The butter should be of the best quality, fresh if possible ; or if salt must be used, wash and work it well in several waters, finally pressing it in a cloth to extract every drop of moisture. Unless butter is hard and cold it will oil, and make whatever it is mixed with heavy. Butter should always be kept in a cool, not to say a cold, place ; abroad the cellar is always chosen for its storage. In summer, when it is difficult to keep it firm, take a good lump of ice and after well washing it put it in a pan full of cold water, and put in the butter broken up fairly small, watch it, for the very moment the butter begins to “ ice ” it must be well worked in the icy cold water, then care- fully wiped with a clean cloth, and used at once. In the country where ice is not always attainable, if there is a 190 BREAD, CAKES, AND BISCUITS. well, put the butter in a dish or basin, place this in an empty pail, cover it with a piece of muslin to keep out dust, &c., and lower the pail into the water, being careful however, that the latter does not reach anywhere near the top of the pail. In the country abroad all butter is stored thus in the summer. All fruit used in cake-making should be of best quality and carefully picked over, cleansed, and stalked. Currants should be thoroughly washed, and then slowly dried. Nothing is more disagreeable than, when eating cake, to come across currant stalks, or raisin stones. Candied peel must be sliced very thinly before chopping, or it will be most indigestible. Almonds are blanched by dropping them, when shelled, into boiling water in which they are left till on pi’essing them between your finger and thumb they will slip out of the outer skins. (Pistachios are treated in the same way.) To preserve their whiteness, as you free the almonds from their skins, drop them into a basin of v^ry cold water, leave them in this for an hour, then dry them first in a cloth, and then in the oven, being careful they do not colour. When almonds have been blanched thus they may be chopped or shred, and placed in a plate with a few drops of any colouring to taste, and shaken and rolled in this till they are evenly coloured all over, then let them dry, and store in a dry place. Or, if preferred, when chopped, they may be baked a golden brown, then thickly dusted with sugar and returned to the oven to set. Need- less to say, filberts, pistachios, pignole, walnuts, Ac., may all be treated thus. Lastly, it may interest many amateur cooks to know that, for small cakes at all events, an oven is not an absolute necessity. This will seem strange to the average conven- tional British housewife, but it is a fact nevertheless that, given an untinned wrought iron pan, with a sheet-iron lid an inch or two larger in diameter than the pan, a French woman can, and does, produce even desirable sponge cakes CAKE DECORATION, &c. 191

AI-modernized reading of the original text

The butter should be of the best quality, fresh if possible ; or if salt must be used, wash and work it well in several waters, finally pressing it in a cloth to extract every drop of moisture. Unless butter is hard and cold it will oil, and make whatever it is mixed with heavy. Butter should always be kept in a cool, not to say a cold, place ; abroad the cellar is always chosen for its storage. In summer, when it is difficult to keep it firm, take a good lump of ice and after well washing it put it in a pan full of cold water, and put in the butter broken up fairly small, watch it, for the very moment the butter begins to “ ice ” it must be well worked in the icy cold water, then carefully wiped with a clean cloth, and used at once. In the country where ice is not always attainable, if there is a well, put the butter in a dish or basin, place this in an empty pail, cover it with a piece of muslin to keep out dust, &c., and lower the pail into the water, being careful however, that the latter does not reach anywhere near the top of the pail. In the country abroad all butter is stored thus in the summer. All fruit used in cake-making should be of best quality and carefully picked over, cleansed, and stalked. Currants should be thoroughly washed, and then slowly dried. Nothing is more disagreeable than, when eating cake, to come across currant stalks, or raisin stones. Candied peel must be sliced very thinly before chopping, or it will be most indigestible. Almonds are blanched by dropping them, when shelled, into boiling water in which they are left till on pressing them between your finger and thumb they will slip out of the outer skins. (Pistachios are treated in the same way.) To preserve their whiteness, as you free the almonds from their skins, drop them into a basin of very cold water, leave them in this for an hour, then dry them first in a cloth, and then in the oven, being careful they do not colour. When almonds have been blanched thus they may be chopped or shred, and placed in a plate with a few drops of any colouring to taste, and shaken and rolled in this till they are evenly coloured all over, then let them dry, and store in a dry place. Or, if preferred, when chopped, they may be baked a golden brown, then thickly dusted with sugar and returned to the oven to set. Needless to say, filberts, pistachios, pignole, walnuts, Ac., may all be treated thus. Lastly, it may interest many amateur cooks to know that, for small cakes at all events, an oven is not an absolute necessity. This will seem strange to the average conventional British housewife, but it is a fact nevertheless that, given an untinned wrought iron pan, with a sheet-iron lid an inch or two larger in diameter than the pan, a French woman can, and does, produce even desirable sponge cakes CAKE DECORATION, &c.

Bread, cakes, and biscuits