So this is the third fruit with meringue pie I’m making this month.
It’s easily the strangest, though. Ever had a pie made from melon?
- 1 medium cantaloup
- 3/4 cup sugar (1/2 cup if cantaloup is extra sweet)
- 8 tablespoons flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 egg yolks
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 tablespoon butter or margarine
- 1 baked pie shell
- 3 egg whites
- 6 tablespoons sugar
- Select a cantaloup of good quality. Cut rip cantaloup in half, remove seeds, scoop our pulp with a spoon into a saucepan and place over medium heat until it comes to a gentle boil. As it heats you can mash pulp with a potato masher. If you prefer, liquify pulp in blender before heating.
- Mix sugar, flour and salt together well, then add to heated cantaloup and stir until thickened. Do not cook cantaloup pulp too long before adding flour and sugar.
- Beat egg yolks and add 2 tablespoons water. Add beaten yolks to cantaloup mixture and cook until thick and creamy. Remove from fire and add butter. Pour mixture into baked pie shell.
- Beat 3 egg whites and 6 tablespoons sugar to make meringue. Top pie with meringue and bake in 420-450 degree F. oven until delicately browned. May be served warm or cold.
Luckily, cantaloup is in season this month — so it’s easy to find one that’s both ripe and inexpensive.
Ever mashed a cantaloup while trying to cook it?
It’s pretty difficult. The potato masher got it mostly mushy, but there were still quite a lot of lumps.
After five minutes of mashing, I stuck the immersion blender in. It made perfect purée in five seconds.
I went for a peaky meringue instead of a smooth one… just to be extra interesting.
The filling was still very loose after it finished baking (cornstarch works better than flour in pudding!), so I put it in the fridge overnight to set. It did get thicker, but it also started to smell a little funny.
“Oh man, this smells terrible.”
“Really?” I picked it up and sniffed it. “It’s a little eggy, but only a little.”
“It’s awful!”
“It is not. Just eat it. House rules, one bite!”
One surprised face later, he declared it was pretty good after all. (The one bite rule wins again!)
Verdict: Tasty, with an odd smell.
From tasting notes:
If there was such a thing as cantaloup candy, it would taste like this. Guesses from tasters included butter, oranges, and peaches — as the recipe promised, the real ingredient was a surprise. It was unusual but tasty. So if you ever want cantaloup pudding (or pie), now you know what to do!
I haven’t tried this yet, but it had reminded me of the cantaloupe-currant cobbler that I made this summer. Smelled so strange, but so good! The strange smell steered people off so there was more for me!!