How a luxury train carriage and a cantaloupe pie made culinary history
And a reminder that the stories we live and share can empower the next generation
Release Date: May 20, 2025
The romantic dream of train travel
My husband loves train travel. If you ask him, he’ll tell you it started when he was a little boy in Texas, playing on the floor with the Lionel O-gauge train set he got for Christmas when he was a toddler. We have home videos of him opening and then playing with that train around the family’s tree, and that kid’s smile lights up the room.
And that may well be true, but his passion for riding the rails is a much newer event and began during a trip to Sacramento’s California State Railroad Museum just a decade ago.
I remember the exact moment. We’d explored all the massive steam engines, wandered in and out of mail carriers and box cars and sat through the short documentary film on the building of the railroad. Then, across the vast expanse of the museum’s interior, we saw a set of elegantly appointed carriages. Even from a distance, we could see crystal chandeliers and velvet curtains.
These, the docent later explained, were the private luxury carriages of America’s rich and famous during the heyday of train travel. Complete with claw foot tubs, working wood fireplaces, monogrammed china, private chefs and white-gloved staff, the carriages spoke to, not only the rich history of train travel, but the romantic vision of what it could be again.
My husband was hooked and thus began our decades long and still ongoing multinational search for the ultimate OG train experience.
About that same time, I came across the perfect book to feed my own passion for culinary history, Dining by Rail: The History and. Recipes of America’s Golden Age of Railroad Cuisine by James. D. Portfield. Packed with historic details of food and food service on trains that traveled across America between the 1830s and 1950s, the book provided hundreds of recipes that were prepared, served and eaten onboard and enroute, and the history behind them. Truly fascinating stuff.
Of course, I had to throw a train-themed dinner party!
Reliving the past through a themed dinner
I spent hours looking through the recipes in Dining by Rail, and putting together a menu that would showcase the wonder, history and luxury of the dining experience during those earlier glory days. And then I created a formal menu detailing the story behind each dish:
· Supreme of Chicken Washington from the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul, and Pacific Railroad
· Fresh String Beans Sauté from the Western Pacific Railroad
· Confetti Salad with “Our Own” French Dressing from the Northern Pacific Railroad
· Cantaloupe Pie from the Texas & Pacific Railway
As an aside, despite the passage of time, I still know what was served that evening because I recorded it in my well-used copy of Jacques Pépin’s Menus: A Book for Your Meals and Memories, a beautiful memory album I recommend everyone own. That said, I also remember how the meal turned out because of the comments guests shared and my own post-mortem, all of which are also recorded in writing and memory and often shared!
As is both my preference and habit, I didn’t test-kitchen any of the recipes – to me, that’s part of the adventure of trying new recipes! Instead, as I’d been doing for decades of entertaining and playing host, as guests sat down, I prefaced the meal with a reminder that I wouldn’t be offended if anyone chose to pass on a dish, in fact, I even had a contingency plan if that happened: a box of Cheerios was at the ready.
Everyone chuckled, including a few guests who had, indeed, opted for Cheerios at previous parties, then we tucked into the meal.
Things were going swimmingly right up until I plated the Cantaloupe Pie.
I’d noticed during the making of it that the filling wasn’t really setting up very well, that the texture was a wee odd looking. But I optimistically figured a good bake would remedy those issues, so had gone ahead and filled the pie crust, topped the whole thing with a thick layer of delicious meringue and popped it in the oven.
I knew something was off with the first cut.
When I was growing up in Minnesota, we lived on a lake, and my parents were avid fishermen. Dad’s favorite fish to catch were walleye and fall walleye fishing was his peak experience. Every morning before he left for his job as a junior high industrial arts teacher, Dad would go down to the dock to set up his poles. He’d bait the hooks, cast the lines, and then wedge the poles up against the dock supports, just so. When he left for theday, Dad would remind Mom to “keep an eye on the poles”, and she would, taking breaks from housework and afternoon soap operas to peer down the hill through the black set of binoculars we kept on the stereo console for that very purpose. If the poles had moved, Mom would hustle down the steep bank and onto the dock to reel in what they both hoped would be a trophy-sized walleye.
It would be years before I learned that what they were doing was technically counter to state fishing laws, but well before then, my folks had caught, filleted, cooked and served scores of walleye, much to their delight and my displeasure. Fish is not my jam.
I bring up this story because when I made that first cut into the cantaloupe pie, it reminded me of all the times I’d stood at Dad’s side as he gutted a walleye, and how, if the tip of his knife was a bit off, and the fish happened to be a female, it would slit open the fish’s ovaries and slimy gobs of cantaloupe-colored eggs would ooze out onto the cutting board.
Despite justified misgivings, I served the pie.
And put a half-empty box of Oreos on the table.
The value of a family story
That cantaloupe pie has since become one of my favorite culinary history stories, and one I’ve intentionally shared with my kids and grandkids in an effort to make sure it endures the test of time. My hope is that in the retelling to those generations that come after me, this little vignette will give my future family a sense of who I was, what I valued and how I experienced the world.
