[Sca-cooks] Sugar free pecan pie recipe

[Stefan li Rous]

<<< Pecan pie seems to be another fusion dish or Old and New World
ingredients. Is there anything close from period? Or is that too much
sugar even for the Elizabethans?

Stefan >>>

<<< Pecan pie is a creation of the U.S. of A.  The native range of  
pecan trees
is primarily within the boundries of the U.S.  I've been looking, but I
haven't found a recipe earlier than the 20th Century.  The closest thing
I've found is a recipe for molasses pie (no nuts involved) from a  
cookbook
published in 1879.

Bear >>>

I wasn't really thinking of the pecans. They can, and were, an easy  
substitute for European nuts. There was a French candy that was  
similar to pralines, but used a different nut. Pecans were one of the  
changes that was made here.

I was thinking more of the texture/custard-y filling since I was  
putting pecan pie, chess pies, custard pies together. I think there  
were some period custard-like pies.

But your comments on molasses makes sense. From previous discussions  
here, molasses really didn't show up in Europe until after the price  
of sugar had plummeted. Much more profitable to ship back the sugar  
than the waste product.  In our discussion of sugars and honeys I'd  
forgotten that molasses is often an ingredient to these pies.  I  
wonder what the earliest non-native American uses of pecans was.  
Perhaps just eaten out of the shell.

Stefan

--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****