Buttermilk Pie/Sugar Cream Pie in Indiana

I've seen several references to both buttermilk pie and sugar cream pie relating to cuisine in Indiana. Are they similar, the same or do they each have different ingredients

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Originally posted by wanderingjew

I've seen several references to both buttermilk pie and sugar cream pie relating to cuisine in Indiana. Are they similar, the same or do they each have different ingredients

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I'm not from Indiana, but I've made both pies you describe, and the difference is buttermilk vs regular milk. Even people who don't care for buttermilk (myself included) love the taste of buttermilk pie.

This poor old Tennessee boy has never had a buttermilk pie. Please describe it and if possible, ingredients.

Thanks
Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

Those who have not tried buttermilk pie must try it! Many don't like buttermilk, but they love the pie.

Dearfolk,
The best Sugar Cream Pie I ever tasted was back in 1986 at a roadside eatery a mile or two west of Floyd's Knobs, Indiana... about 15 miles above Louisville, Kentucky. If I knew that place was still there and as good as it was, I'd make a hundred-mile detour to go back there. (Sigh.)
Nostalgically, Ort. Carlton.

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Originally posted by Sundancer7

This poor old Tennessee boy has never had a buttermilk pie. Please describe it and if possible, ingredients.

Thanks
Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

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Paul, buttermilk pie is like a cross between custard pie and cheesecake in flavor.. The ingredients are Buttermilk, eggs, sugar, lemon juice, lemon peel, and butter. Very simple but very good. If you like I will dig up my old tymie recipe for it.

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Originally posted by Sundancer7

This poor old Tennessee boy has never had a buttermilk pie. Please describe it and if possible, ingredients.

Thanks
Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

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quote:

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Originally posted by wanderingjew

I've seen several references to both buttermilk pie and sugar cream pie relating to cuisine in Indiana. Are they similar, the same or do they each have different ingredients

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Buttermilk pie has sugar, buttermilk, butter, vanilla and small amount of cornmeal. It is delicous. If you are near Lebanon, TN stop in at the Sunset Restaurant and you will get a delicious piece of Buttermilk pie.

There is a relatively new bakery in Seymour, Indiana, that offers several homemade pies, including an absolutely killer sugar cream! I can't remember the name, but downtown Seymour is not that big.

This pie talk made me remember a pie sold at the top of Clinch Mtn. between Tazewell and Bean Station Tn called Vinegar Pie well worth a try. Sorry can't remenber the name of the market/rest. but its the only business on top at a overview of the area.

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Originally posted by bumper

This pie talk made me remember a pie sold at the top of Clinch Mtn. between Tazewell and Bean Station Tn called Vinegar Pie well worth a try. Sorry can't remenber the name of the market/rest. but its the only business on top at a overview of the area.

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Bumper: I have stopped at that restaurant on top of the mountain close to Morristown several times on the way to the races at Bristol. Used to be real good and I have had the pie you were talking about. Last time there????? Keep on moving but great view.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

To bad Paul like so many things change happens sometimes bad.

Boatman
Is the bakery in Seymour, IN on Rt 50 in the older part of town...as opposed to the strip malls between town and I-65?
AL
Lanesville, IN

This is what's in sugar cream pie:

Sugar Pie

1 9" crust, baked and cooled
¾ c. packed brown sugar
¼ c. vanilla sugar plus extra for the top
½ c. sifted flour
2 c. light cream
1 ½ t. vanilla
1 t. lemon juice
1 t. brandy
4 T. cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
Freshly grated nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 350°. Mix the sugars and flour together and sprinkle evenly over the bottom of the pie shell.

In a separate bowl, combine the cream, vanilla, lemon juice and brandy. Pour this into the pie shell. Dot with butter and sprinkle with nutmeg.

Bake the pie for 40-45 minutes, until the filling is set. Let cool slightly, sprinkle with additional vanilla sugar and serve.

Vanilla Sugar: Bury a vanilla bean in a jar of sugar. Let stand for several days before using.

Poor deprived Sundancer! You bake one of these tonight when it's cool enough to turn the stove on. We're having a terrible heat wave, otherwise just typing this would have sent me into the kitchen!

BUTTERMILK PIE:

1 cup sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. vanilla
3 Tbsp cornstarch (mixed with just a little water)
1/3 cup melted butter
3 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 9-inch pie shell (unbaked)

Preheat oven to 350.

In a large bowl, combine the 1st 7 ingredients (Sugar through eggs). Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until well blended. Add the buttermilk and mix well.

