Part 20

Have ready over the fire a pot of boiling water. Dip your pudding-cloth into it, and shake it out. Spread out the cloth in a deep dish or pan, and dredge it well with flour. Pour in the mixture, and tie up the cloth, leaving room for it to swell. Tie the string firmly and plaster up the opening (if there is any) with flour moistened with water. If any water gets into it the pudding will be spoiled.

See that the water boils when you put in the pudding, and keep it boiling hard. If the pot wants replenishing, do it with boiling water from a kettle. Should you put in cold water to supply the place of that which has boiled away, the pudding will chill, and become hard and heavy. Boil it an hour and a half.

Turn it out of the bag the minute before you send it to table. Eat it with wine sauce, or with sugar and butter, or molasses.

It will be much improved by adding to the mixture half a pound of whole raisins, well floured to prevent their sinking. Sultana raisins are best, as they have no seeds.

If these directions are exactly followed, this will be found a remarkably good and wholesome plain pudding.

For all boiled puddings, a square pudding-cloth which can be opened out, is much better than a bag. It should be very thick.

A BAKED BREAD PUDDING.--Take a stale five cent loaf of bread; cut off all the crust, and grate or rub the crumb as fine as possible. Boil a quart of rich milk, and pour it hot over the bread; then stir in a quarter of a pound of butter, and the same quantity of sugar, a glass of wine and brandy mixed, or a glass of rose water. Or you may omit the liquor and substitute the grated peel of a large lemon. Add a table-spoonful of mixed cinnamon and nutmeg powdered. Stir the whole very well, cover it, and set it away for half an hour. Then let it cool. Beat seven or eight eggs very light, and stir them gradually into the mixture after it is cold. Then butter a deep dish, and bake the pudding an hour. Send it to table cool.

A BREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING.--Cut some slices of bread and butter moderately thick, omitting the crust; stale bread is best. Butter a deep dish, and cover the bottom with slices of the buttered bread. Have ready a pound of currants, picked, washed and dried. Spread one third of them thickly over the bread and butter, and strew on some brown sugar. Then put another layer of bread and butter, and cover it also with currants and sugar. Finish with a third layer of each, and pour over the whole four eggs, beaten very light and mixed with a pint of milk, and a wine glass of rose water. Bake the pudding an hour, and grate nutmeg over it when done. Eat it warm, but not hot.

You may substitute for the currants, raisins seeded, and cut in half.

This pudding may be made also with layers of stewed gooseberries instead of the currants, or with pippin apples, pared, cored and minced fine.

A SUET PUDDING.--Mince very finely as much beef suet as will make two large table-spoonfuls. Grate two handfuls of bread-crumbs; boil a quart of milk and pour it hot on the bread. Cover it, and set it aside to steep for half an hour; then put it to cool. Beat eight eggs very light; stir the suet, and six table-spoonfuls of flour alternately into the bread and milk, and add, by degrees, the eggs. Lastly, stir in a table-spoonful of powdered nutmeg and cinnamon mixed, and a glass of mixed wine and brandy. Pour it into a square cloth dipped in hot water, and floured; tie it firmly, put it into a pot of boiling water, and boil it two hours. Do not take it up till immediately before it is wanted, and send it to table hot.

Eat it with wine sauce, or with molasses.

A CUSTARD PUDDING.--Take five table-spoonfuls out of a quart of cream or rich milk, and mix them with two large spoonfuls of fine flour. Set the rest of the milk to boil, flavouring it with half a dozen peach leaves, or with bitter almonds broken up. When it has boiled hard, take it off, strain it, and stir it in the cold milk and flour. Set it away to cool, and beat well eight yolks and four whites of eggs; add them to the milk, and stir in, at the last, a glass of brandy or white wine, a powdered nutmeg, and a quarter of a pound of sugar. Butter a large bowl or mould; pour in the mixture; tie a cloth tightly over it; put it into a pot of boiling water, and boil it two hours, replenishing the pot with hot water from a tea-kettle. When the pudding is done, let it get cool before you turn it out. Eat it with butter and sugar stirred together to a cream, and flavoured with lemon juice or orange.

