Culinary Historians: Pie History (new speaker), Nov 19, 2011

Go to next post for revised program information.

Culinary Historians of Chicago presents:

Pie-eyed over the South
-- Dixie’s Crusty History
Presented by
Nancie McDermott
Author, “Southern Pies”

Saturday, November 19, 2011
10 a.m. to Noon
At
Lexington College
(Second floor)
310 S. Peoria St., Chicago
(Two blocks west of Halsted, just south of Jackson)
Free parking in adjacent college garage

Join cookbook author Nancie McDermott for a slice of pie history. She'll roll out the story, starting 600 years ago with a peek under the lids of hefty freestanding 'pyes' seen in medieval illustrations, mostly savory and baked in crusts alarmingly known as 'coffyns'. With a glance into Renaissance kitchens where butter and eggs blessedly nudge piecrust in an edible direction,

Nancie will place our focus on the pies of colonial America, where sweet fillings join savory ones, and where the Southern affection for pies sprouts and begins to grow. Nancie will discuss traditional ingredients and methods, plain and fancy pies, equipment, and regional variations in this beloved dessert. Additionally, in honor of our welcome by Lexington College, Nancie will look at women in the hospitality industry, celebrating how women have turned their culinary talents into income for themselves and their families over the last 150 years.

* * *

Nancie McDermott has been writing about food and teaching cooking classes around the country for more than two decades. Her 10 cookbooks cover topics from the traditional cuisine of Thailand, where she worked as a Peace Corps volunteer, to the esteemed place of cakes and pies on the Southern table.

Since moving back home to North Carolina, Nancie has written about Southern baking as well as Asian cooking. Her latest book is "Southern Pies: A Gracious Plenty of Pie Recipes from Lemon Chess to Chocolate Pecan", published last fall by Chronicle Books. She lives with her family in Chapel Hill, NC, where she writes about baking for "Taste of the South" and is a contributing editor for Edible Piedmont.

* * *

Cost of the lecture program is $5, $3 for students and members
and NO CHARGE for CHC members and Lexington faculty and students.
To reserve, please PM Cathy2.

Or e-mail your reservation to: Culinary.Historians@gmail.com.

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Note: Nancie McDermott cancelled due to family considerations. We have a new speaker on pies for this date.

Culinary Historians of Chicago

The Pie Must Go On
-- An American Pie Story

Presented by
Catherine Lambrecht

Saturday, November 19, 2011

10 a.m. to Noon

Lexington College
(Second floor)
310 S. Peoria St., Chicago
(Two blocks west of Halsted, just south of Jackson)
Free parking in adjacent college garage


Pies are as American as pizza is American: we took a great idea, adapted it to our needs and ran with it. They used what they had available locally and made the most from it. In the Northeast and Midwest, it was apples; in the South it was molasses pies, in Florida the Key Lime Pie and the Southwest came nut pies. Apple pies were not always dessert, our American ancestors considered them survival food often eating pie for breakfast, lunch and dinner for six month stretches.

This History of American Pies was originally presented to Culinary Historians of Chicago’s, ‘Munching Your Way Through the Midwest: Celebrating the History of America's Food and Foodways.’ This symposium introduced the newly published Oxford Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink.

* * *

Catherine Lambrecht is a founder and moderator of LTHforum.com, the Chicago-based culinary chat site. A founder of Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance dedicated to celebrating, exploring and preserving unique food traditions and their cultural contexts in the American Midwest. Every month she organizes programs for Chicago Foodways Roundtable of Culinary Historians of Chicago.

* * *

Cost of the lecture program is $5, $3 for students and no charge for CHC members. To reserve, please call 847/432-8255. Or e-mail your reservation to: Culinary.Historians@gmail.com. PLEASE NOTE: RSVP REQUIRED--SEATING IS LIMITED AND CHC MEMBERS WILL RECEIVE PRIORITY CONSIDERATION. (If you have RSVP’d and cannot make it, please call and let us know.)

I'm still coming!

There will be Coconut Cream Pie, Apple-Pecan Crumble pie and coffee served.

Hot diggety damn! Coconut! That would be preferable to either the LeonaCake or wedding cake I'll be offered later in the day.

WBEZ’s Chicago Amplified partners with Culinary Historians by recording our programs and making them available for broadcast on demand at their website or downloadable to an iPod. Our most recent program:

Notes from November’s American Pie program with Catherine Lambrecht:

Sweets: Home Baking I – Pie: The second panel of the morning featured three panelists to discuss Midwestern pies: Peter Engler, Research scientist and food historian, presents "Bean Pie: Iconic African-American-Islamic dessert"; Paula Haney, of the Hoosier Mama Pie Company, presents "From Abundance to Desperation: Pies of Indiana"; and Catherine Lambrecht, a founder of the Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance, concludes the panel with her presentation "Reclaiming the Pecan's Roots."
http://www.wbez.org/episode-segments/sw ... king-i-pie

WBEZ’s Chicago Amplified partners with Culinary Historians by recording our programs and making them available for broadcast on demand at their website or downloadable to an iPod. Our most recent program:

The Pie Must Go On: An American Pie Story with Catherine Lambrecht
http://www.wbez.org/story/pie-must-go-a ... tory-94799