In England, only an upper crust is made. In this country there is
generally only an under crust, with bars of paste crossed over the top.
I prefer this mode; but these tarts should always be served fresh, or
the under crust will become soaked and unwholesome. The berries or
fruits are first stewed with sugar to taste, then baked, or not baked in
the crust, as preferred.
LEMON-PIE (_Mrs. Hunt_), No. 1.
Ingredients: One heaping table-spoonful of corn starch, one cupful of
boiling water, one cupful of sugar, one egg, one table-spoonful of
butter, and one small lemon.
Moisten a heaping table-spoonful of corn starch with a little cold
water, then add a cupful of boiling water; stir this over the fire for
two or three minutes, allowing it to boil, and cook the starch; add a
tea-spoonful of butter and a cupful of sugar; remove the mixture from
the fire, and when slightly cooled, add an egg, well-beaten, and the
juice and grated rind of a fresh lemon. This makes one pie, and should
be baked with the crust.
LEMON-PIE (_Long Branch_), No. 2.
Ingredients: Four eggs, four table-spoonfuls of sugar, two-thirds of a
cupful of flour, nearly a quart of milk, two small lemons, a little
salt.[H]
Bake two under-crusts. Mix the egg-yolks and sugar well together. Bring
the milk to the boiling-point, then add the flour mixed with some of the
milk, to prevent lumping. Stir it until it has thickened and cooked,
when remove it from the fire to stir in the yolks and sugar; return it
for a minute to set the eggs; again remove it, and flavor with
lemon-juice and grated rind; when the crusts are done, spread over
cream, and over this spread the beaten whites of the eggs sweetened and
flavored. Put it into the oven a few minutes to color.
ORANGE-PIE (_Mrs. Miller_).
Ingredients: Half a pound of sugar, quarter of a pound of butter, two
oranges, six eggs.
Grate the rinds of the oranges, and squeeze the juice. Cream the butter,
and by degrees add the sugar. Beat in the yolks of the eggs (already
well beaten), then the rind and juice of the oranges. Beat the whites of
the eggs to a stiff froth, and mix them lightly in the other
ingredients. Bake in paste-lined tin pie-plates.
PUMPKIN-PIE (_Mrs. Otis, of Boston_), No. 1.
Pare a small pumpkin, and take out the seeds; stew it rather dry, and
strain it through a colander; add two quarts of milk, three eggs, and
three table-spoonfuls of molasses; let the remainder of the sweetening
(to taste) be of sugar; season it with two table-spoonfuls of ground
cinnamon, one of ginger, and two tea-spoonfuls of salt.
PUMPKIN-PIE (No. 2).
Cut the pumpkin into large pieces, and bake with the skins on; scoop out
the soft pumpkin pulp, and proceed as with stewed pumpkin.
MINCE-PIES (_Mrs. Bonner_), No. 1.
Ingredients: Four pounds of lean, cold boiled meat chopped fine, nine
pounds of apples chopped fine, one and a half pounds of suet chopped
fine, three pounds of raisins, two pounds of currants, half a pound of
citron sliced fine, five pounds of sugar, three tea-spoonfuls of ground
cloves, ten tea-spoonfuls of ground cinnamon, five tea-spoonfuls of
ground mace, one tea-spoonful of ground black pepper, six
table-spoonfuls of salt, one quart of cider and vinegar mixed with one
quart of molasses.
Mix all, and add the juice and grated rinds of two lemons; or, instead
of cider, vinegar, and molasses, one quart of sherry and one pint of
brandy may be substituted. Keep this mince-meat in stone jars; add a
little more liquor, if it should become too dry, when about to make
pies.
MINCE-PIES (_Mrs. Hazard_), No. 2.
Boil, until tender, a beef’s tongue which has been kept in salt four or
five days; when cold, chop it fine, and add to it two pounds of suet
(also chopped fine), two pounds of raisins, two pounds of Zante currants
(previously washed and drained), twelve large apples (chopped), four
pounds of sugar, the grated rind of one, and the juice and pulp of two
large oranges, a cupful of strawberry or of raspberry jam, a cupful of
quince preserve, three-quarters of a pound of citron shaved fine, two
table-spoonfuls of ground cinnamon, and one table-spoonful of nutmeg.
Moisten it with the spiced vinegar from the sweet peach-pickle jar, and
add the juice and grated rinds of four lemons.
POTATO-PIE (_Mrs. Osborne_).
Ingredients: Two pounds of boiled potatoes sifted, six eggs,
three-quarters of a pound of butter, one pound of sugar, one lemon
grated and squeezed into the potatoes while hot, half a nutmeg grated,
half a pint of wine, one and a half of rich milk.
Rub the sugar and butter to a cream; add the yolks well beaten, then the
potatoes, etc., lastly the whites of the eggs beaten to a stiff froth.
Bake with an under crust only.
PINE-APPLE-PIE (“_Choice Receipts_”).
Ingredients: A grated pine-apple and its weight in sugar, half its
weight in butter, five eggs (the whites beaten to a stiff froth), one
cupful of cream.
Cream the butter, and beat it with the sugar and yolks until very light;
add the cream, the pine-apple, and the whites of the eggs. Bake with an
under crust. To be eaten cold.