CHAPTER XVII.
SEASONINGS.
EXCEPT in the matter of plain roasting, boiling, or baking, the test of good cooking is the taste and skill displayed in giving _flavour_ to the composition. Care is not all that is required here; there needs study, and practice. No rules can be given, except to avoid over flavouring, and to suit the ingredients, as much as possible, to the compound which is to be flavoured. In order to be able always to do this, some forethought is requisite on the part of the housekeeper, who will save herself much vexation and trouble by keeping a small assortment of seasonings always ready for use in her _Store Room_; and by taking some little pains, to have a sufficient _variety_.
Many prefer cayenne made from English chilies to any other: they are in season in September and October; cut off the stalks, and lay them before the fire to dry for twelve hours. When dry, pound them in a mortar with one fourth their weight in salt, till they are as fine as possible, and put the mixture into a close stopped bottle.
Before spices are rubbed into meat, they should be pounded, and well mixed. For the convenience of the cook they may be kept prepared in the following manner.
{207}_Kitchen Pepper._
Fill little square bottles with an equal quantity of finely ground or pounded ginger, nutmeg, black pepper, allspice, cinnamon and cloves. Keep these corked tight, and when "kitchen pepper" is required, take the proper proportion of each, and mix them, with common salt. For _white sauces_, use white pepper, nutmeg, mace, lemon peel (dried), ginger and cayenne; pounded or grated, and kept in bottles.
_Savoury Powder._
1 oz. of salt, ½ oz. mustard, ¼ oz. allspice, ¼ oz. ginger, ¼ oz. nutmeg, ½ oz. black pepper, ½ oz. lemon peel, and 2 drachms cayenne; grate and pound well together, pass the mixture through a fine sieve and bottle it.--Some leave out allspice and ginger, substituting mace and cloves.
_Curry Powder._
Take 12 oz. of coriander seeds, 2 oz. cummin seeds, 1 oz. fenugreek seeds, 1 oz. ginger, 1 oz. black pepper, 4 oz. cayenne, and 2 oz. pale turmeric. Pound the whole and mix well together. Put these ingredients before the fire, stir and rub them frequently, till quite dry. Then set them by to get cold, rub through a hair sieve, and put them into a dry bottle, cork close, and keep in a dry place. A table-spoonful will make curry sufficient for one fowl.--_Another_: Take ¼ lb. coriander seed, 2½ oz. turmeric, 1 oz. cummin seed, ½ oz. black pepper, and cayenne to taste; then proceed in the same way.--_Another_: 2 oz. coriander seeds, ¼ lb. turmeric; of black pepper, flour of mustard, cayenne and ginger, each 1 oz.; of lesser cardamoms ½ oz., cummin seed ¼ oz., and fenugreek seeds ¼ oz.--_Another_: 4 oz. turmeric in powder, 4 oz. of coriander, 2 oz. carraway seeds in powder, 2 oz. fenugreek, and cayenne to taste.--_Curry paste_ is very good, but it may be better to prepare curry powder at home; for different curries require different flavouring; as fish and veal require more acid than fowls, rabbit, &c., &c. The ingredients may be kept in bottles, and mixed when used.
{208}_Herbs._
As these cannot always be procured green, it is convenient to have them in the house, dried and prepared, each in the proper season. The common method is to dry them in the sun, but their flavour is better preserved, by being put into a cool oven, or the meat screen, before a moderate fire, taking care not to scorch them. They should be gathered when just ripe, on a dry day. Cleanse them from dirt and dust, cut off the roots, put them before the fire, and dry them quickly, rather than by degrees. Pick off the leaves, pound and sift them; put the powder into bottles, and keep these closely stopped.
Basil, from the middle of August, to the same time in September.
Winter and Summer Savory, July and August.
Knotted Marjoram, July.
Thyme, Orange Thyme, and Lemon Thyme, June and July.
Mint, end of June and through July.
Sage, August and September.
Tarragon, June, July, and August.
Chervil, May, June, July.
Burnet, June, July, August.
Parsley, May, June, July.
Fennel, May, June, July.
Elder Flowers, May, June, July.
Orange Flowers, May, June, and July.
The following mixture of herb powder is good for soups or ragouts: 2 oz. each of parsley, winter savory, sweet marjoram, and lemon thyme, 1 oz. each of sweet basil and lemon peel, cut very thin. For made dishes, the cook may keep this mixture, with one fourth part of savory powder mixed in it. Dried herbs may be infused in spirits of wine or brandy ten days or a fortnight; then strained, the spirit closely corked, and put by for use.--Some recommend the following mixture: infuse in 1 pint of wine, brandy, vinegar, or spirits of wine, ½ oz. each of lemon thyme, winter savory, sweet marjoram, and sweet basil, 2 drachms grated lemon peel, 2 drachms minced eschalots, and 1 drachm celery seed: shake it every day for a fortnight, then strain and bottle it.
{209}_Horse-Radish Powder._
In November and December, slice horse-radish the thickness of a shilling, and dry it, _very gradually_, in a Dutch oven; pound and bottle it.
_Pea Powder._
This gives a relish to pea soup. Pound 1 drachm celery seed, ¼ drachm cayenne pepper, ½ oz. dried mint, ½ oz. of sage; when well mixed, rub through a fine sieve, and bottle it.
_Mushroom Powder._
Wash ½ a peck of large mushrooms, quite fresh, and wipe them with a piece of flannel; scrape out the black clean, and put them into a saucepan without water, with 2 large onions, 4 cloves, ¼ oz. mace, and 2 tea-spoonsful of white pepper, all in powder; simmer and shake them till all the liquor be dried up, but do not let them burn; lay them on tins or sieves, in a slow oven, till dry enough to beat to a powder, then put it in small bottles, and keep them in a dry place. Cayenne, if you choose; a tea-spoonful sufficient for a tureen of soup. To flavour gravy for game, and for many made dishes. _Mushrooms to Dry._--Wipe them clean, and take off the brown and skin; dry them on paper, in a cool oven, and keep them in paper bags. They will swell, when simmered in gravy, to their own size.
_Anchovy Powder._
Pound the anchovies, rub them through a hair sieve, then work them into thin cakes with flour, and a little flour of mustard. Toast the cakes very dry, rub them to a powder, and bottle it. For sauces, or to sprinkle over toasts, or sandwiches.
{210}CHAPTER XVIII.
VEGETABLES.
PERSONS who live in the country, may generally have fresh vegetables; but in towns, and especially in London, the case is different; and vegetables not quite fresh are very inferior to those which have been only a short time out of the ground.--Take the outside leaves off all of the cabbage kind, and plunge the part you mean to cook into cold water, the heads downwards; let there be plenty of water, and a large piece of salt, which helps to draw out the insects. Examine the leaves well, and take off all the decayed parts. They should be boiled in soft water, to preserve their flavour, and alone, to preserve their colour. Allow as much water as the vessel will hold, the more the better; and a handful of salt. The shorter time they are in the water the better, therefore see that it boil fast, before you put the vegetables in, and keep it boiling at the same rate afterwards; let the vessel be uncovered, and take off all scum. When done, take them out of the water instantly, and drain them; they ought then to go to table, for vegetables, particularly green ones, suffer in look and in taste, every moment they wait.
In dressing vegetables, as well as in making soup, the French greatly excel us, for they always cook them enough. Besides they make more of them than we do, by various ways of dressing them, with gravy and cream. Several receipts are here given, by which a side or supper dish, may be prepared at very little cost, particularly in the country, where fresh vegetables are always at hand.
Salads, if mixed with oil, are not injurious, except in peculiar cases, for they are cooling and refreshing in hot weather, and beneficial in many respects, in the winter. Most persons, particularly the Londoners, eat cucumbers, but strange to say, they do not, generally, value a well made salad so highly.
{211}_Potatoes to Boil._
The best way, upon the whole, is to _boil_, not steam them. Much depends upon the sort of potato, and it is unfair to condemn a cook's ability in the cooking of this article, until it be ascertained that the fault is really hers, for I have seen potatoes that no care or attention could boil enough, without their being watery, and others that it would be difficult for any species of cookery to spoil. They should be of equal size, or the small ones will be too much done before the large ones are done enough; do not pare or cut them; have a saucepan so large that they will only half fill it, and put in cold water sufficient to cover them about an inch, so that if it waste, they may still be covered; but too much water would injure them. Put the saucepan on the fire, and as soon as the water boils, set it on one side, to simmer slowly till the potatoes will admit a fork; the cracking of the skin being too uncertain a test; having tried them, if tender, pour the water off, and place the saucepan by the side of the fire, take off the cover, and lay a folded cloth, or coarse flannel, over the potatoes. Middling sized ones will be boiled enough in fifteen minutes. Some (and I believe it is the practice in Ireland), when they have poured off the water, lay the potatoes in a coarse cloth, sprinkle salt over, and cover them a few minutes, then squeeze them lightly, one by one, in the folds of a dry cloth, peel and serve them. Some peel potatoes for the next day's dinner and put them into cold water enough to cover them, over night; the water is poured off just before the potatoes are boiled. After the beginning of March potatoes should be peeled before they are boiled, and after April they should always be mashed. Potatoes may be dressed in various ways to make supper or side dishes, and there are sauces suitable to enrich them. _Young Potatoes._--Rub the skin off with a cloth, then pour boiling water over them in a saucepan, let it simmer, and they will soon be done.
_Potatoes to Fry, Broil, or Stew._
Cold potatoes may be cut in slices and fried in dripping, or broiled on a gridiron, then laid on a sieve to drain; serve on a hot dish, and sprinkle a little pepper and salt {212}over them. Garnish with sprigs of curled parsley, or the parsley may be fried and strewed over.--_Or_: when the potatoes are nearly boiled enough, pour off the water, peel and flour them, brush with yolk of egg, and roll them in fine bread-crumbs or biscuit-powder, and fry in butter or nice dripping.--_Or_: stewed gently with butter; turn them, while stewing; pour a white sauce in the dish.
_Potatoes to Mash._
Peel them, cut out the specks, and boil them: when done, and the water poured off, put them over the fire for two or three minutes, to dry, then put in some salt and butter, with milk enough to moisten sufficiently to beat them to a mash. The rolling-pin is better than anything else. Cream is better than butter, and then no milk need be used. Potatoes thus mashed may be put into a shape, or scallop-shells, with bits of butter on the top, then browned before the fire; either way makes a pretty dish.--_Or_: they may be rolled up, with a very little flour and yolk of egg into balls, and browned in the dripping-pan under roast meat. These balls are pretty as a garnish.--_Or_: make them up into a _Collar_, score it, and brown it before the fire, then serve it with a brown gravy in the dish.
_Colcannan._
Boil 4 lbs. potatoes, also as many of the inside leaves of curled kale as will fill a saucer. Mash the two together in the saucepan the potatoes were boiled in, to keep them hot; put a piece of butter in the centre, when you serve it. Some prefer parsley to kale, but use less.
_Potatoes to Roast._
Some cooks half boil them first. They should be washed and dried. If large, they will take two hours to roast, and should be all of a size, or they will not all be done alike.--_Or_: pour off the water, peel and lay them in a tin pan, before the fire, by the side of roasting meat. Baste, from the dripping-pan, and turn them to brown equally.
{213}_Potatoe Pie._
Having washed and peeled the potatoes, slice them, and put a layer into the pie dish, strew, over a little chopped onion, small bits of butter, salt, and pepper (and, if you like, hard-boiled egg in slices), then put more potatoes, and so on, till the dish is full; add a little water, then stick over the top nearly ¼ lb. of fresh butter, in bits; cover with a light puff paste, and bake an hour and a half.
_Potatoe Balls._
Mash quite smooth 7 or 8 mealy potatoes, with 3 oz. of butter, 2 table-spoonsful cream, 1 of essence of anchovy, and 1 or 2 eschalots _very finely_ chopped; make up into balls, dip them into egg beaten, and brown them. Garnish with curled parsley, for a side or supper dish.
_Potatoe Ragout._
Mash 1 lb. of potatoes with butter (no milk or cream), and grate in some ham, nutmeg, salt, pepper, 2 eggs beaten, and a very little flour. Mix well together, and form it into loaves, or long thin rolls, fry or stew of a light brown, for a garnish to veal cutlets, or a dish by themselves.
_Potatoes à la Maître d'Hotel._
Boil, peel, and cut the potatoes in slices ½ an inch thick, put them into a stew-pan with some young onions skinned, chopped parsley, butter (a large piece), pepper, salt, and a little broth to moisten the potatoes. Toss them till the parsley is cooked; serve with parsley and butter poured over.
_Cabbages to Boil._
Wash well, and quarter them, if large. A young cabbage is done in from twenty minutes to half an hour, a full grown one will take nearly an hour. Have plenty of water, that they may be covered, all the time they are boiling; scum well. Serve melted butter. _Savoys, Sprouts, and Young Greens._--Boil the same as cabbages, but twenty minutes will be sufficient.
{214}_Cabbage à la Bourgeoise._
Wash and pick quite clean a large cabbage; take the leaves off one by one, and spread upon each some forcemeat, made of veal, suet, parsley, salt, and pepper, mixed with a little cream and an egg; then put the leaves together, in the form of a whole cabbage, tie this up securely at each end, and stew it in a braise. When it is tender, take it out, and press in a linen cloth to clear it from the fat. Cut in two, in a dish, and pour good gravy over it.
_Red Cabbage to Stew._
Melt sufficient butter, to stew the quantity of cabbage; cut it into shreds and put it into a saucepan, with a chopped onion, 2 cloves, a bay leaf, cayenne pepper and salt. Keep the saucepan covered close, and when done, add a good spoonful of vinegar. This may be spread in a dish, and sausages served on it.
_Cabbage, Greens, or Spinach to Curry._
After they are boiled, drain, chop and stew them in butter with curry powder to taste; the powder previously mixed with salt, pepper, and vinegar. It is an improvement to spinach, to add sorrel; and some like a small quantity of chopped onion. To these curries you may add minced veal, chicken or rabbit, and serve with a gravy of veal; _or_, if to be maigre, minced cold fish, prawns or oysters, and fish gravy.
_Spinach._
As spinach harbours insects, and is often gritty, wash it in two or three waters; then drain it on a sieve. Some boil it in very little water, but this is not a good way. Put a small handful of salt into the water, and when it boils, scum well; put in the spinach, and boil it quickly till quite tender, ten minutes will be enough. Pour it into a sieve, then squeeze between two plates or trenchers, chop fine, and put it into a small saucepan, with a piece of butter and a little salt. Stir with a spoon, five minutes over the fire, spread in a dish, score nicely, and serve it hot.--_Spinach, Sorrel, and Chicory_, may be stewed, the two former in equal {215}portions together, or all separately, for fricandeaus. Wash, pick, and stew very slowly, in an earthen vessel, with butter, oil, or broth, just enough to moisten them.--_Or_: do not put any liquid at all, but when tender, beat up the sorrel, &c. &c. with a bit of butter.
_Spinach au Gras._
When boiled, pour through a sieve and press it, to squeeze the water out; put a large piece of butter or dripping into a saucepan, and, when it has melted, put in some sippets of toasted bread for a few minutes, take them out and put in the spinach chopped fine, and a little good gravy of the day before, or out of the dripping-pan, if you be roasting meat, or some good broth, pepper, salt, nutmeg, and flour; simmer a few minutes, and serve with the toasts round it. _Au Sucre._--Having boiled and squeezed all the water from spinach, chop, and put it into a saucepan with a good sized piece of butter, pepper, salt, nutmeg, and a little flour. Shake the saucepan over the fire a few minutes, then put in some cream or very good milk, to moisten the spinach, and 2 or 3 lumps of sugar, according to taste. Simmer very gently, and serve it garnished with toasts.
