PASTRY.
Directions for making Paste—Baking Pies—Glazing Pastry—French Puff Paste—Good Puff Paste—Light Paste—Suet Paste—Seasoning for Raised Pies—Meat Pies—Modern Potato Pastry—Beef-steak Pie—Veal—Mutton—Pork—Ham—Sea-Pie—Chicken—Giblet—Partridge—Venison—Cold Pies—Vol au Vent—Oyster Patties—Chicken Patties—Mince Pies—Fruit Pies—Tarts—Apple Pie—Pumpkin—Squash— Custard—Potato—Peach—Cocoa-nut—Cheese Cakes—Puffs.
THE art of making paste requires a good memory, practice, and dexterity; for, it is principally from the method of mixing the various ingredients of which it is composed, that paste acquires its good or bad qualities.
Before making paste, wash the hands in hot water; touch the paste as little as possible, and roll it but little; the less the better. If paste be much wetted it will be tough.
A marble slab is better than a board to make paste on: both, together with the rolling-pin, cutters, and tins, should be kept very clean; as the least dust or hard paste left on either will spoil the whole.
The coolest part of the house and of the day should be chosen for the process during warm weather.
Flour for the finest paste should be dried and sifted, as should pounded white sugar.
Butter should be added to paste in very small pieces, unless otherwise directed.
If fresh butter be not used, break salt butter into pieces, wash it well in spring water, to cleanse it from salt, squeeze it carefully, and dry it upon a soft cloth. Fresh butter should also be well worked to get out the buttermilk.
After the butter has been pressed and worked well with a wooden knife on the paste-board, press it very lightly with a clean, soft cloth, to absorb the moisture. If good fresh butter is used, it will require very little if any working.
Lard is sometimes used instead of butter, but the saving is of very trifling importance, when it is considered that although lard will make paste light, it will neither be of so good color or flavor as when made with butter.
Dripping, especially from beef, when very sweet and clean, is often used for kitchen pies: and is, in this instance, a good substitute for butter, lard, &c.
In hot weather the butter should be broken into pieces, and put into spring water, or into ice; but, on no account, put the paste into ice, else the butter in it will harden, and in baking, melt, and separate from the paste.
The same thing happens in winter, when the butter has not been sufficiently worked, and the paste is rather soft; for, though the season be favorable to the making of paste, care must be taken to work the butter sufficiently.
In winter, paste should be made very firm, because the butter is then so; in summer, the paste should be made soft, as the butter is then the same.
It is important to work up paste lightly and gradually into an uniform body—no strength nor pressure being used.
It is necessary to lightly flour both sides of paste when you roll it, in order to prevent its turning grey in baking; but, if much flour be sprinkled on it, the paste will not be clear.
Attention to the rolling out is most important to make light puff-paste; if it be too light, it may be rolled out once or twice more than directed; as the folding mainly causes it to rise high and even.
Be sure, invariably, to roll puff-paste from you. Those who are not practiced in making puff-paste, should work the butter in, by breaking it into small pieces, and covering the paste rolled out; dredge it lightly with flour, fold over the sides and ends, roll it out very thin, add the remainder of the butter, and fold and roll as before.
To ensure lightness, paste should be set in the oven as soon after it is made as possible; on this account, the paste should not be begun to be made till the oven is half heated, which sometimes occupies an hour. If paste be left 20 minutes on more before it is baked, it will become dull and heavy.
Paste should be light, without being greasy; and baked of a fine color, without being burnt; therefore, to ensure good baking, requires attention.
Puff-paste requires a brisk oven; a moderate one will best bake pies and tarts, puddings and biscuits. Regulation of heat, according to circumstances, is the main point in baking.
If the oven be too hot, the paste, besides being burned, will not rise well; and if it be too slack, the paste will be soddened, not rise, and want color. Raised pies require the quickest oven.
When fruit pies are baked in iron ovens, the syrup is apt to boil out of them; to prevent this, set a few thin bricks on the bottom of the oven before it is seated; but this will not be requisite, if the oven have a stone bottom.
Tart-tins, cake-moulds, and dishes, should be well buttered before baking; articles to be baked on sheets should be placed on buttered paper.
Directions for Baking Pies.—Before you put any thing to bake, be sure the oven is quite clean, for if the juice or gravy of any thing which is baking should boil over into the oven, or anything dirty has been in the oven, it will give a disagreeable taste to whatever is baked in it. A cook should therefore be careful to sweep and clean her oven carefully out with a damp cloth, before she lights her fire, or before it is too hot to do so, and let it dry before she closes the door tight. All pies must be attended to while cooking, to see that the juice does not boil over, for if it does, it will make a steam in the oven, which will spoil your crust, by making it heavy, and make the pie appear to be done, before it is well warmed. After it has been in the oven about half an hour, at furthest it must be looked to, and turned, or it may be spoiled, by burning at one part and not cooking at another.
If you should find the juice of a pie run over, you must take out your pie, raise the crust at one end, and pour out some of the juice, which save, and pour again into the pie when it is done, if there is room, and if not, send it up with the pie in a boat, or sauce-tureen.
To Glaze or Ice Pastry.—The fine yellow glaze appropriate to meat pies is given with beaten yolk of egg, which should be laid on with a paste brush, or a small bunch of feathers: if a lighter color be wished for, whisk the whole of the egg together or mix a little milk with the yolk.
The best mode of icing fruit-tarts before they are sent to the oven is, to moisten the paste with cold water, to sift sugar thickly upon it, and to press it lightly on with the hand; but when a whiter icing is preferred, the pastry must be drawn from the oven when nearly baked, and brushed with white of egg, whisked to a froth; then well covered with the sifted sugar, and sprinkled with a few drops of water before it is put in again: this glazing answers also very well, though it takes a slight color, if used before the pastry is baked.
