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Rhubarb Meringue Pie
5 to 8 stalks rhubarb Flour 1 cup sugar 1/4 cup water 2 egg-whites 1 tablespoon sugar for meringue Line a pie-pan with plain paste. Cut into pieces sufficient rhubarb to fill the pan, and sprinkle with flour until each piece is quite white. Place the rhubarb in the pie-pan, adding one cup of sugar and a very little water. Bake slowly, and when done spread over the top the stiffly beaten whites of the eggs into which has been folded one tablespoon of sugar. Return to oven and brown lightly.
A single-crust spring pie of the plainest sort: raw rhubarb dredged in flour, sugared, and baked until the juice thickens on its own. A few of the quantities are left to the cook's judgment.
- How much rhubarbFive to eight stalks varies enormously with the plant. Aim for about 1 lb trimmed, roughly 4 cups cut in 1/2-inch pieces, which fills a 9-inch shell. Cut and discard the leaves entirely -- they are high in oxalic acid and are not food.
- The flour is unmeasured"Sprinkle with flour until each piece is quite white" works out to about 3 to 4 tablespoons for a 9-inch pie. Toss the flour with the sugar first and it coats more evenly than flour alone.
- Bake slowly"slowly" is usually read as somewhere in the 300 to 325F range. Give the filled shell roughly 45 to 55 minutes, until the juices bubble thickly at the center rather than running thin. Rhubarb that is merely hot and still watery will flood the crust when cut.
- Guard the bottom crustA wet fruit filling in a raw shell is the weak point. Bake on a preheated sheet on the lowest rack, or blind-bake the shell 10 minutes at 400F before filling.
- Very little waterTake this literally: 1/4 cup at most, and less if the stalks are young and juicy. Rhubarb releases a great deal of liquid on its own.
- The meringue is under-sugaredOne tablespoon of sugar for two whites gives a fragile foam that weeps and shrinks. Two tablespoons per white is the modern proportion for a stable meringue.
- Browning the meringueSpread it onto the filling while the pie is still hot and seal it to the crust edge all around, which is what keeps it from pulling away. Return to a 350F oven for 12 to 15 minutes.
- YieldOne 9-inch pie, six servings. Best eaten the day it is made; the meringue softens overnight.