Rhubarb Pie
1 1/2 cups rhubarb 1 egg 7/8 cup sugar 2 tablespoons flour Skin and cut stalks of rhubarb in half-inch pieces before measuring. Mix sugar, flour, and egg; add to rhubarb and bake between crusts. Many prefer to scald rhubarb before using; if so prepared, losing some of its acidity, less sugar is required.
Squash Pie I 1 1/4 cups steamed and strained squash 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, or 1/4 cup sugar 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 egg 7/8 cup milk Mix sugar, salt, and spice or extract, add squash, egg slightly beaten, and milk gradually. Bake in one crust, following directions for Custard Pie. If a richer pie is desired, use one cup squash, one-half cup each of milk and cream, and an additional egg yolk.
A minimal spring pie: rhubarb, sugar, an egg to bind, and flour to thicken. The proportions are small by modern standards, so read the yield note before you roll pastry.
- Yield and pan sizeOne and a half cups of cut rhubarb makes a thin filling, enough for a small, shallow plate rather than a modern pie. For a standard 9-inch double-crust pie, triple the filling (about 4 1/2 cups rhubarb, 2 5/8 cups sugar, 6 tablespoons flour, 3 eggs).
- 7/8 cupSeven-eighths of a cup is one cup less two tablespoons. Measure it as such rather than rounding up, since rhubarb pies turn cloying quickly.
- Oven temperatureThe recipe gives no numbers at all, only 'bake between crusts.' Bake a double-crust fruit pie at 425F for about 15 minutes to set and colour the bottom crust, then reduce to 350F for 30-40 minutes, until juice bubbles thickly through the vents.
- "Skin" the stalksOlder, thick field rhubarb has a tough stringy outer layer that was routinely peeled off. Slender forced or early-season stalks do not need it, and peeling them away costs you most of the red colour.
- Leaves are not foodUse stalks only. Rhubarb leaves contain oxalic acid in quantities that make them inedible, which is why the instruction specifies stalks; trim and discard the leaf entirely.
- On scaldingPouring boiling water over the cut rhubarb and draining it does mellow the sharpness, and the note about reducing sugar holds. It also washes out juice, so if you scald, cut the flour back slightly or the filling will be pasty.
- The egg and flourThese are the whole thickening system, and rhubarb is very wet. Toss the fruit with the sugar-flour-egg mixture and get it into the shell promptly; letting it stand draws out juice the flour cannot then absorb.
- Venting and spillsCut generous steam vents and set the pie on a rimmed sheet. Rhubarb filling boils up hard, and sugar that escapes onto the oven floor burns.