Conventional wisdom dictates that the proper vessel for pie is nine to 12 inches across and round. To this, I say: Think outside the pie plate.
For the last six months, I've exclusively baked pies in casseroles. High-walled rectangular glass casseroles with two-foot berths, petite round porcelain casseroles with delicate fluted edges, egg-shaped ceramic casseroles with squat sides. It's a shift of necessity more than anything—I've been traveling abroad and cooking out of strangers' Airbnb kitchens, which inevitably lack whatever utensil or kitchenware I'm seeking at any given time. (Need a whisk? No whisk. Need a chopping board? No chopping board.) I've encountered a pie plate not even once, a serious problem given that pie—spiced caramel apple pie, to be specific—is my primary means of cultural exchange. Yet every reasonably stocked kitchen, whether it be a matchbox apartment in Japan or a sprawling cottage in New Zealand, had a casserole. So I adapted.
Once you have a recipe down, it's not so difficult. Rejigger a recipe to make more or less filling, more or less pastry. For me, the strangest thing is that I've actually come to prefer casserole pie—think slab pie in a Pyrex—to the round pie of myth and legend. It's simple math: When using a large tray, a single pie has the potential to feed far more hungry guests. (Why bake three pies for a crowd when you can get by with one?) More compellingly, the pastry-to-filling ratio is far more suited to my palate. (More filling, less pastry!) Sometimes, I forgo the pie's bottom layer entirely: A layer of filling gets a modest layer of pie pastry on top, and it's off to the races. The whole affair has a more rustic look, which means the pressure is off to create a perfectly crimped crust or an expertly woven lattice. Why bother? Casserole pies are for raucous, crowded dinner parties with one-too-many guests and late-summer barbecues after three or four beers with new friends.
Casserole pies to be devoured, happily and with haste, not fawned over. And they're precisely what you need when you're a stranger in a strange kitchen, trying to make something that tastes like home.
Photo by Epicurious. Get the recipe here.
How to make the flakiest pie crust:
