Cocoanut Pie
Four eggs One cup of powdered sugar One-half cup of butter One cup of Larkin Shredded Cocoanut One quart of milk One teaspoon of Larkin Corn Starch One-half teaspoon of Larkin Vanilla Flavoring Extract This quantity is sufficient for two pies.
This is an ingredient list rather than a method, which was normal in branded promotional cookbooks that assumed the reader already knew how to build a custard pie. The proportions tell you what it is: a coconut custard baked in a crust, not a pastry-cream pie with meringue.
- What is missingNo pastry, no oven temperature, no method. Pie shells are needed on top of the listed ingredients, and the order of assembly is left entirely to the cook.
- Powdered sugarIn this period "powdered" usually meant granulated sugar ground fine, not the cornstarch-cut confectioners' sugar sold today. Ordinary granulated is the closer match; a cup of modern confectioners' sugar weighs far less and will make a thinner, sweeter custard.
- Larkin productsLarkin shredded cocoanut, corn starch and vanilla extract were mail-order house brands and have no modern equivalent to hunt down. Use unsweetened shredded coconut if you can get it, since the sweetened bagged sort will push an already sweet filling further.
- The cornstarch is not the thickenerOne teaspoon to a quart of milk does almost nothing on its own. The four eggs set this custard, so the pie stands or falls on not overbaking it.
- Milk quantityA quart across two pies is generous and the shells will be filled close to the rim. Scalding the milk first and tempering it into the eggs gives a smoother set and shortens the bake.
- OvenA custard pie of this kind is generally started hot, around 425F for the first ten minutes to set the pastry, then dropped to 325F for the rest. Baking the whole time at high heat curdles the egg and weeps water into the crust.
- DonenessPull the pies when the outer two inches are set and the center still wobbles as a single mass; carryover heat finishes it. An instant-read thermometer in the filling should show about 175F.
- Soggy bottomsA wet custard poured into raw pastry is the usual cause of a pale, damp base. Partly blind-baking the shells and pouring the filling in while both are hot helps.
- YieldTwo pies, as the recipe states; roughly six to eight slices each. The filling does not keep well at room temperature; refrigerate once cool.
This comes from a cookbook produced by the Larkin Company of Buffalo, the soap and household-goods firm whose mail-order "Larkin Idea" sent premiums and grocery lines directly to housewives and cut out the retailer. Recipes like this one exist to place the brand in the pantry, which is why the coconut, the corn starch and the vanilla all carry the Larkin name and why the method is left to the cook's own judgment. Desiccated and shredded coconut was itself still a relatively recent convenience in American kitchens, having become a commercial product in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, and it turned a fussy job of cracking, paring and grating into something a home baker would attempt casually.