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Milton Legassie keeps a staged kitchen. Prepared in advance, he’s laid out all the necessary culinary tools and premeasured the ingredients into miniature bowls. The countertop resembles a cooking show set.
“Just like Emeril. He’s my cousin,” Legassie says, laughing, as he begins to detail his crust-making process. They do have a couple similarities, close last names, Lagasse and Legassie, and a common passion for cooking, but Milton is of Acadian descent, not Quebecois, and he keeps his kitchen clean without a hired crew. His mother and the regimen of the U.S. Army taught him his immaculate habit.
“My mother was a very neat person. Everything had to be neat and in its place.” Not a simple chore as the caretaker of 15 children. Legassie was number 3, one of a set of twins. “It was similar to the Waltons. We were out in the country. My father was a carpenter and my mother was a homemaker.” During his childhood in Sheridan, his mother baked bread twice a week. The kids dined on baked beans every Wednesday and Saturday and had cookies and pastries for after-school snacking. His favorite—her homemade macaroni. She passed down her family cooking know-how to child No. 3, including her pastry recipe.
“When she made homemade bread, she’d give me a little piece of dough. So I’d knead that and put it in a little pan and that’s how I got to learn.” He adds a few more drops of water to his bowl and molds the dough, this time pie dough, with his hands. Legassie made his first pie, apple if he remembers right, at 14, and, over the years, he’s perfected the recipe. He had to divide the measurement amounts from his usual batch for our single pie recipe. With siblings in the double digits and preparing mess hall meals for 150 to 200 men, he has another habit of making enough for the Waltons and their extended family.
Milton Legassie spent Christmas Eve of 1963 in Seoul, Korea, using industrial-sized mixing bowls and rolling out tablecloth-sized pie shells to line metal trays for a selection of apple, pumpkin, and mincemeat pies for the base Christmas dinner. Legassie cooked in the army from ’62 to ’66.
“I just enjoyed preparing meals and making it taste good for the people. It made me feel good that the guys were eating food that I’d prepared . . . It was easier for me to cook for a large amount of people because I enjoyed cooking in quantity. I used to make like two gallons of gravy.” Some of the Korean chefs taught him to prepare enough handmade rolls for 200, how to ready meats, and gave him a taste for Asian spice.
When Legassie retired from army life, he returned to the County to care for his parents; he took care of his mother until she died at the age of 99. He continued to make pies en masse for National Guard holiday gatherings. Usually alone, he would go to the Fort Fairfield barrack’s kitchen the night before and have 12 pies baking at once in the double ovens. All the practice has taught him to enjoy his pie plain and not to over-spice. His mother did that, he confides.
Despite their different tastes, Legassie remains his mother’s devoted son. “She would have family or friends over to eat. Anything that was leftover, friends and families could take home. She always helped them out.”
He maintains her giving tradition through his cooking. No one he knows goes hungry. When the Catholic church has a dinner or bake sale they know to call “Milton” to prepare his rolls or pastries. Semiretired but a full-time baker, Legassie always has ingredients ready for batches of fudge, lemon squares, pies, and cakes. Every week he takes his food to acquaintances at the bank, work, the store, or the folks who sell him fresh eggs.
And when a writer and photographer come to do a story on him for a magazine, he makes sure to layer fudge squares between plastic wrap for them to take home.
-----
Makes one 10-inch pie
Crust
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt
Approx. 1/3 cup cold water
Filling
2 cups pumpkin puree
1 1/2 Tbs. melted butter
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1/8 cup molasses
1 cup sugar
1 Tbs. cornstarch
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. salt
Preheat oven to 425°F.
Crust: In a bowl, cut shortening, flour, and salt together with a pastry blender until pea-sized and crumbly. Using a fork, mix in very cold water until the dough holds together. Add more water as needed. Roll dough on floured surface until big enough to cover the bottom of a 10-inch pie dish. Lay into the dish and cut off any excess dough. Using the thumb, indent the outer edge of crust.
Pumpkin filling: Cut one small cooking pumpkin in half. Scoop out seeds and inside materials. Cover each half in aluminum foil. Bake at 350°F for one hour. Spoon baked pumpkin from shell and puree with blender or beater until smooth. Sift sugar, cornstarch, and spices in large bowl. Add pumpkin and mix well. Add butter and beaten eggs and stir until blended. Pour in milk and stir. Add the molasses and stir until completely mixed. Pour filling into unbaked pie shell.
If using a metal pie pan, bake at 425° for 65 minutes. If using glassware, bake 15 minutes at 425°; then reduce temperature to 325° for the remaining 50 minutes. When cooked through, remove and cool.
-----
• Don’t overwork the dough; it makes the crust tougher.
• Practice does make perfect, learning the trick to a good crust. Keep at it.
• In order to get the crust to the pie dish without tearing, fold in half to lay over the pan.
• Save the pumpkin seeds to bake in the oven as a tasty snack. The remainder of the crust dough can be made into miniature cinnamon rolls as well.
• It’s okay to replace the puree with
pumpkin-in-a-can, but Legassie prefers the real thing.
• Instead of poking the pie with a knife to see if it’s finished, give the dish a jiggle. He doesn’t like the hole in the middle.
• He also doesn’t like to microwave the pie to warm it up. “It makes the crust less flaky,” he says.
