Plum.—Mix well in a vessel a pound of sugar with a pound of butter, and then again with eight eggs, one at a time, also half a pound of raisins, half a pound of flour, a little rum, and a little yeast. Line a mould with buttered paper, turn the mixture into it, not filling it more than two-thirds full, place it in a warm but not quick oven for nearly two hours, remove the mould, and serve hot or cold.
Tea Cake.—Put half a pound of flour on the paste-board, and in the middle of it a pinch of salt, half an ounce of sugar, two eggs, four ounces of melted butter, and cold water enough to make a rather stiff paste. Knead well, roll down to about a quarter of an inch in thickness; cut it in pieces with a knife or paste-cutter; moisten the top with water by means of a brush, dust with sugar, and bake in an oven at about 370 degrees Fahr. Serve cold.
Viennois.—Make some biscuits in boxes, and when cold, cut off a little piece on the top, in the centre, which place you fill with peaches or apricots in compote; put two together; serve cold.
With Jelly.—Proceed as above in every particular, using currant or raspberry jelly instead of compote.
MEAT-PIES.
Pâtés de Viande.—Meat-pies are made in moulds without bottoms and which open in two, or are made of two pieces joined and fastened together with two pieces of wire. The size of the mould and that of the pie are according to taste. A pie may be made and filled with a reed-bird, or with a quail, or a partridge, or prairie-chicken, or with a dozen of them. We will give the receipt for one prairie-chicken.
Pâté of Game.—Bone a prairie-chicken as directed for birds, and cut it in about half a dozen slices or pieces. Grease the mould with butter and put it in a baking-pan. Put one pound of flour on the paste-board and make a hole in the middle; place in it six ounces of butter, one egg, a pinch of salt, and about one gill and a half of cold water, and knead the whole well. Roll it down to a thickness of about one-quarter of an inch, and of a rectangular shape; fold in two, and roll down again. Repeat this from six to twenty times; that is, till the paste is soft. The last time roll it down to a thickness of one-third of an inch, and give it as round a shape as possible. Dust the upper side slightly with flour, fold in two in this way: turn the side farthest from you on the other, so that the side of the paste nearest to you will be somewhat round, and the opposite one will be straight. By pulling with the hands the two ends of the straight side toward you, it will make it somewhat round also; then, take hold of the paste exactly in the places where you were pulling; put it in the mould with the side nearest to you on the top; open it gently, and with the hands spread it so that the bottom and sides of the mould will be perfectly lined with it. With a sharp knife cut the paste even with the top of the mould. Line the sides of the paste with thin slices of fat salt pork. Mix in a bowl one pound and a half of sausage-meat with two eggs, salt, pepper, a pinch of cinnamon and one of nutmeg; place a layer of this mixture about half an inch thick on the bottom of the paste; then a layer of thin slices of fat salt pork; one of slices of prairie-chicken; again a layer of sausage-meat, one of salt pork, etc., layer upon layer, till the mould is nearly full, finishing with a layer of sausage-meat, and giving to the top of the pâté a convex form, but leaving a space of about half an inch unfilled all around, so that the top of the pâté will be about one inch higher than the sides, and half an inch higher than the sides of the mould and paste. The cover of the pâté is made with the same paste as the bottom and sides, or with puff-paste.
Roll the paste down to a thickness of about one-eighth of an inch. Glaze the sides of the paste in the mould with egg; that is, the space (half an inch) left unfilled; put the paste for the cover on the pâté; press it gently against the other paste with the fingers in order to cause the two pastes to adhere; with a sharp knife cut off the paste even with the mould. Make a hole in the middle and on the top of the cover about one inch in diameter; cut five pieces of paste about three inches square, dust them slightly with flour; place them one upon another on your left thumb, keeping it erect; then with the right hand take hold of the pieces, bringing the edges together so that the top will form a ball; with a sharp knife make two cuts across and through the five pieces; form a kind of stem as if you were to imitate a mushroom with these pieces, and plant the stem in the hole; when baked it looks like a flower. Glaze the cover with egg; cut strips of paste in different shapes with a knife or paste-cutter, place them on it according to fancy, and bake in an oven at about 390 degrees Fahr. The strips of paste may also be glazed with egg. It will take about two hours to bake. As soon as cold, cut the cover all around and remove it; fill the empty places with meat or calf's-foot jelly and put it on the dish. Chop some of the same jelly, put some all around it and on the top; cut some of it also in fancy shapes with a knife or paste-cutter; place it all around the dish and on the top of the pâté, and serve.
The cut following represents a plain pie; that is, without any decoration, and immediately after having removed the mould.