their burning. When
soft, sweeten and season them to the taste. When apples are ripe, they
make better pies not to be stewed before baking. Fill your pie plates,
cover them with a thick crust, and bake them from half to three-quarters
of an hour. When baked sufficiently, cut the upper crust through the
centre, remove it carefully with a broad knife, put a piece of butter,
of the size of a walnut, into a pie, sweeten it to your taste, and if
the apples are not tart enough, squeeze in the juice of part of a
lemon--flavor the pie with either nutmeg, rosewater, or grated lemon
peel. Apples cut into quarters, without paring, and stewed soft in new
cider and molasses, make good plain pies. The apples should be strained
after stewing, and seasoned with cinnamon or nutmeg. If made quite
sweet, it will keep good several months. Dried apples should have
boiling water turned on to cover them, and stewed till very soft. If
they are not tart enough, turn in sour cider, when they are partly
stewed. A little orange peel stewed with the apples, gives them a fine
flavor. Season them, when soft, with sugar and nutmeg, and strain them
if you like.

240. _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. If the meat is not fat, put in a little
suet, or melted butter. Moisten the whole with cider--sweeten it to the
taste with sugar, and very little molasses--add mace, cinnamon, cloves,
and salt, to the taste. If you wish to make your pies rich, put in wine
or brandy to the taste, and raisins, citron, and Zante currants. The
grated rind and juice of lemons improve the pie. Make the pies on
shallow plates, with apertures in the upper crust, and bake them from
half to three-quarters of an hour, according to the heat of the oven.
Meat prepared for pies in the following manner, will keep good several
months, if kept in a cool dry place: To a pound of finely chopped meat,
a quarter of a pound of suet, put half an ounce of mace, one ounce of
cinnamon, a quarter of an ounce of cloves, two tea-spoonsful of salt.
Add if you like the following fruits: half a pound of seeded raisins,
half a pound of Zante currants, a quarter of a pound of citron. Put in
half a pint of French brandy or