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Pineapple Pie (Yolks of three eggs use whites)
Yolks of three eggs, use whites for meringue. 1 cup grated pineapple, 1 cup cream, sugar to taste. Cook in double-boiler till thick. Fill baked crust and cover with meringue.
— Elsie Tunison Snow
A three-egg custard pie thickened by yolks alone, so the temperature of the double boiler and the state of the pineapple decide whether it sets at all.
- Fresh pineapple will not setRaw pineapple contains bromelain, a protease that digests egg protein and leaves the filling loose and weeping. Use canned crushed pineapple, which has been heat-treated, or bring fresh grated pineapple to a full simmer for several minutes and cool it before adding the yolks.
- Sugar to taste, in numbersFor a cup of pineapple and a cup of cream, 1/2 to 2/3 cup granulated sugar is a workable amount; canned pineapple in syrup wants the lower figure. Add it to the cold mixture so it dissolves before the eggs begin to thicken.
- Cream"Cream" in a cookbook of this period is anywhere from light to heavy; heavy cream (36%) gives the richest, most reliable set. Whole milk works but produces a noticeably softer filling.
- Thickening in the double boilerStir constantly and pull the custard at 170-175F, when it coats a spoon and holds a line drawn through it. Yolks alone give a soft set; a tablespoon of cornstarch or flour will give a filling that slices more cleanly, though the recipe as written uses none.
- The crust must be fully bakedThe filling goes in hot and cooked, so the shell gets no further baking except the brief meringue browning. Blind-bake the shell until golden and dry, roughly 15 to 20 minutes at 425F with weights, then a few minutes uncovered.
- MeringueThree whites take 6 tablespoons sugar, beaten in gradually to stiff, glossy peaks. Spread it over filling that is still hot and seal it to the crust edge all round, then bake at 350F for 12 to 15 minutes to set the whites and limit weeping.
- Yield and servingThe filling is modest, enough for a small pie -- an 8- or shallow 9-inch shell -- cut into six or so slices. Cool at room temperature until set, then refrigerate; cutting warm gives a runny wedge.
The Philathea name comes from the Baraca-Philathea movement, the young men's and young women's adult Bible classes that spread through American Protestant churches around the turn of the twentieth century; the Philathea classes produced fundraising cookbooks of exactly this kind, each recipe signed by the member who contributed it. The pineapple here is harder to date than it looks: canned pineapple was already being packed in Baltimore from imported Caribbean fruit in the late nineteenth century, and "grated pineapple" in a recipe of this sort may equally mean fresh fruit grated at home. Canned fruit is, incidentally, what makes a pineapple custard behave, since the heat of canning destroys the enzyme that would otherwise keep the eggs from thickening. The structure -- yolks in a stirred custard, whites saved for a meringue lid -- is the standard economy of the period's pie chapter.