Historical Food Fortnightly #15 - Sacred or Profane

15. Sacred or Profane December 14 - December 27

In this challenge, be as divine or as devious as you like! It could be a food with connections to a religion, a dish served for sacred celebrations, or a concoction with a not-so-polite name. Whatever your choice, show us how naughty and/or nice you can be!

 

 

The CBS Homemakers Exchange Recipes that Patrick and I are using for the Historical Food Fortnightly Challenges have no shortage of recipes in the naughty category:  Deviled Egg and Tomato Wedge Salad, Creamed Eggs on Deviled Ham Toast, Deviled Crabmeat in Shells, Deviled Beets, Nut Deviled Eggs, Deviled Brussels Sprouts (yes, really!), and Deviled Crab Meat.  But with the Christmas celebration just one week away, it seems more fitting to think about angels. 

 

We find our angel in the July, August, September, 1951 volume:

Lemon Angel Pie with a drawing of the 1951's homemaker happily preparing her pie:

The ingredients are simple and the preparation is simple as well.  I remember learning that a good meringue is made with eggs that are "old and cold" and that memory drops me down the rabbit hole of internet research.  This link has the scientific properties to explain why old or fresh eggs, and cold or room temperature eggs, will give you the results you want for your specific meringue need.
http://www.thekitchn.com/food-science-the-best-eggs-for-91786

We don our aprons and prepare our pie.


Simple ingredients.  Hey, what happened to the Cream of Tartar?  Okay, not shown:  Cream of Tartar.

Eggs are separated and the whites are beaten with sugar and cream of tartar added.

Meringue ready for baking.

Out of the oven and the meringue has risen above the pie pan.

Slightly cracked and beautifully browned.

While the meringue cools we prepare the lemon spread.

Egg yokes beaten with sugar added.

Ready for the lemon juice.

Lemon juice added and ready for cooking over low heat.

The mixture thickens while being stirred constantly.

Adding the grated lemon rind.

Time for the lemon spread to cool.

Meanwhile, we discover that our meringue has seriously deflated!  We don't really know if that is supposed to happen!  I've made meringue dessert shells that baked until completely firm but remember that took an overnight in the oven after a slow bake.  So we'll just see how this turns out and try baking a little longer in the re-do.

The deflated meringue.

Everything is cool and it's now time to spread the lemon and finish our Lemon Angel Pie.

Lemon spread....well....spread.

A dusting of confectioner's sugar.

A little more confectioner's sugar for presentation.

Dressed up!

The results?  Fantastically delicious!  The meringue is almost the same consistency as the spread and it cuts easily with a fork or spoon.  The meringue is sweet, the topping sweet but very very lemony and just wonderful!  We dare not make this desert often, because we were naughty and ate the whole thing!

We want to wish a Merry Christmas to everyone and a wonderful beginning to the New Year!  Wishing you a home full of love and light and good food!

Christmas 1997

Enjoy!

Patrick and Jeanette