T II E 
C, A R I ) E N M A G A / I N E 
April. 1 9 1 .5 
18 + 
SUGGESTIONS FOK. 
Cond'uctecT ■ 
EFFIE M . FUOBINSO'N 
THE HOME TABLE 
Graduate of tKe ](&ncn.af~ frairuny Scftoof 
, -London , City land'? 
Pastry Making 
1 HAVE recently been giving a young housewife a 
few lessons on pastry making, and it occurred 
to me that there may be others who would be glad of 
a few hints to help out the usually vague instructions 
that are given in an ordinary recipe book. 
Pastry can be used either for savory pies for the meat 
course, thereby making a welcome change from joints 
or stews, or as a dessert, with fruits, custards, and pre- 
serves as fillings. Deep dish pies, or tarts as the 
English call them, have no under crust; the fruit is 
put first into a deep dish and a covering of pastry put 
over. The under crust in a double pie is indigestible 
unless it is properly cooked. A perforated tin helps 
to make the crust digestible by complete cooking. 
Bottled or canned fruit is quite as good as fresh fruit 
for pies, and canned pineapple I think is far superior to 
the fresh. Canned goods may seem rather high priced, 
but a great deal depends upon the store you go to. It 
is not a good plan to run a bill at one certain store and 
feel obliged to deal at that store only. Take your 
money in your pocketbook and you can buy from store 
to store as you see things that suit you, and save many 
a penny by shopping that way. 
Pastry is generally divided into three kinds: short, 
in which the entire amount of shortening is rubbed into 
the flour with the tips of the fingers or chopped in with 
a knife; flaky, part of the fat being rubbed in and part 
rolled and folded in; and puff, where all the fat is 
rolled and folded in. There is also suet pastry for 
boiled puddings and for plain meat pies. The shorten- 
ing here is beef suet very finely chopped and rolled 
into the flour. The object in all kinds of pastry is to 
properly mix the fat with the flour. 
How to Start Baking 
Everything you use for pastry should be cold. 
Wash your mixing bowl first in hot water and then in 
cold, also your hands, and use a steel knife in mixing. 
The best sort of board is a slab of marble; perhaps you 
can get a large enough piece at a second hand store. 
Next comes glass and after that the ordinary, much used 
hardwood board. The object is to get a smooth cold 
surface. I have sometimes used the plain zinc tub 
tops thoroughly scrubbed and find them very satis- 
factory. Glass or wood rolling pins are used and those 
with removable ends are easy to handle. 
After you have laid out all your utensils, look to 
your oven. I have a treasure — a little two-shelf oven 
that fits over one burner on the top of the gas range. 
There are several patterns, some fitted with glass doors, 
which I would like to have. Mine, however, is an 
immense convenience. The range oven has a great 
many burners which you are obliged to light, even if you 
do not want the full heat, and that heats the kitchen. 
In hot weather I use the top oven continually, and 
keep cool; I can cook in it practically everything for 
a small family, even a small joint or chicken. For 
baked beans or casserole cookery it is unsurpassed, 
for it can be put over the simmering burner and left 
for hours without fear of the contents burning. 
If you are using a coal range, make up the fire an 
hour or so before you need the oven, in order to have 
a bright clear fire. Pull out the damper over the oven. 
For a gas range, light the oven burners ten minutes 
before you wish to bake. Then test the heat by brown- 
ing a teaspoonful of flour in a pan, on the top shelf. 
The flour should brown in about one minute. This is 
called a quick, or hot, oven, which is required for 
pastry in order that the air cells burst and the pastry 
be light. 
The Ingredients 
The ingredients required for pastry are flour, fat of 
some sort, baking powder, salt, and water. Flour 
should be perfectly dry. Choose a brand that will 
absorb the least water. There are several good brands 
of flour called pastry or cake flour, and I would suggest 
that you try each kind, until you get one that suits 
your special style of pastry making and then keep to it. 
I used to think, with many others, that good pastry 
could not possibly be made with any shortening but 
butter. Now since I have been testing the various 
vegetable fats I find that a tender, fine textured, rich 
crust can be made with either of the shortenings I have 
mentioned in my recent suggestions. There is really 
no necessity to pay a high price for butter for cooking 
purposes any more. Pastry and cakes made with 
vegetable fats are lighter in texture, far more digestible, 
and will keep better and longer, than if made with 
butter. Not only are they cheaper by the pound but 
about one fifth less is used in proportion to the flour, 
thereby making it more economical. 
As to Sawtay, the nut butter I mentioned last month, 
it is a wonder! In the instructions as to its use there 
are these words: “You can positively fry fish, then 
onions, in Sawtay; then strain it and make the most 
delicate pastry with the same fat.” I doubted that 
statement; I was really afraid to try it. But, having 
actually tested it myself, I can positively say that it 
acts exactly as stated. I fried filleted flounder in it 
first; I simply covered the fish with flour, as I thought 
if I masked it with egg and bread crumbs it might not 
be a fair test. Then I strained the fat through an 
ordinary strainer, reheated it, and fried a sliced onion 
in it. I did not parboil the onion to extract the juice, 
just fried it as it was. I then strained the fat, put it 
aside to cool and harden. Then I beat it to a cream, 
with a knife, adding a little salt as it contains none. 
This I made into pastry as usual and baked in patty 
pans, making little jam tartlets which I served to my 
family, quite expecting some one to complain that 1 
had used an oniony knife. Every one congratulated 
me on the fine short pastry I had made. There was 
not a trace of fish or onion in the fat. This will be an 
excellent “discovery” for boarding houses or hotels 
where large quantities of fat are used. 
Crisco does not claim quite as much for itself as 
Sawtay, though I have fried potatoes, fish, onions, 
doughnuts and croutons all in the same deep pan of 
Crisco, without any flavor being imparted from one 
food to another. 
Baking powder is added to the plainer kinds of 
pastry, and for any one who is not clever at the work 
it is a good plan to use a little. Salt gives a zest and 
must always be used to bring out the flavor of the other 
ingredients and prevent insipid crust. Don’t use 
enough to taste. 
The Method of Mixing 
When all your utensils and ingredients are ready you 
can start. Rub the flour, with the baking powder and 
salt, through a sieve into your bowl; this gets all the 
lumps out and passes air through it. Now, rub the 
0 Continued on Page 186) 
Food economy now, more than ever, 
demands the purchase and use of those food 
articles of known high quality and absolute 
purity and healthfulness. 
ROYAL 
Is a Pure, Cream of Tartar 
BAKING POWDER 
Contains No Alum 
Perfectly leavens and makes the food 
more delicious and wholesome. 
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