_Asparagus and Sea Kale._
Scrape the stalks quite clean, and throw them into a large pan of cold water. Tie them in bundles of equal size with tape, not string, as that is likely to break off the heads; cut the ends of the asparagus even, and having a pot of boiling water ready (it ought to be scummed when the water boils), put in the bundles. When the stalks are tender, the asparagus is done; but loses flavour by being a minute too long in the water; indeed, it is the only one which will bear being a _little firm_. Before it is done, toast the round of a loaf, dip it into the boiling water, lay it in a dish, and the asparagus on it. Serve melted butter with asparagus and kale. The French, when the butter is melted, beat up the yolk of an egg, and stir in it, by degrees, a small quantity of vinegar, enough to flavour it; stir well for two minutes over the fire, and it is an excellent sauce for asparagus, or any green vegetable.
{216}_Cauliflower and Brocoli._
Choose middling sized ones, close and white, trim off the outside leaves, and cut off the stalks at the bottom. Strip off all the side shoots, peel off the skin of the stalk, and cut it close at the bottom. Boil and scum the water, then put the vegetables in; cauliflower will be done in fifteen or twenty minutes, and spoiled if it boil longer. Brocoli in from ten to fifteen minutes. Lift out of the water with a slice. Serve melted butter. Both may be served on toasts, and the sauce for asparagus served with them, either for the second course or for supper.
_Cauliflower with Parmesan._
Boil nicely and place it in a dish (not a close one), grate cheese over, and then pour white sauce over. Brown it, grate more cheese, then pour more white sauce over. Brown it again before the fire, or with a salamander. Serve it with white sauce, or melted butter in a dish.
_Cauliflower to Stew._
Boil a large cauliflower till nearly done, then lift it out very gently, separate it into small pieces, put these into a stew-pan, with enough rich brown gravy to moisten, and let it stew till tender. Garnish with slices of lemon.--_Or_: if you have no gravy, put into a stew-pan a piece of fat bacon, 2 or 3 green onions, chopped small, a blade of mace, and a very little lemon thyme, shake the stew-pan over the fire, ten minutes, then put in the cauliflower, let it brown, add a very little water, and let it stew.--_Or_: if to be a maigre, put a lump of butter into a saucepan, an onion minced, some nutmeg, salt, and pepper, shake the saucepan over the fire a few minutes, then put in the pieces of cauliflower, and pour in enough boiling water to moisten; simmer it a few minutes, add the yolks of 3 eggs well beaten, turn the saucepan over the fire till the eggs are cooked, then serve the cauliflower.
_Cauliflower or Brocoli to Fry._
Boil till nearly tender enough to eat, then pick it in nice {217}pieces, dip them in a batter made of ¼ lb. flour, the yolks of 3 eggs and a coffee-cupful of beer, pepper, and salt. Then fry the pieces in boiling lard, of a light brown, and put them on a sieve to drain and dry before the fire.--_Or_: dip them first in egg, then in fine crumbs of bread, and then egg again, before you fry them.--Celery and onions the same.--Serve white sauce.
_Peas._
They should be shelled but a short time before they are cooked. The younger, of course, the better. When the water boils, scum it, put the peas in, with a little salt, and a piece of sugar, and let them boil quickly from fifteen to twenty minutes. When done, drain, and put them in a dish with some bits of fresh butter; stir the peas with a silver spoon, and cover the dish. Some like mint boiled with peas; others boiled alone, chopped, and laid in little lumps round them.--_Or_: after they are partly boiled, drain and stew the peas in a little broth, with a lettuce, a little green onion, and mint, or a sliced cucumber in the place of the lettuce; stew them till nearly done before you put in the peas; add a little salt, pepper, and brown or white sugar. Essence of ham, or mushroom catsup, may be added.--_Or_: when the peas are partly cooked, drain, and rub in some butter kneaded in flour, then stew them in weak broth, till quite done; add salt, a bunch of parsley, and green onions. Before you serve the peas, drain them, dip a lump of sugar into boiling water, stir it amongst them, and grate parmesan over. For maigre dinners, use more butter, instead of broth. _In White Sauce._--Put quite young peas into a stew-pan, with a piece of butter, a cabbage lettuce, and a little each of parsley and chives. Do not add any liquor, but stew them very gently over a slow fire. When done, stir, by degrees, ½ pint cream, and the beat yolks of 3 eggs, into the peas; let it thicken over the fire, but not boil, then serve it. The peas which are eaten in their shells may be dressed in this way.
_Windsor Beans._
Boil in plenty of water, with salt, and a bunch of parsley. {218}Serve parsley and butter; garnish with chopped parsley. The French parboil them, take off the skins, stew them, and when done pour a rich veal gravy over.
_French Beans._
Cut off the stalks, and if the beans are not young, string them, cut them in two, slantways; if old, split first, then cut them slantways; if very young, do not cut them at all. Lay them in water, with a little salt, for about half an hour. Then put them into water, boiling fast, and boil till tender. Serve melted butter. These beans may be stewed in all the ways directed for peas. _Beans à la Maitre d'Hotel._--Warm them up in parsley and butter.
_Turnips._
Some think turnips are most tender when not pared before they are boiled, but the general practice is to cut off a thick peel. Most persons slice them also, but it is not the best way. An hour and a half of gentle boiling is enough. When done, lift them out with a slice, and lay them on a sieve to drain; when dry, serve them. To very young turnips leave about an inch of the green top. _To Mash Turnips._--Squeeze them as dry as possible between two trenchers, put them into a saucepan with a little new milk or cream, beat well with a wooden spoon, to mash them, add a piece of butter and a little salt; stir over the fire till the butter is melted, then serve them. It is an improvement to put in with the cream a table-spoonful of powdered sugar. _To Ragout._--Turnips may be made a ragout to serve under or round meat. Cut in slices an inch thick, and parboil them; then stew them in broth, which, if not already seasoned, may be seasoned at the time the turnips are put to it. When done, skim off the fat, and serve in the dish with any stew or braise, or by themselves. _Turnips and Parsnips to Stew White._--Parboil, cut in four, and stew them in weak broth, or milk and water (enough liquid to keep the turnips from burning); add salt and mace. As the liquid diminishes, put in a little good cream, and grated nutmeg. When done, mix with them a piece of butter rolled in flour.
{219}_Turnip Tops._
When they have been carefully picked, let them lie in cold water an hour. Boil in plenty of water, or they will taste bitter. If quite fresh and young, twenty minutes will be enough. Drain them on the back of a sieve.
_Parsnips._
Boil them the same as turnips; or longer, according to their size and quality.
_Carrots._
Boil the same as turnips; but if old, longer.--_Turnips_, _carrots_, and _parsnips_ may be dressed together, or separately, in the following way:--Cut up 2 or 3 onions (or less, according to the quantity of roots), and put them into a stew-pan, with a large piece of butter kneaded in brown flour. Shake the saucepan a few minutes over the fire, then put in a little broth, let it stew slowly while you prepare the roots. Scald, or parboil, turnips, carrots, parsnips, and celery, cut them in thin slips, and put them to the onions; season with salt and pepper. When done, add a little made mustard and vinegar.--_Or_: wash and parboil them, cut in thin slices, and put them in a saucepan with a large piece of butter, a bunch of parsley, sweet basil, chives, a clove of garlic, and an eschalot. Shake them over the fire, add a little salt, whole pepper, a blade of mace, and some flour, then put in a very little broth or milk and water. Stew it gently till they are tender, and the liquid reduced. Lift out the herbs, and put in some cream (according to the quantity required), with 2 or 3 eggs beaten up in it. Turn the saucepan, over the fire, till the sauce thickens. When done, add a little vinegar.
_Beet Root and Mangel Wurzel._
Wash but do not scrape it, for if the skin be broken, the colour is lost. A middling-sized beet root will take from three to four hours to boil, and the same sized mangel wurzel another hour. When quite tender it is done. Serve it, cut into thin slices; thick melted butter poured over.
{220}_Onions to Boil._
Peel and boil them till tender in milk and water. The time required must depend upon their size.--They may be served in white sauce. _Onions to Stew._--Spanish onions are best. Peel and parboil very gently; then stew them in good broth, or milk and water, and season with white pepper and salt. When done, thicken the sauce with butter rolled in flour, lift out the onions, place them in a dish, and pour the sauce over.--_Or_: stew them in rich, brown gravy. _Onions to Roast._--Roast them before the fire, in their skins.
_Cucumbers to Stew._
Pare the cucumbers, and cut them in four, longways; to each one put a _small_ onion, sliced; then stew them in broth, with cayenne, pepper, salt, and nutmeg. When done, lay them in a dish, thicken the sauce with butter rubbed in flour, and pour over them. For maigre dinners, stew them in enough water to moisten them, with a large piece of butter: when done, pour some cream, mixed with beaten yolk of egg, into the saucepan, enough to make a sufficiency of sauce, let it thicken over the fire, lay the cucumbers in a dish, and pour the sauce over.--_Or_: cut onions and cucumbers in halves, fry in butter, and pour good broth or gravy over them; then stew till done, and skim off the fat.
_Celery to Stew._
Cut the head in pieces of 3 inches long, and stew as directed for cucumbers. Some cooks stew it whole, or, if very large, divided in two, and in strong brown gravy.--_Or_: if to be white, in rich veal broth, and add some cream. It must be cooked till quite tender to eat well.
_Mushrooms and Morels._
Both are used in sauces and ragouts. For stewing, button mushrooms, or the smallest flaps, are best. Trim them carefully, for a little bit of mould will spoil the whole. Stew them, in their own gravy, in an earthen vessel, with a very little water to prevent their burning. When nearly done, add as much rich brown gravy as is required for {221}sauce, a little nutmeg, and, if you like, finely sliced ham, cayenne, pepper, and salt, if required; thicken, by mixing the yolk of an egg, by little and little, into the gravy. If to be white, squeeze lemon juice over the mushrooms, after they have stewed in their own gravy: add a tea-spoonful of cream, a piece of butter rolled in flour, cayenne, white pepper, salt, and nutmeg; thicken with the yolk of an egg. _Mushrooms to Broil._--The largest flaps are best, but should be fresh gathered. Skin them, and score the under side. Lay them, one by one, into an earthen vessel, brushing each one with oil, or oiled butter, and strewing a little pepper and salt over each. When they have steeped in this, an hour and a half, broil, on both sides, over a clear fire, and serve with a sauce of melted butter, minced parsley, green onions, and the juice of a lemon.
_Salsify._
Boil the young shoots, about a year old, as asparagus.
_Scorzonera and Skirrets._
The same as carrots; and are good in soup.
_Artichokes._
Take off the outer leaves and cut off the stalks. Wash well in cold water, and let them lie in it some time. Put them head downwards, into the pot, take care to keep the water boiling, and add more as it diminishes, for they ought to boil two hours, or more. Float a plate or dish on the top to keep the artichokes under. Draw out a leaf, and if tender, they are done, but not else. Drain them dry, and serve melted butter, in a tureen. _To Fry._--Cut off an inch or more, of the leaves, and cut the artichoke down in slices of ¾ of an inch thick, taking out the choke. Parboil the slices in salt and water, then fry them in a pan nearly full of boiling lard, to be quite crisp, and of a fine colour. Drain them before the fire a few minutes.
_Jerusalem Artichokes._
Boil, but do not let them remain in the water after they {222}are done, or they will spoil; pour melted butter over.--_Or_: they may be cooked in a rich brown gravy, or white sauce, and served with sippets of toasted bread.
_Artichoke Bottoms._
If dried, soak them, then stew in gravy.--_Or_: boil in milk, and serve them in white sauce.
_Endive to Stew._
Trim off all the green part, wash, cut in pieces, and parboil it till about half done; drain well, and chop it, not very fine; put it into a stew-pan with a little strong gravy, and stew gently till quite tender; season with pepper and salt, and serve as sauce to roast meat or fricandeaus.
_Lettuce to Stew._
Wash, parboil, and stew, in rich brown or white gravy; if to be white, thicken with cream and yolk of egg. Lay them in a dish and pour gravy over.
_Cabbage Lettuce with Forcemeat._
Parboil gently, for half an hour, then dip into cold water, and press them in your hand. Strip off the leaves, spread a forcemeat, rich or maigre as you please, on each leaf:--_Or_: put the forcemeat into the middle of each lettuce; tie them up, neatly, in their original shape, and stew them in gravy. When done, serve with the gravy poured over.
_Vegetable Marrow._
This may be boiled and served on toast, like asparagus; serve melted butter.--_Or_: when nearly cooked enough by boiling, divide in quarters, and stew gently in gravy like cucumbers.--_Or_: serve it in white sauce.
_Marrow to Stuff_ (_Italian_).
Cut very young ones, about six inches long, in two, lengthways; take out the seeds and pulp with a small spoon, put a little salt on each one, and lay them between 2 {223}cloths, the hollow part down, to draw the water out. Soak some crumb of bread in warm broth or milk and water, beat it up like thick pap, add pepper, salt, the beaten yolks of 2 eggs, nutmeg and lemon peel; to this the Italians add grated parmesan; pour off the water, and fill the vegetable marrow with this stuffing; put the halves together, bind them slightly with thread, brush over beaten yolk of egg, cover with bread-crumbs, and lay them, singly, in a broad shallow stew-pan, well rubbed round the sides and the bottom with butter. Place the stew-pan over a slow fire, cover it, and when the butter is dried up, keep the marrow moistened with broth. When nearly cooked enough, put in some tomata sauce, and then put hot coals on the lid of the stew-pan to brown the vegetables. Minced fowl and grated ham may be added to the stuffing. _To Fry._--Cut the long shaped ones (quite young), in four, longways, and each piece into long thin slices, lay these between cloths, sprinkle salt over to draw out the water, and let them lie half an hour: during which, prepare a smooth batter of flour, water, and 2 eggs, dip the marrow into it, and fry in lard, of a light brown. Shake the pan gently, but do not touch the fry, lest the paste should break and the fat get in, and make it greasy. Spread a sheet of paper on a sieve, lay the fry on it, before the fire a few minutes to dry, then serve it.
_Cardoons._
Choose the whitest, and cut them into pieces of 2 inches long; half boil them in salt and water, with a very little vinegar; pour off the water, take out the cardoons, and peel off the threads; finish by stewing them, in stock of fish or meat, and butter, if required, to enrich it. Mix some flour with a little oil, the whites of 2 eggs, and a little white wine. Cut the pieces of cardoon in 2, dip them in the above mixture, and fry them in lard, of a light brown.
_Lentils_
Are chiefly used to make cullis for soups and made dishes, as follows: pick and wash ½ a pint or more, according to the quantity wanted. Stew them in broth; when done, pulp them through a sieve, and season as you like.
{224}_Samphire to Boil._
Boil in a good deal of water, with salt in it, till quite tender. Serve melted butter.
_Laver._
This is generally prepared at the sea coast, and requires only to be heated. This is done best over a lamp, or, at a distance over the fire. When hot stir in a piece of butter, and a very little lemon juice or vinegar.
_Haricots Blanc._
These should be soaked, at least, all night. Then be poured from the water, and stewed in broth, or with butter, salt, pepper, chopped parsley and young onions. They must be cooked till tender, or they are not eatable.
----
SALADS.