• Always make at least one more pie than you need so you can give one away. n
“Just like Emeril. He’s my cousin,” Legassie says, laughing, as he begins to detail his crust-making process. They do have a couple similarities, close last names, Lagasse and Legassie, and a common passion for cooking, but Milton is of Acadian descent, not Quebecois, and he keeps his kitchen clean without a hired crew. His mother and the regimen of the U.S. Army taught him his immaculate habit.
“My mother was a very neat person. Everything had to be neat and in its place.” Not a simple chore as the caretaker of 15 children. Legassie was number 3, one of a set of twins. “It was similar to the Waltons. We were out in the country. My father was a carpenter and my mother was a homemaker.” During his childhood in Sheridan, his mother baked bread twice a week. The kids dined on baked beans every Wednesday and Saturday and had cookies and pastries for after-school snacking. His favorite—her homemade macaroni. She passed down her family cooking know-how to child No. 3, including her pastry recipe.
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“When she made homemade bread, she’d give me a little piece of dough. So I’d knead that and put it in a little pan and that’s how I got to learn.” He adds a few more drops of water to his bowl and molds the dough, this time pie dough, with his hands. Legassie made his first pie, apple if he remembers right, at 14, and, over the years, he’s perfected the recipe. He had to divide the measurement amounts from his usual batch for our single pie recipe. With siblings in the double digits and preparing mess hall meals for 150 to 200 men, he has another habit of making enough for the Waltons and their extended family.
Milton Legassie spent Christmas Eve of 1963 in Seoul, Korea, using industrial-sized mixing bowls and rolling out tablecloth-sized pie shells to line metal trays for a selection of apple, pumpkin, and mincemeat pies for the base Christmas dinner. Legassie cooked in the army from ’62 to ’66.
“I just enjoyed preparing meals and making it taste good for the people. It made me feel good that the guys were eating food that I’d prepared . . . It was easier for me to cook for a large amount of people because I enjoyed cooking in quantity. I used to make like two gallons of gravy.” Some of the Korean chefs taught him to prepare enough handmade rolls for 200, how to ready meats, and gave him a taste for Asian spice.
When Legassie retired from army life, he returned to the County to care for his parents; he took care of his mother until she died at the age of 99. He continued to make pies en masse for National Guard holiday gatherings. Usually alone, he would go to the Fort Fairfield barrack’s kitchen the night before and have 12 pies baking at once in the double ovens. All the practice has taught him to enjoy his pie plain and not to over-spice. His mother did that, he confides.
Despite their different tastes, Legassie remains his mother’s devoted son. “She would have family or friends over to eat. Anything that was leftover, friends and families could take home. She always helped them out.”
He maintains her giving tradition through his cooking. No one he knows goes hungry. When the Catholic church has a dinner or bake sale they know to call “Milton” to prepare his rolls or pastries. Semiretired but a full-time baker, Legassie always has ingredients ready for batches of fudge, lemon squares, pies, and cakes. Every week he takes his food to acquaintances at the bank, work, the store, or the folks who sell him fresh eggs.
And when a writer and photographer come to do a story on him for a magazine, he makes sure to layer fudge squares between plastic wrap for them to take home.
-----
Kid #3’s Pumpkin Pie
Makes one 10-inch pie Crust
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt
Approx. 1/3 cup cold water
Filling
2 cups pumpkin puree
1 1/2 Tbs. melted butter
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1/8 cup molasses
1 cup sugar
1 Tbs. cornstarch
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. salt
Preheat oven to 425°F.
Crust: In a bowl, cut shortening, flour, and salt together with a pastry blender until pea-sized and crumbly. Using a fork, mix in very cold water until the dough holds together. Add more water as needed. Roll dough on floured surface until big enough to cover the bottom of a 10-inch pie dish. Lay into the dish and cut off any excess dough. Using the thumb, indent the outer edge of crust.
Pumpkin filling: Cut one small cooking pumpkin in half. Scoop out seeds and inside materials. Cover each half in aluminum foil. Bake at 350°F for one hour. Spoon baked pumpkin from shell and puree with blender or beater until smooth. Sift sugar, cornstarch, and spices in large bowl. Add pumpkin and mix well. Add butter and beaten eggs and stir until blended. Pour in milk and stir. Add the molasses and stir until completely mixed. Pour filling into unbaked pie shell.
If using a metal pie pan, bake at 425° for 65 minutes. If using glassware, bake 15 minutes at 425°; then reduce temperature to 325° for the remaining 50 minutes. When cooked through, remove and cool.
-----
Milton’s orders
• Don’t overwork the dough; it makes the crust tougher.• Practice does make perfect, learning the trick to a good crust. Keep at it.
• In order to get the crust to the pie dish without tearing, fold in half to lay over the pan.
• Save the pumpkin seeds to bake in the oven as a tasty snack. The remainder of the crust dough can be made into miniature cinnamon rolls as well.
• It’s okay to replace the puree with
pumpkin-in-a-can, but Legassie prefers the real thing.
• Instead of poking the pie with a knife to see if it’s finished, give the dish a jiggle. He doesn’t like the hole in the middle.
• He also doesn’t like to microwave the pie to warm it up. “It makes the crust less flaky,” he says.
• Always make at least one more pie than you need so you can give one away. n
