Part 21

Cut a slit in the side of each pepper, and take out all the seeds. Let them soak in brine (strong enough to float an egg) two days. Then, washing them in cold water, put them into a stone jar. Pour over them vinegar boiled with cinnamon, mace, and nutmeg. Whenever they are wanted to be served, stuff each one with a boiled tongue cut into dice, and mixed with a _Mayonnaise_ dressing. Or little mangoes may be made, stuffing each one with pickled nasturtiums, grapes, minced onions, red cabbage or cucumbers, seasoned with mustard-seed, root ginger, and mace.

RIPE CUCUMBER PICKLES.

Pare and seed ripe cucumbers. Slice each cucumber lengthwise into four pieces, or cut it into fancy shapes, as preferred. Let them stand twenty-four hours covered with cold vinegar. Drain them: then put them into fresh vinegar, with two pounds of sugar, and one ounce of cassia-buds to one quart of vinegar. Boil all together twenty minutes. Cover them closely in a jar.

SWEET PICKLED PEACHES.

To seven pounds of peaches allow three and three-quarter pounds of sugar, one quart of vinegar, two ounces of cloves, and two ounces of stick-cinnamon. Pare the peaches, and stick one or two cloves into each one. Boil the sugar and vinegar, with several sticks of cinnamon, for five minutes, then put in the peaches. When cooked till thoroughly done, take them out. Boil the sirup, reducing it to nearly half, and pour it over the peaches.

STRAWBERRY PICKLE.

Ingredients: Seven pounds of strawberries, three and a half pounds of brown sugar, one and a half pints of cider vinegar, one ounce of cloves, one ounce of stick-cinnamon. Place the strawberries and spices in alternate layers in a deep dish. Boil the sugar and vinegar three minutes, and pour it over them, letting them remain until the next day. The second day pour the liquor off and boil it again three minutes, returning it, as before, to the strawberries. Let them remain until the third day, when boil all together over a slow fire for half an hour. Put it away in jars.

TOMATO CATCHUP.

Boil one bushel of tomatoes in a porcelain kettle until soft; press them through a sieve; then add half a gallon of vinegar, two ounces of cloves, one and a half pints of salt, one ounce of Cayenne pepper, five heads of garlic (skinned and chopped), two ounces of whole pepper, one pound of allspice, five ounces of mace, and five ounces of celery seed. Mix all together; and boil until it is reduced to half. Strain, and bottle it.

TOMATO CATCHUP (_Mrs. Cramer, of Troy_).

Ingredients: One peck of tomatoes, two quarts of vinegar, five table-spoonfuls of mustard, five table-spoonfuls of salt, four table-spoonfuls of black pepper, two table-spoonfuls of cloves, three table-spoonfuls of allspice, and two tea-spoonfuls of red pepper.

Let it boil an hour. Strain it through a sieve.

GOOSEBERRY CATCHUP (_Mrs. Shaw_).

Ingredients: Three pounds of fruit, four pounds of sugar, one pint of vinegar, two ounces of cloves, and two ounces of cinnamon.

Boil all four hours. Bottle it.

CUCUMBER CATCHUP.

Grate the cucumbers, and strain off the water through a colander. Add six large onions (chopped very fine) to a gallon of the grated and strained cucumbers. Add vinegar, salt, Cayenne pepper, and horse-radish to taste. Bottle it without cooking.

CHEESE.

In England, and at almost every well-appointed table in America, cheese is a positive necessity to a good table. Brillat Savarin, in his “Physiologie du Gout,” says, “Un beau dîner sans vieux fromage est une jolie femme à qui il manque un œil.”

Among the best cheeses of England are the Stilton and Cheshire; of France, are those of Neufchatel, Brie (_fromage de Brie_), and the _fromage de Roquefort_. The _fromage de Roquefort_ is, perhaps, one of the most popular of all cheeses. The Gruyère cheese of Switzerland is also a well-known cheese. It is made from new milk, and flavored with a powdered herb. In serving this cheese, French mustard, pepper, and salt are usually passed at the same time. The Roquefort cheese is made of a mixture of sheep’s and goat’s milk: the first communicates consistence and quality; the latter, whiteness and a peculiar flavor. The Parmesan (an Italian cheese) is made of skimmed milk. It is a high-flavored and hard cheese, and is not sent to market until it is six months old, and is often kept for three or four years. It is extensively used, grated, for cooking. The Stilton cheese is made by adding the cream of the preceding evening’s milk to the morning’s milking, producing a very rich and creamy quality. This cheese is preferred by epicures when it is old, after having been buried for some time in tin cans to become moldy. The Cheshire is made with rich new milk. This cheese can be appreciated without cultivating a taste for it.

