On Tue, 16 Nov 2004 00:57:22 GMT
"Vox Humana" wrote:


"Larry Clark" wrote in message
...
I can not get this stuff thick enough to support a layer of pie
filling. I've stirred and stirred with no effect. I even tried cooking
it and that was too satisfactory either. Any ideas?

I was expecting some egg yolks, but there are none in your recipe. The
original recipe for key lime pie has the following ingredients:
14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup Key Lime Juice

You can see that it is very similar, except that it has egg yolks and
omits the whipped cream. The acid and the yolk react to thicken the
mixture. I think you have a couple of options. One would be to add the
egg yolks. If you are afraid of eating raw eggs, look for pasteurized
eggs. An alternative would be to bake the mixture for about 30 minutes
at 350F or bring the mixture to 165F for about 5 minutes over medium
heat. Of course, you would have to omit the whipped cream if you heat
it.


The egg yolks in a properly made (left on the counter for a few hours)
key lime pie are not precisely raw. Technically and chemically speaking
they have been fully cooked.

They have not however been sterilized.

In north america (and probably much of western europe) you have about a
1 in 500,000 chance of salmonella in a given egg. The acid in the mixture
won't kill all of it. A healthy person - even a child - will not contract
salmonella from one bad egg in nearly all cases. Nearly all cases of
salmonella poisoning occur when a large quantity of food is tainted and
then grossly mishandled.

So, the wisdom goes, if it may be eaten by infants, the elderly, or
anyone with a degraded immune system, maybe you should think about
pasteurized eggs, or other pasteurization processes.

I know you know that, just wanted to make sure the OP and those who lurk
quietly do as well.

Interestingly, there is one recorded case of salmonella poisoning that
was traced to a baked potato. It was baked in a malfunctioning oven that
was not heating to the ascribed temperature and then left on the counter
for several hours before being added to a cafeteria batch of iirc potato
salad.


The third approach would be to add some modified food starch. If you have
access to a restaurant supply or a GFS Marketplace, you can get a
thickening agent like Nutrathick. Commercial thickening agents will work
on hot or cold food. The more you add, the thicker the results.


I had the thought that perhaps the original recipe said "CoolWhip"
rather than whipped cream. Not that I'm advocating any such thing, just
been down that road before.