FLOUR HASTY PUDDING.--Tie together half a dozen peach-leaves, put them into a quart of milk, and set it on the fire to boil. When it has come to a hard boil, take out the leaves, but let the pot remain boiling on the fire. Then with a large wooden spoon in one hand, and some wheat flour in the other, thicken and stir it till it is about the consistence of a boiled custard. Afterwards throw in, one at a time, a dozen small bits of butter rolled in a thick coat of flour. You may enrich it by stirring in a beaten egg or two, a few minutes before you take it from the fire. When done, pour it into a deep dish, and strew brown sugar thickly over the top. Eat it warm.

INDIAN MUSH.--Have ready on the fire a pot of boiling water. Stir into it by degrees (a handful at a time) sufficient Indian meal to make it very thick, and then add a very small portion of salt. You must keep the pot boiling on the fire all the time you are throwing in the meal; and between every handful, stir very hard with the mush-stick, (a round stick flattened at one end,) that the mush may not be lumpy. After it is sufficiently thick, keep it boiling for an hour longer, stirring it occasionally. Then cover the pot, and hang it higher up the chimney, so as to simmer slowly or keep hot for another hour. The goodness of mush depends greatly on its being long and thoroughly boiled. If sufficiently cooked, it is wholesome and nutritious, but exactly the reverse, if made in haste. It is not too long to have it altogether three or four hours over the fire; on the contrary it will be much the better for it.

Eat it warm; either with milk, or cover your plate with mush, make a hole in the middle, put some butter in the hole and fill it up with molasses.

Cold mush that has been left, may be cut into slices and fried in butter.

Burgoo is made precisely in the same manner as mush, but with oatmeal instead of Indian.

A BAKED INDIAN PUDDING.--Cut up a quarter of a pound of butter in a pint of molasses, and warm them together till the butter is melted. Boil a quart of milk; and while scalding hot, pour it slowly over a pint of sifted Indian meal, and stir in the molasses and butter. Cover it, and let it steep for an hour. Then take off the cover, and set the mixture to cool. When it is cold, beat six eggs, and stir them gradually into it; add a table-spoonful of mixed cinnamon and nutmeg; and the grated peel of a lemon. Stir the whole very hard; put it into a buttered dish, and bake it two hours. Serve it up hot, and eat it with wine sauce, or with butter and molasses.

A BOILED INDIAN PUDDING.--Chop very fine a quarter of a pound of beef suet. Mix it with a quart of sifted Indian meal. Boil a quart of milk with some pieces of cinnamon broken up; strain it, and while it is hot, stir in gradually the meal and suet; add half a pint of molasses. Cover the mixture and set it away for an hour; then put it to cool. Beat six eggs, and stir them gradually into the mixture when it is cold; add a grated nutmeg, and the grated peel of a lemon. Tie the pudding in a cloth that has been dipped in hot water and floured; and leave plenty of room for it to swell. Secure it well at the tying place lest the water should get in, which will infallibly spoil it. Put it into a pot of boiling water, (which must be replenished as it boils away,) and boil it four hours at least; but five or six will be better. To have an Indian pudding _very good_, it should be mixed the night before, (all except the eggs,) and put on to boil early in the morning. Do not take it out of the pot till immediately before it is wanted. Eat it with wine sauce, or with molasses and butter. What is left may be boiled again next day.

INDIAN PUDDING WITHOUT EGGS.--Boil some cinnamon in a quart of milk, and then strain it. While the milk is hot, stir into it a pint of molasses, and then add by degrees a quart or more of Indian meal so as to make a thick batter. It will be much improved by the grated peel and juice of a large lemon or orange. Tie it very securely in a thick cloth, leaving room for it to swell, and pasting up the tying-place with a lump of flour and water. Put it into a pot of boiling water, (having ready a kettle to fill it up as it boils away,) hang it over a good fire, and keep it boiling hard for four or five hours. Eat it warm with molasses and butter.

This is a very economical, and not an unpalatable pudding; and may be found convenient when it is difficult to obtain eggs. The molasses should be West India.

