Black Bottom Pie

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   DARE has 1951 for "black bottom pie."
   John Mariani's ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FOOD & DRINK also gives this 1951 date, but notes James Beard's AMERICAN COOKERY that recipes are probably much earlier.  OED has "black bottom" (not cake or pie) from 1915.
   A check of my cookbooks reveals A TREATISE ON CAKE MAKING (Standard Brands Inc., NY, 1932): "Black Bottom Layer Cake...178."
   From AMERICAN COOKERY magazine, June/July 1935-May 1936: "Pie, Black Bottom...244, 438."
   The Brown Derby restaurant, which opened in Hollywood in 1929, appears to have served "black bottom pie" then.  I haven't checked the Brown Derby books yet.
   This is "From Clementine's Kitchen" by Clementine Paddleford, THIS WEEK magazine, NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE, 18 October 1953, pg. 53, col. 1:

_FOR HALLOWEEN..._
   _BLACK-BOTTOM PIE_

PULLED from a hat--this black and orange pie to work its little magic on the palates of your Halloween guests.  Other days it's a black-bottom pie wearing a white topper of cream with fat chocolate curls.  A dream to eat, airy and delicate as chocolate souffle.
   Here is a pie pulled from four hats--the four Brown Derbies of Hollywood-Beverly Hills fame.  Black-bottom pie is claimed this restaurant chain's most popular pie of the 150 kinds they menu daily.  But it's not a Brown Derby original, having been created by Monroe Boston Strause--the first of his chiffons.  The name came from the black bottom layer, it came from the Black Bottom Dance which was the rage in the early '20's.
   Strause kept his formula a closely guarded secret for nearly a decade.  Then he had the idea to turn pie engineer and travel the country teaching bakers everywhere his trick of making chiffons.  Soon thousands of bakers were making these pies, using every type of material and adding little tricks of their own.
   Here is black-bottom pie as the Brown Derby has served it since the first Derby tipped its hat 24 years ago.  Here we take a few liberties adapting the recipe for easy home use.

   _Brown Derby Black-Bottom Pie_
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
3/4 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 egg yolk
3/4 cup milk
4 squares unsweetened chocolate
1 cup evaporated milk, whipped*
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 9-inch baked pie shell
1 cup whipping cream

   Mix gelatin, sugar, salt, egg yolk and milk in top of double boiler; add three squares of the chocolate.  Cook over hot water until chocolate is melted, stirring occasionally; removed from heat.  If necessary, beat with egg beater until smooth.  Chill.  Fold in whipped evaporated milk and vanilla.  Pile into cooled pie shell.  Chill.
   Whip cream, sweetened to taste, and spread over top of pie.  For Halloween, blend in 1/4 cup grated orange rind.  Shave remaining chocolate into curls.  Sprinkle over topping.  Yield: 1 9-inch pie.
   * To whip evaporated milk pour one cup into freezer tray.  Chill in freezing compartment until tiny ice crystals form at edges (about 1/2 hour).  Pour into cold bowl; whip rapidly with cold beater until stiff.

(See ADS-L archives for Monroe Strause and the "chiffon" pies...The archives also has "black bottom sundae" from 1931--ed.)