perfect chess pie every time, easy.

[vintagekitchen]

In high school my best friend's mom made the best chess pie I had ever tasted, always perfect smooth and creamy. Until I tried hers, I assumed there was always some slight separation to a chess pie, and a risk of total separation, which meant a ruined pie.

She showed me her trick after much begging. She always made the filling in her blender, ( which like everything else in their house was true vintage, an original Oster chrome beehive with a toggle switch and no handle on the pitcher). I made one yesterday, using her recipe, and tonight I tried her trick to make Minnie's chocolate pie from "The Help". It even made Minnie's pie easier and better.

 

[vintagekitchen]

Ginger's chess pie

1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 stick melted margarine or butter
1 Tbsp white vinegar
1 Tbsp cornmeal
1 tsp vanilla
Pinch salt

Beat the eggs in the blender on high. BLend in sugar 1/2 cup at a time until thick and light. Blend in cornmeal, vanilla, vinegar and salt. Pour melted butter into running blender in a steady stream, blend until smooth and thick. Pour in unbaked pie shell.

Put into oven preheated to 400 degrees. Immediately lower temperature to 350 degrees, and bake about 55 minutes, until a knife in the center comes out clean.

Here is what's left of the one I made yesterday, the top got darker than it should have, because I forgot to switch the oven from preheat to bake, lol.

 

[vintagekitchen]

Minnie's chocolate pie, blender style

This recipe has been posted on the site before, but here it is for anyone who missed it, but blender style.

1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
4 Tbsp melted butter
3/4 cup evaporated milk
3 TBsp cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1 pie shell

Poke pie shell all over with a fork, then bake 15 minutes at 350 degrees. While pie shell bakes, mix the filling. Just like the chess pie, beat the eggs in the blender, then add the sugar 1/2 cup at a time until thick, then blend in the cocoa, salt, vanilla, and evaporated milk. Pour in the butter in a steady stream, blend until thick and smooth. Pour filling into pre baked pie shell, and bake 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

Here we are getting started with the vintage waring blender I once painted black in a fit of madness... (and yes that's jiffy pie crust mix. I only use jiffy pie crust mix and jiffy biscuit mix, as they still use real lard, the only way to have a proper pie crust or biscuit.)

 

[vintagekitchen]

And here it is, snug and warm in the oven.

I know the bottom of the oven looks filthy, but that's a little trick of mine. Lung issues from childhood dictate that I can't use or be around oven cleaner, so I line my oven with foil, and when it gets too nasty, I change the foil. About once a year I clean the sides of the oven with some comet or bon ami, and thats that.

 

[norgeway]

Re Jiffy!

All their mixes are good, I always keep a box or 2 of the pie crust mix on hand,Dons Mother always uses Jiffy cornbread.

 

[vintagekitchen]

jiffy cornbread

I might use one or two boxes a year of their cornbread mix, to me it is too sweet to be cornbread, so I serve it as breakfast muffins with tons of butter, lol. Their other mixes I use by the truckload. Muffin mix, cake mix, even frosting mix. Cheap, easy, and just the right amount, since one box makes either 6 muffins, 6 cupcakes or one single layer cake, or 6 biscuits. Perfect so you don't get tired of the same thing. I can no longer find their brownie mix locally and am grief stricken, but the website says it is still available, guess my local stores just don't stock it.

 

[Ultramatic]

 

 

Jiffy cornbread mix...that takes me back to my childhood. I remember when they'd be put on sale 4 for a dollar. Very rare to find any other varieties of Jiffy here.

 

[norgeway]

Re Jiffy Cornbread..

I love it just to eat as a snack, but I agree its not what Southerners think of as Cornbread...it is too sweet to serve with pinto beans and chow-chow.

 

[dustin92]

We have ALL the Jiffy mixes available locally- since we are only about 20 miles from where it is made, Chelsea Michigan. I can say we use plenty of their Corn muffin mix, but rarely any other (not because of poor quality though!) I love the Chocolate frosting mix, I could eat it with a spoon.