A BAKED PLUM PUDDING.--Grate all the crumb of a stale six cent loaf; boil a quart of rich milk, and pour it boiling hot over the grated bread; cover it, and let it steep for an hour; then set it out to cool. In the mean time prepare half a pound of currants, picked, washed, and dried; half a pound of raisins, stoned and cut in half; and a quarter of a pound of citron cut in large slips; also, two nutmegs beaten to a powder; and a table-spoonful of mace and cinnamon powdered and mixed together. Crush with a rolling-pin half a pound of sugar, and cut up half a pound of butter. When the bread and milk is uncovered to cool, mix with it the butter, sugar, spice and citron; adding a glass of brandy, and a glass of white wine. Beat eight eggs very light, and when the milk is quite cold, stir them gradually into the mixture. Then add, by degrees, the raisins and currants, (which must be previously dredged with flour,) and stir the whole very hard. Put it into a buttered dish, and bake it two hours. Send it to table warm, and eat it with wine sauce, or with wine and sugar only.

In making this pudding, you may substitute for the butter, half a pound of beef suet minced as fine as possible. It will be found best to prepare the ingredients the day before, covering them closely and putting them away.

A BOILED PLUM PUDDING.--Grate the crumb of a twelve cent loaf of bread, and boil a quart of rich milk with a small bunch of peach leaves in it, then strain it and set it out to cool. Pick, wash and dry a pound of currants, and stone and cut in half a pound of raisins; strew over them three large table-spoonfuls of flour. Roll fine a pound of brown sugar, and mince as fine as possible three quarters of a pound of beef suet. Prepare two beaten nutmegs, and a large table-spoonful of powdered mace and cinnamon; also the grated peel and the juice of two large lemons or oranges. Beat ten eggs very light, and (when it is cold) stir them gradually into the milk, alternately with the suet and grated bread. Add, by degrees, the sugar, fruit, and spice, with a large glass of brandy, and one of white wine. Mix the whole very well, and stir it hard. Then put it into a thick cloth that has been scalded and floured; leave room for it to swell, and tie it very firmly, pasting the tying-place with a small lump of moistened flour. Put the pudding into a large pot of boiling water, and boil it steadily six hours, replenishing the pot occasionally from a boiling kettle. Turn the pudding frequently in the pot. Prepare half a pound of citron cut in slips, and half a pound of almonds blanched and split in half lengthways. Stick the almonds and the citron all over the outside of the pudding as soon as you take it out of the cloth. Send it to table hot, and eat it with wine sauce, or with cold wine and sugar.

If there is much of the pudding left, tie it in a cloth and boil it again next day.

All the ingredients of this plum pudding (except the eggs) should be prepared the day before, otherwise it cannot be made in time to allow of its being sufficiently boiled.

We have known of a very rich plum pudding being mixed in England and sent to America in a covered bowl; it arrived perfectly good after a month's voyage, the season being winter.

A BAKED APPLE PUDDING.--Take nine large pippin apples; pare and core them whole. Set them in the bottom of a large deep dish, and pour round them a very little water, just enough to keep them from burning. Put them into an oven, and let them bake about half an hour. In the mean time, mix three table-spoonfuls of flour with a quart of milk, a quarter of a pound of white sugar, and a tea-spoonful of mixed spice. Beat seven eggs very light, and stir them gradually into the milk. Then take out the dish of apples, (which by this time should be half baked,) and fill up the holes from whence you extracted the cores, with white sugar; pressing down into each a slice of fresh lemon. Pour the batter round the apples; put the dish again into the oven, and let it bake another half hour; but not long enough for the apples to fall to pieces; as they should, when done, be soft throughout, but quite whole. Send it to table warm.

This is sometimes called a _Bird's Nest Pudding_.

It will be much improved by previously boiling in the milk a small handful of peach-leaves. Let it get cold before you stir in the eggs.

BOILED APPLE PUDDING.--Pare, core, and quarter as many fine juicy apples as will weigh two pounds when done. Strew among them a quarter of a pound of brown sugar, and add a grated nutmeg, and the juice and yellow peel of a large lemon. Prepare a paste of suet and flour, in the proportion of a pound of chopped suet to two pounds of flour. Roll it out of moderate thickness; lay the apples in the centre, and close the paste nicely over them in the form of a large dumpling; tie it in a cloth and boil it three hours. Send it to table hot, and eat with it cream sauce, or with butter and sugar. The water must boil before the pudding goes in.

Any fruit pudding may be made in a similar manner.

