[Sca-cooks] porter cake, rubbing in butter, etc.

[Sayyida Halima al-Shafi'i of Raven's Cove]

>
>
>Sieve the flour and rub in the butter;
>
>> > "rub in the butter"? What does this mean? I've heard of folding in
>> > the
>> > butter. Is this something different?
>
This is characteristic of British recipes.  It means you cut up the 
butter into slices, drop it into the flour, and stick your meathooks 
into the bowl and rub the butter into the flour with your fingers.  This 
yields a corn-mealy texture.  When I lived in England, my British 
friends though I was being "prissy" (not wanting to get my hands dirty) 
when I used two knives to cut in some butter while making pastry.  They 
really thought I was nuts.  If you use an electric blender and cream the 
butter and flour, you'll get paste.  

Halima