Alabama Pecan Pie - Skirt in the Kitchen

Alabama Pecan Pie adapted by Susan Nuyt from The Southern Heritage Pies and Pastry Cookbook

This is an excellent cookbook from long ago. And it’s symbolic to the Americana way. You know, civilization and culture during a time in our Country when values mattered a lot more than they seemingly matter, now, and have in the past ten years.

American history, even architecturally, is still to be preserved and respected. These are not just buildings. It’s about people’s lives, families. There’s a story, somewhere, everywhere, if you simply take a look around; depicting a richness of an existence and being/s. A bountiful supply of something that is still so pleasing with depth, beauty, and strength.

There are good bones, and there are rafters and perhaps split ceilings with cracks and perhaps rot. A word picture that isn’t just about a house, but about people who make up the architectural structures of communities, towns, cities, a nation. An abundance of valuable possessions and money, and even poverty within people.

Poverty of something. Maybe a combination in each and every life…

This is a traditional pecan pie recipe that I didn’t want to change, to take from; rather, the inquisition I had of its authenticity during the era when it was created and later published in this cookbook.

Probably most of us can say that we’re partial to what our moms and/or our grandmothers made; and aunts. I’m no exception to the rule. I prefer what I’ve had of my mother, and significantly of both my grandmothers and many if not most of my aunts’. They each have their own signature dish, to me, in this noggin of memory! I recall what they’d brought to the years’ family gatherings on occasions and holiday meals when the cousins were galore! How beautiful are these memories, now, more than ever. And I miss, almost, each one of their signature dishes as much as I miss each one of them.

If you like a particular pie, you’ll like this one, if pecan is one of your favorites. But speaking of beforehand, I’m partial to my mother’s homemade pecan pie. I’m not kidding when I mention to you that hers is like a candy bar. Her own technique of making for the past 20 or so years, upon her own accidental way of baking it in steps for lack of clock time, is what mastered her pecan pie. It didn’t used to be so yummy as now.

But this one is unique unto its own, also.

Let’s talk about pie crust, shall we? Oh, yeah, I’ve heard it in the Midwest… pleasing or not, people are picky and partial about their crust recipes as much as they are about the whole pie. Needless to say, let’s put that one to rest, too.

A good pie is a darn good pie.

I have found that this crust recipe in this book is wonderful if baked fresh. If you dare freeze the shell for a few days later, it can tend to toughen. So bake this fresh, have pie great and grand.

Follow the recipe above in the picture printed in the book, of course.

I think and believe that cooking and baking should be play, enjoyable, not just out of provision and need.

It’s also an art form, stress-free if you let it be.

We can over-analyze things a bit too much. Just enjoy your own thing, do your own thing; don’t care what anybody thinks or says in regards to what you do. As long as you enjoy it, that’s all that matters when it comes to baking a pie.

Here is the Alabama Pecan Pie recipe in the book that I was curious to see how it baked up! I’m glad that I did in retrospect.

Whether you have your own pecans in your own back yard or if you have to spend more money in the stores to have them, it’s always a pleasure to forage.