Lettuce, endive, and small salading, are the most commonly used, but there are many other greens which eat well, as salads. They should be fresh gathered, well washed, picked, and laid in water with a little salt in it. When you take them out, which should not be till just before they are wanted, shake them well, lay them in a cloth, shake that, to make them as dry as possible, but do not squeeze, for that will destroy their crispness.
In countries where salad is in more general request than in England, the greatest pains are bestowed to have it in perfection. It is essential to a good salad, that the leaves of lettuces should be crisp; and the French people shake them in a basket, made for the purpose, which answers better than anything. The French are justly famed for their salads, but the main cause of their superiority in them, is attributable to the abundance and goodness of both the oil and the vinegar used in the mixture.
_To dress Salad._
Do not cut it up till you are going to mix it. Strew a {225}little salt, and then pour over it, 3 table-spoonsful of oil to 1½ of vinegar, add a little pepper, and stir it up well with a spoon and fork. There ought not to be a drop of liquid at the bottom of the bowl. To this may be added hard-boiled yolk of egg, also beet root well boiled and sliced. Any kind of salad may be dressed in this way. Good oil is not dear, but exceedingly wholesome. The least degree of the flavour of garlic is liked by some in salad, and may be obtained by cutting open a clove and rubbing it a few times round the salad bowl. Some persons like a very little grated parmesan, in their salad.
Where oil is not liked, use oiled butter, or cream. Rub very smooth on a soup plate the yolks of hard-boiled eggs, with thick cream; when this is done, add more cream, or oiled butter, vinegar, pepper, and salt to your taste, and mix the salad in it: or pour the mixture into the bowl, the salad on the top, and do not stir it up at all, but leave this to be done at table.
The top of a dressed salad should be garnished with slices of beet root, contrasted with rings of the white of hard-boiled eggs; or a few young radishes and green onions, or cresses, tastefully arranged on the top. Plovers and sea birds' eggs may be laid on the top, arranging some herb to form each one's nest; or all in one nest, in the centre. A pretty salad is a great ornament to a table, and not an expensive one.
The following list may be imperfect, but though there may be other herbs which would be useful in salads, all these are good.
Lettuce. Radishes. Water Cresses. Young Onions. Corn Salad. Endive. Celery. Mustard and Cress. Chervil. Coriander. Tarragon. Nasturtiums. Sorrel. Young Spinach. French Fennel. Burnet. Basil. Chicory.
The French make salads of cold boiled cauliflower, celery, French beans, and haricots. A mixture of either with {226}some green herbs, dressed with oil, is very good; by way of variety.
_Lobster Salad._
Prepare a mixture of white lettuce, and green salading, mix it with cream or oil; take out the coral of the lobster, and dispose it amongst the vegetables so as best to contrast the colours.--_Or_: lobster may be cut up, dressed as eaten at table, then mixed with lettuce and small salading also cut up and dressed; the dressing of each must be according to taste. Some persons dress their lobster with lemon juice and cayenne. Put the mixture into a salad bowl, light sprigs of cresses on the top, and heaps of the coral amidst them.
_Italian Salad._
About three hours before the salad is wanted, bone and chop 2 anchovies, and mix them in a salad bowl, with an eschalot, and some small salading, or lettuce, or any herbs, fresh gathered; boil 2 eggs hard, bruise the yolks, then mix them with 2 spoonsful of oil, 1 of vinegar, a little pepper, and a little made mustard. To this sauce, put very thin slices of cold roast meat of any kind, fowl, game, or lobster (and any cold gravy), and leave them to soak. Garnish it prettily. Cold fish may be dressed in this way; then hard-boiled eggs may be added; and, with either meat or fish, cold boiled vegetables. Nicely garnished, these salads are pretty for supper tables. Capsicums, barberries, and pickled fruit are of use in ornamenting them.
_Cucumbers_
Should be fresh, mixed with onion, and never eaten without oil.
{227}CHAPTER XIX.
PASTRY.
PRACTICE is more requisite than judgment to arrive at perfection in making pastry, particularly raised crusts, and very little can be given in the way of general instruction on the subject.--The flour should be of the best quality, dried before the fire, and then allowed to get cool before it is wetted.--Good salt butter, washed in several waters, to extract the salt, is cheaper in some seasons, and is as good as fresh butter. Fresh butter should be worked, on a board, with a wooden spoon, or the hand, to extract the butter-milk, before it is used for delicate pastry; after you have well worked, dab it with a soft cloth.
Finely shred suet makes very good crust for fruit, as well as meat pies, and, if good, is more delicate and wholesome than lard; veal suet is the most delicate. Some cooks cut the suet in pieces, and melt it in water, then, when cold, press out the water, pound the suet in a mortar, with a very little oil, till it becomes the consistence of butter, and use it for pie crust; but I prefer fresh suet very finely _shred_, not chopped. For this purpose it must be quite sweet.--Lard varies much in quality; and if not good, the paste will not be light. Sweet marrow is very good.
A marble slab is very useful for making pastry, particularly in hot weather. Pastry is never good made in a warm room, neither will it bear being exposed to a draught of air. The sooner it is baked, the lighter it will be. There is ample room for display of taste in ornamenting pastry, both for meat pies and sweets. Paste cutters are not expensive, and if kept in good order, will last a long time; but, if not delicately clean, the paste will be spoiled.
For very _common meat pies_, a crust may be made of mashed potatoes, spread thickly over the top. For more delicate pies, rice may be boiled in milk and water till it {228}begins to swell, then drained, and mixed with 1 or 2 eggs well beaten, and spread in a thick layer over the meat.
_A glazing_ for meat pies is made of white sugar and water; yolk of egg and water; yolk of egg and melted butter.
_To ice paste_, beat the white of an egg, and brush it over the tart, when half baked; then sift finely powdered sugar over that.--_Another way_: pound and sift 4 oz. refined sugar, beat up the white of an egg, and by degrees add it to the sugar, till it looks white, and is thick; when the tarts are baked, spread the iceing over the top with a brush, and return them to the oven to harden, but take care that the iceing do not burn.
Be careful to keep the pasteboard and rolling-pin quite clean; and recollect that the best made paste will be spoiled, if not nicely _baked_.
_Plain Crust for Meat Pies._
To 2 lbs. of fine, well dried flour, put 1 lb. finely sliced fresh suet, and a little salt, mix it up lightly, with enough cold water to mould it, then roll out thin, fold it up, roll again, and it is ready. Put more suet to make it richer. _Another._--Common bread dough, or French roll dough, makes very good crust for plain pies. Roll it out, and stick bits of butter and lard into it, and roll up again. If the dough be good the crust will be light.
_Richer Crust._
For 2 lbs. of flour, break in pieces 1½ lb. washed salt butter, rub it in the flour, wet it up with the yolks of 3 eggs well beaten, and mixed in from ½ to a whole pint of spring water. Roll the paste out thin, double it, and roll out again; repeat this three times, and it is ready.
_An Elegant Crust._
Wash ¾ lb. of very good butter, and melt it carefully, so that it do not oil, let it cool, and stir into it an egg well beaten: mix this into ¾ lb. of very fine well dried flour. It should not be a stiff paste, and must be rolled out thin.
{229}_A Flaky Crust._
Wet 1 lb. of well dried flour, with as much water as will make it into a stiff dough. Roll it out, and stick bits of butter over. ¾ lb. of butter should be divided in 3, and rolled in at three different times.
_Puff Paste._
Weigh an equal quantity of fine flour, and fresh, or well washed salt butter: crumble one third part of the butter into the flour, mix well together, and wet it with cold water to make it into dough. Dust some dry flour over the pasteboard, and work the dough well, with your hands, into a stiff paste; then roll out thin, and stick little bits of butter into it, sprinkle flour lightly over, fold the paste, roll out again; stick in more butter, fold up again, and repeat the same till all the butter is used. Lay a wet cloth in folds over, till you use it. _Another._--Rub ½ lb. fresh butter into 1 lb. fine flour, with the yolks of 2 eggs beaten, and some finely sifted sugar: rub all together very smoothly, wet with cold water, and work it into a stiff paste.
_Crisp Paste._
Rub ¼ lb. butter into 1 lb. flour, add 2 table-spoonsful of sifted loaf sugar, and the yolks of 3 eggs, work it well with a horn spoon, roll it out very thin, touching it as little as possible.
_A Good Light Crust._
Rub a piece of butter the size of an egg, the same of lard, and soda to lie on a shilling, into 1 lb. flour; mix it into a stiff paste with 1 egg and a little water; roll it out 3 times, spread lightly, once with butter, and twice with lard.
_Short Crust not Rich._
Rub into 1 lb. of flour, 6 oz. butter, 2 oz. sifted white sugar, and the yolks of 2 eggs mixed with a little cream or new milk. To make it richer, use more butter and perfume {230}the paste with orange or rose water, or flavour with lemon juice. The butter must all be crumbled into the flour before it is wetted; the less it is rolled the better.
_A Nice Crust for Preserved Fruits, Cheesecakes, &c._
Beat ½ lb. good fresh butter, in a bason, with a spoon, till it becomes cream, add 2 oz. finely sifted sugar, and mix in 1 lb. fine flour, then wet it with the whites of 3 eggs well beaten, and roll out the paste. If not stiff enough, use more flour and sugar.--_Or_: rub together equal quantities of flour and butter, with a little sifted sugar; work it into a paste with warm milk, roll it out thin and line your patty pans. _Another._--Melt 4 oz. of butter in a saucepan, with a tea-spoonful of water, 2 oz. sifted sugar, and a bit of lemon peel; when the butter is melted, take out the lemon peel, and first dredge a little flour into the liquid, shake the saucepan, then put in as much more flour, with a spoon, as the butter will take, keep the saucepan over the fire, and stir briskly with a wooden spoon. Turn it out into another saucepan and let it cool; then put it over the fire, and break in, first 1 egg, stir it well, then 3 more eggs, and stir well again, till the paste is ropy.
_Raised Crust for Meat Pies._
Put ¾ of a pint of water and ½ lb. lard into a saucepan, set it on the fire; have ready on the paste-board, 2½ lbs. of flour, make a hole in the middle, and when the water in the saucepan boils, pour it into it, gently mixing it by degrees with the flour, with a spoon; when well mixed, knead it into a stiff paste. Dredge flour on the board, to prevent the paste from sticking, continue to roll, and knead it, but do not use a rolling-pin. Let it stand to cool before you form the crust for the pie, as follows: cut out pieces for the bottom and top, roll them of the proper thickness, and roll out a piece for the sides; fix the sides round the bottom pieces, cement them together with white of egg, and pinch the bottom crust up round to keep it closed firmly; then put in the meat and lay on the top crust, pinching the edges together closely.--It must be thick in proportion to the size of the pie.
{231}_Rice Paste._
Mix ½ lb. rice flour into a stiff paste with the yolk of an egg and milk, beat it out with a rolling-pin, and spread bits of butter over, roll it up, and spread more butter till you have used ½ lb. This will boil as well as bake.
_Maccaroni Paste._
Work 1 lb. flour into a paste with 4 eggs; it will be very stiff; must be well kneaded, and then beaten for a long time with a rolling-pin, to make it smooth; then roll out very thin, and cut it in strips. This is rather toilsome than troublesome, because it is difficult to roll thin enough, on account of its stiffness; yet is well worth the trouble, to those who like maccaroni. It cooks in much less time than that which is bought, and is much more delicate.
_Meat Pies._
Some cooks say that meat should be a _little_ stewed with seasoning, a piece of butter, and only a _very_ little water, before it is put into a pie.--Common meat pies should have a thin under crust; but the covering must be thick, or it will be scorched up, before the meat is cooked. Meat pies require a hot, but not a fierce oven.
_Venison Pasty._
Make a stiff paste of 2 lbs. of flour and 1 lb. of butter, or fresh suet shred finely, wet it with 4 or 5 eggs well beaten and mixed in warm water. Roll it out several times, line the sides of the dish, but not the bottom.--Some cooks _marinade_ or _soak_ the venison for a night, in Port wine and seasonings.--Take out all the bones, season the meat with salt, pepper, pounded allspice and mace, and a little cayenne, then put it into a stone jar, and pour over some gravy of the trimmings, or of mutton or beef; place the jar in a saucepan of water, and simmer it over the fire, or on a hearth two or three hours, but the meat should not be over done. Put it by till the next day; remove the cake of fat from the top, lay the meat in alternate pieces of fat {232}and lean in a pie dish, add more seasoning if required, the gravy, and ¼ pint of Port or claret; also a little eschalot or any flavouring vinegar. If the venison want fat, slices of mutton fat may be substituted.--The breast is best for a pasty, but the neck is very good; also the shoulder if too lean to roast. If any gravy be left have it ready to pour hot into the pasty.
_Beef Steak Pie._
Cut small steaks from the rump: season, and roll up as olives, or lay them flat, fat and lean mixed, seasoned with salt, pepper, and spices. Then put in ½ pint of gravy, or ½ pint of water, and a table-spoonful of vinegar. If you have no gravy, a piece of kidney will enrich the gravy of the beef, and is a valuable addition to a meat pie. Forcemeat in layers between the slices of beef, or in small balls, makes this much richer; if to be eaten cold, suet must not be used: some cooks put in a few large oysters also. Walnut or mushroom catsup. A good gravy may be poured into the pie, when baked.
_Pork Pie._
This is generally made in a raised crust, but in a common pie dish, with a plain crust, it is very good. Season with pepper and salt. Cut all the meat from the bones, and do not put any water into the pie. Pork pie is best cold, and small ones are made by laying a paste in saucers or small plates, then the meat; cover with paste, turning the two edges up neatly.--The griskin is best for pies.
_Sausage Rolls._
Use sausage meat; or, take equal portions of cold roast veal and ham, or cold fowl and tongue; chop these very small, season with a tea-spoonful of powdered sweet herbs and a tea-spoonful of mixed salt and cayenne: mix well together, put 3 table-spoonsful of the chopped and seasoned meat, well rolled together, into enough light paste to cover it, and bake half an hour in a brisk oven.--These may be tied in a cloth and boiled; the crust plainer.
{233}_Mutton Pie._
Cut cutlets from the leg, or chops from the neck or loin, season with pepper and salt, and place them in a dish, fill this with gravy or water, and, if you choose, strew over a very little minced onion or eschalot and parsley, and cover with a plain crust.--_Squab Pie_, is made of mutton, and between each layer of meat, slices of apples, potatoes, and shred onions.
_Lamb Pie._
The same as mutton pie; only being more delicate, it does not require so much seasoning, and is best, made to turn out of patty pans.
_Veal Pie._
Cut chops from the neck or breast, or cutlets from any other part, season with salt, pepper, mace, nutmeg, lemon peel, or what herbs you like, lay them in the dish; very thin slices of bacon over them; pour in a little gravy, made from the bones or trimmings, or a little water. Forcemeat balls, hard-boiled yolks of eggs, scalded sweetbreads, veal kidneys, truffles, morels, mushrooms, oysters and thick cream, may be used to enrich this pie.--_Or_: slices of veal, spread with forcemeat, and rolled up as olives; make a hole in the top part of the crust, and when it comes out of the oven, pour in some good gravy.--To be very rich: put the olives in a dish, and between and round them, small forcemeat balls, hard-boiled yolks of eggs, pickled cucumbers cut in round pieces, and pickled mushrooms; pour in good gravy, a glass of white wine, the juice of a lemon, or lemon and oyster pickle.
