Part 14
BRANDY PEACHES THE FRENCH WAY.--Put large white peaches (a few at a time) into scalding lye. Let them rest for a minute or two, till the skin loosens so that it can be easily peeled off. Next put the peaches into cold water, and let them remain till you have hot water ready to scald them. After scalding, put into a large, broad preserving kettle as many peaches as will lie side by side in the bottom. Pour on as much cold water as will rather more than cover them; set the kettle over a clear fire; and let them boil till they are soft enough to be easily dented when pressed by your finger. Take them out; place them with the stem end downward, on an inverted sieve set on a large dish. Then put some more peaches into the kettle; add more cold water; boil them; and put them to drain afterwards. Repeat this till all your peaches have had a boil. Spread them on large dishes, and let them stand all night in a cold place. Mix together some of the best white brandy and the best loaf-sugar, powdered fine,--allowing a pound of sugar to every pint of brandy. Stir it well while the sugar is dissolving; and when melted, set it also in a cold place, and let it stand all night. In the morning, put the peaches into glass jars, which should be all of the same size, and fill them up with the brandy syrup; allowing an equal portion to each jar. Cover the jars closely, and paste white paper over their tops.
BRANDY GREEN GAGES.--Take the largest and finest green gages, quite ripe. Prick every one with a needle in several places. Spread fresh grape-leaves over the bottom, and round the sides of a preserving kettle. Put in a layer of green gages and a layer of grape-vine leaves, alternately, adding to each layer a bit of alum but little larger than a grain of indian corn. Cover the last layer of fruit thickly with vine-leaves; fill up the kettle with cold water, and place it over a moderate fire. Simmer the fruit slowly, but do not let it break. When the gages are hot all through, take them out, and throw them into _cold_ water. Afterwards weight them; and to every pound of fruit, allow a pound of the best double-refined loaf-sugar, powdered. Remove the vine-leaves from the preserving-kettle, and put into it the sugar, with barely sufficient water to keep it from burning. Stir the sugar well with the water till it is dissolved, adding to every three pounds the beaten white of an egg. Place the kettle over the fire, and boil and skim till very clear, and the scum ceases to rise. Then take it off, measure it, and to every pint of syrup allow a large half-pint of the best and clearest brandy. Mix the syrup and brandy together. Having well drained the green gages from the cold water, put them (two-thirds full) into glass jars. Fill the jars up to the top with the liquor, poured on warm. Cover them closely, pasting paper over the lids, and set them in a dry, cool closet.
If the gages are not green enough with the first simmering, get fresh vine-leaves, and simmer them again very slowly, hanging the kettle high.
Instead of vine-leaves, you may green any preserves by boiling them with layers of the green husks that surround the ears of young indian corn.
BRANDY GRAPES.--For this purpose the grapes should be in large close bunches, and quite ripe. Remove every grape that is the least shrivelled, or in any way defective. With a needle prick each grape in three places. Have ready a sufficiency of double-refined loaf-sugar, powdered and sifted. Put some of the sugar into the bottom of your jars. Then put in a bunch of grapes, and cover it thickly with sugar. Then another bunch; then more sugar, and so on till the jar is nearly full; finishing with a layer of sugar. Then fill up to the top with the best white brandy. Cover the jars as closely as possible, and set them away. They must not go over the fire. The grapes should be of the best quality, either white or purple.
ICED GRAPES.--Take large close bunches of fine ripe thin-skinned grapes, and remove any that are imperfect. Tie a string in a loop to the top of the stem. Strain into a deep dish a sufficient quantity of white of egg. Dip the bunches of grapes into it, immersing them thoroughly. Then drain them, and roll them about in a flat dish of finely-powdered loaf-sugar till they are completely coated with it, using your fingers to spread the sugar into the hollows between the grapes. Hang up the bunches by the strings till the icing is entirely dry. They should be dried in a warm place. Send them to the supper-table at a party, on glass dishes.
Ripe currants may be iced as above. Raspberries, strawberries, ripe gooseberries, plums and cherries, may be thus dipped in white of egg, and rolled in sugar.
