An old-fashioned Southern recipe, from back in the days when you made do with what you had! Pinto bean pie is fundamentally an Appalachian and Southern “desperation pie,” born out of a culture of making do with what was in the pantry.
Ingredients
- ▢ — 1 cup pinto beans mashed well
- ▢ — 1 cup shredded coconut
- ▢ — 1 cup pecans
- ▢ — 3 cups sugar
- ▢ — 4 eggs
- ▢ — 1 tsp vanilla flavoring
- ▢ — 1 cup milk
- ▢ — 1 ½ sticks butter
Instructions
- ▢ — Add all of your ingredients together in a large bowl.
- ▢ — Mix well!
- ▢ — Pour into 3 pie shells.
- ▢ — Bake for 1 hour at 300 degrees.
Historical Note
During hard times, most notably the Great Depression and World War II rationing, home cooks couldn’t afford or find seasonal fruit, commercial fillings, or expensive nuts. This gave rise to the broader Southern tradition of desperation (or mock) pies:
• Vinegar pie or chess pie substituted for citrus like lemons.
• Mock apple pie used boiled Ritz crackers.
• Mock pecan pie and mock sweet potato pie used beans.
Pinto beans in particular were a non-negotiable household staple in western and Piedmont North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, and across the Appalachian foothills. Families bought dry pinto beans in 25- or 50-pound sacks because they were cheap, shelf-stable, and packed with protein. A pot of “soup beans” simmered on stoves all week. Using leftover boiled beans to make dessert meant zero food waste.