_Maccaroni Pie._
Swell ½ lb. in broth or water; put a thick layer at the bottom of a deep dish, buttered all round, then a layer of beef steak cut thin, or thin slices spread with forcemeat, and rolled up like olives; season the beef, then another layer of maccaroni, then more beef, the top layer maccaroni; pour over gravy or water to fill the dish, and cover with a _thin_ {234}crust, and bake it. As the maccaroni absorbs the gravy, there ought to be more to pour in, when it comes from the oven. A light sprinkling of cheese over each layer of maccaroni is an improvement. This pie may be made of fowl, or veal and ham. It is excellent. To be eaten hot.--The _white chedder_ is as good as parmesan cheese.
_Calf's Head Pie._
Clean and soak, then parboil the head for half an hour, with part of a knuckle of veal, or 2 shanks of mutton, in a very little water, with 2 onions, a bunch of parsley, and winter savory, the rind of a lemon, a few peppercorns, and 2 blades of mace. Take it up, and let it cool, cut it into neat pieces, skin and cut the tongue into small bits. Boil in the liquor a few chips of isinglass, till of a strong jelly. Spread a layer of thin slices of ham, or tongue, at the bottom of a dish, a layer of the head, fat and lean assorted, with forcemeat balls, hard-boiled yolks of eggs, and pickled mushrooms: then strew over salt, pepper, nutmeg, and grated lemon peel; put another layer of slices of ham, and so on, till the dish is nearly full; pour in as much of the jelly as there is room for, cover with a crust, and bake it. Good cold only, and will keep several days.
_Sweetbread Pie._
Boil ½ a neck of veal and 2 lbs. gravy beef in 4 quarts of water, with ½ a tea-spoonful of grated nutmeg, and equal quantities of mace and cayenne, and a tea-spoonful of salt; simmer this till it is reduced to ½ pint, and strain it off. Put a good puff paste round your dish; put in 6 sweetbreads, stuffed with green truffles, and 12 oysters with their liquor (omit either or both, as you choose); but take care that the fish and meat are distributed; then fill the dish with the gravy, put on the top crust, and bake, in a quick oven, an hour and a quarter. To be eaten hot.
_Pigeon, Rook, or Moorfowl Pie._
Season them inside with salt and pepper, and put in each a bit of butter, rolled in flour. (Some parboil the livers, minced with parsley, and put them inside also.) Lay a beef {235}steak (some stew it first) at the bottom of the dish, or veal cutlets, seasoned, and thin slices of bacon; put in the pigeons, the gizzards, yolks of hard-boiled eggs (forcemeat balls, if you like), and enough water to make gravy. Cover with a puff paste, and bake it. Some cooks cut up the pigeons, and use no beef steak, as they say that the pigeons, if cut up, will produce a sufficiency of gravy. Port and white wine may be added; also catsups, sauces, and mushroom powder.--_Rooks_ must be skinned; the back-bone cut out.--_Moorfowl pie_ must not be over-baked: when done, you may pour in a hot sauce of melted butter, lemon juice, and a glass of claret.
_Hare Pie._
Cut up a leveret, and season it well; to be very rich, have relishing forcemeat balls, and hard-boiled yolks of eggs, to mix with the meat in the dish. Put plenty of butter, rolled in flour, and some water, and cover with a paste. This pie will require long soaking, as the meat is solid; but, unless it be a leveret, much the best way is, to stew the hare first, like venison for pasty.
_Chicken, or Rabbit Pie._
Cut up the chickens, season each joint with salt, white pepper, mace, and nutmeg, lay them in the dish, with slices of ham or bacon, a few bits of butter, rolled in flour, and a little water, cover with a crust, and bake it. This pie may be made richer, by putting veal cutlets or veal udder, at the bottom of the dish, adding forcemeat balls and yolks of hard-boiled eggs; also a good jelly gravy, seasoned with peppercorns, onions, and parsley, and poured over the chickens before the pie is baked. Mushrooms are an improvement. Forcemeat for _rabbit_ may be made of the livers, suet, anchovies, eschalot, onion, salt, and pepper.
_Goose Pie._
Bone, then season well, a goose, and a large fowl; stuff the fowl with the following forcemeat: 2 oz. grated ham, the same of veal and suet, a little parsley, salt, pepper, {236}and 2 eggs to bind it. Place the fowl within the goose, and put that into a raised crust; fill up round with slices of tongue, or pigeons, game, and forcemeat; put pieces of butter, rolled in flour, over all, and cover with a crust. Bake it three hours.
_Giblet Pie._
Stew the giblets in broth, with peppercorns, onions, and parsley. When quite tender, take them up, to get cold, then divide, and lay them, on a well-seasoned beef steak, in a pie dish, and the liquor in which they were stewed, and cover with a plain crust. When done, pour in a tea-cupful of cream.
_Partridge, also Perigord Pie._
Made the same as pigeon pie.--Or: instead of the steak (some use veal), at the bottom of the dish, spread a thick layer of forcemeat, put in the partridges, bits of butter rolled in flour, and a few scalded button mushrooms, or a table-spoonful of catsup. Cover with a good crust, and bake (if 4 partridges), an hour.--_Perigord Pie_: Singe and truss 6 partridges, lard, season highly, and stuff them with a forcemeat made of 2 lbs. of truffles (brushed, washed, and peeled), the livers of the partridges, and a piece of veal udder parboiled; season with salt, pepper, spices, minced onion and parsley, all pounded; put a little into each partridge, and fill up with whole truffles; line a raised crust with thin slices of bacon and forcemeat, put in the partridges, cover the pie, and bake it.
_Pheasant Pie._
Cut off the heads of two pheasants, bone and stuff them, with the livers, bread-crumbs, lemon peel, ham, veal, suet, anchovies, mace, pepper, salt, mushroom powder, and a little eschalot; stew them in good gravy a few minutes, then put them into a baking dish, with some balls of the forcemeat and pickled mushrooms; fill up with good gravy, flavoured with lemon, oyster, and mushroom pickle, a table-spoonful of brandy, and the same of camp sauce. {237}Cover with puff paste, and bake it. Good either hot or cold.
_Sea Pie._
Cut up a fowl or two, and thin slices of salt beef, the latter soaked in lukewarm water. Make a good paste of half flour and half mashed potatoes, with butter, lard, or dripping; roll out thin, put a layer at the bottom of a deep tin baking dish, then a layer of fowl and beef, season with pepper, salt, and a little shred onion; then another layer of paste, and one of meat, till the dish is nearly full, fill up with cold water, and bake it; when done, turn it out and serve quite hot.--_Or_: slices of bacon, and no beef.
_Parsley Pie._
This may be made of veal, fowl, or calf's feet, but the latter partly cooked first; scald a cullender full of fresh parsley in milk, drain it, season it with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, add a tea-spoonful of broth, and pour it into a pie dish, over the meat. When baked, pour in ¼ pint of scalded cream.
_Herb Pie._
One handful of spinach, and of parsley, 2 small lettuces, a very little mustard and cress, and a few white beet leaves; wash, then parboil them, drain, press out the water, mix with a little salt, cut them small, and lay them in a dish: pour over a batter of flour, 2 eggs, a pint of cream, and ½ pint of milk: cover with a rich crust and bake it.
_Fish Pie._
The fish should be boiled first; indeed, the remains of the previous day's dinner may answer the purpose. As any and every sort of fish is good in pies, one receipt will do for all, leaving it to the taste of the cook to enrich or flavour it.--If _Turbot_, cut the fish in slices, put a layer in the dish, strew over a mixture of pepper, salt, pounded mace, allspice, and little bits of butter, then a layer of fish, then of the seasoning and butter, till the dish is full. Having saved some of the liquor in which it was boiled, {238}put it on to boil again, with all the skin and trimmings of the fish, strain and pour this into the dish for gravy. Lay a puff paste over, and bake in a slow oven half an hour. _Cod Sounds_ must be washed well, then soak several hours, and lay them in a cloth to dry. Put into a stew-pan 2 oz. fresh butter, and half an onion sliced, brown these, and add a table-spoonful of flour rubbed into a small piece of butter, and ½ pint boiling water; let it boil up, put in about 8 cod sounds, season with pepper, the juice of a lemon, and essence of anchovies, stir it a few minutes over the fire, put it in a pie-dish, cover with a light paste, and bake it an hour.--_Another and richer_: Cut the fish into fillets; season them with pounded mace, pepper, cayenne, and salt; or, if whitings, eels, trout, or any fish that will admit of it, do not cut them up, but season the inside, and turn the fish round, fastening with a thread. Have some good fish stock, warm it, add seasoning, and any catsup you like. If you wish it to be _very_ rich, line the dish with fish forcemeat, lay some bits of butter at the bottom, put a thick layer of the fish, then strew over chopped shrimps, prawns, or oysters, then the rest of the fish, strain the stock over it, enough for gravy, cover with a light puff paste, and bake it.
_Lobster Pie._
This is a rich compound, at its very plainest, and may be made very rich indeed. Parboil 1, 2, or 3, according to the size of your dish. Take out all the meat, cut it in pieces, and lay them in the dish, in alternate layers, with oysters cut in two, and bread-crumbs, moisten with essence of anchovies. Whilst you are doing this, let all the shells and the spawn of the lobster be stewed in half water and half vinegar: add mace and cayenne; when done, strain it; add wine and catsup, boil it up, and pour over the lobster. Lay a light puff paste over, and bake it.
_Herring, Eel, or Mackerel Pie._
Skin eels, and cut them in pieces 2 inches long. Season highly, and put a little vinegar into the sauce. This, and all fish pies, may be baked _open_, with a paste edging.
{239}_Shrimp and Prawn Pie._
Having picked, put them into little shallow dishes, strew bits of butter over, season as you like, but allspice and chili vinegar should form a part, white wine, also 2 anchovies, if you like. Cover with a puff paste.
_Salt Fish Pie._
Soak the fish a night. Boil it till tender, take off the skin, and take out the bones. If the fish be good, it will be in layers, lay them on a fish drainer to cool. Boil 5 eggs hard, cut them with 2 onions, and 2 potatoes in slices; put a layer at the bottom of a pie dish, season with pepper and made mustard, then a layer of fish, season that, another layer of the mixture, and so on till the dish be full; lay some bits of butter on the top, pour in a tea-cupful of water, with a tea-spoonful of essence of anchovy, and of catsup and oyster pickle. Cover with a puff paste, and bake it an hour.--The _sauces_ appropriate to fish, are suitable to fish pies. _Fresh Cod Pie._--Salt a piece of the middle of a fish, one night; wash, dry, and season it with pepper, salt, and nutmeg; lay it in a deep pie dish, with some oysters, put bits of butter on it, pour in some good broth, and cover with a crust. When done, pour in a ¼ pint of hot cream, with a bit of butter rolled in flour, nutmeg, and grated lemon peel.
_Patties._
These are convenient for a side dish at dinner, or a principal one at supper or luncheon. An expert cook may contrive to reserve meat or fish, when cooking a large dinner, to provide a dish of patties. The compound must be very nicely minced, suitably seasoned, and sent to table in baked paste; or fried in balls, for a garnish.
_Crust for Savoury Patties._
If you can, get from the pastry-cook empty puff patties, it will save you trouble; if not, make a thin puff paste, and line the patty pans; cut out the tops, on white paper, with a thin stamp, and mark them neatly; put a piece of soft {240}paper crumpled, in the middle of the lined patty pan, to support the top; put it on and bake them. Prepare the mince, and when the patties are baked enough, lift off the top, put the mince in (not so much as to run over the edges), and lay the top on.
_Chicken, or Turkey and Ham, or Veal Patties._
Mince very finely, the breast, or other white parts of cold chicken, fowl, turkey, or roast veal, and about half the quantity of lean ham, or tongue. Have a little delicate gravy, or jelly of roast veal or lamb, thicken it with butter, rolled in flour, add pepper, salt, cayenne, and lemon juice; put the mince in, and stir it over the fire till quite hot, and fill the baked patties with this quite hot. A few oysters may be minced with the meat.
_Rabbit and Hare Patties._
Mince the best parts with a little mutton suet. Thicken a little good gravy, and season with salt, pepper, cayenne, nutmeg, mace, lemon peel, and Port wine, also the stuffing that may be left of the hare or rabbit; heat the mince in it, and fill patties, as above.
_Beef Patties._
Mince a piece of tender, underdone meat, with a little of the firm fat; season with salt, pepper, onion, a chopped anchovy, and a very little chili or eschalot vinegar; warm it in gravy, and finish, like other patties.
_Oyster Patties._
Beard and wash in their own liquor, some fresh oysters; strain the liquor, and if of 12, put to it 1 oz. butter rolled in flour, with the oysters cut small, a little salt, white pepper, mace, nutmeg, and lemon peel, add to the whole 1 table-spoonful of thick cream; warm, and put it hot into the baked patties.--_Or_: 2 parts of oysters, prepared as above, and one part of fresh mushrooms, cut in dice, fried in butter, and stewed in enough gravy to moisten them; stir the oysters to the mushrooms, and fill the patties.
{241}_Lobster and Shrimp Patties._
Chop finely the meat of the tail and claws of a hen lobster; pound some of the spawn, with ½ oz. of butter, and a little meat gravy or jelly, or a table-spoonful of cream; season with cayenne, salt, lemon peel, and essence of anchovy.
_Gooseberry, or Green Currant Pie._
Top and tail fruit enough to fill your dish; lay a strip of paste round the edge, put in half the fruit, then half the sugar, the rest of the fruit, more sugar, and cover with a good puff paste. Mark the edges neatly, and ornament the top. When it comes out of the oven, sift powdered sugar over.--First put a little cup in the centre of the dish, to preserve the juice.
_Rhubarb Pie._
When old and stringy, peel the skin off, cut the stalks slantways, and make it into a pie, the same as gooseberry: if young, do not peel it.--Some like lemon peel in it.
_Red currants, raspberries, ripe gooseberries, cherries, plums, all sorts of damsons, apricots, and peaches_, make excellent pies; allow plenty of sugar, put in a little cup, and fill the dish high in the middle with fruit. Divide the apricots and peaches.
_Green Apricot Tart._
The fruit should be stewed till tender in a very little water and some sugar; baked in a pie dish with a covering of puff paste, and is an excellent tart.
_Apple Pie._
Russetings, ribstone pippins, and such apples as are a little acid, are best. Pare, core, and slice them; sprinkle sugar between, as you put them in the dish, also a little pounded cinnamon and cloves. Slices of quince are an improvement, or quince marmalade, or candied citron or orange peel. Put a strip of paste round the edge of the dish, and {242}cover with a light paste. If they are dry, put in a little lemon juice, and a wine-glassful of white wine.
_Green Codling Tart._
Make the pie as directed in the last receipt, and when it comes out of the oven, with a sharp knife cut round the crust, an inch from the edge, take it off, and pour over the apples, a plain or rich custard; have ready baked on a tin, some paste leaves, and stick round the tart; or else cut the top, you have taken off, into lozenges, or the best shape you can, and stick them round.
In the country, fresh cream ought to accompany fruit pies. Clouted cream is excellent with fruit pies.--_Apples_, _gooseberries_, and _rhubarb_ stewed, with sugar enough to sweeten, are better for children, than cooked in paste.--_Or_: fruit thus prepared, may be spread on very thin paste, covered up in turn-overs, and baked on tins.
_Cranberry Tart._
The cranberries should be stewed first, with brown sugar, and a very little water, then baked in open tarts, or in patty-pans lined, and covered with light puff paste.
_Tarts of Preserved Fruits._
Cover patty-pans, or shallow tins or dishes with light puff paste, lay the preserve in them, cover with light bars of paste, or with paste stars, leaves, or flowers. For delicate preserves, the best way is to bake the paste, first, then put in the preserves, and ornament with leaves baked for the purpose, on tins.
