Mince pie

“ Mince pie is most palatable when served warm, but it is entirely permissible to make several pies at a time and then warm them in the oven before serving. In this way they may be kept over for several days. Pie of this kind made with the usual ingredients is a heavy dessert, for it contains a certain amount of protein material and is high in fat and carbohydrate. This fact should be taken into consideration in meal planning, so that the dessert may balance properly with the other food.
MINCE PIE
4 lb. ”

“ Not merely the old traditional mince pie, but a thousand strictly American seedlings from that main stock, evinced the power of American housewives to adapt old institutions to new uses. Pumpkin pies, cranberry pies, huckleberry pies, cherry pies, green-currant pies, peach, pear, and plum pies, custard pies, apple pies, Marlborough-pudding pies—pies with top crusts and pies without—pies adorned with all sorts of fanciful flutings and architectural strips laid across and around, and otherwise varied, attested the boundless fertility of the feminine mind when once let loose in a given direction. ”

“ Pepper and salt sprinkled his clothing,158 which seemed made from orange and lemon peel. About his waist was a queer girdle from which wee sugar bowls, molasses jugs and vinegar cruets jingled together, while he tossed gay coloured apples into the air, caught them skilfully and then disposed of them in various pockets.
With a gay nod he cried, “Can no one answer the question? Let me tell you a little about myself, and then perhaps you can.
“You have all told how necessary you are. Let me tell you there would never have been a mince pie without me, nor anything else worth while. ”

“ The definition in Murray's Oxford Dictionary is "a mixture made of currants, raisins, sugar, suet, apples, almonds, candied peel, etc., and sometimes meat chopped small; used in mince pies"; which shows that in England, also, meat is not always an ingredient. It is only fair to consumers, however, that the law should compel the manufacturers to print the ingredients in each case on the label. Mince pie with meat is certainly better than mince pie without.
Perhaps I erred in saying that pumpkin pie is, next to apple pie, the most characteristic American pastry dish. ”

“ Squeeze the juice from the oranges and grate the rinds. Force the suet through a food chopper or chop it with a chopping knife. Mix all these ingredients, add the sugar, liquids, and spices, and place in a large vessel. Simmer slowly for 1 hour. Stir frequently to prevent scorching. If the mince meat is cooked in the oven, it is less likely to scorch. Seal in fruit jars the same as for canned fruit and store for future use.
To bake mince pie, fill the lower crust with the mince-meat mixture, place the upper crust in position, and put the pie into a hot oven. ”

“ Our pies have been laughed at, but they also are fit to eat, especially mince-pie, which is first cousin to an English plum-pudding.
Our puddings are like our Western scenery, heavy but magnificent. Our ices have reached, under our foreign imported artists, the greatest perfection. Our fruit is abundant and highly flavoured. We have not yet perhaps known how to draw the line as to desserts. The great too much prevails.
Do we not make our dinners too long and too heavy? How great an artist would he be who should so graduate a dinner that there would be no to-morrow in it! ”

“ Mince Pie.
The best kind of meat for mince pies is neat’s tongue and feet—the shank of beef makes very good pies. Boil the meat till perfectly tender—then take it up, clear it from the bones and gristle, chop it fine enough to strain through a sieve, mix it with an equal weight of tart apples, chopped very fine. ”

“ Throughout the summer months the pie trade flourishes with unabated vigor. Each successive fruit, as it ripens and comes to market, adds a fresh impetus to the traffic. As autumn waxes every week supplies a new attraction and a delicious variety; as it wanes into winter, a good store of apples are laid up for future use; and so soon as Jack Frost sets his cold toes upon the pavement, the delicate odor of mince-meat assails the passer-by, and reminds him that Christmas is coming, and that the pieman is ready for him. It is only in the early spring that the pie-shop is under a temporary cloud. ”

“ Gradually the meat was left out, and more sweets introduced, until the product resulted in the modern mince pie, in which, however, some housewives still introduce a little chopped meat. There is no luck for the wight who does not eat a mince pie at Christmas. If he eat one, he is sure of one happy month ”

“ If one could only make one's self see the piece of mince pie as it is, it would not be difficult. If one could see it on the plate there and see the not taking it as a little wedge-shaped rivet, a little triangular link of coupling in the chain that keeps one holding on forty years longer to this planet, a piece of mince pie left on a plate would become a Vision. ”

