A Beef Steak Pie
Stew two pounds or more, of fine tender sirloin steaks, divested of fat and bone, and cut rather thin. Season them with a very little salt and pepper; and, when about half done, remove them from the fire, and keep them warm, saving all the gravy. Make a nice paste, allowing to two quarts of flour one pound and a quarter of fresh butter. Divide the butter into four quarters. Rub one half into the pan of flour, and make it into a dough with, a very little cold water. Roll it out into a large sheet, and with a broad knife stick over it, at equal distances, one of the remaining divisions of butter. Then sprinkle it with more flour, fold it, and roll it out again into a large sheet. Put on the remainder of the butter in bits, as before. Then fold it again. Cut the paste into equal halves, and roll them out into two sheets, trimmed into round or oval forms. With one sheet line a pie-dish, and fill it with your meat, adding, if convenient, some mushrooms, or some fresh oysters, or the soft part of a few clams, and some blades of mace. Use the other sheet of paste as a cover for the pie, uniting the edges with the under crust by crimping it nicely. Of the trimmings of the paste, make an ornament or tulip, and stick it into the slit at the top of the pie.