Part 28

CHEESE PUDDING.--Take a quarter of a pound of excellent cheese; rich, but not strong or old. Cut it in small bits, and then beat it (a little at a time) in a marble mortar. Add a quarter of a pound of the best fresh butter. Cut it up, and pound it in the mortar with the cheese, till perfectly smooth and well mixed. Beat five eggs till very thick and smooth. Mix them, gradually, with the cheese and butter. Put the mixture into a deep dish with a rim. Have ready some puff-paste, and lay a broad border of it all round the edge, ornamenting it handsomely. Set it immediately into a moderate oven, and bake it till the paste is browned, and has risen very high all round the edge of the dish. Sift white sugar over it before it goes to table.

It is intended that the cheese taste shall predominate. But, if preferred, you may make the mixture very sweet by adding powdered sugar; it may be seasoned with nutmeg and mace. Either way is good.

It may be baked in small patty-pans, lined at the bottom and sides with puff-paste. Remove them from the tins as soon as they come out of the oven, and place them on a large dish.

This pudding is very nice made of rich fresh cream cheese; the rind, of course, being pared off. Cream cheese pudding will require sugar and spice--that is, a heaped tea-spoonful of powdered nutmeg, mace, and cinnamon, all mixed; two ounces of fresh butter, and six eggs.

FLORENDINES.--These are made of any sort of fruit, stewed in its own juice or in sweetmeat syrup, but when practicable, without any water. A pint of this fruit is mixed with half a pint of fresh butter, and half a pint of powdered sugar stirred together to a light cream, and then mixed with three well-beaten eggs, and the fruit stirred in alternately with the beaten butter and sugar. Have ready baked shells of puff-paste, ready to be filled with the mixture. The fruit may be apples, quinces, peaches, gooseberries, currants, raspberries. Cranberries, gooseberries, and currants, require additional sugar, as they are naturally very sour. If you use plums or cherries for any sort of cooking, stone them first.

PEACH PIES.--Take a sufficient number of fine juicy freestone peaches. Clingstones are very hard and insipid when raw, and still more tasteless when cooked. Peel the peaches and quarter them, having removed the stones. Stew them in their own juice, and while hot make them very sweet with white sugar. When you put them to stew, place among them a bunch of fresh green peach leaves, to be removed when the peaches are done. Or, cook with them some peach kernels, blanched in hot water, to be picked out when the stewing is finished. Peach leaves or kernels communicate a flavor which to most persons is pleasant. Have ready some puff-paste shells; baked, and beginning to cool. Fill them to the top with the stewed peaches, and pile on them some whipped cream sweetened, and flavored with noyau or rose-water.

A FRUIT CHARLOTTE.--Have ready a large fresh almond sponge cake, or lady cake. Cut a round or circular piece to fit the bottom of a great glass bowl. Also, about twelve or fourteen oblong slices, to stand up all round to line the sides. Have ready two quarts or more of ripe strawberries or raspberries. Mash the fruit to a jam, and having made it very sweet with white sugar, spread it thickly over the pieces of cake. Lay the circular piece of cake in the bottom of the bowl and stand up the others all round the sides, all close to each other or wrapping over a little. Proceed to fill the bowl with the fruit; and when half way up, put on another layer of sliced cake spread with fruit. Then fill up with fruit to the top. Have ready a quart of whipped cream flavored with vanilla or bitter almonds. Heap it high on the bowl, and set it in a cool place till it goes to table. This is a very fine article for a nice dessert, and can be prepared at a short notice, and without going down stairs, as it requires no cooking.

For the whipped cream, you may pile the bowl with any sort of white ice-cream ready made, and if there is no fresh fruit in season, substitute marmalade or fruit jelly.

If you have no large bowl you may serve up this charlotte in glass or china saucers, laying in the bottom of each a circular slice of cake spread over with ripe fruit or marmalade. Fill up with the same, and finish with whipped cream, or ice-cream heaped on the top.

