Cookery and housekeeping

The next kind of paste is made with | lb. of butter to I lb. of flour, and only one Qgg. Proceed as in the foregoing recipe with half the butter, continue to work the paste and to incorporate the rest of the butter. Let it stand a few minutes, flour the slab, the rolling pin, and the paste, and proceed to roll out the paste till it nearly comes a yard by a foot in size, turn it and roll again, fold in three, roll out again, let it rest in a cold place for fifteen minutes, and repeat the rolling process twice. 68 PUFF PASTE. In cutting paste the knife or cutters should be dipped into flour or cold water. Puff paste is the most dainty paste made, and it alone can be used for vol-au-vents, patties, tartlets, and pastry ' fingers.' Puff pastry will rise, when properly made and baked, to eight times its size before baking ; if you cut out a piece of this paste \ an inch thick, it will rise to be four inches thick. The proportion of butter in this case will be i lb. to I lb. of flour, but only one egg is to be used. The butter must be washed and pressed so as to get rid of any buttermilk in it. The mode of making the puff paste is similar to the last recipe, but the rest should be in a dish covered by another dish, and some rough ice placed tinder and over. When ice cannot be had, the paste should be made in a cellar, or whatever may be the coolest place in the house. It must be baked as soon as it is ready, or failure will ensue. All descriptions of making pastry fail to convey the exact method of manipulating the paste : it is one of the processes in w^hich lessons are of most use. In the preceding observations the materials are given, and the increase in proportion of butter to flour must be carefully noted, according to the kind of paste required. The way to make puff paste is as follows. Having made the flour, egg, and water into a ball of paste (which should be cool, light, and elastic), roll it out lengthways about J of an inch thick. Take the butter, previously washed and wrung in a cloth, in a firm flat pat, place it on the centre of the strip of paste, fold the two ends over it, and press the edges PASTRY. 69 together so that the butter is firmly enclosed. Place the paste on your board with the rough edges towards you, and begin rolling gently from the centre towards the edges, both from and towards you, taking care not to roll the butter out. Fold in three and roll again, then lay aside for fifteen minutes and repeat the folding, and rolling twice as previously described. The paste should be rolled altogether seven times. If it is properly made and really light, large air-bubbles will appear in the course of the rolling. The oven for all pastry, especially puff pastry, requires to be very hot. It is as well to test it by putting in a small piece of paste first. If the oven is at the right heat, the door should not be opened to look at the pastry until it is time to take it out, as opening the door lowers the temperature and checks the rising of the pastry. It is therefore very convenient to have a piece of glass in the oven door, through which to see when the pastry is ready. Pastry should not be placed too near the fire side of the oven, for in that case it will rise unevenly. 70 SOUPS. CHAPTER XIII. ■ SOUPS.