AN INCOMPARABLE LING PIE. 570.-Wash and soak the salt out of a piece of the thin part; boil it slowly; remove the skin, and put layers of the fish and hard egg sliced; add chopped parsley, with 2 oz. of butter in bits among it, till the dish is nearly full. Put in a seasoning made of a large teacupful of gravy, with pounded mace and white pepper. Lay over it a good puff-paste; and when that is sufficiently baked, put in a cup of hot cream. EEL PIE. 571. Cut the eels in lengths of 2 or 3 inches, after skinning them; season with pepper and salt, and place in the dish, with some bits of butter and a little water; and cover it with paste. Middle-sized eels do best. They should be slightly seasoned, and the bottom of the pie-dish covered with a rump-steak, divided into small pieces, but not put in layers along with the fish, as many persons prefer eating the eels alone. The steak will produce abundance of gravy, to which only a little soy or ketchup should be added. A remarkably fine Fish Pie.-Boil 2 lbs. of small eels; having cut the fins quite close, pick the flesh off, and throw the bones into the liquor with a little mace, pepper, salt, and slice of onion; boil till quite rich, and strain it. Make forcemeat of the flesh, an anchovy, parsley, lemon-peel, salt, pepper, and crumbs, and 4 oz. of butter warmed, and lay it at the bottom of the dish. Take the flesh of soles, small cod, or dressed turbot, and lay them on the forcemeat, having rubbed it with salt and pepper; pour the gravy over, and bake. SOLE PIE. ; 572.-Split some soles from the bone, and cut the fins close season with a mixture of salt, pepper, a little nutmeg, and pounded mace, and put them in layers with oysters; they eat excellently. A pair of middling-sized ones will do, and 2 to 3 dozen of oysters. Put in the dish the oyster-liquor, 2 or 3 spoonfuls of broth, and some butter; or, omit the broth, and make a strong fish gravy. When the pie comes home, pour in a cupful of thick cream, or milk boiled up with a teaspoonful of flour; if there be sauce enough in the pie, leave out the cream. Pike, perch, and carp may be each made into savoury pies, if cut into fillets, seasoned, and baked in puff-paste; but will be much improved by the addition of an eel to increase the richness of the dish, and even by a few gudgeons, mingled with the fillets. Sauce may be made of the bones, if meat be not allowed; but if veal broth be used, then cream should be added. PILCHARD AND LEEK PIE. 573.-Clean and skin the white part of some large leeks; scald in milk and water, and put them in layers into a dish, and between the layers 2 or 3 salted pilchards which have been soaked for some hours the day before; cover the whole with a good plain crust. When the pie is taken out of the oven, lift up the side-crust with a knife, and empty out all the liquor; then pour inpint of scalded cream.. This is a Devonshire dish; and may be made, in the same way, of herrings, or any sort of fish, with or without cream. LOBSTER PIE. 574.-Boil 2 lobsters, or 3 if small; take out the tails, cut them in 2, take out the gut, cut each in 4 pieces, and lay in a small dish; then put in the meat of the claws, and that you have picked out of the body; pick out the furry parts from the latter, and take out the lady; beat the spawn in a mortar, set the shells on to stew with some water, 2 or 3 spoonfuls of vinegar, pepper, salt, and some pounded mace; a large piece of butter, rolled in flour, must be added, when the goodness of the shells is obtained; give a boil or two, and pour into the dish strained; strew some crumbs, and put a paste over all; bake slowly, but only till the paste be done. OYSTER PIE. 575. As you open the oysters separate them from the liquor, which strain; parboil them after taking off the beards. Parboil sweetbreads, and, cutting them in slices, lay them and the oysters in layers; season very lightly with salt, pepper, and mace; then put a teacupful of liquor, and the same of veal gravy. Bake in a slow oven; and before you serve, put a teacupful of cream, a little more oyster-liquor, and a cup of white gravy, all warmed, but not boiled. CHAPTER XXIII. FRUIT PIES, PUFFS, PUDDINGS, &c. 576.