Practical household cookery

817. BATTER PASTE FOR FRYING. Batter is a thin paste often required for frying fish| meat, vegetables, and fruit. Put half a pound of white sifted flour into a basin with a little salt, white pepper, the yolks of two eggs (save the whites), a spoonful of vinegar or the juice of a lemon, and half a gill of olive-oil ; work the whole into a double creamy paste, adding in, a spoonful at a time, about half a pint of cold water ; when properly worked let it stand by. Meanwhile whisk well the two whites of egg set apart, and mix with the batter a few minutes before it is wanted. For fritters, white wine or beer can be substituted for water, and add a little pounded cinnamon. Eemarks on Hors-d'CEuvres or Side Dishes. Hors-d'oeuvres, or side dishes, are tasty dainties, the object of which is to stimulate and sharpen the appetite, and they are served and eaten either before or after the soup. These are divided into two parts, the cold and hot hors-d'oeuvres ; the former are usually prepared and dished up in small oval dishes, decorated with parsley and put on the table by the butler ; but in smaller establishments where the duties of that office are discharged by female servants it invariably falls upon the cook to dress up these decorative dishes, which generally consist of salami, a kind of raw Italian or Lyons sausage, fresh butter, slices of ham, sardines, tunny-fish, anchovies, radishes, olives, gherkins, smoked herrings or salmon, melon, foie-gras, caviare, oysters, Szc, &c. The hot hors-d'oeuvres are very numerous and far more complicated than the cold ones, the majority of which are more substantial, and in many instances differ but slightly from " entries." These are served directly after the soup, and are composed of many items, such as patties and bouchces of all description, croustades, coquilles, rissoles, croquets, cromeskis, mixed fritters, such as brains, liver, sweetbread, scollops, <kc., &c. 818. PATTIES WITH ANT SALPICON OR FORCEMEAT. Patties and bouchees are made out of puff paste, and the following is the proper mode of making them : — Put one pound of sifted flour on the pastry slab ; make a well in the centre of the flour, and pour in it one gill and a half of cold water, with half an ounce of salt and the yolk of an egg. Mix these gradually with the flour, and when done, and the paste is about half-mixed, sprinkle in another gill of water, mix all the flour and work it to a smooth paste until it ceases to adhere to the slab or hands ; then roll it out to a round piece. Now take one pound bf butter, put it in a clean cloth and press it, to extract any milk or water it may contain ; lay the butter on the paste, flatten both to a thickness of about two inches, then fold the four sides of the paste to the centre to enclose the butter and form a square piece. Next take a rolling-pin, roll the paste with it to about the length of three feet, fold over one-third of the length, and fold the other third over this. This is called ''giving one turn,'' and as it constantly recurs in all recipes for making pastry, I deem it advisable to give its meaning.