Nesselrode pie (1944)

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   This "Nesselrode pie" post is brought to you by Barry A. Popik, who has just returned from the New York Times Travel Show at the Javits Convention Center, where he discussed with MIR Corp. his upcoming trip to Belarus and Moldova.  (He had traveled with MIR to Tibet, Mongolia, Korea, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and the Ukraine, all in 2002.)
   Someone at the Travel Show asked him if he subscribed to the New York Times.  He would receive a handy travel computer thingy if he did.
   And then he tried to tell this person the story how he solved "the Big Apple" twelve years ago, how he got two uncredited lines about it eight years ago, how there's now 200 lines in the City Section about "Nesselrode pie"...

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NESSELRODE PIE

(OED)
More fully Nesselrode cream, pie, pudding. An iced dessert made with chestnuts, cream, preserved fruits, etc., and freq. flavoured with rum.

  1840 R. H. BARHAM Ingoldsby Legends III. 247 There was nothing so good in the whole of the Feed..As the great Lumpoff Icywitz' Nesselrode pudding! 1845 E. ACTON Mod. Cookery xx. 525 Nesselrode Cream,..Chestnuts..sugar..isinglass..cream..vanilla [etc]. 1894 E. SKUSE Compl. Confectioner 155 Nesselrode or Ice Pudding. Prepare a custard of one pint of cream, [etc.]. 1952 S. J. PERELMAN Ill-tempered Clavichord (1953) 12, I wouldn't bolt that Nesselrode if I were you. 1983 Listener 22-29 Dec. 25/3 Nesselrode pudding is made from sweetened chestnut pureé combined with an egg-and-cream cooked custard. Maraschino liqueur is used for flavouring, and raisins and currants are added as well. 1999 W. LEAST HEAT-MOON River Horse v. 139 Perhaps somewhere in the village was a relict fountain and an ancient sodaman who knew the secrets of a Tenderfoot Punch (2 ounces rum, 1 tablespoon Nesselrode pudding, grape juice, dash of bitters, shaved ice).

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   This "Nesselrode Pie" is from the "City" section of today's Sunday NEW YORK TIMES:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/29/nyregion/thecity/29ness.html
By BERNARD GWERTZMAN
Published: February 29, 2004

IN the summer of 1987, shortly after moving back to New York from Washington, I tried to buy a Nesselrode pie for my younger son's birthday. But that creamy, chiffon pie with accents of chocolate, candied fruit and rum that I remembered so well from my childhood in the Bronx seemed to have disappeared.

I searched the obvious pastry shops. I asked in the obvious restaurants. I asked friends for tips. But as far as I could determine - this was not a scientific survey, mind you - Nesselrode was apparently no more. Like baked Alaska and Charlotte Russe, it seemed to have gone to the equivalent of food heaven.

I was not alone in mourning the loss.

Arthur Schwartz, the food writer and restaurant critic, wrote of Nesselrode pie on his Web site: "It's extinct now - no restaurant serves it, no bakery makes it - but this old New York dessert still lives vividly in the taste memories of many."

On the Chowhound's message board: "Ahhh, Nesselrode pie. I was a fiend for it as a child at Ratner's on the Lower East Side. If we were in town, I'd make sure to leave room for a slice (even in the face of those baskets of onion rolls). Eventually, they never seemed to have it in and then alas, Ratner's was no more. Let the weeping commence."

Even Howard Seftel, the food critic for the Arizona Republic, wrote as one of his 10 requests to Santa: "And if it's not too much trouble, find a pastry chef willing to bring back Nesselrode pie."

Still, I couldn't believe that the pie was really impossible to find. So I started on a personal quest.

Let me backtrack. The story begins for me, as it did for others, in the 1940's and 1950's, when my father, who loved Nesselrode pie, used to bring one home for special occasions. "I picked this up at Mrs. Spier's," he would inevitably say as he walked into our apartment at 3235 Grand Concourse or later, at our house in New Rochelle.

"Mrs. Spier's," I learned during my search, was a wholesale pie bakery run by Hortense Spier at 24 West 90th Street on the Upper West Side. Her pièce de résistance was a dessert named after the 19th-century Russian foreign minister Count Karl Robert Nesselrode, a man who loved good food and had a talented chef named Mouy. The chef developed a dessert that eventually became known as Nesselrode pudding, which Mrs. Spier turned into a pie. Her children ran the business after she died, but by 1968 they were also dead.

Although "Mrs. Spier's" provided the pie to many leading restaurants in the New York area, other bakeries had their own versions. You could find Nesselrode at Lindy's, Longchamps and steak houses and seafood restaurants throughout the region.

You probably want to know what this pie tasted like. My memory is of a lot of whipped cream, chocolate shavings on top, candied fruits in the custard of the pie, and a rum flavor throughout. The original Nesselrode had chestnut purée; later recipes omit this ingredient.


   In a 31 March 2003 post on ADS-L, that 1840 "Nesselrode pudding" citation was submitted by me.
   But what about Nesselrode PIE?
   Newspaperarchive.com isn't very helpful on the pie.  It does appear to come from New York City and Mrs. Hortense Spier.


(PROQUEST HISTORICAL NEWSPAPERS)
   Christmas in the Kitchen
Marian Manners. Los Angeles Times (1886-Current File). Los Angeles, Calif.: Dec 9, 1951. p. G28 (2 pages)
FIRST PAGE:
Left: Crowning confection for Christmas or New Year's dinner is the glamorous, easy-to-make Nesselrode pie.

