Virginia Cookery-book

Puff Paste. — Boiled Pastry.— Pastry (Another Way). — Railway Pudding. — Victoria Pudding. — Sago Pudding. — Ground -rice Pudding.— Confederate Pudding.— Plum Pudding, No. 1.— Plum Pudding, No. 2. — Plum Pudding the Second Day.— Baked Plum Pudding. — Plum Pudding (Mrs. Cabell). — Cake Pudding. — Spongecake Pudding, No. 1.— Sponge-cake Pudding, No. 2. — Plain Molasses Pudding. — Tyler Pudding. — Sweetmeat Pudding.— Bread Pudding. — Citron Pudding. — Orange Pudding.— Custard Pudding. — Cocoa-nut Pudding. — Cream Pudding.— Green-corn Pudding. — Rice Pudding. — To make Rice Pudding. — Arrow-root Pudding. — Apple Pudding, No. 1. — Apple Pudding, No. 2. — Norfolk Pudding Puff. — Jelly Pudding. — Rice Pudding without Eggs.— Fruit Pudding. — Molasses Pudding. — Apple Pies without Apples. — Delicate Apple Pudding. — Apple Charlotte. — Friar's Omelet. — Blackberry Pudding. — Dressing for Sponge-cake Roll. — Orange Custard Pie. — Sponge-cake Roll. — Delmonico Pudding. — French Sauce for Puddings. — Hard Sauce. Puff Paste. One quart of flour, half a pound of butter, half a pound of lard, half a teaspoonful of salt. Fine, flaky pastry is much more easily made in cold than in warm weather. To produce the proper temperature in summer good house-keepers use a marble slab instead of the common bread-board ; moreover, mix the dough up with ice-water, and if by any chance there must be delay in carrying it to the oven, place it on ice until ready for the baking. Take half the flour, a small piece each of the butter and lard, the salt, and enough cold water to make it into a dough just as soft as will admit of rolling. Handle lightly. Flour your board and rolling-pin well, to prevent sticking, also your hands ; then proceed to roll out the dough into a sheet half an inch thick ; by means of a knife dot its surface over with bits of lard and butter, weighed out at distances of not more than an inch apart; then sprinkle a layer of flour over, and fold the dough over until an entirely new surface is presented; roll out until smooth and thin, as before; add the shortening and flour exactly as before, and go on in the same way until all the flour, butter, and lard have been mixed in. The oftener pastry is rolled out, with a gentle yet firm touch, the lighter it will be. For elegant pastry five times rolling is the least one should be satisfied with — seven is not too often. Pastry should not be baked brown, but kept fair and white. For tartlets to be filled with preserves the centres should be either stuck, to prevent rising — as one does biscuits — or a piece of bread-crust laid firmly down upon them. Do not roll the pastry too thin, or its lightness cannot be shown. The edges of puddings should be twice as thick as the paste that lines the bottom of the plates. A strip can be laid over and joined by just wetting the surfaces to be united. For family use very nice pastry is made in the same way, only allowing three-quarters of a pound of shortening to a quart of flour, and rolling out four times. The taste of strong butter may be better disguised in pastry than any other article with which it can be used. For chicken and other meat-pies as little as half a pound of shortening to one quart of flour will actually better please families who do not care "to fare sumptuously every day " than when made more expensively. In this case leaven half the flour with Horsford or Royal Baking Powder. VIRGINIA COOKERY-BOOK. BOILED PASTRY. The last proportions mentioned — namely, half a pound of shortening to a quart of flour — are the most suitable for dumplings or rolls. For this purpose roll the pastry until a very thin sheet. To our own taste the best rolls have been made by the simple admixture of flour, salt, a tiny pinch of soda, and boiling water, made into a paste rapidly, one hour before