On Food and Cooking

any baked meat, or make paste for venison,
Florentine, tart or what dish else you
please and so bake it.
— The English Housewife, 1615
Now the fat, traditionally butter and
weighing about half the initial dough weight
is pounded with a rolling pin until it warms up
to about 60ºF/15ºC and becomes pliable, its
consistency matching the consistency of the
dough. (Firmer fat would tear the dough,
softer fat would be squeezed out during the
later rolling. Shortenings, with their low water
content, produce a lighter and crisper puff
pastry, though a less flavorful one.) The fat is
formed into a flat piece, placed on the dough
square, and the combination repeatedly folded
onto itself and rolled out, with turns to vary
the direction of rolling and rests in the
refrigerator to give the fat a chance to
resolidify and the gluten to relax. The
sequence of turning, rolling, folding, and
refrigerating is repeated several times, for a