Feuilletage, or Fine French Puff Paste.—This, when made by a good French cook, is the perfection of rich light crust, and will rise in the oven from one to six inches in height; but some practice is, without doubt, necessary to accomplish this. In summer it is a great advantage to have ice at hand, and to harden the butter over it before it is used; the paste also in the intervals of rolling is improved by being laid on an oven-leaf over a vessel containing it. Take an equal weight of good butter free from the coarse salt which is found in some, and which is disadvantageous for this paste, and of fine dry, sifted flour; to each pound of these allow the yolks of a couple of eggs, and a small tea-spoonful of salt. Break a few small bits of the butter very lightly into the flour, put the salt into the centre, and pour on it sufficient water to dissolve it (we do not quite understand why the doing this should be better than mixing it with the flour, as in other pastes, but such is the method always pursued for it); add a little more water to the eggs, moisten the flour gradually, and make it into a very smooth paste, rather lithe in summer, and never exceedingly stiff, though the opposite fault, in an extreme, would render the crust unmanageable. Press, in a soft thin cloth, all the moisture from the remainder of the butter, and form it into a ball, but in doing this be careful not to soften it too much. Should it be in an unfit state for pastry, from the heat of the weather, put it into a basin, and set the basin in a pan of water mixed with plenty of salt and saltpetre, and let it remain in a cool place for an hour if possible, before it is used. When it is ready (and the paste should never be commenced until it be so), roll the crust out square,* and of sufficient size to enclose the butter, flatten this a little upon it in the centre, and then fold the crust well over it, and roll it out thin as lightly as possible, after having dredged the board and paste, roller with a little flour: this is called giving it one turn. Then fold it in three, give it another turn, and set it aside, where it will be very cool, for a few minutes; give it two more turns in the same way, rolling it each time very lightly, but of equal thickness, and to the full length that it will reach, taking always especial care that the butter shall not break through the paste. Let it again be set aside to become cold; and after it has been twice more rolled and folded in three, give it a half-turn, by folding it once only, and it will be ready for use.
Equal weight of the finest flour and good butter; to each pound of these, the yolks of two eggs, and a small salt-spoonful of salt: six and half turns to be given to the paste.
Good Puff Paste.—Take 1 lb. of flour, sift it; 1 lb. of butter, and divide it into 4 equal parts; weigh ¼ lb. of flour to dust with. Rub one of the quarters of butter into the pound of flour, and mix up with a very little very cold water; roll out 3 times, adding each time a quarter of butter, and dusting each time with flour. When you cut off from the large roll of dough a piece for one pie, roll out the piece you cut off very thin, and dust it with flour, double it in folds and roll it the thickness of your crust.
Very Light Paste.—Mix the flour and water together, roll the paste out, and lay bits of butter upon it. Then beat up the white of an egg, and brush it all over the paste before it is folded; repeat this when rolling out, and adding the butter each time till the whole of the white of egg is used. It will make the paste very flaky.
For Tarts and Cheesecakes.—Beat the white of an egg to a strong froth; then mix it with as much water as will make three-quarters of a pound of fine flour into a very stiff paste: roll it very thin, then lay the third part of half a pound of butter upon it in little bits; dredge it with some flour left out at first, and roll it up tight. Roll it out again, and put the same proportion of butter; and so proceed till all be worked up.
Family Pie Paste.—Rub half a pound of butter into a pound of flour, and add water enough to knead it thoroughly.
Another common proportion is half a pound of butter to a pound and a half of flour.
Beef Dripping Paste.—Rub half a pound of clarified dripping into one pound of flour, work it into a stiff paste with water, and roll it twice or thrice. This crust is best eaten hot.
Suet Paste.—Rub well with half a pound of fresh beef suet, chopped as finely as possible, three-quarters of a pound of flour, and half a tea-spoonful of salt; make it into a stiff paste with cold water, work it well, beat it with the rolling-pin, and roll it out two or three times. This paste answers for any kind of boiled fruit pudding.
Potato Paste.—Mash 16 ounces of boiled potatoes, while they are warm, then rub them between the hands, together with 12 ounces of flour; when it is well mixed, and all looks like flour add half a tea-spoonful of salt, and, with a little cold water, make it into a stiff paste; beat and roll it out three or four times, making it very thin the last time. Lay over it black currant jam, raspberries, or any sort of preserve, rub the edges with water, roll it up like a bolster pudding, and boil it in a buttered and floured cloth for three or four hours. Serve it with a sweet sauce.
Paste for a Common Dumpling.—Rub into a pound of flour six ounces of butter, then work it into a paste with two well-beaten eggs and a little water. This paste may be baked, a large table-spoonful of pounded loaf sugar being added.
Raised Crust.—Melt, in one pint of water, one pound of fresh lard; weigh four pounds of flour, put it into a basin, and when the water and lard is hot, with a wooden spoon stir it by degrees amongst the flour. When well mixed, work it with the hands till it is a stiff paste, when it is fit for use.
Paste for Raised Pies.—Put two ounces of butter into a pint of boiling water, which mix, while hot, with three pounds of flour, into a strong but smooth paste; put it into a cloth to soak till near cold; then knead it, and raise it into the required shape.
To raise a pie well requires considerable practice; it is best done by putting one hand in the middle of the crust, and keeping the other close on the outside till you have worked it into the round or oval shape required: the lid is then to be rolled out. An unpracticed hand will, however, do better to roll the paste of a good thickness, and cut out a long piece for the circle of the pie, to be joined with egg as a hoop; then cut two pieces for the top and bottom: these are to be cemented with egg the bottom being brought out and pinched over: fill the pie, and pinch on the lid: or, if the crust be for a standing pie, line it with paper, fill it with bran, and bake it and the lid separately. The paste should be similarly joined with egg, if the pie be baked in a tin shape, when it should be put into the oven a few minutes after it is taken from the shape. In either case, wash the pie over with egg, and put on the ornaments before it is baked.