VANILLA CUSTARDS.--Split a vanilla bean, break it into small bits, and boil it in a half pint of milk, till all the flavor of the vanilla is extracted. Strain it through a very fine strainer, cover it, and set it aside. Boil a quart of rich milk, and when it comes to a boil set it away to cool. Beat eight eggs till very thick and smooth, (and when the milk is cold) add that which is flavored with vanilla, and stir it in gradually with a quarter of a pound of powdered white sugar. Divide the mixture in custard cups, (filling them to the top) and set them into an iron bake-pan filled with boiling water, reaching nearly to the the rim of the cups. Put them into a moderate oven, and bake them a pale brown. When cool, grate nutmeg, or lay a maccaroon on the top over each. Never send custards warm to table. If well made, and baked not too much, there will be no whey at the bottom of the cups, and the custards will be smooth and firm all through, and have no spongy holes in them.

To make soft custards, omit the whites of all the eggs, and have a double quantity of yolks. The whites may be used for almond or cocoa-nut pudding, for lady cake, for meringue or icing, and for kisses or maccaroons.

_Orange Custards._--Prepare four large ripe oranges, by rolling them under your hand on a table to increase the juice. Use none of the peel for these custards, but reserve it for something else. Beat in a shallow pan twelve eggs till thick and smooth. Mix the orange juice with a wineglass of cold water, and stir it gradually into the beaten egg, with a small tumblerful of powdered sugar. There is no milk in these custards. Divide them into custard cups, and beat them ten minutes. When cold, grate nutmeg over them.

_Lemon Custard_--Is made in the above manner, with the juice of four large lemons, (omitting the rind) a small wineglass of cold water, twelve beaten eggs, and a quarter of a pound of powdered sugar. Any of these fine custards may be boiled in a _bain-marie_, with water in the outside kettle, and there is no way better. When boiled and cool, grate in some nutmeg, and serve up the custard in a glass or china pitcher, with saucers of the same to eat it from, or divide it in small glass cups with handles to them.

Lemon or orange custards are very fine. They are made without milk.

_Chocolate Custard._--Make some strong chocolate, allowing a quarter of a pound of the best, (which is Baker's prepared cocoa) to a quart of rich milk; first mixing the milk and scraped chocolate to a smooth paste. Boil them together a quarter of an hour. While warm, stir in two or three table-spoonfuls of loaf sugar. Then set it away to cool. Have ready eight well-beaten eggs, and stir them gradually into the chocolate. Bake the mixture in cups, and serve them up with a chocolate maccaroon laid on the top of each.

_Almond and Maccaroon Custard._--Boil in half a pint of rich milk a handful of _bitter_ almonds, blanched and broken up. When highly flavored, strain that milk and set it aside. Boil a quart of milk by itself, and when cold stir in, gradually, eight well beaten eggs, adding the flavored milk, and half a pint of powdered sugar. Stir the whole very hard at the last. Bake it in cups, and when done and cold, lay on the top of each a maccaroon with four others placed around it; five maccaroons to each custard. Or, if the maccaroons are made in the house, let every one be large enough to cover the top of the custard like a lid.

FINE PLUM PUDDING.--This pudding is best when prepared, (all but the milk and eggs,) the day before it is wanted. Seed and cut in half one pound of the best bloom raisins; and pick, wash, and dry before the fire, a pound of Zante currants, (commonly called plums.) Dredge the fruit well with flour, to prevent its sinking or clogging. Take one pound of fresh beef suet, freed from the skin and strings, and chopped _very fine_; a pint of grated bread-crumbs, and half a pint of sifted flour; a large quarter of a pound of the best sugar, a large table-spoonful of powdered mace and cinnamon mixed, and two powdered nutmegs--all the spice steeped in a half pint of mixed wine and brandy. Put away these ingredients separately, closely covered, and let them stand undisturbed all night. Next morning proceed to finish the pudding, which requires at least six hours boiling. Beat nine eggs till very thick and smooth, then add gradually a pint of rich milk, in turn with the bread-crumbs and flour. Mix with the sugar the grated yellow rind and juice of two large lemons or two oranges, and add gradually to the mixture all the ingredients, stirring very hard. If you find it too thick, add by degrees some more milk; if too thin, some more bread-crumbs. But take care not to have too much bread or flour, or the pudding will be solid and heavy. Dip a large strong cloth in boiling water; shake it out, and spread it in a large pan. Dredge it lightly with flour, and pour in the mixture. Tie it tightly, but leave sufficient space for the pudding to swell in boiling. Put it into a pot of fast-boiling water, and boil it steadily six hours or more, not taking it up till wanted for table. Before turning it, dip the cloth for a moment in cold water to make the pudding come out easily. Have ready some slips of citron or of blanched sweet almonds, or both, and stick them, liberally, all over the surface of the pudding after you have dished it. Serve it up with wine sauce highly flavored, or with butter and sugar beaten to a cream, and seasoned with nutmeg and rose. Do not set the pudding on fire to burn out the liquor; that practice has had its day, and is over. It was always foolish.

