Part 25

BAKED APPLES.--Take a dozen tart apples, pare and core them, place sugar and small lump of butter in centre of each, put them in a pan with half pint of water, bake until tender, basting occasionally with syrup while baking, when done, serve with cream.

CHOCOLATE CREAM CUSTARD.--Scrape quarter pound chocolate, pour on it one teacup boiling water, and stand it by fire until dissolved, beat eight eggs light, omitting the whites of two, and stir them by degrees into a quart of milk alternately with the chocolate and three tablespoons of white sugar, put the mixture into cups and bake 10 minutes.

CHARLOTTE RUSSE.--Whip one quart rich cream to a stiff froth, and drain well on a nice sieve. To one scant pint of milk add six eggs beaten very light; make very sweet; flavor high with vanilla. Cook over hot water till it is a thick custard. Soak one full ounce Coxe's gelatine in a very little water, and warm over hot water. When the custard is very cold, beat in lightly the gelatine and the whipped cream. Line the bottom of your mold with buttered paper, and the sides with sponge cake or ladyfingers fastened together with the white of an egg. Fill with the cream, put in a cold place or in summer on ice. To turn out dip the mold for a moment in hot water. In draining the whipped cream, all that drips through can be re-whipped.

COCOA SNOW.--Grate the white part of a cocoanut and mix it with white sugar, serve with whipped cream, or not, as desired.

CREAM AND SNOW.--Make a rich boiled custard, and put it in the bottom of a dish; take the whites of eight eggs, beat with rose-water, and a spoonful of fine sugar, till it be a strong froth; put some milk and water into a stew-pan; when it boils take the froth off the eggs, and lay it on the milk and water; boil up once; take off carefully and lay it on the custard.

BAKED CUSTARDS.--Boil a pint of cream with some mace and cinnamon; and when it is cold, take four yolks and two whites of eggs, a little rose and orange-flower water, sack, nutmeg, and sugar to your palate. Mix them well, and bake it in cups.

Or, pour into a deep dish, with or without lining or rim of paste; grate nutmeg and lemon peel over the top, and bake in a slow oven about thirty minutes.

GOOSEBERRY CREAM.--Boil them in milk till soft; beat them, and strain the pulp through a coarse sieve. Sweeten cream with sugar to your taste; mix with the pulp; when cold, place in glasses for use.

IMPERIAL CREAM.--Boil a quart of cream with the thin rind of a lemon; stir till nearly cold; have ready in a dish to serve in, the juice of three lemons strained with as much sugar as will sweeten the cream; pour it into the dish from a large tea-pot, holding it high, and moving it about to mix with the juice. It should be made from 6 to 12 hours before it is served.

JUMBALLS.--Flour, 1 lb.; sugar, 1 lb.; make into a light paste with whites of eggs beaten fine; add 1/2 pint of cream; 1/2 lb. of butter, melted; and 1 lb. of blanched almonds, well beaten; knead all together, with a little rose-water; cut into any form; bake in a slow oven. A little butter may be melted with a spoonful of white wine and throw fine sugar over the dish.

LEMON PUFFS.--Beat and sift 1 pound of refined sugar; put into a bowl with the juice of two lemons, and mix them together; beat the white of an egg to a high froth; put it into the bowl; put in 3 eggs with two rinds of lemon grated; mix it well up, and throw sugar on the buttered papers; drop on the puffs in small drops, and bake them in a moderately heated oven.

LEMON TARTS.--Pare the rinds of four lemons, and boil tender in two waters, and beat fine. Add to it 4 ounces of blanched almonds, cut thin, 4 ozs. of lump sugar, the juice of the lemons, and a little grated peel. Simmer to a syrup. When cold, turn into a shallow tin tart dish, lined with a rich thin puff paste, and lay bars of the same over, and bake carefully.

MACAROONS.--Blanch 4 ozs. of almonds, and pound with 4 spoonfuls of orange-flower water; whisk the whites of four eggs to a froth, then mix it, and 1 lb. of sugar, sifted with the almonds to a paste; and laying a sheet of wafer-paper on a tin, put it on in different little cakes, the shape of macaroons.

OATMEAL CUSTARD.--Take two teaspoons of the finest Scotch oatmeal, beat it up into a sufficiency of cold water in a basin to allow it to run freely. Add to it the yoke of a fresh egg, well worked up; have a pint of scalding new milk on the fire, and pour the oatmeal mixture into it, stirring it round with a spoon so as to incorporate the whole. Add sugar to your taste, and throw in a glass of sherry to the mixture, with a little grated nutmeg. Pour it into a basin, and take it warm in bed. It will be found very grateful and soothing in cases of colds or chills. Some, persons scald a little cinnamon in the milk they use for the occasion.

