Chapter D (1)

Select medium-sized chickens and wash well, then cut into neat pieces and season them. Mix 1 cupful cornmeal with 1 cupful flour, 1 tablespoonful salt and 1 tablespoonful black pepper. Dip each piece in mixture and fry in hot Crisco twelve minutes. Drain and serve with cornmeal batter bread.

E

Wash young chicken, cut into neat pieces, dust with salt, pepper, and flour, and fry in hot Crisco twelve minutes. Drain, place on hot platter, pour over it 1/2 pint hot sweet cream, sprinkle over with chopped hot roasted peanuts, little salt and pepper.

Fried Chicken, Mexican Style

1 tender chicken
Salt and pepper to taste
1 clove garlic
1 seeded green pepper
2 large tomatoes
5 tablespoonfuls Crisco
Corn croquettes

For Croquettes

2 tablespoonfuls Crisco
1 can or 14 ears corn
2 tablespoonfuls flour
2 cupfuls milk
1/2 teaspoonful sugar
Pepper and salt to taste
1 egg
Breadcrumbs

_For chicken._ Draw, wash and dry chicken, then cut into neat joints, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Heat Crisco in frying pan, add clove of garlic and pepper cut in small pieces. When garlic turns brown take out, put chicken in, fry till brown, then cover closely, allow to simmer till ready. A short time before covering chicken, add tomatoes peeled and cut in small pieces.

_For croquettes._ Drain liquor from can of corn, or grate ears, and chop kernels fine. Blend Crisco and flour together in pan over fire, add milk, stir till boiling and cook five minutes, stirring all the time, add seasonings, and corn, and cook five minutes, then allow to cool. When cold, form lightly with floured hands into neat croquettes, brush over with beaten egg, toss in crumbs and fry in hot Crisco to a golden brown. Drain. Place chicken on hot platter, garnish with croquettes and serve hot.

Fried Sweetbreads

Sweetbreads
Egg
Breadcrumbs
Crisco
Peas or new Potatoes
Rich brown gravy

Sweetbreads should always be blanched before using. To blanch, soak in cold water two hours, changing water 3 or 4 times. Put into saucepan, cover with cold water, add little salt, and skim well as water comes to boil. Simmer from ten to thirty minutes, according to kind of sweet-bread used. Remove to basin of cold water until cold, or wash well in cold water and press between two plates till cold. Dry, remove skin, cut in slices, coat with beaten egg and toss in breadcrumbs, and fry in hot Crisco to a golden brown. Serve round peas or new potatoes, with rich brown gravy.

For those whose digestions are at fault, sweetbreads ought to be eaten as a daily ration if the pocketbook will afford it. For this special part of the animal's anatomy is that one of all the viscera whose mission is to help digestion. It is of the very pancreas itself, that stomach gland of marvelously involved structure which elaborates the powerful pancreatic juice. It is alkaline in nature, able to digest starches, fats, and most of what escapes digestion in the stomach proper. It received its name from a fancied resemblance in its substance and formation to the rising lumps of dough destined for bread.

Kidney Omelet

4 kidneys
6 tablespoonfuls Crisco
6 eggs
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoonful chopped parsley
2 tablespoonfuls cream

Melt 2 tablespoonfuls Crisco in frying pan. Skin kidneys and cut into small dice and toss them into hot Crisco three minutes. Whisk whites of eggs to stiff froth, then add yolks, seasonings, parsley, and cream, then add kidney. Make remaining Crisco hot in omelet pan or frying pan, pour in omelet and fry over clear fire six minutes. When the edges are set, fold edges over so that omelet assumes an oval shape; be careful that it is not done too much; to brown the top, hold pan before fire, or put it in oven; never turn an omelet in the pan. Slip it carefully on a hot dish and serve the instant it comes from the fire.

Macaroni and Round Steak

1/2 package macaroni
1/2 can tomatoes
3 tablespoonfuls Crisco
2 onions
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cupful grated cheese
1 lb. round steak
1/2 cupful breadcrumbs

Break macaroni into inch lengths and add it with 1 tablespoonful of the Crisco to plenty of boiling water and boil twenty minutes, then drain. Put steak and onions through a food chopper. Put macaroni into Criscoed fireproof dish, then put in meat and onions, add seasonings, tomatoes, cheese, breadcrumbs, and remainder of Crisco melted. Bake in moderate oven one hour.

Meat Cakes

1 lb. round steak
3 tablespoonfuls melted Crisco
3 small onions
1 tablespoonful chopped parsley
2 eggs
1/4 lb. grated cheese
2 cupfuls breadcrumbs
Salt, pepper, and paprika to taste
Tomato sauce

For Sauce

4 tablespoonfuls Crisco
1 carrot
1 turnip
2 onions
3 tablespoonfuls flour
2 cupfuls stock
1 can or 1/2 lb. fresh tomatoes
1 tablespoonful tomato catsup
1 bunch sweet herbs
Salt, pepper, and red pepper
to taste
1 blade mace
1 bay leaf

_For meat cakes._ Grind steak and onions together, add Crisco, cheese, parsley, crumbs, seasonings, and eggs lightly beaten. Mix together; form into small cakes, toss in flour and fry in hot Crisco. Serve hot with tomato sauce.

_For sauce._ Slice vegetables, fry in Crisco ten minutes; then add flour, stock, mace, bay leaf, tomatoes, catsup, and herbs. Stir till they boil, then simmer gently forty-five minutes. Rub through sieve, add seasonings and use.

Sufficient for twelve meat cakes.

Roast Turkey

For Stuffing

1 quart fine breadcrumbs
4 tablespoonfuls Crisco
11/2 teaspoonfuls salt
2 tablespoonfuls chopped onion
1 lemon
1 tablespoonful chopped parsley
1/4 teaspoonful powdered thyme
1/4 teaspoonful white pepper
1 egg
1 cupful country sausage
A little warm water
1 turkey
Salt pork

Mix sausage with breadcrumbs, add egg well beaten, Crisco, seasonings, grated rind and strained juice of lemon, and moisten with a little hot water. Be careful not to make stuffing too moist. See that turkey is well plucked, singed and wiped; fold over pinions, and pass skewer through them, thick part of legs and body, catching leg and pining it on other side; now secure bottom part of leg, which should have feet cut off half way to first joint, fill breast of bird with stuffing and skewer down skin. Place 2 strips salt pork in bottom of roasting pan, lay in turkey and place several strips salt pork over breast and sprinkle lightly with flour. Roast in hot oven, allowing fifteen minutes to the pound. Baste occasionally with melted Crisco. Serve hot decorated with cooked onions, celery tips, cranberries, and parsley.

