The search for the elusive pie tin has become a legitimate challenge now. Not only is it still difficult to find aluminum pans it is getting harder to find pre-owned tin pie plates.
The last time I was at the Salvation Army Thrift Store the cashier told me they accept plastic shopping bags. The bags are used by the food bank and cantina. So, Wayne and I took advantage of a trip to Cross Lanes to drop some off on our way.
I don’t know if all Salvation Army Thrift Stores are as small as the two in my area. They are both clean, and neat. They have much more clothing than housewares. So it did not take long to stroll through and see there were no pie plates that day.
The Goodwill Thrift Stores used to be fairly well organized. They weren’t as tidy as the Salvation Army stores, but if you wanted housewares you went to that section and there were shelves and shelves of them. Unfortunately, someone decided that piling housewares, shoes, toys, and miscellaneous stuff on shelves on top of the clothes was a good idea. Now, not only can you NOT find anything, you have to dodge people looking for clothing as well.
There is no logic to the piles of clutter. To find a pie tin you have to walk the entire store. It took about 30 minutes to walk through the Charleston Goodwill but I did find one pie plate. It was lodged under some random stuff. Wayne spied it.
On the way home we stopped in the thrift store in Marmet we visited a couple weeks ago. This trip I spent a little more time in what appeared to be the bakeware section. I managed to locate four pie tins. Two are technically disposable, a sturdy tin usually found with frozen desert pies.
I also found a Pullman Pan. The Pullman Pan is a covered bread pan used to make the nice square sandwich bread loaves. It gets the name from George Pullman, who popularized the loaves for use on his railcars.
I was able to purchase the pie tins and the Pullman Pan for right at $5.00. Almost exactly one year ago I purchased an identical Pullman Pan from the big online store for $19.79 plus tax.
It takes a little getting used to. I put a two pound loaf in and it almost buckled the top, and dough was poking through the vent holes in the bottom. But a one pound loaf didn’t seem to fill the pan enough to create the flat top.
My persistence is paying off, however, as my stock of pie tins slowly increases.