The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-07-27
CONCERNING PIES.
Pies Past, Present, and culture.

always be historical pies to US. ne ursJ OF
these was a goose pie; it came either from
Yorkshire or Durham. 1t was Titanic pie.
it was beautiful to look at, and its seasoning
was inspiration. 1t was a huge tomb of pie
with brown figures exquisite in design $50 ran
our boyish mind) as the frieze of the Egn
marbles. On the raised lid baked flowers aud
fruit were displayed, and the brownest flower
Of the nosegay served as a handle to open the
pie.
Within, coiled up and sleeping in concentric
folds, lay all the eatable animals of Noah's
Ark SO it seemed to our hungry and excited
vision. Day after day we came upon fresh
strata, differing in tint aud taste, yet all i'm
bedded in a transparent Jelly which only
genius could have fused into such mould.
What cOnglomerate it was The mere cata-
logue of the contents Of that pie would be a
small volume. 1t was an edible Chinese puz-
zle. There were, first, and foremost, two
young twin green geese (removed in the very
April time OF their sweet youth), one innocent
tucked inside the otheI-tOlded, as it were, in
the aims of his bigger brOther-and both en-
balmed in salt, pepper, mace, allspice,
and an ambery agglutination of jelly. They
were boneless: for so the learned embalmers
had wisely willed it. Then, in a snug and
stately corner lay savory turkey, broOding
over duck, fowl, aud a small covey of
partridges, mingling and interchangipg favors.
After whole months devotion to this pie,
breaking into a bin OF forcemeat with fine
flavor OF fresh herbs, we dug out CATER much
labor and research) the rosy tongue of some
unknown animal. Somewhat later a hare
rewarded our exertions, hidden in retired
nook where it had secreted itself with the
well-knoWn cunning of that timid but deli
cious creature. That pie was as full of plea
SAINT and strange surprises as Caliban's island
was full of sweet sounds that gave delight
and harmed not.
1.-THE second pie was pigeon pie-a mere
LOT 49, Al,,N ,lr,l,f h,,,
was all innocent little simple pie, of pigeons,
with three stiff legs sticking up in the centre
of the outer crust in q combined suicidal
manner, or like the stalks OF an extinct bou-
quet. 1t was quiet sombre London Sunday
morning when the pie began to be cooked
in the oven of the nearest baker.
We were Just through the dark lane
of a long fever, and we were weak, faint
nervous, restless. The family went to church.
The bells ceased. The house grew deadly
quiet Just then hunger fairly set in, and
grew every moment more exacting in its de-
mands. The leaden-footed hours-hOw they
crawled as we sat there starving at the window
But we still remember our delight when the
street at the church end began to darken with
coats and brighten with ribbons. Presently
the glum law stationer opposite, at nu Der
seven, returned home with his respectfully
miserable family, opened his door aad went
in, and then we heard the well-known family
voices, ana neaTu our KnOGRer go; ana tl6n
the pie-the pie-arrived from the bakers.
'There is an old west country proverb that
ethe devil never ventures west of the lamar,
for fear he should be put into a pe. There
is, indeed, some warrant for this quaint pro-
verb, :vr Devonshire people, either from an
innate fondness for pie, or from stolid and
reckless English dislike to the trouble of
cooking, have tendency to put everything
under crust. Ling copger, shrimps, LOBSTER
rocks, pilchard, leeks, oysters, turnips, pars-
ley, potatoes--they are all injured under the
same roof of ernst, and are all indiscrimi-
nately deyoured. Of all the west country
pies, SQUAD pie is, in our humble estimation,
the most ipcongruOus and the most detestable.
The odious composition is made of fat clumsy
mutton chops, embedded in layers OF sliced
apples, shredded onions, and-O tempora
o mores brown sugar! The result is
nausea, unsociability, and, in course of time,
hatred of the whole human race. The greasy,
sugary, oniony taste is associated, in our
mind, with the detested name of Bideford.
"Of the fish pies of Cornwall and Devon,
what can we say that is encouraging or salts
factory Ling is sickly, unwholesome look
ing fish, like consumptive cod, and can never
thrive-in or out of a pie. Cod is too dry and
tasteless for pie. Plchard pie, mixed with
leeks and filed up with scalded cream, an
nounces its own horrors. Oyster pie, how
ever, intermipgled with slices of sweetbread,
and the faintest ond most ethereal seasoning
of salt, pepper, and mace, is a dish for the
gods, painful to dwell upon when not on hand
to refer to. Eel pie needs no eulogium. To
us the eel pie is like the May bOugh and the
cowslips. 1t recalls the brightest scenes Of
youth.
Sand now, by due sequence, we come to
the emperor Of pies, the Rol des Rois, le brave
des braves, the Pergord pie. If Montepul-
ciano be the king of Italian wines, as Redi has
laid down in his joval bacchanalian poem, the
ID
good things, is the potentate of all possible
pies, as the haggis, according to Burns, is
t'the great ehieftain of the pudding race"
Into it are crowded all the choicest things of
the-sky, earth and ocean. The very making
OF it is pleasure. We revel over every item
of the recipe. What an amusement for a
wet day in the country
''You make minced forcemeat of green
truffes and little delicate cutting of basil,
thyme, and knotted marjoram-rarest herbs
of the garden. TO these you add w0odcocks'
liver, a little fat bacon, few crIrrants, the
flesh of wild fowl, some pepper and some
salt. Then lard with spikes of bacon the
breasts of two pheasants, two partridges, two
woOdcOcks and some moor game, divide the
backs, sever the legs and wings, and place q
whole pheasant, boned, in the centre. These
are to be seasoned with white pepper, little
Jamaica pepper, salt, and mace. TO receive
these spOils of earth and air, construct q
sarcophagus of classic form and of thick raised
crust.
Line this soft chest with slices of fine fat
bacon, Pave it with stuffng, and on this plea
oaOt bad Law tho Uama wi q liuht and lnUiuo