It is not a difficult thing to make puff-paste, yet nearly all cooks and housekeepers regard it a feat rather hard to accomplish. The work is not complicated, but it must be done very rapidly and with great delicacy of touch. In the many rules given in as many books the principal ingredients are practically the same - a pound of butter to a pound of flour, with differences in the way of lemon-juice, eggs or sugar.

In making puff-paste the object should be to form as many distinct layers as possible, and each layer should be as thin as a sheet of paper. To insure this result, all the materials and utensils used should be very cold, and the work done in a cool room. Puff-paste should never be attempted with lard or a mixture of lard and butter ; and the butter used must be of good quality. The best flour for this work is that made by the "old process," and commonly known as "pastry flour." In winter, when the temperature is at freezing point, or in summer, when a refrigerator is at hand, it is really but little more tax on time and muscle to make this paste than to produce any other variety of crust. Hundreds of different dishes can be made with it; and Careme, the noted French professional, has devoted a good-sized volume to the subject. As there can be no better mode of making the paste than the one he has given to the world, we present his recipe in this connection. It may be of assistance to know that four cupfuls of sifted flour make a pound in weight, and that a cupful of lard or butter is half a pound in weight.

Plain Paste With Lard

Many housekeepers always use lard for pastry instead of butter, simply because it is cheaper. It makes a crust that is more brittle and also more greasy, and there is no doubt but that it is more indigestible than the light, flaky, tender crust made with good, sweet butter. For one pie with two crusts allow,

Two cupfuls of sifted flour. One-half cupful of lard. One tea-spoonful of salt. One-half cupful (scant) of ice-water.

Make and roll the same as directed for "Plain Paste with Butter."