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MEAT AND SAVORY PIES. 307
take of it. Line the sides of the oven with the rich pie paste, which should be 1-2 inch thick ; then lay the chicken, backbone or spare-ribs chopped in joints 2 inches long, or all may be used together, chicken, etc., which should have been previously parboiled in saltish water till 1-2 done. When this is done sprinkle over the meat some pepper and bits of sweet butter, then a layer of very thinly sliced Irish potatoes, some pork chopped very finely, an onion or two in slices, and some add a few fresh oysters or mushrooms, then potato dumplings made according to the recipe given for dumplings for chicken pie; but these form modern additions to the time-honored and matchless potpie of our revolutionary sires, and was doubtless often eaten in the White House in the days of our first Presidents. It is a homely dish, but a very appetizing one; but no housekeeper should be at a loss how to make it. When the meat and layers of the other ingredients have filled the oven rather more, than even full, pour in the broth in which the meat has been boiled, to form the gravy, about three parts full, sprinkle a little flour over it, then lay over the meat an upper crust 1-4 inch thick; making a hole in it at the top to pour in more broth when needed, through a funnel; then put on the oven lid moderately heated, and then put on some burning coals and bake a nice brown. When done remove the upper crust carefully. Take up the meat gravy in a bowl in order not to break the crust at the sides; lay this crust on the bottom of a hot dish, then the meat, etc., on this, very nicely, then pour the gravy over, then cover the whole with the crust. Serve hot.
Steak and Plover Pie.—Line basin with paste; then put in a slice of rump steak well seasoned with salt and pepper over a plover with the bird inside and dressed as for roasting, another steak over it, all seasoned with salt and pepper only. Add a gill of beef gravy, then cover with paste and boil 1 1-2 hours. The flavor of the plover will make the steak delicious.
Green Goose Pie.—Bone two young green geese of good size, but first take away every pin-feather and singe them nicely ; wash them clean and season them high with salt, pepper, mace and al-spice ; put one inside the other and press them as close as you can, drawing the legs inward. Put a good deal of butter over them and bake them either with or without crust; if the latter, a cover to the dish must fit close to keep in the steam. It will keep long.
Pigeon Pie.—If it be eaten hot, have a rich, flakey crust; if intended to be eaten cold, a thick crust is preferable, but should be equally rich, or nearly so. Butter the dish and lay a crust round the sides and on the edges; at the bottom of the dish a fine beefsteak seasoned with pepper and salt; then the birds rubbed with pepper and salt inside and out, and a piece of butter in each. (Some prefer |
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