The new practical housekeeping

For Nantucket Paste, take pound sifted flour, quarter pound each lard and butter, half pint ice water and little salt. Chop the lard fine in the flour, adding salt, mix with water, then roll out^ ipread with butter, fold as above, roll out again, and so continue until all the butter is used. Some sift a very Little flour evenly over the paste before spreading with butter, and others brush it over with beaten white of an egg. The paste is nicer with all butter instead of half lardy and it may all be mixed with the flour, or half reserved to spread and roll as above. Some use a Quarter pound more flour. If for sweet tarts, add two tablespoons powdered sugar before rolling. Potato Paste. — Take a quarter pound nice mashed potato, rub through colander and mix thoroughly with pint and a half flour, three tablespoons butter and a little salt; then mix all to a paste moderately stiff with cold water or milk, and roll. Bean Paste mav be made same way. When used for pies, roll these pastes a little thicker than paste shortened with lard. Nice for boiled or steamed puddings. All, or half Oraham flour may be used. Puff Paste. — Only the best and freshest of butter, firm and solid, and of good flavor, and the finest quality of flour, thoroughly siftea, can be used successfully in making puff paste. The water used should be ice cold, and tne quantity required depends upon the capacity of the flour to absorb it, which is quite variable : too little makes the paste tough, and too much makes it thin, ana prevents the flakiness so desirable. The most perfect cleanliness of the hands and everything used is of course, necessary. Handle as little as possible throughout the whole process, and let every touch be quick and lisht. A stone or marble slab is best for pastry, and one is usually fitted smoothly into the shelf of every well-appointed pantry and a glass rolling pin will be found desirable. Always make the paste in a cool place, in warm weather near an open window if possible. Good puff paste is that which rises highest, is lightest, and which contracts but little in rising. Puff paste, the flakes of which can be pushed off whole, or which, in the rising, is considerably smaller on top than bottom, is not good. To make Good Puff Paste^ take tmree-fourths pound butter, of the best quality, free it from salt, by working it in water, form in a square piece, and place it in flour in a cool place for half an hour to harden ; place one pound sifted flour in a bowl, rub two tablespoons butter well into the flour and wet into dough with cold water, using about a scant half pint, making it as nearly as possible the same consistency as the butter, so that the two will roll out evenly together ; place the dough on the pastry slab, dust it under and over with nour, and roll it out in a piece say twelve inches long and six wide : flour the butter well, and roll that out in a sheet two-thirds the thickness of the dough, about eight inches long and five wide ; this will cover about two-thirds of dough, leaving one-third of dough, and about half an inch around the sides and top edge, without butter ; place the sheet of butter on dough, mix a half teaspoon cream tartar with tablespoon flour, and sprinkle it evenly over the butter ; now fold the dough not covered \