“ The fruit should never be floured in making mince pie.
Mince-meat, 2.—2 pounds currants, 5 pounds peeled and cored apples, 2 pounds lean boiled beef, 1 pound beef suet, 3⁄4 pound citron, 21⁄2 pounds coffee sugar, 2 pounds raisins, 1 pound seedless raisins, 2 tablespoons cinnamon, 1 nutmeg, 1 tablespoon each mace, cloves, and allspice, 1 pint each Madeira wine and brandy. Wash currants, dry, pick them; stone the raisins; remove skin and sinews from the beef. Chop each ingredient up, separately, very fine; place as soon as done in large pan, finally adding spices, Madeira, and brandy ”

“ Said she sympathetically:
"That is the way with all pleasures in the after world. They seem to have no savor. Even the milk is chalk and water."
"I suppose that is why this mince pie tastes so insipid," I responded, toying absently with a bit of pastry on my plate.
"Of course it is," she said. "Don't you see it is only the ghost of a mince pie."
"Then it seems that—"
But at this point the banquet was suddenly interrupted by a convulsive swaying and creaking of timbers. The table rocked, the lights in the silver candelabra flickered, and all was darkness. ”

“ To have company to dinner and not set pie before them would be considered a breach of an ancient and well-grounded custom: the best of puddings or other forms of dessert would be regarded only as an evasion. Pie was not out of place at supper; and the instance of one family comes to mind where steamed mince-pie for breakfast was eaten, and considered both appropriate and delicious.
At Farmer Loper's harvest-table sweet milk and fresh buttermilk were among the drinks, but most of the men preferred coffee, and drank it hot out of the saucers. ”

“ It was made with eggs, hot beer, sugar, and rum, and was poured from one jug into another until it became quite white and covered with froth. A sweet giblet pie was one of the standing dishes at a Christmas dinner—a kind of mince-pie, into which the giblets of a goose, boiled and finely chopped, were put instead of beef. Cornwall is noted for its pies, that are eaten on all occasions; some of them are curious mixtures, such as squab-pie, which is made with layers of well-seasoned fat mutton and apples, with onions and raisins. ”

“ It is therefore to other properties than those which make their appeal to the palate that we must confine ourselves in our mention of mince-pie.
The origin of this famous dish, like that of the heroic in all kinds and classes, is involved in fable. By some it has been supposed, from the Oriental ingredients which enter into its composition, to have a reference (as probably had also the plum-porridge of those days) to the offerings made by the wise men of the East ”

“ Christmas is kept throughout the country, and mince-pies are eaten with a quiet conscience and very good appetite by everybody. And what is vastly to the credit of the community, while all have returned to the mince-pie, all are quite capable of doing justice to a good pumpkin-pie also, and by a very happy state of things, the rival pastries are found on the same tables, from Thanksgiving to Ash-Wednesday. Mince-pies are even more in favor in this country than in England; some people eat them all the year round ”

“ Mock Mince Pie.—To four quarts green tomatoes, chopped fine, allow three pounds brown sugar, the juice of two lemons and their yellow rind, grated, a tablespoonful each cinnamon, allspice and salt, half a teaspoonful cloves and a tablespoonful of grated nutmeg. Put into a porcelain lined kettle and simmer gently until reduced one half in bulk. Now add two pounds and one-half seeded raisins, or part raisins and part currants or chopped prunes and a cup of boiled cider. Then cook an hour or two longer until thick. Bake as any mince pie. ”

“ Their mince-pies are nobly made, and their apple-pies are unsurpassed. Some years ago there used to be a very pretty girl at this house, and one day, while I was struggling rapidly with a piece of mince-pie, I was so unfortunate as to wink slightly at her. ”

“ It is common to hear every form of bodily degeneracy and infirmity attributed to this particular favorite food. I see no reason or sense in it. Mr. Emerson believed in pie, and was almost indignant when a fellow-traveller refused the slice he offered him. “Why, Mr.________,” said be, “what is pie made for!” If every Green Mountain boy has not eaten a thousand times his weight in apple, pumpkin, squash, and mince pie, call me a dumpling. And Colonel Ethan Allen was one of them,—Ethan Allen, who, as they used to say, could wrench off the head of a wrought nail with his teeth. ”

