This old-fashioned vinegar pie recipe bakes up into a smooth, custard-style filling with a lightly caramelized top ideal for this flaky pie crust recipe. The flavor is gently sweet with a subtle tang that balances the sugar, creating a pie that tastes far richer than its simple ingredients suggest.
Once cooled, each slice holds together beautifully and delivers that classic, comforting texture that feels right at home on a farmhouse table or holiday spread.
You will find many old-fashioned recipes on my website, but some favorites are 17th-century Appalachian chocolate gravy served over old-fashioned buttermilk biscuits, Grandma’s easy pumpkin roll cake recipe, and this vintage jam roly poly.
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Quick Look at This Recipe
- ✅ Recipe Name: Old Fashioned Vinegar Pie Recipe
- 🕒 Ready In: About 50 minutes plus cooling time
- 👪 Yield: 1 nine-inch pie
- 🍽 Calories: Approximately 225 per slice
- 🥄 Tools: Mixing bowls, whisk, oven-proof bowl, pie plate
- ❄️ Freezer Friendly: Yes
- 📖 Dietary Info: Vegetarian
- ⭐ Why You'll Love It: Sweet, tangy, simple, and deeply nostalgic
- 👩🍳 Tip: Pull the pie when the center reaches 165°F for a perfectly set custard
What Makes This Recipe Unique
This vinegar pie recipe will become one of your favorite apple cider vinegar uses. It has stood the test of time because it is practical, reliable, and deeply satisfying.
- Resourceful - Made with simple pantry staples you likely already have.
- Fast - Still waiting for your apple harvest to make this canned apple pie filling recipe? Vinegar pie has got you covered, my friend. It has a faster baking time than fruit-filled pies.
- Easy - You don’t have to be an expert baker. This foolproof custard-style filling turns out with consistent results.
- Versatile - Perfect for holidays, special occasions, or everyday homestead baking.
- Historical - A wonderful introduction to traditional pioneer desserts.
Key Ingredients:
A full ingredients list, including measurements, can be found in the recipe card below.
- Pie Crust - You could use a store-bought crust, but you won’t bother when you figure out how easy it is to make this all-butter pie crust recipe.
- Eggs - Use farm-fresh eggs if you have them.
- Sugar - A mix of brown and granulated sugar gives the best results.
- Vinegar - I have tested this recipe with white and apple cider vinegar, and prefer it made with my DIY apple cider vinegar. It’s great in this refreshing switchel recipe, too!
Recipe Instructions
Step 1: Preheat oven to 400°F. Place the butter in an ovenproof bowl and set it in the oven while it preheats to melt the butter.
Step 2: In a small bowl, beat the eggs and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, sift together granulated sugar, brown sugar, flour, and nutmeg. Stir well until completely smooth and lump-free.
Step 3: Add the melted butter, beaten eggs, water, and vinegar to the dry ingredients. Stir until fully combined.
Step 4: Pour the filling into a prepared and pre-baked pie shell.
Step 5: Bake at 400°F for 30 minutes, or until the center reaches 165°F.
Step 6: Remove the pie from the oven and allow it to cool completely before slicing. Dust with powdered sugar, if desired.
Recipe Tips
- Always pre-bake the pie crust to prevent a soggy bottom
- Use room-temperature eggs for smoother blending
- Allow the pie to cool fully so the custard sets properly
- If browning too quickly, loosely cover with foil during the last 10 minutes
Storage Instructions
Store vinegar pie covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
To freeze, wrap the fully cooled pie tightly in plastic wrap and foil. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before serving.
FAQ’s
Vinegar pie is made with simple pantry staples like eggs, sugar, butter, flour, water, spices, and a small amount of vinegar to balance the sweetness.
Chess pie and vinegar pie are closely related custard pies, but vinegar pie relies on vinegar for tang, while chess pie typically uses cornmeal and sometimes lemon juice.
Vinegar adds brightness and depth to the filling, cutting through the sugar and creating a balanced, rich flavor without tasting sour.
Vinegar pie was especially popular in the 1800s and early 1900s when pioneer and Depression-era cooks relied on pantry staples instead of fresh fruit.
Home and Hand Made
If you loved this vinegar pie recipe and crave even more from scratch cooking, preserving, herbal remedies, and simple living wisdom, you will want a copy of my newly expanded edition of Home and Hand Made.
This newly updated edition brings you even more time-tested wisdom and practical skills for creating a home filled with homemade meals, natural remedies, and simple living traditions.
It includes 20 brand new recipes, an expanded herbal and beauty section, updated food preservation and fermentation methods and more money-saving and frugal living strategies.
Did you make this chicken vinegar pie recipe? If so, please leave a star ⭐ rating in the recipe card below (this really helps me out)… then, snap a photo and tag me on social media @melissaknorris so I can see! I love getting a glimpse of what you all make in your kitchens.
