Sweet Potato Pie

A plain sweet potato custard with no crust recipe attached, written for a cook who already had pastry on hand. The filling is thinner and less egg-rich than most modern versions, so judging the set matters more than the clock.

• Oven temperature"Moderate oven" in books of this period generally means somewhere around 350-375F. The recipe gives no two-stage schedule; if you want a firmer bottom crust you can start hotter for the first ten minutes and drop back, but that is a modern addition.
• Pan sizeThe filling comes to roughly 2 1/2 cups, which fits an 8-inch pastry shell comfortably or fills a 9-inch shell shallowly. Yield is six modest slices.
• Only one eggThat is very little egg for this much liquid, so the custard sets soft and slices best fully cooled, ideally after several hours in the refrigerator. Do not expect a firm, sliceable wedge straight from the oven.
• Judging donenessForty minutes is a guide, not a rule. The edges should be puffed and set with the center still trembling slightly; a knife inserted an inch from the edge comes out clean. Carry-over heat finishes the middle as it cools.
• The sweet potatoesBake them rather than boil them, then mash and press through a sieve or beat smooth. Boiled potatoes carry water that thins an already loose custard, and any fibrous strands will be obvious in the finished slice.
• CrustA single unbaked shell is intended. Blind-baking to a pale set, then filling, gives a crisper base with a wet filling like this one.
• SeasoningA full teaspoon of ginger against half a teaspoon of cinnamon is a sharper, more ginger-forward profile than the cinnamon-and-nutmeg blends now more usual. Taste the mixture before baking if you want to shift it.
• CreamUse heavy or whipping cream. "Cream" in home recipes of this period was not a standardised grade and may have been lighter than today's heavy cream, so the recipe's half cream and half milk lands in a workable range either way.