Suet-Crust, for Meat or Fruit Puddings

Instructions

1. Clear off the skin from some fresh beef kidney-suet, hold it firmly with a fork, and with a sharp knife slice it thin, free it entirely from fibre, and mince it very fine: six ounces thus prepared will be found quite sufficient for a pound of flour. The weight of suet should be taken after it is minced.
2. Mix them well together, add half a teaspoonful of salt for meat puddings, and a third as much for fruit ones, and sufficient cold water to make the whole into a very firm paste.
3. Work it smooth, and roll it out of equal thickness when it is used.
4. This crust is much lighter and more wholesome than that which is made with butter, and is to be preferred to it.
5. Some cooks merely slice the suet in thin shavings, mix it with the flour, and beat the crust with a paste-roller, until the flour and suet are perfectly incorporated; but it is better minced.
6. Proportions: Flour, 2 lbs.; suet, 12 oz.; salt, 1 teaspoonful; water, 1 pint.