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LALLAH'S
HULL PIE
Historical
notes
All South Carolinians are familiar with
the childhood excitement of locating the wild grapes of the southern United States (Vitis
rotundifolia). Locals have called them "bullis", "bully", and "bullit" grapes. This supposedly
derives from the old-French term, bullace...meaning "small plum". However, my cousin (Cathy V.
Brown) has pointed out that French Huguenots fled to South Carolina/USA in the very late 1600's and
had a word, boule...meaning "ball", possibly accounting for those who call them "bully"
grapes.
Those with amber-green color hulls are called
scuppernongs; those with purple to black hulls are muscadines.
I was 50 years old before I ever heard of using
the skins of these grapes to make a pie. Now, as we eat domestic or wild
"scuppernong"/bullace/muscadine grapes, we save the skins in plastic bags and freeze them (if
you prefer, you can cook the hulls and freeze). Using a standard pie size, two cups of skins
will make a thin but very grapey-tasting pie. More skins will make a thicker fruit layer.
This pie is well-known in the "Dutch Fork" area of central South Carolina [west of Columbia],
the original settlers (1730-1800) of that area being of German extraction. The recipe is from
the late Lallah Lindler Drafts, my mother-in-law.
The
Recipe:
- Pie
crust: use your favorite recipe to make your own pie shell; or use pre-made (we like
Pillsbury pre-made refrigerated/frozen soft crusts). Depending on how crunchy you like your pie
crust, you may want to at least pre cook the bottom shell in the pie
plate.
- Cooked fruit
contents: using enough water (or natural or "bought" grape juice) to keep hulls from
scorching or burning, cook hulls until fork ( or "chewing") tender (you can cook as hard and
fast...or as slow...as you want, just so long as you don't scorch or burn). Experimenters could
add other fruit, too.
- Additions
needed: remove from heat and add, as you like:
sweetener, add while hot: we like it sweeter than
"natural"...add 1/2-3/4 cup of sugar
thickener, add after cools a bit: (this will help to sop up
the juice and hold it in the pie) gradually stir in one tablespoon of all purpose flour and
maybe even a little corn starch if still not thick enough.
- Other: experimenters could add grape jelly, pinches of
spices, some crushed Cheez-it crackers, or some nuts (pecans) in the mix. Also, this hull mix could probably be used in my daughter's easy cobbler recipe, HERE.
- Baking: dump contents into the bottom shell. The pie top can
either be a vented (holes or slices poked in the top crust) crust, lattice-work crust, or
buttered (or olive-oiled) crumbled crackers of various types (or bread crumbs, or biscuit
crumbs, buttered or oiled). Bake 325-375 degrees F. until brown.
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(posted: Sept 2000; latest update 15 March
2015) |