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Lemon and Raisin Pie
1 Cup Chopped Raisins 2 Large Apples, Grated 2 Large Lemons grated Rind and Juice 3 Oat or Corn Crackers, Rolled 1/2 Cup Sugar 1 Cup Molasses 1 Cup Water Pinch Salt Put in crust. Cover with strips. Bake thirty or forty minutes.
A molasses-and-lemon pie of the mincemeat family, thickened with crushed crackers rather than starch or egg. The original gives no oven temperature and no yield, so both need filling in.
- Oven temperatureNone is stated. Start at 425F for the first 15 minutes to set the bottom crust, then drop to 350F for the remaining 20 to 25 minutes, until the filling bubbles thickly through the lattice.
- Oat or corn crackersThese were plain hard crackers, closer to a modern water biscuit than to anything sweet. Roughly 1/2 to 3/4 cup of coarse crumbs from unsalted saltines, or oatcakes crushed fine, does the same job: it absorbs the water and molasses so the filling sets without egg or cornstarch.
- MolassesUse unsulphured cooking molasses, not blackstrap, which is far more bitter than the grocery molasses of the period and will fight the lemon. Sorghum syrup is a close period-appropriate alternative.
- The lemonsGrate only the yellow zest and stop at the white pith; two large lemons' worth of pith will make the whole pie bitter. Zest and juice both go in, and the juice is what keeps a cup of molasses from tasting flat.
- ApplesGrated apple is a thickener and a stretcher here, not a flavor. A firm tart variety such as Granny Smith holds up; two large apples give roughly 1 1/2 to 2 cups grated, and any excess liquid from them should go into the pie rather than being drained off.
- "Cover with strips"A lattice top, not a solid lid. This filling is wet, and the open top lets steam escape; sealed under a full crust it may boil up and split the pastry.
- Pan and yieldEnough filling for one deep 9-inch pie, eight slices. Set the pie on a foil-lined sheet, since molasses that boils over is unpleasant to scrape off an oven floor.
- CoolingThe filling thickens as it cools and will run if cut warm. Give it at least two hours at room temperature.
Lemon and raisin pies belong to the long American tradition of "mock" mince pies, made when a household had molasses, dried fruit and a lemon but no meat and suet to spare. The crushed-cracker thickener is the older method: pounded crackers or dried breadcrumbs were one common way to give a syrup pie body before boxed cornstarch was cheap and widely available, and a related trick underlies mock apple pie and the cracker puddings of the nineteenth century. Its appearance in a bride's cook book suits the genre, which was generally aimed at young women setting up a first kitchen and made much of keeping pantry staples such as molasses, raisins, salt and crackers, with the two lemons as the only thing needing a trip to the store.