Eat Your Heart Out, Granny

Published 7:00 am Monday, October 9, 2006

Frozen foods are the serious cook’s dirty little secret. This seems to be the case even when the frozen food in question is unquestionably better than anything you could make or grow yourself. Using a frozen ingredient or two may be acceptable (Where are you going to get baby peas as sweet and tender as Clarence Birdseye’s, even in pea season?) but serving your family (or, god forbid, a guest) a frozen entr饿 It’s as much as your hard-won middle-class credentials are worth.

But what if you could buy a frozen entr饠that’s superior to what you could make at home? Twin Hens Chicken Pot Pies throw down the gauntlet before you. Big tender lumps of dark and white stewing-hen meat (know a good local source of stewing hens?); fragrant, creamy chicken-vegetable gravy; a crispy buttery crust like Grandma used to make: all organic, additive-free, and ready from freezer to table in 45 minutes.

Twin Hens pot pies leaped from a suburban New Jersey catering kitchen to the big time via an appearance at the National Fancy Food Show, held this summer in New York. That’s where Carl LaForce, a buyer for Associated Grocers’ Thriftway chain, found them. Now available at the Magnolia, Ballinger, and Renton Thriftways, the 13-ounce frozen single-portion pies cost about $7. You can pick up a precooked 40-ounce pie at the bakery counter for about $20. Try them once, if you dare; your memory of Granny’s version may just turn brown round the edges.