ingredient necessary for it must be ready; when the process is retarded by neglecting to have them prepared, the article is injured.  The oven must be in a proper state, and the paste in the dishes or moulds, ready for such things as require it.  Promptitude is necessary in all our actions, but never more so than when engaged in making cakes and puddings.  When only one or two eggs are to be used, cooks generally think it needless to beat them—­it is an error:  eggs injure every thing, unless they are made light before they are used.  Cloths for boiling puddings should be made of German sheeting; an article less thick, will admit the water, and injure the pudding.

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Rice milk for A dessert.

Boil half a pint of rice in water till tender, pour off the water, and add a pint of milk with two eggs beaten well, stirred into it; boil all together two or three minutes; serve it up hot, and eat it with butter, sugar, and nutmeg.  It may be sweetened and cooled in moulds, turned out in a deep dish, and surrounded with rich milk, with raspberry marmalade stirred into it, and strained to keep back the seeds—­or the milk may be seasoned with wine and sugar.

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To make puff paste.

Sift a quart of flour, leave out a little for rolling the paste, make up the remainder with cold water into a stiff paste, knead it well, and roll it out several times; wash the salt from a pound of butter, divide it into four parts, put one of them on the paste in little bits, fold it up, and continue to roll it till the butter is well mixed; then put another portion of butter, roll it in the same manner; do this till all the butter is mingled with the paste; touch it very lightly with the hands in making—­bake it in a moderate oven, that will permit it to rise, but will not make it brown.  Good paste must look white, and as light as a feather.

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To make mincemeat for pies.

Boil either calves or hogs’ feet till perfectly tender, rub them through a colander; when cold, pass them through again, and it will come out like pearl barley; take one quart of this, one of chopped apples, the same of currants, washed and picked, raisins stoned and cut, of good brown sugar, suet nicely chopped, and cider, with a pint of brandy; add a tea-spoonful of pounded mace, one of cloves and of nutmegs; mix all these together intimately.  When the pies are to be made, take out as much of this mixture as may be necessary; to each quart of it, add a tea-spoonful of pounded black pepper, and one of salt; this greatly improves the flavour, and can be better mixed with a small portion than with the whole mass.  Cover the moulds with paste, put in a sufficiency of mince-meat, cover the top with citron sliced thin, and lay on it a lid garnished around with paste cut in fanciful shapes.  They may be eaten either hot or cold, but are best when hot.