Lemon pie

“ I have such a cute little lemon that I want to put in the pie, Auntee, and yet I don't know exactly how to work it in. It would be too unkind to say that anybody would 'hand out a lemon' to dear, sick grandfather, but it's so tiny and cunning—hardly bigger than a lime. The groceryman found it in a box of lemons and gave it to me, asking if I needed anything that size for the [41] pie—you know I told him all about it. He said there was nothing in his Christmas stock too good for the Captain, and he'd like to send something, but it really seemed like all his goodies were forbidden fruit. ”

“ Line a deep tin with a crust a little thicker than for fruit pies.
Filling.—Four tablespoons lemon juice, grated rind of 1 lemon, 11⁄2 cups water, 1 cup sugar, 1⁄3 cup cornstarch, 3 egg yolks. Dissolve cornstarch in 4 tablespoons of water, put remainder of water, lemon juice and 1⁄2 the sugar into double boiler and let come to boiling point, then stir in the dissolved starch. Stir constantly until well thickened, then remove from direct heat, beat remaining sugar, lemon rind and yolks until creamy and stir into hot mixture. Pour into lined pie plate and bake in steady oven until well set. ”

“ Essence of lemon, nutmeg, or rosewater, are all good [64] spice for apple pies. Apples stewed in new cider, and molasses, with a few quinces and strained, with a little cinnamon in it makes nice pies. Dried apples for pies, should have boiling water turned on them, and stewed till tender, then add a little sour cider, and a little orange peel, and stew them a few moments longer, take them up, put in a little butter, sugar, and the juice and peel of a lemon improve them, they are better for being rubbed through a sieve. Fill your pie plates and bake the pies half an hour. ”

“ Remove from oven and when pie has cooled spread over it the stiffly beaten white of the egg, to which had been added one tablespoonful of sugar. Place pie in oven and brown a light fawn color.
"LEMON APPLE" PIE
Grate the yellow rind from a lemon (discard the white part of rind) , grate the remainder of the lemon, also pare and grate 1 apple. Add 11⁄2 cups of sugar, then add 2 well-beaten eggs. Pour this mixture into 1 large pie-tin lined with rich pastry; place on a top crust, pinch edges, moistened with water, together; bake in an oven with a steady heat. ”

“ Pies should always be left so that a current of air will pass under them while cooling to keep the crust from soaking.
★ Pastry for one Large Pie 21⁄2 cups flour, salt large 1⁄3 cup of cooking oil 1–11⁄2 teaspn. lemon juice ice water
Have all ingredients as nearly ice cold as possible. Dip the flour lightly into the cup with a spoon, do not shake it down. Mix salt with flour; pour oil over and chop it in with a spoon; do not mix much. Put the lemon juice in a cup, add water to make 1⁄4 of a cup, and pour over the flour and oil mixture, adding enough more water to make a rather soft dough ”

“ The best method of obtaining the essence of the lemon peel, is to rub all the yellow part of the peel off, with lumps of white sugar, and scrape off the surface of the sugar into a preserving pot, as [120] fast as it becomes saturated with the oil of the lemon. The sugar should be pressed down tight, and covered very close. A little of this sugar gives a fine flavor to puddings, cakes, and pies. This mode of preserving the essence of the lemon is superior to the one in which spirit is used, as the fine aromatic flavor of the peel is procured without any alloy. ”

“ Very little of what is called "Extract of Vanilla" is good, and it is more expensive than to make it yourself. Also, what is generally sold for essence of lemon is very inferior to real lemon juice.
JELLY OR MARMALADE PUDDING.— Divide the paste equally and line two puff-paste shells. Bake them empty; and while baking, beat till very light and thick, the yolks of six eggs. Mix the beaten egg with a liberal portion of any nice kind of fruit, jelly or marmalade, and boil it ten minutes in a sauce-pan, stirring it well. ”

“ The white part underneath is bitter, and will cause milk or cream to curdle, but it contains no particle of lemon flavor. Yet when lemon flavor is called for the [83] lemon is often grated right down to the pulp in parts, while the yellow rind is left on in patches.
A lemon should be grated evenly, beginning at the end and working round it, using as small a surface of the grater as possible, to prevent waste. The habit of turning the lemon as you grate comes as easily as to turn an apple under the knife when peeling. ”

“ One drachm, when dissolved in one ounce of water, is equal in strength to a like bulk of fresh lemon juice. To communicate the lemon flavour, it is only necessary to rub a lump of sugar on the rind of a lemon to become impregnated with a portion of the essential oil of the fruit, and to add the sugar to the lemonade, negus, punch, shrub, jellies or culinary sauces, prepared with the pure citric acid. ”

“ Lemons are greatly used in cookery, as dish and comestible garnish. When a whole lemon is used for marinades of fish, for the “blancs,” &c., it is well to peel it to the pulp, i.e., to remove the peel and the whole of the underlying white. The lemon is then cut into more or less large slices, according to the use for which it is intended.
The rind of a lemon thus peeled may be cut into bits and used in this form as the necessity arises. When cutting it up, flatten the rind inside uppermost on the table, and, with a very sharp and flexible knife, remove all the white ”

“ We acknowledge them with thanks, but do not print them, as they vary only slightly from recipes given in previous numbers.
Watervliet Centre, New York.
Here is a recipe for citron cake for Puss Hunter's cooking club: One tea-cup of sugar; two-thirds of a tea-cup of butter; two tea-cups of flour; half a tea-cup of milk; one tea-spoonful of soda dissolved in the milk; a little essence of lemon. Stir in bits of citron cut thin, and bake in hearts and rounds.
I have taken Young People since Christmas, and I look eagerly for it every week. I have two dolls, Nellie and Pearl. I am eleven years old. ”