THE ORIGINAL ‘RECEIPT’
Whortleberry Pie.
Wash and pick over the berries, place them an inch thick on the under-crust, cover them thickly with sugar; sprinkle with a pinch of salt, or add a small piece of butter, put on the upper crust and bake about half an hour. Blackberry and raspberry pies are made in the same way. They require no spice; but whortleberries are greatly improved by having a few currants or juice of a lemon sprinkled among them. Sift powdered sugar all over fruit pies before serving.
~Warren, Jane. The Economical Cook Book. New York: Hurst and Company, 1890.
What is a whortleberry? It’s also known as a bilberry and is a low-growing blueberry shrub that is commonly found on the heaths of Great Britain and Northern Europe. They are very similar to North American blueberries (same genus).
THE UPDATED RECIPE
- 3 c. blueberries (wild or cultivated… it’s up to you!)
- ¾ c. granulated sugar
- 2 Tb. corn starch
- 1 tsp. butter
- juice of 1 lemon
- pastry sufficient for a double-crust pie. (I used the ‘Rich Short Crust‘)
Clean and wash the blueberries, and drain them well, to remove any excess moisture.
Prepare sufficient pastry for a 9-inch diameter double-crust pie (I used the ‘Rich Short Crust‘ recipe).
Preheat oven to 450F.
Line a 9-inch diameter pie plate with pastry.
Squeeze and strain the lemon juice.
Thoroughly blend the sugar and cornstarch.
Lightly dust the pastry shell with some of the sugar and corn starch mixture, and then put in the blueberries.
Sprinkle the remaining sugar and corn starch evenly over the berries, and dot the top with bits of the butter.
Pour the lemon juice over top.
Put on the top crust of pastry, and cut a few holes in it, to allow for the release of steam, during baking.
Crimp the circumference of the crust, to seal the pastry.
Place the pie immediately into the preheated oven, and bake at 450F for about 8 to 10 minutes, or until the crust is just delicately golden.
Reduce the temperature to 350F and bake an additional 25 to 30 minutes.
Remove from the oven, and cool slightly on a rack.
Serve either warm or cooled; sprinkle powdered sugar over the top just before serving, if desired.
Yield: 6 to 8 servings.
A note about blueberries: Wild blueberries are available in parts of Canada during the latter part of July; it would have been these wild berries, rather than the larger, cultivated variety that are prevalent today, which were used for baking in the nineteenth century here in Canada.
A note from Patricia: This is only the second pie that I’ve made in my life (the first being “Raspberries in Ambush“), and so it was a fun learning experience for me getting that top crust on. I’m thankful no one was watching me and judging, and to be honest it took a few tries and it’s still off centre. I made the crust with 1:1 gluten-free baking flour, and it worked well – I did have to add a bit more than the 1-2 tablespoons of cold water as the pastry still seemed dry and didn’t feel like it was binding. My creative juices were flowing today, so I decided to make my life more difficult with a leaf-shaped cookie cutter detail around the edges. I used a toothpick to add the grooves in the leaves, and I think it’s pretty cute the way it turned out. The taste? Sweet and delightful, bursting with blueberry and lemon flavours – my favourite combination. Be sure to use the “Rich Short Crust” pastry…. it’s divine!
Whortleberries make a very good common pie, where there is a large family of children.
~Mrs. Child. The American Frugal Housewife. Boston: American Stationers’ Company, 1836.
Be not sparing of sugar to any fruit pie.
~Frazer, Mrs. The Practice of Cookery (3rd Edition). Edinburgh: Printed for Peter Hill; by J. Ruthven & Sons, 1800.
With fruit pies always have a sugar dish on the table in case they should not be found sweet enough.
~Leslie, Eliza. Miss Leslie’s Complete Cookery: Directions for Cookery in its Various Branches (59th Edition). Philadelphia: Henry Carey Baird, 1861.
To prevent the juice from running over, a level teaspoonful of cornstarch should be evenly sprinkled over the fruit before the upper crust is put on.
~Kirk, Alice Gitchell. The People’s Home Recipe Book (Book II of The People’s Home Library). Toronto: Imperial Publishing Co. 1916.
The forests of Quebec are rich in wild berries; cranberries, Indian pears, black currants, sarsaparilla spring up freely in the wake of the great fires, but the blueberry, the bilberry or whortleberry of France, is of all the most abundant and delicious. The gathering of them, from July to September, is an industry for many families who spend the whole day in the woods; strings of children down to the tiniest go swinging their tin pails, empty in the morning, full and heavy by evening. Others only gather the blueberries for their own use, either to make jam or the famous pies national to French Canada.
~Hemon, Louis (translated by W.H. Blake). Maria Chapdelaine. Toronto: The Macmillan Company, 1921.
Looking for other pie recipes? Try any of these…. you won’t be sorry!
Canada Farmer’s Lemon Pie
Backwoods Pie
Sponge Cake Lemon Pie
Raspberries in Ambush
Sliced Apple Pie
Grandmother’s Pumpkin Pie
Red Currant and Raspberry Tart
