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Peach Pie

9/11/2015

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In the nineteenth century, pastry was a rather broad term used to describe the sweet dishes that fell under the realm of the pastry cook, typically those that required an oven. At fancy dinners, sometimes “pastry and dessert” were grouped together to conveniently include all types of sweets under one heading. The term dessert could designate all the sweets in a meal, or it could be a separate course used to categorize just fruits and confectionery.

Especially extravagant occasions like James Parkinson’s seventeen-course Thousand Dollar Dinner in 1851 featured multiple divisions and headings. For this elegant feast, the Philadelphia restaurateur kicked off the first of four sweet courses with a “pastry” course that featured thirteen mouth-watering indulgences including pies, cakes, puddings, creams, meringues, and blancmange. Of these, only one was a fruit pie—peach. Of course many of the fruits we associate with pie are available only in the late spring through the fall, which would have made it difficult for him to get access to them for his April dinner. Peaches are one of the earlier ripening fruits, so possibly he got his hands on some very early varieties from Georgia or even Bermuda. Or perhaps he used dried or preserved fruit to make the pie.

Parkinson must have had a particular fondness for the juicy fruit, as he featured peaches quite a bit on his menus—including peach tarts, peach ice cream, and peaches and ice cream. In The Complete Confectioner (1844), his mother Eleanor Parkinson listed recipes for peach ice, peach water ice, peach paste (made by mixing the fruit's pulp with sugar and heating it to marmalade consistency, then forming it into rings and knots so it could be candied or crystallized), and even peach water (described as a cooling drink for balls and routs).

In doing the research to recreate the type of pie Parkinson would have served, I stumbled across an interesting fact that I didn’t realize – many nineteenth century peach pie recipes called for whole peaches. That’s right – whole, unpitted peaches, nestled on top of a pastry crust and then sprinkled with just sugar, flour and water and covered with a top crust. The idea behind this method is the fact that the peach kernels located inside the pit produce a subtle almond-flavored essence. In fact, peach kernels were often used to flavor other dishes such as custards, preserved peaches, and even cream sauce. They were also enjoyed as candy – the “Chinese almonds” served during the confectionery course at the Thousand Dollar Dinner were kernels (large, sweet, nontoxic seeds) from special apricots grown solely for this purpose. They were often used in the nineteenth century as a substitute for bitter almonds in syrups, ices and sweet almond paste, as only a small quantity was needed to impart a rich flavor.

There were some nineteenth century recipes that instructed pitting and slicing the peaches (and some that said just to halve them) before putting in the pie, but these were mostly later in the century.  So it is likely the pie served by Parkinson featured whole peaches – in any case, I just had to try this method!

I combined two recipes - one from an 1841 cookbook called The American Housewife by an anonymous author who billed herself simply as “An Experienced Lady,” and one from an 1845 cookbook called Every Lady's Book by T.J. Crowen, who also went by the title “A Lady of New York.” Both recipes simply instruct placing the whole peaches in a deep pie plate lined with a pastry crust. However, Every Lady’s Book says to peel the peaches, which I did. This cookbook also suggests using small, “not very ripe” peaches, which is a good tip, as the peaches fit better in the pie pan and are more likely to stay intact and not fall apart or get mushy. And both mention keeping the peach pits in the pie for flavor.

Here’s the original recipe from The American Housewife:

Peach Pie. Take mellow, juicy peaches—wash and put them in a deep pie plate, lined with pie crust. Sprinkle a thick layer of sugar on each layer of peaches, put in about a table-spoonful of water, and sprinkle a little flour over the top—cover it with a thick crust, and bake the pie from fifty to sixty minutes. Pies made in this manner are much better than with the stones taken out, as the prussic acid of the stone gives the pie a fine flavor. If the peaches are not mellow, they will require stewing before being made into a pie. Dried peaches should be stewed soft, and sweetened, before they are made into a pie—they do not require any spice.
 
Here’s the one from Every Lady’s Book:

Peach Pie Or Pudding.—Take small sized peaches, not very ripe, peel them without cutting them up, line a square pie dish with paste, strew some sugar over it, then lay in the peaches rather close together, then strew them plentifully with sugar, pour a little water over, dredge on some flour, and cover with a good paste crust; when the crust is done it is enough. Or, the peaches may be cut in rather thick slices. Leaving the stones in the peaches improves the flavor.

And here’s my modern version:

Peach Pie (with whole peaches)
  • Several small, firm peaches (I ended up using eight)
  • 2 tablespoons sugar (or to taste)
  • 4 tablespoons flour
  • 1 tablespoon water
  • Pre-made double pie crust

PicturePositioning the peeled peaches prior to baking
Preheat oven to 425F. Peel peaches and place in pie plate lined with piecrust. Sprinkle sugar and flour over top of peaches, then add water. Cover with top crust and fold the edges under. Flute the edges to seal or press with the tines of a fork. Cut several slits in the top crust to vent steam. Bake for 50-60 min., checking occasionally. If piecrust edges start to brown too much, cover with small strips of foil.


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Well, the pie turned out beautifully. My taste testers all loved it. The peaches were perfectly tender and juicy -I just had to be careful of the pits when cutting the pie into slices and made sure I removed them before serving. The only unfortunate thing was that none of us really detected an almond essence from the peach kernels. Perhaps next time I will try to remove the kernels, toast and crush them and add them that way. But the pie was still delicious nonetheless and really easy to make with just a few simple ingredients. This recipe is a keeper – for its conversation value alone!


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Coconut Pudding Pie

9/5/2015

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The product of swaying palm trees that line white-sand beaches in warm climates around the globe, perhaps no other food conjures up such vivid images of the tropics as the coconut. Unusual in look and taste—brown, hairy, and hard-shelled on the outside, with an inside kernel portion that is rich, white, and meaty.

