COOKERY NOTES

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 21, 5 December 1930, Unnumbered Page

COOKERY NOTES

Original Recipes

By

Frank

Hilton

‘As broadcast from 2YA, Wellington

| : Short Pastry. HIS is very simple and very nice, Ingredients: lb. of flour, 4lb. butter, and if for sweet pies, etc., 4ozs. sugar and as much baking powder as covers a shilling. Method: Rub in the butter and mix with cold water into a nice firm dough; let it stand half an hour, then roll out into whatever is required, If for savories, meat pies, etc., leave out the sugar and add salt to taste. The next recipe is for meat pies, etc., a very cheap and nice hot water aste. p Ingredients: 1b. of flour, 40zs. beef dripping, i0z. salt. Mcthod: Make a bay in the centre of the flour, put in the beef dripping and salt; pour on the dripping some boiling water, and, after the dripping is dissolved, draw in with a fork the flour and make into a nice firm dough; do not knead it, and, while warm use for pie coverings, ete, but you can bake it at any time. . My next pastry is German dough, or German biscuits. In fact, any kind of article that requires a rich, sweet pastry. , Ingredients: 1b. 2ozs. flour, {lb. butter, 6ozs. icing-sugar, 1 egg. Method: Take the butter, sugar and egg; knead them all together. When all are incorporated knead in the flour. This pastry can be used any time and takes no harm by standing a few days. Just mix a lump and use it as you desire. Puff Pastry. ANY desire to make really good flaky puff pastry, and how many think it is too difficult! As a matter of fact the making of puff pastry is really quite easy. All you have to do is to mix correctly and roll correctly, and use plenty of butter. The recipe for puff pastry is quite simple; the same weight of butter as flour; that is, one pound of flour to one pound of butter. T can hear many saying to themselves: "How expensive!" But it is not expensive when you take into consideration how many pieces you can cut this amount into when properly mad.e The cost of the pastry would be about 1/6; this should cut into 36 pieces of pastry of commercial size, and you have the advantage of your goods being made of pure butter-absolutely home-made. Puff paste recipe: One pound of butter and one pound of flour. Weigh both these on to a table or board. The butter should be firm, tough and dry. You all know what I mean by firm. Toughness means that the butter will not break apart when squeezed in the hand nor crumble. A good brand of table butter makes good pastry, but never use whey butter for pastry, it does not flake very well. Now, what do I mean by dry butter? I mean that itmust not contain any surplus milk or water and not too much salt. Should your butter contain too much moisture, crush it out on the table with your hands and let it stand over night to firm up again. Well, so much for the ingredients, now we come to the mixing. Weigh butter and flour on to the table or a board. Now chop the butter into the flour in pieces about the size of, say, a whole almond nut not shelled, no smaller, stirring it into the flour all the time. When all the butter is chopped up add to the flour and butter as much cream of tartar as covers a shilling;no other powder must be used, just pure cream of tartar. No sodas may be used and no baking powders, as soda will surely kill your ‘pastry. Now with some cold water-as cold as possible-make into a firm dough. Here is another little hint for readers: in making perfect pastry your dough should be the same stiffness as your butter was before you started; that is, a firm hard butter, a firm hard dough; a soft pliable butter, a soft pliable dough. You will find it requires very little water, and you /mnust kind of shake the water in using the hands to mix with, and there must ‘ be no wet patches-a nice, firm, dry dough. You must not knead it, just clean your hands with dry flour and lift the mixed dough on to a nicelyfloured table or board. Now comes the business of rolling out; our dough is now a mass of paste and huge lumps. Take the rolling-pin and roll as gently as possible;

do not crush it out. It must be rolled, say, to about }-inch thick. Do not use any more flour than you can possibly help in the rolling process. Now take a fold; that is, lift: the right hand side of the paste to the centre and then the left hand side of the paste to the centre; brush off all surplus flour. Now take the top edge of the pastry facing you and roll it gently to the bottom, like a sponge roll. This is called the first turn. Now let it stand a few minutes; then roll it out again and do the same thing again, This is called the second turn. Now let it stand about half an hour and repeat the treatment again and’ your pastry should be about right; that is, if you cannot see any patches of butter. Let it stand a little before finally putting it into tarts, or whatever you may wish. Another hint: many cooks make the mistake of over-rolling their pastry. When you are cutting out your pastry try and have as little trimming as possible, and use your trimmings for the lining of custards, etc., or anything where puffiness is not desired. Now all these directions, ete, summarised mean: chouse materials right; mix right; and roll right, and you have perfect pastry. ‘ Pastry needs a good hot oven, about 300 degrees Fahrenheit. There are two methods of glossing or glazing pastry: one is, brush over with egg; the other is, and the finest glaze of the lot, is to sieve over a fine layer of icing-sugar before baking ; but all flour must be brushed off the finished article before the sugar is dusted over. If the sugar comes in contact with any flour it will not gloss. Christmas Pudding. LISTENERS are advised to make these ag soon as possible, for the longer they are made the better will be the flavour. The recipe is :- 1ilb. beef suct. 4oz. chopped almonds. _ 2i1b. currants, 14Ib. sugar. 1ilb. sultanas. 6 exgs 1b. lemon peel. 4 small pkt. mixed spice, and 141b. brown breadcrumbs. milk. 4lb. flour. Method: All the fruit must be weighed and dried into mixing bowl Next we will need-and must have-a mincing machine. Slightly soak the brown bread in a little milk, don’t make it too wet or it won’t pass through the mincer. Now pass the bread, suet and peel through the mincer; the best way is: A bit of bread, then a bit of peel, then a bit of suet, and so on until all is through. If you care to substitute large raisins for the sultanas, pass them through the mincer also, After everything is through, add these minced ingredients to the fruit already in the mixing bowl. Now crack and beat up the eggs, put them in, and the sugar and the rest of the ingredients, and mix all up with fresh milk, stirring in the spice last. Do not make them too stiff or too sloppy, but mix them up well. Use your right hand and don’t be afraid to stir. Do not make the mixture soft enough to run level in the basins; it should be slightly pressed into shape, The size of the basins can be left to your own discretion. A pound-and-a-half pudding is generally enough for six persons. Grease the basins well with butter, then fill to the top, cover over with a piece of parchment paper and then tie a cloth over the top of basin. The puddings should be boiled six hours, just kept simmering all the time, not boiled fast. They should then be taken from the boiling water, turned upside down to drain and dry, then stored away in 2 cool, dry place. When they are going to be used they need to be steamed again for one hour.