Paste for Common Pies

Ingredients

• half a pound of butter
• the eighth part of a peck of flour
• some raw eggs
• nearly a pint of spring water

Method

1. 1

   Mix flour with cream and raw eggs.

2. 2

   Add butter in pieces and roll lightly.

3. 3

   For custard paste, mix flour with boiling water and butter, adding sugar if needed.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Cassell's dictionary of cookery (1892) by Cassell & Company, page 1104. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

Paste for Common Pies.— Very ex- cellent pastry may be made with lard or dripping, instead of butter, or with a mixture of lard and dripping. Good beef fat, or suet melted gently down, and poured off before it has had time to bum, is very nearly as good as anything that can be used for making pastry for everyday use. Very palatable pies may be made from the dripping from roast beef, veal, pork, or mutton, though the last named PAS <514 ) PAS is though by some to impart a disagreeable flavour of tallow to pastry. The quantity of fat used must, of course, be regulated by the expense, and it may be remembered that a rich crust is neither so digestible nor so suitable for many dishes as a substantial hght one, and that the lightness of pastry depends quite as much upon a light, quick, cool hand as on a large amount of butter or lard. The addition of a beaten egg or a little lemon -juice to the water, or a tea-spoonful of baking-powder to the flour, will make the paste lighter. It should be remembered, however, that though baking- powder is excellent for common pastry that is to be used immediately, pies are more likely to get dry quickly when it is used. Two recipes are here given for good plain pastry, and they may be varied according to the taste and resoui-ces of the cook. Paste for Meat or Fruit Pies, &g. — Mix the eighth part of a peck of flour with some cream and raw eggs. Add half a pound of butter broken in pieces, which must not be too small, and roll the paste lightly. To make paste for custards, mix the flour with boiling water and butter, augar being added, if neces- sary. If this is done, it wiU be found to increase the stiftncss of the paste. Paste for Meat or Savoury Pies.— Sift two pounds of flne flour to one and a half of good salt butter, break it into small pieces, and wash it weU in cold water; rub gently together the butter and flour, and mix it up wilh the yolks of throe eggs, beat together with a spoon, and nearly a pint of spring water

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.