ORANGE CRUMPETS.--Cream, 1 pint; new milk, 1 pint; warm it, and put in it a little rennet or citric acid; when broken, stir it gently; lay it on a cloth to drain all night, and then take the rinds of three oranges, boiled, as for preserving, in three different waters; pound them very fine, and mix them with the curd, and eight eggs in a mortar, a little nutmeg, the juice of a lemon or orange, and sugar to your taste; bake them in buttered tin pans. When baked put a little wine and sugar over them.

ORANGE CUSTARDS.--Boil the rind of half a Seville orange very tender; beat it very fine in a mortar; add a spoonful of the best brandy, the juice of a Seville orange, 4 ozs. loaf sugar, and the yolks of four eggs; beat all together ten minutes; then pour in gradually a pint of boiling cream; keep beating them until they are cold; put them into custard cups, and set them in an earthen dish of hot water; let them stand until they are set, take out, and stick preserved oranges on the top, and serve them hot or cold.

POMMES AU RIZ.--Peel a number of apples of a good sort, take out the cores, and let them simmer in a syrup of clarified sugar, with a little lemon peel. Wash and pick some rice, and cook it in milk, moistening it therewith little by little, so that the grains may remain whole. Sweeten it to taste; add a little salt and a taste of lemon-peel. Spread the rice upon a dish, mixing some apple preserve with it, and place the apples upon it, and fill up the vacancies between the apples with some of the rice. Place the dish in the oven until the surface gets brown, and garnish with spoonfuls of bright colored preserve or jelly.

RASPBERRY CREAM.--Mash the fruit gently, and let it drain; then sprinkle a little sugar over, and that will produce more juice; put it through a hair sieve to take out the seeds; then put the juice to some cream, and sweeten it; after which, if you choose to lower it with some milk, it will not curdle; which it would if put to the milk before the cream; but it is best made of raspberry jelly, instead of jam, when the fresh fruit cannot be obtained.

RICE FRITTERS.--One pint of cooked rice, half cup of sweet milk, two eggs, a tablespoon of flour, and a little salt. Have the lard hot in the skillet, allow a tablespoon to each fritter, fry brown on each side, then turn same as griddle cakes. If you find the rice spatters in the fat, add a very little more flour. You can judge after frying one.

RICE CROQUETTES.--Make little balls or oblong rolls of cooked rice; season with salt, and pepper if you like; dip in egg; fry in hot lard.

RICE CUSTARDS.--Boil 3 pints of new milk with a bit of lemon-peel, cinnamon, and three bay leaves; sweeten; then mix a large spoonful of rice flour into a cup of cold milk, very smooth; mix it with the yolks of four eggs well beaten. Take a basin of the boiling milk, and mix with the cold that has the rice in it; add the remainder of the boiling milk; stir it one way till it boils; pour immediately into a pan; stir till cool, and add a spoonful of brandy, or orange-flower water.

RICE FLUMMERY.--Boil with a pint of new milk, a bit of lemon-peel, and cinnamon; mix with a little cold milk, as much rice flour as will make the whole of a good consistence, sweeten and add a spoonful of peach-water, or a bitter almond beaten; boil it, observing it does not burn; pour it into a shape or a pint basin, taken out the spice. When cold, turn the flummery into a dish, and serve with cream, milk, or custard round; or put a teacupful of cream into half a pint of new milk, a glass of white wine, half a lemon squeezed, and sugar.

ROCK CREAM.--Boil a teacupful of rice till quite soft in new milk and then sweeten it with sugar, and pile it on a dish, lay on it current jelly or preserved fruit, beat up the whites of five eggs with a little powdered sugar and flour, add to this when beaten very stiff about a tablespoon of rich cream and drop it over the rice.

STRAWBERRY AND APPLE SOUFFLE.--Stew the apple with a little lemon-peel; sweeten them, then lay them pretty high round the inside of a dish. Make a custard of the yolks of two eggs, a little cinnamon, sugar and milk. Let it thicken over a slow fire, but not boil; when ready, pour it in the inside of the apple. Beat the whites of the eggs to a strong froth, and cover the whole. Throw over it a good deal of pounded sugar, and brown it to a fine brown. Any fruit made of a proper consistence does for the walls, strawberries, when ripe, are delicious.

