Mary McCrank is gone now, but since her passing in the early 1980s, the tradition of family-style meals she started nearly 60 years ago has been nurtured by the new proprietors of this lovely dinner house south of Chehalis just off the interstate highway.
It really is a dinner house, with all the comforts and amenities of home. Nearly every seat looks out upon the well-kept lawn and gardens outside. Decor is grandmotherly, including nice pictures on the walls, and easy chairs scattered throughout the comfortable dining rooms (several of which are equipped with working fireplaces) for leisurely relaxing.The menu at Mary McCrank's doesn't seem to have changed in decades. It hasn't since we stopped in on our first trip to the Pacific Northwest about 15 years ago. Dinner always begins with a lovely array of breads, including white and whole wheat, and perhaps muffins or biscuits, accompanied by loganberry and gooseberry jam and an old-fashioned relish tray that includes watermelon pickles, zesty chowchow and marinated cucumbers.
The entree we like best is fried chicken, which tastes great, the way only homemade fried chicken can taste, and also seems just right: exactly the kind of meal you'd want your nice old grandmother to make if you went visiting on Sunday. The chicken is accompanied by mashed potatoes and gravy; the only meal that could ever turn our heads from it is chicken and dumplings (served only on Sunday) - a local specialty that no restaurant does better.
There are plenty of other good things to eat at Mary McCrank's: pork chops, grilled oysters, pan-fried mountain trout, grilled chicken liver and caramelized onions, and handsome steaks. Everything is accompanied by good potatoes and simply cooked vegetables.
Desserts are excellent - or should we make that singular: dessert. There may be items other than pie available, but we have never tried them, and we don't want to know about them. The pies at this place are famous, as well they ought to be: fresh regional berries in season, most notably the dark, delicious blackberries, are piled high into flaky crusts. And there is always sour cream raisin pie, the house specialty for years and years - a classic, farmy pastry that we had never had anywhere outside the Midwest prior to trying it here in Chehalis. Believe us when we tell you that this creamy-sweet load of happiness is as good as the best sour cream pies we have eaten in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa. Whatever else you eat at Mary McCrank's, even if you get a slice of one of the good berry pies, get a slab of sour cream raisin, too. You won't soon forget it.
Sour cream raisin pie is easy to make. It is rich, sinfully so; but once you try our recipe for it, as follows, you will understand why we nominate it as one of America's greatest pies.
Now available! Nearly 200 of the most-requested recipes from this column, all in one book, "A Taste of America." It includes Jane and Michael Stern's favorite restaurants, as well as photos from their coast-to-coast eating adventures. Available in paperback, it can be ordered by sending $9.95 plus $1 for postage and handling to Taste of America, in care of the Deseret News, P.O. Box 419150, Kansas City, MO 64141.1991, Jane and Michael Stern
(Universal Press Syndicate)
Sour Cream Raisin Pie
1 9-inch pie shell, baked
2 cups sour cream
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup flour
4 eggs, separated, plus 1 extra white (all whites at room temperature)
11/2 cups raisins
1/4 teaspoon salt Combine sour cream, 12/3 cups of the sugar, flour, egg yolks and raisins; cook, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat, allow to cool a few minutes, and pour into prepared pie shell; cool.
Put the 5 egg whites in a mixing bowl and set the mixing bowl in a pan that contains 2 inches of water that is warm, but not hot enough to simmer. Stir in remaining 1/3 cup of sugar and the salt, and when the whites are tepid, beat them until they stand in peaks. Spread this meringue over the chilled pie.
Place under broiler about a minute, rotating pie so the meringue barely browns.