“To Make a Welch Apple Pye much finer than a Minc’d Pye
Take a Quarter of a Hundred of Holland Pippins and two Pounds of the best Kidney Suet ; then shred the Apples and Suet as fine as if they were for Paste ; then take a Quarter of an Ounce of beaten cloves and Mace, and a Nutmeg grated fine ; take some green Lemon-peel, cut it very fine, and mix therewith ; then take a Pound of Sugar, ten Eggs, three Pounds of Currants, a Quarter of a Pound of cand[i]ed Orange, Lemon-peel and Citron, and Half a Pint of Sack. Mix them all together as for a Minc’d Pye ; and when it comes out of the Oven, cut up the Lid and pour in a pint of burnt Claret.“
Mrs Mary Eales (?) A Curious Collection of Receipts in Cookery, appended to The Compleat Confectioner (1742)
The question-mark after Mrs Eales’ name is because the recipe above is from a collection of recipes (or ‘receipts’) that was added on to the third edition of The Compleat Confectioner in 1742. Whilst Mrs Eales is credited with the recipes in the first part of the book, it’s not clear whether the appended Curious Collection of Receipts are also hers, or just something that the publisher tacked on.
Anyhow, it’s another classic eighteenth century recipe: big on the spices and booze, vague on the method, although for once it’s reasonably clear on the ingredient measurements. The writer clearly assumes that the reader knows how to make a suitable pye casing and/or crust, although it’s really all that obvious whether the end result is meant to be something encased in pastry or just set in a dish with a pastry lid. Either way, it’s definitely fruity, boozy and I guess would result in something almost Christmas pudding-like?
If you fancy giving this one a go, please do email me with photos, or even a video, of the result and I’ll happily post them up. Or you can just drop a comment below to let me know how it turns out.