To make the ornaments, mix one ounce of sifted loaf sugar with half a pound of the above crust roll, and cut out.
Seasoning for Raised Pies.—Three pounds of salt dried and pounded, 3 oz. of white pepper, half oz. of Cayenne pepper, 2 oz. of cloves, 2 oz. of allspice, 1 oz. of basil, 1 oz. of marjoram, 1 oz. of thyme, 1 oz. of bay-leaf, 1 oz. of nutmeg, one and half oz. of mace.
Pound the spices and herbs by themselves, and sift through a fine sieve; then mix with the salt, and put away in a stoppered bottle: three-quarters of an ounce is sufficient for 1 lb. of farce, and half an ounce for 1 lb. of boned game.
Jelly for Meat or Raised Pies.—Take a quart of veal gravy dissolve 2 oz. of isinglass in a little of it; add the remainder with one-quarter pint of tarragon vinegar; boil all together for one-quarter of an hour. Clarify it with the whites of six eggs, then pass it through a bag.
Meat Pies, Patties &c.—There are few articles of cookery more generally liked than relishing pies, if properly made; and they may be formed of a great variety of things.
Raised Pies may be made of any kind of flesh, fish, fruit, or poultry, if baked in a wall of paste instead of a baking-dish: but they are generally eaten cold, and made so large and savory as to remain a long time before being consumed, for which reason they also bear the name of “standing pies.” In making them the cook should always take care to have a good stock that will jelly, made from the bones and trimmings, to fill up the pie when it comes from the oven, and also that when cold there may be enough jelly. For want of this precaution pies become dry before they can be eaten. The materials are of course frequently varied, but the mode of preparation is so nearly the same as not to require the recital of more than a few prominent receipts.
Modern Potato Pasty; (an excellent family dish).—A tin mould of the construction shown in the plate, with a perforated moveable top, and a small valve to allow the escape of the steam, must be had for this pasty, which is an excellent family dish, and which may be varied in numberless ways. Arrange at the bottom of the mould from two to three pounds of mutton cutlets, freed, according to the taste, from all, or from the greater portion of the fat, then washed, lightly dredged on both sides with flour, and seasoned with salt and pepper, or Cayenne. Pour to them sufficient broth or water to make the gravy, and add to it at pleasure a table-spoonful of mushroom catsup or of Harvey’s sauce. Have ready boiled, and very smoothly mashed, with about an ounce of butter, and a spoonful or two of milk or cream to each pound, as many good potatoes as will form a crust to the pasty of quite three inches thick; put the cover on the mould, and arrange these equally upon it, leaving them a little rough on the surface. Bake the pastry in a moderate oven from three-quarters of an hour to an hour and a quarter, according to its size and its contents. Pin a folded napkin neatly round the mould, before it is served, and have ready a hot dish to receive the cover, which must not be lifted off until after the pasty is on the table.
Chicken, or veal and oysters; delicate pork chops with a seasoning of sage and a little parboiled onion, or an eschalot or two finely minced; partridges or rabbits neatly carved, mixed with small mushrooms, and moistened with a little good stock, will all give excellent varieties of this dish, which may be made likewise with highly seasoned slices of salmon freed from the skin, sprinkled with fine herbs or intermixed with shrimps; clarified butter, rich veal stock, or good white wine, may be poured to them to form the gravy. To thicken this, a little flour should be dredged upon the fish before it is laid into the mould. Other kinds, such as cod, mackerel in fillets, salt fish (previously kept at the point of boiling until three parts done, then pulled into flakes, and put into the mould with hard eggs sliced, a little cream, flour, butter, Cayenne, and anchovy-essence, and baked with mashed parsneps on the top), will all answer well for this pasty. Veal, when used for it, should be well beaten first: sweetbreads, sliced, may be laid in with it.
For a pasty of moderate size, two pounds, or two and a half of meat, and from three to four of potatoes will be sufficient: a quarter-pint of milk or cream, two small tea-spoonsful of salt, and from one to two ounces of butter must be mixed up with these last.
Beef Steak Pie.—Choose steak that has been long hung, cut it into moderately-sized pieces, and trim off all skin or sinews; season them with pepper, salt, and minced shalot or onion, and lay them in the dish: put crust on the ledge and an inch below, cover with thick crust, and bake it about two hours. A tea-cupful of gravy or water may be put into the dish before the pie is baked, or some good gravy poured into it after it is taken from the oven.
A table-spoonful or two of mushroom catsup, or a flap mushroom, added to the steak, will greatly enrich this pie.
Beef Steak and Oyster Pie.—Prepare the steaks as above, and put layers of them and of oysters. Stew the liquor and beards of the latter with a bit of lemon-peel, mace, and a table-spoonful of walnut catsup. When the pie is baked, boll with the above 3 spoonsful of cream and 1 oz. of butter rubbed in flour; to which, however, many people object as injuring the savoriness of the pie; in which case, should any addition be required, a few spoonsful of beef gravy and port wine will answer the purpose. Strain it, and pour it into the dish: for a small pie a dozen of oysters will be sufficient, and the pie may be baked in a couple of hours.
Veal Pie.—Cut into steaks a loin or breast of veal, season them highly with pepper, salt, grated nutmeg, mace, and a little lemon-peel mixed; lay them into the bottom of a dish, and then a few slices of sweetbreads seasoned with the spices; add some oysters, forcemeat balls, and hard-boiled yolks of eggs, half a pint of white stock, and a table-spoonful of lemon pickle; put puff paste on the edge of the dish, and cover with the same; bake it for one hour.
