BEEF PATTIES.—
A nice way of disposing of underdone roast beef, is to mince fine all the lean, and a very little of the fat. Season it with cayenne, and powdered nutmeg, or mace, or else chopped sweet herbs. If you have any stewed mushroom-gravy, moisten the meat with that. Make a nice paste, and cut it into small circular sheets, rolled out not very thin. Cover one half of each sheet of paste with the minced beef (not too near the edge) and fold over the other half, so as to form a half moon. Wet your fingers with cold water, and pinch together the two edges of the half moon. Then crimp them with a sharp knife. Lay the patties in square baking pans, prick them with a fork, and bake them brown. Or you may fry them in lard. Serve them up hot, as side dishes.
Cold veal, minced with cold ham, or tongue, makes very nice patties; also cold chicken or turkey.
A BEEF STEAK PIE.—
Stew two pounds or more, of fine tender sirloin steaks, divested of fat and bone, and cut rather thin. Season them with a very little salt and pepper; and, when about half done, remove them from the fire, and keep them warm, saving all the gravy. Make a nice paste, allowing to two quarts of flour one pound and a quarter of fresh butter. Divide the butter into four quarters. Rub one half into the pan of flour, and make it into a dough with, a very little cold water. Roll it out into a large sheet, and with a broad knife stick over it, at equal distances, one of the remaining divisions of butter. Then sprinkle it with more flour, fold it, and roll it out again into a large sheet. Put on the remainder of the butter in bits, as before. Then fold it again. Cut the paste into equal halves, and roll them out into two sheets, trimmed into round or oval forms. With one sheet line a pie-dish, and fill it with your meat, adding, if convenient, some mushrooms, or some fresh oysters, or the soft part of a few clams, and some blades of mace. Use the other sheet of paste as a cover for the pie, uniting the edges with the under crust by crimping it nicely. Of the trimmings of the paste, make an ornament or tulip, and stick it into the slit at the top of the pie.
MEAT PIES—
May be made in the above manner 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.