To make pastry successfully, in the first place use only the best flour, and sweet fresh butter, and have a cool place to make it in. It is almost impossible to make puff paste in warm weather. If you attempt it, have the butter in ice and use ice-cold water to mix the crust with; a marble slab is the best pie-board, but one made of pine answers very well. Have the flour sifted before you use it, and see that everything is in readiness for you before you commence; make the crust and set it in a cool place before the last rolling, whilst the filling for your puddings or pies is being prepared. See that the oven is hot before you put your pastry in; if not hot enough, the crust will not rise, and all your trouble will be in vain; if you are inexperienced, try it by baking a little piece of the paste; if it rises quickly, put in your pies. It is better to see that the oven is hot before you commence filling your pies, as they are not so nice if left to stand; they should be put in as soon as the last touch is given to them. When the pies come out of the oven, 6tand them on a waiter or board until cool; then wipe off the bottoms of the pie-dishes, and set them away in a dry, cool place, never in the cellar.

Pie crust that is set away in the cellar loses all its crispness and becomes soft and moist.

Very good pie-crust may be made with two-thirds lard and one-third butter, and some persons use only lard; but the crust is much better to be made partly with butter; a very good substitute for butter is beef drippings properly prepared, or suet from the kidney part of the beef rendered out, and melted together with the same quantity of lard; then set away in a cool place and used as wanted.

Batter-puddings should be entirely free from lumps. To insure this, first beat the eggs very light, then stir the flour into them. When thoroughly mixed, add the milk gradually, beating all the time; scald your pudding cloths or bags, wring them very dry, dust the inside with flour, pour in the pudding, and drop them into boiling water, and keep the water boiling all the time until the pudding is done, or it will not be light.

Plum-puddings when boiled and hung in a dry, cool place will keep for months; let them cool on a dish or drainer, and hang them in the cloths they were boiled in. When wanted, drop them into a pot or kettle of boiling water, and continue to boil one hour. This will only answer for the recipe marked with a star. All kinds of dried fruit should be prepared for use the day before it is wanted - raisins seeded, currants washed and dried, and citron and candied orange or lemon peel cut in strips