AMERICAN PRUNES.--Take the largest and finest purple plums, (oval or long-shaped if you can get them.) They must be quite ripe. Spread them separately on flat dishes, and set them in a large oven, directly after the bread, pies, &c., have been taken out. Let the plums stay in till the oven is cool; taking them out and turning them over two or three times. If you bake every day, put in the plums as before, till they are sufficiently dry. Otherwise; set the dishes in a balcony, or on the roof of an out-house, or in some place where they will be exposed to the hot sun. It will be well to cover them with thin gauze, to keep off wasps, flies, &c. Continue to set them every day in the sun till they are well dried, and look like prunes. Then pack them down in jars or boxes; laying orange or lemon-leaves among them.
TO STEW DRIED PEACHES.--Dried peaches can be used for no purpose without first being thoroughly stewed. They should be soaked for some hours before cooking. Take a sufficient quantity, and put them over night into a pan, (having first picked out all that are defective,) and wash them well through two cold waters. Drain them, lay them in a clean pan, and fill it up with scalding water. Cover them closely, and let them stand all night. In the morning pour off the water, leaving just enough of it about the peaches to keep them from burning when stewed, and transfer them to a clean earthen pipkin or a sauce-pan. Set them over a moderate fire, or on a bed of hot coals, (renewing the live coals when necessary,) and let them stew till thoroughly done, and quite soft, so that every piece can be mashed to a jam. While stewing, stir them up frequently from the bottom, mashing them with the back of the spoon against the sides of the pipkin. Keep them well covered, except when you are stirring. When quite done, transfer them to a deep dish, and mix with them, while they are smoking hot, a large portion of brown sugar, so as to make them very sweet. Set them away to cool. They will then be ready to use for pies, puddings, or as sauce to roast meat.
DRIED APPLES should be soaked and stewed as above. They will be much improved by stewing with them some thin slips of the yellow rind of lemon or orange; or by the addition of a few cloves.
Sugar should always be added after the fruit is done stewing, and while still hot. If put in at first, it renders the fruit hard and tough; besides that much of the sweetness is wasted in evaporation.
BREAKFAST AND TEA CAKES.
INDIANA BATTER CAKES.--Sift into a pan three large pints of yellow corn-meal; and add a large table-spoonful of fresh lard; or of nice drippings of roast beef, well cleared from fat. Add a small tea-spoonful of sal-eratus, or a large one of soda, dissolved in a little warm water. Next make the whole into a soft dough, with a pint of cold water. Afterwards thin it to the consistence of a moderate batter, by adding, gradually, not quite a pint and a half of warm water. When it is all mixed, continue to stir it well for half an hour. Have ready a griddle heated over the fire, and bake the batter in the manner of buckwheat-cakes; send them to table hot, and eat them with butter or molasses.
These cakes are very light and good, and convenient to make; as they require neither eggs, milk, nor yeast. They may either be baked as soon as mixed, or they may stand for an hour or more.
KENTUCKY BATTER CAKES.--Sift a quart of yellow indian meal into a large pan; mix with it two large table-spoonfuls of wheat flour, and a salt-spoonful of salt. Warm a pint and a half of rich milk in a small sauce-pan, but do not let it come to a boil. When it begins to simmer, take it off the fire, and put into it two pieces of fresh butter, each about the size of a hen’s egg. Stir the butter into the warm milk till it melts, and is well mixed. Then stir in the meal, gradually, and set the mixture to cool. Beat four eggs, very light, and add them, by degrees, to the mixture, stirring the whole very hard. If you find it too thin, add a little more corn-meal. Have ready a griddle heated over the fire, and bake the batter on it, in the manner of buckwheat-cakes. Send them to table hot, and eat them with butter, to which you may add molasses or honey.
RYE BATTER-CAKES.--Beat two eggs very light. Mix them, gradually, with a quart of lukewarm milk, and sufficient rye-meal to make a batter about as thick as for buckwheat-cakes. Then stir in a large table-spoonful of the best brewer’s yeast; or twice that quantity, if the yeast is home-made. Cover it, and set it to rise in a warm place. If too thin, add more rye-meal. When quite light, and covered on the surface with bubbles, bake it on a griddle, in the manner of buckwheat cakes. Butter them, and eat them warm, at breakfast or tea.
