All paste should be made in a very cool place, as heat renders it
heavy. It is far more difficult to get it light in summer than in
winter. A marble slab is much better to roll it on than a paste-board.
It will be improved in lightness by washing the butter in very cold
water, and squeezing and pressing out all the salt, as salt is
injurious to paste. In New York and in the Eastern states, it is
customary, in the dairies, to put more salt in what is called fresh
butter, than in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. This butter,
therefore, should always undergo the process of washing and squeezing
before it is used for pastry or cakes. None but the very best butter
should be taken for those purposes; as any unpleasant taste is always
increased by baking. Potted butter never makes good paste. As pastry
is by no means an article of absolute necessity, it is better not to
have it at all, than to make it badly, and of inferior ingredients; few
things being more unwholesome than hard, heavy dough. The flour for
paste should always be superfine.
You may bake paste in deep dishes or in soup plates. For shells that
are to be baked empty, and afterwards filled with stewed fruit or
sweetmeats, deep plates of block tin with broad edges are best. If you
use patty-pans, the more flat they are the better. Paste always rises
higher and is more perfectly light and flaky, when unconfined at the
sides while baking. That it may be easily taken out, the dishes or tins
should be well buttered.
To make a nice plain paste,--sift three pints of superfine flour, by
rubbing it through a sieve into a deep pan. Divide a pound of fresh
butter into four quarters. Cut up one quarter into the flour, and rub
it fine with your hands. Mix in, gradually, as much cold water as
will make a tolerably stiff dough, and then knead it slightly. Use
as little water as possible or the paste will be tough. Sprinkle a
little flour on your paste-board, lay the lump of dough upon it, and
knead it a very short time. Flour it, and roll it out into a very thin
sheet, always rolling from you. Flour your rolling-pin to prevent its
sticking. Take a second quarter of the butter, and with your thumb,
spread it all over the sheet of paste. If your hand is warm, use a
knife instead of your thumb; for if the butter oils, the paste will be
heavy. When you have put on the layer of butter, sprinkle it with a
very little flour, and with your hands roll up the paste as you would a
sheet of paper. Then flatten it with a rolling-pin, and roll it out a
second time into a thin sheet. Cover it with another layer of butter,
as before, and again roll it up into a scroll. Flatten it again, put
on the last layer of butter, flour it slightly, and again roll up the
sheet. Then cut the scroll into as many pieces as you want sheets for
your dishes or patty-pans. Roll out each piece almost an inch thick.
Flour your dishes, lay the paste lightly on them, notch the edges, and
bake it a light brown. The oven must be moderate. If it is too hot,
the paste will bake before it has risen sufficiently. If too cold, it
will scarcely rise at all, and will be white and clammy. When you begin
to make paste in this manner, do not quit it till it is ready for the
oven. It must always be baked in a close oven where no air can reach it.
The best rolling-pins, are those that are straight, and as thick at
the ends as in the middle. They should be held by the handles, and
the longer the handles the more convenient. The common rolling-pins
that decrease in size towards the ends, are much less effective, and
more tedious, as they can roll so little at a time; the extremities not
pressing on the dough at all.
All pastry is best when fresh. After the first day it loses much of its
lightness, and is therefore more unwholesome.
COMMON PIE CRUST.--Sift two quarts of superfine flour into a pan.
Divide one pound of fresh butter into two equal parts, and cut up one
half in the flour, rubbing it fine. Mix it with a very little cold
water, and make it into a round lump. Knead it a little. Then flour
your paste-board, and roll the dough out into a large thin sheet.
Spread it all over with the remainder of the butter. Flour it, fold
it up, and roll it out again. Then fold it again, or roll it into a
scroll. Cut it into as many pieces as you want sheets of paste, and
roll each not quite an inch thick. Butter your pie-dish.
This paste will do for family use, when covered pies are wanted. Also
for apple dumplings, pot-pies, &c.; though all boiled paste is best
when made of suet instead of butter. Short cakes may be made of this,
cut out with the edge of a tumbler. It should always be eaten fresh.
SUET PASTE.--Having removed the skin and stringy fibres from a pound of
beef suet, chop it as fine as possible. Sift two quarts of flour into
a deep pan, and rub into it one half of the suet. Make it into a round
lump of dough, with cold water, and then knead it a little. Lay the
dough on your paste-board, roll it out very thin, and cover it with the
remaining half of the suet. Flour it, roll it out thin again, and then
roll it into a scroll. Cut it into as many pieces as you want sheets of
paste, and roll them out half an inch thick.
