Fruit Pies Recipe

Unless some _sweetness_ at the bottom lie,

Who cares for all the crinkling of the pie!

KING.

Fruit pies for family use are generally made with common paste. Allow

three quarters of a pound of butter to a pound and a half of flour.

Peaches and plums for pies should be cut in half, and the stones taken

out. Cherries also should be stoned, and red cherries only should be

used for pies. Apples should be cut into very thin slices, and are much

improved by a little lemon-peel. Apples stewed previous to baking,

should not be done till they break, but only till they are tender. They

should then be drained in a cullender, and chopped fine with a knife or

edge of a spoon. In making pies of juicy fruit, it is a good way to set

a small teacup on the bottom crust, and lay the fruit round it. The

juice will collect under the cup, and not run out at the edges or top of

the pie. The fruit should be mixed with a sufficient quantity of sugar,

and piled up in the middle, so as to make the pie highest in the centre.

The upper crust should be pricked with a fork. The edges should be

nicely crimped with a knife. If stewed fruit is put in warm, it will

make the paste heavy. If your pies are made in the form of shells, the

fruit should always be stewed first, or it will not be sufficiently

done, as the shells (which should be made of puff paste) must not bake

so long as covered pies.

Fruit pies with lids should have loaf sugar grated over them.