ick oven a light brown, and until
the filling boils up through the slits in the upper crust.

To prevent the juice soaking through into the crust, making it soggy
wet the under crust with the white of an egg, just before you put in
the pie mixture. If the top of the pie is brushed over with the egg,
it gives it a beautiful glaze.

FOR ICING PASTRY.

To ice pastry, which is the usual method adopted for fruit tarts and
sweet dishes of pastry, put the white of an egg on a plate and with
the blade of a knife beat it to a stiff froth. When the pastry is
nearly baked, brush it over with this and sift over some pounded
sugar; put it back into the oven to set the glaze and in a few minutes
it will be done. Great care should be taken that the paste does not
catch or burn in the oven, which is very liable to do after the icing
is laid on.

Or make a meringue by adding a tablespoonful of white sugar to the
beaten white of one egg. Spread over the top and slightly brown in the
oven.

FINE PUFF PASTE.

Into one quart of sifted flour mix two teaspoonfuls of baking powder
and a teaspoonful of salt; _then sift again_. Measure out one
teacupful of butter and one of lard, hard and cold. Take the lard and
rub into the flour until a very fine smooth paste. Then put in just
enough _ice-water_, say half a cupful, containing a beaten white of
egg, to mix a very stiff dough. Boll it out into a thin sheet, spread
with one-fourth of the butter, sprinkle over with a little flour, then
roll up closely in a long roll, like a scroll, double the ends towards
the centre, flatten and re-roll, then spread again with another
quarter of the butter. Repeat this operation until the butter is used
up. Put it on an earthen dish, cover it with a cloth and set it in a
cold place, in the ice box in summer; let it remain until _cold_; an
hour or more before making out the crust. Tarts made with this paste
cannot be cut with a knife when fresh; they go into flakes at the
touch.

You may roll this pastry in any direction, from you, toward you,
sideways, any way, it matters not, but you must have nice flour,
_ice-water_ and very _little_ of it, and strength to roll it, if you
would succeed.

This recipe I purchased from a colored cook on one of the Lake
Michigan steamers many years ago, and it is, without exception, the
finest puff paste I have ever seen.

PUFF PASTE FOR PIES.

One quart of pastry flour, one pint of butter, one tablespoonful of