The Pattern cook-book

Cut the cold mush into slices about a-quarter of an inch thick, and fry until brown and crisp in a very little fat ; or sprinkle the slices with flour, and fry ; or dip each slice first in salted beaten egg and then in bread or cracker crumbs, and fry brown. Fried mush is one of the most delicious of breakfast dishes when properly prepared. The fat should be very hot, so that a crust will quickly form upon the slices preventing them from soaking up any of the grease. " Who'll dare deny the truth, There's poetry m pie ? " Longfellow. PASTRY. It is not a difficult thing to make puff-paste, yet nearly all cooks and housekeepers regard it a feat rather hard to accomplish. The work is not complicated, but it must be done very rapidly and with great delicacy of touch. In the many rules given in as many books the principal ingredients are practically the same — a pound of butter to a pound of flour, with differences in the way of lemonjuice, eggs or sugar. In making puff-paste the object should be to form as many distinct layers as possible, and each layer should be as thin as a sheet of paper. To insure this result, all the materials and utensils used should be very cold, and the work done in a cool room. Puff-paste should never be attempted with lard or a mixture of lard and butter ; and the butter used must be of good quality. The best flour for this work is that made by the " old process," and commonly known as " pastry flour." In winter, when the temperature is at freezing point, or in summer, when a refrigerator is at hand, it is really but little more tax on time and muscle to make this paste than to produce any other variety of crust. Hundreds of different dishes can be made with it ; and Careme, the noted French professional, has devoted a good-sized volume to the subject. As there can be no better mode of making the paste than the one he has given to the world, we present his recipe in this connection. It may be of assistance to know that four cupfuls of sifted flour make a pound in weight, and that a cupful of lard or butter is half a pound in weight. careme's recipe for puff-paste. Twelve ounces of finely sifted flour. Twelve ounces of butter. One scant glassful of ice-water. Two drams of salt. Two eggs (yolks). Having placed the flour on the board, make a small hole in the middle of it, into which put the salt, the yolks of the eggs, and nearly a glassful of ice-water. With the ends of the fingers gradually mix the flour with the liquid ingredients, adding a little more water when necessary, until the paste is. of the proper consistency — rather firm than otherwise. Then lean the hand on the board and work the paste for some minutes, when it will become soft to the touch and glossy in appearance. Care must be taken in mixing the flour with the liquid that the latter does not escape, and that the paste be very lightly gathered together to prevent it forming into lumps, which would render it stiff and very difficult to work, thus making a failure of the paste very probable. To ascertain whether the dough has been properly worked, draw it out