Lemon Tart

A whole-lemon pie of the same family as Shaker lemon pie, but with far more liquid and very little thickener. The original quantities are worth reading carefully before you commit to them.

• The hinge: the liquidOne pint of water with a single tablespoon of flour will not set into a sliceable filling; it bakes to a thin syrup that floods the crust and steams the top pastry from beneath. Reducing the water sharply (a cup or less), or replacing part of it with beaten egg, will give something closer to a filling you can cut.
• "Brisk oven"Brisk means hot; the book gives no figures, but the term is generally taken as somewhere around 400-425F. An hour at that heat is a long bake for a fruit tart, so expect to drop to 350-375F after the first 15 minutes once the crust has set, and shield the rim if it colours early.
• Breakfast cupfulA breakfast cup is larger than a teacup and is usually reckoned at something like 8 to 10 fluid ounces, so roughly 1 to 1 1/4 cups of sugar; the exact figure is genuinely uncertain, so taste the sliced lemons and sugar after they have macerated.
• Rind and pithFive lemons sliced thin means peel and pith go into the pie. Slice as thinly as you can manage, ideally on a mandoline, and let the slices sit in the sugar for several hours or overnight. Undissolved pith left raw is the usual reason this style of tart tastes harshly bitter.
• Lemon sizeFive modern large lemons is a considerable amount of peel for one pie-dish, and quite possibly more than the original intended; four is a safer starting point.
• Vent the topNo steam vents are mentioned. With this much liquid the top crust will lift or split; cut two or three slits before baking.
• Yield and servingA standard double-crust pie-dish, six to eight servings. Cool it completely before cutting -- warm, the filling has no body at all -- and dust with confectioners' sugar just before it goes to the table, or it dissolves.