The Lady's Own Cookery Book, and New Dinner-Table Directory Part 70

After having boned your goose and fowl, season them well, and put your fowl into the goose, and into the fowl some forcemeat. Then put both into a raised crust, filling the corners with the forcemeat. Cut about half a pound of b.u.t.ter into three or four pieces, and lay on the top, and bake it well.

_Ham and Chicken Pie._

Cut some thin slices from a boiled ham, lay them on a good puff paste at the bottom of your dish, and pepper them. Cut a fowl into four quarters, and season it with a great deal of pepper, and but a little salt; and lay on the top some hard yolks of eggs, a few truffles and morels, and then cover the whole with slices of ham peppered: fill the dish with gravy, and cover it with a good thick paste. Bake it well, and, when done, pour into it some rich gravy. If to be eaten cold, put no gravy.

_Hare Pie._

Cut the hare into pieces; season it with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and jug it with half a pound of b.u.t.ter. It must do above an hour, covered close in a pot of boiling water. Make some forcemeat, and add bruised liver and a gla.s.s of red wine. Let it be highly seasoned, and lay it round the inside of a raised crust; put the hare in when cool, and add the gravy that came from it, with some more rich gravy. Put the lid on, and bake it two hours.

_Lumber Pie._

Take the best neat's tongue well boiled, three quarters of a pound of beef suet, the like quant.i.ty of currants, two good handfuls of spinach, thyme, and parsley, a little nutmeg, and mace; sweeten to your taste.

Add a French roll grated and six eggs. Mix these all together, put them into your pie, then lay up the top. Cut into long slices one candied orange, two pieces of citron, some sliced lemon, add a good deal of marrow, preserved cherries and barberries, an apple or two cut into eight pieces, and some b.u.t.ter. Put in white wine, lemon, and sugar, and serve up.

_Olive Pie._

Two pounds of leg of veal, the lean, with the skin taken out, one pound of beef suet, both shred very small and beaten; then put them together; add half a pound of currants and half a pound of raisins stoned, half a pound of sugar, eight eggs and the whites of four, thyme, sweet marjoram, winter savory, and parsley, a handful of each. Mix all these together, and make it up in b.a.l.l.s. When you put them in the pie, put b.u.t.ter between the top and bottom. Take as much suet as meat; when it is baked, put in a little white wine.

_Partridge Pie._

Truss the partridges the same way as you do a fowl for boiling; then beat in a mortar some shalots, parsley cut small, the livers of the birds, and double the quant.i.ty of bacon, seasoning them with pepper, salt, and two blades of mace. When well pounded, put in some fresh mushrooms. Raise a crust for the pie; cover the bottom with the seasoning; put in the partridges, but no stuffing, and put in the remainder of the seasoning between the birds and on the sides; strew over a little mace, pepper and salt, shalots, fresh mushrooms, a little bacon beaten very fine; lay a layer of it over them, and put the lid on.

Two hours and a half will bake it, and, when done, take the lid off, skim off the fat, put a pint of veal gravy, and squeeze in the juice of an orange.

_Rich Pigeon Pie._

Season the pigeons high; lay a puff paste at the bottom of the dish, stuffing the craws of the birds with forcemeat, and lay them in the dish with the b.r.e.a.s.t.s downward; fill all the s.p.a.ces with forcemeat, hard-boiled yolks of eggs, artichoke bottoms cut in pieces, and asparagus tops. Cover, and bake it; when drawn, pour in rich gravy.

_High Veal Pie._

Veal, forcemeat b.a.l.l.s, yolks of eggs, oysters, a little nutmeg, cayenne pepper, and salt, with a little water put into the dish.

_Vegetable Pie._

Stew three pounds of gravy beef, with some white pepper, salt, and mace, a bundle of sweet-herbs, a few sweet almonds, onions, and carrots, till the gravy is of a good brown colour. Strain it off; let it stand till cold; and take off all the fat. Have some carrots, turnips, onions, potatoes, and celery, ready cut; boil all these together. Boil some greens by themselves, and add them to the pie when served up.

_A Yorks.h.i.+re Christmas Pie._

Let the crust be made a good standing one; the wall and bottom must be very thick. Take a turkey and bone it, a goose, a fowl, a partridge, and a pigeon, and season all well. Take half an ounce of cloves, the same of black pepper, and two table-spoonfuls of salt, and beat them well together; let the fowls be slit down the back, and bone them; put the pigeon into the partridge, the partridge into the fowl, the fowl into the goose, and the goose into the turkey. Season all well first, and lay them in the crust; joint a hare, and cut it into pieces; season it, and lay it close on one side; on the other side woodc.o.c.ks, or any other sort of game; let them also be well seasoned and laid close. Put four or five pounds of b.u.t.ter into the pie; cover it with a very rich paste, put it in a very hot oven, and four hours will bake it.

