and its a sort of a variant of Key Lime pie, only I’m trying to make it with oranges instead. An Oreo cookie crust, meringue on top, the whole nine yards.
I mix up the filling: 15 oz. of condensed milk, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, 2 egg yolks, 1 tablespoon of orange zezt, and 1/2 cup of orange juice. I figure, “What the hell, I’ll use the oj I bought for breakfast.” I pop the pie in the oven and end up with a great crust, the best meringue, and hot orange juice! The filling didn’t set up. According to The Joy of Cooking, a reaction between the citric acid and the condensed milk causes the filling to jell and thicken - wouldn’t there be the same reaction with oj vs. lime juice? I’ve made Key Lime pie before and had no problems. Could it be beause the oj was pastuerized? Maybe I’ll have to use fresh squeezed oj.
Mods - cooking is an art, too, but feel free to move this if warranted.
I have no idea what happened to your pie, but if someone does come up with an answer and you get it the way you want it, I want dibs on the second slice.
I was sorta hoping folks would start posting cooking threads in this forum (even though it’s probably not what the administrators had in mind) mainly because I have the ability to be boring at great length about culinary matters.
But if Eutychus55 poleaxes me during the next 24 hours, the status of this thread may change.
Carry on in the meantime…I can’t be of service here myself, as I have never personally tried to cobble baked goods out of refrigerated citrus juices.
Oh, goody! I was wondering about cooking threads in relation to this forum, as well. I vote to have them here; I feel that cooking is very much an art form. As for you, Ike, you have never been boring about culinary matters. I scan every cooking thread for your posts because I learn something every time. Remember the muffuletta sandwiches you clued me in on? Still dying to taste one!
As to the OP, I’m stumped. I’ve made custardy fillings using plain old grocery store orange juice and they set up nicely, but I have never used condensed milk. Maybe grocery store OJ has been de-acidified a bit to please the popular palate? If so, a little more lime or a bit of lemon might do the trick . . .
Well, it shouldn’t matter what type of OJ you use.
From the Eagle Brand Condensed Milk page:
Interesting that they advocate using the fake stuff.
I think the real reason is a matter of apples and oranges, or in this case, key limes and oranges. If you’re taking a key lime pie recipe and just substituting equal parts OJ for key lime juice, the problem may be:
So, my guess would be you that to get the same amount of citric acid, you would have to up the amount of OJ, but this would make it more watery. Maybe use frozen OJ concentrate or see if they sell straight citric acid and add a little of that.
Anyway, sounds yummy. If you get it to work, how 'bout posting the recipe?
I’ve given the frozen concentrate idea some thought, too. Also, maybe adding some cornstarch. The acidity of the oranges was a question that came to me as well. I thought that the acidity may have been reduced by the pastureization process. I’ll experiment and see what happens. That’s one of the great thing about cooking - If you screw up, you can usually eat your mistakes (the oreo cookie crust and meringue were great, if a little soaked with oj. I could only take a coupl of bites, though - its very, very sweet).
Any further suggestions or ideas would be appreciated.
You know, it’s odd. Every recipe I come across for anorangeandmeringuepie is thickened with cornstarch and not condensed milk. I am at a loss as to why, though, and I haven’t ever made a key lime or a key orange pie.
Not really, nor surprising. Both RealLemon/RealLime and Eagle Brand Condensed Milk are brands of Eagle Family Foods, Inc. (There are even links from the Eagle Brand site to the RealLemon/RealLime site, and vice versa). Naturally, if you’re going to be using lemon or lime juice, they want you using theirs.
And RealLemon/RealLime aren’t fake, exactly. They are 100% lemon or lime juice, but they’re concentrated and then reconstituted with water to a standard acidity and sweetness – they won’t have the fresh and distinctive flavor of fresh lemon or lime juice, but the flavor, pH, and sugar content will be consistent, which (as this thread shows) is important in many recipes.