Vinegar Pie Actually Originated A Century Before The Great Depression

Of all the ingredients to go in a pie, vinegar is one you don't hear too often. But vinegar pie is part of a long list of foods desperate and hungry people made in times of strife (like Dolly Parton's famous stone soup). Along with chess pie, shoofly pie, and water pie, these simple desserts were called "desperation pies" or, to put it more gently, "make-do" pies. Though these pies are credited with being born during the Great Depression, many actually existed way before that. One of the earliest recipes for vinegar pie appeared in a domestic manual called "The Practical Housekeeper" in 1855, and then again in a Pennsylvania newspaper in 1859. Some pie enthusiasts suspect the vinegar was a substitute for fresh lemons, as those could be difficult to come by.

Before refrigeration and the transport of perishable goods, people simply had to, well, make do with what they had. Once the dark days of winter arrived, there wasn't a ton of variety in one's diet, as people relied on their home farms to keep them stocked in fresh produce. Come January, all that was left in the pantry were grains, dried fruit, and hopefully some vinegar and molasses, if you were lucky. Without any fresh fruit, cooks had to get inventive and think of other ways to create flavor and tartness. Even after refrigeration became mainstream (the history of the modern refrigerator is surprisingly long), food rationing from the 20th century's world wars kept these thrifty pies around until the 1950s.

As expected, vinegar pie is pretty easy to make. Simply mix together eggs, sugar, butter, white vinegar, and vanilla, and pour into an unbaked pie crust. If this were the 1800s, you'd have to make your pie crust from scratch, but a premade one from the grocery does just fine. One vintage cooking enthusiast tracked the original vinegar pie recipe through cookbooks and newspapers, and noticed that the pie actually became less "desperate" by the 1930s. More eggs, butter, spices, and refined white sugar were added in later recipes. Today's modern vinegar pie has a sugary, crunchy top, with a smooth, custardy texture underneath. You'd be hard-pressed to know any vinegar is even in there, as there's so much sugar that it evens out into a sweet-tart flavor.

Though these pies fell out of favor in the second half of the 20th century, there's been a resurgence in historical recipes and cooking seasonally with hyperlocal ingredients. Enough time has passed where these vintage pies no longer have the negative connotations of long, bleak winters and food rationing — they're just retro and wonderfully inventive. There's also the added attraction of cheapness. In an era of ever-rising grocery prices, these simple desserts can be made for less than ten dollars, especially if you're baking everything from scratch. So make like a Midwestern farmer during the brutal month of January and see what else you can dream up from the dregs of your pantry.