How many bananas can I cram into that pie? How high can I swirl that meringue? Peanut butter and chocolate and marshmallow cream and toffee pieces? Awesome!Īmerican big-ass fruit and cream pies are the Hummers of the pastry world. Most pies are homey and comforting, but often good old American pies are all about excess. To me, tarts feel a little more elegant than pies. No doubt pies and tarts are related, but often the similarities and differences are just a matter of degree. You know, cuz that’s where I’m from and all. I also approach it from an American point of view. Since there are no hard and fast rules, other than height, my therapist helped me to I see the difference between the two as more of a qualitative one. The bad news is: I needed more structure than that! I still didn’t know the difference between a pie and a tart after a whole class about it!! Deep breaths….deeeep breaths…….And now, after YEARS of therapy, I have settled down quite a bit. The good news is: I neither lunged over the table at her nor cursed exceptionally loudly. And there are always exceptions to any rule. “Since tarts have a higher crust to filling ratio, tart fillings are often richer than pie fillings. Sometimes pies are pretty.” Are you kidding me?! Since tarts don’t have a top crust, the fillings are beautifully arranged. The pie crust is just there to hold the filling. “Tart crust tastes better than pie crust because it’s an integral part of the dish. Pies either do, or they don’t.” Seriously?! “Pies have flaky crusts, but not all the time. Tart pans look different than pie pans.” This is where I began some serious internal muttering. Pies have deeper, thinner, slightly sloped sides. Here’s how it went down: “Tarts have short, thick-ish, straight sides. Gotta tell you, folks–I was in for a bit of a let-down. On pie v tart lecture day, I craned eagerly forward, waiting for the answer to this pastry mystery. This was one of a handful of burning questions that I took with me on my first day of culinary school. So, what exactly is the difference between a pie and a tart? The term “tarte d l’anglais,” or “English Tarte” is more along the lines of what we’d consider pie: a deeper pastry with a sweet or savory filling enclosed with a pastry top.Ī tourte is also thicker with a top and bottom crust, so I guess in France, a tourte is similar to an American pie, although the connotation is generally that an American pie is sweet and a French tourte is savory (see French Canadian tourtière, or meat pie) What They Had to Say in Culinary School In French, there are two words for similar foods with crusts: tarte and tourte.Ī tarte can be sweet or savory, has no sides–so just built on a disc of pastry–or short sides, and no top crust. In French, the word pie refers either animal coloring (as in piebald) or a bird (as in magpie). In France, there is no word for what Americans think of as “pie.” She has lived in France since the 1980s and is married to a Frenchman. I consulted with my good friend and cookbook author, Jamie Schler, to get the French definitions. Tart: an open pie filled with sweet food such as fruit French Definition Pie: a baked dish of fruit or meat and/or vegetables with pastry on the bottom, sides and top The Oxford Learner’s Dictionary (The Oxford English Dictionary is only available through libraries and schools/universities) definitions are as follows: 8 If You Love This, Please Comment and Give It a Star Rating Definitions American DefinitionĪccording to Merriam Webster, an American dictionary, here’s what we’re dealing with.ĭefinition of pie: a dessert consisting of a filling (as of fruit or custard) in a pastry shell or topped with pastry or both a meat dish baked with biscuit or pastry crustĭefinition of tart: a dish baked in a pastry shell : PIE: such asĪ: a small pie or pastry shell without a top containing jelly, custard, or fruitī: a small pie made of pastry folded over a filling British Definition
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |