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Pineapple Pie (Mrs C L Thomson can crushed)
1/4 C water 1 egg yolk Juice 1/2 lemon—salt Mrs. C. L. Thomson. 1 can crushed pineapple 1 T cornstarch 1 small C sugar 3 egg yolks Cook pineapple, cornstarch and sugar. Then add yolks last. Put into pie shell. Make meringue of egg whites and put on top of pie. Mrs. Schley. ½ C sugar 1/2 t salt 1 t cinnamon 1 t ginger
A cornstarch-thickened pineapple custard under meringue, written for cooks who already knew the method. The instructions leave out the pie shell, the oven and the timing, so a few gaps need filling.
- The stray lines at the end"Mrs. Schley. 12 C sugar 1/2 t salt 1 t cinnamon 1 t ginger" belongs to a different recipe that ran together in the original page. Ignore it entirely; nothing in the pineapple pie is spiced, and 12 cups of sugar is not a plausible quantity for anything on this page.
- The canA can of crushed pineapple in this period was commonly the No. 2 size, roughly 20 oz (about 2 1/2 cups with juice), which is close to what a modern 20 oz can gives you, though smaller and larger tins were also sold. A 20 oz can with a single tablespoon of cornstarch will set only softly; 3 tablespoons gives a filling that slices cleanly.
- "1 small C sugar"Read this as a scant cup, about 3/4 cup, adjusted to the sweetness of the fruit. Canned pineapple packed in juice needs the full amount; pineapple in heavy syrup needs less.
- Cook the starch outBring the pineapple, sugar and cornstarch to a full boil and hold it about a minute, stirring, until it turns glossy rather than cloudy. Starch that has not boiled tastes chalky and will loosen again as the pie cools.
- Adding the yolks"Add yolks last" means off the heat and tempered: whisk a ladle of the hot pineapple into the beaten yolks, return the lot to the pan, and cook gently a minute or two more without boiling, or the yolks will curdle into threads.
- The shellThe recipe assumes a fully baked single crust, since the filling goes in cooked. Blind-bake a 9-inch shell at 425F for about 15 minutes, then fill it while the pineapple is still hot so the meringue seals to a warm surface.
- MeringueThree whites with about 6 tablespoons sugar, beaten to stiff glossy peaks. Spread it so it touches the crust all the way round and bake at 350F for 12 to 15 minutes, until the peaks are tan. Spreading meringue onto a cold filling is the main cause of the watery layer that pools underneath.
- YieldOne 9-inch pie, eight servings. Cut it the day it is made; meringue pies weep in the refrigerator overnight.
Canned crushed pineapple is the whole point of this recipe, and it dates the book: large-scale Hawaiian pineapple canning got going in the first decade of the twentieth century, and by the 1910s and 1920s a tin of it was cheap enough to sit in an ordinary pantry beside the flour. Recipes in community cookbooks were contributed by women cooking with whatever the local grocer stocked rather than copied from a professional manual. The format itself, each recipe signed with a contributor's married name, was a standard fundraising device of American church and club societies.