The Original letter to the Show... My husband Michael loves to make an adapted Acadian dish called Rappie Pie.  It's a recipe of simple ingredients (potatoes, chicken stock, chicken, and salt pork), but the making of rappie pie is really something to see as it involves something our family refers to as "the rappie pie machine."  The rappie pie machine is homemade food processor made by Michael's paternal grandfather many years ago out of an old pot, the legs of an old TV stand, and a motor.  No modern food processor can compete in making rappie pie.  The rappie pie machine grates the potatoes, then Michael and his father squeeze the juice out of the grated potatoes with their hands and replace the potato juice with an excellent, home made chicken stock.  You mix it with a mixer, layer it with chicken, top with salt pork, and bake.  Wallah! It's an all day event loaded with fun and family tradition.  Every pie gets rated and compared to pies of years long gone. Michael is determined for this family favorite to survive the generations and would absolutely LOVE to share it with audiences near and far.  He is not the least bit camera shy and will cook for you enthusiastically and with humor.  Several years ago as a gift to his mother Michael compiled a cookbook of the family's favorite recipes so that we could pass them down to our children and their children. Rappie pie is the star of our family's cookbook-- Boy would Michael love to pass down a TV show about Rappie Pie as well. My Dads memory of Rappie pie... During special Holidays my mother, father, sisters and brother would decide whether to have turkey or Rappie pie for our holiday meal, most of the time we would choose Rappie pie. This is an Acadian recipe brought from the Acadian village of Belleville, in Yarmouth county Nova Scotia. My family would gather around the kitchen table with potato peelers, and then grate approximately 20 to 30 pounds of potatoes my hand, this took a long time with much effort, but the end result was always well worth it, these grated potatoes were then ready to be put into a muslin bag to extract the starch and juice, which took some muscle power, we were now ready to add the chicken broth, to substitute for what we had taken out of the potatoes. My father decided to make a machine that would make the task easier by grating the potatoes with an electric motor, by using a cheese grater that was designed to be mounted on the edge of a table, he removed the handle and installed a pulley and belt down to the electric motor, this machine was used for a few years and he then decided to improve on it by making other designs. My Mom’s memory of Rappie pie... During my early years of marriage, on Holidays my husband John would go to his parent’s house to collect his share of rappie pie saved for him to take home. I had not been brought us on this Acadian Canadian meal, and it was not only unappealing to me, but I didn’t like the taste. One day in order to surprise my husband I attempted to make it one day...in those days, the potatoes were hand grated an it was a tedious chore to expel the starch from the potatoes through cheese cloth. The broth was mad from simmering the chicken w/onions to get a flavorful broth to substitute for whatever was expelled from the potatoes, the chicken was then de-boned and layered w/the potatoes mixture into a deep pan and cooked for about 1 to 2 hours. Although my efforts were sincere the end result was not very good, but my husband (John) appreciated my trying. This made me more determined to conquer this much sought after family recipe. I asked a lot of questions of my in laws and thru trial and errors succeeded in making a palatable meal, and in doing so, and taste testing I found that I had acquired a taste for this Acadian dish and frequently made it for my young family who also enjoyed it. This family prepared meal, usually was made and served on special occasions, but as time went on, my father in law devised a grating machine he made out of an old electric motor and parts of whatever he had around to make the task of grating the potatoes much easier. This invention became such a success in the preparation of this coveted dish That my husband (John) and his siblings would be borrowing it all the time, so my father in law made one for each of his children to have for their own use. As time went on and our children grew up, there was a product sold in the Dept. stores called a juice machine, that we found could be used in reverse of what it’s intended purpose was (i.e. instead of saving the extracted juice...we used the pulp that would normally be thrown away) Our children are all grown, married and have children of their own, and the family tradition continues. They all own their own juicing machine and frequently make rapppie pie for their family, the old home made machine still is in good working condition and perhaps makes the best rappie pie, but most of us use the convenience of the juicer because it also extracts the starch and liquid from the potatoes (eliminating the chore of hand squeezing the potatoes through a cheese cloth) Whether we eat this Acadian dish as a family gathering (nineteen in all) or we individually cook it for our separate family, we all are very opinionated and rate it on a 1 to 10 scale and state further what we think it needs or is lacking! This of course is all done in good fun. This might not be a meal everyone would enjoy and perhaps someone that has never tried it before might need to have to acquire a taste for it but....ask any Acadian Canadian from certain villages of Nova Scotia about Rappie pie and watch their faces light up!!! This regional Acadian meal is part of a tradition that we are all happy to be a part of and hope it continues for generations to come.