When we think of a pantry we can’t help but think of pie. These are the best tools for the pie pantry. Are you well stocked?

These are the tools you need for making your own pies from scratch. First off, if you don’t already have them, you need a good set of measuring cups and spoons. We like magnetic nesting measuring spoons and a set of glass one and two cup measures, and a set of nested metal measuring cups.

Then, some more pie specific tools:

Pastry wheel or pasta cutter

A pastry wheel or pasta cutter makes cutting the edge of a crust or lattice a breeze. Yes, you can use a knife for the same purpose but a pastry wheel is fun and has a little crimped edge we like.

Rolling pin

The rolling pin is essential to properly roll out the crust and a heavier and larger rolling pin can make rolling out dough much faster and easier. I realized this after switching from a standard wooden rolling pin to a larger diameter and heavier wooden rolling pin from my mother. It is much faster and easier to use the larger rolling pin. In a pinch, without any rolling pin, you can use a wine bottle.

Dough cutter or food processor

A dough cutter or food processor helps cut the butter into the flour when making pie crust or any pastry. We use a food processor and pulse the butter in using 4-6 pulses and then the egg, vinegar, and ice water mixture in our pie crust recipe for an additional 20-24 pulses.

A dough cutter should have a comfortable handle and curved metal edge to meet the curve of a bowl and several blades to cut the butter in. A couple of knives can substitute in a pinch.

Pie Pan and Pie Weights

We use round glass Pyrex pie pans for deep dish pies and a couple of metal pans, one larger then typical and one with a fluted edge for some crusts for non-pie tarts or quiche.

Pie weights keep pre-baked  crusts from bubbling and buckling while baking in the oven. Pre-baking is for lemon meringue crusts, or pumpkin, or quiche. We put tinfoil on the crust and pour a mixture of rice and grains on the foil, about an inch deep, to weigh down the crust. We save this grain mixture specifically for weighting pies and re-use it. You can also use pie weights specifically made for this purpose and will update when we have found some we prefer.

And if you have more then one pie to carry somewhere? You might need a pie box like this one from an 1889 issue of American Agriculturalist magazine:

Or the modern version:

The pie box is described in an 1889 issue of American Agriculturalist:

“A very handy contrivance for saving shelf-room is here shown. It is a plate or pie box capable of holding six pies while it occupies only the amount of space usually required for one. Those who have not as much shelf-room as they need will find such a box a treasure; so the Inventor assured us, and after seeing it in use recently we knew that it must be so. On baking day, after the pies were cooled and ready to put away, the box was filled, and, with just one trip to the little shelves conveniently placed in the corner of the landing at the head of the cellar stairs, six pies were snugly stowed away where only one could have been accommodated without it.

“What would you ever do if you hadn’t it?” we asked, seeing the crowded little corner shelves. “Do as I used to, I suppose,” was the answer; make three or four trips through the kitchen and dining- room with them and carry four or five of them to the swing-shelf down cellar, and then go after them one by one. That is what I had to do before I had this.”

When asked about its manufacture she replied:  We had the box, something came in it, I have forgotten what — and standing it on end, yon see, the bottom was just large enough to slip large plates in easily. So we tacked five slender cleats in on each side, slipped in the shelves and fastened them with a tack or two apiece, fastened this ball—taken from an old water-pail—to it, and it has been a treasure to me ever since. We fastened the bail close to the top on each side, and just a particle nearer the front than the back. I have never had to be careful about the pies sliding out. Sometimes I hang the box on the wall, suspending it from those two hooks you see there just far enough apart to come each side of the wooden band-roll, and so keep it from slipping to one side. I carried one to a neighbor’s wooden wedding awhile ago, and she thinks a great deal of it.”

Perhaps among the readers of the American Agriculturist there may be housekeepers who will be pleased to try this simple space-and-labor-saving device.”

A couple more tools that may come in handy or to keep in mind:

A fruit zester for lemon meringue or key lime pies, a good paring knife for apple peels, a nice slicing knife for fruit fillings, large flat surface to roll out on that is easily cleaned up, a dough scraper to get the bits off the counter, and last but not least, a large appetite for pie. And some whipped cream.