Paste which is intended to be the material for the orna- mentation of pastry is called Office Paste, and is made of flour two parts, sugar one part, and (to the pound of flour) two eggs and two yolks✪ Office Paste ; no fat of any kind is added to this paste. An Almond Paste for Ornaments and Croquantes is pro- duced in two stages. Make a pur6e of Jordan almonds, and incorporate with it an equal weight of sugar-powder in a casserole over the fire. Produce a solution of gum dragon or tragacanth in eight to ten times its weight of water, and filter it by pressure through a cloth. Incorporate this solu- tion as well as a quantity of finely-powdered sugar, equal APPLICATIONS OF FLOUR-PASTE 365 in weight to the weight of the combined almond puree and sugar, with this latter, using both hands for the kneading on the slab, until the compound represents a white, stiff, smooth, compact, plastic body. The paste looks better if a little cohalt blue be added to it. Starch may also be added, but the paste then requires ' double the amount of gum tragacanth solution✪ Almond Paste for Ornaments and Croquantes. A Starch and Sugar Paste bound by the same gum, and coloured bluish by cobalt, is also frequently used for orna- mentation. The applications of the varieties of paste described in the foregoing are numerous and interesting. First we have the Vol-au-Vent, a pate case of puff paste baked without any contents in its cavity. When such a case is afterwards filled with an entree of fricasseed fowl or pigeon, it is fre- quently termed ‘ a chicken or pigeon pasty or pate,’ although the true pasties are more commonly baked with their meat contents already inside of them. The mechanical prepara- tion of a vol-au-vent is technically very interesting, and requires much skill ; but we must confine ourselves to refer- ring to it and to its variation. Care should be taken that the fricassee, ragout, the fish, or other entree, provided to fill the pate be of tasty and savoury quality. As the bottom of the vol-au-vent frequently remains uneaten, many cooks now make it of a common paste. The management of the vol-aiirvent in the oven is divided into two acts : the first ends when the vol-au-vent has risen two inches ; then, and before it has acquired any colour, a drum of thick white paper, eight inches high and four inches wider in diameter than the vol-au-vent, is placed around it to protect its sides from any strong lateral radiation, which might check its rise or scorch and spoil its colour. Tourte Gases for Entries are also baked blind — i.e., with- out their eventual contents — and consist of a mixture of puff paste and short paste in equal parts. 366 THE SPIRIT OF COOKERY Cases of Puff Paste for Plate Patties — that is to say, small or miniature pates, of which each diner takes a whole one on his plate — are very convenient products. Sometimes the contents are below the expectation raised by the promising outside ; they should be savoury, delicate, refined, concentrated miniature ragouts.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Paste which is intended to be the material for the ornamentation of pastry is called Office Paste, and is made of flour two parts, sugar one part, and (to the pound of flour) two eggs and two yolks ; no fat of any kind is added to this paste. An Almond Paste for Ornaments and Croquantes is produced in two stages. Make a puree of Jordan almonds, and incorporate with it an equal weight of sugar-powder in a casserole over the fire. Produce a solution of gum dragon or tragacanth in eight to ten times its weight of water, and filter it by pressure through a cloth. Incorporate this solution as well as a quantity of finely-powdered sugar, equal APPLICATIONS OF FLOUR-PASTE in weight to the weight of the combined almond puree and sugar, with this latter, using both hands for the kneading on the slab, until the compound represents a white, stiff, smooth, compact, plastic body. The paste looks better if a little cobalt blue be added to it. Starch may also be added, but the paste then requires ' double the amount of gum tragacanth solution. A Starch and Sugar Paste bound by the same gum, and coloured bluish by cobalt, is also frequently used for ornamentation. The applications of the varieties of paste described in the foregoing are numerous and interesting. First we have the Vol-au-Vent, a pate case of puff paste baked without any contents in its cavity. When such a case is afterwards filled with an entree of fricasseed fowl or pigeon, it is frequently termed ‘ a chicken or pigeon pasty or pate,’ although the true pasties are more commonly baked with their meat contents already inside of them. The mechanical preparation of a vol-au-vent is technically very interesting, and requires much skill ; but we must confine ourselves to referring to it and to its variation. Care should be taken that the fricassee, ragout, the fish, or other entree, provided to fill the pate be of tasty and savoury quality. As the bottom of the vol-au-vent frequently remains uneaten, many cooks now make it of a common paste. The management of the vol-au-vent in the oven is divided into two acts : the first ends when the vol-au-vent has risen two inches ; then, and before it has acquired any colour, a drum of thick white paper, eight inches high and four inches wider in diameter than the vol-au-vent, is placed around it to protect its sides from any strong lateral radiation, which might check its rise or scorch and spoil its colour. Tourte Gases for Entries are also baked blind — i.e., without their eventual contents — and consist of a mixture of puff paste and short paste in equal parts. Cases of Puff Paste for Plate Patties — that is to say, small or miniature pates, of which each diner takes a whole one on his plate — are very convenient products. Sometimes the contents are below the expectation raised by the promising outside ; they should be savoury, delicate, refined, concentrated miniature ragouts.

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