 

[wiskybill]

This is from

the "JIFFY" mixes recipe book I have
dated 08.11.08

I have seen several of the ones listed
in this area, but not all.

 

[hippiedoll]

jiffy cornbread...

i like to make jiffy cornbread and serve it with a bowl of dennison's chili beans. yummy!!!

but norgeway, what is "chow chow"??
i've never heard of "chow chow".

 

[hippiedoll]

vintagekitchen....

thanks for sharing the "chess pie" recipe.
it sounds very tastey. i've never eaten "chess pie" or ever heard of it until recently when i heard it mentioned on t.v. (from a movie or something?) and i was curious to know what the heck "chess pie" was??

i can't wait to try it now. especially since i bought myself a vintage harvest gold osterizer "pulse matic 10" blender, at the 2nd handstore for $15. there was some chips on the edge of the glass pitcher & the center measuring cap was very dried out & cracked. so, i bought 2 replacement jars with lids, caps, blades, and bottoms. one lid is the harvest gold & the other is......
avocado green!!!
ha ha ha!!!
)

here's a picture of my vintage osterizer blender (with her avocado green lidded glass pitcher/jar)...

 

[hippiedoll]

2nd picture....

of my vintage, 2-toned, harvest gold with avocado green lidded, osterizer blender...

 

[danemodsandy]

UGH!

I cannot understand anyone liking Jiffy's cornbread mix - they make other stuff that is okay, but sugar in cornbread is Just. Wrong.

 

[norgeway]

Chow Chow..

Is a relish made in the South, their are probably a million ways to make it,its basically a pickle mixture made of chopped vegetables, such as green and red peppers ,cabbage, hot peppers,onions and green tomatoes, most old fashioned cook books have recipes, I will look up one and put it on here.

 

[iheartmaytag]

Minnie's Pie

I hope you didn't use her "extra" ingredient.

the blender is an excellent suggestion, never tried it.

Always make my own pie crust.

 

[hippiedoll]

chow chow....

looking forward to seeing a recipe.
i'm very curious now....

thank you.

 

[kevin313]

Kevin - thanks for sharing this chess pie recipe! It's very unusual to find chess pie anywhere here in the north, so people who like it have to make their own.

Jiffy products are very popular here - the Jiffy Mix plant is about an hour west of Detroit. I have had a tour of the plant and it's fun to see how some of their products are made.

You can still by a box of Jiffy cornbread mix here for 45-50 cents. When asked how they can keep their prices so low, the owner of the company said they don't spend one cent on advertising. They are one of the largest selling cornbread mixes in the country because of reputation and word of mouth, which is pretty amazing.

 

[revvinkevin]

Chess pie......

 

 

Interesting.... I had never heard of "chess pie" and had to look it up on Wikipedia.   Basically a sweet, custard pie that originated in England and ended up being very popular in the southern states.   Variations are Jeff Davis pie and Kentucky pie.

 

On Chow-chow, see the link below.

 

Kevin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chow-chow

 

[gansky1]

Jeff Davis Pie - lol

I had never heard of Chess pie either, it sounds wonderful and the blender would make it quick and easy.

 

I also had never seen a list of "Jiffy" products before, we have only a few.  My grandmother used Jiffy cake mixes when it was just for the two of them, no need for a whole cake.  Her favorite was white cake with Jiffy chocolate frosting.  May have to get some of those, haven't thought of them for years.  

 

When my son was little he would eat very few things and usually then only after a lengthy struggle. One day, I picked him up from the babysitter and she was elated that she'd found something he would eat and like.  It was simply Jiffy cornbread with butter and honey.  We stopped on the way home and bought some it's still a favorite and requested at least once a week so we always keep a box or two on hand.

 

[cuffs054]

Jiffy CB too sweet? Nay I say! Just right.

 

[danemodsandy]

Cuffs:

Are you originally from Georgia?

