818-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 9,1989
Pie-Making Tips From The Pie-Making Expert
BY LOU ANN GOOD
LEBANON (Lebanon Co.)
Three years ago, Pauline Shack
thought she’d try to sell a few of
her pies on the roadside along with
some of her garden produce. That
first week, she sold only three.
From those humble beginnings,
the demand for Pauline’s pie grew
to as many as 389 pies a week.
This 71-year-old rises at 3 a.m.
and sometimes works until 10 p.m.
to fill the orders for “Pauline’s
Pies.”
As she pulled a wet-bottom shoo
fly pie from the oven, she
remarked, “They say my shoo fly
pies are better than those in Lan
caster County.”
She gave a pleased smile and
added, “Some of my regular cus
tomers come from as far away as
York County because they say
they can’t find a better pie.”
Pauline estimates that 75 per
cent of her customers are men. She
said, “A lot of women don’t bake
pies today. They’re either too busy
or they say they can’t.”
She modestly remarks, “I don’t
have any special secrets. I don’t
think it’s hard to make a good pie.”
iy retirement age, but we’re not old,” said Pau
line Strack. She and her husband Franklin don’t even think
of getting old; Instead, they said, “We keep ours eh as busv
and are never bored.” J
' Th,s ,s the second marriage for both whose spouses had
died. Now Franklin and Pauline combine their efforts to
make pies that have grown In popularity In Lebanon
County.
Even when Pauline bakes 389 pies in a week, she still mix
es the Ingredients one pie at a time.
To help out with business
demand, Pauline enticed her sister
Mildred Early to help with the pie
making.
The sisters laugh heartily as they
recount the pleasures and hazards
of pie baking.
Mildred recalls, “When I first
came to help, Pauline had to teach
me how to bake a pic and I never
got so yelled at in my life as I did
those first two weeks.”
While many cooks search for a
perfect pie crust recipe, Pauline
maintains that it doesn’t takea spe
cial recipe to make a good, flaky
crust. She said, “The secret is to
not work the dough more than you
must after you add the water.”
Although she gladly shared her
recipe for crust, others may find it
difficult to copy since she adds
“just enough water until the dough
feels right”
Mildred, who always rolls out
the dough because Pauline’s hands
swell from arthritis, rolls out the
dough on a cloth-covered table.
The rolling pin is also cloth
covered.
“You don’t need to use as much
flour when you roll on cloth,” Pau-
line explained, “and the dough
doesn’t stick to the counter or the
rolling pin.”
When the dough is placed on the
pie plate, the dough should not be
stretched but rather relaxed. “If
you stretch the dough, it shrinks
when you bake it,” Pauline said.
She cuts the dough that overlaps
the edges with a scissors about
one-inch from the edge so that pie
shell edges can be kept high.
Filled pies can be baked imme
diately, but if the pie crust needs to
be baked before filling, Pauline
lets it set for an hour before baking
to reduce shrinkage.
She bakes all her pies in a 385
degree oven on the bottom shelf of
her electric oven.
Although the sisters bake many
pies for customers who drop by
without ordering, they prefer fill
ing orders. Fruit pies available
with crumbs, lattice or lid crusts
cost $3 to $4 in the following fla
vors: apple, cherry, apricot, peach,
raspberry, raisin, rhubarb, and
blueberry. Custard pies cost from
$2.75 to $3.50 and include the fol
lowing flavors: coconut, molasses
coconut, lemon sponge, wet
bottom shoo fly, and egg custard
with or without fruit. For $3.50,
customers can buy a meringue pie
in the following flavors: coconut,
lemon, chocolate cream, peanut
butter cream, and banana cream.
Holiday favorites include pump
kin, pecan, mince, grasshopper
and key lime pie.
Many of their customers pro
crastinate and call only hours
before wanting to pick up a pie.
Pauline said, “I told my sister
we aren’t going to bake after 12
o’clock on a Saturday anymore.”
“But,” Mildred revealed, “That
only lasted one week.”
