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Raspberry Pie
1 T gelatine. 1/4 C cold water. Few grains salt. Mrs. Carl Schreck. 1 pt. berries and juice, fresh, canned or preserved 1 cup cream or evaporated milk, whipped Soak gelatine in cold water 5 minutes; add boiling fruit juice and when almost set, add berries and pour into previously baked pastry shell. When firm and ready to serve, cover top with whipped cream, or whipped exaporated milk, or with a meringue made of egg whites beaten stiff with sugar. If fresh fruit is used, add necessary sugar. Mrs. Ida Bulkley. 1 C cranberries ¾ C raisins 1 C sugar
A no-bake gelatine fruit filling set in a pre-baked shell — the kind of quick summer pie that turns up throughout church cookbooks of the 1920s and 30s. The ingredient list has lost the gelatine quantity, so that amount has to be judged rather than followed.
- Gelatine amountThe method calls for soaking gelatine but the list does not state how much. For 1 pint of berries and juice, one envelope of powdered gelatine (about 2 1/4 teaspoons) set in 1/4 cup cold water is the standard proportion; a second envelope would give a stiff, sliceable set rather than a soft one.
- Soaking timeFive minutes is short by modern practice. Let powdered gelatine stand in the cold water until it is uniformly swollen and translucent, usually 5 to 10 minutes, then dissolve it fully in the boiling juice — undissolved granules will show as gritty specks.
- Boiling juiceThe juice should be at or near a boil when it hits the bloomed gelatine, so that the granules dissolve completely; heat the juice alone and add the whole berries later, as directed, to keep them intact.
- "Almost set"This is the hinge. Chill the juice until it has the consistency of raw egg white before folding in the berries; too early and the fruit sinks to the bottom, too late and you cannot pour it into the shell. Timing varies, so check often.
- Evaporated milk as whipped toppingEvaporated milk only whips if it is very cold — chilled in the can, then beaten in a chilled bowl with chilled beaters. It holds much less well than cream and should be whipped just before serving.
- The meringue optionA meringue beaten with sugar and spread on a cold gelatine filling is an uncooked meringue, and modern practice is to use pasteurised egg whites for anything not baked. Whipped cream is the simpler choice here.
- Sugar with fresh fruitNo quantity is given. For 1 pint of fresh raspberries, 1/3 to 1/2 cup of sugar is usual; canned or preserved fruit is often already sweetened, so taste before adding any.
- YieldThe recipe does not give a shell size; a pint of fruit and juice suits a smallish 8- or 9-inch shell and will serve about six. The pie must be kept refrigerated and is best eaten the day it is made, as the crust softens under the filling.
Gelatine pies like this one belong to the period when packaged granulated gelatine became a reliable pantry staple, freeing cooks from the long work of clarifying calf's-foot stock and putting set desserts within reach of any household. Community cookbooks of the era are full of them, because they required no oven time in a hot kitchen and could be made ahead of a church supper or ladies' luncheon. The alternative given for the topping is the telling detail: whipped evaporated milk was a common thrift substitute for cream, cheap and shelf-stable. The instruction that the fruit may be "fresh, canned or preserved" points the same way: any month, from whatever the cellar held.