Roast with Spaghetti

2 tablespoonfuls flour
3 lbs. sirloin steak
2 tablespoonfuls Crisco
1 large onion
1/4 lb. bacon
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cupful water
1/2 can tomatoes
1 cupful cooked peas
1 cupful cooked spaghetti
1 cupful cooked mushrooms
8 stuffed olives

Melt Crisco and make very hot in roasting pan, lay in steak, season with salt and pepper, cover with layer of sliced onion, layer of bacon, add water, cover, and cook in moderate oven about three hours. Have ready peas, mushrooms, and spaghetti. Place meat on hot platter. Add juice of tomatoes to gravy, and flour moistened with a little cold water, peas and mushrooms, and when hot pour round meat. Spread spaghetti on top and decorate with olives.

Sirloin Steak with Fried Apples

1 sirloin steak weighing 2 lbs.
3 tablespoonfuls melted Crisco
1 teaspoonful salt
1/2 teaspoonful white pepper
4 tart apples
Milk
Flour

Mix salt and pepper with melted Crisco, then rub mixture into steak and let steak lie in it twenty minutes. Broil it over a clear fire till done and serve surrounded with fried apples. Peel and core and slice apples, then dip in milk, toss in flour, and drop into hot Crisco to brown.

VEGETABLES

In the vegetable kingdom the cereals form a very important part of our diet, by supplying chiefly the carbohydrates or heat giving matter. Another nutritious group termed pulse, are those which have their seed enclosed in a pod. The most familiar are peas, beans, and lentils; peas and beans are eaten in the green or unripe state as well as in the dried. Vegetables included in the pulse group are very nourishing if they can be digested, they contain a large amount of flesh forming matter, usually a fair amount of starch, but are deficient in fat. Peas and beans also contain sulphur and tend to produce flatulence when indulged in by those of weak digestion. Lentils contain less sulphur, and do not produce this complaint so readily.

The more succulent vegetables include tubers, as potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes, leaves, stems, and bulbs, as cabbages, spinach, celery, and onions, roots and flowers, as carrots, parsnips, and cauliflower. These are very valuable on account of the mineral matter, chief of which are the potash salts, so necessary to keep the blood in a healthy condition.

Care should be taken in cooking vegetables not to lose the salts. Steaming is preferable to boiling, by preserving the juices, though it does not tend to improve the color of green vegetables. A little lemon juice added to the water in which new potatoes are boiling improves their color. Mint is sometimes cooked with new potatoes. To secure a good color in vegetables when cooked, careful cleaning and preparation before cooking is essential. Earthy roots, such as potatoes, turnips, and carrots, must be both well scrubbed and thoroughly rinsed in clean water before peeling. From all vegetables, coarse or discolored leaves and any dark or decayed spots should be carefully removed before cooking.

Potatoes should be peeled thinly, or, if new, merely brushed or rubbed with a coarse cloth to get the skin off. Turnips should be thickly peeled, as the rind in these is hard and woody. Carrots and salsify, unless very old, need scraping only. After the removal of the skin, all root vegetables (except those of the onion kind) should be put in cold water till wanted. Potatoes, artichokes, and salsify especially, must not remain a moment out of water after peeling, or they will turn a dark color, and to the water used for the two last, a little salt and lemon juice should be added in order to keep them white.

Root vegetables should be boiled with the lid of the pan on, green vegetables should be boiled with the lid of the pan off, for the preservation of the color.

Baked Parsnips

1/2 cupful Crisco
5 parsnips
Salt and pepper to taste

Peel and wash parsnips and cut into two lengthwise, and steam for one hour. Remove from fire, lay in greased baking pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper, spread Crisco over top and bake slowly till tender. Serve hot.

Brussels Sprouts with Crisco

1/2 cupful Crisco
2 baskets brussels sprouts
1/2 cupful grated cheese

Trim sprouts and cook them in boiling salted water till tender, drain and dry on clean cloth. Heat Crisco hot, then add sprouts, and fry until very hot. Turn them into hot vegetable dish, sprinkle cheese over them and serve immediately.

Sufficient for one dish.

Colcannon

3 tablespoonfuls Crisco
1/2 lb. cold cooked potatoes
1/2 lb. cold cooked cabbage
1 onion
Salt and pepper to taste

Chop onion and cabbage and mash potatoes. Put into frying pan with Crisco and fry few minutes adding seasonings. Turn into Criscoed fireproof dish and brown in oven.

Lentils and Rice

3 tablespoonfuls Crisco
1/2 cupful lentils
1/2 cupful milk
1/2 cupful water
1 teaspoonful curry powder
1 small onion
1 tablespoonful lemon juice
1 cupful boiled rice
Salt and pepper to taste

Wash lentils and soak them in milk twelve hours. Melt Crisco slice onion and fry a pale brown, add curry powder, milk, water, seasonings, and lentils, simmer two hours and add lemon juice just before serving, Serve with rice.

Corn Fritters

1 tablespoonful melted Crisco
1 can crushed corn
1 cupful flour
1 teaspoonful baking powder
2 teaspoonfuls salt
1/4 teaspoonful white pepper
3 tablespoonfuls milk

Put corn into bowl, add Crisco, salt, pepper, flour, baking powder, and milk. Mix well and drop in spoonfuls on a Criscoed griddle. Fire brown on both sides. These fritters are a palatable accompaniment to roast chicken.

Sufficient for twelve fritters.

Corn, Okra and Tomatoes

2 tablespoonfuls Crisco
2 tablespoonfuls sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
6 ears corn
6 okra pods
6 tomatoes
2 cupfuls water

Cut corn from cob, put into saucepan, cover with water and bring to boil. Scald and skin tomatoes and cut okra into cross sections half inch long. Add both to corn with Crisco and seasonings. Stir and cook until tender. Serve hot.

Curried Cauliflower

4 tablespoonfuls Crisco
1 cauliflower
1 sliced onion
1 dessertspoonful curry powder
1 tablespoonful lemon juice
1/4 teaspoonful salt
1 cupful stock or water

Boil cauliflower in boiling salted water till tender, drain, then divide into small flowerets. Fry onion in Crisco a few minutes, then add curry powder, lemon juice and stock or water. Simmer fifteen minutes, then strain into clean saucepan. Add cauliflower and salt and simmer fifteen minutes. Serve hot.

Creamed Potatoes au Gratin

2 tablespoonfuls Crisco
1 quart peeled and diced potatoes
2 cupfuls milk
1 tablespoonful flour
1 cupful grated cheese
1 teaspoonful salt
1/4 teaspoonful white pepper
Few breadcrumbs

Cut potatoes in about 11/2-inch pieces, then boil carefully in boiling salted water. When done, drain, and pour into Criscoed fireproof dish. Blend Crisco and flour in saucepan over fire, add milk, stir till boiling, then add cheese and seasonings. Pour over potatoes; grate a little cheese over top, sprinkle with breadcrumbs and bake five minutes in hot oven.

