The home cook book

Stem and cleanse a pound of raisins and let them simmer one hour in water enough to cover them. Take from the fire, cool and stone. Add the grated rind and juice of one lemon, a cup of sugar, two tablespoons of flour dissolved in a little of the raisin water, and the rest of the raisin water. These pies have an upper and under crust. RHUBARB OR PIEPLANT PIE Unless you have stalks young and exceedingly tender, begin by stripping off the skins of the stalks. Then cut the stalks in pieces half an inch long. Cover a pie tin with crust, pinching the edge up high. Strew over it thick pieces of pieplant mixed with sugar, allowing to a cup of the rhubarb a cup of sugar. Sprinkle over all a tablespoon of flour and add a tablespoon of cold water. Lay on the upper crust after you have cut center vent holes, pinch down well to keep the juice in, and bake in a well-heated oven about half an hour. RHUBARB MERINGUE PIE Cut rhubarb into thin slices ; measure a coffee cup heaping full. Beat the yolks of two eggs with half a cup of sugar, one tablespoon of flour, and one-fourth of a cup of water. Mix with the rhubarb. Turn into a pastry-lined pie tin and bake in a moderate oven until the crust is done and filling well set. Beat the whites of the eggs until stiff, add two tablespoons of .pulverized sugar and beat again. Heap roughly over the top of the pie while hot. Set back in the oven to brown delicately. Serve cold. GREEN TOMATO PIE Slice green tomatoes, put in an earthen saucepan, and sweeten with equal quantities of sugar and New Orleans molasses, and no water. Cook over moderate heat until the tomatoes are clear. Line a pie plate with paste, lay the tomatoes in it, and cover them with the syrup. Cut two slices of lemon in small pieces, and mix in with the tomatoes. Sprinkle flour thickly over the top. Put a rather thick crust over and bake. When the pie is cold sprinkle over with powdered sugar. ALMOND STRAWS OR TARTS Sift together and thoroughly mix one pound of pastry flour, one teaspoon of salt, and one teaspoon of baking powder. Blanch and pulverize half a pound of almonds. Mix the almonds with the flour ingredients and work in half a cup of shortening made half of butter and half of lard. Mix with ice water as in making common pastry, cut in the shapes you wish, and bake in a hot oven. CHEESE BISCUIT Roll puff paste thin and grate a fine American cheese upon it until it is thickly covered. Over the cheese dash cayenne. Fold the paste on itself and roll out thin. Cut in the form you wish, brush with a brush dipped in the beaten white of an egg, and bake a light brown in a quick oven. CHEESE STRAWS Mix together with your hand half a pound of flour, five ounces of butter, five ounces of grated American cheese, two eggs, a pinch of mustard, and salt and pepper to your taste. When you have this in a smooth dough, lay it on your pastry board and roll it out thin, have it say a fifth or a sixth of an inch thick. Cut it in straws four or five inches long, and bake on tin plates in a quick oven till a golden brown.