Never use suet for baked paste. It is only for dumplings and pot-pies. Bread dough, or any dough made with yeast, is not good when boiled, becoming tough and leathery, and being very unwholesome.
Except in very plain country places a fruit pie, with two crusts, (under and upper) is now seen but rarely. Meat pies, or birds, however, should have two crusts. The gravy is a great improvement to the under one. English people usually make their fruit pies with a top-crust only, putting a turned down tea-cup under the centre of the lid to collect the juice, (of course removing the cup when the pie is cut.) It is a good method in a country where the cost of flour is high.
Too much economy in the shortening will infallibly make the crust very poor, hard, heavy, and unwholesome. If you cannot afford dessert paste, do not attempt pies at all; but substitute a plain charlotte, or slices of bread and butter, covered with stewed fruit, sweetened, and laid in a deep dish.
COMMON FRUIT PIES.—
Make the paste as above. For baking, use only apples that are juicy, and rather sour. If green, stew them before they are put in the pie, and make them very sweet with brown sugar. Peaches should be peeled and quartered, leaving out the stones. Of cherries, take the large red juicy pie cherries. Black cherries, (when baked) go all to stones, and they are not worth the trouble of cooking, though very good when eaten from the trees. Currants must be carefully stripped from the stems, and made very sweet. Gooseberries must be "top and tailed," and require great sweetening; so do cranberries. Blackberries make good plain pies, and are very juicy if ripe. All pies should be well filled.
Pies may be made of ripe wild grapes, stewed in molasses or maple sugar.
EXCELLENT PLAIN PASTE.—
Sift into a deep pan a quart and a pint of the best superfine flour. Have ready (set on ice, and covered with a thick double cloth) a pound of the very best fresh butter. When you want to use it, cut it into four quarters. Cut one quarter into very little bits, and with a broad knife mix it well into the flour, adding, by degrees, a very little water, no more than half a tumbler. Some flour, however, requires more water than others. Avoid touching the dough with your hands, in case they should be warm. Take out the lump of dough, dredge it with flour, and lay it on your pasteboard. Keep on a plate near you a little extra flour for sprinkling and rolling. Roll out the sheet of dough very thin, having floured the rolling-pin to prevent its sticking. Place, with a knife, the second quarter of butter in little bits all over the sheet of paste, at equal distances. Then fold it square, (covering the butter with the corners of paste) dredge it, and roll it out again to receive the third quarter of butter. Repeat this again, till all the butter is in; always rolling very fast, and pressing on lightly. You will see, towards the last, the paste puffing into little blisters all over the surface; a sign of success. When the last layer of butter is all in, roll the whole into a large sheet; roll it round like a scroll, and put it away in a cold place, but not so cold as to freeze it, for it will then be spoiled. When you are ready for it bring it out, cut it down, and roll out each piece ready for use. There is no better family paste than this, for all sorts of pies; meat or bird pies, especially.