Cobbler

Every region of the country likes cobblers, varieties of which include grunts, slumps, crisps, crumbles, pandowdies, sonkers, and Bettys. In some way, a cobbler is like a pie – a deconstructed one in which the pastry and fruit are mixed up rather than neatly organized. The pastry in a cobbler can be flaky like a pie crust or, alternately, more like a batter, biscuit, or streusel. Almost any fruit is fair game; notable cobblers include peach in the midst of summer peach season, late summer huckleberry cobbler in the Great Plains, Maine wild blueberry cobbler, and one called F.R.O.G., made by Grits & Groceries of Belton, South Carolina. That’s fig, raspberry, orange, and ginger. Cobbler is served warm. A scoop of ice cream on top always is welcome. Home cooks, especially those with a prolific garden, share recipes for savory biscuit-topped cobblers based on tomatoes, squash, creamed corn, mushrooms, or root vegetables. In a restaurant, however, cobbler is dessert.