Culinary jottings

Keep the bowl of suet in a cool place ; in the ice-box if possible. The fat that is skimmed from the surface of the soupkettle is just as valuable, for it is generally the melted marrow from the broken shin : you do not get much of it, I know, probably a breakfast-cupful, at the outside, but it is quite first-rate, and the favourite frying medium of the great Careme. The fat from the under-cut of a cold roast sirloin can be made use of exactly in the same way as the raw suet : clarify it according to the rules already given, and pour it into an earthenware bowl. Lard is imported here during the colder months of the year ; it requires the assistance of ice to regain its original firmness of character, and then, if carefully used, it affords an excellent ingredient wherewith to compose a good light pie-crust. As I said before, the water used in pastry-making should certainly be slightly iced : it need not be as cold as that we like to drink, but it should be decidedly cold to the touch. For PUFF PASTE the following directions may, I think, be depended upon : — Having the following ingredients ready : — a bowl of cold, well clarified suet, some dry well-sifted flour, a good ripe lime, some salt, and a jug of iced water, proceed as follows : — weigh a pound of flour, and turn it out upon your cold marble slab, make a hollow in its centre, and fill it with half an ounce of salt, and a quarter of a pint of the cold water ; mix the flour gradually with the water, and when this is done, and the paste half mixed, sprinkle over it another quarter pint of water in which the lime has been squeezed. Mix it all now thoroughly, until it ceases to adhere to the slab, and pat it into a round ball. Now take one pound weight of the clarified suet, cut it up into dice, and flatten out the ball of paste to a thickness of about two inches, spreading the suet evenly over its surface ; then fold the four sides of the paste to the centre enclosing the suet, and forming a square piece. Roll this evenly out a yard long, then fold over one-third of the length towards the centre, and fold the other third over it. This folding in three is called by cooks " giving the paste one turn." Be careful that none of the suet breaks through the edges of the paste as you roll it out. Having folded up the paste, let it rest for ten minutes in the ice-box, or on a very cold slab. Then give it two turns, rest ten minutes, then two turns more, — five rolls out in all, — lastly, gather the paste into a lump, and roll it according to your requirements. For patties, vols-au-vent, ^'c, seven turns are recommended by some authors. Keep the flour dredger at your elbow, and flour the rolling-pin well before each turn. The sooner the paste is used when it has been completed the better. If you have a little good iced butter, you may alter the above proportions as follows : — three-quarters of a pound of suet, and one-quarter of a pound of butter. The yolks of two eggs well beaten and strained may be mixed with the water. Baking powder may be used advantageously in pastrymaking : here is Yeatman & Co.'s recipe for puff paste made in connection with their powder : — Measure three breakfast-cupfuls of flour, carefully sifted, and two cupfuls of butter. Choose a cool place to work