Mutton Pie.—Cut the mutton into small slices, without bone; season it very well, and stew it with the fat also cut in pieces, putting in no water. When tender allow it to remain until cold; remove all the grease and fat very carefully; have some gravy made from the bones, add to it the strained gravy from the mutton, and a glass of port wine, but the wine may be omitted if the gravy be strong and highly seasoned. A minced shalot and button onions are good additions, and if the latter be pickled, their acidity will be an improvement. Put it into a dish, or into small pattypans, and bake it; if in pattypans, use puff paste. Mutton pies are better hot than cold.
The underdone part of a leg of mutton may be thus dressed; but the loin and kidneys are better suited for the purpose.
Raised Pork Pie.—Make a raised crust from 3 to 4 inches high; pare off the rind, and remove the bone from a loin of pork, cut it into chops, flatten them, and season them with chopped or powdered sage, black pepper, and salt, and pack them closely into the crust; then put on the top, and pinch the edge; brush the crust with yolk of egg, and bake 2 hours in a slow oven; when done, remove the lid, pour off the fat, and add some seasoned gravy.
Or:—The pork may be put into a dish, covered with crust and baked.
Or:—The pork may be cut into dice and seasoned.
When a log is killed, this pie may be made of the trimmings; but there should be no bone, as the meat must be packed closely, fat and lean alternately.
Raised Ham Pie.—Choose a small ham, soak it, boil it an hour, cut off the knuckle, then remove the rind, trim the ham, and put it into a stew-pan with a quart of veal gravy to cover it: simmer till nearly done, when take it out and let it cool; then make a raised crust, spread on it some veal forcemeat, put in the ham, and fill round it with forcemeat; cover with crust, and bake slowly about an hour; when done, remove the cover, glaze the top of the ham, and pour round it the stock the ham was stewed in, having strained and thickened it, and seasoned it with Cayenne pepper. A ham thus dressed will be an excellent cold supper dish.
Sea Pie.—Skin and cut into joints a large fowl; wash and lay it into cold water for an hour; cut some salt beef into thin slices, and if it is very salt, soak it a short time in water; make a paste of flour and butter in the proportion of half a pound of butter to 1 pound of flour, cut it into round pieces according to the size of the bottom of the pot in which the pie is to be stewed; rub with butter the bottom of a round iron pot, and lay in a layer of the beef, seasoned with pepper, and finely-minced onion; then put a layer of the paste, and then the fowl, highly seasoned with pepper, onion, and a little salt; add another layer of paste, and pour in 3 pints of cold water; cover the pot closely, and let it stew gently for nearly 4 hours, taking care it does not burn, which, if neglected, it is apt to do. It is served in a pudding dish, and answers well for a family dinner.
Meat Pie with Potato Crust.—Cut beef or mutton into large pieces, and season them with pepper, salt, and a finely-shred onion; boil and mash potatoes with milk, so as to form the crust, with which line a buttered dish; then put in the meat, with a tea-cupful of water, lay the crust thickly over the meat, and bake about an hour and a half.
Potato Pie.—Peel and slice potatoes, and put them in lasers between cutlets of veal, mutton, or beef steaks; add a little water, cover with crust, and bake.
Chicken Pie.—Wash and cut the chicken (it should be young and tender,) in pieces, and put it in a dish; then season it to your taste with salt, pepper, a blade or two of mace, and some nutmeg. When your paste is ready for the chicken, put it in, and fill it about two-thirds with water; add several lumps of good sweet butter, and put on the top crust. A pie with one chicken will require from one hour to three-quarters of an hour to bake.
Obs.—If the chickens are old, or at all tough, it is best to parboil the pieces in just sufficient water to cover them; then strain this water and add it to the pie, no other moistening will be required.
Giblet Pie.—Take two sets of goose giblets, clean them well and let them stew over a slow fire in a pint and a half of water, till they are half done; then divide the necks, wings, legs, and gizzards, into pieces, and let them lay in the liquor till the giblets get cold. When they are quite cold, season them well with a large tea-spoonful of pepper, a small one of salt, and half a salt-spoonful of Cayenne; then put them into a pie-dish, with a cupful of the liquor they were stewed in; cover it with paste for meat pies, and let the pie bake from one hour to an hour and a half.
Skim off the fat from the rest of the liquor in which the giblets were stewed, put it in a butter-sauce pan, thicken it with flour and butter, add pepper and salt to your taste; give it a boil up, and it is ready. Before the pie is served up, raise the crust on one side, and pour in the gravy.
Partridge Pie à la Française.—Take 6 partridges, trussed as for boiled chickens, and season them with the above seasoning. Take also 2 lbs. of veal and 1 lb. of fat bacon; cut these into small bits, and put them into a stew-pan with half a pound of butter, together with some shalots, parsley, and thyme, stewing them until quite tender. Strain and pound the meat in a mortar till made perfectly smooth.
The pie-crust being raised, put in the partridges with the above-mentioned forcemeat over them, and over that lay some thin slices of bacon. Cover the pie with a thick lid, and be sure to close it well, to prevent any portion of the gravy from oozing out.
This sized pie will require 3 hours’ baking, but care must be taken not to put it into the oven till the fierce heat be gone off.
Partridge Pie in the ordinary way.—Lay a veal cutlet in the bottom of the dish; line the inside of the birds with fat bacon, season them well and place them with the breast downwards; fill the dish with good gravy, and add forcemeat balls, with a few button mushrooms freshly gathered.
Pies of this sort may be made nearly in the same manner of every species of game; but the mixture of the brown and white meats is not desirable, as the former have a peculiar flavor which ought to be maintained, and is weakened by the admixture of the latter: also hare and venison, though each forming admirable pasties separately, yet spoil each other when put together.
