Growing up, we would see the Weisses twice a year. Mr. Weiss had gone to some school with my father and they were close enough that once a summer they would come visit us and go to the beach, and some weekend in December we would all pile in the car and drive out to visit them in Pennsylvania for their tree-trimming party. Their part was awesome because it was a big party, we were out of town, and they had it catered. The better visit, though, was when they would come to visit us because we would have bacon-and-egg pie and popovers. Bacon-and-egg pie was always one of my favorites. As a child I hated eggs, with the exception of hardboiled. The fact that in the early 70’s eggs were still as important to a growing kid’s diet as three glasses of milk, made the fact that I liked this version of them another plus, because I was cheered for eating it.
For some reason the only time we had the dish was during the Weiss’ visits, so in my head it was always a big thing that was very labor intensive. Now that I have my culinary wits about me a bit more then I did as a seven year old, when Wife said, “let’s have some friends over for brunch,” I decided I was making bacon-and-egg pie. One call to Dad confirmed it was as easy as I now suspected, and almost impossible to get wrong.
All you do is:
Buy a piecrust.
Cover the bottom of the piecrust with raw bacon pieces you have cut up. (At this point I prefer a thicker bacon then the kind Dad used to use so I par-cooked it by throwing it in the oven for 20 minutes at 350°.)
Crack a dozen eggs into the crust.
Add an herb. (I had wanted to do chervil but it looked pathetic so I went marjoram. I pulled it off the stalks and gave a rough chop.)
Put another piecrust on top. (I folded the edge up and ran a fork around the outside, because I think that’s what you do.)
Put it in the oven at 350° for 45 minutes. (My twist on that was to butter on the top crust (hee hee, I added butter) and throw it under the broiler for about 5 minutes at the end.)
Let it cool for 30 minutes. (Like a very few other foods – fried chicken for example – bacon-and-egg pie tastes as good, if not better, cold as warm.)
Cut and serve.
The bacon-and-egg pie is awesome; the wonderful taste of eggs cooked with bacon, in piecrust, I mean come on. Next time it’s popovers.
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