My aunt's weird 'secret' in her apple pie recipe turned out to be a game changer

I was helping my Aunt Carol make her famous apple pie at her house in Spokane last Thanksgiving, and she told me to sprinkle a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar into the filling right before baking. I thought it was a mistake, but she said her mom always did it to make the apples taste brighter. Does anyone else have a family recipe with a strange ingredient that actually works?

3 comments

3 Comments

oscarh163mo ago

My grandma swore by a pinch of black pepper in her peach cobbler. Sounded nuts, but you could never quite place why it tasted so good.

park.wyatt3mo ago

My buddy's mom in Tulsa puts a dash of cayenne in her apple pie. You'd never guess it was there, but it just works.

karenhenderson17d ago

Oh, I gotta stop you right there... I really don't get the whole spice in sweet thing. Cayenne in apple pie just sounds wrong to me, like a prank someone's playing on you. I've tried a couple of those "secret ingredient" tricks before and it always ends up tasting like I'm eating dinner and dessert at the same time. Black pepper in peach cobbler especially makes me cringe... it's like you're covering up the fruit's natural sweetness instead of letting it shine. I get that people swear by it, but for me, a good apple pie just needs cinnamon and maybe a little nutmeg, nothing else.