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olivertwistkitchen

Pie crust shield

olivertwistkitchen
11 years ago

Can anyone recommend one? Or should I just stick with strips of foil?
Thanks.

Comments (19)

  • localeater
    11 years ago

    I have several, none are brand names though. I have one that is aluminum and in one piece and it works fine but it is too small, for my favorite dish, so it gets fewer work outs. I have another that is in five pieces to fit better, but I do not recommend as the pieces are very thin and the edges bend. I am thinking of getting a silicone one because then if it gets squished in the drawer it will still function.

  • mountaineergirl
    11 years ago

    I have silicone ones and they work great

  • Gracie
    11 years ago

    For some reason I never bought them till this Thanksgiving. I bought the cheap 4 piece aluminum type and it works great! The metal conducts enough heat to give you an even, golden-brown crust. I'm sure they'll bend eventually if I shove them in a drawer, but I only paid $2 for them.

  • trailrunner
    11 years ago

    I will tell you what works the best and I still have Momma's. Tear up old bed sheets/pillowcases..old linen napkins might work but you need long strips. You wet them lightly under the faucet and wrap the crust in one layer. Overlap just enough to hold it. You won't believe how beautifully your crust will brown through the cloth. The cloth scorches sometimes but only lightly and never burns. Tried and true and my grandmother passed it to my momma and then to me..so well over 100 yrs old.

    So go to an antique mall or get on etsy and buy an old bed sheet...antique 100 % cotton and make pie crust protectors. c

  • olivertwistkitchen
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    I was thinking silicone. Trying to decide if one ring is better than 4 separate pieces. For the 2 pies I bake a year!

  • motherof3sons
    11 years ago

    Love mine. Had no idea there are silicone shields!

  • labbie
    11 years ago

    I don't cook a lot of pies, but I've always had good luck with just the foil strips.

  • cindaintx
    11 years ago

    I found this one at the wonderful Lee Valley Hardware site while looking for drawer pulls.
    http://www.leevalley.com/en/garden/page.aspx?cat=2,40733,44734&p=69691
    Gave it as a gift so I don't know how it really works, but the flexible nature like one of mine, plus adjustable....looked like a winner to me.

  • ci_lantro
    11 years ago

    Find an aluminum foil pie pan a little larger than your pie plate. Cut the center out of the foil pan & use it (upside down) to protect the edges of your crust.

  • Cavimum
    11 years ago

    One of my sisters has a convection oven. She told me that when she bakes her pies with the convection, she doesn't need to protect the edges of her crust. I have no personal experience.

  • Circus Peanut
    11 years ago

    I've used the tin?/aluminum? shields by "Mrs. Anderson's" for many years, but I also like the philosophy of using wet strips of cotton - one way to get crust to brown better is to brush water or egg white on it before baking, so I imagine that works well for most pies-- if not the juiciest ones. (Given my luck, I can just see myself at my next dinner party serving the pie equivalent of toilet paper sticking to my shoe ... )

  • rosylady
    11 years ago

    The worst is when you don't have any protectors and you say to yourself, "oh, it'll be fine". Then halfway through the edges are getting too brown and if it was just for your family you'd serve it up that way. But you are baking this pie for the neighbor's annual bbq/pie contest and you desperately want to win.

    So you pull the hot pie out of the oven and try to attach the little foil strips to the edges, but it's burning hot and scorching hot juice is bubbling onto your fingers.

    It's times like these I tell myself I must get those crust thingies!!! Then I forget...

    I can see it now...I will make myself a note to get the crust shields. Then I will forget. Then the next time I bake a pie I will remember Trailrunner's old sheet method, except I don't have any old sheets handy so I will be cutting edges off the guest bedroom sheets and tucking them back in thinking no one will ever notice...

    I asked my sisters for pie shields and pie weights for christmas but they said those gift options were too boring.

    Ugh...I'm never gonna win that pie contest.

  • deedles
    11 years ago

    I'm totally going to try the old sheet trick, Trailrunner. Never heard that before! Thanks!

  • trailrunner
    11 years ago

    cp: you are a hoot !! Momma always peeled the strip off in the kitchen as the pie cooled :) She rinsed it off in the sink and hung it dry on a towel rack and rolled it and put it in a glass jar with a lid. She always had a whole jar of them as we were always going through sheets sooner or later. She just tossed the ones that looked bad after too many uses. Momma and Grandmomma were very frugal Midwesterners.

    rosy: get an old thin pillowcase girl !! It works.

    deedles it is completely foolproof...wet , wring it out and wrap....3w's. Next time I make a pie I will post pics. c

  • zackin
    11 years ago

    Wow, the strips of dampened sheet trick, wow! Can't wait to try it. I've struggled with aluminum foil and one-piece aluminum shields, but this sounds so much better. The cloth will easily bend where needed and not slide off, like the other methods.

    Thanks, Trailrunner!

  • Cavimum
    11 years ago

    Hubby only likes Chess Pie, which has never had this problem.

    I have a question that might be dumb, but with no personal experience, here goes...

    Could one cut a large hole in a piece aluminum foil? Sort of like one large ring or do-nut shape? Or even leave the four corners so that they would fold under to hold in place?

  • gr8daygw
    11 years ago

    Cavimum, you're a genius!

  • sandra_zone6
    11 years ago

    I do what Cavimum suggested and have for years. Always in a rush and it's quick to do.

    Take a square of tin foil, fold it in half and then half again, cut a quarter circle out of the center, unfold, lay on pie, turn down the outer edges.

    The tin foil circle is adjustable once cut by folding it up a bit to make a smaller diameter circle. I have multiple pie shields, but none work as well as the tin foil one.

  • Bunny
    11 years ago

    I've generally had pretty good luck with my pies browning uniformly (gas, nonconvection). However, the few times I've tried to add strips of foil during the cooking, the heat of the oven seems to want to lift the lightweight strips of foil and make them waft around.

    It would be easy enough to make templates of various pie dish rim sizes out of cardstock or posterboard to help cut out exactly what you need. You all with lots of vertical slots for things could keep them there.

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