Roadhouse-Style Alaska Blueberry Meringue Pie

Children of Alaska, I want you to think back to your earliest highway trip. You are in the backseat, heading to Homer or Anchorage or Valdez for hours, but, finally, you stop in a place that’s only a thread of a town. You know where I mean. A roadhouse. There’s a faded wooden totem pole outside and a gas station next door with only one pump. A bell rings when you open the door. You find a seat in front of a paper placemat with a photograph of a moose standing in a scenic lake. Silverware feels light in your hand. You smell pancakes, deep fried chicken strips, and, if you are my age or older, cigarette smoke.

Maybe you have a grilled cheese or an omelet, but that’s not what you’ve been thinking about since you walked in. You’ve been thinking about what’s inside the humming refrigerated case by the register. Pie. There’s always a coconut cream and a chocolate, each made with Jell-O pudding and Cool Whip. Oh, and cherry, with jewel-toned filling from a can. And maybe, if you’re lucky, there’s blueberry, with berries picked nearby, tart and inky, gelled up with cornstarch or pearls of tapioca.

I’ve been working for years on a recipe for a pie that has that roadhouse feel but with a smooth, firm blueberry custard that makes it feel also like a pudding pie. I tried making a curd and added blueberries to every sort of lemon custard recipe. I couldn’t get the pie firm enough. I tried more eggs and cornstarch. I considered gelatin sheets that I’d have to order online. Then I arrived with another soupy blueberry-lemon pie (a riff on a Chez Panisse lemon pie recipe that took me two hours) to a family gathering. My mom brought her usual lemon pie, made with pudding mix and bodacious meringue. And it hit me: What is more like a roadhouse pie than one that combines local blueberries with a shelf-stable pantry ingredient like lemon pudding? And so I invited my mom over and we tried it. And it was just right.