THE BEST PLAIN PASTE.

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.