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To make a pie to perfection,—when your paste (half-puff or short) is carefully made, and your dish or form properly full, throw a little flour on your paste-board, take about a 1⁄4 lb. of your paste, which roll with your hand until (say) an inch in circumference; then moisten the rim of your pie-dish, and fix the paste equally on it with your thumb. When you have rolled your paste for the covering, or upper crust, of an equal thickness throughout, and in proportion to the contents of your pie (1⁄2 inch is about the average), fold the cover in two, lay it over one half of your pie, and turn the other half over the remaining part; next press it slightly with your thumb round the rim, cut neatly the rim of the paste, form rather a thick edge, and mark this with a knife about every quarter of an inch apart; observing to hold your knife in a slanting direction, which gives it a neat appearance; lastly, make two small holes on the top, and egg-over the whole with a paste-brush, or else use a little milk or water. Any small portion of paste remaining may be shaped to fanciful designs, and placed as ornaments on the top.
“For meat pies, observe that, if your paste is either too thick or too thin, the covering too narrow or too short, and requires pulling one way or the other, to make it fit, your pie is sure to be imperfect, the covering no longer protecting the contents. It is the same with fruit; and if the paste happens to be rather rich, it pulls the rim of the pie to the dish, soddens the paste, makes it heavy, and, therefore, indigestible as well as unpalatable.”
Meat pies require the addition of either cayenne, or black pepper, or allspice; and fruit pies, of enough sugar to sweeten, with mace, ginger, cloves, or lemon peel, according to taste and the substance operated on. See Pastry, &c.
PIG. The pig or hog (Sus scrofa—Linn.), one of the common pachydermata, is now domesticated in all the temperate climates of the world. Its flesh constitutes pork, bacon, ham, &c.; its fat (lard) is officinal in the Pharmacopœias. The skin, bristles, and even the blood and intestines of this animal, are either eaten as food or turned to some useful purpose in the arts. See Pork, Leather, &c.
PIG′MENTS. These are noticed under the respective colours.
PIG-STYE. In order that a pig-stye may not become a nuisance and a danger to health it is essential that the liquid excrement of the pig should be carried off by means of an effective and well-covered drain, and that the solid matters should be frequently removed.
Should it come to the knowledge of the sanitary inspector of the district that a pig-stye is deficient in this particular, the inspector has power to compel the owner of the stye to construct proper drainage.
Urban authorities have full powers in the matter of pig-styes, since under section 26 of
the Public Health Act it is enacted “that the owner of any swine or pig-stye kept in a dwelling-house, or so as to be a nuisance to any person, is liable to a penalty of 40s. or less, and to a further penalty (if the offence is continued) of 5s. a day. The authority can also, if they choose, abate the nuisance themselves, and recover the expenses of such action from the occupier of the premises in a summary manner.