2 tablespoons port wine
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Make pastry: Sift flour and salt together in a bowl. Make a well in the center. In a small saucepan, combine lard and butter with the water. Heat until boiling. Pour hot liquid into the middle of the flour. Mix quickly with a wooden spoon. Beat vigorously until the dough is smooth and cool enough to handle. Knead until smooth.
Heat oven to 400 degrees.
Grease the outside of a deep-sided tin, such as a cake tin or cookie tin, 6 inches in diameter and lightly dust it with flour.
Roll 2/3 of the dough into a 12-inch circle. (Dough should still be warm.) Turn the cake tin upside down and cover it with the pastry circle. Press the dough to the contours of the tin.
Cut a strip of foil long enough and wide enough to go around the pastry-covered sides of the pan, allowing for a small overlap. Wrap the foil strip around the pastry and fasten with paper clips. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
The remaining pastry should be kept warm until needed to seal the top of the pie.
When the lower crust is firm, remove the cake tin and place crust on a baking sheet. Add the filling. All meat and seasonings may be combined and heaped into the pastry case, or may be arranged in layers.
Roll the remaining dough large enough to make a lid. Dampen the edges of the lower crust. Attach the top crust and pinch the edges all around to seal. Any left-over pastry may be cut into "leaves" and used to decorate the top of the pie.
Cut a small hole in the top crust. Brush with beaten egg.
Bake on the center rack of the oven for 40 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees, remove foil, and continue baking another 1 1/2 hours. Allow to cool 15 minutes.
While pie is cooling, soak gelatin in 1/2 cup stock for approximately 3 minutes. In a small saucepan, bring remaining stock to a boil, and add port wine, salt and pepper. Combine soaked gelatin with the stock mixture and stir until dissolved.
Pour the aspic into the opening in the crust of the cooled pie. (A funnel is helpful.)
Serve pie hot, or refrigerate overnight.
Mincemeat and cranberry
lattice
Serves four to six.
The Edwardian Society is an Atlanta social group whose members dress in period attire, adopt such pseudonyms as "Lady Strumpington" and "Sir Reginald Splattermore," and host teas, theater parties, and other properly Edwardian entertainments. The biggest event of their social calendar is a Twelfth Night gala, held to celebrate the end of the Christmas season. This recipe is from their privately printed cookbook "Edwardian Appetites."
FOR THE PASTRY:
1/2 cup self-rising flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
6 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 tablespoons brown sugar
grated rind of one orange
water to mix
FOR THE FILLING:
1/2 cup cranberries
1/2 cup brown sugar
juice of one orange
14 1/2 -ounce jar of mincemeat
Make the pastry: Sift the flour and cornstarch into a bowl, and rub in the butter until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Stir in the brown sugar and orange rind. Bind with sufficient water to make a soft but not sticky dough. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for one hour.
Make the filling: Place cranberries, brown sugar, and orange juice in a pan. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes until cranberries have popped. Cool.
Set the oven to 400 degrees. Roll out pastry on a floured surface. Cut pastry to fit a 9-inch greased tart pan, and ease into pan.
Roll the remaining dough into a ball, roll out, and cut into 16 strips at least 9 inches long by 1/4 inch wide.
Mix the mincemeat into the cranberry mixture and place in the pastry. Arrange the strips in lattice style over this and bake for 25 minutes until pastry is firm and lightly golden.