If you wish to send it to a distant place, (for instance, to some part of the world where plum puddings are not known or not made) you may preserve it, (after boiling it well,) by leaving it tied up in the cloth it was cooked in; hanging it up in a cool dry place, and then packing it well in a tin vessel having a close fitting cover. Paste a band of thick white paper all around the place where the lid shuts down, and put into a tight box the vessel that contains the pudding. When it arrives at its destination, the friend who receives it will pare off thinly the outside, and tying up the pudding in a fresh clean cloth, will boil it over again for an hour or more; and when done the surface may be then decorated with slips of citron or almond. It has been said that in this way a plum pudding can be kept for _six_ months, as good as ever. It cannot. But it may keep six _weeks_. Do not _fry_ or _broil_ plum pudding that is left at dinner. The slices will be greasy and heavy. But tie the piece that remains in a small cloth, and _boil_ it over again for an hour. It will then be nearly as good as on the first day. Believe in no wonders that you hear, of the long keeping of either plum pudding, plum cake, or mince meat, which are all of the same family. However long they may be preserved from absolute decomposition, these things are always best when fresh.

MINCE PIES.--The best mince meat is made of fresh beef's tongue boiled, peeled, and when quite cold, chopped very fine. The next best is of beef's heart boiled and chopped. The next of cold roast beef. And the next, of the lean of cold boiled beef, quite fresh, and cooked especially for the purpose. All the meat must be fresh, and not minced till entirely cold. To two large pounds of lean meat allow two small pounds of nice kidney suet, cleared from skin and strings, and chopped very small; two pounds of fine juicy apples, pared, cored, and minced; two pounds of Zante currants, washed, and picked clean; two pounds of fine bloom raisins, seeded and chopped, or of seedless sultana raisins cut in half; two pounds of the best sugar; two large nutmegs, powdered; a table-spoonful of ground cinnamon; the same quantity of ground ginger, with the juice and grated yellow rind of six large lemons, or the juice of six oranges, and their grated rind; a pint of Madeira or sherry, and half a pint of brandy; lastly, half a pound of citron cut into slips, rather large. If the citron is chopped small it cannot be distinguished among the other ingredients, and its flavor is lost. When all is prepared, mix well in a large pan the chopped meat, suet, and fruit. Then, gradually add the spice, having steeped it in the liquor all the preceding night, mixing the whole thoroughly, and putting in the citron at the last. Line with fine puff-paste deep pie-dishes, or patty-pans. Fill them, quite full of the mince, heaping it higher towards the centre; and put on a lid, handsomely decorated with puff-paste ornaments, and having a cross slit in the centre surrounded with paste leaves or flowers. Set the pies immediately into a moderately brisk oven, and bake them a light brown. Eat them warm. If baked the preceding day, heat them again before they go to table. The foolish custom of setting the pies on fire after they come to table, and causing a blue blaze to issue from the liquor that is in them, is now obsolete, and considered ungenteel and tavern-like. If this practice originated in a polite desire to _frighten the ladies_, its purpose is already a failure, for the ladies are not frightened; that is, not really.

