My mother's cook book

Line a pie tin with the pie crust, see page 185, and putting the eggs and sugar into a bowl beat them together until the eggs become very light. . Add to this the milk, and pour all into the crust lined pie tin, place the whole in a moderate oven, and bake the pie for half an hour. When done, grate over the surface the nutmeg, and serve cold or hot as the taste may suggest, although custard pie should be cooled at once if desired cold, as the crust soaks with standing, and becomes unpalatable. Pumpkin Pie. — One-half of a pumpkin, three eggs, one pint of milk, one-half teaspoonful of grated nutmeg, one saltspoonful of powdered mace, four ounces of ■ sugar. l88 PIES AND PASTRIES. Pare the pumpkin of its yellow rind, retaiove the seeds, slice and cut the pumpkin into small pieces, and placing these in a saucepan, cover them with cold water, and putting the saucepan over the fire, stew the contents , until quite soft and nearly dry, when the pumpkin should be pressed through a cullender and made quite smooth. Take one pint of the stewed pumpkin, stir into it the , milk and sugar, beat the eggs until very light, and add these also, after which line a deep pie tin with the pie crust, pour into this enough of the pumpkin mixture to fill it within a quarter of an inch of the top, and place the tin an a quick oven and bake for twenty minutes. When done, the spice should be grated over the tpp and the pie then be returned for a moment to the hottest part of the oven to brown a little on the surface. There will be sufficient of the pumpkin mixture to fill two pie tins, which may be used at once if required, or set aside until the following day, as pumpkin pies require to be eaten when quite fresh, or the crust becomes soaked and indigestible. Note. — Squash pie may be prepared in the same way as the pumpkin pies. Mince Pie. — Fourteen pounds of brown sugar, eight pounds of suet, eight pounds of raisins, eight pounds of currants, oije-quarter pound of mixed spice, two pounds of citron, one-half gallon of brandy, one tablespoonful of powdered ginger, one tablespoonful of powdered cinnamon, three ounces of apple, one-half gill of cider, two ounces of lean boiled beef, two heaped tablespoonfuls of strawberry jam. , MINCE PIE. 189 To prepare the mince meat, which should stand at least one month before being used, skin first the suet and chop it very finely. Seed the raisins and chop these also very finely. Wash the currants well and drying them thoroughly, chop these finely with the citron, which must first be cut in very thin slices. Place the chopped ingredients in a large bowl, mix them thoroughly together and add to this the sugar, the mixed spice, cinnamon and ginger, and stirring all well together, pour over the brandy, and stir all again until thoroughly saturated with the moisture. This mince should be packed for keeping, into a stonejar and closely covered. When a pie is desired, take out of the jar six heaped tablespoonfuls of the mince, put it into a bowl and mix the cider and strawberry jam, also the beef which must be minced exceedingly fine. Chop the apple also very finely and stir this together with the mixture in the bowl ; after which line a deep pie tin with puff paste — see page 182. pour the mince prepared as above into it, cover all, with a thin sheet of the paste cut to the proper size, and pinching the covering firmly to the lining paste at the edges, cut two or three gashes in the top to let the steam escape while the pie is baking, brush all over with a little white of egg or milk and placing the tin in a quick oven bake the pie for three-quarters of an hour. Note— There is; a Scottish proverb that "mince meat becomes poison if minced too fine or kept too long," implying that it is impossible to do either. Mince prepared as above may be kept six months or a year if desired. ,