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Orange Cream Pie
Two eggs One-half cup of sugar Three tablespoons of Larkin Corn Starch One pint of milk One teaspoon of Larkin Orange Flavoring Extract Beat the yolks of the eggs and sugar. Moisten the Corn Starch in a portion of the milk. Scald the remainder. Stir the other ingredients into the milk, and cook. Pour into a baked pastry-shell. Cover with a meringue made by adding to the beaten whites of eggs, three-fourths cup of sugar. Brown in a moderate oven.
A cornstarch cream pie in the plainest early-20th-century style, written for a cook who already knew how to handle a custard. Two things need spelling out: how far to cook the filling, and what the oven should actually be.
- Cook the starch throughThree tablespoons of cornstarch to a pint of milk needs to come to a full boil and hold it for a minute after it thickens, stirring constantly. Stopping at the first sign of thickening leaves raw starch flavor, and the egg yolk enzyme amylase will thin the filling as it cools if it is never brought to a boil.
- Temper the yolksThe instruction to "stir the other ingredients into the milk" glosses over the risk. Add the scalded milk to the yolk-sugar-starch mixture in a thin stream while whisking, then return everything to the pan.
- A moderate oven350F. The meringue wants 10 to 15 minutes at that heat to set and take color. A hotter oven browns the peaks before the interior sets and encourages weeping.
- Meringue sugarThree-quarters of a cup of sugar to two egg whites is very sweet by current practice; 4 tablespoons total, 2 per white, gives a meringue that whips stiff and browns well. Spread it over filling that is still hot and seal it to the crust edge all round to limit shrinkage.
- Pastry shellThe recipe does not give a size. A pint of filling suits a shell of roughly 8 to 9 inches, fully baked and cooled.
- Larkin productsLarkin Corn Starch and Larkin Orange Flavoring Extract were Larkin's own brand goods. Any cornstarch works; for the extract, use 1 teaspoon of orange extract, or substitute the finely grated zest of one orange plus a teaspoon of vanilla for a fresher flavor.
- Yield and servingEight slices. Chill at least four hours before cutting so the starch set holds, and use a wetted knife through the meringue.
Good Things to Eat came from the Larkin Company of Buffalo, New York, a soap manufacturer that grew into a vast mail-order house selling groceries, extracts, and household goods direct to customers, often with premiums attached. Cookbooks like this one were advertising: the point of the page is as much the corn starch and the orange extract as the pie. The dish itself belongs to the great American family of cornstarch cream pies, which spread once boxed corn starch became a cheap pantry staple in the later 19th century. Starch let a home cook set a pint of milk with only two eggs, where an older boiled custard would generally have wanted several more, and the leftover whites went onto the top as meringue.