If you cannot obtain good yeast, and wish to have the cakes ready with as much expedition as possible, you may use patent yeast-powders, according to the directions that accompany them. In this case, the cakes must be baked in half an hour after the powders are mixed into the batter.
Yeast-powders, put in at the last, are an improvement to all sorts of batter-cakes that have been previously raised with good _real_ yeast; also to cakes made light by eggs. But to depend _entirely_ on the powders, without either real yeast, or eggs, is not well; as the cakes, though _eatable_, are generally too tough and leathery to be wholesome. In cities, fresh yeast, from the brewers, can be obtained every day, at a very trifling cost, during the brewing season; which is usually from October till April. At other seasons, it can be procured from the bakers, or made at home; and should always be used in preference to depending solely on yeast-powders. Though they improve the lightness of batter, for which real yeast or beaten eggs have already been used, they will not, of themselves alone, give it a wholesome degree of either lightness or crispness. Too much dependence on yeast-powders is one reason that the buckwheat-cakes of the present day are so inferior to those of former times, when they were always made with real yeast.
Indian batter-cakes may be made as above.
HARLEM CAKES.--Sift into a pan three pints of flour. Warm, in a sauce-pan, a pint of milk, and cut up in it half a pound of fresh butter. When the butter is soft enough to mix with the milk, stir them well together, and remove the sauce-pan from the fire. Beat three eggs, very light, and mix them with the milk and butter, after they have cooled. Then make a hole in the middle of the flour, and pour in the mixture, and two large table-spoonfuls of strong fresh yeast. With a spoon, mix the flour into the liquid, till the whole is thoroughly incorporated. Then cover the pan with a thick woollen cloth, and set it near the fire, to rise. It should be light in about five hours; perhaps sooner. When quite light, mix in a tea-spoonful of soda, dissolved in a very little warm water; divide the dough into long oval cakes, or rolls; knead each separately. Sprinkle an iron baking-pan with flour; put in the cakes; cover the pan, and let it stand half an hour before baking. Bake the cakes in a moderate oven. Eat them fresh, with butter. They are excellent tea cakes. Of course, they must be mixed in the forenoon.
BREAD MUFFINS.--Take four thick slices of _baker’s bread_, and cut off all the crust. Lay them in a pan, and pour boiling water over them; but barely enough to soak them well. Cover the bread, and after it has stood an hour, drain off the water, and stir the soaked bread till it is a smooth mass; then mix in two table-spoonfuls of sifted flour, and a half-pint of milk. Having beaten two eggs very light, stir them, gradually, into the mixture. Grease some muffin-rings; set them on a hot griddle, and pour into each a portion of the mixture. Bake them brown; send them to table hot; pull them open with your fingers, and spread on butter. They will be found an excellent sort of muffin; very light and nice.
SWEET POTATOE PONE.--Stir together, till very light and white, three quarters of a pound of fresh butter, and three quarters of a pound of powdered white sugar, adding two table-spoonfuls of ginger. Grate a pound and a half of sweet potatoe. Beat eight eggs, very light, and stir them, gradually, into the butter and sugar, in turn with the grated sweet potatoe. Dissolve a tea-spoonful of sal-eratus or soda, in a gill of sour milk, and stir it in at the last, beating the whole very hard. Butter the inside of a tin pan. Put in the mixture, and bake it four hours, or more. It should be eaten fresh.
RICE BREAD.--To a pint of well-boiled rice, add half a pint of wheat-flour, mixing them well together. Take six eggs, and beat the whites and yolks separately. Having beaten the whites to a stiff froth, mix them, gradually, with a pint of rich milk, and two large table-spoonfuls of fresh butter, softened at the fire. Mix, by degrees, the yolks of the eggs with the rice and flour. Then add the white-of-egg mixture, a little at a time. Stir the whole very hard. Put it into a buttered tin pan, with straight or upright sides. Set it in a moderate oven, and bake it an hour or more. Then turn it out of the pan, put it on a dish, and send it warm to the breakfast-table, and eat it with butter.
