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Cocoanut Pie
Mrs. C. Belford.
One-half pound grated cocoanut, three-quarters of a pound of white sugar, six ounces of butter, five eggs (the whites only), two tablespoonsful rose water, one teaspoonful nutmeg. Cream the butter and sugar, beat till very light, and add the rose water; then add the cocoanut with as little and light beating as possible; finally whip in the stiffened whites of the eggs with a few skilful strokes, and bake at once in open shells. Eat cold, with powdered sugar sifted over them. These are very pretty and delightful pies.
A meringue-rich coconut filling closer to a baked macaroon than to the custard pies the name suggests. The original gives no oven temperature and no yield, so both need filling in.
- Weights, convertedHalf a pound of grated coconut is about 8 oz, roughly 2 1/2 to 3 cups loosely packed. Three-quarters of a pound of sugar is about 1 2/3 cups; six ounces of butter is 1 1/2 sticks.
- Cocoanut means freshMost likely a whole nut, cracked, pared and grated, carrying its own moisture, though desiccated shred was also on sale by the 1870s. Modern sweetened flaked coconut will make the filling cloying and dry; unsweetened frozen grated coconut, thawed, or freshly grated is the closer match.
- OvenThe original gives no temperature; a moderate oven, around 350F, suits this filling. Much higher and the meringue-set filling is liable to brown and crack before the centre firms.
- Open shellsPastry cases with no top crust rather than tart shells baked blind; the filling goes into raw pastry and the two bake together.
- Why the hasteThe whites are the only leavening. Once they are folded in, the batter begins deflating, so the shells should be rolled, fitted and chilled before you start creaming the butter.
- Rose waterTwo tablespoons suggests a flavouring milder than today's concentrates. Modern culinary rose waters vary widely in strength; taste yours and consider starting with one tablespoon.
- NutmegA full teaspoon, freshly grated, is assertive by current taste and will dominate the coconut. Half is closer to modern balance.
- Yield and donenessThe quantities make roughly two pies' worth of filling, depending on the depth of the shells. Bake until set to a gentle wobble and pale gold, and let it cool completely before the sugar goes over, since the recipe directs that they be eaten cold.
The Home Cook Book (Toronto, 1877) was sold in aid of charity and carries contributors' names, which is why this page appears under Mrs. C. Belford's rather than a house style -- though the Toronto book drew heavily on earlier American compilations, so an attached name is not proof of a local original. Coconut reached Canadian kitchens as an imported whole nut or as desiccated shred, and grating it was tedious enough that a coconut pie read as a small luxury. The rose water is the older note here: it was a common sweet flavouring in English and colonial baking well before the nineteenth century and was largely displaced by vanilla extract over its later decades, so recipes still calling for it by the 1870s tend to be inherited rather than newly invented. The technique, creamed butter and sugar lightened only with whipped whites and eaten cold under sifted sugar, sits closer to the macaroon family than to the eggy custard pies that later claimed the name.