While in the high art studies of this branch of culinary science, the clever cook finds grand opportunities of displaying his skill, he possesses in its humbler subjects a ready method of practising economy, and of exercising his inventive ability. The savoury pie is indeed an admirable institution. In no manner can odds and ends of good food be more satisfactorily disposed of. We like a hot pie. we like a cold pie; it is welcome at breakfast, at luncheon, or at dinner; at the pic-nic, the wedding breakfast, or the ball supper. And yet it must be confessed that we rarely eat a pie in India that can be compared with an ordinary home-made pasty in England. The superiority of British meat may, no doubt, account for this failure to a certain extent, and the climate of the "plain country" may be against us, but I think the chief difficulty is susceptible of removal if we study the laws of pie-making and teach our cooks according to them.

A very common fault committed by Ramasamy in his concoction of a pie, is this :- he is apt, unless taught otherwise, to cook, or partly cook, the meat of which it is made before covering it with paste, and baking it. It is, I hope, unnecessary for me to point out that this is an altogether erroneous proceeding. Whatever materials you may choose - pigeons, chicken, steak, or game, - see that they are laid in the pie-dish uncooked, and properly covered with paste according to the correct laws of cookery. Previously cooked meat may very often be made use of in a pie, I grant, but a good 'pasty' can hardly be produced if the whole of its contents have been dressed beforehand.

Having selected the meat for your pie, the first thing to remember is the gravy which must be made separately, and part of it poured in and amongst the layers in the pie-dish before the paste is laid over it. A little wine lends valuable aid to such gravies : the remains of a good bottle of champagne can be used with great advantage in pigeon-pies, chicken and ham pies, etc., and Madeira is wanted for game, venison, and hare pies. The gravy ought not to fill the pie-dish; about a breakfast-cupful will suffice for a pie of moderate size in the first instance.

Prohibit most strenuously the use of Worcester, Tapp, or any strongly flavoured sauce of that kind : it is owing to Ramasamy's predilection for the sauce bottle that one peculiar kind of taste prevails throughout his dishes, in his savoury pies especially.

The seasoning is a matter demanding close attention : here the "spiced pepper" described at page 111 will be found of great assistance; and minced mushrooms, minced truffles, and minced olives, (made from remnants you may have saved after an important day's cooking) will come in most efficaciously. Finely chopped liver is a capital thing to shake over the crevices when building a pie, and little bits of chopped anchovy may be similarly used. Ham and tongue, either sliced, or grated, is welcome in every kind of 'pasty,' bacon is almost as effective, and sliced Bologna sausage a very good substitute.

Always rub your pie-dish with a shallot, before packing it.

It is customary to garnish the surface of a savoury pie with quarters of hard-boiled eggs: if you have a few button mushrooms, you can use them for that purpose also, and strew some finely minced parsley over the whole.

The cupful of gravy should be poured gently into the packed pie-dish the last thing, just to moisten the contents as it were.

Assuming that the cook can make a good light pie-crust, and that the dish has been neatly covered in therewith, care must be taken about the state of the oven :- if too slack, the crust will be heavy and dull, and if too hot, it will be burnt before the pie is completely cooked. The oven should be so hot that you cannot quite bear your hand inside it.

Always leave an aperture in the centre of your pie-crust, which you can cover with an ornamental device in pastry towards the end of the baking. This is necessary as a vent for the escape of the gas which the cooking of the meat generates, and also as an opening through which you can pour the rest of your gravy as a finishing touch after the pie is quite baked. The glazing of the crust should be done towards the end of the baking by brushing a well beaten up egg over its surface.

If you bear these general rules in mind, I am sure that you will soon experience a marked improvement in the savoury pies that your cook may in future place before you.

There ought to be little or no difficulty in flavouring a pie even though circumstances may render it impossible for you to compose the really good gravy which I have recommended as so highly essential. Take an ordinary "chicken and beef-steak pie" for instance : there ought to be some scraps left after cutting the beef to fit the pie-dish, and there must be some valuable trimmings available for broth-making when you have cut up and dressed the chicken - the neck, pinions, legs and feet, giblets, etc.

With these materials the cook should make a fairly good broth, flavouring it with an onion, and any fragments of vegetable he may have at hand, a little mushroom ketchup, some pepper corns, a dessert-spoonful of mixed dried herbs, the peel of a lime, a tea-spoonful of anchovy sauce or an anchovy finely chopped, a dessert-spoonful of vinegar, a pinch of sugar, and salt to taste. When the scraps and bones have simmered secundum artem under careful supervision for an hour, a dash of Madeira may be stirred into the sauce-pan, and in a few minutes the broth may be strained off into a bowl. As soon as the fat, that the liquid may throw up, has been removed, the cook will have at his command a very excellent substitute for real gravy wherewith to moisten the contents of his pie : far better, at all events, than the water and Worcester sauce which Ramasamy is generally contented to use.

A recipe for a really good "beef-steak pie" will be found in Menu No. 28, and the following notes concerning a "Do-mestic Pasty " will, I think, commend themselves to housekeepers who know what it is to find a few pounds of good meat on their hands without an idea of what to do with them.