This cake may be baked, by setting the pan that contains it, into an iron dutch-oven, placed over hot coals. Heat the lid of the oven on the inside, by standing it up, before the fire, while the rice-bread is preparing, and, after you put it on, keep the lid covered with hot coals.
Rice-bread may be made of ground rice-flour, instead of whole rice.
RICE-FLOUR BREAD.--Sift into a pan a pint and a half of rice-flour, and a pint and a half of fine wheat-flour. Add two large table-spoonfuls of fresh butter, or lard; and mix in a pint and a half of milk. Beat four eggs, very light, and then stir them, gradually, into the mixture. When the whole has been well-mixed, add, at the last, a small tea-spoonful of soda, or sal-eratus, dissolved in as much warm water as will cover it. Put the whole into a buttered tin pan; set it, immediately, into a quick oven, and bake it well. It is best when eaten fresh. Slice and butter it.
RICE-FLOUR BATTER-CAKES.--Melt a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, or lard, in a quart of milk; but be careful not to let it begin to boil. Divide the milk equally, by putting it into two pans. Beat three eggs, very light, and stir them into one half of the milk, with the addition of a large table-spoonful of wheat-flour. Stir in as much ground rice-flour as will make a thick batter. Then put in a _small_ tea-cupful of strong, fresh yeast, and thin the batter with the remainder of the milk. Cover it, and set it to rise. When it has risen high, and is covered with bubbles, bake it on a griddle, in the manner of buckwheat-cakes. Send them to table hot, and butter them.
Similar cakes may be made with indian-meal, instead of rice-flour.
LONG ROLLS.--Sift three quarts of flour into a large pan, and mix with it a tea-spoonful of salt. Warm half a pint of water, but do not let it become hot. Mix with it six table-spoonfuls of strong, fresh yeast. Make a deep hole in the middle of the pan of flour. Pour in the liquid, and, with a spoon, work into it the flour, round the edge of the hole; proceeding gradually till you have all the flour mixed in, so as to form a batter. Stir it well, for two or three minutes. Then strew the top all over with a handful of dry flour. Cover the dough with a thick, double cloth, and set it in a warm place, to rise. When it is quite light, and the surface cracked all over, mix in three table-spoonfuls (not more) of lard, or fresh butter. Knead it long and hard, and make it into long, oval-shaped rolls, making, with a knife, a cleft in the top of each. Sprinkle some square baking-pans with flour; lay the rolls in them, at equal distances; cover them, as before; and set them in a warm place, for half an hour. In the meantime, have the oven ready; put in the rolls, and bake them brown.
Their lightness may be improved by mixing in (while kneading the dough, previous to forming it into cakes) a heaping tea-spoonful of soda, or sal-eratus, dissolved in as much warm water as will cover it.
In cold weather, you may mix these rolls with milk, instead of water; but in summer the milk may turn sour, and spoil the dough. This, however, may be corrected, by adding the soda, or sal-eratus; always a good remedy for sour dough or batter.
POTATOE ROLLS.--Take fine large potatoes. Boil, peel, and mash them. Then rub the mashed potatoe through a sieve. To each potatoe allow a pint of sifted flour; a table-spoonful of strong fresh yeast; a jill of milk-warm water; a salt-spoon of salt; the yolk of an egg; and a bit of fresh butter about the size of a large hickory-nut. Mix together in a large broad pan the flour, the mashed potatoe, and the salt. Make a hole in the centre of the mixture, and pour into it the yeast mixed with the warm water. Sprinkle a little flour over the top, and mix in a little from round the sides of the hole. Cover it with a clean towel, and over that a flannel, and set it near the fire to rise. When the dough is quite light, and cracked all over the surface, knead in the butter and also the yolks of eggs, having previously beaten them well, and add a small tea-spoonful of soda dissolved in a little warm water. Then divide the dough into equal parts, make it into long-shaped rolls, and lay them in a tin or iron pan sprinkled with flour. Cover them, and again set them to rise in a warm place. When perfectly light, (which should be in about an hour,) set the pan into the oven, and bake the rolls brown. They are best when quite fresh. Pull them open with your fingers, and eat them with butter.
