ottawa foodies

A friend used to make a rhubarb custard meringue pie from her Pennsylvania Dutch great grandmother's recipe that was amazing. She never would give up the recipe. Over the years I have searched for a recipe that approach that pie, and have tried many,but either the rhubarb doesn't cook well enough, the custard is runny, or there is too much water in the rhubarb and the filling is a mess. As rhubarb season approaches, does anyone have a reliable recipe for rhubarb custard meringue pie, or suggestions as to what I need to do to replicate the Pennsylvania Dutch version?

I've seen pie recipes that include a bit of tapioca in the filling in order to absorb excess water. Maybe that's the secret?

For example, here's a link to a strawberry-rhubarb pie that uses tapioca to thicken the filling. Well, it would be a link if it weren't for the fact that I'm not a Cook's Illustrated subscriber ;)

www.cooksillustrated.com

That sounds so yummy! We didn't take advantage of our rhubarb patch much last year, but I'm totally going to try this pie! I'll scour my cookbooks (I've a fondness for vintage ones with the older recipes) and will let you know if I find any recipes worth sharing!

From Food that Really Schmecks by Edna Staebler, is a recipe for fruit Custard Pie including rhubarb:

Pastry for a one-crust, 9-inch pie
½ to ¾ cup fruit (cherry, mulberry, blueberry, red or black currant, rhubarb, raisin (soak raisins first) or dried currant (soak currants first)
2 ½ cups milk
3 eggs, beaten
½ cup sugar
½ tsp salt
1 tsp flour

Combine the sugar, flour, and salt; add the beaten eggs. Bring the milk almost to boiling point and add gradually to the egg mixture. Pour into the unbaked pie shell and dot the fruit over the top. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes – or until a silver knife stuck into the middle comes out clean.

Meringue
2 or 3 egg whites beaten stiff
4 tablespoons sugar
Pinch cream of tartar
½ tsp vanilla

Gild the meringue slightly in the oven or under the broiler – but watch it!

Edna doesn’t give the directions for adding the meringue to the pie. I would cool the pie slightly before adding the meringue and finishing it under the broiler.

My wife makes an awesome rhubarb custard meringue square (suppose if you use pie crust you could make it into pie). I'll get the recipe and post.

I'm copying this out of a 35yr old community cookbook from rural Nova Scotia:

2 C rhubarb
3 eggs
1 C sugar
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp cornstarch

Cook rhubarb in top part of double boiler. Mix sugar and cornstarch together, add to rhubarb, and cook until creamy. Add butter, pour over beaten egg yolks. Return to double boiler, cook "just enough" to thicken egg yolks. Cool, pour into baked pie shell.

Make meringue from egg whites, put on top and bake until light brown.

Being an old-school type of recipe it, of course, assumes you know at what temperature to bake the pie. ;) But I have the best luck overall with these older "hand me down" recipes for flavour. :)

HTH!