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| Betty Taunton enjoys her deep-dish marionberry pie inside her family’s Spouting Horn Restaurant in Depoe Bay. Taunton has been baking pie at the Spouting Horn for more than 40 years. OCT photo by Niki Price. |
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The famous pies of Betty Taunton
A slice of life in Depoe Bay
[First Published March 21, 2008]
By Niki Price
Oregon Coast Today
“You have three options,” the man said to Betty Taunton. “One, teach my wife how to make pies. Two, teach me how to make pies,” he said.
Betty paused, rolling pin in hand, and waited for the man to finish.
“Three, help me get rid of my wife, and marry me instead.”
The renowned pie baker of Depoe Bay had a quick comeback.
“What’s in it for me?” she asked.
If you’ve ever had a slice of Betty Taunton’s pie, you are likely to come to a delicious conclusion: not much. Such a nefarious arrangement would have little appeal to the master of the marionberry, the perfecter of the peach melba, the wizard of the walnut cream. After 40 years rolling, mixing and baking in the kitchen of her family’s Spouting Horn Restaurant, she has a reputation to maintain.
What sort of reputation? Consider the “pie hotline,” which is what the servers call the main phone in the Spouting Horn dining room. In the morning, calls come in from Salem, Portland and points beyond, asking what’s in the case. “Hold a piece of that sour cream raisin,” a fan will say. “We’ll be there for lunch!”
Once, in 1976, the caller on the pie hotline was an editor from Bon Appetit magazine. Betty had an admirer who had tasted the Spouting Horn’s peanut butter cream pie, and had written to the “R.S.V.P.” section asking for the recipe. A lover of culinary adventure, Betty was more than happy to oblige.
“I love to read, cookbooks and history and some that are a mixture. And I love to try different things,” she said. “My idea of a fun evening by myself is to find a recipe I’ve never made before, and do it. You can make some real messes, but sometimes you find something really good — something that’s worth doing.”
Few like to remember it, but there was a time when the Spouting Horn didn’t serve Betty’s pies. The Taunton family has owned the restaurant since 1951, but for the first 18 years, she was busy caring for her children, Nancy, Craig, Richard, Neil and Phil. She helped at the restaurant when she was needed, Betty recalled, but her husband and father-in-law handled most of the day-to-day operations.
In 1969, when the youngest was in school, Betty started waiting tables and keeping the Horn’s books. Then, as now, the restaurant specialized in family-style dining, with fish and chips, clam chowder, hamburgers and early breakfasts for those heading out on charter fishing trips. The Tauntons bought their pies from an outside vendor, but Betty thought they could do better.
At the time, she didn’t have much baking experience. But she soon found that she liked “messing around” in the kitchen, and that the customers liked it, too. She’s been filling the larder ever since, with everything she can dream up, using the freshest ingredients she can find.
“People always ask me, ‘How many pies have you made?’ My answer is always ‘I don’t want to know.’ It would make me tired. I do it because I still love it,” she said.
Her fans mark the seasons based on what Betty’s turning out. Right now, she’s making sweet sensations out of the year’s first stalks of rhubarb, along with cream pies and lemon meringue. In early summer, she’ll travel to the Willamette Valley for the makings of fresh strawberry pie; a few weeks later, she’ll do the same for blueberry. Peach pies are popular in late summer, followed by apple, pear and hazelnut fillings. In November, she’ll start saving up roast beef scraps for her annual 120-pound batch of homemade mincemeat, a traditional concoction of suet, apples, raisins, currants, orange peel, lemon peel and a mix of strong spices, with a healthy dose of sherry and brandy. As the holidays near, the Spouting Horn serves up slices of Betty’s mincemeat pie with a homemade rum sauce.
Most fruits are used only when they’re in season, because most fillings don’t freeze well, she said. Marionberries, which she freezes in bulk in July for use in single-serving deep-dish delights, are her only exception.
When you ask the Spouting Horn crew which flavors are their favorites, they’re likely to mention Betty’s specialties, which she makes only when the mood and ingredients strike. Last fall, she made a macadamia cream pie from a batch of nuts that family members sent her from Maui. Her peach melba, a collection of peaches, cream cheese and raspberries, is legendary. “Once they’ve had peach melba, people start leaving their names,” said her son Phil, who manages the restaurant.
Betty, who has been a widow since the death of her husband, Vaun, in 1995, loves to travel. She’s studied cooking in Provence, hunted down her relatives in Sweden, toured art museums in St. Petersburg and eaten at Paula Deen’s restaurant in Savannah, Ga., just to name a few destinations. She’s a well-read person who enjoys intelligent discussion, but in the dining room of the Spouting Horn, everybody wants to talk pie.
“How much for a full lemon meringue?” “We missed the mincemeat last year, but that won’t happen again.” “Where did you find that rhubarb?”
“What’s the secret to a great pie?” Betty fields this last question a lot, and she has a few ready answers:
• There’s no substitute for lard. This rendered, clarified pork fat has a bad reputation but yields an excellent crust.
• Don’t overwork the dough. Mix it together and roll it out quickly. Most people try too hard to make it perfect, and ruin it instead, she said.
• Make your pie to be eaten within 24 hours. At the Spouting Horn, Betty makes the staff throw pies away at the end of the day — much to Phil’s chagrin. Betty’s motto: “No pie improves over time.”
But bakers often do. Betty, who turned 79 just after our interview, still makes at least eight pies a day, six days a week. She thinks rolling dough, plus a little ibuprofen and a joint supplement, helps to keep her arthritis at bay. “My daughter is worried about me. She says, ‘Mom, one day you might drop dead back there. I say, ‘So what!’”
Reach the Spouting Horn pie hotline at 541-765-2261.
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Sir: During our vacation on the Oregon coast we stopped at the Spouting Horn Restaurant in Depoe Bay for coffee and pie. The pie, peanut butter cream, was outstanding, and I am wondering if you could get the recipe for us? Love your magazine.
C.E.V., Shelton, Wash.
Betty Taunton, proprietor of The Spouting Horn, tells us she is faithful reader of Bon Appetit and, having received many recipes through the magazine, is happy to reciprocate.
Peanut Butter Cream Pie
3 cups milk
3 egg yolks
Combine milk and egg yolks. Heat in regular saucepan or use double boiler.
1 cup sugar
½ cup cornstarch
¼ teaspoon salt
Mix sugar, cornstarch and salt.
Combine the two mixtures and cook until thick. If using saucepan, be very careful not to scorch. Pour hot filling into bowl, cover with buttered wax paper and chill. This must be absolutely cold before using.
When chilled, whip with electric mixer until creamy, then add 1/3 to ¼ chunk-style peanut butter, 2 teaspoons vanilla and beat with mixer until smooth. Place filling in prepared baked pie shell and cover with whipped cream. Sprinkle chopped peanuts on top for garnish.
Bon Appetit, January 1976 |
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