Our American cheeses, since the introduction of the factory system, are exported in immense quantities to England, where they are much sought for, and considered by epicures as great luxuries. This is generally astonishing to Americans abroad, who, at home, often consider it only in rule to offer guests cheese of foreign manufacture. I think, however, in comparison with our own, the celebrated foreign cheeses have one advantage. The latter take the name of the exact locality where they are manufactured; consequently, when people speak of a Stilton or of a _fromage de Brie_ they know exactly of what they are talking; not so of American cheese. American cheese means that which may be superior, good, bad, or indifferent: it is too general a name. America has hundreds of cheese manufactories, and not a famous one; although many of them make that which would do credit to America as the greatest cheese-making country in the world, if only these best specimens were more generally known.

I have taken great pains in trying to decide which of many samples is the best American cheese, and have decided upon one made in Otsego County, New York, which is called the “English dairy” cheese. Before proceeding any further, I shall enter my protest against that name. Why do they not call it Otsego cheese? If it were eaten in London, an Englishman would certainly flatter himself that it was made in England. If they will only change the name, then, I will take more pleasure in saying that the Otsego cheese is undoubtedly one of the best specimens of American cheeses. It has a dark-yellow color, is very rich, and highly flavored.

The pastures of Otsego County are exceptionally fine, and its general advantages of climate, etc., render its locality one of the best adapted for the manufacture of cheese.

One of the best specimens of cheese of a milder character, white and well-flavored, is made at Milan, Cayuga County, New York, the name of which might be Cayuga cheese.

Perhaps the cheapest of the foreign famous cheeses is the Neufchatel. It comes in little rolls about an inch thick and three inches long, is enveloped in tin-foil, and costs about twenty cents a roll. Two rolls are quite sufficient for a large dinner. It is a delicious cheese. Care must be taken, however, when purchasing, to ascertain that it is not musty.

The tariff may be saved by purchasing the Neufchatel manufactured in New Jersey and Westchester County, New York. As for that, the Stilton made in Cayuga County can hardly be detected from the Leicestershire manufacture itself; and, in fact, nearly all the famous cheeses are very perfectly imitated in America, so that those who choose may indulge in foreign names and encourage home manufacture at the same time.

In serving Stilton cheese, the top should be cut off to form a cover, and then the cheese should be neatly surrounded with a napkin. Whenever the cheese is taken from the table, the cover should be replaced.

Cheeses are generally cut into little squares and passed in a glass cheese-dish. No morsel of dried cheese should ever be thrown away, as it can be used grated for macaroni, cheese omelets, etc.

Cheese should form a course at dinner. For further particulars concerning cheese as a course, see page 345.

WELSH RARE-BIT.

Toast carefully thin square or diamond-shaped slices of bread, with the crust removed. While hot, butter them slightly; then dip them for a moment in a pan containing enough hot water to half cover them; they should be only slightly moistened. Now place each slice on a separate hot plate, allowing one slice for each person at table; sprinkle over a little salt, and pour over them enough melted cheese to cover them. Select rich, new cheese, as it is more easily melted. It can be melted in a little cup. It should not be made until almost ready to serve, as the moment it is finished it should be eaten; otherwise the cheese will harden, the toast will become cold, and the dish altogether will be quite ruined.

This is a favorite dish for gentlemen’s suppers or for lunch; yet it is sometimes served at dinner for a cheese course by itself, or for decorating a platter of macaroni with cheese.

This simple receipt is decidedly the best one, I think; yet some spread also a little mustard over the toast, and others add a little ale to the melted cheese. Sometimes the toast may be dipped into ale instead of hot water, and some serve a poached egg on each slice of Welsh rare-bit; still others mix the yolks of eggs into the cheese when melted.

The Welsh rare-bit makes a decidedly pretty course, served in little chafing-dishes in silver, or plated silver, about four inches square, one of which, standing in a plate, is to be served to each person at table. The reservoir contains boiling-hot water; the little platter holds the slice of Welsh rare-bit, which is thus kept hot.

COTTAGE CHEESE.

Place a pan of clabbered sour milk over the fire, and let it become well scalded; then, pouring it into a clean cloth, squeeze out all the water, leaving the clabber quite dry. Put this into a kitchen basin, and work it with the hands, making it a little moist by adding cream. Add also a little butter and plenty of salt; mold it into little balls.

