The century cook book

a quarter of an hour, or until the cherries are quite cooked, and rub the whole through a hair sieve; add the remaining ingredients, let the sauce boil for another five minutes, and serve. This is a delicious sauce to serve with boiled batter pudding, and when thus used, should be sent to the table poured over the pudding. Raspberry Sauce. (For Simple Puddings.) You need 4 eggs, 2 teaspoonfuls of flour, ^ lb. of loaf sugar, i pint of fresh raspberry juice. Beat the eggs well, and smooth the flour with a little water; then put all into a saucepan; add the sugar and raspberry juice. Put the pan onto the fire, and lightly whisk the contents till they thicken. They will become light and frothy, and should be served at once. Zwetschen Sauce. (Piquant Sauce for Plain Puddings.) Take one-half pound of best French prunes, one glass of wine, juice of one lemon and part of rind, one-half teaspoonful powdered cinnamon, sugar to taste. Simmer the prunes in a saucepan with just enough water to cover them, until soft. Then remove them from the pan, take out the stones, crack them, and save the kernels; then return the fruit to the pan, add the other ingredients, simmer for seven or eight minutes, then strain through a coarse sieve, adding more wine or water, if too thick. A Good Sauce for Various Boiled Puddings. Use X lb. of butter, ^ lb. of pounded sugar, a wineglassful of brandy or rum. Beat the butter to a cream until no lumps remain; add the pounded sugar, and brandy or rum; stir once or twice until the whole is thoroughly mixed, and serve. This sauce may either be poured round the pudding or served in a tureen, according to the taste or fancy of the cook or mistress. PASTRY General Instructions In pastry making, the quality to be desired is lightness, and this depends on the amount of air in the pastry before and the expansion of the air after it is put in the oven. Therefore the best pastry is that which contains the greatest quantity of the coldest air before it is baked. The foldings and the rollings, with which we are all familiar, has this increase of air in view. The difference between flaky and short crust is that in one there are thin layers of air and pastry alternating, and in the other the air fills small cavities all over the pastry. To make the air cold, pastry should always be made in a cold place, with cold water, on ice if possible, and paste that is set aside to wait between rollings or before baking should stand on ice or on a cold stone. Cooks with a hot hand should mix paste with a knite. Pastry should be rolled lightly, the rolling pin often lifted and little pressed upon. It should not be turned over or thrown about. Any pieces that are left over should be laid on over the other and rolled flat, not rolled into a ball as the common practice is. Eggs are used to increase the tenacity of the paste, and so hold more air, or if, as sometimes happens, the white is whisked to a froth, it contains a great deal of air which it carries with it into the paste. Baking powder has the same effect in pastry and in bread, where its action has been more or less Short Cakes 155 fully described. If it is used, it should be for pastry baked at once and little handled — that is for short rather than for flaky crust. SHORT CAKES Crust No. 1. Take one quart of flour, and add to it two