=Pie-Crusts without Fats.=—Good crusts for plain pies are made by wetting up the crust with rich milk turned sour, and sweetened with saleratus. Still better crusts are made of sour cream, sweetened with saleratus. Mealy potatoes boiled in salt water and mixed with the same quantity of flour, and wet with sour milk sweetened with saleratus, make a good crust. Good light bread rolled thin makes a good crust for Pan-Dowdy, or pan-pie, and also for the upper crust of fruit-pies, to be made without bottom crusts. =Pie-Crust made with Butter.=—Very plain paste is made by taking a quarter of a pound of butter for every pound of flour. Still richer, allow three quarters of a pound of butter to a pound of flour. =Directions for making rich Pie-Crust.=—Take a quarter of the butter to be used, rub it thoroughly into the flour, and wet it with _cold_ water to a stiff paste. Next dredge the board thick with flour, cut up the remainder of the butter into thin slices, lay them upon the flour, dredge flour over thick, and then roll out the butter into thin sheets, and lay it aside. Then roll out the paste thin, cover it with a sheet of this rolled butter; dredge on more flour, fold it up and roll it out, and repeat the process till all the butter is used up. Paste should be made as quick and as cold as possible. Some use a marble table in order to keep it cold. Roll _from_ you every time. CHAPTER XVI. CAKE. The multiplication of recipes for cakes, pies, puddings, and desserts is troublesome and needless, inasmuch as a little generalization will reduce them to a comparatively small compass, and yet afford a large variety. Cake is of three classes, as raised either by eggs, or by yeast, or by powders; and different proportions of flour, sugar, shortening, and wetting make the variety, as it appears in what follows. _General Directions_. Sift flour, roll sugar, sift spices, and prepare fruit beforehand. Break eggs that are to be whipped, one at a time, in a cup, and let none of the yelk go in. Have them _cold_, and you will get on faster. Excepting dough-cake, never use the hand in making cake, but a wooden spoon, and in an earthen vessel. The goodness of cake depends greatly on baking. If too hot at bottom, set the pan on a brick; if too hot at top, cover with paper. If top-crust is formed suddenly, it prevents what is below from rising properly; and so, when the oven is very hot, cover with paper. When fruit is used, sprinkle the fruit with a little flour to keep it from sinking when baking. Some put fruit in in layers, one in the middle and another near the top, as this spreads it evenly. Put in the flour just before baking. When using whites beaten to a froth separately, put in the last thing, so that the bubbles of air which make the lightness may be retained more perfectly. Bake as soon as the cake is ready.