—ALL pies made either with summer fruit or with winter preserves will be improved by a mixture of apples, pared and sliced. Apples will this way eke out the remains of a pot of jam with advantage. They are especially good with fresh cherries, currants, &c., and will be found an agreeable addition to cranberries. Equal portions also of cranberries and any very sweet jam will improve both. When apples are mixed with jam, they should be sliced thin; and if syrup be wanted, a few slices boiled with a little of the jam in sugar and water. In making pies of green gooseberries, apples, or rhubarb, the sugar should be clarified-that is, boiled in a little water, but no water poured into the pie, as it destroys the flavour of the fruit. For fresh fruits short crust is very suitable. Fresh Fruit Pies, of all descriptions, whether cherry, green gooseberry, damson, currant, or raspberry, may be all made in nearly the same manner, taking care that the fruit be freshgathered and cleanly picked; also observing that, if the gooseberries be very sour, they should be put for of an hour in boiling water. lb. of sugar is usually allowed to every lb. of fruit. a When pies have been kept until cold the crust becomes a In making pies of a very juicy fruit, it is a common practice to put a teacup into the dish to collect the liquor, and thus prevent it from overflowing the edges. This not only has a vulgar appearance, but is actuated by a false principle, as when the cup is first put into the dish it is full of cold air, and when the pie is placed in the oven, the heat will cause the air to expand and fill the cup, and will drive out all the juice and a portion of the present air it contains, in which state it will remain till removed from the oven, when the air in the cup will condense and occupy a very small space, leaving the remainder to be filled with juice, but this does not take place till the danger of the juice boiling over is past. heavy and indigestible; when next used they should therefore be put before the fire to warm the crust and lighten it. Strew pounded loaf-sugar over the crust, or ice it with the white of an egg whipped up to a froth and laid over it. APPLE PIE. 577.-Pare, core, and quarter the apples; boil the cores and parings in sugar and water; strain off the liquor, adding more sugar; grate the rind of a lemon over the apples, and squeeze the juice into the syrup; mix half a dozen cloves with the fruit, put in a piece of butter the size of a walnut, and add or omit a glass of wine; cover with puff-paste. Codling Tart.-Scald the fruit; when ready, take off the thin skin, and lay them whole in a dish; put a little of the water that the apples were boiled in at bottom, strew them over with powdered lump sugar; when cold, put a paste round the edges and over. When the tart is baked, smear the crust with white of egg, and sift over it some powdered sugar. Serve with custard. Or:-Line the bottom of a shallow dish with paste; lay the apples in it, sweeten, and lay little twists of paste over in bars. Pippin Tarts.-Pare thin 2 Seville or China oranges, boil the peel tender, and shred it fine; pare and core a dozen of good-sized apples, and put them in a stewpan, with as little water as possible; when half done, add lb. of sugar, the orange-peel, and juice; boil till pretty thick. When cold, put it into a shallow dish, or pattypans lined with paste, to turn out, and be eaten cold. The mode of making the New-fashioned Apple-pie is to pare and quarter the apples, scald them, beat them with a spoon with some of the liquor, add grated lemon-peel, the juice of a lemon or Seville orange, or a part of a quince, when they are to be got, cloves, white sugar finely pounded, and a piece of butter; put a paste round the dish, and cover it with bars or flowers of paste the excellence of the pie consisting of the sort of apple and the goodness of the paste; the fruit should be raised in the middle, as it shrinks in the baking. Stewed Apples.-Slice 2 or 3 good-sized peeled apples in thick slices, then put them into a small stewpan, with a few cloves and some parings of lemon or orange, and let it stew for about of an hour in a couple of glasses of white wine. It may be done while the family are at dinner, and the apples eat better than in a pie. They should be thrown into cold water when sliced, to prevent their becoming dry and discoloured. The apples may be also mixed with pears or plums, and will be found excellent. RHUBARB PIE OR TART. 578. Take the stalks from the leaves, and peel off the thin skin; cut them into pieces about an inch long, and as you do so sprinkle a little fine sugar into the basin. For a quart basin, heaped, take 1 lb. of common lump-sugar; boil it in nearly pint of water to a thin syrup; when skimmed, put the rhubarb into it, and as it simmers shake the pan often over the fire. It will turn yellow at first, but keep it very gently doing until it greens, and then take it off. When cold lay it in the tart-dish, with only as much syrup as will make it very moist. Put a light crust over it, and when that is baked the tart will be done enough; quarter the crust, and fill the dish with custard or cream. Many persons think the flavour of the rhubarb injured by taking off the peel. TARTLETS 579.-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 lb. 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. Orange Tartlets.-Squeeze, pulp, and boil tender 2 Seville oranges; weigh twice their weight of sugar; beat both together to a paste; then add the juice and pulp of the fruit, and the |