A bushel of flour is about the quant.i.ty required for the paste.

_Pineapple, to preserve in slices._

Pare the pines, and cut them in slices of about the same thickness as you would apples for fritters. Take the weight of the fruit in the best sugar; sift it very fine, and put a layer of sugar, then a layer of pineapple; let it stand till the sugar is entirely dissolved. Then drain off the syrup, and lay the pine in the pot in which you intend to keep it; boil the syrup, adding a little more sugar and water to make it rich; pour it, but not too hot, upon the fruit. Repeat this in about ten days; look at it now and then, and, if the syrup ferments, boil it up again, skim it, and pour it warm upon the pine. The parings of the pineapple boil in the water you use for the syrup, and extract all the flavour from them.

_Pineapple Chips._

Pare the pineapples; pick out the thistle part: take half its weight of treble-refined sugar; part the apple in halves; slice it thin; put it in a basin, with sifted sugar between; in twelve hours the sugar will be melted. Set it over a fire, and simmer the chips till clear. The less they boil the better. Next day, heat them; sc.r.a.pe off the syrup; lay them in gla.s.ses, and dry them on a moderate stove or oven.

_Plums, to dry green._

Take green amber plums; p.r.i.c.k them with a pin all over; make some water boiling hot, and put in the plums; be sure to have so much water as not to be made cold when the plums are put in. Cover them very close, and, when they are almost cold, set them on the fire again, but do not let them boil. Do so three or four times. When you see the thin skin cracked, put in some alum finely beaten, and keep them in a scald till they begin to green; then give them a boil closely covered. When they are green, let them stand in fresh hot water all night; next day, have ready as much clarified sugar, made into syrup, as will cover them; drain the plums, put them into the syrup, and give them two or three boils. Repeat this twice or three times, till they are very green. Let them stand in the syrup a week; then lay them out to dry in a hot stove.

You may put some of them in codling jelly, and use them as a wet sweetmeat.

_Green Plum Jam._

Take the great white plums before they begin to turn, when they are at their full growth, and to every pound of plums allow three quarters of a pound of fine sugar. Pare and throw the plums into water, to keep their colour; let your sugar be very finely pounded; cut your plums into slices, and strew the sugar over them. You must first take them out of the water, and put them over a moderate fire, and boil them till they are clear and will jelly. You may put in a few of the stones, if you like them.

_Great White Plum, to preserve._

To one pound of plums put three quarters of a pound of fine sugar; dip the lumps of sugar in water just sufficient to wet it through; boil and skim it, till you think it enough. Slit the plums down the seam; put them in the syrup with the slit downward, and let them stew over the fire for a quarter of an hour. Skim them; take them off; when cold, turn them; cover them up for four or five days, turning them two or three times a day in the syrup; then put them in pots, not too many together.

_Posset._

Take a quart of white wine and a quart of water; boil whole spice in them; then take twelve eggs, and put away half the whites; beat them very well, and take the wine from the fire; then put your eggs, being thoroughly beaten, to the wine. Stir the whole together; then set it on a very slow fire, stirring it the whole time, till it is thick. Sweeten it with sugar, and sprinkle on it beaten spice, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

_Another way, richer._

Take two quarts of cream, and boil it with whole spice; then take twelve eggs, well beaten and strained; take the cream from the fire, and stir in the eggs, and as much sugar as will sweeten it according to the taste of those who are to drink it; then a pint of wine, or more--sack, sherry, or Lisbon. Set it on the fire again, and let it stand awhile; then take a ladle, and raise it up gently from the bottom of the skillet you make it in, and break it as little as you can, and do so till you see that it is thick enough. Then put it into a basin with a ladle gently. If you do it too much or too quickly it will whey, and that is not good.

_Sack Posset._

To twelve eggs, beaten very much, put a pint of sack, or any other strong rich white wine. Stir them well, that they may not curd; put to them three pints of cream and half a pound of fine sugar, stirring them well together. When hot over the fire, put the posset into a basin, and set it over a boiling pot of water until it is like a custard; then take it off, and, when it is cool enough to eat, serve it with beaten spice, cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg, strewed over it very thick.

_Sack Posset, without milk._

Take thirteen eggs; beat them very well, and, while they are beating, take a quart of sack, half a pound of fine sugar, and a pint of ale, and let them boil a very little while; then put the eggs to them, and stir them till they are hot. Take it from the fire, and keep it stirring awhile; then put it into a fit basin, and cover it close with a dish.

Set it over the fire again till it rises to a curd; serve it with beaten spice.