I was snooping around, looking for material for the PA Breweries update's Regional Foods section (definitely getting expanded), when someone mentioned Montgomery Pie. What the heck's that, I asked my mom, and she went looking. Not only did she find it -- a kind of lighter, lemony version of a shoo-fly pie without the crumb topping -- she made one while we were in Virginia. When we stopped in yesterday to pick up the Corgis (Pen and Maud had been walked a lot, and were very happy, but tired!), she gave me the rest of it...she'd had to try it, of course.I just had a piece with a glass of milk. It's mildly lemon-flavored, just enough, and nicely gooey; sweet, but not teeth-hurting. Better with cold milk than with coffee, I think. One more PA thing for the book. Anyone know a restaurant that serves it, or a bakeshop that sells it? Or why it's called Montgomery Pie?
9 comments:
I feel like I've seen this at one of the Amish farmer's markets in West Philly. Probably worth asking around at Reading Terminal. There is a Amish bakery there if you enter from the Filbert street side and walk across it should be on your right, you walk right past it.
The Dictionary of American Regional English says the pie as you described originated in Montgomery County, PA.
I'll be a monkey's uncle, Bill. Someone told me that, and I thought it was too easy!
I know why it is called Montgomery Pie:
Bert Greene, cookbook author and longtime food columnist for The New York Daily News, was traveling home while in the service and happened to stay in a hotel in Montgomery, Ala., and dined in the hotel restaurant. He ordered a piece of pie and upon his return home, he tried to contact the cook to ask for the recipe, but never got a response. He called the hotel manager only to learn that the cook couldn’t read or write, and there was no recipe. Greene returned to Montgomery and stood with the wonderful lady in her kitchen as she made the pie and recorded the recipe so that others could enjoy Montgomery pie.
I live in Mgmy and have never heard this story. Any idea of the name of the restaurant?
I got nothing, unfortunately. I find this one a bit hard to swallow; how did it get to an area of Pennsylvania coincidentally right around Montgomery County?
In Hagerstown, MD, I used to buy them at Martin's Supermarkets. LOVED them.
Just bought one at Roots in Manheim at one of the bakery stalls
That's not true in the slightest! Time to kill a myth and rumor before it starts. The earliest recipe for Montgomery Pie that I could find was published in 1919. Bert Greene wasn't even born yet! The book is called "The Memorial Hall Cookbook." It was published in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The recipe itself was written by Mrs. J. Dyre Moyer from Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. She was born in the 1870s. This is a recipe originating from southeastern Pennsylvania (most likely the Montgomery County area). The recipe has Pennsylvania written all over it, especially with the molasses.
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