The slip-skin technique and the deep purple taste of the American autumn
Origin: Finger Lakes, New York, USA
From the journey of Grapes.
Ephraim Wales Bull developed the Concord grape in 1849 in Concord, Massachusetts, from a wild Vitis labrusca vine growing near his home, breeding a grape hardy enough to survive New England winters, productive enough for commercial cultivation, and distinctive enough in flavour to be immediately recognisable. Bull introduced the Concord to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in 1853, where it won immediate acclaim. It is the most American of grapes: native to the Northeast, deeply cold-hardy, and possessed of the intensely musky, perfumed quality that Americans call 'grapey': a flavour profile so specific to Vitis labrusca that it appears in no European vinifera variety. Welch's grape juice (launched 1869 in Vineland, New Jersey), the peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich, and Concord grape pie all depend on this single variety. Concord grape pie is a regional speciality of the Finger Lakes region of central New York State and the Hudson Valley; areas with the climate and soil to grow Concord grapes in abundance. The pie is eaten in September and October when the grapes ripen, and it is almost entirely unknown outside these regions, which gives it the quality of a genuinely local food: not globalised, not exported, firmly rooted in a specific landscape and season. This regional specificity is part of its character; concord grape pie tastes like the northeastern American autumn in the way that a Beaujolais Nouveau tastes like the French harvest. The defining technique of Concord grape pie is the slip-skin method, which reflects the physical reality of the Concord grape: the thick, inky-purple skin separates easily from the green inner flesh; a characteristic called 'slip-skin' that is unique to Vitis labrusca varieties. The skins are popped from the flesh by hand (a satisfying, repetitive process), the flesh is cooked and strained to remove the seeds, and the skins are then cooked into the strained flesh: the skins providing the deep purple colour, the musky 'foxy' aroma, and the tannin that prevents the filling from being cloying. The filling is very liquid before baking and sets only on cooling: this frightens first-time pie makers, but the cornstarch binds the sugars and grape pectin into a perfectly sliceable filling once the pie has cooled completely. Concord grape pie is made by people who grew up in the Finger Lakes, by cooks who discovered it at county fairs and farm stands, and by those who understand that the American fruit pie tradition; which includes blueberry, cherry, peach, and blackberry; has its most regionally specific and underappreciated expression in the grape.
Concord grape pie is best eaten the day it is made; the pastry is at its crispest and the filling is at its most fragrant. It keeps for 2 days at room temperature, covered loosely. Serve at room temperature with vanilla ice cream or unsweetened whipped cream. The pie can be made with other slip-skin grape varieties if Concord grapes are unavailable, but the flavour will be different. Outside the northeastern United States, Concord grapes are rarely found fresh; they are sometimes available frozen (thaw completely and drain excess liquid before using).
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