I own quite a few old movie screen magazines, and many of them feature articles with Jimmy Stewart. I decided to share some of them here. This one was featured in the April 1939 issue of Modern Screen, and according to this article, Jimmy's favorite food was pie! Keep on reading to find out why, and for three marvelous vintage pie recipes as well.
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It's Pie For Jimmy! He'll Take It At Every Course--and No Wonder With These Recipes by Marjorie Deen
Modern Screen, April 1939
IF YOU were to try to find out all about Jimmy Stewart's favorite of all favorite dishes, you would learn immediately that it unquestionably is pie. But conduct your researches further, as I did, and you would soon discover that this statement does not begin to cover the situation--that is, if you take it to mean that Jimmy likes pies only as desert.
True enough, he shares with most men the opinoin that a good thick brown, spicy apple pie is head and shoulders above all other sweets! But he also declared himself, over the luncheon table, as being strongly in favor of chicken pie as an outstanding main course dish--and forthwith orderedd it, just to prove his point. He even went so far as to say that he had recently discovered that certain special rich astry treats are an ideal accompaniment for still other courses of the meal! That statement I thought rather surprising until he explained it this way:
A certan well known Hollywod hostess, it seems, is famous for the little triangles of flaky pastry that she serves with soups, cocktails, and salads. Sometimes at one course, other times at another, but invariably once on each and every special occasion. These pastry "bites" hold little dabs of some rich spread like devilled ham or
pateYou'll see here, as a most important feature of both the recipes for Jimmy Stewart's favorite dishes, directions for making two kinds of pastry. One is a recipe to use in making the crust for meat pies. In this case it's chicken pie but it will work out as well with other fillings. The other pastry is delightfully flavored with cheese, that tradtionally favorite apple pie accompaniment.
As for you amateur cooks who are just starting your baking efforts, I know no better last word than that familuar jingle, "If at first you don't succed, try, try again." Indeed that is "a lesson you should heed" if you are ambitious to turn out the sort of good pastry, and fine pies that all men go for!
CHICKEN PIE
1 large fricassee fowl
1 spring parsley
1 raw onion
1 teaspoon slat
1 teaspoon celery salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 whole clove
a small bit of bayleaf
6 cups boiling water
5 table spoons flour
1/4 cup cold water
1 egg yolk, beaten
1/4 cup cream (or rich milk or evaporated milk)
8 small cooked carrots quartered
8 small cooked white onions
1/2 cup cooked potatoes (diced or cut with ball cutter)
Have the chicken cut in pieces, s for fricasseeing. Place in stew pan with raw onion, parsley and seasonings. Add boiling water. Cover and simmer until chicken is tender. Take chicken from the pot and remove meat from bones, carefully. in as large pieces as possible. Return bones to chicken liquor and boil this stock until it is reduced to 2 1/2 cups. Strain off the bones and to the stock slowly add the flour, which has been moistened with the cold water to a smooth paste. Cook and stir until smooth and thickened, then slowly add the egg yolk beaten with the cream (or milk). Cook only 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the chicken meat and cooked vegetables. Use this rich frucassee mixture for Chicken Pie, prepared as follows:
PASTRY FOR CHICKEN PIE
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup shortening
3 tablespoons ice water, approximately
1 egg yolk, beaten
1 tablespoon milk
Mix and sift flour, cornstarch and salt. Cut in shortening until it is distributed throughout the vlour in pieces the size of small peas. add water--a tablespoom at a time--mixing it with a fork until dough will clear the bowl. Chill dough. Roll out on vloured board. Place a 3-inch-wide strip of of this pastry around the inside of a deep baking dish, around the top and coming up over the edge. Fill baking dish with the previously described chicken mixture. Cover with pastry crust in which several slits have been cut to allow steam to escape during baking. Trim all surplus pastry at rim of sidh. Moisten up crust around the edge with a little cold water. Place a 1-inch-wide strip of pastry on top of this edge and down over the rim of the baking dish. Flute with floured fingers to form a thivk, upstanding rim. Brush with well beaten egg yolk mixed with the milk. Bake in hot oven (450 degrees F.) until crust is well browned.
AMERICAN APPLE PIE
Pastry
2 cups pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup shortening
1/2 cup cold water (appoximately)
3 tablespoons freshly grated cheese
Filling
1/2 cup granulated flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
4 cups thinly sliced apples
1/2 teaspoon salt
grated ring of 1/2 lemon
2 tablespoons butter
Sift flour, baking powder and salt together twice. cut in shortening until pieces are about the size of small peas. Add only enough of the water--a tablespoon at a time--to make dough that will clear the bowl. Form into a ball, wrap in waxed paper and chill in the refrigerator while preparing the filling. Measure and combine the sugars, cinnamon, salt and grated rind. Pare, core and slice the apples, add the sugar mixture, mix well. Divide chilled dough into 2 parts. Roll out one part loosely, then fill plate with the apple mixture. Dot with butter. Roll out the other ball of pastry very thin, sprinkle one-half of it eith the grated cheese snf fold the other half over the cheese. Roll out again to right size to cover pie. Place upper crust over the filling, after first moistening the edge of the lower crust with cold water. Trim off surplus pastry then seal the two crusts together firmly around the edge with a floured fork, or make a fluting with the fingers. Cut slits in top crust to allow steam to escape. Place in hot oven (450 degrees F.) and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to moderate (350 degrees F.) bake 30 minutes longer or until apples are tender.
