This Forgotten 1910 Raisin Pie Recipe Is Shockingly Delicious (What’s a “Bales Pie”?!)

#pie #recipe #delicious
Welcome back to Sunday morning and The Old Cookbook Show! Today, we’re diving deep into Canadian food history with a rare and unusual dessert: Bales Pie, from the 1910 Canadian Farm Cookbook. This vintage raisin pie recipe features a creamy filling made with light brown sugar, milk, egg yolk, lemon juice, and chopped cooked raisins, all tucked inside an all-butter crust and topped with a rustic single-egg meringue.

Never heard of Bales Pie? Neither had we — and we’re still trying to figure out why it’s called that! Join us as we explore this forgotten piece of Canadian baking, with roots in Myrtle Station, Ontario, right in the heart of buttertart country. Could it be an early butter tart cousin? Or something else entirely?

We also talk food history, why raisins used to be boiled, and how classic cookbooks captured regional farm recipes from across Canada. If you love vintage baking, old-timey desserts, Canadian comfort food, or uncovering culinary mysteries, you’re in for a treat!

🔗 If you have any information about the origin of Bales Pie or the Canadian Farm Cookbook, please share it in the comments below!


BALES PIE.—1 cup chopped cooked raisins, 1 cup sweet milk, 1 egg yolk, 1 cup light brown sugar, juice of 1 small lemon, 1 teaspoon cornstarch; mix smoothly, add raisins, and bake in 1 crust. Make frosting of egg white.—Mrs. A. HARRISON, Myrtle Station, Ont.