STRAWBERRY SHORT-CAKE.--First prepare the berries by picking; after they have been well washed--the best way to wash them is to hold the boxes under the faucet and let a gentle stream of water run over and through them, then drain, and pick them into an earthen bowl; now take the potato-masher and bruise them and cover with a thick layer of white sugar; now set them aside till the cake is made. Take a quart of sifted flour; half a cup of sweet butter; one egg, well beaten; three teaspoonfuls of baking-powder, and milk enough to make a rather stiff dough; knead well, and roll with a rolling-pin till about one inch thick; bake till a nice brown, and when done, remove it to the table; turn it out of the pan; with a light, sharp knife, cut it down lengthwise and crossways; now run the knife through it, and lay it open for a few moments, just to let the steam escape (the steam ruins the color of the berries); then set the bottom crust on the platter; cover thickly with the berries, an inch and a half deep; lay the top crust on the fruit; dust thickly with powdered sugar, and if any berry juice is left in the bowl, pour it round the cake, not over it, and you will have a delicious short-cake.

SNOW CREAM.--To a quart of cream add the whites of three eggs, cut to a stiff froth, add four spoonfuls of sweet wine, sugar to taste, flavor with essence of lemon. Whip all to a froth, and as soon as it forms take it off and serve in glasses.

STEWED FIGS.--Take four ounces of fine sugar, the thin rind of a large lemon, and a pint of cold water, when the sugar is dissolved, add one pound turkey figs, and place the stew-pan over a moderate fire where they may heat and swell slowly, and stew gently for two hours, when they are quite tender, add the juice of one lemon, arrange them in a glass dish and serve cold.

SPANISH CREAM.--Dissolve in 1/2 pint of rose-water, 1 oz. of isinglass cut small; run it through a hair sieve; add the yolks of three or four eggs, beaten and mixed with half a pint of cream, and two sorrel leaves. Pour it into a deep dish, sweeten with loaf sugar powdered. Stir it till cold, and put it into molds. Lay rings round in different colored sweetmeats. Add, if you like, a little sherry, and a lump or two of sugar, rubbed well upon the rind of a lemon to extract the flavor.

WHIPPED CREAM.--To one quart of good cream, put a few drops of bergamot water, a little orange-flower water, and 1/2 lb. of sugar. When it is dissolved, whip the cream to a froth, and take it up with a skimmer; drain on a sieve, and if for icing, let it settle half an hour before you put it into cups or glasses. Use that which drops into the dish under the sieve, to make it froth the better, adding two whites of eggs. Colored powdered sugar may, if you like, be sprinkled on the top of each.

ASPARAGUS OMELET.--Boil a dozen of the largest and finest asparagus heads you can pick; cut off all the green portion, and chop it in thin slices; season with a small teaspoonful of salt, and about one-fourth of that quantity of soluble cayenne. Then beat up six eggs in a sufficient quantity of new milk to make a stiffish batter. Melt in the frying-pan a quarter of a pound of good, clean dripping, and just before you pour on the batter place a small piece of butter in the center of the pan. When the dripping is quite hot, pour on half your batter, and as it begins to set, place on it the asparagus tops, and cover over with the remainder. This omelet is generally served on a round of buttered toast, with the crusts removed. The batter is richer if made of cream.

BUTTERED EGGS.--Beat four or five eggs, yolks and whites together, put a quarter of a pound of butter in a basin, and then put that in boiling water, stir it till melted, then pour the butter and the eggs into a sauce-pan; keep a basin in your hand, just hold the sauce-pan in the other over a slow part of the fire, shaking it one way, as it begins to warm; pour it into a basin, and back, then hold it again over the fire, stirring it constantly in the saucepan, and pouring it into the basin, more perfectly to mix the egg and butter until they shall be hot without boiling.

Serve on toasted bread; or in a basin, to eat with salt fish, or red herrings.

CORN-OYSTERS.--Take a half dozen ears of sweet corn (those which are not too old); with a sharp knife split each row of the corn in the center of the kernel lengthwise; scrape out all the pulp; add one egg, well beaten, a little salt, one tablespoonful of sweet milk; flour enough to make a pretty stiff batter. Drop in hot lard, and fry a delicate brown. If the corn is quite young, omit the milk, using as little flour as possible.

