7. Amount of ingredients for plain pastry for one pie:
1-1/2 cup pastry flour; 1/4 tsp. salt; 1/2 cup fat (lard and butter); ice water.
CHAPTER XII
FORM IV: SENIOR GRADE (Continued)
MEAT
As meat is rather a complex food the teaching of which involves a good many lessons, and as it does not lend itself as well as other foods to the making of dishes useful in practice work, it seems wise to defer the study of it until the Senior Form is reached; the ability and home needs of the pupils should decide this. The season of the year should also be considered. It is wiser to take meat lessons in cold weather because it is then more pleasant to handle and easier to keep. The latter consideration is important in some rural districts, where shops are not convenient.
More preparation is needed for the first meat lesson than for most foods. Some days before, thin bones such as leg or wing bones of fowl, or rib bones of lamb should be soaked in diluted hydrochloric or nitric acid (one part acid to ten of water), to dissolve the mineral substance which gives the bone its rigidity.
Any time before the lesson, a large solid bone of an old animal, such as a knee or hip joint of beef, should be burned for hours to get rid of the connective tissue which holds the mineral substance in shape. This should be carefully done, in order to retain the shape of the bone and to show the porous formation of the mineral substance. If the bone is not blackened by the fire, its white colour will also indicate the lime of which it is formed.