Foods, their selection and preparation

Beat the eggs and add the pumpkin, brown sugar, and salt and mix well. Add the hot water to the spices and mix them into the egg-sugar-pumpkin mixture. Fill an unbaked pie crust and bake in the same way as any other custard pie. When it is desired to flavor pumpkin pie with orange juice, honey, or some other sirup, the milk must be decreased or the egg increased accordingly. Sweet-potato and squash pies are made in exactly the same way as pumpkin pie. Very Rich Pies. There is a group of very rich pies made on a custard basis or by using both egg and starch. In many of these pies the liquid is a sirup or molasses. The wellknown pecan pies of the South are typical of this group. The following recipe for pecan pie is basic and may be varied considerably: Pecan Pie 3 eggs 2 cups dark corn sirup 2 tablespoons sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 tablespoons flour or 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon cornstarch 1 cup pecan meats Half honey may be used in this recipe, or all honey, omitting the sugar. With a less concentrated sirup, such as maple, an extra egg (or 2 more tablespoons flour) would be needed, and the sugar could be omitted. The eggs should be beaten until they are light, since they serve not only as thickening but also as leavening. Mix the sugar with the flour or starch, add to the beaten eggs, and beat together. Then the sirup, vanilla, salt, and pecans should be folded into the mixture. Pour this rich filling into an unbaked pie crust and bake at 375° F. for 45 minutes. Such very rich pies are often cut into eight servings rather than the usual six. Chiffon Pies. The simplest kind of chif¬ fon pie is really a souffle. (See page 107.) Stiffly beaten egg whites or a meringue (at least 3 whites) are folded into the warm fill¬ ing, either a very thick custard or any good cream-pie filling. Then the baked shell is filled and the mixture cooked in the oven at 325° F. for about 20 minutes, as a souffle is cooked or a meringue is set on top of a regular cream pie. A slightly higher temperature can be used for cooking the chiffon pie than for meringue, since the egg white is more protected from the effects of the heat when folded into the custard or cream filling. Basic Recipes. Any of the basic recipes for cream pies given above may be used for [325] making chiffon pies of this kind. Lemon chiffon, butterscotch chiffon, and chocolate chiffon are favorites. A basic recipe for a custard-souffle kind of chiffon pie follows: \ cup hot liquid 3 to 4 egg whites (If lemon chiffon, \ cup hot \ teaspoon salt water and £ cup lemon juice) \ cup sugar 3 to 4 egg yolks Flavoring if desired \ cup sugar, or less Make a very thick custard of the yolks, \ cup sugar, and the liquid, cooking it in the double boiler until thick while stirring con¬ stantly. Remove from the heat and add flavoring, if needed. (None is needed in lemon-chiffon pie.) Make a meringue of the whites, salt, and remaining \ cup sugar, and carefully fold the custard and meringue to¬ gether. Then fill the pie shell with the fluffy mixture. To set the filling, place the pie in a 325° F. oven for about 20 minutes. The souffle chiffon pies also are called "fluff pies,” as lemon, chocolate, or butter¬ scotch fluff pie.