CHEESE OMELET.--Mix to a smooth batter three tablespoonfuls of fine flour, with half a pint of milk. Beat up well the yolks and whites of four eggs, a little salt, and a quarter of a pound of grated old English cheese. Add these to the flour and milk, and whisk all the ingredients together for half an hour. Put three ounces of butter into a frying-pan, and when it is boiling pour in the above mixture, fry it for a few minutes, and then turn it carefully; when it is sufficiently cooked on the other side, turn it on to a hot dish and serve.

IRISH STEW.--Take a loin of mutton, cut it into chops, season it with a very little pepper and salt, put it into a saucepan, just cover it with water, and let it cook half an hour. Boil two dozen of potatoes, peel and mash them, and stir in a cup of cream while they are hot; then line a deep dish with the potatoes, and lay in the cooked mutton chops, and cover them over with the rest of the potatoes; then set it in the oven to bake. Make some gravy of the broth in which the chops were cooked. This is a very nice dish.

IRISH STEW.--Cut off the fat of part of a loin of mutton, and cut it into chops. Pare, wash, and slice very thin some potatoes, two onions, and two small carrots; season with pepper and salt. Cover with water in a stew-pan, and stew gently till the meat is tender, and the potatoes are dissolved in the gravy. It may be made of beef-steaks, or mutton and beef mixed.

MACARONI, DRESSED SWEET.--Boil 2 ozs. in a pint of milk, with a bit of lemon peel, and a good bit of cinnamon, till the pipes are swelled to their utmost size without breaking. Lay them on a custard-dish, and pour a custard over them hot. Serve cold.

MACARONI, AS USUALLY SERVED.--Boil it in milk, or a weak veal broth, flavored with salt. When tender, put it into a dish without the liquor, with bits of butter and grated cheese, and over the top grate more, and put a little more butter. Put the dish into a Dutch oven, a quarter of an hour, and do not let the top become hard.

OMELET.--Six eggs beaten separately, beaten hard, two teaspoons of corn starch, two tablespoons milk, whites of eggs, put in slow at last. Fry in butter.

RUMBLED EGGS.--This is very convenient for invalids, or a light dish for supper. Beat up three eggs with two ounces of fresh butter, or well-washed salt butter; add a teaspoonful of cream or new milk. Put all in a saucepan and keep stirring it over the fire for nearly five minutes, until it rises up like scuffle, when it should be immediately dished on buttered toast.

POACHED EGGS.--Break an egg into a cup, and put it gently into boiling water; and when the white looks quite set, which will be in about three or four minutes, take it up with an egg slice, and lay it on toast and butter, or spinach. Serve them hot; if fresh laid, they will poach well, without breaking.

SAVORY POTATO-CAKES.--Quarter of a pound of grated ham, one pound of mashed potatoes, and a little suet, mixed with the yolks of two eggs, pepper, salt and nutmeg. Roll it into little balls, or cakes, and fry it a light brown. Sweet herbs may be used in place of ham. Plain potato cakes are made with potatoes and eggs only.

TOMATO TOAST.--Remove the stem and all the seeds from the tomatoes; they must be ripe, mind, not _over ripe_; stew them to a pulp, season with butter, pepper and salt; toast some bread (not new bread), butter it, and then spread the tomato on each side, and send it up to table, two slices on each dish, the slices cut in two; and the person who helps it must serve with two half-slices, not attempt to lift the top slice, otherwise the appearance of the under slice will be destroyed.

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HOW TO COOK FISH OF DIFFERENT KINDS

HOW TO CHOOSE ANCHOVIES.--They are preserved in barrels, with bay-salt; no other fish has the fine flavor of the anchovy. The best look red and mellow, and the bones moist and oily; the flesh should be high flavored, the liquor reddish, and have a fine smell.

BAKED BLACK BASS.--Eight good-sized onions chopped fine; half that quantity of bread crumbs; butter size of hen's egg; plenty of pepper and salt; mix thoroughly with anchovy sauce until quite red. Stuff your fish with this compound and pour the rest over it, previously sprinkling it with a little red pepper. Shad, pickerel and trout are good the same way. Tomatoes can be used instead of anchovies, and are more economical. If using them, take pork in place of butter, and chop fine.

BOILED WHITE FISH.--Lay the fish open; put it in a dripping pan with the back down; nearly cover with water; to one fish put two tablespoons salt, cover tightly and simmer (not boil) one-half hour; dress with gravy, butter and pepper; garnish with sliced eggs.

For sauce use a piece of butter the size of an egg, one tablespoon of flour, one half pint boiling water; boil a few minutes, and add three hard boiled eggs, sliced.