📖 Recipe
Old-Fashioned Vinegar Pie
Equipment
- Mixing Bowls
- Measuring Utensils
- Pie Plate
Ingredients
- 1 pie shell I love my Grandmother's all-butter pie crust recipe.
- ¼ cup butter
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar tightly packed
- ¼ cup all purpose flour
- Pinch nutmeg
- 3 Tablespoons vinegar
- 1 cup water room temperature is fine
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Place an oven proof bowl in the oven, and melt butter while oven is heating.
- Using a small bowl, beat the eggs. Set aside.
- In a separate large bowl, add the sugars, flour, and nutmeg. Stir well until no lumps remain. Alternatively, you can use a sifter for this.
- Stir in the melted butter, eggs, water, and vinegar.
- Pour into prebaked pie shell and bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely before cutting.
Notes
- Always pre-bake the pie crust to prevent a soggy bottom
- Use room-temperature eggs for smoother blending
- Allow the pie to cool fully so the custard sets properly
- If browning too quickly, loosely cover with foil during the last 10 minutes
Kelsey
This vinegar pie recipe was shockingly easy and absolutely delicious, with a perfectly smooth custard and just the right balance of sweetness and tang. I may or may not have eaten a second piece. 😊
Kimberly
Is 1 cup of water correct? We had to bake this pie for over an hour and it still didn't completely set. The flavor was good, but by the time it was baked long enough to get it set, the crust was like cardboard. In all the recipes for vinegar pie that I have seen, this is the first that calls for any water. An entire cup for one pie seems excessive.
Melissa Norris
This is how the recipe was written from the Little House on the Prairie Cookbook
Tomi
My family has enjoyed "Vinegar Pie" for years. The recipe we use came from my grandmother, but I"m not sure where she got it. In ours, the addition of shredded coconut, chopped pecans and golden raisins make it outrageously good! The very best thing about Vinegar Pie though, is the name. Because when you set it out at a pot-luck or tell guests the name of it, they typically pass . . . leaving lots of leftovers for you! LOL.
Kristen Schall
Hi! I’d love to have the recipe with the coconut pecans and raisins. Thank you.
Michal
Funny thing, I just finished reading a chapter in Little House in the Big Woods to my children where Ma was making vinegar pie, and I thought, “Hmmmm, I wonder what that is!” Thank you for the recipe. Is it possible to substitute coconut oil or something else for the butter?
Jennifer
Hi!! What are the little stars on the pie?
Chuck
Ready to try your Vinegar Pie recipe...it brings to mind leaner times when maybe fruit was scarce in winter and good 'ol American ingenuity took over resulting in such delights as Sugar Cream pies. Do I understand that the pie shell should be fully baked before adding the filling it and baking for another 30 minutes at 400 F. degrees ?? I fear my lovely crust would be burned beyond recognition!
Melissa Norris
You only pre-bake the pie shell for 8 minutes so adding another 30 minutes to bake the vinegar filling shouldn't burn it. Keep an eye on the edges and you can always use a pie shield for the outer egdes
Chuck
Thank you for the information.
Angela Vincent
Maybe I missed it, but what size pie shell is this recipe designed for, please?
Melissa Norris
9 inch pie!
Lee
If you love these old recipes, your readers might go look for The Little House Cookbook by Barbara Walker. I wore out my first copy and had to buy another because I enjoyed it so much. Ms. Walker quotes the book where the recipe is discussed, and then walks you through how it was done in Laura's day. She did update a few things, like the canning section, but otherwise it's very much as Ma or Laura cooked.
Melissa Norris
You must have missed it, but I linked to that book in the post above and shared the recipe was from that book ?
Shirley
I have wanted this vinegar recipe for years! This was my dad’s favorite while growing up 120 years ago on a farm in Missouri.
Melissa Norris
I'm so glad you found it here then! I find recipes are like memories, they connect me to family and friends and reach across the miles and years ?
Nanci
I have both of your books, LOVE them!
Thank you for staying true to who you were created to be. I don't live on a homestead, but the one I would want is always in my heart.
I do however, bake and cook from scratch as much as a can. Just ground soft white wheat and made muffins this morning.
I believe it is the best we can do for our families, for our heritage and for the planet to stay as close to nature
as possible.
Thank you for being the greatest role model of homesteading that I have come across.
Melissa Norris
Nanci,
Thank you so much for getting the books and I'm so glad you enjoy them! Did you have a favorite part or recipe from them?
And you definitely have a homestead kitchen so I think that makes you a homesteader. ?
Awesome job on the homegrown flour!!
Donna
Thank you for sharing. Please go back and correct the Instructions in the Sentence listed below in the Recipe listed below. I do believe you meant to say cutting and not cooling. We all love you and thank you.
Vinegar Pie – Old-Fashioned Recipe from Ma Ingalls
Remove from oven and cool completely before "cooling".
bty...Vinegar Pie is excellent
Melissa Norris
Ack, thanks for catching that, on my way to fix!