The Apsley cookery book

Take out two large tablespoonfuls of the flour to work up the paste, and mix the rest with the baking-powder. When these have been well mixed, rub in the butter and stir in as much water as will make a rather stiff paste. It is best to mix in the water with the hand, as you can then feel immediately when sufficient has been added. Flour a pastry-board and roll out the paste to half an inch in thickness. Fold the pastry in three, and roll out again, when it will be ready for use. Keep the board and rolling-pin well floured with the flour that was taken from the pound at first. This pastry can be used equally well for either fruit or vegetable puddings. 399. Roux (Brown and White for Thickening). Ingredients . One pound two ounces of Flour. | One pound of Butter. See that the flour is thoroughly dry and then sift it. Squeeze the butter in a cloth to remove all the moisture. Now put the butter in an enamelled stewpan and let it stand on the stove until it runs to oil. It is necessary to heat the oiled butter so that the scum will rise, but care must be taken that it does not get too hot. When all the scum has been removed, the stewpan should be put in a cooler part of the stove so that the sediment may settle to the bottom. Skim off the froth very carefully and pour the oil in a basin, leaving the sediment at the bottom of the stewpan. Remove the sediment from the stewpan and pour back the oil — now clarified butter — and sprinkle in the flour gradually, stirring all the time. Put the stewpan on a slow fire, or on a gas-ring, turned low, and stir continually with a wooden spoon. Keep scraping the bottom of the pan to prevent the mixture burning ; be very careful about the scraping and stirring or the roux will be spoiled. As soon as the mixture begins to colour, a very little, put half of it into a jar for white roux. It must not turn more than a cream colour, as it is intended to thicken white soups and white sauces. Now return the saucepan to the fire and continue the stirring and scraping until the remaining roux has become a bright brown. Be careful that it does not get too dark ; a light chocolate colour is the correct shade. Immediately the roux is dark enough, remove it from the stove at once, but continue stirring for some minutes, as enamelled stewpans retain the heat after they have been removed from the fire, and the mixture would burn if the stirring was discontinued at once. Have ready a large slice of onion and throw it into the roux, if there is any fear that it is getting too dark ; this checks the heat at once. This is brown roux for thickening brown soups and gravies. It will keep for weeks, and although the process seems rather troublesome, it really in the end saves time. In using the roux it is best to scrape oft’ the quantity you require with a spoon, and not add it to the soups and sauces in a lump. 400. Rusk-Crumbs or -Raspings. All the small pieces of rusks, crumbs and broken pieces, can be utilised for rusk-crumbs, and should be kept in a tin. The best and quickest way is to put them through a nut mill, then through a fine sieve ; keep all the coarse ones for decorating and the fine ones for puddings, raspings, &c., and whatever mentioned in the recipes. They are much nicer in many puddings than ordinary bread-crumbs.