Opal picks: the Thanksgiving pie kit, and the pan that goes under it
Meet the crew · the county fair downriver · Virginia opossum
Opal’s story
Opal bakes pies for the county fair downriver, and she has the blue ribbons to prove it. She also faints. Not on purpose. When something startles her, she drops where she stands and stays there until it’s over.
- Has fainted at a smoke alarm, at a dropped lid, and once at the judges’ table when they called her name. She won. She found out an hour later.
- Says it isn’t drama, it’s biology. She’s right: in a real opossum, “playing possum” is an involuntary reaction, closer to fainting, and it can last up to four hours.
- Is the only marsupial on the river. She brings this up when the pies are being judged.
🎯 Opal’s hobby, and her surprise pick
Hobby: Fair pies. Apple in August, pumpkin in November, and a cherry pie for anyone who has been kind to her that year. The list is short. Gerzsi is on it.
Surprise pick: a food processor, for the crust. Opal has small hands and a lot of butter to cut into flour every November. A food processor does that in a few pulses, before the butter warms up. America’s Test Kitchen’s winner was the Cuisinart Custom 14-Cup, for its “power; precision; and a compact, streamlined design.” The honest catch: no mini bowl, so one shallot is still a knife job. Opal says that’s fine. She doesn’t put shallots in pie.
Black Friday is November 27, the day after Thanksgiving. Big appliances are worth a price check that week.
This page contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Read our disclosure.
Opal’s pick: a sheet pan under every pie
“A pie that drips on the oven floor starts smoking,” says Opal. “And then I’m on the floor too.”
Bake the pie on a rimmed baking sheet, and the filling that bubbles over lands on the pan, not on the bottom of your oven. For a very wet filling, put the sheet in the oven while it heats, so the bottom crust starts cooking the moment the pie goes in. America’s Test Kitchen’s winning rimmed baking sheet is the Nordic Ware Baker’s Half Sheet, about $15 when they reviewed it, and the same pan restaurant kitchens use.
Taking the pie to someone else’s house? See the host gifts →
Opal came up the river in the second week of November with three pie plates, a bag of flour and a plan to bake for the whole Lake House. Gerzsi gave her the big oven. Her first cherry pie went in at four. At ten past four it began to bubble over.
Gear in this story: jump to the picks →
The juice hit the oven floor, the oven started to smoke, and Opal went down on the rug like a dropped mitten. Gerzsi stepped over her, climbed on his stool, put on the oven mitts and slid a half sheet pan under the pie. No more drips. No more smoke. He opened the window and waited.
Twenty minutes later Opal opened one eye, asked if the pie was all right, and got up as if nothing had happened. Since then every pie at the Lake House goes in on a sheet pan. Opal calls it the pie’s seatbelt. Gerzsi calls it his idea, which it was.
Opal’s pie kit: a metal pie pan that browns the bottom crust (the USA Pan 9-inch was a co-winner in ATK’s pie plate testing), the half sheet underneath, and a Microplane for fresh nutmeg and orange zest (ATK’s best rasp-style grater, about $19 at review). Cooking the bird too? Here’s the Thanksgiving cooking timeline, so the pie isn’t fighting the turkey for the oven.
🛒 Buying the pie pans and the butter on Amazon anyway? Start your order through Gerzsi. It costs you nothing extra, and it keeps the river running.
Opal is made up, like everyone on the river except Chef Tamás. The opossum facts, the gear and the test results are real.
Sources: America’s Test Kitchen: rimmed baking sheets · America’s Test Kitchen: pie plates · America’s Test Kitchen: rasp-style graters · Tasting Table: the sheet pan under the pie · Farmers’ Almanac: opossum facts
🦫 The Lodge Letter. Black Friday is November 27. We’ll email you when a tested pick actually drops, plus one story a week. No spam, he’s a beaver.
🛒 Shop Opal’s pie kit
The pie kit (all ATK picks)
For the crust
Affiliate links. Picks from America’s Test Kitchen.
Leave a Reply