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Sharon T.
March 16, 2021
We always had chess pies at Christmas, which were considered part of our English Christmas dinner tradition. That included prime rib, Yorkshire pudding (we called it "Yorkie,") chess pies and trifle along with various sides. The chess pies, always made by my mother, were little individual pies with a filling including raisins and chopped walnuts, brown sugar and eggs for the custard and then topped with whipped cream for those who wanted to gild the Lilly. I don't remember if she used buttermilk or not. After she had a stroke and I completely took over all the family dinners, I made them using her recipe. Now, with all my children married or with partners, we spend Christmas Eve together for "our Christmas" and a big buffet of favorites, and they leave for their "other families on Christmas Day, so no more chess pies, or any of the other favorites. My part of our family is English through and through, and I certainly always thought chess pies were an English tradition brought over to America. I am surprised to hear that it originated in the South, since our ancestors were the Puritan Chapin family, in Springfield Mass. And yes, I used to have a Pie Bird, which our family did use -- sadly now lost.
Interestingly, I just found an article written by someone who found an old chess pie recipe made much as we did, with raisins and nuts. She recreated the recipe, with photographs. I believe our raisin and nut filling was also made on the stove top as a filling, and then put into the pie crusts. However, ours were baked, with the egg, butter and sugar custard I'm not sure if I could find my old recipe anywhere. I do know that our filling was much darker and richer looking than the photograph I found, which was a very light custard with very few nuts and raisins scattered throughout. But evidently our chess pies were not the only ones featuring nuts and raisins.
Interestingly, I just found an article written by someone who found an old chess pie recipe made much as we did, with raisins and nuts. She recreated the recipe, with photographs. I believe our raisin and nut filling was also made on the stove top as a filling, and then put into the pie crusts. However, ours were baked, with the egg, butter and sugar custard I'm not sure if I could find my old recipe anywhere. I do know that our filling was much darker and richer looking than the photograph I found, which was a very light custard with very few nuts and raisins scattered throughout. But evidently our chess pies were not the only ones featuring nuts and raisins.
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