Beyond that, wouldn’t it be grand if someday far, far into the future, a great-great-great grandchild of mine, when faced with a situation in which they face unmet expectations or failure, embarrassment, disappointment or shame, rather than going down that dark path of self-doubt and recrimination, they remember the story of a cantaloupe pie and how their ancestor – a woman whose blood runs through their veins – chose a different way, a path of humor, grace and acceptance that has been traveled successfully by family members every day since, and they make the decision to do the same.
That’s the power of culinary history. That’s why I tell it, share it and preserve it. Not for me, but for them.
Copyright 2025 Lori Olson White
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Cantaloupe Pie
From Dining by Rail: The History and Recipes of America’s Golden Age of Railroad Cuisine — This unique dessert demonstrated why Eddie Pierce of the Texas & Pacific Railroad rose so quickly through the ranks (he became chef in only three years.) Assigned to a special train for prominent Pacific Coast fruit growers, Pierce created Cantaloupe Pie to enhance the favorable impression the trip would have on the potential shippers. One beneficiary of the trip observed that in more than forty years of growing cantaloupes, he had never tasted cantaloupe pie. If he hadn’t insisted in having the recipe, we might never have it today.
Cantaloupe Filling
Ingredients:
2 large cantaloupe, well ripened
1 cup cold water
4 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 Tbsp. flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 Tbsp. butter
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1 baked pie pastry
Instructions:
Dissolve cornstarch in cold water and let stand. Cut cantaloupe in half, taking care not to lose juice. Strain juice from seeds of cantaloupe into a medium saucepan, mashing to gain maximum juice, and discard seeds. Remove meat of cantaloupe and put through ricer, or chop fine in food processor and put in saucepan, conserving both meat and juice. Stir cornstarch/water mixture into saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. reduce heat and continue boiling for 5 minutes. Blend flour and sugar together and add slowly to the hot mixture, stirring constantly. Add butter and nutmeg and stir until thoroughly combined. Refrigerate to cool. Meanwhile, bake a single pie pastry and allow to cool, Before cantaloupe mixture sets, pour into pie pastry. Top with meringue.
Meringue
Ingredients:
3 egg whites, stiffly beaten
1 tsp. sugar
Instructions:
In mixing bowl, beat egg whites until frothy. Continue beating and slowly add sugar. Beat mixture until stiff (peaks form and hold). Cover pie in meringue. Bake in 400-degree oven until brown, about 10 minutes.
Dessert Pie Crust
Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1/2 Tbsp. powdered sugar
pinch salt
1/4 cup shortening
1/2 Tbsp. butter, melted
1 tsp. milk
1 tsp. heavy cream
1/2 cup ice water as needed
Instructions:
In a bowl, mix together with a fork the flower, sugar and salt. Cut shortening in with a pastry cutter until coarse (pea like). Continue mixing, gradually adding butter, milk and heavy cream. Add just enough ice water to make dough medium soft. On hot days, let dough set in the refrigerator for 45-60 minutes to chill through. Sprinkle some flour over dough and onto a flat surface. Roll dough to 1/8 in thickness, then carefully remove to pie pan.
Actual Guest Comments:
“Maybe it’s an acquired taste.”
That pie! Yikes. Both slimy and disgusting, but the meringue sure was pretty.”
“I just never know what will happen at your dinners. Thanks for another memorable night!”
“Not the best pie I’ve ever tasted, but definitely a fantastic story!”
Your turn and your culinary traditions
Share a story about a time a dish went hilariously or heartbreakingly wrong—but the story still gets retold. What does that moment say about you, your family, or your kitchen?
Describe a meal that shaped your identity—whether it was something you cooked, something someone made for you, or a moment when food helped you see yourself or others differently.
Have you ever changed or reinvented a family recipe? What prompted the change—and how was it received? What does the evolution of that dish say about tradition, adaptability, or your own place in the family story?
Share a story about a memorable gathering—large or small—where food played a key role. Who was there, what was served, and what made it meaningful beyond the meal itself?
Describe a food tradition, flavor, or moment from your life that you hope is remembered generations from now. Why is it important? What does it carry forward?
Think of a lesson you've learned through cooking or entertaining—especially one that wasn’t about the food at all. How did the kitchen become your classroom?
In case you missed it
If stories at the intersection of food and family history are what you’re looking for, look no further than our archives! Here are a few of our favorites.
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I love cantaloupe. But I can’t imagine why on Earth someone would create a pie recipe using cantaloupe as the base.
On the other hand, the looks on the faces of your guests must have been priceless!
I can honestly say that I've never heard of Cantaloupe Pie Lori. I read this when it was published, but after the day I had today I had to pop back in and re-read. My partner and I are also fans of rail travel and today, while on vacation, we went to a Train Museum. What joy! I couldn't help thinking of your post while there.