Pour into pie shell. Set pie on a cookie sheet to catch drips, and bake 45 minutes or until set and brown on top. (FROM THE MAYBERRY COOKBOOK...I kid you not...it's a great cookbook!)

- I suppose you could exchange lemon juice and zest for the cinnamon and nutmeg, I know tea cakes come both ways. I'm not sure about the cornmeal, maybe it's used instead of cornstarch as a thickener.

quote:

Originally posted by bumper

This pie talk made me remember a pie sold at the top of Clinch Mtn. between Tazewell and Bean Station Tn called Vinegar Pie well worth a try. Sorry can't remenber the name of the market/rest. but its the only business on top at a overview of the area.

I have a half-dozen recipes for vinegar pie...all different. Here's one that's tasty:

OLD TIME VINEGAR PIE
1 c. sugar
1 c. cold water
3 egg yolks
1 whole egg
3 heaping tbsp. flour
2 tbsp. butter
5 tbsp. vinegar
2 tsp. lemon extract
Mix above ingredients together thoroughly. Cook until thick. Pour into baked pie shell. Beat whites of eggs until stiff. Add 4 tablespoons sugar and spread on pie. Place in oven and brown lightly.

I've only once enjoyed buttermilk pie and that was at the home of a woman who was researching recipes in hopes of authoring a buttermilk pie cookbook. I don't know if she ever did, but she should have; she could do anything in the world that interested her: earn advanced degrees in math, build houses, make furniture, etc.

Her pie was beyond delicious amd I still muse about it from time to time. I'm surprised buttermilk pie has not caught on and become popular, but they are rarely made around here and are nearly forgotten.

I've been thinking of tracking down the would-be-pie-author to ask for her favored buttermilk pie recipe. If I do and she shares it, I'll post it here for all to enjoy.

Now, we're excited about sugar cream pie. I've never heard of such a pie, but hope to try one before long, since they're made in nearby Indiana.

We occasionally had vinegar pies when I was growing up, but I wasn't sophisticated enough to enjoy them. I was one to bargain with mom for cherry pies. Now, rhubarb pie was different. We had them in season, both pie and cobbler. They were great.

There's a recipe for Buttermilk Pie on page 152 of the The Blue Willow Inn Cookbook by Jane Stern.

The revered Blue Willow Inn is in Social Circle, Georgia and is reviewed in Jane and Michael's dining guides and on the Roadfood Web site.

I would imagine the pie is made and served at the Inn's bountiful buffet.

Sugar Cream Pie used to be made by Wick's Pies in Muncie, IN and were exceedingly popular; I've not tasted one for maybe thirty years. One of my aunts made Vinegar Pie adding green grapes to it....as long as it had sugar in it we ate it.....what an addiction.

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Originally posted by Emerald

Sugar Cream Pie used to be made by Wick's Pies in Muncie, IN and were exceedingly popular; I've not tasted one for maybe thirty years. One of my aunts made Vinegar Pie adding green grapes to it....as long as it had sugar in it we ate it.....what an addiction.

Wicks still makes sugar cream pies and can be found in most supermarkets in central Indiana. My mom use to make a killer sugar cream pie as well as something called a Jefferson Chess Pie, a cross between a sugar cream and pecan pie is how I'd describe it.

We bought a Wicks sugar cream pie a while back and they are still as good as they were years ago! A sugar cream pie is very easy to make and there are recipes all over the internet! Sometimes I add about a half of a cup of peanut butter to the mixture as it is cooking to make a GREAT peanut butter pie!

i actually made my first sugar cream pie a couple of nights ago, i didn't like it too much, maybeit was my recipe. i made a buttermilk pie about a month ago,and i loved it, it is also called magnolia pie.i will make the buttermilk pie alot more. have any of you guys ever tried brown sugar pie, my grandmother use to make it all the time, my aunt makes it for all the holiday get togethers. i have made a couple of brown sugar pies and love them aswell. i took one to work, alot of ppl there had never had it before, and they loved it!! brad

Given all the new sugar substitutes on the market, would it even be worth it to try to make a chess or sugar pie with the Splenda substitutes? I've had my mouth watering over recipes, but am diabetic, so don't even know if it's worth it to open this particular can of worms.....I'm from Colorado so it's not like I grew up with this stuff....would I know it from the real thing?

I love this site but usually just read so bear with me... thx.
bs1001 that brown sugar pie sounds right up my alley... any chance you would post the recipe here?
bye all, Kim

Are these variations or other names for CHESS pie?

