The Laurel Health Cookery: A Collection of Practical Suggestions and Recipes for the Preparation of Non-Flesh Foods in Palatable and Attractive Ways

the space). Return to the oven and by slow cooking it may not run out again; if it does, take it out again, but do not leave it out until the fruit is perfectly cooked. It would be too bad to waste all the labor of making a pie by serving it underdone. Make pies without under crust when preferred. Put a strip of paste around the edge of a shallow pudding dish or deep pie pan, fill dish with prepared fruit, sugar and flour, cover with a lid of paste, press on to the strip and bake. Fillings of squash, pumpkin or sweet potato pies may be baked on pie pans, in custard cups or in pudding dishes, without a crust, and with or without a meringue. Serve fruit pies the day they are baked. Those that are unavoidably left over, put into the oven and just heat through before serving, to make like fresh pies. Apple pies may be put together at night, kept in the ice box and baked the next morning. For custard or other deep pies, cut the crust with the shears about ½ inch larger than the pan, moisten the under side of the edge slightly and pinch it up with floured thumb and finger so that it will stand up above the edge of the pan. The crust may be pinched up before trimming and cut around the edge of the pan with a knife. It is a good plan to set the prepared crust in the ice box long enough to become firm before filling. Crust may be put on to several pans when making pies one day and baked when desired. Several crusts can be baked at a time, then just heated before using. To bake before filling without blistering, put pastry on to one pan, set another of the same size into it and bake between the two. Another way is to cover the pastry with paraffine paper and fill to the depth of ½ in. with flour. The partially browned flour may be used in soups and gravies afterwards.