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“My petty, vindictive aunts don’t deserve to keep it to themselves. I love and miss you, Grandma!”
Have you ever eaten a homemade dessert, perhaps at a party or potluck, and asked the baker for the recipe? If you have, you may have been disappointed when they responded, “It’s a family secret.” The elusive idea of a secret family recipe just makes you want to learn it even more, wondering what magical ingredients or techniques could be behind what you just ate.
The world of r/old_recipes also feels magical. The Reddit page is home to treasured family recipes and photos from vintage cookbooks, bringing us back to a time when food was about good, simple eats, not about who could make the most complicated, photographable dish.
One of the most popular recipes on the subreddit is a coveted family recipe shared by a vengeful niece who loves her grandma. Thanks to her, we get all the satisfaction of knowing the secret. I tried the viral “Spite Pie” to see if it lives up to the hype.
What Is Spite Pie?
You read that right—not Sprite pie, but spite pie. The pie originated in @postsecret, an Instagram account that posts anonymous secrets mailed in via postcard. The recipe, which one commenter dubbed “Spite Pie,” became an internet phenomenon when a @postsecret fan mailed in a recipe card for her grandmother’s Apple Cream Pie.
“This recipe has been a family secret for 100 years. It’s a great pie, and deserves to be shared. My petty, vindictive aunts don’t deserve to keep it to themselves. I love and miss you, Grandma!” the sender said. Does the pie’s name imply the niece or the aunts are the spiteful ones? Perhaps a bit of both.
The post was then reshared on r/old_recipes, becoming the subreddit’s most popular recipe of all time, garnering over 2,000 upvotes and 200 comments. A repost from last year garnered another 4,000 upvotes and 150 comments.
The pie was a shoo-in for internet virality. The idea of learning someone’s secret family recipe, especially by way of revenge, is too delicious to pass up. Along with the pie’s hilarious story, it uses shredded apples instead of sliced ones, giving it a unique edge.
“I’ve been making this since it first appeared on Post Secret (and subsequently Reddit),” one commenter wrote. “It’s a great recipe, and everyone who tries it loves it!”
“I’ve made it every Thanksgiving for about 5 years running, and my family loves it,” another said. “I like it better than regular apple pie.”
The @postsecret submission includes the official recipe for the pie. The sender also shared more tips for making her family recipe on Reddit.
How To Make Spite Pie
The @postsecret submission includes the official recipe for the pie. The sender also shared more tips for making her family recipe on Reddit.
Start the pie prep by peeling and grating three Granny Smith apples. This was the only labor-intensive part of making the pie, and doing it by hand made me question why I haven’t sprung for an electric grater yet. The apples released a lot of liquid while being grated. Since the recipe doesn’t mention disposing of excess liquid, I recombined it with the grated fruit.
Next, add apples to a raw, deep-dish pie crust and drizzle with melted butter.
Meanwhile, in a bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and milk. I don’t love nutmeg, so I reduced the amount by half. Pour over the pie without mixing into the apples. As an optional step, let the pie sit for a few minutes before baking so the cream mixture seeps into the apples better. I let it sit while my oven preheated. The pie does not have a top crust.
Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes and then reduce to 350 and bake for 30-40 more minutes.
Warm from the oven, the thin, shredded apples tasted like applesauce or even charoset. Once cooled, the pie took on more of the apple pie flavor I’m familiar with. The pie was tasty both ways.
I wouldn’t say the pie is life-changing, but the grated apples had a few advantages I wasn’t expecting. The filling doesn’t fall out of the pie while cutting a slice, a problem I’ve had with regular apple pie, nor do you have to cut the apples while eating. I also enjoyed the textural contrast between the soft shredded fruit and the buttery, sturdier crust. In the future, though, I would drain the excess juice from the apples. The pie was a bit too liquidy, with one wet spot in particular that had a hard time setting.
The pie strikes the balance between familiarity and novelty, fitting for a July 4th or Thanksgiving potluck. Bring it to a holiday potluck and just wait for someone will ask you, “What’s in this?” Then, you can respond “it’s a family secret... or at least it was.”
Read the original article on Allrecipes
