1941 Lutheran Ladies Aid Cherry Pie

The second pie I made for the tennis lady party was supposed to be a cherry pie.  I had two cans of Oregon Fruit Products Company red tart cherries ready to go until I happened to look at the date on one of them. 1999.  Opening it up, it looked like it had been canned in 1899. I think I have already explained my home keeping skills, or lack of, in my biography.  This is what happens to people like me.  However, I did have fresh frozen blackberries in the freezer so I decided to just to substitute in 1 1/2 cups of blackberries for half of the cherries.  It wasn’t bad, in fact pretty good.

One of the problems I have when I make cherry pie is that it is sometimes too runny.  I decided to use a cherry pie recipe by Mrs. Arnold Robb from my 1941 Florence Group of the Lutheran Ladies Aid  of Stanwood, WA cookbook because it made a cooked paste of cherry juice and cornstarch and I wanted to see if that would conquer my runniness issue.  It worked!  There were no run problems with this pie.  So, remember, I substituted half the cherries for blackberries, but I am going to print the recipe as I found it for cherry pie.

1941 Lutheran Ladies Aid of Stanwood Cherry Pie

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup/ 1/4 cup unsweetened cherry juice
• 3 cups canned unsweetened tart pie cherries, drained
• 3 T. cornstarch
• 1/8 t. salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 double piecrust
• 2 T. butter

Cooking Directions:

1. Make a paste of 1/2 cup of the cherry juice and the corn starch. Cook until thick and clear. Cool slightly and add the cherries, remaining juice, sugar and salt.
2. Put it into a crust lined pie pan and dot the top with butter. Cover with a pricked or vented upper crust.
3. Bake at 425 degrees for 30 minutes. Slip a baking sheet beneath the pan and lower the heat to 350 degrees and bake for another 25-35 minutes until you can see thick juices bubbling.