By Margie Wuebker
mwuebker@dailystandard.com NEW BREMEN -- The record for the world's largest pumpkin pie could be set Saturday in New Bremen.
Seven members of the New Bremen Big Pumpkin Growers plan to prepare, bake and serve a huge pie measuring 12 feet 4 inches wide and 4 inches deep. The event takes place at the Crown Pavilion.
Project members John Turner, Jon Wells, Leon Homan, Greg Reynolds, Jess Siegle, Brian Boroff and Jeff Wells aim to shatter the current record -- 6 feet, 3 inches -- set at Windsor High School in Windsor, Calif., in October 2003. The previous record was set with a 5-foot wide pie baked at the Circleville Pumpkin Festival.
The recipe -- 900 cups of pumpkin, 700 cups of evaporated milk, 93 dozen eggs, 420 cups of sugar, 5.8 cups salt, 11.6 cups cinnamon and 2.91 cups pumpkin spice -- is based on the one used in Windsor. It called for 55 gallons of filling; New Bremen's requires 204 gallons.
Planners calculated the increase in amounts in order to fill the considerably larger pan. If all goes as expected, like two test bakes held last month, the record should stand for sometime. Saturday's work detail will begin at 4 a.m. with preheating of a huge propane-fired oven built for the event. ATYS US Inc. of Botkins has charge of mixing and pasteurizing the filling while Lindsey's Bakery of Circleville is providing the pastry, which will be placed in the pan at 4:30 followed by the filling at 5:15. The mammouth 1,500-pound pie complete with attached rack will be lifted into the oven at 6 and baked for a period of six hours. Cooling requires another five hours before the pie is presented and weighed at 5 p.m. The pastry will be cut into pieces and served one hour later.
In order to break the existing record, organizers must use certified scales. In addition, there must be four authorized people in attendance to watch the proceedings and submit required paperwork to the Guinness Book of World Records. The Auglaize County Health Department has worked with the committee to make sure the finished product is edible -- another requirement.
It will take approximately a month for planners to learn whether their ambitious project did indeed set a record, according to Jeff Wells.
By that time, the huge pie will be nothing more than a tasty memory. |
