[Urbane Guerrilla]

LEMON MERINGUE PIE, the condensed milk recipe

There are several ways to make lemon meringue pie. We've never found any others that could match this one. It's my mother's slight modification of the recipe found on cans of condensed milk; over the years she's tweaked it a bit. The secret to a lemon meringue pie that will blow your guests' socks off is the homemade graham cracker crust; storebought graham pie shells just aren't the same. We like the pie pretty tart now that we're all grown up and don't have kid-type sweet tooth any more, so a little more lemon and less sugar will doubtless suit maturer palates. Doubles easily; you can go from a nine-inch pyrex pieplate to a fourteener.

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Graham cracker crust: mix together
3/4 stick of Butter, melted
20 squares Graham Crackers (one of those packages inside the box), crushed to crumbs. Flog 'em up in a food processor or crush with rolling pin between layers of wax paper. Fresh crackers are best.
1/4 cup Sugar (you may be able to reduce this quite a bit, or cut it with Splenda)

Press mixture into 9" pie pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 8 minutes, cool on rack.


Filling: while pie shell is cooling, mix together, then immediately put in pie shell
1/2 cup Lemon Juice
juice of 1 Lime (optional)
1 tsp Grated Lemon Rind (more if desired)
a little Grated Lime Peel (optional)
1 14oz can Condensed Milk (not evaporated! that's for tea!)
1/4 tsp (heaping) Trader Joe's Trader Darwin's (tm) Vitamin C Crystals (optional. Now the pie is good for you, at about 250% of RDA per slice)

Mix everything but the condensed milk together first. The minute the condensed milk hits the lemon juice it's going to start to set up. Mix together quickly and immediately pour into pie shell. Allow to set while you prepare the meringue. Mom doesn't put the yolks of the separated eggs into the pie filling as the original recipe has it, on the grounds that uncooked egg parts may not be safe and she dislikes the texture; she reserves them for the morrow's scrambled eggs.


Raise oven heat to 425 degrees.

Meringue:
3 Egg Whites
1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar
1/4 cup Sugar
pinch of salt

Beat Whites w/Cream of Tartar until stiff peaks form. Beat in Sugar, Salt. Pile onto pie filling, bake at 425 degrees for 5 minutes, until peaks start to brown or meringue is just getting golden. Let cool, refrigerate. Several hours fridgeing is better than just one hour.

This pie doesn't travel very well. At least, the meringue doesn't -- automobile vibrations seem to start breaking the meringue down into a sweet eggy liquid -- a little of this moistening the crumb crust is nice, but a flood of it makes for a sticky mess. Basically, make it where you're going to eat it if at all possible.