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2. For the bottom layer: Combine the sugar and cornstarch in a medium-size bowl, then whisk in the egg yolks. Drizzle the hot milk into the egg mixture, whisking all the while. Stir back into the pan and cook over low heat, whisking constantly, for 2 to 3 minutes or until the consistency of custard sauce. Do not boil or the filling will curdle. Scoop 1 cup of the hot filling into a small bowl (keep the rest of it hot), add the vanilla, then the chocolate, and stir until melted. Spread over the bottom of the crumb crust.

3. For the top layer: Mix the softened gelatin into the remaining hot custard and whisk until it dissolves completely; stir in the rum and cool to room temperature. Beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until silvery, then, beating all the while, add the sugar gradually. Note: Liquid pasteurized egg whites take longer than the raw to whip to stiff peaks—perhaps 5 minutes at highest electric mixer speed. When properly whipped, pasteurized egg whites will be the consistency of boiled icing. If using raw egg whites from a known and trusted source, beat only until the whites peak softly.

4. Fold about a cup of the beaten whites into the cooled custard to lighten it, then fold in the remaining whites until no streaks of white or yellow remain. Scoop the rum mixture over the chocolate layer, smoothing the top and spreading so that it touches the crust all around. Chill the uncovered pie for several hours or until the filling has set.

5. For the topping: Frost the pie with the whipped cream and scatter the chocolate curls decoratively on top.

6. Chill the pie uncovered for several hours or overnight before cutting.

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Heirloom Recipe

ORANGE PUDDING

Shirley Plantation, sprawled along the banks of the broad but sinuous James River, dates back to a land grant of 1613. The eleventh generation of the Hill-Carter family to call Shirley home now lives in the Great House (circa 1723), a tall, proud red brick mansion with a unique Queen Anne forecourt. It was here that Ann Hill Carter, the mother of Robert E. Lee, once lived; in 1793 she married “Light Horse Harry” Lee in the parlor. Among Shirley’s eight original eighteenth-century brick buildings is the stone-floored kitchen with double hearths, bake oven, and upstairs quarters for the cooks and other domestic slaves. The house and grounds are open to the public daily; the old kitchen is also used for special programs and exhibits. The Shirley Plantation Collection (handwritten Carter family receipts and other plantation documents) is now housed at the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Research Library at Colonial Williamsburg. That’s where a Shirley volunteer researcher found this old family favorite.

Set 1 pot of milk over the range in a saucepan. Mix one tablespoonful of corn starch with two tablespoonsful of cold milk and the yolks of three eggs adding four tablespoonsful of sugar and a little salt.

When the milk is hot-not-boiling stir in the mixture and let it boil stirring constantly. Peel and slice five oranges removing the seeds and lay them in a dish sprinkling each layer with sugar.

While the custard is still hot pour over the oranges. Beat the whites to a stiff froth adding two tablespoonsful of sugar and pour over the top of the custard.

Serve when quite cold.

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On our parents’ and grandparents’ farms we saw hogs grow fat and meaty, and we understood why a child eating a huge meal or taking the largest piece of pie was called a pig.

—JEANNE VOLTZ AND ELAINE J. HARVELL, THE COUNTRY HAM BOOK

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TIME LINE: the people and events that shaped Southern Cuisine

1976

Mildred Council, a single African American mother of more than half a dozen children, opens Mama Dip’s Kitchen in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on a shoestring. Cooking what she knew best—fried chicken, sweet slaw, greens with side meat, buttermilk biscuits, pecan pie—Mama Dip was soon packing them in. Today her restaurant is a local institution and Dip herself has become a regular on local and national television.

Beatrice Foods of Chicago buys Krispy