How To Use Ceramic Pie Bird

The hollow pie bird vents steam from the filling as it cooks preventing the contents from boiling over while arches on the bottom redirect excess moisture to keep the bottom crust from becoming soggy.

How to use ceramic pie bird.

This won t help your bottom crust but it will do the important work of preventing a big mess. A pie bird is a hollow ceramic tool usually shaped like a bird placed in the middle of a pie before baking. Emeril makes a sweet potato pie part 2. Steam escapes through the bird so instead of a soggy crust you have a crispy crust.

They can also be called pie vents because that hollow core allows steam to escape during baking. A pie bird is a hollow ceramic tool that bakers place in the center of pies to prevent bubbling over. Ceramic versions are classic but they come in silicone now too as seen on the right in the photo below. Cut a small x in the center of the top crust if using a pie bird and lay crust over the filling allowing the bird s head to poke through the x.

The pie bird may be old fashioned but this time honored baker s tool has turned out countless delicious pies over the course of centuries. Funnel style steam vents have been placed in the center of fruit and meat pies during cooking since victorian times. Most people don t use pie birds and their pies are still tremendously good. If not using a pie bird skip the center x and cut a few slits in a nice pattern on the top crimp the edges of the crust with your fingers or fork tines and trim away the excess.

Get back to the basics of pie baking with this old school tool. Watch more videos from pies pies and more pies. Martha stewart discusses how to use and where to purchase pie birds. How to use pie birds.

Line the bottom of your pie plate with your bottom crust place the pie bird in the center and scrape your filling into the crust and around the pie bird. Pie birds also known as pie funnels pie chimneys and pie whistles are hollow ceramic devices used to keep pies from bubbling over in the oven by providing ventilation from the hot filling through the crust. Bird shapes came later. They can also be called pie vents because that hollow core allows steam to escape during baking.

Now the question of how to use a pie bird. The bird can also keep a crust supported preventing a collapse in the center. Pie birds or pie whistles pie vents pie funnels or even pie chimneys are hollow ceramic statuettes that bakers can use to vent steam from their pies in order to prevent a filling from bubbling over. A pie bird pie vent pie whistle pie funnel or pie chimney is a hollow ceramic device originating in europe shaped like a funnel chimney or upstretched bird with open beak used for supporting or venting a pie.