Eggplant en Casserole

4 tablespoonfuls melted Crisco
1 large eggplant
3 small onions
2 garlic cloves
3 tomatoes
1 green pepper
Salt and pepper to taste

Slice eggplant into thin slices, then slice onions, garlic, tomatoes and pepper quite thin. Arrange them, alternately, in a Criscoed casserole, seasoning each layer with salt and pepper. Pour in melted Crisco and cover. Cook over slow fire or in moderate oven till the eggplant is tender. Serve hot or cold.

Fried Parsley

Crisco
1 bunch parsley
Salt and pepper to taste

Wash, pick and dry the parsley; put into frying basket and immerse in hot Crisco fifteen seconds or until crisp. Drain and sprinkle with salt and pepper. It should be a nice green color. If it turns black it has been too long in the fat.

Green Peas a la Maitre d'Hotel

4 tablespoonfuls Crisco
1 quart shelled peas
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoonful lemon juice
2 sprigs mint
1 tablespoonful chopped parsley
1 teaspoonful sugar

Shell peas and throw into plenty boiling water containing a teaspoonful of salt, sugar, and mint; boil fast until tender, then drain. Mix lemon juice with Crisco and parsley; stir this among peas, reheat them, and serve at once.

Jerusalem Artichokes

2 tablespoonfuls Crisco
1 lb. artichokes
2 tablespoonfuls flour
1 yolk of egg
2 teaspoonfuls lemon juice
1 1/2 cupfuls milk
2 tablespoonfuls cream
Salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoonful chopped parsley
1/4 cupful vinegar
1 pint boiling milk

Wash and scrape artichokes, and throw each one in cold water containing vinegar, when all are done, rinse in water and put into boiling milk, add cupful of boiling water and teaspoonful of salt. Boil quickly with lid off, pierce with fork to know if done. Lift into hot dish and cover with sauce. Blend Crisco and flour in saucepan, over fire, add milk, salt and pepper, and cook five minutes. Remove from fire, add egg beaten with cream and lemon juice, pour over artichokes and sprinkle parsley over top.

Mushrooms au Gratin

4 tablespoonfuls Crisco
14 large mushrooms
1 egg
Salt, pepper, and red pepper to taste
1 tablespoonful chopped parsley
2 tablespoonfuls chopped cooked meat
2 tablespoonfuls breadcrumbs
1/2 cupful stock
1 tablespoonful chopped suet

Beat up egg, add suet, breadcrumbs, meat, parsley, and seasonings. Wash and remove centers from mushrooms, season with salt, pepper, and red pepper, also place tiny piece of Crisco in each. Then put heaping teaspoonful of forcemeat in each one, and cover with crumbs. Lay on Criscoed tin, add stock, and bake fifteen minutes. Serve on hot dish with gravy poured round.

Sufficient for fourteen mushrooms.

New Potatoes a la France

3 tablespoonfuls Crisco
2 lbs. new potatoes
2 sprigs mint
1 teaspoonful salt
1 tablespoonful chopped parsley
1 tablespoonful lemon juice

Wash and scrape potatoes. With round vegetable cutter scoop out from potatoes a number of little balls like marbles; boil these till tender in water, to which have been added salt and mint. Drain, add Crisco, parsley, and lemon juice. Toss them about gently in pan a few minutes, and serve on hot dish.

Potato Pone

2 tablespoonfuls Crisco
1 generous cupful grated raw sweet potatoes
1 cupful molasses
1 cupful milk
1 teaspoonful powdered ginger
1/2 teaspoonful powdered cinnamon
1/2 teaspoonful salt
1 tablespoonful chopped candied orange peel
1/2 cupful sugar

Grate potatoes or put them through meat chopper, add molasses, sugar, milk, Crisco, salt, spices, and orange peel. Mix well, turn into Criscoed fireproof dish and bake in moderate oven till firm.

Sufficient for one small pone.

Savory Lentil Dish

4 tablespoonfuls melted Crisco
1 cupful lentils
1 bay leaf
3 springs parsley
1 chopped onion
Salt, pepper, and powdered mace to taste
1 cupful boiled rice
1-1/2 cupfuls highly seasoned tomato sauce

Wash lentils and soak in plenty of cold water four hours. Put into boiling salt water, add bay leaf, parsley, seasonings and cook till tender. Chop and fry onion in 3 tablespoonfuls of Crisco, add lentils, rice and remainder of Crisco, stir and allow to get hot. Turn into hot dish and pour over tomato sauce.

Stuffed Beets

2 tablespoonfuls Crisco
6 beets
2 green peppers
2 tablespoonfuls breadcrumbs
1/2 teaspoonful onion juice
Salt and pepper to taste
Watercress

Select 6 smooth even-sized beets and boil in boiling salted water until tender. Peel, remove root end and remove center, leaving shell about half inch thick. Remove stems and seeds from peppers; cover peppers with boiling water ten minutes. Dice them with scooped out beet, add Crisco, breadcrumbs, and seasonings. Mix and divide into beet shells, dot with Crisco and bake in moderate oven twenty minutes. Serve garnished with watercress.

Sufficient for six beets.

Stuffed Eggplant

3 tablespoonfuls Crisco
3 small eggplants
1/2 cupful breadcrumbs
1-1/2 cupfuls stock
1/2 cupful chopped cooked chicken or veal
1 egg
Salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste
1/2 cupful white wine
Criscoed crumbs
1 tablespoonful flour
1 tablespoonful sherry

Cut eggplants in halves and scoop out inside, leaving shell half inch thick. Soak 1/2 cupful breadcrumbs in 1/2 cupful stock ten minutes, then add cooked chicken, 2 tablespoonfuls melted Crisco, egg, well beaten, and seasoning of salt, pepper and nutmeg. Divide this forcemeat into eggplants, sprinkle Criscoed crumbs on top, set them in greased pan, pour in rest of stock and white wine and bake half hour in moderate oven. Serve on hot dish with following sauce.

Put 1 tablespoonful Crisco and 1 tablespoonful flour into saucepan and blend over fire, add sherry and 1 cupful liquor from pan in which they were baked, and cook five minutes.

Sufficient for three eggplants.

Stuffed Potatoes

(_Kate B. Vaughan_)

2 tablespoonfuls melted Crisco
6 large potatoes
2 tablespoonfuls grated cheese
1 yolk of egg
Salt and pepper to taste

Wash six well shaped white potatoes and rub skin with Crisco. Bake until tender, cut slice off one end, and with a teaspoon remove all potato from shells. Mash the potato, adding Crisco, cheese, seasonings, and egg yolk. Refill shells and bake fifteen minutes. Serve hot on napkin.

Sufficient for six potatoes.

