Accounting for taste

For a while now I've held a fairly strong opinion about a particular topic. This opinion has turned friends and loved ones against me, made colleagues whose trust and respect I have gained question my sanity and made strangers instantly dislike me (which, thinking back, is not that rare). I believe that pie is superior to cake. There it is. I did not arrive at this opinion easily or half-heartedly. Nor am I alone: Adam Carolla has commented on the awesomeness of pie and there is a blog devoted to the comparison between pie and cake. This is not to say I don't like cake. I do. But if at gunpoint I would choose pie. Here are some other gunpoint decisions.

• Empire over Star Wars
• Pulp Fiction over Reservoir Dogs
• John over Paul (White Album over Sgt. Pepper)
• Gibson over Fender
• Marianne over Ginger
• Guinness over anything else
• Connery over Moore, Lazenby, Dalton, Brosnan or Craig

I would make these assertions not as "I prefer" but as "X is better". I'm not going to foray into the pointless exercise of "It's just your opinion"  and "It's not right or wrong, just preference". Blah. For me, the best pie I ever had wipes the floor with the best cake I ever had.

Allow me to explain. Think of a cake. Simple ingredients: flour, egg, sugar, butter, leavening, vanilla or chocolate. Mix, Bake, Frost... Presto-chango Cake. They even have instant cakes that are idiot-proof and deliver satisfactory results. Of course, you can over-mix made from scratch cakes and have tough or dry cakes, but for the most part, pretty basic. And delicious. Let me state again, I like cake.

But a pie is no simple apply, lather, rinse repeat deal. First there is the crust. Oh the crust. A delicate blend of flour, lard, butter, salt and sometimes sugar, blended just so and brought together by a cold liquid. No over- mixing please. And chilled. And wait. And brought out to be rolled just right. The chilled butter will create pockets of air and the lard will melt at a different rate to create a delicacy that is at once tender and crusty and...heavenly. Or you could create a graham cracker crust,or a hybrid, as advocated by the America's Test Kitchen for some custard pies. It takes skill and experience to make perfect pie crust. Which brings me to the filling.

Savory or sweet, the filling completes the pie. I would be content to just eat the crust, if need be, but an expertly prepared filling is Divine on its own. Whether the savory silky goodness of a quiche , the rich sweetness of pecan pie, or the nostalgic euphoria of apple pie, there is nothing better. Even cake's best argument, cheesecake, is actually a custard pie. The chemistry and timing needed to combine superb crust and delicious filling is not a hasty undertaking and is not for the weak. Frosting can cover up sub-par cake, but sub-par pie is just that, sub-par. And completely unacceptable.

For me, a slice of expertly made blueberry pie, a strong cup of coffee and good conversation is like a momentary foray into Shangri-la. Cake has never taken me there. In fact, I would say, pie takes the cake.