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Lemon Pie (III)
Mrs. George Virtue.
The juice and rind of two lemons, two cups white sugar, one cup of milk, two tablespoonsful of corn starch, yolks of ten eggs; bake in two pies; beat the whites of eggs to a froth; beat into it a teaspoonful powdered sugar; pour over the pies, and put in the oven to brown.
A community-cookbook lemon meringue that assumes the cook already knows how to line a pie plate and manage a custard. The gaps are all in the method, not the flavour.
- The hinge: cook the filling before it goes in the shellCornstarch and yolks — As written the filling goes into the pastry raw and sets in the oven ("bake in two pies"): ten yolks, cornstarch and only one cup of milk will set into a stiff curd. If you prefer to cook the filling on the stove or in a double boiler until it thickens before filling the shells, slack the cornstarch in a little of the cold milk first, or it will lump in the hot mixture.
- Crusts are assumedThe recipe never mentions pastry. It fills two 8- to 9-inch shells. As written the filling bakes in the shell, so unbaked pastry is what the original assumes; blind-baked shells make sense only if you choose to cook the filling first.
- Oven for browning"Put in the oven to brown" gives no temperature. A hot oven for a few minutes, watched closely, is the usual modern reading; the book specifies nothing.
- The meringue sugar is far shortOne teaspoon of sugar for ten egg whites will not stabilise anything. Modern practice is roughly two tablespoons of sugar per white, added gradually once the whites hold soft peaks; at the original proportion expect a foam that collapses and beads.
- Ten yolks, ten whitesThe whole eggs are used, so nothing is wasted. Nineteenth-century eggs are often said to have run smaller than today's large grade, though sizes varied; eight or nine modern large eggs is a reasonable substitution if you want to scale back.
- RindZest only the coloured outer layer of the lemons; the white pith turns the filling bitter. Add the juice and zest off the heat, after the starch has thickened, so the acid does not thin the set.
- YieldTwo pies, twelve to sixteen servings. Halve everything for a single pie.
- Seal the edgeSpread the meringue so it touches the pastry rim all the way round. Meringue that sits like an island on the filling shrinks away and lets liquid pool underneath.
The Home Cook Book was compiled in Toronto in 1877 by "ladies of Toronto and chief cities and towns in Canada," with proceeds going to the Hospital for Sick Children, and it is generally counted the first Canadian community cookbook of its kind: contributions signed with a married name, as this one is by Mrs. George Virtue, and often three or four versions of the same dish printed one after another because several women had sent one in. That is why this is Lemon Pie (III). The recipe itself belongs to the great age of cornstarch, which reached North American kitchens as a cheap, reliable thickener in the mid-nineteenth century. Ten yolks with a token cup of milk, and a meringue lid made from the whites, use up the whole egg between filling and topping.