Concord Grape Pie

Celebrating Jubilarians 2012

Benedictine Sister Herman Tschida

60 years as a Benedictine Sister

St. Benedict’s Monastery, St. Joseph

This is the fifth in an occasional series of recipes shared by jubilarians in the St. Cloud Diocese. A jubilee marks the special anniversary of one’s religious profession.

Many varieties of grapes have already been harvested in our area over the last few weeks and the tart Concords will be ready for picking within days. Most of those purple, highly aromatic grapes will be made into jelly, juice or Communion wine. But a few of them will be baked into pies. Concords are a slip-skin variety — their skin is easily separated from the fruit — and they have fairly large seeds, making them a good choice for a pastry filling.

Benedictine Sister Herman Tschida still remembers the Sister of Charity from Leavenworth, Kansas, who gave this unique recipe to her more than 50 years ago. At that time, Sister Herman was the young cook for the other 10 sisters from her community that operated St. Paul’s School in Anaconda, Montana.

“It was an unusual recipe,” Sister Herman recalls. “I’d never heard about it before then and have never seen another one like it. It takes time to make but it’s very good. It’s different than a pie made of berries — it tastes just like a grape — the flavor is rich and concentrated.”

You know the old saying — It’s easy as pie. CJK

Concord Grape Pie

(Benedictine Sister Herman Tschida)

5 1/3 cups Concord grapes

1 1/3 cups sugar

4 tbsp. flour

1 1/3 tsp. lemon juice

Dash of salt

Double piecrust
1 1/3 tbsp. butter

Preheat oven to 425°F.

Wash grapes and separate the skins from the pulp by squeezing the end of each grape opposite of the stem. Save the skins.

Put the pulp into a saucepan (without water) and bring to a rolling boil. While hot, run the pulp through a strainer to remove the seeds and then blend with the grape skins.

Mix sugar and flour together and add to the grape mixture. Sprinkle with lemon juice and salt.  Pour grape mixture into pastry lined pan and dot with butter. Cover with second pastry shell. Finish edges and cut small slits into the top crust for steam to escape.

Bake at 425°F for 35 to 45 minutes (until crust is nicely browned and juice begins to bubble through slits in top crust.) Serve the pie cool or slightly warm, not hot.

A note from Sister Herman: I have friends that wait for my fudge, peanut butter balls and haystacks. And, I do bake cookies occasionally around Christmastime or for someone’s birthday. I also love to make raisin pie.

A note from Carol: Sister Herman (Stella) Tschida grew up on a farm north of Freeport, Minnesota. Her family belonged to St. Rose of Lima Parish in nearby St. Rosa. The fourth of Herman and Mary Tschida’s six children, she began working in the St. Benedict’s Monastery kitchen after completing eighth grade and has spent most of her life cooking for the sisters of her community — at the convent in St. Joseph; the hospital the sisters founded in Ogden, Utah; the community’s school in Anaconda, Montana; St. Raphael’s Convent in St. Cloud and small parishes in a number of locations. 

Sister Herman originally shared this recipe in “Saint Benedict’s Monastery Cookbook, Volume I.” The 120-page cookbook features 300 favorite recipes from 90 sisters in the community. It is available for $8.95.

It is one of four cookbooks the Benedictine Sisters have published. Others include: “Saint Benedict’s Monastery Cookbook, Volume II,” “From the Monastery Kitchens — The Sesquicentennial Recipe Collection” and “The Art of Chinese Cooking.”

To purchase any of these cookbooks, stop by the Whitby Gift Shop and Gallery at the monastery in St. Joseph, the bookstores at the College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph and St. John’s University in Collegeville or the St. Scholastica Convent gift shop in St. Cloud.  It’s possible to order online as well.

Others featured in this series include Franciscan Sister Mary Joel Bieniek with the Franciscan Sisters of Little Falls’ homemade sauerkraut recipe, Poor Clare Mother Mary Matthew Tomsyck and her monastery’s zucchini casserole recipe, Benedictine Sister Ingrid Anderson sharing her anchovy sauce for pasta and Franciscan Sister Mary Pat Zangs’ Italian meatballs.