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Folded Over and Fried: Who Makes the Best Fried Pies
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
PROUSTIAN POINT: FRIED PIES
Photo: Louie Favorite/AJC
I totally blew my fat and calorie count for the next ten days or so by heading to the Varsity yesterday for lunch as part of a family reunion of sorts. By the end of a naked dog, onion rings and a Coke Zero (I LOVE this stuff — why do they market it to MEN?) I looked in the mirror and realized I had gained ten pounds subito (I may have a chance at losing it tomorrow at the gym depending on how hard the workout is).
But the real calorie kick was the fried peach pie I had for dessert. If there is any one food that is truly Proustian in its ability to conjure my childhood, it’s a fried pie. I memorized the shape of my grandmother’s elbow against the back drop of the iron skillet she fried hers in. She filled them with apples or peaches, but always with dried fruit or preserves, or sometimes a cooked fruit filling, and made them with a sweet pie crust.
In truth, she wasn’t much of a baker. She had a habit of making the worst banana nut bread on the planet. Her “habit” was to take the leftover candy she had from tins around her living room — and I’m talkin’ candied orange slices, circus peanuts (yes, circus peanuts — you know, those puffy orange peanut-shaped things?), malted milk balls, butter mints — and adding them to her batter. With a gleam, she would ask upon inquiry as to the unusual flavor “Ain’t it good?”
But her fried pies, well, they were different. A bubbly crust of greasy perfection, partly crisp, partly tender, with a sweet, dark, peachy filling.
The Varsity does a good job bringing back the madeleine moment for me. And there are a few restaurants around town that have upped the fried anty by adding them to their menus — JCT Kitchen had a pie filled with chocolate; Bacchanalia had an almond and pear version on their prix fixe menu last winter.
Where’s your favorite fried pie?
Permalink | Comments (10) | Post your comment | Categories: Dining
Comments
By Mark
July 10, 2008 1:45 PM | Link to this
Hubig’s Pie Company in New Orleans and they ship.
http://www.hubigs.com/
By Doug
July 11, 2008 8:54 AM | Link to this
Panorama Apples up in Ellijay. You can watch them make the pies, and eat them while they are hot.
http://www.panoramaorchards.com/
By Stephanie
July 11, 2008 9:22 AM | Link to this
The Cotton Pickin Fair in Gay, GA ( happens 2x year) always has great apple, peach, and sweet potato fried pies. Also on the way to the Fair from GA is a road side stand that has good fried pies as well.
By Stephanie
July 11, 2008 9:22 AM | Link to this
The Cotton Pickin Fair in Gay, GA ( happens 2x year) always has great apple, peach, and sweet potato fried pies. Also on the way to the Fair from Atlanta is a road side stand that has good fried pies as well.
By Stephanie
July 11, 2008 9:23 AM | Link to this
The Cotton Pickin Fair in Gay, GA ( happens 2x year) always has great apple, peach, and sweet potato fried pies. Also on the way to the Fair from Atlanta is a road side stand that has good fried pies as well.
By rbp
July 11, 2008 9:38 AM | Link to this
They do bring back memories. My grandmother would have a dozen of them waiting on me when I cut her grass. I’d make myself sick eating them. Always loved the dried peach ones. Apple was OK, but nothing like the peach. Nobody’s been able to touch hers.
By Meridith Ford
July 11, 2008 12:33 PM | Link to this
Stephanie — do you know the name of the roas side stand or do you have more info??
By Stephanie
July 14, 2008 8:11 AM | Link to this
All I can tell you about the roadside stand is that when going to the Cotton Pickin Fair from Atlanta, it is on the right. It is inside a fenced- in area that has a lot of junk for sale. I assume the people that own this land are trying to set up some kind of little mini-antique fair. About 5 miles or so from the Fair grounds.
By Jscarey
July 14, 2008 12:55 PM | Link to this
It’s been a couple of years since I was last there, but Burger Inn in Woodstock, GA had some really good homemade fried pies. They were made with a more traditional pie filling unlike the fried pies my Great-Aunt Nan made when I was a kid using home dried apple slices. BTW, don’t eat those delicious chewy brown leathery dried apple slices until you’re full—all of that fruit and fiber will come back to haunt you. This is a lesson of my childhood.
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