and the nostrums generally given on this subject are either ineffectual
or injurious.

TOURTE CRUST. To make a crust for French pies called tourtes, take a
pound and a half of fine flour, a pound of butter, and three quarters of
an ounce of salt. Put the flour upon a clean pie board, make a hole in
the middle, and put in the salt, with the butter cut into small pieces.
Pour in the water carefully, as it is of great importance that the crust
be rather stiff; and for this purpose there should only be just water
enough to make it hold together so as to roll it out smooth. Work up the
butter and water well together with the hand, and mix it in the flour by
degrees. When the flour is all mixed in, mould the paste till it is
quite smooth and free from lumps, and let it lie two hours before it be
used. This is a very nice crust for putting round the dish for baked
puddings.

TOURTES OF FISH. Prepare the crust and put it into the dish, as for meat
tourtes. Then take almost any kind of fish, cut them from the backbone,
and lay them in slices upon the crust, with a little bunch of sweet
herbs in the middle, some salt and pounded spice, according to the
taste. Lay butter all over the top crust, and bake it an hour and a
half. Cut the crust round after it is baked, take out the herbs, skim
off the remainder of the fat, pour on a sauce of fish gravy, and serve
it up. Mushrooms are very nice in the sauce, and so are capers, but the
flavour of the sauce must be regulated by the taste. Truffles and morels
may also be put in, as in the meat tourtes. Eels, pike, salmon, tench,
whiting, are proper for the purpose. Nothing makes a nicer tourte in
this way than large soles, taking off the flesh from the backbone,
without the side fins. Lobsters also make an excellent tourte, and
oysters are very nice mixed with other fish.

TOURTES OF MEAT. Prepare a crust of paste, roll it out, and line a dish
with it not deeper than a common plate. Veal, chicken, pigeons,
sweetbread, or game of any kind, may be prepared as follows. Cut in
pieces whichever is preferred, just heat it in water, drain it, season
it with pepper and salt, lay it upon the crust without piling it up
high, and leave a border round the rim of the dish. Place some pieces of
butter upon the meat to keep it moist, and add truffles, mushrooms,
morels, artichoke bottoms, or forcemeat balls, at pleasure. Cover the
whole with slices of fat bacon, and then lay a crust over it exactly