Venison Pasty.—Cut a neck or breast into small steaks, rub them over with a seasoning of sweet herbs, grated nutmeg, pepper, and salt; fry them slightly in butter; line the sides and edges of a dish with puff paste, lay in the steaks, and add half a pint of rich gravy made with the trimmings of the venison; add a glass of port wine, and the juice of half a lemon, or a tea-spoonful of vinegar; cover the dish with puff paste, and bake it nearly 2 hours; some more gravy may be poured into the pie before serving it.
Cold Pies.—When meat pies are prepared to be eaten cold suet should not be put into the forcemeat that is to be used with them. If the pie is made of meat that will take more dressing, to make it extremely tender, than the baking of the crust will allow, prepare it in the following way:—
Take 3 lbs. of the veiny piece of beef that has fat and lean; wash it, and season it with salt, pepper, mace, and allspice, in fine powder, rubbing them well in. Set it by the side of a slow fire, in a stew-pot that will just hold it; put to it a piece of butter of about the weight of 2 oz., and cover it quite close; let it just simmer in its own steam till it begins to shrink When it is cold, add more seasoning, forcemeat, and eggs: if it is made in a dish, put some gravy to it before baking; but if it is only in crust, do not put the gravy to it till after it is cold and in jelly. Forcemeat may be put both under and over the meat, if preferred to balls.
Obs.—Both veal and chicken pies are generally eaten cold, and as they are always seasoned highly, will keep good for several days in the hottest weather.
Cold Beef Steak Pie.—Cover a shallow dish with paste, and spread on it the steak in one layer, well seasoned; cover with paste, glaze, and bake. This pie is mostly eaten cold, for luncheon, or supper, the steak and the crust being cut together, sandwich fashion.
Vol-au-vent.—Is a large kind of patty. Roll out puff paste from an inch to an inch and a half thick; cut it to suit the shape of the dish it is to be served on; in cutting it make the knife hot in water. Cut another piece not quite so large for the cover; mark the cover an inch from the edge, and brush it over with the yolk of egg; bake it in a quick oven. When it appears sufficiently browned, take off the top, clean out the soft paste, return it to the oven for a few minutes to dry; dish it on a napkin.
Care must be taken in taking out the soft part not to break the outside.
It may be filled with ragoût of sweetbread, fricassée of chicken, lobster, or oysters, but is never made of a large size.
Oyster Patties, (entree). Line some small patty-pans with fine puff paste, rolled thin and to preserve their form when baked, put a bit of bread into each; lay on the covers, pinch and trim the edges, and send the patties to a brisk oven. Plump and beard from two to three dozens of small oysters; mix very smoothly a tea-spoonful of flour with an ounce of butter, put them into a clean sauce-pan, shake them round over a gentle fire, and let them simmer for two or three minutes; throw in a little salt, pounded mace, and cayenne, then add, by slow degrees, two or three spoonsful of rich cream, give these a boil, and pour in the strained liquor of the oysters; next, lay in the fish, and keep at the point of boiling for a couple of minutes. Raise the covers from the patties, take out the bread, fill them with the oysters and their sauce, and replace the covers. We have found it an improvement to stew the beards of the fish with a strip or two of lemon-peel, in a little good veal stock for a quarter of an hour, then to strain and add it to the sauce. The oysters, unless very small, should be once or twice divided.
Good Chicken Patties, (entree).—Raise the white flesh entirely from a young undressed fowl, divide it once or twice, and lay it into a small clean sauce pan, in which about an ounce of butter has been dissolved, and just begins to simmer; strew in a slight seasoning of salt, mace, and cayenne, and stew the chicken very softly indeed for about ten minutes, taking every precaution against its browning: turn it into a dish with the butter, and its own gravy, and let it become cold. Mince it with a sharp knife; heat it, without allowing it to boil, in a little good white sauce (which may be made of some of the bones of the fowl), and fill ready-baked patty-crusts, or small vol-au-vents with it, just before they are sent to table; or stew the flesh only just sufficiently to render it firm, mix it after it is minced and seasoned with a spoonful or two of strong gravy, fill the patties and bake them from fifteen to eighteen minutes. It is a great improvement to stew and mince a few mushrooms with the chicken.
The breasts of cold turkeys, fowls, partridges, or pheasants, or the white part of cold veal, minced, heated in a béchamel sauce will serve at once for patties: they may also be made of cold game, heated in a good brown gravy.
Obs.— A spoonful or two of jellied stock or gravy, or of good white sauce, converts these into admirable patties: the same ingredients make also very superior rolls.
Mince Pie Meat.—Mix carefully 3 lbs. of suet, shred and chopped fine; 4 lbs. of raisins, stoned and chopped fine; 4 lbs. of currants, washed, picked, and dried; 50 pippins chopped fine. Cloves, mace and nutmeg, ½ oz. each; 1½ lbs. of sugar; 1 pint of brandy, 1 pint of white wine, the juice of an orange and lemon, and 4 oz. of citron. Bake in rich puff paste.
Family Mince Pies.—Boil 3 lbs. of lean beef till tender, and when cold, chip it fine. Chop 2 lbs. of clear beef suet and mint the meat, sprinkling in a table-spoonful of salt.
Pare, core, and chop fine, 6 lbs. of good apples; stone 4 lbs. of raisins and chop them; wash and dry 2 lbs. of currants; and mix them all well with the meat. Season with powdered cinnamon, 1 spoonful, a powdered nutmeg, a little mace, and a few cloves pounded, and 1 lb. of brown sugar. Add a quart of Madeira wine, and 8 oz. of citron, cut into small bits. This mixture, put down in a stone jar and closely covered, will keep several weeks. It makes a rich pie for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Plain Mince Pies.—Take 2 lbs. of lean beef boiled, and 1 lbs. of suet, chopped fine; 3 lbs. of apples, 2 lbs. of raisins or currants, 1 lb. of sugar, a little salt, pepper, cinnamon, cloves, and 1 nutmeg; moisten with new cider or sweet cream. Make a good paste, and bake about an hour.
