If you need to pre-bake a pie crust before filling it, you must weigh down
the crust while you bake it, otherwise the crust will pull away from the
pie pan completely, as well as have lumps, bumps and air pockets.  So after
you roll out the crust and place it in the pan, you put small weights on
the crust and bake it.  Then after it's cooled, you remove the weights and
fill your pie.   Little clay "marbles" are sometimes used, as are small
metal weights.  Some people use clean fishing sinkers or glass marbles,
though I'd worry a bit about glass marbles shattering.  Pie weights are
sold today, often in sets with a "pie bird", a small ceramic bird with an
open upward-facing mouth, that's baked into the center of a fruit pie and
keeps the top crust from splitting by venting the steam.
 
Irene Henry
 
> sorry: glanced over some reference in there to using marbles in baking
pies, and
>
> didn't pay enough attention to satisfy my wife's curiosity: could you
maybe run
> that one by me again: how they were used?
>
> geoff carver
> [log in to unmask]