My little brother and I made coffin pies (I really like the name!) and lard candles. It was very interesting! :) Don't try doing either unless you have some time on your hands. They take a bit of work and time.
Here is the website that I got the coffin pie information and dough recipe from:
So for the candles, this is what you need...
2lbs of lard
A roll of cotton string (preferably thicker than what we had :) )
Water
Sauce pan
Spoons or butter knives
Quart jar
Pint jars (make sure they are warm! Pouring hot grease into cold jars is not recommended!)
Scissors
Bread twisty-ties
First, you place your spoons in a sauce pan of water. Turn the heat up enough so that it will make the water steam, but not boil. Now fill your quart canning jar with lard. You may have to wait for the lard to melt some. You want enough melted lard to fill the jar to 1" head space.
I had to hand crochet our yarn. We did this, because we wanted to have a longer lasting wick. It is recommended that you soak your wick in the lard, not sure why... :)
Melting, melting! While your lard is melting, hot glue your wicks to the bottom of your pint jars. That way they stay where they should be when you pour the lard in. Also using the bread twist-ties tie the top of your wick and bend the twist-ties around the edges of the pint jars. Again, that is to keep your wick in place.
Once your lard has turned transparent, pour it into your warm pint jars. Check all your wicks to be sure nobody moved. :)
Let all your candles sit till they are no longer transparent. It may take a bit to light the wick, but don't worry, they will light.
First, thaw the chicken
Bring raisins and cranberries to a boil in water, and cover till rehydrated
Hard boil nine eggs
Save egg number ten for an egg wash, slightly beat it
Measure out four cups of flour (I would do three, because it is way to dry when you do four) and a teaspoon of salt, mix together
Cut up 6T. of butter and 6T. of lard, bring them to a boil with 1 cup and 2T. of water.
Now, pour that into your flour and salt. Stir it in carefully! It is hot! :)
Once it forms into a ball, kneed it by hand for 10 minutes. The dough is the consistency of play-dough.
Divide the dough into two big 1" tall rounds and two little 1" rounds. Cover them with a damp cloth and let them sit for 3-4 hours or overnight.
Slice carrots and onions very thin. I would use half a medium onion and one carrot. Spices were salt, parsley, garlic, mace, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, pepper, and oregano. Their measurements are 'a pinch of that and a pinch of this'.
A dry brick oven
We used our old fireplace bricks and corn crib panels to make it. :) The panels was one of my brother's ideas.
My terrible stack of sticks (I am really bad at starting fires :) )
Looks better in the picture than in real life. I cheated and used newspapers. :) BUT I did try to use brush and stuff, for a bit.
Once the fire was good and lit, I came back in to finish my coffins.
I split the big rounds of dough in two (making four 'big' dough balls)
Forming the coffin
Here is the victim :)
Two chicken breasts was about perfect
Mix everything together
(Oh, be SURE to drain the water out of the cranberries and raisins! You do NOT want water inside your coffins or the sides will break)
Make the lids out of half of a little round ball (that makes four 'little' dough balls, you know the "Two plus two equals four" sorta thing)
Pack the victim and the mummifying spices very tightly into his coffin.
Lightly egg wash the top of the coffin with lone egg number ten
Press the top of the coffin down into the coffin body and crimp the edges
Now, cut a hole in the top, so that they can steam and bubble out
Scrape all the wood to one side and put your coffins in (I know, I know, "What about ashes"? That just adds to the flavor)
Use the left overs :) I forgot to put the eggs in... sad... so they go in here along with the cranberry and raisin juice and left over carrots.
All done! Two were not quite done, so I put them in the oven. :)
These were 180* inside
The other two coffins
It is said that people did not eat the crust... :)
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