Here are tips in a hundred-year-old cookbook for browning pie crusts:
To brown pies and tarts, use a small pastry brush and brush them with milk before putting them in the oven, and to glaze pies, brush them with the white of an egg if you wish them to be a shiny brown.
Order of the Eastern Star Relief Fund Cook Book (1923) published by the Michigan Grand Chapter
A Hundred Years Ago 
That hasn’t changed then 🙂
So much has changed across the years; it’s nice that some cooking techniques have stayed the same. 🙂
Absolutelty, Cheryl 🙂
My mom always did this, so I do too! Some tips are as golden as the pie crust!
It’s a good tip that has stood the test of time.
I am pretty sure no one in my family history ever had a pastry brush. I think their method of browning the pie crust was to put it in the oven and bake it. (This is not a smart-alec response–I am just saying we were not apparently as sophisticated as the women who wrote cookbooks.) Thus, as my mother nor grandmothers never did this, neither do I. However, I do have a set of nice pastry brushes–used for meat, of course.
I don’t think that my mother had a pastry brush, though she did put milk on the crust to make it brown. She just dabbed a little milk on the pie crust with her fingers before baking – and it worked just fine. 🙂
I cannot believe I never heard this before!
I will try this next time I make a pie.
This works very well to get nicely browned pie crust.
Something that hasn’t change in one hundred years…interesting, Sheryl, thank you.
I wonder how long this tip has been around – I’m guessing that it’s been for much longer than a hundred year. Some things never change. 🙂
If it works it persists! Still do this!
I agree – I also still do this.