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So this is the third fruit with meringue pie I’m making this month.

serving-cantalouppie

It’s easily the strangest, though. Ever had a pie made from melon?

Cantaloup Pie
Ingredients
  • 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
Instructions
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
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Luckily, cantaloup is in season this month — so it’s easy to find one that’s both ripe and inexpensive.

mashing

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.

blender

After five minutes of mashing, I stuck the immersion blender in. It made perfect purée in five seconds.

meringue

I went for a peaky meringue instead of a smooth one… just to be extra interesting.

tasting-smell

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!”

tasting-surprise

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!

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