Gas cookery

Make the pastry in the coolest place in the house, and have cool hands. Use a cold marble slab or pastry board and a straight rolling pin, and very cold water. Always finger it lightly, and make it quickly. Pastry should always go into a hot oven, so as to set the crust and prevent the butter or lard from running out ; the oven door should never be slammed, as it shuts in a current of cold air and prevents the pastry rising, On taking pastry out of the oven, do not let it stand in a draught, but keep it in a warm place to cool gradually, or the steam that is coming from it will condense and render the pastry heavy. Always place pastry underneath the browning shelf in hot oven, and reduce the gas flames every five minutes or every ten minutes. Cassolette pastry. Ingredients.— 6 ozs. Flour, 2 ozs. Butter, yolk of Egg, Cayenne and Salt, Lemon Juice a squeeze, very little Water. METHOD. — Rub the butter into the flour, sprinkle in cayenne and salt, and mix with yolk of egg, 1 16 juice and water to a smooth stiff paste. Knead and roll out once. Flaky pastry. Ingredients. — i lb. self-rising Flour, X l'3- Butter, X lb. Lard, cold Water. Method. — Sieve the flour and rub in all the lard lightly; then mix with the cold water and roll it out. Take one-third of the butter and put it on the pastry in flakes. Fold the pastry into three and roll out again. Repeat this twice more and it is then ready for use. French pastry. Ingredients. — X pint boiling Water, 2 ozs. Butter, 5 ozs. Vienna Flour, 3 Eggs. Method. — Let the butter dissolve in the boiling water, and then mix in the flour, stirring briskly until the mixture leaves the sides of the saucepan and forms a thick uniform mass. Let it cool a little, then add the eggs one at a time. Bake in a moderate oven. Either shape the pastry in dessert spoons, or drop it in rocky lumps on the buttered baking sheet, or roll it in long finger shapes. When baked, make an incision and fill with whipped cream or good custard. This mixture may be fried in hot fat, dropping in a teaspoonful at a time. I 17 plain pastry. Ingredients. — 1 lb. Flour, ]/z lb. Lard or Dripping, 1 teaspoonful of Baking Powder, sufficient cold Water to form a paste. Method. — Sieve the flour, and then rub in the lard or dripping with the tips of the fingers till it is as fine as bread crumbs ; then add the baking powder and mix well, and gradually use sufficient water to form a stiff' paste. Roll this out once and bake in a quick oven. puff pastrp. Ingredients. — ]/z lb. Vienna Flour, ]/z lb. best fresh Butter, 1 teaspoonful of Lemon Juice, cold Water (iced if possible) to mix, yolk of 1 Egg.