Suet paste should always be boiled. It is good for plain puddings that
are made of apples, gooseberries, blackberries or other fruit; and for
dumplings. If you use it for pot-pie, roll it the last time rather
thicker than if wanted for any other purpose. If properly made, it
will be light and flaky, and the suet imperceptible. If the suet is
minced very fine, and thoroughly incorporated with the flour, not the
slightest lump will appear when the paste comes to table.
The suet must not be melted before it is used; but merely minced as
fine as possible and mixed cold with the flour.
If for dumplings to eat with boiled mutton, the dough must be rolled
out thick, and cut out of the size you want them, with a tin, or with
the edge of a cup or tumbler.
DRIPPING PASTE.--To a pound of fresh beef-dripping, that has been
nicely clarified, allow two pounds and a quarter of flour. Put the
flour into a large pan, and mix the dripping with it, rubbing it into
the flour with your hands till it is thoroughly incorporated. Then make
it into a stiff dough with a little cold water, and roll it out twice.
This may be used for common meat pies.
LARD PASTE.--Lard for paste should never be used without an equal
quantity of butter. Take half a pound of nice lard, and half a pound
of fresh butter; rub them together into two pounds and a quarter of
flour, and mix it with a little cold water to a stiff dough. Roll it
out twice. Use it for common pies. Lard should always be kept in tin.
POTATO PASTE.--To a pint and a half of flour, allow fourteen large
potatoes. Boil the potatoes till they are thoroughly done throughout.
Then peel, and mash them very fine. Rub them through a cullender.
Having sifted the flour into a pan, add the potatoes gradually; rubbing
them well into the flour with your hands. Mix in sufficient cold water
to make a stiff dough. Roll it out evenly, and you may use it for apple
dumplings, boiled apple pudding, beef-steak pudding, &c.
Potato paste must be sent to table quite hot; as soon as it cools it
becomes tough and heavy. It is unfit for baking; and even when boiled
is less light than suet paste.
FINE PUFF PASTE.--To every pound of the best fresh butter allow a
pound or a quart of superfine flour. Sift the flour into a deep pan,
and then sift on a plate some additional flour to use for sprinkling
and rolling. Wash the butter through two cold waters; squeezing out
all the salt, and whatever milk may remain in it; and then make it up
with your hands into a round lump, and put it in ice till you are ready
to use it. Then divide the butter into four equal parts. Cut up one
of the quarters into the pan of flour; and divide the remaining three
quarters into six pieces,[E] cutting each quarter in half. Mix with a
knife the flour and butter that is in the pan, adding by degrees a very
little cold water till you have made it into a lump of stiff dough.
Then sprinkle some flour on the paste-board, (you should have a marble
slab,) take the dough from the pan by lifting it out with the knife,
lay it on the board, and flouring your rolling-pin, roll out the paste
into a large thin sheet. Then with the knife, put all over it, at
equal distances, one of the six pieces of butter divided into small
bits. Fold up the sheet of paste, flour it, roll it out again, and
add in the same manner another of the portions of butter. Repeat this
process till the butter is all in. Then fold it once more, lay it on a
plate, and set it in a cool place till you are ready to use it. Then
divide it into as many pieces as you want sheets of paste; roll out
each sheet, and put them into buttered plates or patty-pans. In using
the rolling-pin, observe always to roll from you. Bake the paste in a
moderate oven, but rather quick than slow. No air must be admitted to
it while baking.
The edges of paste should always be notched before it goes into the
oven. For this purpose, use a sharp penknife, dipping it frequently in
flour as it becomes sticky. The notches should be even and regular. If
you do them imperfectly at first, they cannot be mended by sticking on
additional bits of paste; as, when baked, every patch will be doubly
conspicuous. There are various ways of notching; one of the neatest is
to fold over one corner of each notch; or you may arrange the notches
to stand upright and lie flat, alternately, all round the edge. They
should be made small and regular. You may form the edge into leaves
with the little tin cutters made for the purpose.
If the above directions for puff paste are carefully followed, and if
it is not spoiled in baking, it will rise to a great thickness and
appear in flakes or leaves according to the number of times you have
put in the butter.
It should be eaten the day it is baked.