Vinegar Pie
One egg, one heaping table-spoon flour, one tea-cup sugar; beat all well together, and add one table-spoon sharp vinegar, and one tea-cup cold water; flavor with nutmeg and bake with two crusts. -Mrs. B. A. Fay.
A one-egg custard pie thickened with a single spoon of flour and soured with vinegar — a lean filling that needs a small tin and careful baking. Two notes matter most: the tea-cup is not a modern cup, and the filling is thin enough that it must be poured into a pastry shell already sitting on the oven rack rather than carried across the kitchen.
- Tea-cupA nineteenth-century tea-cup was generally smaller than a modern cup; it is often reckoned at about 3/4 cup (6 fl oz), though period usage varied. Three-quarters of a cup each of sugar and water is a reasonable reading of the original.
- Pan sizeThis quantity fills a shallow 8-inch tin at most. In a deep 9-inch dish the layer will be too thin to set into anything sliceable.
- OvenThe book gives no temperature, only 'bake'. A workable modern equivalent: start at 425F for the first 15 minutes to set the bottom crust, then drop to 350F for 25 to 30 minutes until the filling barely trembles at the centre.
- Sharp vinegarPlain cider vinegar at 5 percent acidity is right. Avoid balsamic or seasoned rice vinegar; the point is clean acid standing in for lemon, not added flavour.
- Flour, not cornstarchOne heaping tablespoon of flour is the entire thickener and it must be beaten into the sugar and egg before any liquid goes in, or it will lump. Do not substitute cornstarch measure for measure — it sets firmer and turns the filling gluey.
- Two crustsA full lid, not a lattice: vent it with two or three slits so steam escapes and the top does not dome and split. Seal the edge well, since the filling is liquid going in.
- NutmegGrate it fresh; about a quarter teaspoon suits this quantity.
- Yield and servingSix modest wedges. Cool at least two hours before cutting; warm, the filling runs. It is best the day it is made, as the bottom crust softens overnight.
Vinegar pie belongs to the family of what are generally called desperation pies — sweet pies built from pantry staples when fruit was out of season or out of reach. Lemons were expensive and irregularly available in much of the American interior for most of the nineteenth century, and a spoonful of cider vinegar gave a custard the same bright edge for almost nothing; the same logic produced mock apple pie from crackers and chess pie from little more than sugar, eggs and meal. Its appearance in The Dixie Cook Book, credited to a contributor rather than presented as a set piece, is characteristic of how these community-sourced volumes worked.