CAKES, ETC.
TO BEAT EGGS.--In making cakes it is of the utmost importance that the eggs should be properly and sufficiently beaten; otherwise the cakes will most certainly be deficient in the peculiar lightness characterizing those that are made by good confectioners. Home-made cakes, if good in other respects, are too frequently (even when not absolutely heavy or streaked) hard, solid and tough. This often proceeds from too large a portion of flour, and too small an allowance of butter and eggs. The richest cake that can be made (provided it is light and well baked) is less unwholesome than what are called plain cakes, if they are solid or leathery. Cakes cannot be crisp and light without a due proportion of the articles that are to make them so; and even then, the ingredients must be thoroughly stirred or beaten; and of course thoroughly baked afterwards.
Persons who do not know the right way, complain much of the fatigue of beating eggs, and therefore leave off too soon. There will be no fatigue, if they are beaten with the proper stroke, and with _wooden_ rods, and in a shallow, flat-bottomed _earthen_ pan. The coldness of a tin pan retards the lightness of the eggs. For the same reason do not use a metal egg-beater. In beating them do not move your elbow, but keep it close to your side. Move only your hand at the wrist, and let the stroke be quick, short, and horizontal; putting the egg-beater always down to the bottom of the pan, which should therefore be shallow. Do not leave off as soon as you have got the eggs into a foam; they are then only _beginning_ to be light. But persist till after the foaming has ceased, and the bubbles have all disappeared. Continue till the surface is smooth as a mirror, and the beaten egg as thick as a rich boiled custard; for till then it will not be really light. It is seldom necessary to beat the whites and yolks separately, if they are afterwards to be put together. The article will be quite as light, when cooked, if the whites and yolks are beaten together, and there will then be no danger of their going in streaks when baked. The justly-celebrated Mrs. Goodfellow, of Philadelphia, always taught her pupils to beat the whites and yolks together, even for sponge-cake; and lighter than hers no sponge-cake could possibly be.
When white of egg is to be used without any yolk, (as for lady-cake, maccaroons, meringues, icing, &c.,) it should be beaten till it stands alone on the rods; not falling when held up.
Hickory rods for egg-beating are to be had at the wooden-ware shops, or at the turner’s. For stirring butter and sugar together, nothing is equal to a wooden spaddle. It should be about a foot long, and flattened at the end like that of a mush-stick, only broader. Spoons are very tedious and inconvenient either for beating eggs or stirring butter and sugar, and do not produce the proper lightness.
BOSTON CAKE.--Put a pound of powdered white sugar into a deep pan, and cut up in it a pound of fresh butter. Stir the butter and sugar together till perfectly light. Then add a powdered nutmeg, a table-spoonful of powdered mace and cinnamon mixed together, and a large wine-glass of excellent brandy. If the brandy is of bad quality it will give the cake a disagreeable taste. If very good, it will highly improve the flavour, and also add to the lightness of the cake. Sift into a pan a pound of flour. In another pan beat six eggs till very thick and smooth. Stir them gradually into the butter and sugar, alternately with the flour, and a pint of rich milk or cream, a little of each at a time. Have ready a level tea-spoonful (not heaped) of pearlash, or sal-eratus, (or a full tea-spoonful of bi-carbonate of soda,) dissolved in as much warm water as will cover it. Add this at the last, and then give the whole a very hard stirring. Butter a large square pan. Put in the mixture. Set it immediately into the oven, and bake it thoroughly. It requires very long baking. A thick square Boston cake will scarcely be done in less than three hours. At the end of the first hour, increase the heat of the oven, and also at the second. When cool, sift powdered sugar over it, and cut it into squares.
If properly made, and well-baked, (following exactly the above directions,) this cake will be found excellent, and will seem fresh longer than any other; the milk keeping it soft.
Milk turned sour is very good for Boston cake; as by stirring the dissolved pearlash or soda into the milk, the acidity will be entirely removed, and the alkali rendered more effective in increasing the lightness of the cake. Still great care will be necessary in baking it.
The best confectioners make this cake every day without any failure.