Because I grew up there, and when I was little, people who put sugar in cornbread were considered capable of depravities too horrible to contemplate.

 

[iheartmaytag]

MY Mother is an old Missouri mule

And it a shootable offense to put sugar in your cornbread.

 

[cuffs054]

Dane,
you flatter me! Actually I'm a yankee from New Joysey but my parents moved me to the south at age 4. Ergo, I claim southern citizenship. BUT, on the subject of depravities my screen name of Cuff054 has very little to do with a nice dress shirt(!)

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

I seem to have all the ingredients--and I picked up a couple of regular sized 9" pie crusts; have a pair of deep dish ones waiting for a MINCEMEAT that I promised to make that still hasn't yet materialized...

But what do I do about CORN MEAL? I usually use the Jiffy mix myself, and don't feel like I could just steal into a box of it for a couple of teaspoons when I usually need every morsel to fill the entire baking pan...

One recipe I saw Online calls for evaporated milk but it is OK to use regular milk right?

Kind'a feel like breaking into this now!

-- Dave

 

[vintagekitchen]

cornmeal

You could steal the needed tablespoon from a box without it making too much difference to your cornbread, or I'm sure in a pinch you could use something else, so long as it's a coarsely ground grain, like whole wheat flour, or possibly even crushed cornflakes. In the chocolate pie, you can use regular milk, the evaporated milk just makes it richer, and the concentrated milk fat makes it smoother. If you use regular milk, you may want to add an additional tablespoon of butter

 

[norgeway]

Re Cornbread...

I never knew but one person who used Jiffy growing up, Both my Grandmothers made plain white corn bread with NO sugar, my Grandmother Craig and my Grandmother Powell both used Thompsons Fireside mix, it came in little boxes like jiffy does, they quit making it years ago, Granny Craig made wonderful cornbread and the best biscuits you could imagine, but my Grandmother Powell and my Mother both made the most horrid vile excuse for cornbread that could be imagined, sad, greasy and black on the bottom, All my Dads sisters made wonderful cornbread also, but My Aunt Jean makes the same mess Mother did, all they put into self rising white corn meal is buttermilk and pour it into a very heavily greased iron pan heated until it smokes, it burns on the bottom before it ever gets to the oven,I make mine with 1 cup white self rising meal, 1 cup self rising flour,1 egg 2TBSP oil and enough buttermilk to make a thick batter, pour into a cold greased iron skillet and bake at 400.

 

[Ultramatic]

 

 

I always add a tab. of sugar to Jiffy cornbread mix. The cornbread here is usually a tad sweet. But what do I know? I'm a wicked city man. Now stand still while I vamp you!

 

 

[washman]

Jiffy mix is ok for cornbread

But believe me when I tell you, I have from scratch recipe that will have you sitting up and begging for buttermilk.

 

[danemodsandy]

Hans:

It sounds like your Grandmother Powell and your mother were doing something similar to what my grandmother taught me, but it does not sound like they got the same result my grandmother did.

Her technique was to grease the pan very lightly, and put the shortening or oil called for in the cornbread recipe into the pan (she'd play with her recipe a little bit - milk sometimes, buttermilk sometimes, oil usually, shortening once in a while). She then put the pan in the oven and turned the oven on to preheat while she made the rest of the batter - the self-rising corn meal, the milk or buttermilk and the egg.

Once the oven was preheated, she took the pan out of it, and poured the hot oil or hot, melted shortening into the batter, stirring it very quickly to mix the oil or shortening into the batter. Then the completed batter was poured into the hot pan, and the pan immediately went back into the oven for baking.

This tactic made for very high-rising, light cornbread; it actually began rising as soon as the batter hit the hot pan. There was no burning on the bottom, just a nice brown crust. She always used Pyrex in preference to cast iron; said it gave the cornbread a crust that was crisp but not tough.

She made cornbread to die for, and so do I, using this method. The only thing I've ever changed was to start using PAM instead of greasing the pan.