Good Gear & Gadgets: Pie Bird Chimney

If you stop by the kitchen store for any baking accessories while you are doing your Thanksgiving shopping you may want to pick up a Pie Bird Chimney. Pie chimneys or pie whistles as they are sometimes called have been used for centuries as vents that let out steam and prevent pies from boiling over. The pie bird also acts as a column support preventing the pie crust from caving in as it bakes. To use a pie whistle the baker rolls over the crusts, presses it into the pan, places the whistle in the center, fills the crust with filling, and then places the top crust over the whole pan and pie whistle. The pie whistle can be left in the pie when served as a novelty because most pie whistles are shaped like birds with gaping mouths open. They are ceramic and come in a variety of designs, the black bird just happens to be the most popular owing to the old nursery rhyme, “Sing a Song of Six Pence, a pocketful of rye, Four-and-Twenty Blackbirds baked in a pie…” One of our favorites is this seagull pie whistle.