Grape Hull Pie

Grape Hull Pie is THE quintessential muscadine grape recipe. Here are three different recipes to choose among — or pick and choose elements from them as a basis for your own pie.

Nancy McDermott’s “Legendary” Grape Hull Pie

Ingredients

  • Pastry for a 9-inch double-crust pie
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
  • 5 cups muscadine or scuppernong grapes (about 2 pounds), rinsed
  • 1 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 3 Tbsps. cold butter, cut into small pieces

Directions

  1. Heat the oven to 400º.
  2. Line a 9-inch pie pan with crust, using about half the dough, and leaving a 1-inch overhang.
  3. In a small bowl, combine the sugar, flour, and salt, and stir with a fork to mix well.
  4. Set out a medium bowl and a medium saucepan. Squeeze the grapes over the saucepan, dropping the pulpy, seed-filled grapes into the pan and placing their thick, sturdy skins, or hulls, into the bowl.
  5. Add 3 tablespoons of water to the saucepan and place over medium heat. Bring to a gentle boil and cook the grape pulp until softened and shiny, about 5 minutes.
  6. Transfer the cooked grape pulp to a strainer and place it over the bowl of grape hulls. Press the grapes through the strainer, pushing the softened pulp into the pan with the hulls while extracting the large, round seeds. Use the back of a large spoon to get as much pulp as possible.
  7. Transfer the hulls and strained pulp back to the saucepan. Cook over medium heat to soften the hulls, about 5 minutes more.
  8. Add the sugar mixture and lemon juice to the grapes and stir to mix everything well. Pour the filling into the piecrust.
  9. Sprinkle the small bits of butter over the grape filling, distributing it evenly. Wet the rim of the bottom piecrust to help seal it.
  10. Roll the remaining dough into a 10-inch circle and cover the filling. Trim away the extra pastry extending beyond the rim of the pie pan. Crimp the edges firmly, or press them down with the back of a fork, working your way around the edge of the pie to seal the crust well.
  11. With a sharp knife, cut 8 slits in the top crust, to allow steam to escape and fruit juices to bubble up as the pie cooks.
  12. Place the pie on a foil-lined baking sheet to capture any drips, and place it on the lower shelf of the 400º oven.
  13. Bake 10 minutes, and then reduce heat to 350º. Bake until the crust is a handsome, golden brown and the grape juices are bubbling up through the crust, about 40 to 50 minutes more.
  14. Place the pie on a cooling rack or a folded kitchen towel and let cool for 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes one 9-inch double-crust pie. Yield: 6 to 8 servings.

Source: This recipe from Nancie McDermott, a food writer, cooking teacher, and the author of 10 cookbooks, was featured in Our State magazine. Here it is, also, on her own website.

Jeannie Blethen’s Muscadine Grape Hull Pie

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2  pounds (4 cups) light or dark muscadines
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
  • 1 1/2 Tbsp. melted butter
  • 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 8-inch unbaked regular pastry shell
  • 1 9-inch unbaked deep-dish pastry shell

Directions

  1. Separate the skins from grapes and set skins aside.
  2. Bring pulp to boiling point; reduce heat & simmer 5 minutes, then press thru sieve or Foley mill to remove seeds.
  3. Boil the skins briefly. Then, run them through a blender for about 2 seconds, leaving the grape skins in roughly 1/4 to 1/3 chunks.
  4. Combine skins with the sieved grape pulp.
  5. Combine sugar, flour & salt.  Add lemon juice, butter and grape pulp mixture.
  6. Pour into deep-dish shell. Cut fluted edge off regular pie shell & lay over top of filling so that a little (gold or purple) ring will show between crusts when pie is done.
  7. Use edge scraps to make small rolled balls of pie dough, and lay them on top of the top crust as a decorative grape cluster/bunch.
  8. Bake at 400°F oven for approximately 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 375°F and bake for 30 minutes longer.
  9. When cooled, add a real muscadine leave or two to the top as a finish garnish before serving.

Source: Chuck Blethen. The Blethens operate Jewel of the Blue Ridge Vineyard in Marshall, NC.  See their website here. 

North Carolina Grape Hull Pie

A short and sweet recipe!

Ingredients

  • 51/2 cups NC muscadine grapes, rinsed
  • 1 Tbsp. grated orange rind
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 1/2 Tbsp. lemon juice
  • pastry for 2-crust pie
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 2 Tbsp. butter or margarine

Directions

  1. Separate pulp from skins. Set skins aside.
  2. Boil pulp until seed loosen, then press through a sieve to separate pulp from seeds.
  3. Cook pulp together with skins until tender. Then add sugar, flour, lemon juice, and orange rind.
  4. Mix well. Put in pastry-lined 9-inch pie plate. Top with butter or margarine.
  5. Add top pastry. Seal edges and slit top.
  6. Bake at 400 degrees about 40 minutes.

Source: North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services.