Mrs. Aldrich's Lemon Pie

On March 24, we were incredibly lucky to host a talk and book signing by Mr. Alexander Aldrich.  As many of you may know, Mr. Aldrich's father, Winthrop W. Aldrich, donated the family's home at 110 Benevolent Street to the Rhode Island Historical Society.  What you may not know is that Mr. Aldrich, or Sam, as he prefers to be called, has led a pretty thrilling life, from dancing with the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth II to marching on Selma with Martin Luther King, Jr.

Stewart Martin Photography 2012

Since we knew that several members of the Aldrich would be attending the event, I wanted to whip up an Aldrich family recipe from the RIHS collections. A quick search in NETOP for any materials relating to Winthrop and Harriet Aldrich yielded a collection with some exciting potential: an entire folder of "Menus, Recipes, and Diets"! I headed over to 121 Hope Street to check it out.

According to the historical note that introduces the "Winthrop W. and Harriet A. Aldrich Papers," both  Winthrop and Harriet were quite "socially active," belonging to many social and charitable organizations.  Winthrop Aldrich was president and then chairman of the board of directors of Chase National Bank, and, in the 1950s, was appointed Ambassador to the Court of St. James. For her part, Harriet "participated in the leadership of the USO" during WWII and also served as chairman of the Civil Defense Volunteer Organization. As you might imagine, these were folks who entertained a fair bit.

For my own part, I was hoping to find a recipe appropriate for springtime, something light and fresh.   And then I saw it: a recipe for lemon pie.  It sounded delicious, and its origins were pretty exciting, too:

In 1954, the Aldriches were the guests of Eliahu and Zehava Elath in Washington, D.C.  Eliahu was the first Israeli ambassador to the U.S., and his wife, Zehava apparently served a pretty phenomenal lemon pie.  The lemon pie was so good that Winthrop begged Zehava for the recipe.  A few weeks after the dinner, Harriet received a note from Zehava with the recipe attached:

As fantastic as the recipe sounded, I knew that the raw eggs would prevent me from serving it to the public. And, as much as I would have been content to eat an entire pie by myself, I decided it was best to choose another recipe.  As luck would have it, Harriet Aldrich happened to have another recipe for lemon pie (apparently it was something of a family favorite!), which had nary a raw egg in sight.

This second recipe, handwritten in a small notebook filled with other tasty morsels that seem to have been served at luncheons, read as follows:

This pie was truly a cinch to throw together, though I was amazed to find that even as late as 1950, not a word was mentioned about of oven temperature.  Well, okay, there was one word: "moderate."  350 degrees sounded moderate to me, and it took about 35 minutes for the filling to set.  Although the original recipe doesn't specify the type of lemons to use, I went with Meyer lemons, which are sweeter than regular lemons, and, let's face it, more photogenic.

Because I'd be using sweeter lemons, I decided to halve the amount of sugar, too, so if you're using regular lemons, I'd suggest that you stick with the whole cup.  And, though I don't have empirical evidence to support this, I do believe that this pie tastes better while wearing your best spring frock.  VIP guests are optional.

Mr. Aldrich enjoying his mother's lemon pie.

Stewart Martin Photography 2012