Viennese Carrots

2 tablespoonfuls Crisco
1 bunch carrots
1 tablespoonful flour
1/2 teaspoonful sugar
2 tablespoonfuls vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoonful chopped parsley
1 cupful cooked peas

Scrape carrots, cut in small pieces, and boil till tender in boiling salted water. Blend Crisco and flour together in saucepan over fire, stir in 1 cupful water in which carrots were cooked, boil five minutes, then add sugar, seasonings, vinegar, parsley, peas, and carrots; simmer ten minutes and serve hot in vegetable dish.

SALADS

Salads are classified into two groups--i.e., the raw, such as lettuce, endive, radishes, cucumber, celery, etc., and the cooked, such as those made from cooked vegetables, eggs, cooked cold fish, poultry, and meat. The raw materials should be washed most carefully and well cleaned before mixing, and the utensils for cutting and mixing, as well as the basins or bowls used, should be clean and dry. Every salad, no matter how plain and simple it may be, should be made to look inviting and tempting. The method of draining or drying is a very easy performance so long as the salad leaves, whatever they may be, are almost free from moisture. This is effected best by putting the leaves, which should be broken, not cut with a knife, into a wire basket and drying them well, or else putting them into a cloth lightly folded and shaking well until the outer moisture of the leaves is well absorbed. The salad then is ready for mixing.

Any cold boiled vegetables left over from dinner are useful as giving variety to salads, and help to make a good accompaniment to cold meat served to luncheon. Thinly sliced cold potatoes--new ones for choice, green peas and string beans, are especially good for this purpose, and even Brussels sprouts, carrots, and turnips may be used on occasion in small quantities. More substantial salads, prepared with cold meat or fish, form appetizing luncheon or breakfast dishes. Those made with chicken, lobster and salmon respectively are most widely known, but fillets of flounder, cold ham or beef, or lamb make very good salads, and even the humble herring, and dried and salted fish, may be used with advantage in this way.

The meat or fish should be cut up into cubes or convenient small pieces, and piled up in the center of the dish or salad bowl on a layer of seasoned, shredded lettuce. Over this should be poured half of the dressing. Round this should be arranged the green constituents of the salad, cut up rather small, garnished with slices of tomato or beets, cucumber and hard-cooked egg. The remainder of the dressing should be poured over this, and the top of the meat or fish pyramid may be ornamented with a few sprigs of endive or parsley.

Apple, Celery and Nut Salad

For Dressing

1 tablespoonful Crisco
1 teaspoonful mustard
1 teaspoonful sugar
1/2 teaspoonful salt
1/4 teaspoonful white pepper
2 eggs
4 tablespoonfuls lemon juice
1 cupful whipped cream

For Salad

1 quart chopped apples
1 pint diced celery
1-1/2 cupfuls blanched and shredded almonds
2/3 cupful rolled pecan nut meats

_For salad._ Mix apples, celery and nut meats.

_For dressing._ Melt Crisco, add mustard, sugar, salt, pepper, yolks of eggs well beaten, and lemon juice. Cook in double boiler till it thickens, then add whites of eggs stiffly beaten. Chill and add whipped cream just before serving. Dressing should be mixed with fruit.

Asparagus Salad

For Dressing

6 tablespoonfuls melted Crisco
1 teaspoonful salt
1/4 teaspoonful paprika
Pinch black pepper
1 tablespoonful tarragon vinegar
2 tablespoonfuls cider vinegar
1 tablespoonful chopped cucumber pickles
1 tablespoonful chopped green peppers
1 teaspoonful chopped parsley
1 teaspoonful chopped chives
1 can asparagus or fresh cooked asparagus

Drain asparagus and chill. Mix salt with paprika, add pepper, tarragon vinegar, cider vinegar, Crisco, pickles, peppers, parsley, and chives, mix well and pour over the asparagus.

Celery and Almond Salad

1 cupful melted Crisco
1 yolk of egg
1 tablespoonful lemon juice
1 tablespoonful vinegar
1 head celery
1/2 cupful blanched almonds
1 crisp lettuce
Few drops green color
1/2 teaspoonful sugar
1 teaspoonful salt
1/2 teaspoonful mustard
Red pepper to taste

Melt and cool Crisco. Prepare celery and cut into very thin strips and plunge in ice water until wanted. Blanch and shred almonds; wash and dry lettuce leaves. Put yolk of egg into bowl, add mustard, salt, and red pepper and mix well with wooden spoon. Add sugar, teaspoonful lemon juice, teaspoonful vinegar; beat in Crisco gradually. Remove spoon and beat with egg beater five minutes, then beat in rest of lemon juice and vinegar. Add more seasonings if needed and enough green color to make it look pretty. Dry celery and mix with almonds, then toss them into dressing. Serve on lettuce leaves.

Fruit Salad

Dressing

1 tablespoonful Crisco
Pinch of salt
2 tablespoonfuls sugar
2 tablespoonfuls vinegar
2 eggs
1/2 pint whipped cream

Salad

24 marshmallows
1 can pineapple
2 juicy apples
6 oranges
Lettuce leaves

_For salad._ Cut fruit and marshmallows into small pieces, then mix and chill.

_For dressing._ Beat up eggs in double boiler, add vinegar, sugar, salt, Crisco and cook until thick. Cool and add whipped cream. Mix with fruit and serve on crisp lettuce leaves.

Orange and Tomato Salad

3 tablespoonfuls melted Crisco
4 tomatoes
4 oranges
1 tablespoonful chopped parsley
Tarragon vinegar
Salt

Peel oranges and tomatoes, and slice and arrange alternately in salad bowl. Mix juice squeezed from "tops and bottoms" of oranges with an equal quantity of tarragon vinegar, add Crisco and salt to taste. Pour over fruit and sprinkle chopped parsley on top.

Potato and Nut Salad

For Dressing

5 tablespoonfuls melted Crisco
1 teaspoonful mustard
1 teaspoonful salt
2 teaspoonfuls sugar
2 yolks of eggs
3/4 cupful cream or milk
1/4 cupful vinegar

For Salad

3 cupfuls sliced cold potatoes
1 cupful broken hickory nut meats
1 teaspoonful chopped onion
Chopped parsley
Cold cooked sliced beets
Sliced lemon
Lettuce leaves

_For dressing._ Mix sugar, salt, and mustard, add Crisco and stir thoroughly; then add yolks of eggs well beaten, cream, and lastly vinegar. Cook in double boiler until consistency of cream. If milk is used instead of cream, add 1 teaspoonful flour to other dry ingredients.

_For salad._ Mix potatoes, nuts, and onion together, and place on crisp lettuce leaves; pour over dressing and garnish to taste with beets, lemon, and parsley.

Potato and Pimiento Salad

1 tablespoonful Crisco
4 potatoes
2 hard-cooked eggs
1/2 can pimientos
1 tablespoonful chopped cucumber pickle
1 teaspoonful salt

Dressing

1 tablespoonful Crisco
2 teaspoonfuls dry mustard
1 teaspoonful salt
2 tablespoonfuls sugar
1 lemon
1/2 pint vinegar
2 eggs

_For salad._ Boil potatoes and slice them, add Crisco and salt. Now chop pickles, eggs, and pimientoes and add them and set in cool place to chill.

