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Lemon Meringue Pie
31/2 TABLESPOONS FLOUR GRATED RIND I LEMON 1/2 CUP LEMON JUICE 2 TABLESPOONS COLD WATER 1/2 TEASPOON SALT 4 EGG YOLKS FROM BROWN EGGS I 13/4 CUPS BOILING WATER I TABLESPOON BUTTER Mix sugar and flour together. Add grated lemon rind, lemon juice, cold water, salt, and slightly beaten egg yolks. Mix well. Stir boiling water into mixture very slowly to avoid lumps. Cook and stir over low heat or in double boiler until thickened. Add butter and cool. Have pieshell baked and cooled. Pour mixture in and top with meringue.
A flour-thickened lemon curd for a pre-baked shell — quick to assemble once the pastry is done, but the printed ingredient list is incomplete and the meringue is left entirely to the cook.
- The sugar is missing a quantityThe sugar is missing entirely -- The method opens with "Mix sugar and flour together," but sugar does not appear in the ingredient list at all. Fillings of this type generally take somewhere between 1 and 1½ cups granulated sugar for this much juice and water; taste the cooked filling before it goes into the shell rather than trusting a guess.
- The fractionsRead the quantities as 3½ tablespoons flour and 1¾ cups boiling water. Half a cup of lemon juice takes roughly two to four lemons depending on size, and one of them supplies the grated rind.
- Brown eggsShell colour is a breed trait and has no effect on the yolk. Four yolks from any large eggs will do; the specification of brown eggs may reflect a belief that they were richer, but the recipe does not say why.
- TemperingThe hinge of the recipe is pouring the boiling water into the yolk-and-flour mixture slowly, not the reverse. Add it in a thin stream while stirring, or the yolks set into threads and the flour seizes into lumps that will not cook out.
- ThickeningOver direct low heat the filling wants constant stirring and about five to eight minutes; in a double boiler allow ten to twelve. It should hold a line drawn across the back of a spoon. Flour-thickened fillings need to reach a full simmer briefly to lose their raw taste.
- The meringue is not specifiedUse the four leftover whites beaten to soft peaks with about 8 tablespoons of sugar added a spoonful at a time. Spread it so it touches the crust edge all around, which stops it shrinking, and bake at 350F for 12 to 15 minutes until the peaks colour.
- WeepingMeringue beads and slips when it goes onto cold filling; spread it while the filling is still warm and the underside sets against it. The recipe as printed does say to cool the mixture first, so this is a departure from the text.
- YieldThe recipe gives no pan size; the quantity suits roughly a 9-inch shell, six to eight servings. Cut with a wet knife and refrigerate leftovers, though the crust softens by the second day.
Lemon meringue pie descends from the boiled lemon puddings and lemon cheesecakes of eighteenth-century English cookery, married to the habit of piling sweetened beaten whites over a filled tart; the combination in something close to its present form is generally traced to Philadelphia in the first half of the nineteenth century, with the confectioner Elizabeth Goodfellow often named as the link, though the attribution rests more on tradition than on documents. The pie became an American standard once cheap granulated sugar, reliable ovens and year-round citrus made it possible.