Soyer's standard cookery

METHOD. — Put the flour and two good pinches of salt into a bowl, make a hole in the center, break in the eggs, stir, gradually mixing in the flour from the sides, and add milk by degrees until a thick smooth batter is formed. Now beat well for ten minutes, then add the remainder of the milk, cover, and let it stand for at least one hour. When ready to use, cover the bottom of a pudding-tin with a thin layer of dripping taken from the meat tin, and while the tin and dripping are getting thoroughly hot in the oven, give the batter another good beating. Bake the pudding for ten minutes in a hot oven to partially cook the bottom, or, if more convenient, place the hottest shelf from the oven on the meat stand, and at once put the pudding in front of the fire, and cook it until set and well browned. "Yorkshire" pudding is always cooked in front of the fire ; when baked in the oven, the term " batter pudding " is applied to it by the people in the county whence it derives its name. SWEETS. Pastry, cakes, and sweets generally are wonderfully improved by being cooked in paper bags. The concentration of heat which is thus gained has the effect of making puff paste lighter and more regular in texture, and all cake mixtures " rise " in a manner that the open oven cannot produce. Then again, the cooking takes much less time, and I need not point out the value of this. In the old style the oven door had frequently to be opened to watch the progress. The pastry was thus exposed to draughts of cool air, which could not but produce " doughy," heavy and unsatisfactory results. Puff Paste. Take one pound of flour, three-quarters of a pound of butter. Mix the flour with water and salt lightly until the consistency of butter. Leave this dough for half an hour, then flatten with your hand and lay your butter on the top of the paste. Then, fold four-corner way, and give it two rolls, as usual. Leave your paste in a cool place for forty-five minutes, and then roll twice more. Leave it for forty-five minutes and then roll twice again. Place it in a large paper-bag which will not touch the paste. Put on grid and allow twenty minutes in hot own. (350° Fahr.). Tart in a Pie-Dish. Place in a paper bag well sealed. Put on the grid. Allow thirty-five to forty-five minutes in 350° Fahr., but use previously cooked fruit. Sausage Rolls or any other pastry, can be cooked by the same method. The fatty matter inside the pastry (by the paper-bag method) helps by the even heat to keep the paste light and, consequently, perfect. Allow twenty to twenty-five minutes, according to size in hot oven (350° Fahr.). Apple Dumpling. Make in the usual way. Cook in the paper bag. Allow twenty minutes in hot oven (350° Fahr.). Bananas, Apples, or Other Cooking Fruit. Put fruit in the paper bag, with or without butter or jam. Flavor to taste. Add sugar if desired. Bake twenty minutes in hot oven (350° Fahr.). Scone. Any kind of scone or breakfast rolls should be placed in large loose greased bags in hot oven (350° Fahr.). Allow ten to fifteen minutes, according to size. Genoise Paste.