{"id":1784891,"date":"2022-07-11T16:07:15","date_gmt":"2022-07-11T21:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/?p=1784891"},"modified":"2024-06-14T04:44:03","modified_gmt":"2024-06-14T09:44:03","slug":"how-to-make-depression-era-water-pie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/article\/how-to-make-depression-era-water-pie\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Make Depression-Era Water Pie"},"content":{"rendered":"From Hoover stew to aspic to tomato soup cake<\/a>, it seems vintage recipes hold a strange fascination for a new audience: social media influencers. Of particular interest since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic is a strange, retro recipe for water pie.\r\n\r\nWhen I announced to my family that we would try out a water pie, their reaction was skepticism mixed with dread. My son had recently seen someone try this pie on TikTok, so he had a sense of what we were in for. Nevertheless, they bravely agreed to join me in testing this unusual dessert.\r\n

What Is Water Pie?<\/h2>\r\nThis and other \"desperation pies\"<\/a> were created during the lean years of the Great Depression, examples of home cooking ingenuity born from making do with what few ingredients a family could afford. But water pie really takes it to the extreme: though it has sugar for sweetness, and butter and vanilla for flavor, the pie filling really is made mostly of water. A tiny amount of flour is the only thing holding the filling together. And you don't even have to stir it.\r\n\r\nInterestingly, I couldn't find a single recipe for water pie in any of my vintage cookbooks, even though there is evidence that it's truly a Depression-era creation<\/a>. So many vintage recipes hold such strong feelings of nostalgia and get handed down through families\u2014wacky cake<\/a> is a favorite of ours. It would seem, however, that folks didn't hold much sentiment for the water pie!\r\n\r\nHow do you save money on groceries? Share your tips with us!<\/a>\r\n

How to Make Water Pie<\/h2>\r\nI tested the water Pie pecipe shared by Southern Plate,<\/a> which makes one 9-inch pie. The recipe calls for a deep-dish pie shell, but my regular 9-inch pie shell worked just fine. This serves between 4-6 people. Allow time for the pie to cool and be chilled.\r\n

Ingredients<\/h3>\r\n\"depression\r\n