_For dressing._ Put vinegar into double boiler, add strained lemon juice, sugar, salt, mustard, then add Crisco and eggs well beaten. Cook until thick, then cool and use.

Shrimp Salad

2 tablespoonfuls Crisco
1 can shrimps
1 cupful celery cut in cubes
1 cupful tart apples cut in cubes
1 cupful broken Brazil nut meats
1/2 cupful broken English walnut meats
Salt and pepper to taste
1 lemon
4 tablespoonfuls vinegar
2 tablespoonfuls water
4 eggs
1 teaspoonful dry mustard
1 teaspoonful salt
1 teaspoonful sugar
1/2 teaspoonful white pepper
1/2 cupful thick cream and 1 cupful whipped cream
Crisp lettuce leaves

Break shrimps into pieces, put them into earthenware dish, moisten with a little melted Crisco, season with vinegar, salt and pepper. Put apple cubes into a small dish and sprinkle lightly with lemon juice, then put in celery cubes with a little more lemon juice and toss together. Cover and set aside. Prepare nut meats. Heat vinegar and water in double boiler, beat eggs, then gradually add them to vinegar, stirring all the time. Now add Crisco and cook slowly, stirring constantly. Remove from fire, and beat till cold, then add mustard, salt, sugar, and pepper. Add the thick cream just before serving. When ready to serve toss nuts, celery, apples and shrimps together with a silver fork, and add a little dressing. Heap on crisp lettuce leaves on individual plates, and pour over each salad a heaping spoonful of the dressing; and top with spoonful of unsweetened whipped cream.

PUDDINGS

Puddings as a rule either are boiled, steamed or baked. For boiled puddings, care should be taken that the saucepan be kept boiling or the water will get into the pudding and spoil it. For pudding cloths, use materials such as linen or cheese cloth. After using, the cloth must be thoroughly washed in plenty of water with a little washing soda, but on no account use soap, and see that the cloth is perfectly dry before putting it away. Many puddings are lighter and better steamed, and then instead of the cloth only a piece of Criscoed paper is required, twisted over the top of the basin or mold. Very light puddings, such as custards, should be placed in a steamer. Most of the steamed puddings mixed a little softer, are excellent baked in a pudding dish.

In steaming puddings keep them at a uniform heat all the time, and be careful not to lift the lid off the pan for the first half hour. All farinaceous puddings should be cooked well, as then they are easier to digest. Cornstarch must be well cooked, from eight to ten minutes. Mold for jellies or blanc-manges should be well rinsed with cold water before using. Batters must be well beaten and allowed to stand for thirty minutes or longer before cooking, because the starch in the flour swells, and the batter will therefore be lighter. Batter puddings should be put into a quick oven. Puddings composed principally of milk and eggs should be very gently cooked, as strong heat will cause them to curdle.

In stewing fruit, prepare syrup first. Bring to boil, lay fruit in, and simmer gently. Souffles should be very light and spongy. Eggs form a large part of souffles, more whites than yolks are used and the former are beaten to a stiff froth. All souffles should be served quickly. Omelets are composed mainly of eggs. They can be savory or sweet. If over-cooked an omelet will be tough. To prevent milk running over when it comes to boil, put spoon in saucepan. Never leave spoon in saucepan if you wish the contents to cook quickly, and in any case a metal spoon never should be allowed to stand in a boiling saucepan containing fruit or any acid.

Apple Dumplings

5 apples
4 tablespoonfuls Crisco
2 cupfuls flour
2 teaspoonfuls baking powder
1/2 teaspoonful salt
3/4 cupful milk
Sugar
Cinnamon

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together. Work in Crisco with finger tips; add gradually milk, mixing with knife to a nice dough. Roll 1/2 inch thick, cut into squares and lay in center of each an apple, pared and cored. Fill up centers with sugar and cinnamon and take corners off the dough and pinch together. Place in Criscoed baking pan, dot over with sugar and Crisco and bake in moderate oven for twenty-five minutes or till nicely browned. Serve hot with milk.

Sufficient for five dumplings.

Apple Fritters

1-1/2 cupfuls flour
2 teaspoonfuls baking powder
1/4 teaspoonful salt
1 egg
1 tablespoonful melted Crisco
3/4 cupful milk
3 apples cut in quarter inch slices
3 tablespoonfuls sugar
1 lemon

Peel, core and slice apples, then sprinkle 2 tablespoonfuls sugar and strained juice of the lemon over them. Sift flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt into bowl, add milk to well beaten egg and stir liquid gradually into dry materials, beating thoroughly, then add Crisco. Cover apple slices with batter and drop them into plenty of Crisco heated so that small breadcrumb browns in sixty seconds. Fry for four or five minutes. Drain and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Any other fruit may be substituted for apples or a combination of fruits makes a delicious fritter.

Sufficient for twelve fritters.

Baked Rhubarb Pudding

2 cupfuls flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 bundles rhubarb
1/2 cupful Crisco
1 lemon
6 tablespoonfuls brown sugar
Water
1/2 cupful granulated sugar

Put granulated sugar into small saucepan over fire, and when brown, coat inside of plain pudding mold with it. Sift, flour, salt, and baking powder together, rub Crisco finely into it, then mix whole to a smooth paste with cold water. Turn out on a floured board, cut off one-third of it, and put one side for the lid. Roll out remainder until twice the circumference of the top of the mold, then drop gently into mold, pressing evenly against sides. Fill center with rhubarb, cut in pieces an inch long. Add grated rind and strained juice of half of the lemon, brown sugar and 3 tablespoonfuls water. Roll out pastry that was put on one side, wet edges of it, lay it on top. Cover with a piece of greased paper, and bake in moderate oven one hour. Turn out and serve with hot milk.

Caramel Bread Pudding

3 cupfuls breadcrumbs
1 quart hot milk
2 eggs
1 teaspoonful lemon extract
Grated nutmeg to taste
1/2 teaspoonful salt
1 cupful sugar
4 tablespoonfuls Crisco
Whipped cream

Put Crisco, crumbs, and salt into a basin, add hot milk and soak ten minutes. Melt sugar and brown it lightly in a small pan over fire, then add it to the bread, with eggs well beaten, and flavorings. Pour into Criscoed pudding dish and bake in moderate oven till firm. Serve with whipped cream.

