The handy dictionary of cookery

digestible than any pastry that is made, owing to the lard or butter being so thoroughly mixed with the flour before the - water is added. If baking-powder is used in pastry, it should be put into the oven to bake as quickly as possible. If there is no baking-powder in the pastry, it. may be made several hours before baking it, wrapped in a damp linen cloth, and put on a dish in a cold place all night. {Another way.) Put into a basin three-quarters of a pound of flour, six ounces of butter, a tablespoonful of fine sugar ; rub the butter in very finely until it resembles bread crumbs. Next add just enough cold water to make a stiff paste, turn it out of the basin in one lump, place it on to a floured board, roll it out once, and it is ready for use. Peas, Green, Boiled. Choose peas that are young and freshly gathered. Shell them just before they are cooked ; put them into boiling water with a dessert-spoonful of salt to about half a gallon of water. Boil quickly without a lid until soft : young peas take about fifteen to twenty minutes. A bunch of fresh mint should be boiled in the water with the peas. Drain them : put them in the pan with a little butter. When it is melted and mixed, pour them into a vegetable dish, and serve at once. Note. — If they have been gathered twenty-four hours, half a teaspoonful of sugar must be put into the water in which they are boiled. Pease Brose. Put three tablespoonfuls of pease meal into a basin, a pinch of salt and pepper. Pour in gradually half a pint of boiling water, stirring it all the time with a wooden spoon. Pour the mixture into a pan, and boil five minutes. Pheasant, Roast. Pluck, singe, and draw a brace of pheasants. Wipe them well inside with a clean, damp cloth, then with a dry one; see that they are quite clean. Truss them firmly : they may be trussed either with or without the head. If the head is left on, it must be brought round under the wing, and fastened with a skewer, the bill being laid straight along the breast (see engraving.) The crop must be removed through a slit made at the back of the neck. Bring the thigh close to the wing, skewer it firmly, and tie the legs down. Tie round the breasts some slices of fat bacon; baste them well about threequarters of an hour, then remove the bacon, dredge some flour over, and brown them well. Serve with good brown gravy and bread sauce. Sometimes where the fashion is liked about a dozen of the best tail feathers are stuck into the bird when it is dished. Pickle for Beef or Tongues. Boil together two pounds of salt, one and a half pounds of bay salt, one and a half ounces of saltpetre, one and a half ounces of common soda, one pound of coarse sugar, and six quarts of water, twenty minutes ; strain ; allow it to get cold. Turn the meat every day for three weeks. This will keep good three months. It may then be boiled up again with a quarter of a pound of sugar, half an ounce of saltpetre, soda, bay salt, and one pound of common salt. Pickled Cabbage. Take a red or white cabbage ;. cut into thin slices, lay it in a large pan ; sprinkle a layer of salt between each layer of cabbage, cover the top with salt, and leave it to stand two days. Turn them every morning and evening, and sprinkle a little salt over the layers each time they are turned.