FRESH BROILED WHITE FISH.--Wash and drain the fish: sprinkle with pepper and lay with the inside down upon the gridiron, and broil over fresh bright coals. When a nice brown, turn for a moment on the other side, then take up and spread with butter. This is a very nice way of broiling all kinds of fish, fresh or salted. A little smoke under the fish adds to its flavor. This may be made by putting two or three cobs under the gridiron.

TO BOIL CODFISH.--If boiled fresh, it is watery; but it is excellent if salted, and hung for a day, to give it firmness. Wash and clean the fish well, and rub salt inside of it; tie it up, and put it on the fire in cold water; throw a handful of salt into the fish-kettle. Boil a small fish 15 minutes; a large one 30 minutes. Serve it without the smallest speck and scum; drain. Garnish it with lemon, horseradish, the milt, roe, and liver. Oyster or shrimp sauce may be used.

CHOWDER.--Five pounds of codfish cut in squares; fry plenty of salt pork cut in thin slices; put a layer of pork in your kettle, then one of fish; one of potatoes in thick slices, and one of onions in slices; plenty of pepper and salt; repeat as long as your materials last, and finish with a layer of Boston crackers or crusts of bread. Water sufficient to cook with, or milk if you prefer. Cook one-half hour and turn over on your platter, disturbing as little as possible. Clams and eels the same way.

CLAM FRITTERS.--Twelve clams chopped or not, one pint milk, three eggs, add liquor from clams; salt and pepper, and flour enough for thin batter. Fry in hot lard. CLAM STEW.--Lay the clams on a gridiron over hot coals, taking them out of the shell as soon as open, saving the juice; add a little hot water, pepper, a very little salt and butter rolled in flour sufficient for seasoning; cook for five minutes and pour over toast.

EELS, TO STEW.--Of the above fish, that of the "silver" kind is preferable to its congener, and, therefore, ought to be procured for all cuisine purposes. Take from three to four pounds of these eels, and let the same be thoroughly cleansed, inside and out, rescinding the heads and tails from the bodies. Cut them into pieces three inches in length each, and lay them down in a stew pan, covering them with a sufficiency of sweet mutton gravy to keep them seething over a slow fire, when introduced into the pan, for twenty minutes. Add to the liquor, before you place your eels into it, a quarter of an ounce of whole black pepper, quarter of an ounce of allspice, with one or two pieces of white ginger. Thicken with a light admixture of flour and butter, stirring it carefully round, adding thereto, at the same time, one gill of good port wine, and half a gill of sweet ketchup. Lemon-peel and salt may be added in accordance with your taste.

HOW TO KEEP FISH SOUND.--To prevent meat, fish, etc., going bad, put a few pieces of charcoal into the sauce-pan wherein the fish or flesh is to be boiled.

HOW TO RENDER BOILED FISH FIRM.--Add a little saltpetre to the salt in the water in which the fish is to be boiled; a quarter of an ounce to one gallon.

FISH BALLS.--Bone, cooked fresh, or salt fish, add double the quantity of mashed potatoes, one beaten egg, a little butter, pepper and salt to taste. Make in cakes or balls; dredge with flour and fry in hot lard.

POTTED FISH.--Take out the back-bone of the fish; for one weighing two pounds take a tablespoon of allspice and cloves mixed; these spices should be put into bags of not too thick muslin; put sufficient salt directly upon each fish; then roll in cloth, over which sprinkle a little cayenne pepper; put alternate layers of fish, spice and sago in an earthen jar; cover with the best cider vinegar; cover the jar closely with a plate and over this put a covering of dough, rolled out to twice the thickness of pie crust. Make the edges of paste, to adhere closely to the sides of the jar, so as to make it air-tight. Put the jar into a pot of cold water and let it boil from three to five hours, according to quantity. Ready when cold.

HOW TO BROIL OR ROAST FRESH HERRINGS.--Scale, gut and wash; cut off the heads; steep them in salt and vinegar ten minutes; dust them with flour, and broil them over or before the fire, or in the oven. Serve with melted butter and parsley.

Herrings are nice _jarred_, and done in the oven, with pepper, cloves, salt, a little vinegar, a few bay-leaves, and a little butter.

HOW TO FRY FRESH HERRINGS.--Slice small onions, and lay in the pan with the herrings; add a little butter, and fry them. Perhaps it is better to fry the onions separately with a little parsley, and butter or drip.