The currants must be washed and dried at the fire; raisins stoned and chopped.
Rich Mince Meat.—Cut the root off a neat’s tongue, rub the tongue well with salt, let it lie 4 days, wash it perfectly clean, and boil it till it becomes tender; skin, and when cold chop it very finely. Mince as small as possible 2 lbs. of fresh beef suet from the sirloin, stone and cut small 2 lbs. of bloom raisins, clean nicely 2 lbs. of currants, pound and sift half an ounce of mace, and a quarter of an ounce of cloves, grate a large nutmeg; mix all these ingredients thoroughly, together with 1½ lbs. of good brown sugar. Pack it in jars.
When it is to be used, allow, for the quantity sufficient to make 12 small mince pies, 5 finely minced apples, the grated rind and juice of a large lemon, add a wine-glass and a half of wine; put into each a few bits of citron and preserved lemon peel. Three or four whole green lemons, preserved in brown sugar, and cut into thin slices, may be added.
Lemon Mince Pies.—Weigh 1 lb. of fine large lemons, cut them in half, squeeze out the juice, and pick the pulp from the skins; boil them in water till tender, and pound them in a mortar; add 8 oz. of pounded loaf sugar, the same of nicely cleaned currants, and of fresh beef suet minced, a little grated nutmeg, and citron cut small. Mix all these ingredients well, and fill the pattypans with rather more of the mince than is usually put.
OBSERVATIONS.—Gooseberries, currants, cherries, raspberries plums of many kinds, cranberries, and damsons, are used for making large pies. Cherries are mixed with currants or raspberries, or both; and currants with raspberries. The usual proportion of sugar is one pound to a quart of fruit, or not quite so much to very ripe fruit. Lay the fruit in the dish, highest in the middle, with the sugar between it, add a little water; wet the edge of the dish with water, cover with paste about half an inch thick; close it, pare it, make a hole in the middle, and bake in a moderate oven.
Some fruits, as quinces, require stewing before they are put into a pie.
To prepare Apples for Pastry.—Take 10 eggs, leaving out the whites of 5; beat them very light; add 1 pint of apples stewed and strained through a sieve. While hot stir in 4 oz. of butter, the grated peel of 2 large lemons, and the juice of 1. Add sugar to your taste. If you have no lemons, mace and nutmeg will do very well. Bake it in a crust.
To prepare Cranberries for Tarts.—Simmer them in moist sugar, without breaking, 20 minutes: and let them become cold before being used. A pint will require nearly 3 oz. of sugar.
Iceing for Pies and Tarts.—Just before you put them into the oven, beat up the white of an egg till it comes to a stiff froth; wash over the tops of the tarts with it, using a quill feather, or your paste brush, and sift white sugar over the egg.
Or:—Use only plain water, and sift pounded white sugar over it.
Or:—Warm a piece of butter about the size of a walnut, and beat into it the yolk of 1 egg, and wash over the tops with a little of this mixture, with a quill feather, or your paste brush, sifting pounded sugar over it.
Cranberry Tart.—To every pint of cranberries, allow a tea-spoonful of lemon-juice, and three ounces of good moist sugar. First, pour all the juice of your cranberries into a basin; then well wash the cranberries in a pan, with plenty of water, pick out all the bad ones, and put the cranberries into a dish; add to them the sugar and lemon-juice, pour the juice out of the basin gently to them, so as to leave behind the dirt and sediment which will settle at the bottom; mix all together, and let it lie while you are making your pie,—thus: line the bottom of your dish with puff-paste not quite a quarter of an inch thick, put your cranberries upon it, without any juice, and cover with the same paste not quite half an inch thick; close the edges as usual, ice it, and bake it from three-quarters of an hour to an hour, according to size. Simmer the juice a few minutes, which serve up with your tart in a small sauce tureen A pint of cranberries makes a pretty sized tart.
A Good Apple Tart.—A pound and a quarter of apples, weighed after they are pared and cored, will be sufficient for a small tart, and four ounces more for one of moderate size. Lay a border of puff-paste, or of cream-crust round the dish, just dip the apples into water, arrange them very compactly in it, higher in the centre than at the sides, and strew amongst them from three to four ounces of pounded sugar, or more, should they be very acid: the grated rind, and the strained juice of half a lemon will much improve their flavor. Lay on the cover rolled thin, and ice it or not at pleasure. Send the tart to a moderately brisk oven for about half an hour. This may be converted into the old-fashioned creamed apple tart, by cutting out the cover while it is still quite hot, leaving only about an inch-wide border of paste round the edge, and pouring over the apples when they have become cold, from half to three-quarters of a pint of rich boiled custard. The cover divided into triangular sippets, was formerly stuck round the inside of the tart, but ornamental leaves of pale puff-paste have a better effect. Well-drained whipped cream may be substituted for the custard, and piled high, and lightly over the fruit.
Barberry Tart.—Barberries, with half their weight of fine brown sugar, when they are thoroughly ripe, and with two ounces more when they are not quite so, make an admirable tart. For one of moderate size, put into a dish bordered with paste three-quarters of a pound of barberries stripped from their stalks, and six ounces of sugar in alternate layers; pour over them three table-spoonsful of water, put on the cover, and bake the tart for half an hour. Another way of making it is to line a shallow tin pan with very thin crust, to mix the fruit and sugar well together with a spoon, before they are laid in, and to put bars of paste across instead of a cover; or it may be baked without either.
Tourte Meringuée, or Tart with Royal Icing.—Lay a band of fine paste round the rim of a tart-dish, fill it with any kind of fruit mixed with a moderate proportion of sugar, roll out the cover very evenly, moisten the edges of the paste, press them together carefully, and trim them off close to the dish; spread equally over the top, to within rather more than an inch of the edge all round, the whites of three fresh eggs beaten to a quite solid froth, and mixed quickly at the moment of using them, with three table-spoonsful of dry sifted sugar.
