Puff Paste
From Catherine Owen's new cook book .., 1885
Paste made the day before is better. Handle with light fingers.
Presented as published in 1885. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation below, not the original instructions.
A modern interpretation · AI-generated from the original record
Ingredients
Method
As published
This recipe was extracted from Catherine Owen's new cook book .. (1885) by Helen Alice (Matthews) Nitsch, page 13. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.
puff paste is a thing many ladies are anxious to do, and in which they generally fail, and this not so much because they do not make it properly, as because they handle it badly. A lady who was very anxious to excel in pastry once asked me to allow her to watch me make paste. I did so, and explained that there was more in the manner of using than in the making up. I then gave her a piece of my paste when com- pleted, and asked her to cover some patty pans while I covered others, cautioning her as to the way she must cover them ; yet, when those covered by her came out of the oven they had not risen at all, they were like rich short paste ; while my own, made from the same paste, were toppling over with lightness. I had, without say- ing anything, pressed my thumb slightly on one spot of one of mine ; in that spot the paste had not risen at all, and I think this practical demonstration of what I had tried to explain was more useful than an hour's talk would have been. I will first give my method of making, wliich is the usual French way of making "feiiilletonage.^^ Take one pound of butter, or half of it lard ; press all the water out by squeezing it in a cloth ; this is impor- tant, as the liquid in it would wet your paste ; take a third of the butter, or butter and lard, and rub it into 22 Pastry, 23 one pound of fine flour
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Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.