State of the Ozarks Cookin'

Gooseberry Pie from Elias Tucker

Stem and wash 3 cups fresh gooseberries; crush 1/2 cup. Mix crushed berries with 1 1/2 cups sugar, 3 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca; and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Cook and stir until bubbly; cook 2 minutes more. Add remaining whole berries. Prepare pastry for 2-crust 9-inch pie. Line 9-inch pie plate with pastry; fill. Dot with 2 tablespoons butter. Adjust top crust; cut slits; seal. Bake at 400°F for 35 minutes.

-- page 272, Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book, Meredith Publishing 1980

This was a favorite of Grandpa Martin, gooseberry pie, though I doubt if Grandma used tapioca in her recipe, probably some canned Pet brand evaporated milk instead. Grandma made such great pie crust anything she used for filling would just be a little extra. Grandpa (Poppy) liked anything tart, sour, or generally unappetizing to most people, especially those not country. "Try it, you don't know what's good, boy!" Gooseberries were very tartish. No problem. Any berry like that from the woods -- huckleberries, raspberries -- only needed mounds of sugar to bring them up to snuff. I told him Grandma could shred a newspaper, load it up with enough sugar, bake it with her signature, hand-kneaded pie dough in the oven of the wood burning stove, and he'd be smackin' with every bite.