We had our first taste of Buttermilk pie and also Chess pie, at the recent meet-up at Moonlight BBQ in Owensboro, KY. Both pies were delicious, but the Buttermilk was expecially outstanding.

Cheers, John

We had Sugar Cream pie in Indiana this Christmas for the first time. The vote as 4 for bland and 5 for subtle.

I think the Buttermilk Pie, Chess Pie, and Sugar/Cream Pie may have certain tweaks that help to give them individual 'identity', but they have a common base that makes them very similiar in consistency and flavor especially to the palate that is unfamiliar with their subtle differences. I like'em all!

Hi,
Well I am in Indiana. I am a transplanted Texan here cursed to walk this land for my past sins and transgressions.(Just kidding), but the saving grace are our pies and cookies etc. Here in Indiana you have a large part of the population whose families come from the South, Kentucky and so forth. Then on top of that we have the Amish population here as well. The Amish can cook like you would not believe. I had an Amish apple pie once that could not be matched. It was perfection. Sugar creme pie is also an Amish specialty. Warm it up in a microwave, slap on a healthy scoop of ice cream, and there you have it. See...there is more than corn in Indiana.

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Originally posted by myway

Hi,
Well I am in Indiana. I am a transplanted Texan here cursed to walk this land for my past sins and transgressions.(Just kidding), but the saving grace are our pies and cookies etc. Here in Indiana you have a large part of the population whose families come from the South, Kentucky and so forth. Then on top of that we have the Amish population here as well. The Amish can cook like you would not believe. I had an Amish apple pie once that could not be matched. It was perfection. Sugar creme pie is also an Amish specialty. Warm it up in a microwave, slap on a healthy scoop of ice cream, and there you have it. See...there is more than corn in Indiana.

I think they also have a car race in Indiana every year about this time.

Pie Pastry

INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup lard or vegetable shortening, or combination of shortening and butter, chilled
3 tablespoons ice water
PREPARATION:
Sift together the flour and salt; sift again. Cut in the shortening or lard with a pastry blender or two knives until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Add ice water a tablespoon at a time (approximately 3 tablespoons in all), stirring the dough around the bowl with a fork. As soon as it is moist enough to gather into a ball, wrap in wax paper and refrigerate for about 30 minutes. Handle the dough as little as possible. Roll half of the pastry dough out on a floured surface to about 1/8-inch thickness. The pastry should be about 1 1/2 inches larger than the the pie plate. Repeat with the other half of dough for a double crust pie, or freeze the remaining dough for a future pie. Makes enough for a double crust for a 9- or 10-inch pie, or two single crusts.
If recipe calls for a pre-baked crust, prick the pie shell with a fork and bake in a preheated 350° oven for about 3 minutes; remove from the oven and prick some more if the crust is puffing up. Return to the oven and bake 5 minutes longer. Place on a wire rack to cool, then fill as recipe directs.

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Originally posted by EliseT

Poor deprived Sundancer! You bake one of these tonight when it's cool enough to turn the stove on. We're having a terrible heat wave, otherwise just typing this would have sent me into the kitchen!

BUTTERMILK PIE:

1 cup sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. vanilla
3 Tbsp cornstarch (mixed with just a little water)
1/3 cup melted butter
3 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 9-inch pie shell (unbaked)

Preheat oven to 350.

In a large bowl, combine the 1st 7 ingredients (Sugar through eggs). Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until well blended. Add the buttermilk and mix well.

Pour into pie shell. Set pie on a cookie sheet to catch drips, and bake 45 minutes or until set and brown on top. (FROM THE MAYBERRY COOKBOOK...I kid you not...it's a great cookbook!)

- I suppose you could exchange lemon juice and zest for the cinnamon and nutmeg, I know tea cakes come both ways. I'm not sure about the cornmeal, maybe it's used instead of cornstarch as a thickener.

I'm kicking up this fine Buttermilk Pie recipe I did a search for. It's my favorite and my kids always made me cook half a dozen of them every holiday.

Wick's Sugar Cream Pies are as good as always, hard to find but worth the search

Sugar Cream, Buttermilk, and Chess are similar, and are all delicious.

Here is my thread about Chess Pies with several recipes

http://www.roadfood.com/Forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=15804&SearchTerms=chess,pie

I found a wick's sugar cream pie at WM last night it is thawing in the fridge and will be tongihts dessert.