It seems the good-natured Pau
line just can’t turn a customer’s
request down even when she is
tired.
Like all good cooks, Pauline
believes the ingredients of every
pie, should be tasted.
One time, sugar was inadverted
ly missed in the ingredients of a
pumpkin custard.
“It doesn’thappen too often, but
it has happened,” Pauline said.
“That’s why we should taste test
the ingredients.”
Even seasoned pie makers like
the two sisters experience occa
sional disasters. Recently, Pauline
pulled a banana meringue pie from
the oven and remarked, “Doesn’t
this look pretty?”
Unfortunately, while admiring
her creation, she dropped it in the
oven.
With all the rolling, mixing and
baking going on in the Strack
household, other family members
get involved in the baking
business.
Pauline’s* husband, Franklin,
buys supplies from a local grocery.
Flour is purchased in 10-pound
bags because they are easier to
handle than larger-sized bags.
Pauline’s son Charlie, who does
the dairy farm work, helps peel
apples and pumpkins. Daughter
Louise, who lives in an apartment
adjoining the Strack farmhouse,
bakes Christmas cookies and
homemade bread to sell.
The week before Thanksgiving,
it took 200 pounds of flour, 20 gal
lons of milk, 56 dozen eggs, and 20
three-pound cans of shortening to
fill the pie orders.
Although the Stracks live on a
dairy farm, she purchases her milk
to allay any fears customers may
have of unpasteurized milk.
This is the second marriage for
both Pauline and her husband who
were widowed. When they mar
>»
✓ *
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Pauline's sister Mildred Early helps with the pie making.
She rolls out the dough on a pastry cloth and uses a cloth*
Customers who stop by find a variety of pies setting on a
table at the Strack’s enclosed porch.
ried nine years ago, Franklin
moved on Pauline’s dairy farm.
His son maintains Franklin’s Cen-
tury farm on which the Strack
named appeared on the sheepskin
document.
Although some recipes have
been handed down through the
generations, Pauline said many
have been clipped from Lancaster
Faming. After so much pie mak
ing, Pauline said, “Most of the
recipes are in my head.”
While it gives Pauline great
pleasure to see others enjoy her
pies, she said, that one customer in
particular has made her feel proud.
That is Letie Schadler, the Leba
non County home econmisL The
first time, Letie bought a pie, Pau
line said to her sister, “I’m scared. I
know what Letie does to a pie. She
shakes it, turns it upside down and
examines it bite by bite.”
When Letie appeared sometime
later, she said, “I have a few ques
tions for you. How do you brown
the bottoms of your pie because pie
crust baked in tin foil pans doesn’t
brown?”
Pauline shrugged. “It does-for
me. I just bake pies on the bottom
oven shelf at 385 degrees.”
“You make good pies,” the
home economist assessed. She
occasionally stops by for more of
Pauline’s pies.
Pauline said, “That made me
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feel good, coming from Lettie,
because everyone knows how par
ticular she is.”
Out of curiousity, Pauline’s sis
ter often buys pies from others.
Whether it’s loyally or fact,
Mildred maintains her sister’s pies
are hard to beat. She reports that
many of the pies she purchased
tasted terrible. She said, “I felt
awfully sick on one that 1 bought at
a restaurant. Some crusts you can’t
even cut.”
Regardless of the amount of pies
Pauline makes, she mixes one pie
at a time. “When you mix too
many batches, the ingredients
separate, and 1 think it doesn’t get
as good,” she said.
In the past two years, Pauline
has not taken a vacation. “Give me
a day or two at traveling and home
really looks good to me. I’m
always satisfied to be here,” she
said.
But this year she plans to close
for two weeks after Christmas so
she can clean the house.
While the two sisters stir the
ingredients for pies and measure
out the flour, laughter rings
throughout the kitchen.
One customer told the two sis-
ters, “You act like you don’t have a
care in the world."
Pauline answered, “People
don’t want to hear our troubles.
(Turn to Pago B 20)