33 Chicken and Veal Pot Pie
Boil the meat until about half done, if chickens they should be jointed. Take up the meat, and put it in a pot with a layer of crust, to each layer of meat; have a layer of crust on the top, cover the whole with the liquor the meat was boiled in. Keep a tea kettle of boiling water, to turn in when the water boils away, (cold water makes the crust heavy.) If you wish to have it brown, heat a bake pan lid, and cover the pot while it is cooking, which takes about an hour. The crust for the pie is good, made like common pie crust, only very plain, roll it about an inch thick, cut it with a tumbler, into small cakes. Raised pie crust, is generally preferred to any other, it is made in the following manner. Rub together, three pints of flour one cup of butter, half a tea spoonful of salt, and then turn in a tea cup of yeast, and half a pint of water. Set it in a warm place to rise, when risen, (which will be in the course of ten or twelve hours, in cold weather,) roll it out, and cut it into small cakes. If it is not stiff enough to roll out, knead in a little flour, if too stiff, put in a little water. Potatoe pie crust is good, boil the potatoes, peel and mash them fine, put in a tea spoonful of salt, a piece of butter of the size of a hen’s egg, and half a pint of milk, mix flour with it till of the right consistency to roll out, cut it into cakes, and put them with the meat. A very good way to make the crust, when you happen to have unbaked wheat bread; is to roll out the dough several times and spread butter on it each time, let it lay about half an hour, before you put it with the meat.