Lemon Meringue Pie

Easter is around the corner.

Vicki Smith

March 22, 2023

Greetings,

In color and flavor lemons are a natural fit for Easter. Their color evokes sunshine and warmer days, while their flavor paired with sugar is like a spring tonic. Lemons must be used with care; add too much and your dish will be sour, add too little and it will be bland. Yellow ochre as a pigment dates back 17,000 years to the painting of a horse in the Lascaux caves near Montignac, France. Pablo Picasso used yellow during his blue period to highlight faces and add a focal point. Van Gogh's sunflowers certainly come to mind when picturing paintings where yellow dominates. I saw the first yellow daffodils popping up just yesterday

“Nana’s Best Lemon Pie” is the perfect dessert for the Easter holiday that will surely impress your guests. I first discovered the recipe, a spin on a traditional lemon meringue with the meringue as the bottom crust, in Craig Claiborne’s 1990 updated The New York Times Cook Book, originally published in 1961. Claiborne credits the recipe to Lord and Lady Barclay Ferguson, members of the diplomatic corps who had apparently entered the pie in a fund-raising baking competition for the March of Dimes. Claiborne frequently published the recipes of home cooks. The husband and wife were both artists; he hailed from Scotland and she was from California.

Craig Claiborne was a food editor at the New York Times and a restaurant critic who died in 2000. Upon publication of the updated version, an interesting review appeared in the Washington Post. Authors Kristin Eddy and Caroline E. Mayer favorably compared the 1961 edition with classics such as Joy of Cooking. They remarked on how American cookery had advanced in the thirty years since the original publication with our exposure to balsamic vinegar, sun-dried tomatoes, and fresh jalapenos readily available in most supermarkets. The 1990 version cuts back on fats and salt, but the reviewers are happy to report that the very rich “Nana’s Best Lemon Pie” is included in both versions. Claiborne’s 70th birthday fell around the time of the updated version and chefs from around the world attended a celebration for him in Monte Carlo. In lieu of expensive gifts, he requested handwritten recipes from those in attendance and collected them in a folder during the course of the evening.

One has to wonder what food trends would be reflected in a third update. Perhaps more plant-based protein or the inclusion of non-milk milks?

“Nana’s Best Lemon Pie”

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups plus 2 T. sugar

1/4 t. cream of tartar

4 eggs, separated

1 T. grated lemon rind

3 T. lemon juice

2 cups heavy cream

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 275 degrees.

2. Sift together one cup of the sugar and the cream of tartar. Beat the egg whites until stiff. Slowly fold in the sugar mixture and beat until well blended. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9-inch pie plate. Scrape the meringue mixture into the pie plate, building it up around the edges to fashion a shell. Place in the oven and bake for one hour. Remove and place on a rack to cool.

3. Beat the egg yolks until light and lemon colored. Add 1/2 cup of sugar. Add the lemon rind and lemon juice and beat to blend. Cook in the top of a double boiler until thickened, stirring constantly. Remove the heat and let cool.

4. Whip half of the cream until stiff and fold this into the lemon filling. Pour this into the meringue shell. Chill until the filling is set.

5. Whip the remaining cream with the remaining two tablespoons of sugar and spoon on top of the filling. Chill, uncovered, 24 hours.

Pie before adding the whipped cream topping.

“Nana’s Lemon Meringue Pie”

Notes:

The pie definitely needs 24 hours to chill in the refrigerator to make slicing and serving easier. I whipped the cream in steps 4 and 5 at the same time without adding the additional 2 tablespoons of sugar. I felt that I was saving a step and that the pie is sweet enough without the extra sugar.

Thanks for reading, liking, commenting, and sharing!

Vicki