Sunday, April 12, 2009

On pie and DINKs

Image via Vita Arina

So, in Australia we don't really have 'pie'. If you talked about 'pie' people would assume you meant an individual-sized meat pie. I mean, yeah, you can get apple pie and stuff, but I don't think it's such a big thing as it is in the US. Just recently I discovered, however, that you can actually buy canned pie fruit here. Just like in America! I was sooooo excited! I'd never heard of it before, except on American blogs. I found cherry pie filling, but it was $6 a can. So I settled on apples, at $2.35 a can. And felt very superior, as it was 100% apple, no added sugar or filler or anything.

I thought I would probably need to make some pastry to wrap my special canned pie apples in, so while at the (gourmet) supermarket I bought some fancy traditionally churned, locally produced, terribly expensive butter. Got it home and started googling for a recipe good enough for my special pie filling.

Turns out you Americans use canned pie filling as a time saver. Apparently, if I'm going to use canned fruit I'm not going to make my own pastry. And then I thought about it, and realised that I could have bought apples at $2 a kilo, and sliced them and stewed them, and it would be less than half the price of my canned pie filling, and be identical ingredients wise...

And it was then, sitting there with my insta-pie-filling and my boutique butter that it hit me. I'm a bloody yuppy.

5 comments:

Elizabeth said...

Your pie looks amazing! Home made pie crust is so much better than the frozen stuff.

Here's a secret about apple pie: cut up the apples. Dump them in the crust. Sprinkle with sugar cinnamon and a little flour. Place 5-6 pats of butter around. Cover with another crust. Best apple pie ever - no stewing (or cans!) involved!

Scribbles & Bits said...

No you're not! I mean, yeah, i use the pie filling s a timesaver, but it's so I can spend time working over a from-scratch pie filling!!!! (you know, sometimes something's gotta give)

Lorraine @NotQuiteNigella said...

LOL No! There are so many more things that would make you that :)

Yep pies aren't huge here but I have a hankering for them now that autumn and Winter are coming up!

CL said...

That is SO cheap - is it at Coles/Woolies and all the usual supermarkets?

AisforAmy said...

For me, I use a pre-rolled refrigerated crust from the store and make my own apple filling from my Great Grandmother's recipe. It's quite easy and really, once you get into the rhythm, it becomes sort of relaxing. If you're ever interested in trying it again, I wouldn't mind sharing my recipe. :)