_Small Puffs._
Roll out light paste nearly ½ an inch thick, cut it in pieces of 5 inches wide, lay preserves on each, fold it over, wet the edges, and pinch them together, lay these on buttered paper, and bake them.--_Or_: cut the paste into squares, lozenges, and leaves, bake them on tins, and then lay different preserves on each one, and arrange them tastefully in a dish.
{243}_Spanish Puffs._
Boil ½ the rind of a lemon, a small stick of cinnamon, and a bit of butter the size of a nut, in ¼ pint of milk, strain it, and set it on the fire in a stew-pan; when it boils, stir in 2 spoonsful of flour, and a large table-spoonful of brandy, take it off, and rub it well together; when quite cold, add 4 eggs, one at a time, rubbing well all the while; divide the mixture into tea-spoonsfuls, or on a plate, let it stand to grow firm, then fry in plenty of boiling lard.
_Apple Puffs._
Stew the apples, pulp them through a sieve, and sweeten with white powdered sugar; make them as directed for _small puffs_, and bake in a quick oven.
_Orange and Lemon Puffs._
Grate the peel of 2 Seville oranges, or 3 lemons, and mix with it ¾ lb. grated lump sugar. Beat up the whites of 4 eggs to a solid froth, put that to the sugar, beat the whole, without stopping, for half an hour, pour it in little round cakes, on buttered paper laid on tins, and bake them in a moderate oven. When cold, tear off the paper.
_Minced Pie Meat._
Par-roast, or slightly bake, about 2 lbs. of lean beef (some prefer neat's tongue); when cold, chop it finely; chop 2 lbs. beef suet, also 2 lbs. apples, peeled and cored, 1 lb. stoned raisins, and the same of currants; mix these together in a pan, with 1 lb. of good moist sugar, 2 nutmegs, grated, 1 oz. salt, 1 oz. ginger, ½ oz. coriander seeds, ½ oz. allspice, ½ oz. cloves, the juice of 6 lemons and their rinds, grated, ½ lb. candied citron, the same of candied lemon, ½ pint of brandy, and the same of sweet, ginger, or Madeira wine. Mix well, and it will keep some time, in a cool place. To use it, stir it, and add a little more brandy. Cover patty pans or shallow dishes with a puff paste, fill with the mince, and put a puff paste over: bake in a moderate oven.--_Or_: 1 lb. beef, 3 lbs. suet, 3 lbs. raisins, 4 lbs. currants, 3½ lbs. sugar, 3 lbs. apples, the rind of 3 lemons, and the {244}juice of 2½ lbs. candied lemon; nutmeg, ginger, and pepper to taste. These receipts are both good.
_A Bride's Pie._
Boil 2 calf's feet quite tender, and chop the meat. Chop separately 1 lb. suet and 1 lb. apples, quite fine; mix these with the meat, add ½ lb. currants, ½ lb. raisins (chopped fine), ¼ oz. cinnamon, 2 drachms nutmeg, and mace (all pounded), 1 oz. candied citron and lemon peel, sliced thin, a wine-glass of brandy, and of Madeira. Line a tin pan with puff paste, put in the mince, cover with a paste, and ornament it.
_Maigre Mince Meat._
To 6 lbs. currants add 3 lbs. raisins, 2 oz. cloves, 1½ oz. mace and 1 nutmeg, 3 lbs. fine powdered sugar, the rinds of 2 lemons, and 24 sharp apples, all these ingredients chopped or pounded separately, and then mixed together; add a pint of brandy. Let it stand a day or two, and stir it from the bottom once or twice a day. It will keep in a dry place, for months. Add butter or suet, when you make it into pies, also citron, if you like.
_Note._--Mince meat is improved by the currants being plumped in brandy. Raisins should be chopped _very_ fine.
{245}CHAPTER XX.
PUDDINGS.
PRACTICE, which, generally speaking, is every thing in cooking, will not ensure success in making puddings, unless the ingredients be good.
For pudding crust, nothing is so good as veal suet finely shred, though beef suet and beef marrow make light crust. Fresh dripping is also very good. Lard is not so good, for either meat or fruit puddings. Meat puddings (or dumplings, as they are called, in some of the counties in England) are generally liked, and are, either in crust or in batter, an economical dish, when made of the trimmings of beef or mutton, or the coarser parts of meat, which, though very good, would not so well admit of any other species of cooking. The meat should be quite fresh, and a due mixture of fat and lean. A piece of kidney, cut in bits, will enrich the gravy of beef steak or hare pudding. The crust for these puddings should be less rich, and thicker than for fruit puddings. Puddings will not be light unless the flour be fresh, and dried before the fire.
The number of eggs must be regulated by their size, for a small egg is but half a large one. Break them separately into a tea-cup, and put them into the basin one by one; by this means you ascertain their freshness before you mix them together, for if one be the least stale, it will spoil any number with which it may be mixed. Beat them well, the two parts separately, and strain them to the other ingredients.
Butter, whether salt or fresh, should be perfectly sweet; and milk or cream, if only a little upon the turn, will render of no avail all the labour that has been bestowed upon either pudding or custard.
Let all seasoning spices be finely pounded; currants {246}washed, rubbed dry, carefully picked, and laid on a sieve before the fire to plump; almonds must be _blanched_, namely, covered with hot water, and then peeled.
Puddings of both meat and fruit may be boiled in a mould or bason, but they are lighter in a cloth; but then the crust must be thicker, for if it break, the gravy or juice will be lost. Spread the cloth in a cullender, or bason, flour it, lay in the crust, then the fruit or meat, put on the top, and pinch the edges firmly together, but do not let them be so thick as to form a heavy lump at the bottom, when the pudding is turned out.
Pudding cloths should not be washed with soap, but boiled in wood ashes, rinsed in clear water, dried, and put by in a drawer. When about to use it, dip the cloth in boiling water, squeeze dry, and dredge it with flour. Do not put a pudding in the pot till the water boils fast, and let there be plenty of it; move the pudding from time to time for the first ten minutes; and, as the water diminishes, put in more, boiling hot. The water should boil _slowly_, and never for a minute cease to boil during the time the pudding is in. When you take it out of the pot, dip the pudding into cold water for an instant, and set it in a bowl or cullender, for two or three minutes; this will cause it to turn more easily out of the cloth.
A pudding in which there is much bread should be tied up loosely, to allow it to swell. A batter pudding tied tight. Batter requires long beating; mix the milk and eggs by degrees into the flour, to avoid making it lumpy; this will be the case sometimes, and then the batter may be strained; but such waste may be avoided, by care in mixing at first. Tie meat puddings up tight.
More care is necessary in baking than in boiling puddings. They should not be scorched in a too hot, nor made sodden, in a too cool oven.
It is an improvement to puddings, custards, and cakes, to flavour them with orange flower, or rose water, or any of the perfumed distilled waters.
_Paste for Meat Puddings._
Shred ½ lb. suet and rub it into 1¼ lb. flour, sprinkle a little salt, and wet it into a stiff paste with cold water; {247}then beat it a few minutes with a rolling pin. Clarified dripping is not so good, but more economical.
_Beef Steak Pudding._
The more tender the steak, the better, of course, the pudding. Cut it into pieces half the size of your hand, season with salt, pepper, and grated nutmeg. Spread a thin crust in a buttered bason, or mould; or a thicker one in a cloth: put the meat in, and a little water, also a wine-glassful of walnut, the same of oyster catsup, or 6 oysters, and a table-spoonful of lemon pickle; cover it with the top crust, fasten the edges firmly, and tie it up tightly. Finely minced onion may be added. A piece of kidney will enrich the gravy. A beef pudding of 2 lbs. of meat ought to boil _gently_ four hours.
_Hare, rabbit, and chicken_, make good puddings, the same as beef; slices of ham or bacon are an improvement to the two latter. Boil _hare pudding_ as long as beef. _Dumplings._--Chop beef small, season well, and put it into dumplings, the same as apple dumplings, and boil one hour.--_Sausage_ meat, or whole sausages, skinned, may be boiled in paste, and are very good.
_Suet Pudding and Dumplings._
Chop 6 oz. suet very fine, put it into a basin with 6 oz. flour, 2 oz. bread-crumbs, and a tea-spoonful of salt, stir well together, and pour in, by degrees, enough milk, or milk and water, to make it into a light pudding; put it into a floured cloth, and boil two hours. For dumplings, mix the above stiffer, make it into 6 dumplings, and tie them separately in a cloth; boil them one hour. 1 or 2 eggs are an improvement. 6 oz. of currants to the above quantity, make _currant dumplings_.
_Meat in Batter._
Cut the meat into chops or steaks, put them in a deep dish, season with pepper and salt, and fill up the dish with a batter, made of three eggs, and 4 large table-spoonsful of flour, to a pint of milk; then bake it.--_Or_: bake the meat {248}whole, and if a large piece, let it be in the oven half an hour before you pour in the batter, or else they will be cooked unequally.
_Kidney Pudding._
Split and soak 1 or 2 ox kidneys, and season well; line a bason or cloth with a crust, put them in, and boil it two hours and a half; rather less, if in a cloth.
_Fish Pudding._
Pound some slices of whiting in a mortar, with ¼ lb. butter; soak slices of 2 French rolls in cold milk, beat them up with pepper and salt, and mix with the fish. Boil this, in a buttered bason, about an hour and a half. Serve melted butter.--_Mackerel_ is made into puddings; for this follow the directions for beef steak pudding.
_Black Pudding._
They are made of hog's blood. Salt, strain, and boil it _very slowly_, or it will curdle, with a little milk or broth, pepper, salt, and minced onion; stir in, by degrees, some dried oatmeal and sliced suet; add what savoury herbs you like, fill the skins, and boil them. Some put in whole rice or grits (parboiled), in place of oatmeal.
_Hog's Puddings, White._
Mix ½ lb. almonds blanched and cut in pieces, with 1 lb. grated bread, 2 lbs. beef or mutton suet, 1 lb. currants, some cinnamon and mace, a pint of cream, the yolks of 5 and whites of 2 eggs, some Lisbon sugar, lemon peel, and citron sliced, and a little orange-flower water. Fill the skins rather more than half, and boil in milk and water.
_Apple Pudding to Boil._
Make a paste in the proportion of 4 oz. suet, or 2 oz. butter, lard, or dripping, to 8 oz. flour, and a little salt. Some use an egg or two, others cold water only, but it should be a _stiff_ paste. Line a mould, bason, or cloth, with this paste, rolled smooth, put in the apples, pared, {249}cored, and sliced; sweeten with brown sugar, and flavour with cloves, cinnamon, or lemon peel, as you like. Some persons put in 3 or 4 cloves, or a small piece of cinnamon, also lemon peel.
_Green Apricot Pudding._
The same as the last, and is delicious. Let the crust be delicate, and use white powdered sugar.
_Roll Pudding._
Roll out a paste as directed for apple pudding, spread jam or any other preserve you like on it, roll it over, tie it in a cloth, and boil it.--A very nice mixture to spread over paste in place of preserves, is composed of apples, currants, and a very little of mace, cinnamon, and sugar. _Another Jam Pudding_: line a bason with a thin paste, spread a layer of preserve at the bottom, then a thin paste to cover it, then a layer of preserve, and so on, till the bason is filled, cover with paste, pinch it round the edges, and boil it.
_Apple Dumplings._
Peel large apples, divide them, take out the cores, then close them again, first putting 1 clove in each. Roll out thin paste, cut it into as many pieces as you have apples, and fold each one neatly up; close the paste safely. Tie up each dumpling separately, very tight, and boil them an hour. When you take them up, dip each one into cold water, stand it in a bason two or three minutes, and it will turn more easily out of the cloth.
_Green currants_, _ripe currants_, _and raspberries_, _gooseberries_, _cherries_, _damsons_, and all the various sorts of _plums_, are made into puddings, the same as _apple pudding_.
_Plum Pudding._
For this national compound there are many receipts, and rich plum puddings are all very much alike, but the following receipts are very good:--To 6 oz. finely shred beef {250}suet, add 2 oz. flour, 4 oz. stoned raisins, 4 oz. well picked and plumped currants, pounded allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar to taste, and a tea-spoonsful of salt; mix these ingredients well, and wet them with 3 eggs well beaten, and as much milk as is required to mix it into a rather stiff pudding. You may add a wine-glassful of brandy, or 2 of sweet white wine; indeed, brandy is rarely omitted; some prefer the flavour of orange flower or rose-water. This pudding may be made richer by the addition of 1 oz. candied lemon peel, and ½ oz. citron. It should boil at least four hours.--_Or_: ½ lb. of slices of stale bread, pour ½ pint of boiling milk over, and cover close for fifteen or twenty minutes; beat this up with ½ lb. suet, ½ lb. raisins, and the same of currants, all chopped fine; add 2 table-spoonsful of flour, 3 eggs, a little salt, and as much milk as is required. This may be either boiled or baked.--_Or_: to ¾ lb. currants, ¾ lb. raisins, and ½ lb. suet, add ½ lb. bread-crumbs, 6 eggs, a wine-glassful of brandy, ½ a tea-cupful of fine sugar, ½ a nutmeg grated, and as much candied orange or lemon peel as you like: mix well, and boil three hours. No other liquid is required.
_A Christmas Pudding._
To 1 lb. suet add 1 lb. flour, 1 lb. raisins, 1 lb. currants (chopped fine), 4 oz. bread-crumbs, 2 table-spoonsful sugar, 1 of grated lemon peel, a blade of mace, ½ a nutmeg, a tea-spoonful of ginger, and 6 eggs well beaten. Mix well and boil five hours.
_Marrow Pudding._
Pour a quart of boiling milk over a large breakfast-cupful of stale crumbs, and cover a plate over. Shred ½ lb. fresh marrow, mix with it 2 oz. raisins, 2 oz. currants, and beat them up with the soaked bread; sweeten to your taste, add a tea-spoonful of cinnamon powder, and a very little nutmeg. Lay a puff paste round the edge of a shallow pudding dish, and pour the pudding in. Bake from twenty-five minutes to half an hour. You may add lemon peel, a wine-glassful of brandy, some almonds blanched and slit; also candied citron and lemon peel.
{251}_Sauce for Plum Pudding._
Melt good fresh butter, thicken it, and stir in by degrees, a wine-glassful of white wine, the same of brandy or old rum; sweeten to your taste, and add grated lemon peel and cinnamon. _A Store Pudding Sauce._--To ½ pint brandy, and 1 pint sherry, add 1 oz. thinly pared lemon peel, and ½ oz. mace; infuse these two or three weeks, then strain and bottle it. Add as much as you like to thick melted butter, and sweeten to taste.
_French Plum Pudding._
Mix 6 oz. suet, 7 oz. grated bread, 2 oz. sugar, 3 eggs, a coffee-cupful of milk, a table-spoonful ratafia, or 2 of rum, and ½ lb. French plums; let it stand two hours, stir well again, and boil it in a mould, two hours.
_Plum Pudding of Indian Corn Flour._
To 1 lb. corn flour add ½ lb. shred suet, and what currants, raisins, and spices you choose; mix the whole well together, with a pint of water, and boil the pudding in a cloth three hours.
_Maigre Plum Pudding._
Simmer in ½ pint milk, 2 blades mace, and a bit of lemon peel, for ten minutes; strain into a basin, to cool. Beat 3 eggs, with 3 oz. lump sugar, ¼ of a nutmeg grated, and 3 oz. flour; beat well together, and add the milk by degrees; then put in 3 oz. fresh butter, 2 or 3 oz. bread-crumbs, 2 oz. currants, and 2 oz. raisins; stir all well together. Boil it in a mould two hours and a half. Serve melted butter sweetened, and flavoured with brandy.
