Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1901-01-17
AS TO MINCE PIE

New York sun
The Boston Advertiser emits this
sentence, which, with all Just dues of
respect, we must call superfiuous.
IA whole centJry has failed TO i'm
prove New England mince pie.
A thousand years will flap their
cloudy wings and crow delightedly and
think no small beer Of themselves; and
yet New England minoe pie will not be
improved To gild refined gold, to
paint the lily! And not the Puritan
aud Pilgrim, the Congregationalist aud
Brownist minre pie alone. Pie is q
matter Of pieces and not Of sections
The Catholics of Mary land, the Church
Of England, men of Virginia, the
Quakers of Pennsylvania, could make
the wOndrous product Perhaps IL was
richer along the james and the York
than in the Blackstone Valley or along
the Connecticut. But there is no
telling now, Perhaps the South had
more a gift for plum pudding and the
North a more serious call to mince
pies. 1t is enough to know that great
pies were made, compositions OF
genius, dramas in minoe meat; and
they were eaten by great people. No
paltry race could have survived those
stalwart dishes.
DO you like them cold or hotP Sub
stitute "andn for lori and you have
the proper answer. All, tine theology
aud the politics. rredestiuation and
free will, Mexican War and Lecompton
Constitution, heresies OF Theodore
Parker, rappings of tho Fox sisters and
of the Atlantic telegraph, all things
under heaven that have been talked
about over mince pe Fighters ana
thinkers thrived upon it, 1t thinned
out the weaklings. We salute the I'M
diminished prime of mince pie Malice
domestic, foreign envy, nothing could
> touch him or her who was worthy to
eat that Potent and orulent cate.
In old deserted parts Of old towns
you will sometimes find abandoned
] churches or meetin' houses. Vestiges
OF the sheds =" perhaps, where the
t rude forefathers of the hamlet baited
o their horses and ate minoe pies and
y considered the good "doctrinal" dis
r courses of the old preachers strong in
Z the faith. The old preachers with
j their Greek and Hebrew, with their
D firm belief in infant damnation, with
their scholarship aud their farming
Z the old preachers and mfnisters that
8 the children uspd to make a leg to as
Q they passed along the streets. Would
It Jonathan Edwards have been possible
y without mince pie? We vote No. There
!. is fine strong fruity favor about the
y old clergymen as about the old mince
J, pies. They we're solid and vet tney
n were orisn. And under their crust
. too, was line strength aud swneines!
Of old brandy and old cider and fruit
q Of strange richness. And 10 times no
u yet remote flourished the old 'Squirei
N and the great race Of Deacons, most o
II the former and some of the latter u
~ blue dress coat and brass buttons ant
10 buff waistcoat like the godlike DAME
I'd the only trouble with people now 4
10 that they are too much alike. The.
o. wear Clothes of no distinction. The
ik eat food OF no distinction. Mince pi
OF was not made every day. 1t was oftel
70 kept a long time. 1t was like rar
D. vintage. Thanksgiving and Christmas
70 1t had new dignity. Happy year tina
g. ran from Lection Cake to Mince Pie
u You can get all the ingredients OIL
IN miuce pie easily in these easy times
nj You can buy your mince meat O
10 minced meat, and it is very good. W
TO are told. "But We cannot buy wit
re gold the old associations. " As moros
MT canities steals on, the careful man ma
SO be good to himself and eat mince pi
at by proxy. He may test his children
'st constitutions and feel that this Iobus
~ delight is not for him. But he who's
le- youth was nurrured on this supper {
ia the gods knows some stir and SAVIOR {
his youth when somebody says mine
y; pie. The chopping knife rings clearl
nu on white trays. There are pristiI
r9 pewter plates and strange legged sal
10 cellars and perhars Cupid Behind til
" Bars" on glorious deep old Stafford
70 shire on the butt'ry shelves, Clov,
no were pounded in the mortar with
aus pestle that would now be prepUstero,
on as an apothecary's sign. There
M pairing of apples and picking" I
me raisins. Somehow or other the chi
u dren manage to get good many faisii
nu and che mince meat has to be teste
reg and tasted frequently. Fortunately Il
'ay children are viable. Otherwise the
IN would not have lived until those pi,
'us were enclosed 10 crust, that fax,
nu delicate, pcetieal. ETHEREAL crust.
Probably the pie is Just as good nov
On The secret of the preparation Of tt
70 mystical juices and spioes, the rollir
uia of the crust, the baking in fortuna
hour and oven have not been lost. III
coddler of his own dyspepsia says th
mince pies don't taste the sane now
OF days. Naturally. The memory b
more resources than the stomach; al
~ | N tho faauoFv nnin0a nia faatao nj