CHAPTER VI.
Pastry.
DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING PASTE.
Paste should be worked up very lightly, and no strength or pressure used; it should be rolled out from you, as lightly as possible. A marble slab is better than a board to make paste on.
The flour should be dried for some time before the fire previously to being used. In forming it into paste it should be wetted as little as possible, to prevent its being tough. It is a great mistake to imagine lard is better adapted for pastry than butter or clarified fat; it may make the paste lighter, but neither the color nor the flavor will be nearly so good, and the saving is extremely trifling.
To ensure lightness, paste should be set in the oven directly it is made.
Puff paste requires a brisk oven.
Butter should be added to the paste in small pieces.
The more times the paste is folded and rolled, if done with a light hand and the butter added with skill, the richer and lighter it will prove. It is no longer customary to line the dish for pies and fruit tarts.
PLAIN PUFF PASTE.
Mix a pound of flour into a stiff paste with a little water, first having rubbed into it about two ounces of butter, then roll it out; add by degrees the remainder of the butter (there should be altogether half a pound of butter), fold the paste and roll about two or three times.
VERY RICH PUFF PASTE.
Mix in the same manner equal quantities of butter and flour, taking care to have the flour dried for a short time before the fire; it may be folded and rolled five or six times. This paste is well suited to vol-au-vents and tartlets; an egg well beaten and mixed with the paste is sometimes added.
PLAIN SHORT CRUST.
Put half a pound of fresh butter to a pound of flour, add the yolks of two eggs and a little powdered sugar, mix into a paste with water, and roll out once.
EGG PASTE, CALLED IN MODERN COOKERY NOUILLES.
This is formed by making a paste of flour and beaten eggs, without either butter or water; it must be rolled out extremely thin and left to dry; it may then be cut into narrow strips or stamped with paste cutters. It is more fashionable in soups than vermicelli.
BEEF DRIPPING PASTE.
Mix half a pound of clarified dripping into one pound of flour; work it into a paste with water, and roll out twice. This is a good paste for a common meat pie.
GLAZE FOR PASTRY.
When the pastry is nearly baked, brush it over with white of egg, cover it thickly with sifted sugar, and brown it in the oven, or it may be browned with a salamander.
For savory pies beat the yolk of an egg, dip a paste-brush into it, and lay it on the crust before baking.
FRUIT TARTS OR PIES.
A fruit tart is so common a sweet that it is scarcely necessary to give any directions concerning it. Acid fruits are best stewed before putting into a pie: the usual proportions are half a pound of sugar to a quart of fruit—not quite so much if the fruit is ripe; the fruit should be laid high in the middle of the dish, to make the pie a good shape. It is the fashion to lay over the crust, when nearly baked, an icing of the whites of eggs whisked with sugar; the tart or pie is then replaced in the oven.
A VERY FINE SAVOURY PIE.
Lay a fine veal cutlet, cut in pieces and seasoned, at the bottom of the dish; lay over it a layer of smoked beef fat, then a layer of fine cold jelly made from gravy-beef and veal, then hard boiled eggs in slices, then chicken or sweetbread, and then again the jelly, and so on till the dish is filled; put no water, and season highly with lemon-juice, essence of mushroom, pepper, salt, and nutmeg; also, if approved, a blade of mace: small cakes of fine forcemeat are an improvement; cover with a fine puff paste, and brush over with egg, and bake.
TARTLETS.
Make a very rich light puff paste, and roll it out to half an inch of thickness; it should be cut with fluted paste-cutters, lightly baked, and the centre scooped out afterwards, and the meat or jam inserted; a pretty dish of pastry may be made by cutting the paste in ribbons of three inches in length, and one and a half in width; bake them lightly, and pile them one upon another, with jam between each, in the form of a cone.
CHEESECAKES.
Warm four ounces of butter, mix it with the same quantity of loaf-sugar sifted, grate in the rind of three lemons, squeeze in the juice of one, add three well-beaten eggs, a little nutmeg, and a spoonful of brandy; put this mixture into small tins lined with a light puff paste, and bake.
Cheesecakes can be varied by putting almonds beaten instead of the lemon, or by substituting Seville oranges, and adding a few slices of candied orange and lemon peel.
GIBLET PIE.
Prepare the giblets as for "stewed giblets," they should then be laid in a deep dish, covered with a puff paste, and baked.
MOLINA PIE.
Mince finely cold veal or chicken, with smoked beef or tongue; season well, add lemon-juice and a little nutmeg, let it simmer in a small quantity of good beef or veal gravy; while on the fire, stir in the yolks of four eggs, put it in a dish to cool, and then cover with a rich pastry, and bake it.
VOL AU VENT.
This requires the greatest lightness in the pastry, as all depends upon its rising when baked; it should be rolled out about an inch and a half in thickness, cut it with a fluted tin of the size of the dish in which it is to be served. Also cut a smaller piece, which must be rolled out considerably thinner than an inch, to serve as a lid for the other part; bake both pieces, and when done, scoop out the crumb of the largest, and fill it with a white fricassee of chicken, sweetbread, or whatever may be selected; the sauce should be well thickened, or it would soften, and run through the crust.
A VOL-AU-VENT OF FRUIT.
It is now the fashion to fill vol-au-vents with fruits richly stewed with sugar until the syrup is almost a jelly; it forms a very pretty entremêt.
PETITS VOL-AU-VENTS.
These are made in the same way, but cut in small rounds, the crumb of the larger is scooped out, and the hollow filled with any of the varieties of patty preparations or preserved fruits.
MINCE PIES.
Grease and line tin patty-pans with a fine puff paste rolled out thin ; fill them with mince-meat, cover them with another piece of paste, moisten the edges, close them carefully, cut them evenly round, and bake them about half an hour in a well-heated oven.
PATTY MEATS
May be prepared from any dressed materials, such as cold dressed veal, beef and mutton, poultry, sweetbreads, and fish; the chief art is to mince them properly, and give them the appropriate flavor and sauce; for veal, sweetbreads, and poultry, which may be used together or separately, the usual seasonings are mace, nutmeg, white pepper, salt, mushrooms minced, or in powder, lemon-peel, and sometimes the juice also; the mince is warmed in a small quantity of white sauce, not too thin, and the patty crusts, when ready baked, are filled with it.
For beef and mutton the seasonings are salt, pepper, allspice, a few sweet herbs powdered, with the addition, if approved, of a little ketchup; the mince must be warmed in strong well-thickened beef gravy.
If the mince is of fish, season with anchovy sauce, nutmeg, lemon-peel, pepper and salt; warm it in a sauce prepared with butter, flour, and milk or cream, worked together smoothly and stirred till it thickens; the mince is then simmered in it for a few minutes, till hot; the seasonings may be put with the sauces, instead of with the mince.