Mincemeat will taste more fresh and pleasant if the apples are not added till the day the pies are made. It should be kept well-secured from air and damp, in stone jars closely covered. Whenever a jar is opened to take out some for immediate use, pour in a large glass or two of brandy, and stir it about. It is not true that mincemeat will keep all winter, even by this preservative. It is sure to become musty (or worse,) before two months. It is best to make fresh mincemeat at least three times during the season. When the cold weather is over, do not attempt it, unless a little for immediate use.

Mincemeat, with a double portion of excellent raisins, (cut in half,) will do very well without currants, which are very troublesome to prepare; and those imported of late years are rarely of good quality.

We have heard of West India mincemeat made with cold roast turkey; chopped pine-apple; grated cocoa-nut; preserved ginger chopped, and moistened with its own syrup; and seasoned with nutmeg and noyau.

The above mince pies are for company.

CALF'S FEET JELLY.--Select the largest and best calf's feet. Four is called a set. Choose those that, after the hair has been well scalded and scraped off, are prepared with the skins left on. There is much glutinous substance in the skin itself, therefore it adds to the strength and firmness of the jelly. The feet being made perfectly clean, split them upwards as far as you can, and put them to boil in a gallon of _very clear_ soft water. Boil them till they have all gone to pieces, and the flesh is reduced to rags, and the liquid to one half. Strain the liquid through a fine sieve into a white-ware pan, and set it away to cool. When quite cold, it should be a cake of firm jelly. Take it out, and scrape from it all the fat at the top and sediment at the bottom. Press on the surface, some clean blotting paper, to remove any grease that may yet remain about it. Cut the cake of jelly into pieces, and put it into a _very clean_ porcelain kettle, with a large pint of sherry, (inferior wine will spoil it,) a pound of the best loaf sugar, broken small; the yellow rind of six lemons, pared so thin as to be transparent, and their juice squeezed over the sugar through a strainer; the _whites_ of six or seven eggs, with their shells mashed small. If the jelly is to be moulded, add a quarter ounce of the best Russia isinglass. Boil together all these ingredients for near twenty minutes. Then take it off the fire, and let it stand undisturbed for about five minutes, to settle. Next, have ready a pointed jelly bag, made of clean white flannel. Spread it open, suspended by strings to a table edge. Set a large tureen or white-ware pan beneath it, and let the jelly drip as long as it will; but on no account squeeze or press the bag, as that will spoil all, rendering the whole jelly cloudy or streaked. If it is not quite clear at the first straining, empty the contents of the bag into a basin, wash the bag clean, hang it up again, pour the jelly back, wash the tureen or pan, and let the jelly pass into it again. Repeat this straining if necessary. When quite clear, shape the jelly in white-ware moulds, which have been setting two hours in cold water. When the jelly is wanted, wrap round the moulds for a moment, a cloth dipped in warm water, and turn it out on glass dishes. The ingredients that are left in the bag may be boiled and strained over again for children. If the jelly is _not_ to be moulded, you may omit the isinglass. In that case break it up, and serve it in a glass bowl. It is now the general opinion that jellies have a more lively taste when broken up, from the numerous acute angles they present to the tongue and palate. We think this opinion correct; and also they look brighter and more glittering, and _go farther_.

_Apple Jelly_--Is far less expensive than that of calf's feet, and if well made looks beautifully. It requires the very best and most juicy apples, (for instance, two dozen large pippins or bell-flowers.) Wash and wipe them well, (removing all blemishes,) pare, core, and slice or quarter them. Put them into a _bain-marie_ or double kettle, with the water outside, and let them boil till broken and dissolved, putting in with them the grated yellow rind of four large lemons. Press and mash the stewed apples through a very clean sieve, till you have extracted all the juice. Measure it while warm, and allow to each quart a pound of the finest powdered and sifted loaf sugar well mixed in, and the juice of the lemons. Transfer it to a clean white flannel jelly bag, and let it drip into a large white-ware pan. When quite clear, put it into moulds, and set it on ice to congeal. When wanted, turn it out of the moulds, (loosened by wrapping round their outsides cloths dipped a minute in warm water) and serve it up in glass dishes.

