Cookery for every household

Any kind of tinned meat may be used, beef, mutton, rabbit, &c. Mince it, or cut it in small pieces, removing any superfluous fat, but keeping the sauce or jelly with which it is preserved. If the tomatoes are fresh, wipe them and cut them in thin slices, but if tinned, break them or mash them up with a spoon. The haricot beans must be well cooked, and if these are not cared for, cooked rice, or cooked macaroni cut in small pieces, may be used in their place. Then make some potato pastry (Recipe 1448), roll it out about | an inch in thickness and line a greased pie dish with it. Fill up with the meat, beans, and tomato, seasoning to taste. If the meat should be very dry, a little stock or gravy may also be added. Cover the pie with more potato pastry and make a hole in the centre. Brush over with a little milk or beaten egg, and bake in a good oven. Time to bake, £ to 1 hour. Sufficient for 4 or 5 persons. 1461. Mutton Pie (Pate de Mouton) 1J lbs. mutton. 2 sheep’s kidneys. 1 shallot. 1 table-sp. flour. 1 tea-sp. chopped parsley. 4 or 5 parboiled potatoes 1 or 2 table-sps. chopped mushrooms. A little stock or water. Dripping crust or roughpuff pastry. Choose a piece of mutton without much bone or fat, wipe it and cut it in small pieces. Remove the skin and core from the kidneys and cut them in thin slices. Toss the meat and kidney in the flour and then sprinkle them with the chopped parsley, mushrooms, and shallot. Season with pepper and salt, and mix with the potatoes cut in slices. Put the mixture into a pie dish, piling it rather high in the centre, and pour in a little stock or water. Cover the pie with pastry according to directions given on p. 337, and bake in a good oven until sufficiently cooked. Note. — The mushrooms and shallot may be omitted and a little chopped onion added. A few slices of fresh tomato will give a nice flavour. Mutton by itself is rather greasy for a pie ; the potatoes are put in to absorb some of this grease. Time to cook, 1 \ to 2 hours. Sufficient for 4 or 5 persons. Probable cost, 2s. 1462. Pigeon Pie (Pat6 de Pigeons) 2 or 3 pigeons. 1 lb. rump steak. 1 table-sp. flour. 1 table-sp. butter or dripping. Seasoning. £ lb. ham or bacon. 1 or 2 hard-boiled eggs. 1 dessert-sp. chopped parsley. A little stock. Flaky pastry. Clean and prepare the pigeons, removing the head and neck, and cut them in quarters right through the bones. Chop off the feet and reserve some of them for decorating the pie. Wipe the steak and cut it in small pieces, toss these pieces in flour and then brown them in hot butter or dripping in a frying pan. Lift out when ready, and put this browned meat at the foot of a pie dish that is large enough to hold all the ingredients and season with pepper and salt. Arrange the pieces of pigeon and the ham or bacon cut in small pieces on the top, sprinkling them with the chopped parsley and more pepper and salt. Pile the pieces of pigeon rather high in the centre of the dish and arrange the hardboiled egg, cut in pieces, round. Pour in 2 or 3 table-spoonfuls of stock or water, and cover the pie with flaky or any other good crust, as directed on p. 337. Bake in a good oven. When the pie is ready, fill it up with a little more stock by means of a filler placed in the hole in the top.