Pies may be made with any sort of paste. It is a fault to roll it
out too thin; for if it has not sufficient substance, it will,
when baked, be dry and tasteless. For a pie, divide the paste into
two sheets; spread one of them over the bottom and sides of a deep
dish well buttered. Next put in the fruit or other ingredients,
(heaping it higher in the centre,) and then place the other sheet
of paste on the top as a lid or cover; pressing the edges closely
down, and afterwards crimping or notching them with a sharp small
knife.
In making pies of juicy fruit, it is well to put on the centre of
the under crust a common tea-cup, laying the fruit round it and
over it. The juice will collect under the cup, and not be liable
to run out from between the edges. There should be plenty of sugar
strewed among the fruit as you put it into the pie.
Preserves should never be put into covered pies. The proper way is
to lay them in baked shells.
All pies are best the day they are baked. If kept twenty-four
hours the paste falls and becomes comparatively hard, heavy, and
unwholesome. If the fruit is not ripe, it should be stewed with
sugar, and then allowed to get cold before it is put into the pie.
If put in warm it will make the paste heavy. With fruit pies
always have a sugar dish on the table, in case they should not be
found sweet enough.