This foolish name signifies an excellent preparation of gooseberries; stewed, mashed, and made very sweet with brown sugar. Have ready in another dish a good boiled custard. When all has become cool, mix well together in a large bowl the stewed gooseberries and the custard, and season the mixture well with nutmeg. It will be found very good.
Any other "fool" may be made in the same manner, of stewed fruit and boiled custard. It saves the trouble and expense of making paste, or can be prepared at a shorter notice. It is good either at dinner or tea.
We hope somebody will think of a better name for it.
POTATO PASTE.—
Boil three moderate-sized potatos till very soft. Then peel and mash them fine and smooth. Put them into a deep pan, and mix them well with a quart of flour and a half pint of lard; or what is better, with that quantity of beef dripping, or the dripping of fresh roast pork. Never for any sort of crust use mutton dripping. Having mixed the mashed potato, dripping, and flour into a lump, roll it out into a thick sheet. Sprinkle it with flour, and spread over it evenly a thin layer of dripping or lard. Fold it again, and set it in a cool place till wanted. It is good for meat pies, and for boiled meat pudding, or any sort of dumplings.
VERY PLAIN PIE-CRUST.—
Sift a quart of flour into a pan. Mix together, with a knife, a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, and a quarter of a pound of lard, and when they are well blended mix them with the flour, and form them into a dough with as little water as possible—the water being very cold. Use ice water in summer. Avoid touching the paste with your hands, but use a knife almost entirely. If your hand is warm, do not rub butter into flour with it, but manage all the mixing with a knife. If you have a cool hand, you may rub the butter into the flour, and reserve the lard to spread all over the sheet of dough. Roll it out lightly. Dredge with flour, fold it, spread on the lard, and roll it again. Divide it into two pieces, and roll out each of them. Trim the edges nicely, and make them to fit your pie-dish. If one is for bottom crust, roll it out thinnest towards the centre, having for this part of the process a very small rolling-pin, but a finger long. Grease with lard a deep dish, or soup plate, and line it with the bottom crust. Fill it up with the fruit you intend for the pie, sweetened well with brown sugar, and heaping the fruit high in the centre. Cover it with a lid of paste, trim, and notch the edges neatly, and make a cross slit in the top; set it in the oven, and bake it steadily till it is a light brown. When it seems to be done, lift up a small piece at one side to try if the fruit is soft. Apples for pies should be pared, cored, and sliced very thin. If green, stew them before they are baked.
If you have saved enough of the dripping of roast beef, veal, or pork, (skimmed and put away in a covered crock) it will be good shortening for common pies—far superior to salt butter, and much lighter. Salt renders pastry hard and heavy.