Pie plates. © CooksInfo / 2019.
A pie plate is a dish used for making savoury or sweet pies in. Generally, all are oven safe, though they may be used for pies that are no-bake as well.
Pie plates are also equally referred to as pie pans, pie tins, pie dishes, etc. Some people try to differentiate terms — reserving pie pans or tins for metal ones, pie plates for glass ones, and pie dishes for ceramic or pottery ones — but it’s pretty hopeless. You’ll likely use the term your mother did.
The dish will be round and shallow, with sloped sides. The edge can be flat or fluted.
You measure a pie plate at the top, from inside rim to inside rim. Because of the sloped slides, the width of the top will be wider than the width of the bottom.
Sizes generally range from 20 to 30 cm (8 to 12 inches) wide and from 3 to 5 cm (1 to 2 inches) tall.
Pie plates can be made of glass, ceramic, stoneware or metal. The metal can be aluminum, tin, or heavy black steel. The most popular material in America for pie plates is Pyrex.
Some metal pie plates have perforations in the bottom. Some feel that the perforated bottom helps prevent a soggy bottom crust. You may wish to put a baking sheet on the rack below such a pie plate in case it leaks during cooking. Wait until the pies are completely cooled when cutting into them, or the juice may just run out the holes in the bottom
You can also get disposable ones made out of rigid aluminum foil.
Aluminum foil pie plate. WikimediaImages / Pixabay.com / 2011 / CC0 1.0