RAMEKINS (_Ramequins à la Ude, Cook to Louis XVI._).

Ingredients: Four ounces of grated high-flavored cheese, two ounces of butter, two ounces of bread (without crust), a scant gill of milk, one-third of a tea-spoonful of mustard, one-third of a tea-spoonful of salt, small pinch of Cayenne pepper, yolks of two eggs, whites of three.

Crumb the bread, and boil it soft in the milk; add the butter, mustard, salt, pepper, cheese, and the yolks of the eggs; beat thoroughly; then stir in the whites of the eggs, beaten to a stiff froth. Pour this into little round paper cases (see page 61), which require only a few minutes to make; fill each one about three-quarters full; bake the paste about five or six minutes, when it should be puffed high above the edge of the paper. Serve the ramekins immediately, or they will fall. A good cheese course for dinner, and nice for lunch or supper.

RAMEKINS, WITH ALE (_Warne_).

Ingredients: Four ounces of cheese, two ounces of fresh butter, half a French roll, two eggs, half a cupful of cream, half a wine-glassful of good ale.

Boil the roll and cream together until quite smooth; rub the grated cheese and the butter smoothly together; then mix all, adding the ale and the yolks of the eggs well beaten. When the paste is smooth, stir in the whites of the eggs beaten to a stiff froth; put the mixture into paper cases; bake about fifteen minutes, and serve very hot.[I]

PASTRY RAMEKINS (_Warne_).

Ingredients: Some good cheese, puff paste, the yolk of one egg.

Take some puff paste, and roll it out rather thin; strew over it some good grated cheese, and fold it over; repeat this three times, rolling it out each time; then cut the ramekins with a paste-cutter in any form you please, brush them over with the yolk of a well-beaten egg, and bake them in a quick oven for about fifteen minutes. When done, serve them quickly on a hot napkin.

SWEET SAUCES FOR PUDDINGS.

BUTTER SAUCE (_Mrs. Youmans_).

Ingredients: Three-quarters of a cupful of butter, one and a half cupfuls of powdered sugar, four table-spoonfuls of boiling-hot starch, made of flour or corn starch, with either brandy, maraschino, wine, lemon-juice and zest, vanilla, or other flavoring preferred. Stir the butter with a fork to a light cream; add the sugar, and continue to beat it for one or two minutes. Just before serving, stir in with an egg-whisk the boiling starch and the flavoring.

SIRUP SAUCES.

Boil two cupfuls of sugar with two or three table-spoonfuls of water, until it thickens slightly; take it from the fire; stir in a piece of butter the size of a hickory-nut, and either lemon-juice, fruit-juice, or, in winter, fruit sirups, wine, brandy, or any of the flavoring extracts.

A PLAIN AND CHEAP SAUCE.

Ingredients: Three and a half cupfuls of water, one cupful of sugar, a small piece of butter, a table-spoonful of either corn starch or flour, flavoring of either brandy, vanilla, lemon, or wine (with or without a little nutmeg), or zest and cinnamon.

When the water boils, stir in the corn starch or flour (rubbed smooth with a little cold water), sugar, and, if used, the yellow rind of a lemon and the cinnamon, and cook well for two or three minutes; take the pan from the fire, and stir in the butter and flavoring (if the lemon and cinnamon are not used).

SAME SAUCE, RICHER (_Mrs. Osborne_).

Ingredients: One pint of water, three table-spoonfuls of flour or corn starch, half a cupful of butter, two cupfuls of sugar, two eggs, half of a nutmeg, half a pint of Madeira or sherry.

Beat the butter and sugar to a cream; add the eggs well beaten, then the nutmeg; heat the wine as hot as possible without boiling; bring the water to a boil in another vessel, and stir in the corn starch or flour (rubbed smooth with a little cold water), and cook it well for about two minutes. Mix well the ingredients off the fire.

WHIPPED-CREAM SAUCE (_Mrs. Embry, Kentucky_).

Mix a plateful of whipped cream (flavored with wine or vanilla), the beaten whites of two or three eggs, and pulverized sugar to taste, all together. Pile a bank of this mixture in the centre of a platter, and form a circle of little fruit puddings or Swedish puddings (steamed in cups or little molds), _blanc-manges_, corn-starch puddings, etc., around it; or place a large pudding in the centre, with a circle of the sauce around.

FRUIT SAUCES.

The French bottled apricots, greengage plums, or strawberries make delicious sauces for a Bavarian cream, _blanc-mange_, _charlotte-russe_, or corn-starch pudding. They may simply be poured around the pudding on a platter, or the juice may, be thickened by boiling it with a very little corn-starch, then adding the fruit to it when cold.

