Modern cookery, in all its branches

Strip the skin entirely from some fresh veal or beef kidney-suet ; chop, and then put it into the mortar, with a small quantity of pure flavoured lard, oil, or butter, and pound it perfectly smooth : it may then be used for crust in the same way that butter is, in making puff-paste, and in this form will be found a most excellent substitute for it, for hot pies or tarts. It is not quite so good for those which are to be served cold. Eight ounces of suet pounded with two of butter, and worked with the fingers into a pound of flour, will make an exceedingly good short crust ; but for a very rich one the proportion must be increased. Good short crust : flour, 1 lb. ; suet, 8 oz. ; butter, 2 oz. ; salt, \ teaspoonful. Richer crust : suet, 16 oz. ; butter, 4 oz. ; flour, 1| lb. • salt, 1 small teaspoonful [chap. xviii.] VERY RICH SHORT CRUST FOR TARTS, Break lightly, with the least possible handling, six ounces of butter into eight of Hour ; add a dessertspoonful of pounded sugar, and two or three of water ; roll the paste, for several minutes, to blend the ingredients well, folding it together like puff-crust, and touch it as little as possible. Flour, 8 oz. ; butter, 6 oz. ; pounded sugar, 1 dessertspoonful , water, 1 to 2 spoonsful. EXCELLENT SHORT CRUST FOR SWEET PASTRY. Crumble down very lightly half a pound of butter into a pound of flour, breaking it quite small. Mix well. with these a slight pinch of salt and two ounces of sifted sugar, and add sufficient milk to make them up into a very smooth and somewhat firm paste. Bake this slowly, and keep it pale. It will be found an admirable crust if well made and lightly handled, and will answer for many dishes much better than puff-paste. It will rise in the oven too, and be extremely light. Ten ounces of butter will render it very rich, but we find eight quite sufficient. BRIOCHE PASTE. The brioche is a rich, light kind of unsweetened bun or cake, very commonly sold, and served to all classes of people in France, where it is made in great perfection by good cooks and pastrycooks. It is fashionable now at English tables, though in a different form, serving principally as a crust to enclose rissoles , or to make cannelons and fritters. We have seen it recommended for a vol-au-vent , for which we should say it does not answer by any means so well as the fine puff-paste called feuilletage. The large proportion of butter and eggs which it contains render it to many persons highly indigestible ; and we mention this to warn invalids against it, as we have known it to cause great suffering to persons out of health. To make it, take a couple of pounds * of fine dry flour, sifted as for cakes, and separ ate eight ounces of this from the remainder to make the leaven. Put it into a small pan, and mix it lightly into a lithe paste, wit.: half an ounce of yeast, and a spoonful or two of warm water ; make two or three slight incisions across the top, throw a cloth over the pan, and place it near the fire for about twenty minutes to rise. In the interval make a hollow space in the centre of the remainder of the