_Siberian Jelly._--A fine pink-colored jelly may be made in the above manner, of the red Siberian crab-apple, but it requires an _additional_ quarter of a pound of sugar to a pint of juice. Instead of lemon you may flavor it, (after all the juice has done dripping) by mixing with extract of rose, or strong rose-water, allowing a wine-glassful to each quart of jelly. Rose-water, or extract of rose, evaporates so speedily when over the fire, that it should never be added till the very last.

_Orange Jelly_--Is made in the proportion of a pint of strained orange juice to a pound of loaf sugar, boiled with an ounce of isinglass, that has first been melted over the fire by itself in a very little water. Add the _yellow_ rind of the oranges pared from the white as thin as possible. Give it one boil up, and strain it into the jelly-bag. When clear, transfer it to moulds. Twelve large oranges will generally yield a pint of juice. Lemon jelly is made in the same manner, but with more sugar.

CURRANT JELLY.--The currants should be large, fine, and fully ripe. The best and sweetest currants grow in the shade; and the largest, also. If exposed to the full heat of our American sun, it turns them sour, dries up the juice, and withers their growth. Gather them when fully ripe, strip them from the stems into a cullender, and wash and drain them. Transfer them to a large pan, and mash them well with a wooden beetle. Then put the currants, with their juice, into a _bain-marie_ or double kettle, and cook them with the water outside, stirring them hard to bring out the juice. Simmer them for a quarter of an hour, and then transfer them to a very clean sieve, and press them over a pan till no more juice appears. Measure the juice, and to each pint allow a pound of broken-up loaf sugar. Mix the sugar with the juice, put all into a porcelain kettle, and boil it till the scum ceases to rise. If the sugar is of excellent quality, (the best double-refined should be used for all nice sweetmeats) it will need but little skimming, and leave no sediment when poured off. Boil it twenty minutes with the sugar. To try if it is done, take up a spoonful and hold it out in the open air. If it congeals very soon, it is cooked enough. Put it warm into glass tumblers. Cut out some white tissue paper into double rounds, exactly fitting the glasses. Press these papers lightly on the surface of the jelly; and, next day, tie over the top thick papers dipped in brandy, and set them in the sun all that day if the weather is bright and warm.

All jellies of small fruit may be made in a similar manner; first boiling the fruit by itself, and mashing it to get out all the juice. Then boiling the berries again, _with the sugar_, for about twenty minutes. The above receipt is equally good for grapes, blackberries, and gooseberries. Black currant jelly (excellent for sore throats,) requires but three quarters of a pound of sugar, the juice being very thick of itself. Peaches, plums, damsons, and green gages, must be scalded, peeled, and stoned, before boiling for jelly, and they require, at least, a pound and a half of sugar to a pint of juice. It is better to preserve them as marmalade than as jelly. Strawberries and raspberries require no previous cooking; mash out the juice, strain it, allow a pound of sugar to every pint of juice, and then boil them together (skimming carefully) for about a quarter of an hour, or till they congeal on being tried in the air.

WINE JELLY.--Wine jellies are seldom made except for company. The wine must be of excellent quality; either port, madeira, or champagne. To a quart of wine allow a pound of the best double-refined loaf sugar, and an ounce of the best Russian isinglass. Melt the sugar (broken small) in the wine. Melt the isinglass by itself in as much warm water as will just cover it, and when quite dissolved, stir it into the mixed wine and sugar. Boil all together, till on trial it becomes a firm jelly, which will be very soon. If it does not congeal well, add some more dissolved isinglass, and more sugar. Serve in moulds, and eat it on saucers. Jelly is made in this manner of any nice sort of _liqueur_ or cordial. Also of strong green tea, or very strong coffee; first made as usual, and then boiled with loaf sugar and isinglass till they congeal. We do not recommend them, except as some exhilaration to the fatigue of a party.