The American canned May-duke cherries (Shrivers) make a good pudding sauce. Boil the juice, and add the slight corn-starch thickening and a little sugar; when cold, add the cherries. It makes a good sauce poured around these puddings.

Fresh red cherries, stewed, sweetened, passed through a sieve, and slightly thickened with corn starch, make another pudding sauce. The Colorado wild raspberries make a fine berry pudding, with the same kind of berry sauce around it. Marmalades and preserves, if not too stiff, make pretty garnishes as well as good sauces.

STRAWBERRY SAUCE (_for Baked Puddings_).

Ingredients: Half a cupful of butter, one cupful of sugar, the beaten white of an egg, and one cupful of strawberries (mashed).

Rub butter and sugar to a cream; add the beaten white of the egg, and the strawberries thoroughly mashed.

BOILED CUSTARD

makes a good sauce. If served with plum-pudding, flavor it with brandy; if served with rice-pudding (in mold) or corn starch or other puddings, flavor it with lemon, vanilla, chocolate, or coffee, etc., etc.

A GOOD SAUCE FOR PUDDINGS (_Miss Amelia Foote_).

Ingredients: Half a cupful of butter, one cupful of sugar, white of one egg, two table-spoonfuls of wine, a little vanilla, and half a wine-glassful of boiling water.

Beat the butter and sugar for about fifteen minutes; then add the flavoring. Just before sending to the table, add the egg, beaten to a froth, and stir in the boiling water, beating it to a foam; or it may be flavored with brandy or wine, without the vanilla.

SABYLLON.

This is a French pudding sauce, and an exceedingly good one. It is so rich that one or two table-spoonfuls poured over a fruit, batter, bread, or almost any kind of pudding, are sufficient. The amount of sauce in the receipt is, therefore, enough for six or seven persons.

Put two yolks and one whole egg, also a scant half tea-cupful of sugar, into a little stew-pan; beat them well for a few minutes. Then put the saucepan into another, containing boiling water, over the fire; beat the eggs briskly with the egg-whisk while you gradually pour in a scant half tea-cupful of sherry; when the sherry is all in, the egg will begin to thicken; then take it from the fire, and add the juice of a quarter of a small lemon.

CARAMEL SAUCE (_New York Cooking-school_).

Dissolve six ounces of cut loaf-sugar in half a pint of boiling water; add a stick of cinnamon, a little lemon-zest, and two cloves, and boil it ten minutes. Next put two ounces of loaf-sugar, dissolved in a table-spoonful of boiling water, on a moderate fire, and stir it until it assumes a light-brown color; pour the other boiled sugar over this; give it one boil, remove it from the fire, and add two or three table-spoonfuls of sherry.

PUDDINGS AND CUSTARDS.

PLUM-PUDDING, WITH RUM OR BRANDY (_Gouffé_).

Take three-quarters of a pound of chopped suet, three-quarters of a pound of stoned raisins, three-quarters of a pound of currants, quarter of a pound of citron, three-quarters of a pound of sugar, three-quarters of a pound of bread-crumbs, two apples cut into small dice, and the grated peel of a lemon; mix the whole in a basin, with three pounded cloves, a pinch of salt, six eggs, and half a gill of rum or brandy. Butter a pudding-mold, fill it with the mixture, and tie a cloth over the top. Place a plate at the bottom of a kettle which is three-parts full of boiling water. Put the pudding in, and boil for four hours, keeping the pot replenished with boiling water. Turn out the pudding on a hot dish; sprinkle over it sugar. Pour over half a pint of warm rum or brandy, and light it when putting the pudding on the table.

_German Sauce._--Made with eight yolks of eggs, quarter of a pound of sugar, three gills of Madeira, and the grated peel of half a lemon. Stir it over the fire until the spoon is coated. Serve in a boat. Or serve a common brandy sauce, or the same kind of sauce flavored with rum, if rum should be used in the pudding.

PLUM-PUDDING (_Mrs. General Sherman_).

Ingredients: One cupful of butter, one cupful of sugar, half a cupful of cream, half a cupful of rum, one cupful of ale, one cupful of suet (chopped), one cupful of fruit (currants and raisins), half a cupful of candied orange cut fine, six eggs well beaten, two grated nutmegs, one tea-spoonful of ground cinnamon, half a tea-spoonful of ground cloves, bread-crumbs.