_Bread Pudding._
Pour a pint of boiling new milk over a breakfast-cupful of stale bread-crumbs, cover till cold, then beat them with a spoon; add 2 oz. currants, or a few cut raisins, a little sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and 3 or 4 eggs, well beaten; beat well together, and either boil in a buttered mould, or {252}bake in a dish. It may be enriched by candied citron, or lemon peel, and flavoured with orange flower or rose water. This may be baked in little cups, turned out into a dish, and served with sweet sauce. _Brown Bread Pudding._--Grate ½ lb. stale brown bread, and mix it with ½ lb. shred suet, and ½ lb. currants; sugar and nutmeg to taste, 4 eggs, 1 table-spoonful of brandy, and 2 of cream. Boil it three hours, and serve with sweet sauce.
_Sweet Sauce._
Flavour thick melted butter with cinnamon and grated lemon peel, sweeten to taste, add 1 or 2 wine-glassfuls of white wine.--_Or_: sweeten some thin cream, put in a little piece of butter, heat it, then flavour with cinnamon or lemon peel, and white wine; pour it hot over the pudding, or serve in a tureen.--_Or_: break a stick of cinnamon into bits, boil it ten minutes, in water enough to cover it, add ¼ pint of white wine, 2 table-spoonsful of powdered sugar, and boil it up, strain, and pour over the pudding.
_Bread and Butter Pudding._
Lay thin slices of stale bread and butter in a pudding dish, sprinkle currants over, then another layer of bread and butter, and so on till the dish is full to about an inch; pour over an unboiled custard (3 eggs to a pint of milk), sweeten to taste, soak it an hour, and bake half an hour.
_Custard Pudding._
Boil a stick of cinnamon and a roll of lemon peel, in a pint of new milk, or cream, and set it by to cool. Beat 5 eggs, pour the milk to them, sweeten to taste, and bake in a dish lined with puff paste twenty minutes. You may add a wine-glassful of brandy. _To Boil._--Prepare a mould as follows; put into it enough powdered sugar, to cover it, set it on the stove for the sugar to melt, and take care that the syrup cover the whole inside of the mould; grate lemon peel over the sugar, and pour the above mixture of milk or cream and eggs into it; tie a cloth over, and put instantly into boiling water, and boil it half an hour. Turn it out, and garnish with preserves. These puddings are good, hot or cold.
{253}_Little Puddings._
Grate a penny loaf, and mix well with a handful of currants, a very little fresh butter, nutmeg, and the yolk of an egg; make it into little balls, flour them, tie separately in a cloth, and boil them half an hour. Serve quite hot, with wine sauce.
_An Excellent Pudding._
Boil a bit of cinnamon in a pint of milk, pour it over thin slices of French roll, or an equal quantity of rusks, cover with a plate to cool; beat it quite smooth with 6 oz. shred suet, ¼ lb. currants, 3 eggs beaten, and a little brandy, old rum, or orange-flower water. Bake an hour.
_Oatmeal Pudding._
Steep the oatmeal all night in milk. Pour off the milk, and stir into the meal some cream, currants, spice, sugar, or salt, to your taste, and 3 or 4 eggs; or, if no cream, use more eggs. Stir well, and boil it in a basin an hour. Pour melted butter, sweetened, over it.
_Batter Pudding._
Beat 4 eggs and mix them smoothly, with 4 table-spoonsful of flour, then stir in by degrees, 1 pint of new milk, beat it well, add a tea-spoonful of salt, and boil in a mould an hour, or bake it half an hour.--_Black Cap Pudding_ is made in the same way, with the addition of 3 oz. currants; these will fall to the bottom of the basin, and form a black cap when the pudding is turned out.--_Batter Pudding with Fruit_ is made as follows: pare, core, and divide, 8 large apples, put them in a deep pudding dish, pour a batter over, and bake it.--Cherries, plums, damsons, and most sorts of fruit, make nice puddings in this way.--Serve sweet sauce with batter puddings.--_Or_: raspberry vinegar, such as is made at home, clear, and possessing the flavour of the fruit.
_Yorkshire Pudding._
This is batter, the same as the last receipt, baked, and {254}eaten with roast meat; but in some houses it is not baked, but cooked under the meat thus: pour it into a shallow tin pan, put it under roasting meat, and stir till it begins to settle. After one or two trials a cook will know when to put the pudding under the meat, for that must depend upon the size of the joint, as it ought to go to table as soon as it is done, or it will be heavy. They are much lighter not turned. The fat will require to be poured off, once or twice.
_Potato Puddings._
Boil in a quart of milk, a bit of lemon peel, and some nutmeg. Rub smooth, in a little cold milk, 4 table-spoonsful of potato flour, and stir it, by degrees, into the hot milk; when cool, add sugar, and 3 or 4 eggs, or more as you like, put it into a dish, and bake an hour. Add brandy or orange-flower water.
_Carrot Pudding._
Mix ½ lb. grated raw carrot with ½ lb. grated bread, and stir these into a pint of thick cream and the yolks of 8 eggs well beaten, then stir in ½ lb. fresh butter, melted, 3 spoonsful of orange-flower water, ½ a wine-glassful of brandy, a nutmeg grated, and sugar to your taste; stir all well together, and if too thick, add a very little new milk, pour it into a dish lined with paste and bake it an hour.
_Hasty Pudding._
Beat the yolk of an egg into ½ pint new milk with a little salt, stir this by degrees into 3 table-spoonsful of flour, and beat it to a smooth batter. Set 1½ pint of milk on the fire; when scalding hot pour in the batter, keep stirring that it may be smooth and not burn: let it thicken, but not boil. Serve it directly.
_Buttermilk Pudding._
Use fresh buttermilk, and make the same as batter pudding, but without eggs. This is very good, with roast meat.--_Or_: warm 3 quarts of milk with a quart of {255}buttermilk, then pour it through a sieve; when the curd is dry, pound it with ½ lb. sugar, the peel of a lemon boiled till tender, the crumb of a roll, 6 bitter almonds, 4 oz. butter, the yolks of 5 and whites of 3 eggs, a tea-cupful of good cream, a wine-glassful of sweet wine and of brandy; mix well, and bake in small cups, well buttered. Serve quite hot, with sweet sauce.
_Save-all Pudding._
Put scraps of bread, or dry pieces of home-made cake, into a saucepan, with milk according to the quantity of bread; when it boils, beat the bread smooth, add 3 eggs, sugar, nutmeg, ginger, and lemon peel; put it into a buttered dish, and strew over the top 2 oz. shred suet, or butter. Bake or boil it three quarters of an hour. _Currants_ or _raisins_ are an improvement.
_Camp Puddings._
Melt ¼ lb. butter in ½ pint of water, with a little salt, sugar to your taste, and grated lemon peel. When melted, stir in ¼ lb. flour, and when nearly cold, add 3 eggs well beaten. Bake in cups twenty minutes, or fry them in plenty of lard.
_Pretty Puddings._
A pint of cream, or new milk, 4 eggs (leave out 2 whites), ½ a nutmeg grated, the pulp of 2 large apples (boiled), ¼ lb. butter melted, and a tea-cupful of grated bread. Beat it well together, sweeten to your taste, and bake it.
_Nursery Pudding._
Cut the crumb of a twopenny loaf in slices, pour on it a quart of boiling milk, cover close for ten minutes; beat it and stir in ¼ lb. fresh butter, 4 eggs, a little nutmeg, and sugar. Bake in patty-pans, or in a dish, half an hour.
_Arrow Root Pudding._
Rub 2 dessert-spoonsful of arrow root quite smooth in a little cold milk, pour upon it by degrees, stirring all the {256}time, a pint of scalded new milk; put it on the fire a few minutes to thicken, but not boil; stir carefully, or it will be lumpy. When cold add sugar, and 3 yolks of eggs. Boil, or bake it half an hour.
_Ground Rice Pudding._
Mix 2 oz. ground rice with ½ pint of cold milk; scald 1½ pint of new milk, and pour the rice and milk into it, stirring over the fire till it thickens: let it cool, then add 5 eggs well beaten, 6 oz. of powdered sugar, nutmeg, and a spoonful of orange-flower water, stir all well together, and bake in a dish, with a paste border, half an hour. Currants may be added. It may be boiled in a mould, an hour. Indian corn flour makes good puddings the same way; and there are preparations of Indian corn, such as _soujie_, _semolina_, and _golden polenta_, which may be dressed in the same way.
_Semolina Pudding._
Mix 2 oz. of semolina quite smooth, with a little cold milk, then pour over it a pint of boiled milk, and sweeten to your taste, then put it into a saucepan, and keep stirring till it boils, take it off the fire, and stir till only lukewarm; add a slice of butter, the yolks of 4 eggs, the juice of a lemon, and a wine-glassful of brandy. Bake in a dish lined with paste, half an hour.
_Indian Corn Mush._
The same thing as oatmeal porridge, but made of Indian corn meal. Boil 2 quarts of water with a little salt, and mix it, by degrees, into 1 lb. corn meal; boil very gently three quarters of an hour, stirring all the time, that the meal may not adhere to the bottom of the saucepan, and burn.
_Hommony._
Boil one third of a pound of Indian meal in water to cover it, for twenty minutes, or until nearly all the water is wasted; it must be like thick paste. Put a piece of butter the size of a walnut into a vegetable dish, pour in the hommony, {257}and serve it, like mashed turnips. Dip your spoon in the middle when you help it. In some parts of America, what they call _hommony_ is made of the _cracked_ corn: and if so, it must be something of the same kind as our peas-pudding, but not boiled in a cloth.
_Polenta._
The best thing to prepare this in, is a three legged iron pot, hung over the fire. Let the fire be hot, and also blazing, if possible. To a quart of water, when it boils, put in a little salt, then add 12 oz. of meal, but be careful to do it in the following manner: while the water is boiling stir in half the meal first, but be sure to stir quickly all the time, or it may be lumpy, then you may put in the remainder at once, but keep stirring constantly. When it has been on the fire a quarter of an hour, cease to stir, take the pot off the fire and set it on the floor for two minutes, then put it on the fire again, and you will see the polenta first rise in a great puff, then break and fall; as soon as you perceive this, take it off the fire, and turn it out into a dish; it ought to come out quite clean, not leaving a particle adhering to the pot, else there has been some fault in the boiling. It is stirred with a long stick, thicker at one end than the other. Of this the Italians make an endless variety of dishes, some of which are the following: the most simple mode of dressing the polenta is thus: pour it from the boiling into a bowl, when cold turn it out; take a coarse thread in your two hands, put it on the side of the polenta away from you, draw the thread towards you, and you will find that it cuts a clean slice of polenta off, continue till you have cut it all into slices, and then you may dress them in different ways: the commonest is to cut the slices _thick_ and brown them on a gridiron.
_Whole Rice Pudding._
Rice should be soaked an hour in cold water. Wash well, and pick, a tea-cupful of good rice, boil it slowly ten minutes, in a little water, pour that off, and pour over the rice 1½ pint of new milk; let the milk boil up, pour it into a deep dish, stir in a bit of butter, sugar to your taste, a little pounded cinnamon, and grated lemon peel; {258}bake it, and it will be a good plain pudding. This is made richer by adding to the rice and milk, when poured into the dish, some sliced suet, and raisins, or candied peel, also 3 or 4 eggs.--_Or_: apples pared, cored, and sliced, spread at the bottom of the dish, the rice and milk poured over them.--_Little rice puddings_ are made by boiling the rice (after it has been parboiled in water) in a pint of cream, with a bit of butter; let it get quite cold, then mix with it the yolks of 6 eggs, sugar, lemon peel, and cinnamon; butter some little cups, lay slices of candied citron, or lemon, at the bottom, fill up with rice, bake, turn them out in a dish, and pour sweet sauce round. Ratafia is an improvement.
_Rice Pudding to Boil._
Wash and pick ¼ lb. of rice, tie it in a cloth, leaving room to swell, boil it two hours. Turn it out in a dish, pour melted butter and sifted sugar over.--_Or_: apples sliced may be mixed with the rice when it is put into the pudding cloth.--_Or_: boil ½ lb. of rice in 1½ pint of milk till tender, then mix with it ½ lb. suet, and the same of currants and raisins chopped, 3 eggs, 1 table-spoonful of sugar, the same of brandy, a little nutmeg and lemon peel; beat well, put 2 table-spoonsful of flour to bind it, and boil in a mould or bason three hours.
_Snow Balls._
Boil ½ lb. whole rice tender in water, with a large piece of lemon peel; drain off the water. Pare and core 4 large apples. Divide the rice into equal parts, roll out each one, put an apple in, cover with the rice, and tie each one tightly up in a cloth, and boil half an hour. Pour pudding sauce round.
_Buxton Pudding._
Boil 1 pint new milk; rub smoothly with a little cold milk, 2 table-spoonsful of flour, and mix it by degrees to the boiled milk, and set it over the fire, let it boil five minutes, then cool; stir in 4 oz. melted butter, 5 eggs, 6 oz. lump sugar, and the rind of a lemon grated. Bake half an hour.
{259}_Vermicelli Pudding._
Boil 1½ pint of new milk, put to it 4 oz. fine vermicelli, boil them together till the latter is cooked; add ¼ lb. butter; the yolks of 4 eggs, ¼ lb. sugar, a little cinnamon, nutmeg, and lemon peel grated. Boil in a bason; or bake twenty minutes. Cream is an improvement.
_Sago, or Tapioca Pudding._
Wash it in several waters, then soak it an hour. Boil 5 table-spoonsful in a quart of new milk, with sugar, cinnamon, lemon peel and nutmeg, to taste; when cold add 4 eggs, bake it in a dish with a paste border, in a slow oven. Some prefer the prepared sago powder.
_Pearl Barley Pudding._
Wash 3 table-spoonsful of pearl barley in cold water, then boil it two hours or till quite soft, in a quart of milk, then beat in 2 eggs, some sugar, and 3 drops of essence of lemon: bake it in a pie dish.
_Millet Pudding._
Wash 4 oz. of the seeds, pour on them 1½ pint of boiling milk, add 2 oz. butter, a little sugar, ginger, and nutmeg; cover with a plate, and let it remain till cold, then stir in 3 eggs: boil or bake it.
_Maccaroni Pudding._
Simmer 3 oz. pipe maccaroni in 1½ pint of milk, and a little salt, till tender. (_Or_: simmer it in water, pour that off, then put the hot milk to the maccaroni.) Let it cool, add the yolks of 4 eggs, a little nutmeg, cinnamon, powdered sugar, and a table-spoonful of almond-flower water, and bake it.--_Or_: to make it richer, put a layer of any preserve in the centre of the maccaroni. Lay a paste round the edge of the dish.--_Or_: simmer 6 oz. maccaroni till tender, pour the water off, and let the maccaroni cool. Beat the yolks of 6 eggs, the whites of 3, and stir them into ½ pint of good cream, with a very little salt and pepper. {260}Skin and mince the breast of a cold fowl, with half its quantity of lean ham; grate 1½ oz. parmesan over the mince, and mix it with all the rest; then pour it into a shape or bason; boil or steam it.--_Excellent._ Serve a good clear gravy with this.
_A Pudding always liked._
Put ¼ lb. ratafia drops, 2 oz. jar raisins stoned and slit in two, 1 oz. sweet almonds slit and blanched, 1 oz. of citron and candied lemon (both sliced), in layers in a deep dish, and pour over a wine-glassful of sherry and the same of brandy; pour over a good, rich, unboiled custard, to fill up the dish, then bake it.