AN EASTERN PUDDING.--Make a paste of a pound of flour and half a pound of minced suet; and roll it out thin into a square or oblong sheet; trim off the edges so as to make it an even shape. Spread thickly over it some marmalade, or cold stewed fruit, (which must be made very sweet,) either apple, peach, plum, gooseberry or cranberry. Roll up the paste, with the fruit spread on it, into a scroll. Secure each end by putting on nicely a thin round piece rolled out from the trimmings that you cut off the edges of the sheet. Put the pudding into a cloth, and boil it at least three hours. Serve it up hot, and eat it with cream sauce, or with butter and sugar. The pudding must be put on in boiling water.

APPLE DUMPLINGS.

Take large fine juicy apples. Pare them, and extract the cores without dividing the apple. Fill each hole with brown sugar, and some chips of lemon-peel. Also squeeze in some lemon juice. Or you may fill the cavities with raspberry jam, or with any sort of marmalade. Have ready a paste, made in the proportion of a pound of suet, chopped as fine as possible, to two pounds and a half of sifted flour, well mixed, and wetted with as little water as possible. Roll out the paste to a moderate thickness, and cut it into circular pieces, allowing two pieces to each dumpling. Lay your apple on one piece, and put another piece on the top, closing the paste round the sides with your fingers, so as to cover the apple entirely. This is a better way than gathering up the paste at one end, as the dumpling is less liable to burst. Boil each dumpling in a small coarse cloth, which has first been dipped in hot water. There should always be a set of cloths kept for the purpose. Tie them tightly, leaving a small space for the dumpling to swell. Plaster a little flour on the inside of each tying place to prevent the water from getting in. Have ready a pot of boiling water. Put in the dumplings and boil them steadily for an hour. Send them to table hot in a covered dish. Do not take them up till a moment before they are wanted.

Eat them with cream and sugar, or with butter and sugar.

You may make the paste with butter instead of suet, allowing a pound of butter to two pounds and a quarter of flour. But when paste is to be boiled, suet will make it much lighter and finer than butter.

Apple dumplings may be made in a very plain manner with potato paste, and boiled without cloths, dredging the outside of each dumpling with flour. They should boil about three quarters of an hour when without cloths.

The apples for dumplings should always be whole, (except the cores;) for if quartered, the pieces will separate in boiling and break through the crust. The apples should never be sweet ones.

RICE DUMPLINGS.--Pick and wash a pound of rice, and boil it gently in two quarts of water till it becomes dry; keeping the pot well covered, and not stirring it. Then take it off the fire, and spread it out to cool on the bottom of an inverted sieve: loosening the grains lightly with a fork, that all the moisture may evaporate. Pare a dozen pippins or other large juicy apples, and scoop out the core. Then fill up the cavity with marmalade, or with lemon and sugar. Cover every apple all over with a thick coating of the boiled rice. Tie up each in a separate cloth,[F] and put them into a pot of cold water. They will require about an hour and a quarter after they begin to boil; perhaps longer.

Turn them out on a large dish, and be careful in doing so not to break the dumplings. Eat them with cream sauce, or with wine sauce, or with butter, sugar, and nutmeg beaten together.

FOOTNOTES:

[F] Your pudding and dumpling cloths should be squares of coarse thick linen, hemmed, and with tape strings sewed to them. After using, they should be washed, dried, and ironed; and kept in one of the kitchen drawers, that they may be always ready when wanted.

PIGEON DUMPLINGS OR PUDDINGS.--Take six pigeons and stuff them with chopped oysters, seasoned with pepper, salt, mace, and nutmeg. Score the breasts, and loosen all the joints with a sharp knife, as if you were going to carve them for eating; but do not cut them quite apart. Make a sufficient quantity of nice suet paste, allowing a pound of suet to two pounds of flour; roll it out thick, and divide it into six. Lay one pigeon on each sheet of the paste with the back downwards, and put in the lower part of the breast a piece of butter rolled in flour. Close the paste over the pigeon in the form of a dumpling or small pudding; pouring in at the last a very little cold water to add to the gravy. Tie each dumpling in a cloth, put them into a pot of hot water, and boil them two hours. Send them to table with made gravy in a boat.

Partridges or quails may be cooked in this manner; also chickens, which must be accompanied by egg sauce.

