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Backwoods Pie
1 cup brown sugar 1 cup syrup (maple syrup, if convenient) ½ cup sweet milk Butter size of an egg Yolks of 3 eggs 1 nutmeg.
Beat all together, lastly add the whites well beaten. Bake with one crust in moderate oven.
A sugar-and-syrup custard baked in a single crust, closely related to maple syrup pie and transparent pie. The original assumes a cook who knows how a custard should look when it sets, and it gives no pan size or time.
- The nutmegOne whole nutmeg grated yields roughly 2 to 3 teaspoons, which will dominate everything else in the pie. A quarter to a half teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg is closer to modern taste; grate it yourself, as pre-ground has little left to give.
- Butter size of an eggAbout 2 ounces, or 4 tablespoons. Melt it and let it cool slightly before beating it in so it does not scramble the yolks.
- Sweet milkPlain whole milk. The term exists only to distinguish it from soured or buttermilk, which older recipes call for separately because they react with saleratus.
- SyrupMaple syrup is the preferred flavour where it was on hand, though the recipe's "if convenient" leaves it optional. Another syrup will work, though the result is simply sweet.
- Moderate ovenGenerally reckoned at around 350F, though the recipe gives no temperature. A hotter oven curdles the custard and cracks the surface before the centre sets.
- One crustLine a 9-inch plate with pastry and do not cover it. Because the filling is thin when poured, chill the shell well, or blind bake it 10 minutes, to keep the bottom from going sodden.
- The whitesThe beaten whites go in last. They lighten the custard and may rise into a paler layer over a denser syrup base as it bakes. Fold gently and get the pie into the oven promptly.
- Judging donenessRoughly 40 to 50 minutes. The edges should be set and puffed with the centre still trembling; it firms as it cools. Set the pie on a baking sheet, since the filling is liquid enough to slop.
- YieldOne 9-inch pie, eight small slices. It is very sweet and wants unsweetened cream or a plain cup of tea alongside.
The Five Roses Cook Book was published by the Lake of the Woods Milling Company to sell Canadian flour, and its recipes were largely gathered from housewives across the country, which is why a great many of them read like this one: terse, pantry-based, and written by someone who had made it a hundred times. "Backwoods" may simply describe the pie's economy, though the book does not explain the name. It belongs to a broad family of sugar pies made where fruit was out of season or out of reach, alongside tarte au sucre in Quebec, maple syrup pie, and the American transparent and shoofly pies. The maple syrup marked "if convenient" suggests the pie was expected to be made with whatever sweetener the house had.