Domestic Cookery, Useful Receipts, and Hints to Young Housekeepers

of each with a pair of scissors. Mince Pies not so Rich. Take four pounds of beef after it has been boiled and chopped, one of suet, two of sugar, two of raisins, and four of chopped apples, mix these together with a pint of wine and cider, to make it thin enough, season to your taste with mace, nutmeg and orange peel; if it is not sweet enough, put in more sugar. Warm the pies before they are eaten. Where persons are not fond of suet, put butter instead, and stew the apples instead of so much cider. Farmers' Mince Pies. When you kill a beef, save the head for pies; it is some trouble to prepare it, but it is very nice for the purpose. Split the head, take out the brains and eyes, wash it well in cold water, and soak it all night with two hog's heads that have been cleaned; in the morning, boil them till you can take out the bones easily; skim off the froth as it rises, or it will stick to the meat; pick out the bones, and chop it fine, with three pounds of suet. This should be done the day before you want to bake. Mix to this quantity of meat, two gallons of chopped apples, four pounds of raisins, half a gallon of boiled molasses, a pint of currant wine, a tea-cup of rose brandy, an ounce of cinnamon, orange peel and mace, from two to four nutmegs, and sweet cider enough to make it the right thickness; if the cider is not sweet, put in more molasses; when all is mixed, it is best to bake a small pie, as you can alter the seasoning, if it is not to your taste. If you have not raisins, dried cherries or small grapes, that have been preserved in molasses, are very good, or stewed dried apples, instead of green; and where you have no cider, stew the apples in plenty of water, so as to have them very soft; a little good vinegar, sweetened and mixed with water,