High-class cookery recipes

Take a clean cloth, and squeeze all the water out of the butter. Put the flour on a marble slab or a paste-board, in a heap ; make a well in the centre, put in a pinch of salt, a teaspoonful of lemon-juice, and enough water to make a paste of the same consistency as the butter. Roll this paste out to a quarter of an inch in thickness. Put the butter on half this paste, fold the other half over it, cover it entirely, and press the edges together with your thumb. Let this stand in a cool place for a quarter of an hour, then roll it out and fold it over in three; turn it with the rough edges towards you, roll it again, fold it in three, and put it aside for a quarter of an hour. Repeat this until the paste has been rolled out seven times ; it is then ready for use either for a vol-au-vent, or patties, or tartlets, or pie-crust. Rough Puff. Ingredients, Eight ounces of Flour. Six ounces of Butter. Salt. Half a teaspoonful of Lemon-juice. Put the butter and flour on a paste-board, chop up the butter in the flour, heap it all up on the board, make a well in the centre, put in the lemon-juice, and sprinkle the salt over. Take a full tablespoonful of cold water, and mix it slowly PASTRY. and lightly with your fingers into the flour and butter, adding more water if necessary until you get a stiff paste. Roll this out, fold it over in half, turn it with the rough edges towards you, roll it and fold it again ; repeat this twice more, so that it is rolled out and folded four times in all. It is now ready for use for a meat pie, apple tart, or tartlets. Short Crust. Ingredients. Eight ounces of Flour. Six ounces of Butter. Half a teaspoonful of Baking-powder. One Egg. One ounce of Castor Sugar. Put the flour into a basin and mix in the baking-powder ; rub the butter into the flour with your hands ; add the yolk of egg and enough cold water to make a stiff paste. Put the paste on a floured board and roll it out to a quarter of an inch in thickness. It is now ready for use for tarts, turnovers, or baked dumplings. Vol-au-Vent de Pommes a la Reine. Ingredients. Two pounds of Apples. Four ounces of Castor Sugar. One gill of Water. One tablespoonful of Lemon-juice, The Rind of a Lemon (grated). Put the apples peeled and cored into a stewpan with the sugar, lemon-juice and rind, and the water, and cook all well together, then rub through a hair-sieve. Butter the bottom of a stewpan, grate a little nutmeg in the butter, pour in the apple, and let it cook till it is like marmalade. Pour this mixture into a vol-au-vent case already cooked, and cover over with a meringue top made of the whites of two eggs well whipped, and four ounces of castor sugar stirred in ; put this in the oven till the meringue top is a nice light brown. If liked, whipped cream can be used for the top instead of the meringue. ( 199 ) Qheese Omelet. Ingredients, Three Eggs. Two ounces of grated Parmesan, Mignonette Pepper, Salt. One ounce of Butter. Break the eggs into a basin and whip them till well mixed ; then add pepper, salt, and the cheese. Melt one ounce of butter in the omelet pan, and turn in the eggs ; stir quickly to prevent the omelet from sticking. When just set, turn it quickly over towards the handle of the pan for a second, and then on to a hot dish.