“ Mince Pie.—Put a large-sized tongue into boiling water, with a little salt and pepper. A fresh tongue is better than one smoked and dried. Boil slowly till tender, then take out and dip for a minute in cold water; then peel it, beginning at the tip, as it peels easier. Cut off all the gristly parts and chop fine. Pare and chop enough of the best flavored sour apples to fill a three-pint bowl when chopped. The finer the meat and apples are chopped the better the pies will be. ”

“ Mince Pie should always be made with two crusts. Line pie plate with pastry page 26, fill with mince meat, cover with pastry and bake in hot oven 25 minutes.
MINCE MEAT 2 lbs. fresh lean beef, boiled and chopped fine when cold 1 lb. suet, chopped very fine 5 lbs. chopped apples 1 lb. seeded raisins 2 lbs. currants 3⁄4 lb. sliced citron 11⁄2 teaspoons cinnamon 1 grated nutmeg 2 tablespoons ground mace 1 tablespoon ground cloves 1 tablespoon allspice 1 tablespoon fine salt 21⁄2 lbs. brown sugar 1 qt. sherry or boiled cider 1 pt. brandy or grape juice
Mix all ingredients thoroughly. ”

“ Pound the whole briskly for five minutes, then add two ounces of well-pounded macaroons (No. 1210) , and mix again for two minutes more. Line a pie-plate as for mince pie (No. 1082) , pour all the preparation over, cover, and bake exactly the same as for the mince pie; when arranged on a dessert-dish, decorate the top and sides artistically with two ounces of candied cherries, three ounces of pear, one of angelica, two of apricot, and two of pineapple, all the fruits being candied, then send to the table.
1106. Peach Tarts. ”

“ Even in the best hotels and restaurants of London there is no sign of pie on the bill of fare, and the French cooks, who can make old hash taste like choice bits of fresh meat or better, have not learned the science of constructing pie, mince, apple, pumpkin, cherry or any kind of pie. I do not know how they do it, but the railroad restaurants are run without pie. Even the crowned heads go through life without knowing the taste of pumpkin pie, and one of my ideas of royalty in my early days was that a king or prince could have custard pie with flaky brown crust three times a day. ”

“ Divide butter in three or four parts and chill; chop one portion into the flour, mix with ice water, and roll in the remainder. Roll and fold several times. If it grows sticky, chill till it hardens.
Mock Mince Pie—No. 1.
2 pounds powdered crackers, 1 cup molasses, 1 of cider, 1 of chopped raisins, 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 of clove, 2 of cinnamon, 1 of mace, 1 of nutmeg. This quantity makes two pies. Bake forty minutes.
Mock Mince Pie—No. 2.
1 cup bread or cracker crumbs, 1 of raisins, 1 of vinegar, 1 of sugar, 1 of molasses, 1 of water, 1/2 of butter, 1 of currants. Spice to taste. ”

“ Peek-a-boo waist is the pneumonia waist in September. THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY OCTOBER The baby's favorite, often heard at night—a high-bawl in A flat. HELPFUL HINT FOR NOVEMBER
Do not put brandy in your mince pies. It spoils it—the brandy, we mean.
We cannot speak too strongly against the pernicious habit of doctoring mince meat with brandy. It lures men on. The first baleful bite rouses the appetite, and soon they will be eating mince pie after mince pie all day, and eventually be laid up with indigestion. ”

“ To be sure I am, and a lot of work it took160 to make this pie. All over the world many, many people had many busy days.
“Can’t you just see them picking the raisins; sugaring the citron; grinding spice; cutting the wheat; packing the oranges; taking care of the cow; gathering the apples, and crushing them in the mill for cider?
“Oh, my dears, there is always work. Johnny Appleseed did an endless amount of work, and see what came from it. ”

“ There were no mince-pies in the larder, no plum-puddings in their fat cloth wrappings, no jars of lemon cheese, no cakes, no shortbread, not so much as a common bun-loaf, and Aunt Margaret hung her head, and felt that a blot had fallen upon her escutcheon.
“I can’t fancy Christmas with bought mince-pies!” she said sadly. “I’ve kept house for forty years and never failed to make four plum-puddings—one for Christmas Day, one for New Year, one for company, and one for Easter. Some people make them without eggs nowadays, but I keep to the old recipe. ”