Frangipane Tart.—Sheet a tart-tin with puff-paste, pour into it some of the following cream:—beat well four eggs, add to them a pint of cream, four spoonsful of flour, and some loaf sugar; put them into a stew-pan, and rasp in, with a lump of sugar, the peel of a lemon; simmer the whole, constantly stirring it, on a slow fire, for about twenty minutes; then stir in two dozen sweet and bitter almonds, previously beaten to a paste, with a few drops of water. Having filled the tart with this cream, bake it, and sift over it fine loaf sugar.
Custard Tart.—Line a deep plate with puff-paste; have ready six or eight middling-sized apples, pared and the cores taken out. They should be mellow and pleasant. Put into each apple any kind of preserve you have, or a bit of sugar flavored. Now fill the dish with rich custard and bake it about half an hour. Make in the same manner without crust—it is then called custard pudding.
Tartlets.—Are always so called when made of a small size and uncovered with a crust; nor should preserved fruit of any kind be put under crust. The paste is made stiff enough to support the contents, being cut thin, put into pattypans, and crimped at the edges. The fruit is then frequently ornamented with small strips of paste laid over it crosswise, which are made thus:—Mix quarter of pound of flour 1 oz. of fresh butter, and a little cold water; rub it well between the board and your hand till it begins to string; cut it into small pieces, roll it out, and draw it into fine strings, then lay them in any way you please across your tartlets, and bake immediately.
The jam of raspberries, currants, or any other fruits, as well as the marmalade of apricot, quince, and apple, may be made into tartlets; and when baked in a quick oven may be filled up with raw custard or whipped cream.
Apple Pie (American).—Apples of a pleasant sour, and fully ripe, make the best pies. Pare, core, and slice them, line a deep buttered dish with paste, lay in the apples, strewing in sugar to the taste, and a little grated lemon peel or cinnamon; cover them with the paste, and bake them in a moderate oven about 40 minutes.
When apples are green, stew them with a very little water before making your pie. Green fruit requires double the quantity of sugar.
Gooseberries and green currants are made in the same manner.
Apple Pie (English).—Pare, core, and cut into quarters, 8 or 10 russet or other good baking apples; and lay them as close together as you can, in a pie-dish, sprinkling among the apples, 4 cloves, 4 oz. of moist sugar, half the peel of a fresh lemon grated, with a squeeze of the lemon juice, and a little nutmeg. Add a table-spoonful of ale, or water; cover it with puff paste, and put it in the oven. It will take about an hour and a quarter to bake it; but you must see to it, that it does not burn, and keep your oven of a moderate heat.
Rhubarb Pies.—Take the tender stalks of the rhubarb, strip off the skin, and cut the stalks into thin slices. Line deep plates with pie crust, then put in the rhubarb, with a thick layer of sugar to each layer of rhubarb—a little grated lemon peel improves the pie. Cover the pies with a crust; press it down tight round the edge of the plate, and prick the crust with a fork, so that the crust will not burst while baking, and let out the juices of the pie. Rhubarb pies should be baked about an hour, in a slow oven; it will not do to bake them quick. Some cooks stew the rhubarb before making it into pies, but it is not so good as when used without stewing.
Pumpkin Pie (American).—Take out the seeds, and pare the pumpkin or squash; but in taking out the seeds do not scrape the inside of the pumpkin; the part nearest the seed is the sweetest; then stew the pumpkin, and strain it through a sieve or cullender. To a quart of milk, for a family pie, 3 eggs are sufficient. Stir in the stewed pumpkin with your milk and beaten-up eggs, till it is as thick as you can stir round rapidly and easily. If the pie is wanted richer make it thinner, and add sweet cream or another egg or two; but even 1 egg to a quart of milk makes “very decent pies.” Sweeten with molasses or sugar; add 2 tea-spoonsful of salt, 2 table-spoonsful of sifted cinnamon, and 1 of powdered ginger; but allspice may be used, or any other spice that may be preferred. The peel of a lemon grated in gives it a pleasant flavor. The more eggs, says an American authority, the better the pie. Some put 1 egg to a gill of milk. Bake about an hour in deep plates, or shallow dishes, without an upper crust, in a hot oven.
Pumpkin Pie (English).—Take out the seeds, and grate the pumpkin till you come to the outside skin. Sweeten the pulp; add a little ground allspice, lemon peel and lemon juice; in short, flavor it to the taste. Bake without an upper crust.
Carrot Pies.—These pies are made like pumpkin pies. The carrots should be boiled very tender, skinned, and sifted.
Squash Pie.—Pare, take out the seeds, and stew the squash till very soft and dry. Strain or rub it through a sieve or cullender. Mix this with good milk till it is thick as batter: sweeten it with sugar. Allow 3 eggs to a quart of milk, beat the eggs well, add them to the squash, and season with rose water, cinnamon, nutmeg, or whatever spices you like. Line a pie plate with crust, fill and bake about an hour.
Custard Pie.—Beat 7 eggs, sweeten a quart of rich milk, that has been boiled and cooled; a stick of cinnamon, or a bit of lemon peel should be boiled in it. Sprinkle in a salt-spoon of salt, add the eggs, and a grated nutmeg, stirring the whole together.
Line 2 deep plates with good paste, set them in the oven 3 minutes to harden the crust; then pour in the custard and bake 20 minutes.
Obs.—For these pies roll the paste rather thicker than for fruit pies, as there is only one crust. If the pie is large and deep, it will require to bake an hour in a brisk oven.
Potato Pie.—Boil Carolina or mealy Irish potatoes until they are quite soft. When peeled, mash and strain them. To a quarter of a pound of potatoes, put a quart of milk, three table-spoonsful of melted butter, four beaten eggs, a wine-glass of wine—add sugar and nutmeg to the taste.
