for a crust that's both flaky and tender. We prefer unbleached pastry flour, such as King Arthur. If you prefer, you can substitute cake flour for the pastry flour. The pastry or cake flour keeps the pastry dough tender, and the vinegar strengthens the gluten and adds elasticity. This pastry dough has more salt than most. Kosher salt is coarser than table salt. If you are using table salt instead, cut the amount of salt in half.
This ragu from the late 18th century tastes rich, brown and velvety with the surprise of cinnamon and tingly black pepper. The sauce blends well with tagliatelle, pappardelle, penne and garganelli pastas. Experience it as it was first made centuries ago by combining the ragu with hollow maccheroni-style pasta and baking it. You could, of course, simply serve it up without baking.
Equipment:
(Potage Aux Féves Fraîche)
Ingredients
Ingredients
What a surprise it was to taste tomatoes this sugary, a vivid reminder that they are in fact berries, not vegetables.
In speaking of this most celebrated of Irish potato dishes, the musician Mick Bolger—whose Denver-based contemporary Celtic band is called Colcannon—notes that it has a "wonderful affinity" for corned beef and cabbage. And he confesses that he has also eaten it "with fillet mignon and port sauce; with rashers [bacon], tomatoes, and kidneys-in-their-jackets at 4 a.m.; and—God forgive me—wrapped in a tortilla, microwaved, and eaten, over the sink, with salsa." It is, in other words, a versatile creation. It is also one that exists in numerous variations, depending on the season, the region of the country, and of course personal taste. It is often made with just butter, milk, and kale, but the scholar P. W. Joyce defines "caulcannon" as "potatoes mashed with butter and milk, with chopped up cabbage and pot-herbs." Mary Ward, when she makes colcannon at her house in Nenagh, County Tipperary, starts with a trip to the kitchen garden, armed with a basket and a pair of shears. This is her recipe.
In his book Ratios: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking, food writer Michael Ruhlman reveals the cooking codes professional cooks use all the time. Here is Michael's formula for pie dough: