Part 36

POACHED EGGS.--See that the eggs are quite fresh. Pour from a kettle of boiling water enough to fill a broad shallow stew-pan. Break the eggs into a saucer, (one at a time,) slip them carefully into the hot water, and let them stand in it till the whites are set. Then put the pan over a moderate fire; and, as soon as the water boils again, the eggs are ready. The whites should be firm, and the yolks should appear in the centre looking yellow through a thin transparent coating of the white. Take them out carefully (one by one,) with an egg-slice. Have ready, for each egg, a nice slice of toast of a light brown or yellow all over. Trim off all the crust, and dip the toast for a minute in hot water. Then butter it _slightly_ with fresh butter. Trim off neatly the ragged and discolored white from the edge of each egg. Lay a poached egg in the middle of every toast, and serve them up warm.

Instead of toast, you may lay beneath every egg a thin slice of ham, that has been soaked, and nicely broiled and trimmed. Or, large thin slices from the breast of a cold roast turkey, or cold fillet of roast pork or veal. These are nice breakfast dishes.

_Scrambled Eggs._--Make a mixture as for an omelet, but instead of frying put it into a sauce-pan, and when it has boiled five minutes take it off, and chop and mix all the ingredients into confusion. Serve it up hot in a deep dish. It is eaten at breakfast, and is by many preferred to a fried omelet. You may season it with grated ham, tongue, or sweet herbs.

EGG-NOGG.--Beat, till very light and thick, the yolks only of six eggs. Stir the eggs, gradually, into a quart of rich unskimmed milk, and add half a pound of powdered loaf sugar, a half pint of brandy, and a grated nutmeg. Next beat three whites of the eggs by themselves, and stir them quickly into the mixture. Divide it into two pitchers, and pour it back and forward from one pitcher to the other till it has a fine froth. Then serve it in a large china bowl, with a silver ladle in it, and distribute it in glasses with handles.

_To Beat Eggs._--For beating eggs have a broad shallow earthen pan. If beaten in tin, the coldness of the metal retards their lightness; for the same reason, hickory rods are better than tin wire. Beat with a short quick stroke, holding the egg rods in your right hand close to your side, and do not exert your elbow, or use your arm violently with a hard sweeping stroke; of this there is no necessity. If beaten in a proper manner, (moving your hand _only_ at the wrist) the eggs will be light long before you are fatigued. But you must continue beating till after the froth has subsided, and the pan of eggs presents a smooth thick surface, like a nice boiled custard. White of egg is done if it stands stiff alone, and will not fall from the beater when held upon it.

Butter and sugar should always be stirred with a strong hickory spaddle, which resembles a short mush stick, rather broad and flattened at one end.

BRAN MUFFINS.--Take three quarts of bran, (unbolted wheat flour) and sift it into a large pan. Warm three half pints of rich milk, mixing with it half a common tumbler of _West India_ molasses. Cut up in the warm milk and molasses two ounces or two large heaped table-spoonfuls of fresh butter, and stir it about till well mixed all through. Then stir all the liquid into the flour. Beat in a shallow pan three eggs till very thick and light, and then stir them gradually into the pan of flour, &c. Lastly, add two table-spoonfuls of strong fresh yeast. Cover the mixture and set it to rise. When risen very light heat a griddle on the oven of a stove, set muffin rings upon it, fill the rings nearly to the top, and bake the muffins. Send them to table hot, pull them open with your fingers, and butter them. They will be much liked if properly made and baked.

COTTAGE CHEESE.--This is a good way of using up a pan of milk that is found to be turning sour. Or you may turn it, on purpose, by stirring in a spoonful of cider vinegar. Having covered it, set it in a warm place till it becomes a curd. Then pour off the liquid, and tie up the curd in a clean linen bag with a pointed end, and set a bowl under it to catch the droppings; but do not squeeze it. After it has drained ten or twelve hours, transfer the curd to a deep dish, enrich it with some cream, and press and chop it with a large spoon till it is a soft mass; adding, as you proceed, an ounce or more of nice fresh butter. Then set it on ice till tea-time.

FRENCH HAM PIE.--Having soaked, boiled, and skinned a small ham of the best quality, and taken out the bone, trim it into a handsome oval shape. Of the trimmings make a rich gravy by stewing them in a sauce-pan with a little water, and four pigs feet, (split up.) Have ready a plentiful sufficiency of nice forcemeat made of cold roast chicken or veal, minced suet, and grated bread-crumbs, butter, minced sweet marjoram or tarragon, and some hard-boiled yolk of egg crumbled. Have ready, prepared, a very nice puff paste; line with it the bottom and sides of a large deep dish, and lay in it the oval ham, filling up at the corners and all round with the forcemeat, and spreading a layer of it on the top. Pour on gravy to moisten the whole, and put on the paste intended for the lid. Notch the edges handsomely, and stick a flower or tulip of paste in the cross slit at the top, and place a wreath of paste leaves all round. Bake it light brown, and eat it warm or cold. It is a fine dish for a dinner or supper party, or for a handsome luncheon or breakfast.

_A Tongue Pie_--Is made in a similar manner of a boiled smoked tongue, peeled and trimmed, and filled in with forcemeat. For a large company have _two_ tongue pies, as it will be much liked, if made as above.

FIG PUDDING.--Take a pint of very ripe figs, (peeled,) cut them up and mash them smooth with the grated yellow rind of a large ripe lemon or orange, and the juice of two. Mix together a large spoonful of fresh butter, and two table-spoonfuls of sugar, and stir the whole very hard. Bake it in a deep dish, and eat it fresh, but not warm. Grate sugar over the surface. When _ripe_ figs can be obtained, this pudding is much liked.

POKE PLANT.--Early in the spring, the young green stalks of the pokeberry plant, (when they are still mild and tender, and have not yet acquired a reddish tinge or a strong unpleasant taste,) are generally much liked as a vegetable, and are by many persons considered equal to asparagus. They are brought in bundles to Philadelphia market. Wash and drain them, and put them on to boil in a pot of cold water. When _quite tender_ all through they are done. Dish them in the manner of asparagus, laid on a toast dipped for a minute in hot water, and then buttered.

You may pour a very little drawn or melted butter over the poke.

RHUBARB TARTS.--Take large fresh stalks of the rapontica plant, such as are full-grown and reddish. Peel off the thin skin, and cut them into bits all of the same size, either one inch or two inches long. Wash them in cold water through a cullender, (but do not drain them much,) and put them into a stew-pan without any more water. Mix with them plenty of good sugar, in the proportion of half a pound of sugar to a pint of cut-up rhubarb stalks. Cover it, and stew it slowly till quite soft. Then mash it into a smooth mass. Have some puff-paste shells baked empty; and when cool, fill them to the top, and grate nutmeg and powdered sugar thickly over them. The juice and grated yellow rind of a lemon (added when the rhubarb is half stewed,) will be a pleasant flavoring. This is sometimes called "spring-fruit" and "pie-plant." It comes earlier, but is by no means so good as gooseberries. We do not think it worth preserving, or making into a sweetmeat.

VOL-AU-VENT.--Have ready a large quantity of the best and lightest puff paste. Roll it an inch thick, and then cut it neatly into shapes, either square or circular. Bake every one separately on a flat tin pan, cutting a round hole in the centre of each, and fitting in pieces of stale bread to keep the holes open while baking. The cakes of paste should diminish in size as they ascend to the top, but the holes should all be of exactly the same dimensions. The lower cake, which goes at the bottom, should be solid and not perforated at all. The small cake which finishes the top of the pyramid must also be left solid, for a lid. When all the cakes are baked and risen high, (as good puff-paste always does) take them carefully off the baking plates; remove the bread that has kept the centres open and in shape; brush over every cake, separately, with beaten white of egg, and pile one upon another nicely and evenly so as to form a pyramid. Have ready a very nice stew of oysters or game cut small, and cooked with cream, &c. Fill the pyramid with this, and then put on the top or lid, which may terminate in a flower of baked paste.

_A Sweet Vol-au-Vent_--May be filled with small preserves, or with ripe strawberries or raspberries, made very sweet. Vol-au-vents are for dinner, or supper parties. The paste should be peculiarly light. The name _Vol-au-vent_ signifies, in French, something that will fly away in the wind; which, however, it never does.

A SOUFFLÉ PUDDING.--Take eight rusks, or soft sugar-biscuits, or plain buns. Lay them in a large deep dish, and pour on a pint of milk, sufficient to soak them thoroughly. Cover the dish, and let them stand undisturbed for about an hour and a half before dinner. In the mean time, boil half a pint of milk in a small sauce-pan with a handful of bitter almonds or peach kernels broken small, or a small bunch of fresh peach-leaves, with two large sticks of cinnamon, broken up. Boil this milk slowly, (keeping it covered,) and when it tastes strongly of the flavoring articles, strain it, and set it away to cool. When cold, mix it into another pint of milk, and stir in a quarter of a pound of powdered loaf sugar. Beat eight eggs very light, and add them gradually to the milk, so as to make a rich custard. After dinner has commenced, beat and stir the soaked rusk very hard till it becomes a smooth mass, and then, by degrees, add to it the custard. Stir the whole till thoroughly amalgamated. Set the dish into a brisk oven, and bake the pudding rather more than ten minutes. The yeast, &c., in the rusk, will cause it to puff up very light. When done, send it to table warm, with white sugar sifted over it. You may serve up with it as sauce sweetened thick cream flavored with rose-water, and grated nutmeg, or powdered loaf sugar and fresh butter stirred together in equal portions, and seasoned with lemon or nutmeg.

ICED PLUM PUDDING.--Take two dozen sweet and half a dozen bitter almonds. Blanch them in scalding water, and then throw them into a bowl of cold water. Pound them one at a time in a mortar, till they become a smooth paste, free from the smallest lumps. As you proceed, add frequently a few drops of rose-water or lemon juice to make them light, and prevent their oiling. Seed and cut in half a quarter of a pound of the best bloom raisins. Mix with them a quarter of a pound of Zante currants, picked, washed, and dried; and add to the raisins and currants three ounces of citron, chopped. Mix the citron with the raisins and currants, and dredge them all with flour to prevent their sinking or clodding. Take a half pint of very rich milk; split a vanilla bean, and cut it into pieces two or three inches long, and boil it in the milk till the flavor of the vanilla is well extracted; then strain it out, and mix the vanilla milk with a pint of rich cream, and stir in, gradually, a half pound of powdered loaf sugar, and a nutmeg grated. Then add the pounded almonds, and a large wine-glass of either marasquino, noyau, curaçoa, or the very best brandy. Beat, in a shallow pan, the yolks of eight eggs till very light, thick, and smooth, and stir them gradually into the mixture. Simmer it over the fire, (stirring it all the time,) but take it off just as it is about to come to a boil, otherwise it will curdle. Then, while the mixture is hot, stir in the raisins, currants, and citron. Set it to cool, and then add a large tea-cupful of preserved strawberries or raspberries, half a dozen preserved apricots or peaches; half a dozen preserved green limes; and any other very nice and delicate sweetmeats. Then whip to a stiff froth another pint of cream, and add it lightly to the mixture. Put the whole into a large melon-mould that opens in the middle, and freeze it in the usual way. It will take four hours to freeze it well. Do not turn it out till just before it is wanted. Then send it to table on a glass dish. It will be found delicious. Iced puddings are now considered indispensable on fashionable supper tables or at dinner parties. There is no flour in this pudding. The freezing will keep it together.

RENNETS.--Milk turned into a curd with wine is by no means so good as that which is done with rennet-water alone. The curd and whey do not separate so completely; the curd is less firm, and the whey less clear; the latter being thick and white, instead of thin and greenish, as it ought to be. Neither is it so light and wholesome as when turned with rennet.

Rennets of the best quality can be had at all seasons in the Philadelphia market; particularly in the lower part, called the Jersey market. They are sold at twelve, eighteen, or twenty-five cents, according to their size, and will keep a year or two; but have most strength when fresh. You may prepare excellent rennets yourself at a very trifling expense, by previously bespeaking them of a veal butcher; a rennet being the stomach of a calf. Its form is a bag. As soon as you get the rennet, empty out all its contents, and wipe it very clean, inside and out; then rince it with cold water, but do not wash it much, as washing will weaken its power of turning milk into curd. When you have made it quite clean, lay the rennet in a broad pan, strew it over on both sides with plenty of fine salt; cover it, and let it rest five days. When you take it out of the pan, do not wipe or wash it, for it must be stretched and dried with the salt on. For this purpose hold it open like a bag, and slip within it a long, thick, smooth rod, bent into the form of a large loop wide at the top, and so narrow at the bottom as to meet together. Stretch the rennet tightly and smoothly over this bent rod, on which it will be double, and when you have brought the two ends of the rod together at the bottom, and tied them fast, the form will somewhat resemble that of a boy's kite. Hang it up in a dry place, and cut out a bit as you want it. A piece about two inches square will turn one quart of milk; a piece of four inches, two quarts. Having first washed off all the salt in several cold waters, and wiped the bit of rennet dry, pour on it sufficient _lukewarm_ water to cover it well. Let it stand several hours; then pour the rennet-water into the milk you intend for the curd, and set it in a warm place. When the curd is entirely formed, set the vessel on ice.

Rennet may be used with good effect before it has _quite_ dried.

