If you recall, Gary did not allow my cranberry-blueberry pie to be served at his parents’ Thanksgiving. He had eaten a smaller version of it three days earlier, and had gagged out, “What is wrong with this pie?”
“Nothing.” I said. “It’s a perfectly good pie.”
(Hacking.) “It TASTES like MEAT.”
“No, it doesn’t, crazy man.” I tasted it. It tasted like fresh berry pie in a Pillsbury Pie Crust. It did not taste like canned pie filling, and I assumed that was what caused the confusion. Three days later he tasted it again and the alleged meat taste / hallucination was gone. And it was the Best Pie Ever.
Today I woke up and felt a Mighty Cooking Spree come on. I made cookies and even though I tweaked the recipe they were just what I wanted. Made a cream of mushroom soup from scratch and even though I halved part of the recipe but not the other, it came out great. And so I made the cranberry-blueberry pie again. I tasted it. It tasted like meat.
I’m just being suggestible, I thought. I had Gary taste it. He gagged. “Meat!”
This pie contains fresh cranberries, blueberries, sugar, nutmeg, flour, and a top and bottom Pillsbury Pie crust. What about that says meat? We wondered if maybe the crust was picking up scents from the oven, but the cookies didn’t taste like meat. Besides, it has been a year since I cooked any red meat in that oven.
So, somebody make this recipe and tell me if it tastes like meat. I promise you’ll have a tasty pie in about three days.
8 responses to “Cranberry Blueberry Meat Pie”
If they make the recipe you linked, it won’t taste like meat. The version you made (“fresh cranberries, blueberries, sugar, nutmeg, flour, and a top and bottom Pillsbury Pie crust”) included nutmeg. The combination of cranberries and nutmeg tastes like meat.
Try it again without the nutmeg.
I haven’t bought Pillsbury pie crusts for a while, so I can’t verify that this is still the case, but I seem to remember that they are made with lard. If the lard is not fresh, they could have a bit of a “piggy” flavor that’s giving you that meat taste.
As Beth points out, it’s the lard. I checked out the Pillsbury website and on one forum the Mod wrote
“Yes, our pie crusts have lard in them which makes the crust flaky. With that though, the Ritz pie crust uses vegetable oil instead of lard.”
I vote for nutmeg being the culprit. It has no place among the berries.
…and if it were the lard, time would make it worse, not better.
~~Silk – I should have done this before, but I took a bite of just the filling, and it doesn’t taste meaty. Just the crust doesn’t taste meaty either. But if I add them together, then I really get the meaty taste. It’s as if the tart cranberrys prepare your mouth for a sweeter crust, but the crust isn’t sweet, it’s buttery.Beth R. (hi Beth) -Maybe. I know someone on the internet tried the Pillsbury crust and said it tasted “cheesy.”Gayle – I remember you just started cooking school. I’m leaning toward the lard now.Becs – I actually made a compilation of all the cranberry blueberry pie recipes I found, and the majority had nutmeg, so I added it.~~Silk – okay, this calls for three small pies: one with pet-ritz crust and nutmeg, one with Pillbury crust and no nutmeg, and one the recipe I used as a control.
Queen,
I think a pie experiment is an excellent idea! But I think any experiment involving pie is generally a good idea. Yes, I’m in an “International Baking and Pastry” program which sounds more glamourous than it is. We really get to know ingredients and their functions in depth. I dug through my notes to the section on “Fats” and found this on Lard. “Animal product, not vegetarian or kosher. Fat from hogs. Imparts a slight meaty flavor which is desirable in some ethnic pastries. Molecular structure is honeycomb shaped which provides great lift (air pockets). Contains moisture which aids in leavening”.
Gayle – yum! Lard sounds tasty.