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Rhubarf Pie
Select the red stalks, cut off where the leaves commence, strip off the outside skin, then cut in pieces one-half inch long; line a pie dish with paste, put a layer of the rhubarb nearly an inch deep, a large teacup of sugar, sprinkle with salt, shake over a little flour, cover with a crust, slit in the center, trim off the edge and bake in a quick oven until done. Rhubarb pies made in this way are superior to those made of the fruit stewed.
A plain double-crust rhubarb pie built raw in the shell, which is the right approach — stewed rhubarb collapses into liquid before it reaches the oven. The vague quantities are the only real obstacle.
- A quick ovenThat means roughly 400-450F. Start there for about 15 minutes to set the bottom crust, then drop to 350F for another 35-45 minutes, until the juices bubble thickly through the center slit rather than running thin.
- A large teacup of sugarPeriod teacups ran smaller than modern mugs; figure 3/4 to 1 cup. Garden rhubarb varies a great deal in sharpness, so taste a raw piece and lean toward the full cup if it makes you wince.
- "Shake over a little flour"Undermeasured here for a fruit that throws off a great deal of water. Use 3 to 4 tablespoons of flour, tossed with the sugar and rhubarb rather than dusted on top, or the filling will flood the crust.
- The leavesCutting them off is not tidiness. Rhubarb leaves contain oxalic acid in quantities that make them genuinely poisonous; discard them entirely and do not compost them where animals graze.
- Stripping the skinWorth doing on thick, late-season stalks, which are stringy. Slender spring rhubarb needs nothing beyond trimming, and peeling it costs you most of the red color the recipe asks you to select for.
- QuantityA layer nearly an inch deep in a 9-inch dish (the recipe does not specify a size) is roughly 4 cups of cut rhubarb, about 1 to 1 1/4 lb trimmed. Serves six to eight.
- The saltA pinch, not a measured spoonful. It sharpens the fruit rather than seasoning it.
- CoolingLet it stand at least two hours. Cut hot, a raw-pack rhubarb pie runs off the plate; the flour-thickened juice needs time to set.
Rhubarb reached English and American kitchens as a medicinal plant long before it was eaten for pleasure — the dried root was a purgative traded from Asia for centuries, and the edible stalk only became a common garden crop in the early nineteenth century. Its old nickname, pie plant, tells you exactly what Americans decided to do with it: it comes up in April, before any tree fruit, and cheap sugar made the sourness manageable. This recipe's closing claim, that a raw-packed pie beats one made from stewed fruit, was a live argument in nineteenth-century cookbooks, which give both methods. A bride's cook book of this period was meant to hand a new householder the unglamorous year-round basics, and a pie you could make from the corner of the garden in the leanest month of the fruit calendar earned its place.