AN EASY WAY OF MAKING BUTTER IN WINTER.--The following will be found an excellent method of making butter in cold weather for family use. We recommend its trial. Take, in the morning, the unskimmed milk of the preceding evening, (after it has stood all night in a _tin_ pan,) and set it over a furnace of hot coals, or in a stove; being careful not to disturb the cream that has risen to the surface. Let it remain over the fire till it simmers, and begins to bubble round the edges; but on no account let it come to a boil. Then take the pan carefully off, (without disturbing the cream) and carry it to a cool place, but not where it is cold enough to freeze. In the evening take a spoon, and loosen the cream round the sides of the pan. If very rich, it will be almost a solid cake. Slip off the sheet of cream into another and larger pan, letting as little milk go with it as possible. Cover it, and set it away. Repeat the process for several days, till you have thus collected a sufficiency of clotted cream to fill the pan. Then scald a wooden ladle, and beat the cream hard with it during ten minutes. You will then have excellent butter. Take it out of the pan, lay it on a flat dish, and with the ladle squeeze and press it hard, till all the buttermilk is entirely extracted and drained off. Then wash the butter in cold water, and work a very little salt into it. Set it away in a cool place for three hours. Then squeeze and press it again; also washing it a second time in cold water. Make it up into pats, and keep it in a cool place.

The unskimmed morning's milk, of course, may also be used for this purpose, after it has stood twelve hours. The simmering over the fire adds greatly to the quantity of cream, by throwing all the oily part of the milk to the surface; but if allowed to boil, this oleaginous matter will again descend, and mix with the rest, so as not to be separated.

This is the usual method of making winter butter in the south of England; and it is very customary in the British provinces of America. Try it.

SWEET POTATO 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 potato. Beat eight eggs very light, and stir them gradually into the butter and sugar, in turn with the grated sweet potato. Dissolve a tea-spoonful of saleratus or soda in a jill 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, cut into slices.

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; 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 saleratus, 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.

GROUND-NUT MACAROONS.--Take a sufficiency of ground-nuts, or pea-nuts, that have been roasted in an iron pot over the fire; remove the shells, and weigh a pound of the nuts. Put them into a pan of cold water, and wash off the skins. Have ready some beaten white of egg. Pound the ground-nuts (two or three at a time,) in a marble mortar, adding frequently a little cold water to prevent their oiling. They must be pounded to a smooth light paste; and, as you proceed, remove the paste to a saucer or a plate. Beat, to a stiff froth, the whites of four eggs, and then beat into it gradually a pound of powdered loaf sugar, and a large tea-spoonful of powdered mace and nutmeg mixed. Then stir in, by degrees, the pounded ground-nuts, till the mixture becomes very thick. Flour your hands, and roll between them portions of the mixture, forming each portion into a little ball. Lay sheets of white paper on flat baking tins, and place on them the macaroons at equal distances, flattening them all a little, so as to press down the balls into cakes. Then sift powdered sugar over each. Place them in a brisk oven, with more heat at the top than in the bottom. Bake them brown.

Almond macaroons may be made as above, mixing one quarter of a pound of shelled bitter almonds, with three quarters of shelled sweet almonds. For almond macaroons, instead of flouring your hands, you may dip them in cold water; and when the macaroons are formed on the papers, go slightly over every one with your fingers wet with cold water.

Macaroons may be made, also, of grated cocoa-nut mixed with beaten white of egg and powdered sugar.

COLUMBIAN PUDDING.--Tie up closely in a bit of very thin muslin a split vanilla bean, cut into pieces, and a broken-up stick of cinnamon. Put this bag, with its contents, into half a pint of rich milk, and boil it a long time till very highly flavored. Then take out the bag; set the milk near the fire to keep warm in the pan in which it was boiled, covering it closely. Slice thin a pound of almond sponge cake, and lay it in a deep dish. Pour over it a quart of rich cream, with which you must mix the vanilla-flavored milk, and leave the cake to dissolve in it. Blanch, in scalding water, two ounces of shelled bitter almonds or peach kernels, and pound them (one at a time,) to a smooth paste in a marble mortar, pouring on each a few drops of rose-water or peach-water to prevent their oiling. When the almonds are done, set them away in a cold place till wanted. Beat eight eggs till very light and thick; and having stirred together hard the dissolved cake and the cream, add them gradually to the mixture in turn with the almond, and half a pound of powdered loaf sugar, a little at a time of each. Butter a deep dish, and put in the mixture. Set the pudding into a brisk oven and bake it well. Have ready a star nicely cut out of a large piece of candied citron, a number of small stars, all of equal size, as many as there are States in the Union, and a sufficiency of rays or long strips also cut out of citron. The rays should be wide at the bottom and run to a point at the top. As soon as the pudding comes out of the oven, while it is smoking, arrange these decorations. Put the large star in the centre, then the rays so that they will diverge from it, narrowing off towards the edge of the pudding. Near the edge place the small stars in a circle.

Preserved citron-melon will be still better for this purpose than the dry candied citron.

This is a very fine pudding; suitable for a dinner party, or a Fourth of July dinner.