Peach Pie.—Take mellow juicy peaches—wash, slice, and put them in a deep pie plate, lined with pie crust. Sprinkle a thick layer of sugar on each layer of peaches, put in about a table-spoonful of water, and sprinkle a little flour over the top—cover it with a thick crust, and bake from fifty to sixty minutes.
Cocoanut Pie.—Cut off the brown part of the cocoanut, grate the white part, and mix it with milk, and set it on the fire and let it boil slowly eight or ten minutes. To a pound of the grated cocoanut allow a quart of milk, eight eggs, four table-spoonsful of sifted white sugar, a glass of wine, a small cracker, pounded fine, two spoonsful of melted butter, and half a nutmeg. The eggs and sugar should be beaten together to a froth, then the wine stirred in. Put them into the milk and cocoanut, which should be first allowed to get quite cool—add the cracker and nutmeg—turn the whole into deep pie plates, with a lining and rim of puff paste. Bake them as soon as turned into the places.
Cocoanut Cheese Cakes—(Jamaica Recipe).—Break carefully the shell of the nut, that the liquid it contains may not escape.* Take out the kernel, wash it in cold water, pare thinly off the dark skin, and grate the nut on a delicately clean bread-grater; but it, with its weight of pounded sugar, and its own milk, if not sour, or if it be, a couple of spoonsful or rather more of water, into a silver or block-tin sauce-pan, or a very small copper stew-pan perfectly tinned, and keep it gently stirred over a quite clear fire until it is tender: it will sometimes require an hour’s stewing to make it so. When a little cooled, add to the nut, and beat well with it, some eggs properly whisked and strained, and the grated rind of half a lemon. Line some pattypans with fine paste, put in the mixture, and bake the cheese cakes from thirteen to fifteen minutes.
Grated cocoanut 6 ounces; sugar 6 ounces; the milk of the nut, or of water, 2 large table-spoonsful: half to one hour Eggs, 5; lemon-rind, half of one; 13 to 15 minutes.
Obs.—We have found the cheese-cakes made with these proportions very excellent indeed, but should the mixture be considered too sweet, another egg or two can be added, and a little brandy also.
Lemon Cheese-Cakes—(Christ-Church-College Recipe)—Rasp the rind of a large lemon with four ounces of fine sugar, then crush and mix it with the yolks of three eggs, and half the quantity of whites, well whisked; beat these together thoroughly; add to them four table-spoonsful of cream, a quarter of a pound of oiled butter, the strained juice of the lemon, which must be stirred quickly in by degrees, and a little orange-flower brandy. Line some pattypans with thin puff-paste, half fill them with the mixture, and bake them thirty minutes in a moderate oven.
Sugar, 4 ounces; rind and juice 1 large lemon; butter, 4 ounces; cream, 4 table-spoonsful; orange-flower brandy, 1 table-spoonful; bake half an hour.
Orange Cheese-Cakes—Are made as in the last recipe, except that oranges are substituted for the lemons. A few thin slices of candied lemon or orange peel may be laid on the cheesecakes before baking.
Apple Puffs.—Peel and core apples, and simmer them with a little water and sugar until they make a kind of marmalade put this, when cold, into puff taste, ice it, and bake quickly.
Preserve Puffs.—Roll out puff paste very thinly, cut it into round pieces, and lay jam on each; fold over the paste, well the edges with egg, and close them; lay them on a baking sheet, ice them, and bake about a quarter of an hour.
Orange and Lemon Puffs.—Zest 4 large oranges or lemons, add 2 1bs. of sifted sugar, pound it with the zest, and make it into a stiff paste, with a strong infusion of gum-dragon; beat it again, roll it out, cut it into any shape, and bake it in a cool oven.
Spiced Puffs.—Beat up any quantity of whites of eggs, adding white sifted sugar with any spices; the puffs are to be flavored with a mace, cinnamon, or cloves, and drop them from the point of a knife, in a little high towering form, upon damp wafer sheets, and put them into a very slow oven.
Puffs to Fry.—Blanch and beat a handful of almonds with 2 table-spoonsful of orange-flower water; beat up 5 yolks and 3 whites, and put in 2 table-spoonsful of dried flour, a pint of cream, and sweeten; drop them into hot clarified butter.
Gauffres.—Take 4 or 5 oz. of flour, 3 oz. of pounded sugar, 2 gills of whipped cream, 4 or 5 eggs, a small stick of pounded vanilla, a grating of nutmeg, and a little salt, with a glass of curaçoa, or ratifia.
Place the flour, sugar and salt in a basin, then add the yolk of eggs, the vanilla, and the spirit, mixing them well together, and gradually adding the whipped cream. Just before using the batter, add the whites of eggs, whipped to a froth, and mix them in lightly, so as to thoroughly incorporate them with it.
Bake these gauffres in tongs made for the purpose, observing, however, that the iron be very carefully heated, and the superfluous heat allowed to go off previously to filling them with batter; rub the tongs with fresh butter; fill the bottom part with batter, and fasten on the top, then turn it, and, when a fine brown on both sides, shake some pounded spice and sugar over them, and send them to table.
They may be spread with any kind of preserve or jelly.
Flummery Rice.—One quart of milk; sweeten it with a tea-cupful of sugar; add a little cinnamon and rose-water; boil the whole; then add a tea-cupful of ground rice mixed in a little of the milk, while the other is boiling, stirring the mixture all the while. Have ready a mould, wet with water, and when the Flummery has boiled a few minutes, take it from the fire, and pour it carefully into the mould or bowl.
* The learner will perhaps find it easier to fold the paste securely round it in the form of a dumpling, until a little experience has been acquired.
* This is best secured by boring the shell before it is broken