_Cheese Pudding._
Grate ½ lb. of Cheshire cheese into a table-spoonful of finely grated bread-crumbs, mix them up with 2 eggs, a tea-cupful of cream, and the same of oiled butter; bake in a small dish lined with puff paste. Serve this quite hot.
_Ratafia Pudding._
Blanch, and beat to a paste, in a mortar, ½ lb. of sweet, and ½ oz. of bitter, almonds, with a table-spoonful of orange-flower water; add 3 oz. of fresh butter, melted in a wine-glassful of hot cream, 4 eggs, sugar to taste, a very little nutmeg, and a table-spoonful of brandy. Bake in a small dish, or little cups buttered: serve white wine sauce.
_Staffordshire Pudding._
Put into a scale 3 eggs in the shells, take the same weight of butter, of flour, and of sugar: beat the butter to a cream, then add the flour, beat it again, then the sugar and eggs. Butter cups, fill them half full, and bake twenty minutes in a slow oven. Serve in sweet sauce.
_Baked Almond Pudding._
Beat 6 oz. of sweet and 12 bitter almonds to a paste; mix this with the yolks of 6 eggs, 4 oz. butter, the grated peel {261}and juice of a lemon, 1½ pint of cream, a glass of white wine, and some sugar. Put a paste border round a dish, pour in the pudding, and bake it half an hour.
_Wafer Pudding._
Melt 1 oz. butter and mix it with a gill of cream; when this is cold, work it into 1½ table-spoonful flour, and 4 eggs, mix well, and bake it in saucers, half an hour. Serve with wine sauce.
_Orange Pudding._
Grate the rind of a large Seville orange into a mortar, put to it 4 oz. fresh butter and 6 oz. finely powdered sugar; beat well, and mix in, gradually, 8 eggs; have ready soaked in milk 3 sponge biscuits, and mix them to the rest; beat well, pour it into a shallow dish, lined with a rich puff paste, and bake till the paste is done.--_Or_: the yolks of 8, and whites of 4, eggs well beaten, 4 table-spoonsful of orange marmalade, 4 oz. pounded sugar, 4 oz. fresh butter, 2 oz. pounded Naples biscuits, 2 table-spoonsful of cream, 2 of sherry, and 1 of good brandy; mix all together, and bake in a dish with a very thin paste.
_Lemon Pudding._
Put ½ lb. fresh butter with ½ lb. lump sugar into a saucepan, and stir it over the fire till the sugar is melted, turn it out to cool; beat 8 eggs, very well, add to them the juice of 2, and the grated peel of 3, lemons, and mix these well with the butter and sugar, also a wine-glassful of brandy; bake in a dish lined with puff paste, half an hour.--_Or_: boil in several waters the peel of 4 large lemons, and when cold pound it in a mortar with ½ lb. of lump sugar; add ½ lb. fresh butter beaten to a cream, 6 yolks of eggs, 3 whites, 2 table-spoonsful of brandy, and the juice of 3 lemons, mix well, and bake in a moderately quick oven; when done strew sifted sugar over.--Some persons put 2 sponge biscuits into the mixture.
_Cabinet or Brandy Pudding._
Line a mould, first with raisins stoned, or with dried {262}cherries, then with thin slices of French roll, then with ratafias or maccaroons, then put in preserved, or fresh, fruit as you like, mixed with sponge, and what other cakes you choose, until the mould be full, sprinkling in at times 2 glasses of brandy. Beat 4 eggs, yolks and whites, and put them into a pint of scalded and sweetened new milk or cream, add grated nutmeg and lemon peel; let the liquid sink gradually into the solid part, tie a floured cloth tight over, and boil the pudding one hour, keeping the bottom of the bason up.--_Another_: pour a pint of hot cream over ½ lb. of Savoy biscuit, and cover it; when cold, beat it up, with the yolks and whites of 8 eggs, beaten separately, sugar and grated lemon peel: butter a mould, stick some stoned raisins round, and pour in the pudding: boil or bake it.
_Baked Apple or Gooseberry Pudding._
Having pared and cored them, stew 1 lb. of apples, or 1 quart of gooseberries, in a small stew-pan, with a very little water, a stick of cinnamon, 2 or 3 cloves, and grated lemon peel: when soft, pulp the apples through a sieve, sweeten them, or, if they want sharpness, add the juice of half, or a whole lemon, also ¼ lb. good fresh butter, and the yolks of 6 eggs well beaten; line a pudding dish, or patty-pans, with a good puff paste; pour the pudding in, and bake half an hour, or less, as required. A little brandy, or orange-flower water, may be used.--You may mix 2 oz. of Naples biscuit, with the pulp of gooseberries. _Another._--Prepare the apples as in the last receipt: butter a dish and strew a very thick coating of crumbs of bread, put in the apples and cover with more crumbs; bake in a moderate oven half an hour, then turn it carefully out, and strew bits of lemon peel and finely sifted sugar over.--Rice may be used instead of crumbs of bread, first boiled till quite tender in milk, then sweetened, and flavoured with nutmeg and pounded cinnamon; stir a large piece of butter into it.
_Quince Pudding._
Scald 1 lb. fruit till tender, pare them, and scrape off all the pulp. Strew over it pounded ginger and cinnamon, {263}with sugar enough to sweeten it. To a pint of cream, put the yolks of 3 eggs, and stir enough pulp to make it as thick as you like. Pour it into a dish lined with puff paste, and bake it. Any stone fruit may be coddled, then baked in the same way.
_Swiss Apple Pudding._
Break some rusks in bits, and soak them in boiling milk. Put a layer of sliced apples and sugar in a pudding dish, then a layer of rusks, and so on; finish with rusks, pour thin melted butter over, and bake it.
_Peach, Apricot, and Nectarine Pudding._
Pour a pint of boiling, thin cream, over a breakfast-cupful of bread-crumbs, and cover with a plate. When cold, beat them up with the yolks of 5 eggs, sugar to taste, and a glass of white wine. Scald 12 large peaches, peel them, take out the kernels, pound these with the fruit, in a mortar, and mix with the other ingredients; put all into a dish with a paste border, and bake it. _Another Apricot Pudding._--Coddle 6 large apricots till quite tender, cut them in quarters, sweeten to your taste, and when cold, add 6 yolks of eggs and 2 whites, well beaten, also a little cream. Put this in a dish lined with puff paste, and bake it half an hour in a slow oven: strew powdered sugar over, and send it to table.
For this and all delicate puddings requiring little baking, rather shallow dishes are best; and if the pudding is not to be _turned out_, a pretty paste border only is required; this formed of leaves neatly cut, and laid round the dish, their edges just laying over each other.
_A Charlotte._
Cut slices of bread, an inch thick, butter them on both sides, and cut them into dice or long slips, and make them fit the bottom, and round the sides of a small buttered dish or baking tin, and fill up with apples which have been stewed, sweetened, and seasoned to taste; have some slices {264}of bread soaked in warm milk and butter, cover these over the top, put a plate or dish on the top, and a weight on that, to keep it down, and bake in a quick oven: when done, turn it out of the dish.--This is very nice, made of layers of different sorts of marmalade or preserved fruit, and slices of stale sponge cake between each layer. _Another of Currants._--Stew ripe currants with sugar enough to sweeten them: have ready a basin or mould buttered and lined with thin slices of bread and butter, pour in the stewed fruit hot, just off the fire, cover with more slices of bread and butter, turn a plate over, and a weight on that: let it stand till the next day, then turn it out, and pour cream or a thin custard round it, in the dish.
_Bakewell Pudding._
Line a dish with puff paste, spread over a variety of preserves, and pour over them the following mixture:--½ lb. clarified butter, ½ lb. lump sugar, 8 yolks, and 2 whites of eggs, and any thing you choose to flavour with; bake it in a moderate oven. When cold you may put stripes of candied lemon over the top, and a few blanched almonds. To be eaten cold.--This without any preserves is called _Amber Pudding_.
_Citron Pudding._
Mix ½ pint of good cream by degrees, with 1 table-spoonful of fine flour, 2 oz. of lump sugar, a little nutmeg and the yolks of 2 eggs; pour it into a dish or little cups, stick in 2 oz. of citron cut very fine, and bake in a moderate oven.
_Maccaroon Pudding._
Pour a pint of boiling cream or new milk, flavoured with cinnamon and lemon peel, over ¼ lb. maccaroon and ¼ lb. almond cakes; when cold break them small, add the yolks of 6 and the whites of 4 eggs, 2 table-spoonsful of orange marmalade, 2 oz. fresh butter, 2 oz. sifted sugar, a glass of sherry, and one of brandy mixed: mix well, put it into cups, and bake fifteen minutes.
{265}_New College Pudding._
(The Original Receipt.)
Grate a stale penny loaf, shred fine ½ lb. suet, beat 4 eggs, and mix all well together, with 4 oz. of sifted sugar, a little nutmeg, a wine-glassful of brandy, a little candied orange and lemon peel, and a little rose or orange flower water. Fry these in good butter, and pour melted butter with a glass of white wine over them in the dish. The several ingredients may be prepared apart, but must not be mixed till you are ready to fry them.--_Another_: to 4 oz. of grated bread add 4 oz. suet shred fine, 4 oz. currants, 2 eggs, 3 table-spoonsful of brandy, with sugar, lemon peel, and nutmeg to your taste; mix well together, make into 4 little puddings, and boil them an hour.
_Paradise Pudding._
Pare and chop 6 apples very fine, mix them with 6 oz. bread-crumbs, 6 oz. powdered sugar, 6 oz. currants, 6 eggs, 6 oz. of suet, a little salt, nutmeg, and lemon peel, also a glass of brandy. Boil in a bason one hour and a half.
_Yeast or Light Dumplings._
Put 1½ table-spoonful of good yeast into as much lukewarm water as will mix a quartern of fine flour into dough; add a little salt, knead it lightly, cover with a cloth, and let it stand in rather a warm place, not exposed to a current of air, two hours. Make it into 12 dumplings, let them stand half an hour, put them into a large vessel of boiling water, keep the lid on, and they will be done in fifteen or twenty minutes. Serve melted butter.
_Hard Dumplings._
Sprinkle a little salt into the flour and mix it up rather stiff with water, make it into dumplings, and boil them with beef or pork. They may be made in cakes as broad as a small plate, about an inch thick; place a skimmer in the pot, lay the cake on it, boil it half an hour; score it deeply, and slip slices of butter in, sprinkle a little salt over, and serve it quite hot. A very little _lard_ may be rubbed into the flour.
{266}_Pancakes._
The batter requires long beating, but the great art consists in frying them. The lard, butter, or dripping must be fresh and hot, as for fish. Beat 2 eggs and stir them, with a little salt, into 3 table-spoonsful of flour, or allow an egg to each spoonful of flour, add pounded cinnamon, and, by degrees, a pint of new milk, and beat it to a smooth batter. Make a small round frying-pan quite hot, put a piece of butter or lard into it, and, when melted, pour it out and wipe the pan; put a piece more in, and when it has melted and begins to froth, pour in a ladle or tea-cupful of the batter, toss the pan round, run a knife round the edges, and turn the pancake when the top is of a light brown; brown the other side; roll it up, and serve very hot. Currant jelly, or marmalade, may be spread thinly on the pancake before it is rolled up. Cream and more eggs will make it richer; also brandy or lemon juice.
_Whole Rice Pancakes._
Boil ½ lb. rice in water till quite tender, strain, and let it cool; then break it very fine, and add ½ lb. clarified butter, ½ pint of scalded cream, or new milk, a little salt, nutmeg, and 5 eggs, well beaten. Mix well, and fry them. Garnish with slices of lemon, or Seville orange.
_Ground Rice Pancakes._
Stir, by degrees, into a quart of new milk, 4 table-spoonsful of ground rice, and a little salt; stir it over the fire till it is as thick as pap; stir in ½ lb. butter and grated nutmeg, and let it cool; add 4 table-spoonsful of flour, a little sugar, and 9 eggs; beat well, and fry them.
_Fritters._
Make batter the same as pancakes, but stiffer; pour a large spoonful into boiling lard; fry as many at a time as the pan will hold. Sift powdered sugar over, and serve on a hot dish. Fritters are usually made with minced apple or currants, stirred into the batter, or any sweetmeat stiff enough to be cut into little bits, or candied lemon or orange {267}peel.--_Or_: grate the crumb of a stale roll, beat it smooth in a pint of milk over the fire, then let it get cold, and mix it with the yolks of 5 eggs, 3 oz. sifted sugar, and ½ a nutmeg. Fry in boiling lard, and serve hot. Sweet sauce in a tureen. _Curd Fritters_--Rub a quart basin full of dried curd with the yolks of 8 and whites of 4 eggs; 3 oz. sugar, ½ a nutmeg grated, and a dessert-spoonful of flour; beat well, and drop the batter into boiling lard. _Apple Fritters_--Make a stiff common pancake batter. Boil ½ a stick of cinnamon in a breakfast-cupful of water, and let it cool. Peel and core some large apples, cut them in round slices, and steep them half an hour, or more, in the cinnamon water; then dip each piece in the batter, and fry them in lard, or clarified dripping. Drain, dust sugar over each one, and serve hot.--_Or_: to make a pretty dish, drop enough batter into the pan to form a fritter the size of the slices of apple, lay a slice of apple upon that, and drop batter on the top.--_Or_: the apples may be pared, cored, half baked (whole), then dipped in the batter, and fried.
_A Rice White Pot._
Boil 1 lb. whole rice quite tender, in 2 quarts of new milk, strain, and beat it in a mortar with ¼ lb. blanched almonds, and a little rose water. Boil 2 quarts of cream with a blade or 2 of mace, let it cool, and stir into it 5 eggs well beaten, sweeten to taste, pour it into the rice, mix well, and bake half an hour. Lay some slices of candied orange and citron on the top before you put it into the oven.--_Or_: to a quart of new milk add the yolks of 4 and the whites of 2 eggs, a table-spoonful of rose water, and 2 oz. sugar; beat well, and pour it into a pie dish, over some thin slices of bread: bake it half an hour.
_Pain Perdu._
Boil a pint of cream, or new milk; when cold, stir in 6 eggs and put in a French roll, cut in slices, to soak an hour. Fry the slices in butter, of a light brown, and serve with pudding sauce poured over.
{268}CHAPTER XXI.
BREAD, CAKES, BISCUITS, ROLLS, AND MUFFINS.
ALMOST every county has its peculiar fashion of making bread: and almost every hand differs in the practice. The receipt here given is the one followed by most persons in Hampshire; and I select it, being the one I am most familiar with, and not because that county is famed for excellence in bread; for much depends upon the goodness of the flour, and some other parts of England excel Hampshire in this respect.
Good bread is so essential, that no pains ought to be spared to procure it. For this purpose the flour ought to be well prepared, and kept in a dry place. Some persons like brown bread, but it is not, in general, so wholesome as that which is all white. Six pounds of rye flour, to a peck of wheaten flour, makes very good bread.
The advantages of making bread _at home_, in preference to buying it at the baker's, are stated in COBBETT'S "COTTAGE ECONOMY"; and I refer my readers to that little work, to convince them that they will benefit greatly by following the advice there given on this subject.
Small beer yeast is the best for making bread, as ale, or strong beer yeast, is generally too bitter.