Caramel Rice Pudding

1/3 cupful rice
1/2 teaspoonful lemon extract
3 eggs
2 tablespoonfuls Crisco
1/4 teaspoonful salt
2 cupfuls milk
1/4 cupful sultana raisins
2 tablespoonfuls powdered sugar
1/4 cupful granulated sugar

Melt granulated sugar in small saucepan and cook until brown, but do not burn; pour it while hot into pudding mold and spread it all over inside. Wash rice, parboil, drain, and cook slowly in milk thirty minutes; turn into basin, add powdered sugar, Crisco, salt, raisins, extract, and eggs well beaten and pour into prepared mold. Set mold in pan of boiling water and bake in oven till quite set. Turn out and serve hot or cold.

Carrot Pudding

For Pudding

1 cupful brown sugar
1 cupful grated carrots
1 cupful grated raw potatoes
3/4 cupful Crisco
1 cupful seeded raisins
1/2 cupful breadcrumbs
1/2 cupful milk
1-1/2 cupfuls flour
1 teaspoonful salt
1 teaspoonful baking powder
1 teaspoonful mixed spices
1 cupful currants
Prune sauce

For Sauce

1/2 lb prunes
1 wineglassful sherry wine
1 lemon
1/2 teaspoonful powdered cinnamon

_For pudding._ Cream Crisco and sugar together, add carrots, potatoes, raisins, currants, crumbs, flour, baking powder, salt, and milk. Turn into Criscoed mold, cover, and steam steadily for three hours.

_For sauce._ Soak prunes in water over night, after first washing them. Next day put them in pan with water they were soaked in, just enough to cover them, simmer gently until quite soft. Do not allow to boil, or fruit will be spoiled. Take out stones, crack some, and save kernels. Rub prunes through sieve, add sherry, kernels blanched, grated rind and strained lemon juice, and cinnamon, and then, if thicker than rich cream, add more wine, or water, and use.

Chocolate Jelly

2 squares chocolate
1 tablespoonful Crisco
2 cupfuls boiling water
3/4 cupful sugar
4 tablespoonfuls cornstarch
1/4 teaspoonful salt
1 teaspoonful vanilla extract
1/2 cupful chopped walnut meats
Whipped cream

Break chocolate into small pieces, dissolve in boiling water, add Crisco, salt, cornstarch mixed with sugar, stir and boil for eight minutes. Remove from fire add vanilla and nuts and pour at once into wet mold. Cool, turn out and serve with whipped cream.

Cottage Pudding

1 cupful sugar
1 egg
1 cupful milk or water
2-1/4 cupfuls flour
2 tablespoonfuls Crisco
2-1/2 teaspoonfuls baking powder
1/2 teaspoonful salt
1 teaspoonful vanilla extract
1 cupful sultana raisins

Sauce

1 tablespoonful Crisco
1 cupful sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoonful flour
1/2 teaspoonful vanilla extract
1-1/2 cupfuls boiling water

_For pudding._ Cream Crisco and sugar together, add egg well beaten, milk, vanilla, flour, baking powder, salt, and raisins. Mix well, turn into greased mold, and bake twenty-five minutes in moderate oven. Turn out and serve with sauce. This pudding may be steamed for one and a half hours.

_For sauce_. Mix flour, sugar, and Crisco in small saucepan, then stir in egg and boiling water and boil for three minutes. Flavor with the vanilla.

Molasses Sponge Pudding

2 cupfuls flour
2 teaspoonfuls powdered ginger
1/2 teaspoonful baking soda
1/2 cupful Crisco
1/2 cupful molasses
1 egg
1 tablespoonful breadcrumbs
3/4 cupful milk
1/2 teaspoonful salt

For Sauce

1 teaspoonful Crisco
1 teaspoonful cornstarch
2 tablespoonfuls lemon juice
3 tablespoonfuls molasses
1 cupful hot water

_For pudding_. Mix flour, breadcrumbs, soda and ginger together, then rub in Crisco with finger tips. Beat egg, add milk, molasses, salt and stir into dry ingredients. Turn mixture into Criscoed mold, cover with greased paper and steam steadily for two hours. Turn out and serve with sauce.

_For sauce_. Blend Crisco and cornstarch together, add molasses, water, and lemon juice, and boil a few minutes.

Monica Pudding

3 tablespoonfuls melted Crisco
2 cupfuls milk
1/2 cupful flour
3 eggs
1/4 cupful sugar
1/4 teaspoonful salt
1/2 teaspoonful vanilla extract

For Sauce

1/4 cupful Crisco
1/2 cupful powdered sugar
1/2 cupful cream
1/2 teaspoonful vanilla extract

_For pudding_. Heat 1 cupful milk. Add other cupful milk gradually to flour, then stir into boiling milk, stir and cook five minutes. The mixture should be quite smooth. Remove from fire, add Crisco, sugar, yolks of eggs well beaten, salt, vanilla, and whites of eggs stiffly beaten. Turn into Criscoed baking dish, set in pan half full of boiling water. Bake in moderate oven thirty-five minutes. Serve with sauce.

_For sauce_. Melt Crisco, add sugar, cream and vanilla extract and bring to boil.

Noodle Pudding

1 pint noodles
3/4 cupful sugar
4 eggs
1/4 cupful melted Crisco
1 lemon
1/4 cupful blanched and chopped almonds
2 cupfuls milk
1/4 teaspoonful salt

Throw noodles into boiling salted water, and cook five minutes. Drain in colander. Beat eggs until light and stir in the noodles. Grease pudding dish with Crisco, put in layer of noodles, sprinkle with sugar, almonds, grated lemon peel, and melted Crisco. Then add another layer of noodles and proceed as before, until all are used up. Add milk and salt, and bake one hour in moderate oven. Serve hot with milk or cream. This pudding is delicious with stewed fruits.

Peach Delights

1 quart flour
3 teaspoonfuls baking powder
2 tablespoonfuls sugar
1/2 cupful Crisco
1/2 teaspoonful salt
Milk
1 egg
1 teaspoonful lemon extract
Peaches, fresh or canned
Whipped cream

Sift flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder together, then rub Crisco lightly into them with finger tips; add lemon extract and enough milk to make soft dough. Drop mixture into Criscoed gem pans; place 1/2 peach on each one; fill cavities with sugar and bake in hot oven twenty-five minutes. Serve with whipped and sweetened cream.

Sufficient for twenty delights.

Pineapple Pudding

For Pudding

1 can pineapple
1 cupful sugar
4 tablespoonfuls melted Crisco
1 cupful breadcrumbs
1/4 teaspoonful salt
6 eggs
Hard sauce

For Sauce

4 tablespoonfuls sugar
1/2 teaspoonful salt
1/2 cupful Crisco
2 tablespoonfuls sherry
4 tablespoonfuls blanched and chopped almonds

_For pudding_. Beat eggs, add crumbs, salt, Crisco, sugar, and pineapple cut into small dice. Turn into Criscoed pudding dish and bake in moderate oven until firm. Serve hot or cold with sauce.

_For sauce_. Beat Crisco with sugar to a cream, add salt, sherry, and almonds.

