Berry Pies with and without Lids

The most direct method for making a berry pie is to toss the berries with cornstarch and sugar and bake them in the pie crust. But because berries release an enormous amount of liquid and thus require a large amount of cornstarch, the pie ends with a sticky gluey consistency A better technique is to cook the blueberries with a little liquid to get them to release their juices, drain them in a strainer—you don’t want to cook the berries any more than necessary—boil down the liquid they released, and then thicken the liquid with a little cornstarch and recombine the liquid with the berries. The technique for cooking pies without lids is essentially the same as for with lids, except that the filling must be cool before you construct a covered pie. If it is hot, the top crust dough will just melt.