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Apple Meringue Pie
Roll out quarter pound pie paste, making it circular in shape, half inch wider than the pie plate. Lightly butter a pie plate, arrange the paste over the plate, press it down all around the edges with the fingers and neatly trim all around.
Peel and core six good-sized apples. Cut into halves, slice very fine, place in a bowl with one ounce sugar, half teaspoon ground cinnamon and one teaspoon vanilla essence; gently mix, then evenly arrange over the plate. Set the pie in the oven to bake for twenty minutes. Remove and lay on a table. Beat up to a froth the whites of two eggs, add two ounces granulated sugar and half teaspoon vanilla essence, lightly mix with a skimmer for half a minute, then nicely spread the preparation over the apples with the aid of a knife blade; sprinkle a tablespoon fine sugar over all, reset in the oven to bake for ten minutes longer, or till a nice golden colour. Remove and serve either hot or cold.
A plain single-crust apple pie finished with soft meringue, written for cooks who already knew their own ovens. The gaps worth filling are temperature, meringue technique, and the fact that the apples get very little sugar.
- The hinge: the apples must be sliced paper-thinTwenty minutes of baking is only enough because the apples are "sliced very fine" and raw filling in an unlidded shell dries as it cooks. Cut them on a mandoline or with a sharp knife to about 1/8 inch; thicker slices will still be crunchy when the meringue is browned.
- Oven temperatureNone is given. Bake the fruit stage at 400F, then drop to 325-350F for the meringue so it sets and colours without weeping or scorching.
- Quarter pound of pie pasteFour ounces of dough makes a thin bottom crust; the recipe does not say what size plate is intended. It rolls out fine if you keep it even, but 6-7 oz is closer to modern expectations and less likely to tear when lifted.
- One ounce of sugarThat is about two tablespoons for six apples — noticeably tart by current tastes, since the sweetness is meant to come from the meringue and the tablespoon of sugar dusted on top. With modern dessert apples it works; with Granny Smiths, expect a sharp pie.
- Beating the whites"Lightly mix with a skimmer for half a minute" points to a deliberately soft, foamy topping rather than a stiff one. For a meringue that holds its shape, beat the whites to soft peaks, then add the 2 oz sugar a spoonful at a time and beat to stiff, glossy peaks.
- Sealing the meringueSpread it right out to the pastry rim on all sides. Meringue that does not touch the crust shrinks back and lets syrup pool underneath.
- Vanilla essenceModern vanilla extract, one for one. A teaspoon in the fruit and half a teaspoon in the whites is a generous hand with vanilla.
- Yield and servingSix to eight slices, depending on the plate used; the recipe does not give a size. Meringue-topped pies do not refrigerate well -- the topping beads and weeps -- so this is best eaten the day it is made.
Meringue-topped fruit pies were a standard of American and Anglo-French hotel cookery by the turn of the twentieth century: two egg whites and a few ounces of sugar finish lemon, apple and custard fillings in cookbooks of the period, and the topping is often said to have been a thrifty use for whites left over from egg-enriched pastry, custards and glazes. The International Cook Book is generally attributed to Alexander Filippini, long associated with Delmonico's in New York, and its style shows it estaurant vocabulary such as the skimmer used to fold the whites, and instructions written for a cook rather than a family dinner. Apple was among the most common American pie fruits, cheap and keepable through winter, and dressing it with meringue was the simplest way to raise a household staple to something fit for a menu.