Johnny Cash's Signature Family Pie Served Tropical Paradise By The Slice

Johnny Cash was a legendary, genre-breaking artist who is highly respected across the globe, and his roots as a Southerner born in Arkansas inspired both his music and his taste in food. Cash was known to love many vintage Southern dishes and highlighted them frequently throughout his life, but there were few things he loved more than his mother's assortment of recipes. Among these recipes, one that stood out as among the most delicious and unique was undoubtedly Mama Cash's Pineapple Pie, a beautifully tropical dessert that is unlike any other.

The pineapple pie in question was one that Cash would bring up frequently when reminiscing about his family and home, and was one that many fans got the chance to try for themselves later in Carrie Cash's life when she released two editions of the "Recipes and Memories from Mama Cash's Kitchen" cookbook in the 1980s. The recipe itself was quite simple – combining eggs, sugar, butter, flour, vanilla, and crushed pineapple within a pre-made pie crust and baking it at 350 degrees F for 50 minutes – but it proved to give many Southerners a distinctive taste of home whenever they get the chance to indulge in it, much like Johnny Cash did throughout his life.

Now, while it's hard to improve on the perfection of such a classic recipe as Mama Cash's pineapple pie, there are a few tweaks that some believe can be made to better fit modern palates, especially because pineapple pie in general is one of the classic pies that has almost vanished over the years. For starters, while Mama Cash's recipe leaves the pie filling uncovered so the top of it can bake to golden brown, utilizing a lattice pie crust across the top could still allow the contents of your pie to achieve that caramelized exterior while also giving it a prettier presentation.

Alternatively, if you want to add some more flavor to the pie without disrupting its delicate filling, adding crumbs to the top instead of the crust could do just that. Most recipes for these crumbs are as simple as using a pastry blender or pastry cutter to combine sugar, flour, and butter, a simple task that can pay massive dividends when spread across the top of your pie before putting it in the oven to bake.