PIES.
PASTRY.
For good plain pastry allow one cup of shortening to three cups of flour; lard alone makes the most tender and delicate looking pie-crust; some prefer butter with the lard, and some butter alone; if one uses butter the salt must all be worked out of it; put your shortening on the ice fifteen minutes before using; sift flour; little salt; then add the shortening chopping it with a knife; do not rub it at all if you want it flaky; use just sufficient water so that it can be roiled easily, taking especial care not to wet it too much; use cold water, ice water preferred; one cup of flour is sufficient for a pie unless a very large one; pastry needs a quick but not hot oven. — A Friend.
GOOD PASTRY.
Take three cups of sifted flour; mix in thoroughly a large pinch of salt; then take a cup of lard, mix in as quickly as possible; never mind if there are lumps as big as the end of your thumb, (the whole secret lies in handling the paste as little as possible); now pour in a a little cold water, and stir with a knife; then sift some flour on the baking table, and take out all that is wet; pour in more water and wet up the rest; take all out on the table and sprinkle flour on it and roll over and over lightly, two or three times; now cut off as you need it, and roll out for the crust; in rolling use plenty of flour, if you wish to prevent the juice of the pie soaking into the under crust; beat the white of one egg and brush the crust; to give a rich brown to the upper crust brush that also. — Mrs. Cleveland.
A TRICK WORTH KNOWING.
Pie-crust can be kept a week and the last be better than the first, if put in a tight covered dish, and set in the ice chest in summer, and in a cool place in winter.
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