One pound of the best butter, one pound of pastry flour, one scant teaspoonful of salt, about one cup of ice water. By measure, use one quart of flour and one pint of butter. Scald the bowl, then fill with cold water. Dip the hands into hot and then into cold water; this makes bowl and hands smooth, and keeps the butter from sticking. Wash the butter, by working it in the cold water, till soft and waxy. Divide into four parts; pat each part into a long and narrow piece, and wrap in a clean napkin.

Have three shallow oblong pans that will fit the one into the other. Fill the largest and smallest of the pans with broken ice. Put the butter, covered with the napkin, into the other, and place it between the two pans of ice to harden. Mix the salt with the flour, then break in one quarter of the butter. Rub with the tips of the fingers, and keep plenty of flour between the fingers and the butter. Many prefer to chop it, that the warmth of the hand may not soften the butter. When the butter and flour are well mixed, and fine and dry like meal, pour in the cup of ice water slowly. Mix with a knife, and cut, rather than stir. Wet only part of the flour at first and toss it to one side of the bowl, then wet another part; and when it is all of the proper consistency, cut and mix it together till it can be taken up clean from the bowl with the knife. Add the last of the water cautiously, wetting only the dry flour, and use less or more than the cupful as the flour may require. If the butter be softened by the heat in rubbing, it will moisten the flour, and less water will be required. But it should not be allowed to soften. The mixture should be light and dry, like separate minute crumbs of butter coated with flour.

Use a large smooth rolling-board and a glass rolling-pin. Put half a cup of flour in the dredger, and sprinkle the middle of the board with a light coating of flour. Toss the ball of paste in the flour with a knife until floured all over, then pat with the rolling-pin into a flat cake an inch thick. Have the end of the board next you, that you may roll the paste the required length. Hold the handles of the pin firmly, and roll with a light quick stroke as far as your arms will allow, - the whole length of the paste, if possible, at every stroke. Do not attempt to roll the paste when it is in a ball or a cubical form, but pat it lightly, to make as large and flat a surface as possible before rolling. Roll out to the thickness of one third of an inch, and to a rectangular form. Lay one of the quarters of butter in a little flour on the corner of the board, and roll quickly into a long thin piece; scrape it up with a knife, and lay along the middle of the whole length of the paste. Fold over one side of the paste, then the other, letting the edges just meet in the middle of the butter. Do not pat it down. Then fold each end to the middle and double again. Pound into a flat cake and roll again one quarter of an inch thick. Roll another piece of butter thin, lay it on the paste, fold the sides over, then the ends over, and then together, and repeat the process with the remaining pieces of butter. When the butter is all rolled in, the paste may be folded, patted, and rolled out, two, three, or seven times, as your strength will permit. Twice is enough for pies, three or four times for patties; but more are needed for a vol-au-vent.

When the butter is of the right texture, fine, smooth, and firm, not dry and crumbly, and the mixing and rolling are done so quickly and deftly that the butter does not soften, the paste will not stick, and very little flour will be required in rolling. Do not strike a hard blow in rolling, nor press the paste down to the board, but roll with a light gentle stroke. When the paste does not slip along the board, you may know it is sticking, and it must be lifted at once, the board scraped clean, and floured slightly.

Should the paste become soft and sticky, fold again, and pat it out to the size of the pan, and put it in the napkin between the two pans of ice. It will harden in ten minutes, and then may be rolled easily. After all the butter is in the dough, cut in two pieces, then roll and fold one, while the other is in the ice pan. Keep the board and pin wiped dry, and use only a little flour, but use enough to keep the paste from sticking.