Meat Pies

May be made in the above man-ner of lamb, veal, or pork. Also of venison or any sort of fresh meat. Pie crust for baking should be shortened with butter, or with the dripping of roast beef, veal, or fresh pork. Mutton or lamb dripping are unfit for pie crust, as they make it taste of tallow. Suet will not do at all for baked paste, though very good if the paste is to be boiled. Butter and lard will make a nice plain paste for pies, if both are fresh and good; the butter to be rubbed into the flour, mixed with a little cold water, and rolled out; the lard to be spread evenly all over the sheet; then folded and rolled out again. Meat pies should always have a bottom crust, as the gravy it imbibes makes it very relishing. Veal pies are insipid without the addition of some cold ham.

Pies made of game should have a puff-paste, as they are generally for company.

On the shores of the Chesapeake, very fine pies are made of canvas-back, or red-neck ducks, when in season. They require puff-paste to be made in perfection. Pot-pies of these ducks are, of course, excellent.

A Beef Steak Pot Pie

Take two pounds or more of tender beef steaks, exclusive of the fat and bone, which must be omitted; the steaks from the sirloin end, cut less than an inch thick, and not larger than four or five inches square. Put them into a pot with enough water to cover them, and season them slightly with pepper and salt. Dredge them with a little flour, and lay on each a morsel of nice fresh butter. Stew the steaks for half an hour. Meanwhile make a large portion of paste; allowing to every quart or pound of flour, a small half pound of nice beef-suet, entirely freed from all its skin and strings, and minced with a chopper as finely as possible. To three pounds of beef allow four quarts of flour and not quite two pounds of suet. A pot-pie with but little paste in proportion to the meat, is no better than a stew. The paste, if good, is always much liked. Divide the minced suet into two halves. Pub or crumble one half the suet into the pan of flour; adding by degrees a little cold water, barely enough to make a stiff dough; first mixing in a small tea-spoonful of salt. Poll out the lump of dough into a large sheet, and spread it all over with the remainder of the minced suet, laid on with a broad knife. Then fold it up, and set it on a dish in a cool place, to get quite cold. Take a large iron pot, made very clean. Lay in the bottom the largest pieces of beef steak, and line round the sides with pieces of the paste, cut to fit. Next put in the remainder of the meat, interspersed with raw potatos sliced, (either white or sweet potatos,) and also pieces of the paste cut into squares, and laid among the meat, to which must be added the gravy saved from the stew. When the pot is nearly full, cover its contents with a large round or circular piece of paste. This must not fit quite closely, but a little space or crack must be left all around for the gravy to bubble up as it boils. Before you put on the lid pour in half a pint, or more, of water. Cut a cross-slit in the centre of the top-crust. Set the pot over a good fire, and let it boil steadily, till all is done, meat and paste. The upper-crust should be well-browned. When cooked, serve the whole upon one large dish, laying the brown upper-crust on the top of all. If there is too much gravy, send some of it to table in a sauce-boat, first skimming it.

It will be improved by adding to the seasoning some nutmeg or powdered mace. These are the only spices that accord well with meat or poultry.