Mrs. Vaughn's Plum Pudding

1/2 lb. brown sugar
3 eggs
1/4 lb. breadcrumbs
1/2 lb. browned flour
1/2 lb. Crisco
2 teaspoonfuls baking powder
1 teaspoonful salt
1/2 teaspoonful powdered cloves
1/2 teaspoonful powdered cinnamon
1 teaspoonful powdered ginger
1/2 teaspoonful grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoonful powdered mace
1/2 cupful New Orleans molasses
1/2 cupful brandy (or grape juice)
1/4 cupful lemon juice
1/2 lb. seeded raisins
1/2 lb. sultana raisins
1 lb. currants
1 lb. crystallized fruits, consisting of pineapple, cherries,
figs, orange peel, and citron

Chop crystallized fruits, add raisins and currants, then pour brandy (or grape juice) over them and let stand several hours. Cream Crisco and sugar, add eggs well beaten together, and all other ingredients. Divide into greased mold (small Crisco cans will do) filling two-thirds full and steam steadily for three hours. Turn out while hot and serve with hard sauce.

Sufficient for two medium-sized puddings or one very large one.

Rice Pudding

1/2 cupful rice
3 cupfuls milk
3/4 cupful sugar
1/4 cupful Crisco
3 eggs
Powdered cinnamon to taste
1/4 cupful seeded raisins
1/2 teaspoonful salt

Wash rice and steam it in milk until thick, then allow to cool. Cream Crisco and sugar, add well beaten eggs, raisins, salt, rice, and cinnamon. Grease pudding dish with Crisco, pour in mixture and bake one hour in moderate oven.

Walnut Pudding

1/2 cupful sugar
2 cupfuls flour
2 teaspoonfuls baking powder
4 tablespoonfuls melted Crisco
1/2 teaspoonful salt
2 eggs
1 cupful milk
1 teaspoonful vanilla extract
1 cupful chopped English walnut meats

For Sauce

1 cupful sugar
1/2 cupful water
3 yolks eggs
2 cupfuls whipped cream
1/2 teaspoonful lemon extract

Mix flour, sugar, salt and baking powder together, add eggs well beaten, vanilla extract, milk, Crisco, and nuts. Mix well and divide into 9 greased individual molds, cover with greased papers, and steam steadily for three-quarters of an hour. Turn out and serve.

_For sauce_. Boil sugar and water till syrup spins a thread, pour over beaten yolks of eggs, and stir quickly. Set aside to cool, stir occasionally, add lemon extract and just before serving mix in whipped cream.

Sufficient for nine individual puddings.

Woodford Pudding

(_Kate B. Vaughn_)

1 cupful sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cupful buttermilk
1 teaspoonful baking soda
1-1/2 cupfuls flour
1/2 cupful Crisco
1 cupful blackberry jam
1/2 teaspoonful salt
1/2 teaspoonful grated nutmeg

For Sauce

2 tablespoonfuls Crisco
1 cupful whipped cream
Powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoonful salt

_For pudding_. Cream Crisco and sugar together, add salt, eggs well beaten, nutmeg, flour, soda mixed with buttermilk, and jam. Mix well and turn into Criscoed pudding dish and bake in moderate oven thirty minutes or until firm.

_For sauce_. Cream Crisco and beat in as much powdered sugar as it will take up, add salt, and stir over boiling water until it becomes liquid, flavor with vanilla extract or sherry, and just before serving add cream. Serve hot with pudding.

SANDWICHES

If the slices of bread have to be spread with butter or with a paste it should be done before they are cut off. The slices should not be cut thicker than an eighth of an inch. When butter is used there must just be enough of it for us to know in some mysterious fashion that it is there. Every scrap of a sandwich should be eatable. Sandwiches usually are served on folded napkins, and arranged in circles, so that one overlaps the other. It is well to lay a damp napkin over the sandwiches, if they are not wanted immediately, in order to keep them moist. To make superior sandwich butter, work one cupful of butter in a basin with a clean and dry wooden spoon until soft; then add by degrees half a cupful of whipped cream, seasoning of salt and mustard, and put it in a cool place until required.

Egg and Anchovy Sandwiches

3 tablespoonfuls melted Crisco
10 anchovies
3 hard-cooked eggs
2 tablespoonfuls grated cheese
1 teaspoonful curry powder
1/2 teaspoonful lemon juice
Salt to taste
Brown bread
Watercress

Bone anchovies, put them in basin or mortar with eggs, cheese, and one tablespoonful Crisco, and pound all well together. Mix remaining Crisco with curry powder, lemon juice, and salt to taste. Cut some thin brown bread, spread with curry mixture and layer of anchovy paste. Lay another piece of bread on top, and cut into fancy shapes. Arrange on a lace paper and garnish with watercress.

Sufficient for fifteen sandwiches.

Fried Egg Sandwiches

2 tablespoonfuls Crisco
4 hard-cooked eggs
2 tablespoonfuls cream
Salt, pepper, and red pepper to taste
2 rasped rolls
Fritter batter

Cut hard-cooked eggs free from shells into slices and pound with Crisco and cream to a paste. Season with salt, pepper, and red pepper. Cut rolls into thin slices, butter them, spread them with the mixture and make into small sandwiches. Dip each sandwich into some prepared fritter batter, and fry to golden brown in hot Crisco. Drain and serve hot.

Sufficient for twelve sandwiches.

Hudson Sandwiches

2 tablespoonfuls Crisco
1/2 lb. cooked meat
6 stoned olives
1 teaspoonful capers
2 hard-cooked eggs
Salt and pepper to taste
Crisp lettuce leaves
12 picked shrimps
Parsley
Brown bread

Put through food chopper cooked meat, olives, capers, and yolks of hard cooked eggs, then add Crisco and seasonings. Spread mixture on slices of buttered brown bread, and stamp them out with a round cutter; sprinkle surfaces of sandwiches with chopped whites of eggs. Dish up in circular fashion. Put lettuce in center with shrimps and a few sprigs of parsley. This sandwich quite repays the trouble of making.

Sufficient for twenty sandwiches.

Pimiento Cheese Sandwiches

2 tablespoonfuls Crisco
1 cupful diced cheese
1 teaspoonful cornstarch
6 tablespoonfuls milk
1 teaspoonful salt
1 can pimientoes
Paprika to taste
Graham bread

Put cheese into double boiler, add Crisco, cornstarch, milk, salt, and paprika to taste and stir and cook until smooth, then add pimientoes cut into small pieces. Spread between buttered slices of graham bread.

Sufficient for twenty-five sandwiches.

