Lemon Pie II
3/4 cup sugar 3/4 cup boiling water 2 tablespoons corn-starch 2 tablespoons flour 2 egg yolks 3 tablespoons lemon juice Grated rind 1 lemon 1 teaspoon butter Mix corn-starch, flour, and sugar, add boiling water, stirring constantly. Cook two minutes, add butter, egg yolks, and rind and juice of lemon. Line plate with paste same as for Custard Pie. Turn in mixture which has been cooled, and bake until pastry is well browned. Cool slightly, and cover with Meringue I; then return to oven and bake meringue.
A single-crust lemon pie in which the starch filling is only partly cooked on the stove and finishes in the oven with the pastry, rather than being poured hot into a pre-baked shell. That order of work drives most of the adjustments below.
- Cook the starch properlyTwo minutes counts from the moment the mixture actually bubbles, not from when it thickens. Cornstarch and flour both need a full boil to lose their raw taste and reach their thickening power; a mixture pulled off at the first sign of body will loosen again in the oven.
- Adding the yolksThe recipe adds butter, yolks and lemon directly to the just-cooked base; letting it stand off the heat a moment first, or tempering the yolks with a little of the hot paste, guards against streaks of scrambled egg. The separate instruction to turn in the mixture "which has been cooled" refers to filling the raw shell, where warm filling would give a soggy bottom.
- Oven temperaturesThe recipe gives no temperature, only "bake until pastry is well browned." For an unbaked shell filled and baked together, a hot start of around 425F for about 15 minutes to set and brown the pastry, then a drop to about 350F until the centre no longer wobbles, is a reasonable modern reading; judge by the browning of the crust as the recipe directs.
- Baking the meringueThe recipe says only to return the pie to the oven and "bake meringue"; a moderate oven of about 350F for 12 to 15 minutes, until the peaks are tan, suits a soft meringue. Spread it so it touches the pastry rim all the way round, which helps keep it from shrinking back as it cools.
- Lemon quantityThree tablespoons of juice is roughly one medium lemon, and the recipe asks for the grated rind of one lemon; the wording "rind and juice of lemon" suggests a single fruit serving both purposes. Taste the filling before it goes into the shell and add juice if it reads flat.
- ButterOne teaspoon is not a thickener here, only gloss and a little richness. There is no harm in a tablespoon if you want a richer filling.
- Yield and cuttingFills one 8- or 9-inch pie, six to eight slices. Cool at least three hours before cutting; a starch filling cut warm will run.