We’re getting to the peak of peach season. Succulent peaches are wonderful fresh, and are also wonderful when baked into various delectable desserts. I recently came across a recipe for Peach Meringue Pie in a hundred-year-old cookbook, and decided to give it a try.
The pie was a winner. The peach filling was sweet with a hint of tartness, and the meringue topping was refreshingly light with a nuanced vanilla flavor which nicely balanced the peaches.
Here’s the original recipe:
I’m not sure why the recipe called for cooking and mashing the peaches prior to putting them in the pie shell, but I followed the directions. Maybe the recipe author did not want distinct slices of peach in the baked pie.
I sweetened the peaches with 1/2 cup sugar. When I made this recipe the cooked peaches were very juicy -and I knew that they would not hold their shape in a pie, so I added 1/4 cup of flour. This worked well, and the cooked peach pie filling was an appropriate consistency when the pie was baked.
It’s intriguing that the old recipe indicated that the recipe was for either apple or peach meringue pie. I would think that the spices that are used in an apple pie would be somewhat different than the spices in a peach pie. Similarly, I would think that more flour would be needed to thicken the filling of a peach pie than an apple one (though, of course, no flour or other thickener was called for in the old recipe).
Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:
Peach Meringue Pie
4 cups sliced and peeled peaches
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 9-inch pie shell
3 egg whites
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Preheat oven to 400° F. Put the sliced peaches and the sugar in a saucepan; stir together. Using medium heat bring to a boil while stirring occasionally; simmer, until the peaches are soft, while continuing to stir occasionally (about 5 minutes). Remove from heat and mash the cooked peaches. (I used a potato masher). It is okay if the mashed peaches are chunky. Stir in the flour and nutmeg. Put the peach mixture into the pie shell and bake in oven until the filling begins to bubble, and the crust is lightly browned.
In the meantime, make the meringue. Place egg whites in a bowl, and beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Gradually add powdered sugar and vanilla while continuing to beat. Then spoon on top of the pie and swirl. Reduce oven temperature to 350° F. Return pie to oven and cook for an additional 8-10 minutes or until the meringue is lightly browned.
It looks really good!
It’s yummy.
Interesting idea to combine peaches and nutmeg!
The nutmeg worked well with the peaches in this pie.
I wonder how many peaches by weight in a quart?…..
Also have you ever watched Glen and Friends on YouTube? Every Sunday is the “old Cookbook Show:
The books can be a couple of hundred to 70 years and he does a great job.
Your question about how many peaches by weight in a quart made me curious, so I googled it. According to the National Center for Home Food Preservation at the University of Georgia, it takes about 2 1/2 pounds of peaches to get a quart.
I wasn’t familiar with Glenn and Friends before I saw your comment. I just found it, and look forward to watching a few of the old cookbook segments very soon. It sounds like something I’d really enjoy.
2 1/2 lbs it is…. if I can find some nice ripe ones its a go
I enjoy the way he talks about the books and the background for the times Hope you do also
It looks as good as I’m sure it taste.
It’s delicious.
Growing up, I don’t recall peach pies as routine, but if they were the small pan-fried pies, peach was the norm in our family, or if no peaches, apple. I am not sure if I have ever eaten or heard of an apple pie with meringue topping–I enjoy that you try these earlier dishes!
Meringue toppings were more popular a hundred-years ago than what they are now. I’m not sure why.
Another use of meringue in a fruit dessert other than lemon. I often wonder why lemon was the victor, with so many other possible desserts, and now we seldom use it other than the lemon.
Based on the recipes I’ve seen in hundred-year-old cookbooks, meringue was commonly used as a topping for a variety of desserts back then. Over the years of this blog I’ve made a several desserts with meringue toppings, including:
Rice Pudding with Meringue Topping (The recipe calls for flavoring the topping with vanilla or orange extract.)
Blueberry Pie with Meringue
Rhubarb Fanchonettes (Rhubarb Tarts with Meringue Topping)
Fig Meringue Pie
And they all looked good!
That’s the beauty of a meringue pie almost any fruit goes. The peach sounds delicious. 🙂
Agree- Meringue is a great topping for most any type of fruit pie. I tend to think that many cooks today tend to underulitize meringue as a topping.
I agree, Sheryl I am guilty of that too 🙂 the bonus is meringue has less calories than pastry 🙂 Yes I really should use meringue topping more often 🙂
That’s a really good point. I hadn’t though about how meringue is low calorie.
I wonder if the cook would drain the fruit after cooking it but before putting it in the pie crust. Or maybe the cook would cook most of the juice out?
Your version looks delicious.
Maybe, I didn’t think of draining the fruit after cooking or of cooking the fruit until most of the juice has been cooked out. A disadvantage of those methods would be that there would be less pie filling and the finished pie would be thinner.
Perfectly delicious and timeless!