   Holiday Foods; Put your best recipe forward In keeping with the theme of our holiday food issue, on this and following pages we offer cherished recipes, accessories Your Best Recipe
Los Angeles Times (1886-Current File). Los Angeles, Calif.: Nov 11, 1956. p. Q14 (3 pages)

   A Pie by Any Name Tastes as Sweet; These Pies Take the Cake
Arlington Reader. The Washington Post and Times Herald (1954-1959). Washington, D.C.: Aug 22, 1957. p. C12 (2 pages)


(PROQUEST HISTORICAL NEWSPAPERS--NEW YORK TIMES)(59 hits for "Nesselrode pie."  The first hit below is for "Spier" and "Nesselrode"--ed.)
   News of Food; Acker, Merrall & Condit Back in Food Business, Specializing in Delicacies
By JANE HOLT. New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Dec 21, 1944. p. 18 (1 page):
   If pies are on your list for holiday meals, some exceptionally good ones, made by Hortense Spiers, may be found at Hearn's sweet shop.  One is a nesselrode, prepared with macaroons and fruits and flavored with rum; it is fourteen inches in diameter.

   1. News of Food; A PIE NAMED AFTER A RUSSIAN DIPLOMAT
BY JANE HOLTThe New York Times Studio. New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Feb 19, 1945. p. 20 (1 page):
PHOTO CAPTION:
   The gentleman was Count Karl Robert Nesselrode, who lived from 1780 to 1862, and who lent his name to a rich pudding.  Later the recipe was adapted for use in an ice cream, and recently it has begun to appear in a pie.  The mixture of raisins, almonds, macaroon crumbs and brandy is poured into a baked pie shell and chilled.
(...)
   NESSELRODE PIE
1 tablespoon gelatin
1 1/2 cups milk
3 eggs, separated
1/3 cup chopped raisins
2 tablespoons ground almonds
1 cup broken macaroons
1 tablespoon brandy or rum
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup sugar
1 baked nine-inch pie shell
Maraschino cherries
   Soften gelatin in one-quarter cup milk.  Scald remaining one and a quarter cups milk in the top of a double boiler.  Beat egg yolks slightly, add milk, stirring, and return to double boiler.  Add gelatin, and cook, stirring, till mixture coats spoon.  Add raisins, almonds, macarooons, brandy or rum, vanilla and salt.  Chill till beginning to set.  Beat egg whites, add sugar and beat till stiff.  Fold into gelatin mixture.  Pour into a baked pie shell and chill till firm.  Garnish with maraschino cherries.  Serves eight.

   2. News of Food; Four Recipes Tested in Times' Kitchen Reprinted as Favorite Formulas of 1945
By JANE NICKERSON. New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Jan 1, 1946. p. 23 (1 page)

   3. New Hungarian Pastries Now on Sale; Elderberries Thrifty for Home Growth
By JANE NICKERSON. New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Sep 3, 1947. p. 32 (1 page)

   4. Sugar and Spice and Many Things Nice Go Into the 24 Recipes in a New Booklet
By JANE NICKERSON. New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Nov 22, 1947. p. 12 (1 page)

   5. Display Ad 10 -- No Title
New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Feb 19, 1948. p. 2 (1 page)

   6. News of Food; New Fluid Flavorings Now Are Available To Give Home Cooks 'Culinary Courage'
By JANE NICKERSON. New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Jul 6, 1948. p. 26 (1 page)

   7. Display Ad 25 -- No Title
New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Dec 8, 1948. p. 26 (1 page)

   8. Display Ad 17 -- No Title
New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Dec 22, 1948. p. 18 (1 page)

   9. News of Food; Citronade Cake, Developed in Hungary, Offered to Mark Opening of New Shop
New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Dec 30, 1948. p. 16 (1 page)

   10. Display Ad 23 -- No Title
New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Jan 12, 1949. p. 22 (1 page)

(...)

   55. The Culinary Mystery of Nesselrode Pie; The once-popular dessert features pureed chestnuts.
New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Dec 7, 1988. p. C20 (1 page):
   In the case of Nesselrode, the conclusion was that it had gone the way of baked Alaska.
(...)
   The man who created Nesselrode pudding, according to Larousse, was the count's hea chef, one Monsieur Mouy.  He put together a custard cream mixed with chestnut puree, candied fruits, currants and white raisins and whipped cream.
   An earlier edition of Larousse calls for freezing the Nesselrode pudding.  George Lang says Nesselrode coupe, which was essentially the same thing as frozen Nesselrode pudding, was very popular in New York restaurants from the 1920's through the 1950's.
   For me, Nesselrode pie is always associated with New York.  I remember having it at a restaurant here as a child--possibly the Cafe de la Paix in the St. Moritz Hotel, but a call there produced no one who had been there long enough to remember.
   Which brings me to Mrs. Spier--Hortense Spier, according to Mr. Baum and William Greenberg, the owner of William Greenberg Jr., a much-admired bakery in New York.  Both men associate Nesselrode pie with Mrs. SPier, whose company, Hortense Spier Pies, sold pies to restaurants all over the city in the 40's and 50's.

Nesselrode Days (Letter--ed.)
JEAN LIBMAN BLOCK. New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Feb 22, 1989. p. C8 (1 page)


(OT: I am currently trying to get "the Big Apple" story published in a New Orleans publication, 12 years too late.  I appreciate the TIMES publishing, instead, a story about "Nesselrode pie"--a story that the TIMES has already run in full--ed.)