Rub together six ounces of butter and eight of flour; mix it up with as little water as possible, so as to make a stiff paste. Beat it well, and roll it thin. This is the best crust of all for tarts that are to be eaten cold and for preserved fruit. Have a moderate oven.
Short Paste. No. 2.
Half a pound of loaf-sugar, and the same quantity of butter, to be rubbed into a pound of flour; then make it into paste with two eggs.
Short Paste. No. 3.
To a pound and a quarter of sifted flour rub gently in half a pound of fresh butter, mixed up with half a pint of spring water, and set it by for a quarter of an hour; then roll it out thin; lay on it in small pieces three quarters of a pound more of butter; throw on it a little more flour, roll it out thin three times, and set it by for an hour in a cold place.
Short Paste. No. 4.
Take one pound of flour, half a pound of fresh butter, and about four table-spoonfuls of pounded white sugar. Knead the paste with the yolks of two eggs well beaten up instead of water. Roll it very thin for biscuits or tarts.
Short Paste. No. 5.
Three ounces of butter to something less than a pound of flour and the yolk of one egg; the butter to be thoroughly worked into the flour; if you use sugar, there is no occasion for an egg.