Coconut oil (extracted from the kernel of mature coconuts) is especially trendy today as a cooking and cosmetic ingredient due to its numerous health benefits. But this tropical fruit was also popular in nineteenth century America, for both its nutritional value and as a rich dessert ingredient. As noted by Thomas Farrington De Voe, author of 1867’s The Market Assistant, “the white kernel, although hard, woody, and tough, in its fresh state, is said to be very nutritious, and, when grated, makes excellent puddings, pies, cakes, candy, etc.”

Philadelphia’s strategic location as a busy seaport meant that the city received an abundance of coconuts from the Caribbean. Chef James Parkinson took advantage of this fact when planning the menu for his 1851 Thousand Dollar Dinner, featuring “Cocoanut* Pudding” as one of the dishes during the meal’s Pastry Course. He had a particular affinity for New World coconuts, claiming those from the West Indies were “equal to the same nut in any other tropical country.”

Early English settlers had brought their love of both puddings and pies to the New World, and by the nineteenth century they were among the most popular desserts in America. The line between them was often blurred, with the two terms used interchangeably. For example, many cream and custard pies such as almond, apple, coconut, lemon, and orange were listed in nineteenth-century cookbooks as puddings, but they were baked in a pie pan lined with a pastry crust or at least rimmed with a strip of pastry.

Recipes for Cocoanut Pudding can be found in several different nineteenth century cookbooks, including those from leading authors of the era such as Eliza Leslie, Maria Parloa and Sarah Annie Frost. I ended up combining two from Maria Parloa’s The Appledore Cook Book (1880). Parloa had honed her cooking skills by working as a cook in private homes and as a pastry chef at a number of summer resorts in New Hampshire in the late 1800s. She established a cooking school on Tremont Street in Boston and was so popular that she could charge impressive fees for her services. Asked to serve as principal at the Boston Cooking School, Parloa turned down the offer as she was involved in other endeavors and commanded a much larger salary than the school could pay her. However, she was hired to train a group of teachers prior to the school’s opening, and later gave public lecture-demonstrations on weekends.

Here are the recipes from The Appledore Cookbook:

Cocoanut Pudding.

One quart of milk, one teaspoonful of butter, the yolks and the whites of three eggs, one cup of sugar, one cocoanut and milk of cocoanut. Bore a hole in the cocoanut and drain out the milk; then crack the nut and take from the shell; pare off the brown skin and grate. Butter a pudding-dish and lay the cocoanut in it, then pour over it the custard. (Scald the milk before making the custard.) Bake in a moderate oven until it is firm in the centre, which you can tell by cutting with the handle of a teaspoon. Frost immediately upon taking from the oven, with the whites"of two eggs and one cup of sugar beaten to a stiff froth.

Cocoanut Pudding, No. 2.

Six eggs, one cup of sugar, one quart of milk5«one cocoanut, milk of cocoanut. Prepare the cocoanut as for No. 1. Beat the eggs and sugar to a froth, stir in the milk and then the cocoanut; butter a pudding-dish, turn in the mixture, and bake twenty or thirty minutes. When the fresh cocoanut is not in the market, use one cup of the desiccated cocoanut and the juice of one fresh lemon.

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And here is my modernized version:

Coconut Pudding Pie

  • 1 prebaked piecrust
  • 1 fresh coconut
  • 2 cups milk
  • 5 eggs
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 tablespoon rosewater or brandy
  • 6 egg whites
  • 6 tablespoons sugar
  1. Bore a hole in the three eyes of the coconut (I used a screwdriver) and drain out the milk, straining it through a fine sieve. Reserve in a separate bowl. Place the coconut on a lined baking sheet in the lower third rack of a 400F oven for about a half hour. After removing coconut, dial oven back to 350F. When the coconut has cooled, crack it open using a hammer and pry off the outer shell. Using a vegetable peeler, peel the thinner light brown skin. Grate the white, meaty portion using a food processor or box grater. Reserve.
  2. Beat the eggs and sugar to a froth, then stir in the milk, coconut, rosewater and reserved coconut milk. Carefully pour into prebaked piecrust. Cover edges of piecrust with small pieces of aluminum foil to prevent it from burning. Bake for 45-55 minutes, checking periodically. Pie is done when a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
  3. Frosting – Maria Parloa suggested frosting the pudding with the whites of two eggs and one cup of sugar beaten to a stiff froth. This would make a very nice icing, but many folks today are concerned about serving uncooked eggs. So, an alternative would be to create a meringue – beat the six egg whites and six tablespoons of sugar until fluffy. Spread on the top of the pie and return to the oven until lightly browned.

This pie is a pretty, unique-tasting dessert - the meringue topping gives it quite an elegant look and texture contrast with the pudding. It takes a little time and effort to prepare the coconut but is actually is quite fun. The feedback I received from one of my taste testers was that it was "really very good." 

* “Cocoanut” or “cocoa-nut” were common spellings through the early twentieth century, but eventually the “a” was dropped, possibly to avoid confusion with the word “cocoa.”

Sources: American Dishes at the Centennial by James Parkinson; The Oxford Encyclopedia to American Food and Drink by Andrew F. Smith; Baking in America by Greg Patent; The Appledore Cook Book by Maria Parloa; Mrs Goodfellow: The Story of America's First Cooking School by Becky Libourel Diamond

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    Author

    So much of our history can be learned through food!
    My second book, The Thousand Dollar Dinner, follows the unique story of a luxurious 17-course feast that helped launch the era of grand banquets in nineteenth century America. I am also the author of Mrs Goodfellow: The Story of America's First Cooking School.

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