You Don’t Need a Bird Pie
Checking a pie for doneness can be a daunting task. This is especially true for double crust pies (because everything is hidden inside). Removing a wrapped bag of dough from the oven before it’s done can lead to watery or soggy results, and you may have thought of a tool like a pie bird to signal when your pie is done. I’m sorry to break the news, but the pigeons don’t really do much other than look alarmed.
Pie birds are usually bird-shaped hollow ceramic tubes that are inserted into the middle of the pie. They were also called pie trumpets, which is a little more accurate, especially since they were not always in the form of birds. They appeared in the distant past when they may have served several purposes, such as ventilating a double-crust pie by physically supporting expansive feast-sized pie crusts, helping with uneven heat in wood-fired ovens, or speeding up cooking by providing a conductor of heat in the center of a very a large or densely stuffed meat pie.
The bird, or chimney, is pressed against the center of the pie filling, protruding about an inch or so, with the top crust draped over it. The patty bird pops out eerily, and the chef seals the top crust around the edges and tightly wraps around the bird. It all goes into the oven until steam starts spewing out of the cake/chimney. A strong stream of steam signals that the remaining water in the filling has reached the boiling point of 212°F in the center of the cake, not unlike a whistling kettle. The chef sees the steam and knows the pie is ready.
With modern ovens, uneven cooking is no longer a concern, and standard pie pans lean towards a very acceptable 9 or 10 inch diameter, so pie crusts don’t need extra support, and cooking to the center sooner than the outside burns isn’t much of a struggle. The pie bird doesn’t do all of these practical things, but it still functions to aerate the pie and blow off steam. This is cute. The thing is, you don’t need a pie bird to blow a pie or show you steam. Pies really need vents to allow the steam to escape in a controlled way, otherwise the dough can tear and all the filling will escape from the walls to the bottom of your oven. Vent holes are just holes in the top bark, and these days we usually make vent holes with decorative patterns like a trellis on top, a round cut, or a few simple slits in the center.
Checking if the pie is ready is usually as simple as watching some signals and setting some “windows” so you can see more clearly. I like a literal window for the bottom crust, so I always use a clear pie pan. For the top crust, cut a decent-sized round hole in the center so you can see when the filling is bubbling. While the pie is baking, look at the bottom of the pie and check how browned it is. Once you notice an even brown crust, you can start paying more attention to the vents. Check the vents for steam and filling bubbles. The edges will start to bubble and you will know that the center will appear soon. If your filling is bubbling in the center, you are as good as a pie bird.
For low moisture pie fillings, such as meat or vegetable pies, it may be difficult to see the steam coming out through the vents, or you may not want the meat to cook to the rather high temperature of 212℉. In this case, use a meat thermometer or probe thermometer . Poke the reader through the center vent you made sure to cut out and get an accurate temperature. While the dough is browning to your liking, you can take the cake out at the right time. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big believer in collecting and using vintage kitchen items safely, even if they’re bulky and semi-useless. I would never criticize your bold display of pie birds on the windowsill. You just don’t need them in your pie.