Rice Sandwiches

1 tablespoonful Crisco
1/2 cupful rice
1 sprig parsley
1 blade mace
1 strip lemon peel
2 tablespoonfuls chopped cooked liver
2 tablespoonfuls chopped cooked ham
Salt and pepper to taste
Bread

Boil rice in plenty of boiling salted water, add parsley, mace, and lemon peel. When quite tender strain off water, take out parsley, mace, and lemon, and stir into the rice, liver, Crisco, ham, and seasonings. Cut an even number of slices of bread, spread mixture when cold on one-half, and cover with remaining slices of bread. Trim and cut into diamond shapes.

Sufficient for twenty sandwiches.

Sardine Sandwiches

2 tablespoonfuls melted Crisco
1 dozen sardines
1 tablespoonful whipped cream
1 tomato
Salt, pepper, and paprika to taste
Lettuce leaves
Slices of brown or white bread

Bone and skin the sardines, then rub through sieve, add cream, Crisco, pulp of tomato and seasonings and mix well. Spread mixture between slices of brown or white bread and butter, stamp out in rounds, in center of each round force a row of whipped cream seasoned with salt and red pepper, place small stamped out leaves of lettuce round the cream.

Sufficient for twelve sandwiches.

Tomato Sandwiches

2 tablespoonfuls Crisco
1 cupful water
1/2 cupful vinegar
2 eggs well beaten
1 teaspoonful salt
1 teaspoonful mustard
1 tablespoonful flour
1-1/2 tablespoonfuls sugar
Few grains red pepper
Firm ripe tomatoes
Bread
Whipped cream

Mix sugar, flour, salt, mustard and red pepper together, add eggs, vinegar, Crisco, and water and cook in double boiler until thick, stirring all the time. To every tablespoonful of dressing add equal quantity of whipped cream. Skin and slice tomatoes very thin, dip slices into dressing and place between thin slices of buttered bread. Cut into finger shaped pieces.

Sufficient for thirty sandwiches.

Tomato and Horseradish Sandwiches

1 tablespoonful Crisco
1/4 cupful grated horseradish
1 tomato
Bread
1/4 cupful mayonnaise
Salt and paprika to taste
Parsley

Mix Crisco, horseradish, and mayonnaise together. Skin and slice tomato, sprinkle with salt and paprika. Spread thin slices of bread and butter with Crisco mixture, and put sliced tomato between, cut into fancy shapes and garnish with parsley.

Sufficient for ten sandwiches.

PASTRIES

There are two principal divisions, within which all varieties may be included, viz:

1. Short or plain pastries.

2. Flaky pastries.

Of these, the former includes all pastes in which the fat is mixed evenly with the dough throughout; the latter, those in which, by one means or another, the two are arranged in alternate layers. The short pastes are the simplest, and for this reason should be experimented on to begin with. With pastry, a good deal always depends on the mixing. The best way is to measure out the average quantity of liquid, to pour about three-quarters of this gradually into the flour, at the same time stirring this briskly with a knife, so as to get it evenly moistened, and then add, in very small quantities at a time, as much more water as may be needed. To see, in this way, when the flour has been moistened enough, is easy. By the time the first three parts of water have been put in, most of it will have stuck together in little separate rolls; if on pressing these they should not only cling together, but readily collect about them whatever loose flour there may be, sufficient moisture will have been added; but so long as the mixture, when pressed, remains to some degree crumbly, it is a sign that a little more water is required. When done, the paste should stick together, but should not adhere either to the hands or to the basin. If it does this it is too wet, and more flour must be dusted over it and kneaded in till the surplus moisture has been absorbed. A sure sign of its having been mixed properly is when it can be rolled into a lump, and the basin wiped out cleanly with it, as with a cloth. To roll out, flour the pastry board slightly, lay the dough on it, and form it into a neat, flat oblong shape.

Press it out first a little with the roller, and then roll with short, quick strokes to the thickness required. Always roll straight forwards, neither sideways nor obliquely. If the paste wants widening, alter its position, not the direction of the rolling. At the beginning of each stroke, bring the roller rather sharply down, so as to drive out the paste in front of it, and take especial care in rolling to stop always just short of the edges. Short pastry differs from the flaky pastries in requiring but one rolling out.

It should be handled and rolled as little as possible and when carefully made it should not be in the least leathery or tough. Air in this method is mixed equally throughout the paste, and when it expands in the oven raises the paste in all directions. The flakiness of pastry depends upon the kind and amount of shortening used. Crisco makes tenderer crust than either lard or butter. Make pastry in a cool atmosphere and on a cool surface. The lightness of pastry depends largely upon the light handling in blending the Crisco with the flour and in the rolling of the pastry upon the board. The best results are obtained by cutting the Crisco into the flour with a knife.

If pastry contains baking powder it should be put into the oven as quickly as possible, but if it contains a liberal supply of Crisco without baking powder, it improves by being set aside in a cool place a few hours. Pastry that is light, dry and flaky, is separated more easily by the gastric fluids than that which is heavy. The flour must be of good quality, fine and dry. All pastry requires to be placed in a hot oven, slightly hotter for flaky than short crust. The oven should register from 310° F. to 340° F. The great heat quickly will cause the starch grains to burst and absorb the fat, otherwise the pastry will be heavy.

In making flaky pastry, if it has been rolled and folded properly, and not allowed to stick to the board, nor cut so that air can pass through layers, this air when heated in the oven expands and raises the paste in layers or puffs. Heat of oven must be great enough to fix the pastry in this raised condition, and as cold air prevents this, the oven door must not be opened too soon, or any more than necessary. See that the oven is clean.

Plain Crisco Pastry

1-1/2 cupfuls flour
1/2 cupful Crisco
1/2 teaspoonful salt
Cold water

Sift flour and salt and cut Crisco into flour with knife until finely divided. Finger tips may be used to finish blending materials. Add gradually sufficient water to make stiff paste. Water should be added sparingly and mixed with knife through dry ingredients. Form lightly and quickly with hand into dough; roll out on slightly floured board, about one-quarter inch thick. Use light motion in handling rolling-pin, and roll from center outward.

Sufficient for one small pie.

The New Crisco Pastry

2 cupfuls flour
3/4 cupful Crisco
1 egg
1 tablespoonful lemon juice
Sufficient cold water to hold mixture together
3/4 teaspoonful salt

Sift flour and salt into basin. Flour blade of knife, and chop Crisco into flour, being careful to keep flour between blade of knife and shortening. When mixture looks like meal, add gradually, egg well beaten and mixed with lemon juice. Roll pastry into ball with knife. May be used at once, but will be improved if allowed to stand in cool place for one hour. Should be rolled out once and handled as lightly as possible. May be used for sweet or savory dishes. Bake in hot oven. The purpose of the addition of lemon is to render gluten of flour more ductile, so that it will stretch rather than break as paste is rolled out, or as it rises in oven.

Sufficient for two pies.

Tip Top Pastry

1/2 teaspoonful salt
1-1/2 teaspoonfuls baking powder
2-1/4 cupfuls flour
1/2 cupful Crisco
Cold water
1 teaspoonful lemon juice