These dumplings or puddings will be found very good.

FINE SUET DUMPLINGS.--Grate the crumb of a stale six cent loaf, and mix it with half as much beef suet, chopped as fine as possible. Add a grated nutmeg, and two large table-spoonfuls of sugar. Beat four eggs with four table-spoonfuls of white wine or brandy. Mix all well together to a stiff paste. Flour your hands, and make up the mixture into balls or dumplings about the size of turkey eggs. Have ready a pot of boiling water. Put the dumplings into cloths, and let them boil about half an hour. Serve them hot, and eat them with wine sauce.

PLAIN SUET DUMPLINGS.--Sift two pounds of flour into a pan, and add a salt-spoon of salt. Mince very fine one pound of beef suet, and rub it into the flour. Make it into a stiff dough with a little cold water. Then roll it out an inch thick or rather more. Cut it into dumplings with the edge of a tumbler. Put them into a pot of boiling water, and let them boil an hour and a half. Send them to table hot, to eat with boiled loin of mutton, or with molasses after the meat is removed.

INDIAN DUMPLINGS.--Take a pint of milk, and four eggs well beaten. Stir them together, and add a salt-spoon of salt. Then mix in as much sifted Indian meal as will make a stiff dough. Flour your hands; divide the dough into equal portions, and make it into balls about the size of a goose egg. Flatten each with the rolling-pin, tie them in cloths, and put them into a pot of boiling water. They will boil in a short time. Take care not to let them go to pieces by keeping them too long in the pot.

Serve them up hot, and eat them with corned pork, or with bacon. Or you may eat them with molasses and butter after the meat is removed.

If to be eaten without meat, you may mix in the dough a quarter of a pound of finely chopped suet.

LIVER DUMPLINGS.--Take a calf's liver, and chop it very fine. Mix with it half a pound of beef suet chopped fine also; half a pound of flour; one minced onion; a handful of bread crumbs; a table-spoonful of chopped parsley and sweet marjoram mixed; a few blades of mace and some grated nutmeg; and a little pepper and salt. Mix all well together. Wet the mixture with six eggs well beaten, and make it up into dumplings, with your hands well floured. Have ready a large pot of boiling water. Drop the dumplings into it with a ladle, and let them boil an hour. Have ready bread-crumbs browned in butter to pour over them before they go to table.

HAM DUMPLINGS.--Chop some cold ham, the fat and lean in equal proportions. Season it with pepper and minced sage. Make a crust, allowing half a pound of chopped suet, or half a pound of butter to a pound of flour. Roll it out thick, and divide it into equal portions. Put some minced ham into each, and close up the crust. Have ready a pot of boiling water, and put in the dumplings. Boil them about three quarters of an hour. You may use potatoe paste.

LIGHT DUMPLINGS.--Mix together as much grated bread, butter and beaten egg (seasoned with powdered cinnamon) as will make a stiff paste. Stir it well. Make the mixture into round dumplings, with your hands well floured. Tie up each in a separate cloth, and boil them a short time,--about fifteen minutes. Eat them with wine sauce, or with molasses and butter.

PLAIN FRITTERS.

Beat seven eggs very light, and stir them gradually into a quart of milk; add, by degrees, three quarters of a pound, or a pint and a half of sifted flour. Beat the whole very hard. Have ready in a frying-pan over the fire, a large quantity of lard. When the lard has come to a hard boil, begin to put in the fritters; allowing for each about a jill of batter, or half a large tea-cup full. They do not require turning, and will be done in a few minutes. Fry as many at a time as the pan will hold. Send them to table hot, and eat them with powdered cinnamon, sugar, and white wine. Let fresh hot ones be sent in as they are wanted; they chill and become heavy immediately.

Begin to fry the fritters as soon as the batter is mixed, as it will fall by setting. Near a pound and a half of lard will be required for the above quantity of fritters.

APPLE FRITTERS.--Pare, core, and parboil (in a very little water) some large juicy pippins. When half done, take them out, drain them, and mince them very fine. Make a batter according to the preceding receipt; adding some lemon juice and grated lemon-peel. Stir into the batter a sufficient quantity of the minced apple to make it very thick. Then fry the fritters in hot lard as before directed. Eat them with nutmeg and sugar.