Beat the butter and sugar together to a cream. The bread-crumbs should be dried thoroughly, and passed through a sieve. Beat all well together before adding the bread-crumbs, then add enough of them to give proper consistency. Put the pudding into a tin mold (not quite filling it), and boil it four hours.

_The Sauce._--Use equal quantities of butter and sugar. Cream the butter, then add the sugar, beating them both until very light. Add then the beaten yolk of an egg, and a little grated nutmeg. Heat on the fire a large wine-glassful of sherry wine diluted with the same quantity of water, and when just beginning to boil, stir it into the butter and sugar.

PUDDING WITH REMAINS OF PLUM-PUDDING.

Line a _charlotte_ mold or basin with slices of cold plum-pudding, cut so that they will fit closely together. Fill the inside with a sufficient quantity of gelatine pudding (see page 272). Set it in a cool place to stiffen. Turn out the _charlotte_ on a dish, with a brandy sauce on the bottom.

PLAINER FRUIT PUDDING.

Ingredients: One cupful of sugar, one-quarter of a pound of raisins, one cupful of butter, one half-pound of English currants, three and a half cupfuls of flour, a little citron sliced, four eggs, the whites and yolks beaten separately. Put one tea-spoonful of saleratus with, one half-cupful of cream. Flour the raisins, currants, and citron before adding to the mixture.

Boil it three hours in a floured cloth, or in buttered forms, large or small. Pour some brandy on top, and set it on fire just before taking to the dining-room. Serve with brandy-sauce.

SUET-PUDDING (_Mrs. Gratz Brown_).

Ingredients: One cupful of suet chopped fine, one cupful of molasses, one cupful of sweet milk, one cupful of raisins, one tea-spoonful of salt, one small tea-spoonful of soda mixed in the molasses, three and a half cupfuls of flour.

Boil in a bag or form three hours; or, better, steam it. It may be steamed in tea-cups, filling them a little more than half full. Serve with brandy-sauce.

PRUNE-PUDDING (_Grace Greenwood_).

This is the same as the suet-pudding, excepting that one half-pound of prunes and one half-pound of English currants are substituted for the raisins.

EVE’S PUDDING (_Mrs. Frank Blair_).

Ingredients: Six ounces of bread-crumbs, six ounces of sugar, six ounces of raisins or currants, six ounces of butter cut in small pieces, or beef suet chopped fine, six large apples chopped, one table-spoonful of flour, six eggs, one table-spoonful of cinnamon, one tea-spoonful of ground cloves.

Flour the fruit. Mix eggs and sugar together, and the suet and apples; then mix all, adding the beaten whites of the eggs the last thing. Boil it in a form or bag three hours, or bake it two hours. Serve with brandy-sauce.

A SPICED APPLE-PUDDING.

Ingredients: Three tea-cupfuls of bread-crumbs, three tea-cupfuls of apples chopped, one tea-cupful of sugar, one-quarter of a pound of raisins, perhaps a little citron, two table-spoonfuls of brandy, one table-spoonful of ground cinnamon, half a tea-spoonful of ground cloves, one tea-spoonful of mace, two or three eggs beaten separately.

Cook the bread-crumbs a few minutes with a pint of milk before adding the other ingredients; add the whites of the eggs the last thing before baking. Bake half an hour, if the oven is quite hot. Serve with any sweet sauce.

COTTAGE-PUDDING.

Ingredients: One cupful of sugar, one and one-half cupfuls of flour, one table-spoonful of butter, one half-cupful of milk, two eggs beaten separately, one tea-spoonful of baking-powder, or one half-tea-spoonful of soda, and one tea-spoonful of cream of tartar. Brandy or wine sauce.

MINUTE-PUDDING.

Ingredients: One quart of milk, salt, two eggs, about a pint of flour.

Beat the eggs well; add the flour and enough milk to make it smooth. Butter the saucepan, and put in the remainder of the milk well salted; when it boils, stir in the flour, eggs, etc., lightly; let it cook well. It should be of the consistency of thick corn mush. Serve immediately with the following simple sauce, viz., milk sweetened to taste, and flavored with grated nutmeg.

NANTUCKET BERRY-PUDDING.

Ingredients: One pint of grated cold boiled potatoes, one pint of flour, one quarter of a pound of butter, one tea-spoonful of salt, and almost any kind of berries.

Wet these with milk or water to the consistency of soft biscuit-dough; roll it; spread with blackberries, raspberries, cherries, or stewed dry berries. Roll, fasten in a cloth, and steam it an hour and a quarter. Serve with any sweet pudding-sauce.

GELATINE-PUDDING (_Miss Colby, of Rochester_).