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Oblong Pie-Plate
crust. While these are baking, beat the whites of the three eggs saved for that purpose to a stiff froth, and stir in the white sugar. When the pies are done spread this frosting evenly over them and set again in the oven and brown slightly.
What survives here is the tail end of a recipe: the filling and crust instructions have been lost, and the page picks up at the meringue. Read it as a method for finishing any custard or lemon pie whose recipe reserved three egg whites.
- The missing halfThe text assumes a filling already made with three egg yolks and baked in a shell, plus a quantity of "white sugar" that the vanished lines would have specified. Use the meringue proportions below with any filling of your own.
- Sugar for three whitesA common modern ratio is 2 tablespoons of sugar per white, so about 6 tablespoons (roughly 75 g) for three. "White sugar" in books of this period generally meant refined granulated, distinguished from brown or unrefined sugar rather than from the finer sugars then usually called powdered or pulverised.
- Add the sugar graduallyBeating the whites to a stiff froth and then stirring the sugar in wholesale, as written, knocks air out and leaves grit. Beat to soft peaks, add the sugar a spoonful at a time, then continue to stiff, glossy peaks.
- Spread it on a hot fillingThe single instruction that decides whether the meringue weeps: the pie should still be hot when the meringue goes on, so the underside cooks through rather than sweating a layer of syrup. Seal the meringue to the crust rim all the way round to stop it shrinking inward.
- "Brown slightly" in numbersThe recipe gives no heat. Either 350F for 12 to 15 minutes for a firmer, more stable meringue, or 425F for 4 to 5 minutes for a paler, marshmallowy result. Watch it at the higher heat; the margin between tan and scorched is under a minute.
- The oblong plateA rectangular tin pie plate, which cuts into square portions. A quarter-sheet pan or a 9-by-13 dish stands in, though the shallower the better for a single-crust pie.
- Cooling and cuttingCool at room temperature away from draughts; chilling tends to leave the surface damp. Cut with a wet knife blade, rinsing between slices.
Meringue-topped pies became a fixture of American home baking in the second half of the nineteenth century, as rotary egg beaters and cheaper refined sugar spread through domestic kitchens. The logic is thrift as much as fashion: a lemon or custard filling thickened with yolks leaves three whites idle, and beating them with sugar and returning them to the oven turns waste into a topping. Round pie tins were the norm, so an oblong plate is worth remarking on, if only because it divides into even squares for a crowd. Household cookbooks of the period are full of such quiet economies presented without comment, on the assumption that the cook already knew why.