_To take the Bitter from Yeast._--Put the yeast to the water you use to mix the "batter," or as the country people call it, "set the sponge," and stir into it 2 or 3 good handfuls of bran; pour it through a sieve or jelly bag (kept for the purpose), and then mix it into the flour. The bran not only corrects the bitterness of the yeast, but communicates a sweetness to the bread.--_Or_: put into the yeast 2 or 3 pieces of wood coal, stir them about, pour the water in, and then strain it.
{269}_Household Bread._
(From Cobbett's Cottage Economy.)
"Supposing the quantity to be a bushel of flour, put it into the trough, and make a deep hole in the middle. Stir into a pint (or if very thick and good, ½ or ¾ pint), of yeast, a pint of soft warm water, and pour it into the hole in the flour. In very cold weather the water should be nearly hot, in very warm weather only lukewarm. Take a spoon and work it round the outside of this body of moisture, so as to bring into that body, by degrees, flour enough to form a _thin batter_, which you must stir about well for a minute or two. Then take a handful of flour and scatter it thinly over the head of this batter, so as to _hide_ it. Cover a cloth over the trough to keep the air from the bread, and the thickness of this covering, as well as the situation of the trough as to distance from the fire, must depend on the nature of the place and state of the weather, as to heat and cold. When you perceive that the batter has risen enough to make _cracks_ in the flour that you covered it over with, you begin to form the whole mass into _dough_, thus: you begin round the hole containing the batter, working the flour into the batter, and pouring in, as it is wanted, soft water, or half milk and half water, in winter a _little_ warm, in summer quite cold; but before you begin this, you scatter the salt over the heap, at the rate of a lb. to a bushel of flour. When you have got the whole _sufficiently moist_, you _knead it well_. This is a grand part of the business; for unless the dough be _well worked_, there will be _little round lumps of flour in the loaves_; besides which, the original batter, which is to give fermentation to the whole, will not be duly mixed. The dough must, therefore, be well worked. The _fists_ must go heartily into it. It must be rolled over; pressed out; folded up, and pressed out again, until it be completely mixed, and formed into a _stiff_ and _tough dough_."
The loaves are made up according to fancy, both as to size and shape; but the time they require to bake will greatly depend upon the former, for the household loaf of a Hampshire farm-house takes three hours or three hours and a half, while that of a Norfolk farm-house does not, I should imagine, require half the time.
{270}_French Bread or Rolls._
Warm 1½ pint of milk, add ½ pint yeast; mix them with fine flour to a thick batter, put it near the fire to rise, keeping it covered. When it has risen as high as it will, add ¼ pint of warm water, ½ oz. salt, 2 oz. butter; rub the butter first with a little dry flour, mix the dough not quite so stiff as for common bread; let it stand three quarters of an hour to rise, then make it into rolls. Bake in a quick oven.
_Rice Bread._
To ¼ lb. wheat flour, allow 1 lb. rice; the latter first boiled in four times its weight of water, till it becomes a perfect pulp, then mix by degrees, the flour with the rice, and sufficient yeast for the quantity of bread; knead and set it to rise.
It was the fashion in this country to present a variety of cakes, some hot and some cold, on the tea-table; but now, except in some of the northern counties, the good custom is obsolete.
In America, it is the general custom to dine early, to take tea rather late, and no supper; and there the tea table is a matter of as much consideration as the dinner table is in England or France. Every house in America, especially in the country, has one, two, or more cottage ovens of various sizes. I believe that these very useful things are known in some parts of England, but I never saw them except in America. They are particularly adapted to open fire-places, where wood or peat are burnt. They are much the same as the iron pots, which stand on legs, except that the bottom of the oven is flat, not round, and that the lid fits into the top, leaving a space sufficient to hold a layer of hot coals: the oven stands upon legs, at a little distance from the ground, to admit of hot coals being placed under it. A loaf the size of our quartern loaf may be baked in this way, as well as tarts, cakes, custards, apples, pears, &c., &c. By means of this little oven, much labour and fuel are saved. Another appendage to an American kitchen, is the _girdle_ for baking many sorts of cakes, and crumpets; and on this girdle they cook their far-famed buckwheat cakes. It is a round iron plate with a handle over it, which is hung upon the crane upon which {271}iron pots are hung, or it will stand upon a trivet, and then the crumpets are cooked in the same way as pancakes; and are much better thus, fresh made, than as they are generally eaten.
In the country, where eggs, cream, and flour (the chief ingredients), are always to be obtained in perfection, there is no excuse for an absence of cakes for the tea, or of rolls at the breakfast table. In most houses, there are young ladies who might attend to this department, with very little loss of time, and with much credit to themselves, and I should be glad if I saw reason to hope that those who are now growing up would not despise the practice. The more difficult and intricate articles of ornamental confectionary, may be too troublesome for any but professors of the art; but all _cakes_ may be made at home. Nothing worth knowing, is to be learned without trouble; but in the art of making and baking cakes, few failures can arise after any number of trials.
Flour for cakes should be of the best quality, well dried, and sifted. The eggs fresh, beaten separately, and beaten well. Currants well washed, picked, and dried in a cloth, or before the fire. The ingredients thoroughly mixed, and the cake put into the oven _instantly_, unless there be yeast, and then time must be given for it to rise.
Sal Volatile is used, not to make cakes rise, but to prevent their flattening, after they have risen, but though the practice may not be injurious, it had better be avoided. Yeast ought to be sweet, white, and thick; and may be prepared in the manner directed for bread. Pearl-ash is sometimes used to lighten bread and cakes.
An iceing is made as follows: to ½ lb. finely sifted sugar put the whites of 2 eggs, beaten with a little water; beat all well with a whisk till quite smooth, and spread it thickly over the cake, with a spoon; for small cakes, put it on lightly, with a brush.
Ovens vary so much, that experience alone can teach what quantity of fuel, and what portion of time may be required to heat any particular one. When such knowledge is once obtained, it will be a matter of no great difficulty so to manage the oven that it be always of the right temperature; which it must be, or all labour is lost.
Cakes keep moist covered with a cloth, in a pan.
{272}_Common Currant Loaf._
Melt ¼ lb. butter in a pint of milk, and mix it with 4 oz. yeast and 2 eggs, then stir it into 2 lbs. flour, beat well with a wooden spoon, and set it before the fire to rise; then add 1 lb. currants, and 2 oz. sifted sugar, and bake it an hour in a moderate oven.
_A Rich Plum Cake._
To 1 lb. each, of currants and flour, rubbed together, add 12 oz. fresh butter beaten to a cream. Beat the whites and yolks of 16 eggs, put to them nearly 1 lb. finely powdered sugar, set this mixture over the fire, and whisk it till the eggs are warm; then take it off, beat till cold, and stir in, first, the butter, then the flour and currants; beat well, add ½ oz. bitter almonds, beaten to a paste, 2 oz. sweet almonds, blanched, and cut the long way, ½ oz. pounded cinnamon and mace, and ½ lb. candied peel, either citron, lemon, or orange, or a portion of each; add a little brandy or any highly flavoured liquor. Paper a hoop and pour in the cake. An hour and a half, or two hours will bake it.--_Another_: beat 1 lb. butter to a cream, put to it ¾ lb. sifted sugar, and a little rose or orange flower water, beat it; then add 8 yolks of eggs, the whites of 4, ½ lb. almonds, blanched and beaten, 1½ lb. currants, a little each, of cinnamon, mace, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger, and 1 lb. flour. You may add 2 table-spoonsful of brandy, 1 oz. citron, 1 oz. candied lemon peel, and the same of orange peel. Bake two hours.
_A very good Cake._
Beat 2 lbs. fresh butter, with a little rose water, till it is like cream; rub it into 2 lbs. well dried flour; add the peel of a lemon grated, 1 lb. loaf sugar pounded and sifted, 15 eggs (beat the whites by themselves, the yolks with the sugar), a ¼ pint of brandy, the same of Lisbon or Marsala, 2½ lbs. currants, ½ lb. almonds, blanched and cut in slices, beat well together, put it into a buttered tin or dish, bake two hours. Candied lemon or citron may be added.
{273}_Pound Cake._
To 1 lb. flour add 1 lb. butter beaten to a cream, and 8 eggs: beat well, add sifted sugar, and grated lemon peel. You may add currants or carraways, to your taste. Beat well, and bake in rather a quick oven, an hour.
_Common Cake._
To 2 lbs. flour, add ½ lb. butter, ½ lb. sugar, 4 eggs, 1 lb. currants, 1 oz. candied citron or lemon, 1 oz. carraway seeds, a little nutmeg, and 3 table-spoonsful yeast. Beat well, for half an hour, then put it in the oven _directly_.
_A Cake without Butter._
Take the weight of 5 eggs (in their shells), in sifted sugar, and the weight of 3 in flour: beat the eggs, add first, the sugar, then the flour, the rinds of 2 large lemons grated, and a wine-glassful of sherry or brandy. Bake in a tin mould in a quick oven.--_Another_: to a quartern of dough add ½ lb. butter, 4 eggs, ½ lb. currants, and ½ lb. sugar, beat all well together more than half an hour, and bake in a buttered tin.
_A Rich Seed Cake._
Mix 1 lb. sifted sugar into 1 lb. flour, and stir in, by degrees, 8 eggs, beaten, whisk well together, and add 3 oz. sweet almonds blanched and cut, some candied citron, lemon, and orange peel, and 12 oz. butter, beaten to a cream; a little pounded cinnamon, mace, and carraway seeds. Pour it into a papered hoop, and strew carraways on the top.--_Or_: put 2 lbs. flour into a deep pan, and mix in ¼ lb. sifted white sugar. Make a hole in the centre, pour in ½ pint of lukewarm milk and 2 table-spoonsful good yeast; stir a little of the flour in, cover a cloth lightly over, and let it stand an hour and a half to rise. Then work it up, with ½ lb. melted butter, a little allspice, ginger, nutmeg, and 1 oz. carraway seeds; adding warm milk sufficient to work it to a proper stiffness. Butter a hoop or dish, and pour in the cake; let it stand in a warm place another half hour to rise, then bake it. You may add 2 table-spoonsful of brandy.
{274}_A Rice Cake._
Mix 6 oz. ground rice, 4 oz. sugar, the grated peel of ½ a lemon, the yolks of 5 and whites of 3 eggs, and 1 table-spoonful orange flower water; break the eggs into a deep pan, and put the rice flour to them at once, mix it with a wooden spoon, then add the sugar and the other ingredients; beat well for twenty minutes, and it will be a fine light sponge; then immediately half fill the moulds, put them into a moderate oven, and bake three quarters of an hour, of a light brown colour. _Little Rice Cakes_--1 lb. ground rice, 1 lb. 2 oz. sugar, ¾ lb. butter, 8 eggs, and flour to make it into a stiff paste.--_Or_: 1 lb. sugar, ½ lb. flour, ½ lb. ground rice, 6 oz. butter, 8 yolks and 2 whites of eggs. Both these require long beating. Roll the paste out, cut it in shapes, and bake on buttered tins. Some persons add a few drops of the essence of lemon, and of almond flavour.
_Harvest Cake._
Mix into 3 lbs. flour ¼ oz. of powdered allspice; in another bowl put ¾ lb. sugar, either moist or lump, 2 oz. butter, 2 eggs, 3 table-spoonsful of yeast; beat well, then mix in the flour, with ¾ lb. currants, and warm milk and water, to make up the cake; set it by the fire an hour to rise.
_Temperance Cake._
Rub ¼ lb. butter into 1 lb. flour, add ½ lb. moist sugar, ½ lb. currants, and a tea-spoonful of carbonate of soda, dissolved in a ¼ pint of warm milk; mix well, and bake it in a tin.
_Sponge Cake._
The weight of 12 eggs in sifted sugar, and the weight of 6 in fine flour; beat the eggs separately, stir the sugar into the yolks, and beat well, then put in the whites and beat again, add a little nutmeg and rose-water, and just before you put the cake into the oven, stir the flour lightly into the eggs and sugar. This cake must be beaten with a whisk. Bake, in rather a quick oven, three quarters, or nearly an hour.--_Or_: beat, separately, the yolks and whites of 5 eggs, {275}put them together, add grated lemon peel, and 5 oz. fine sugar, beat again an hour and a half, then stir in as lightly as possible 4 oz. flour, previously dried before the fire.--_Or_: boil ¾ lb. lump sugar in ½ pint of water to a syrup; beat 7 eggs well, and pour the syrup, boiling hot, into them, stirring all the time; then beat it three quarters of an hour, and just before it is put in the oven, stir in lightly 10 oz. of fine flour, pour it in a mould, and bake in a slow oven. Lemon peel may be added. Some persons put in a dessert-spoonful of essence of lemon.
_Marlborough Cake._
Beat 8 eggs, strain, and put to them 1 lb. finely sifted sugar, and beat the mixture well half an hour; then put in ½ lb. well dried flour, and 2 oz. carraway seeds, beat well five minutes, pour it into shallow tin pins, and bake in a quick oven.
_Gingerbread._
Put 1¼ lb. treacle on the fire, and as it gets hot, take off the scum; stir in ¼ lb. of fresh butter, and let it cool; then mix it into a paste with 1½ lb. flour, 4 oz. brown sugar, a little ginger, and allspice; cut it into shapes, and bake on tins. More butter, or a little cream may be added. Candied orange, lemon peel, or carraway seeds, may be added.--_Another_: mix 1 lb. flour, ½ lb. butter (rubbed in), ½ lb. brown sugar, lemon, ginger, and ½ lb. treacle; let it stand all night, and bake it the next day. _Soft Gingerbread_--Six tea-cupfuls of flour, 3 of treacle, 1 of cream, and 1 of butter, 2 eggs, a table-spoonful of pearl-ash, dissolved in cold water, a table-spoonful of ginger, 1 tea-spoonful of pounded cloves, and a few raisins, stoned; mix well, and bake in a rather slow oven. _Gingerbread Nuts_--They may be made the same way as the receipt before the last, adding more spice. Cut in small cakes, or drop them from a spoon, and bake on paper. _Parliament_--Melt ¾ lb. butter with 2 lbs. treacle, and 1 lb. sugar, add ½ oz. ginger, the juice and grated rind of a lemon, and sufficient flour to make it into a paste: roll out thin, cut it into cakes, and bake it.
{276}_Parkin._
Mix 4 lbs. of meal with 2 lbs. treacle, 1 lb. sugar, 1 lb. butter, and ½ oz. ginger, with a tumbler full of brandy and rum; add nutmeg and mace if you like, and bake in large cakes.
_Volatile Cakes._
Melt ½ lb. butter, and stir in 4 eggs, 1 tea-spoonful of powdered volatile salts, dissolved in a tea-spoonful of milk, ½ lb. flour, ¼ lb. finely powdered loaf sugar, a few currants and carraway seeds. Mix well, and drop the cakes on tins. They will rise very much. Bake in a quick oven.
_Ginger or Hunting Cakes._
To 2 lbs. sugar, add 1 lb. butter, 2 oz. ginger, and a nutmeg grated; rub these into 1 lb. flour, and wet it with a pint of warm cream, or as much as is sufficient; roll out in thin cakes, and bake in a slack oven.
_Rough Cakes._
Rub 6 oz. butter into 1 lb. flour, ½ lb. sifted sugar, ½ lb. currants, and a little mace or lemon peel, break in 2 eggs, work it all into a rough paste, and drop on tins. You may add 1 oz. almonds.
_Ginger Rock Cakes._
Pound 1 lb. of loaf sugar, leaving a part of it as large as hemp seed; beat the whites of 2 eggs to a froth, add a dessert-spoonful of refined ginger (sold by the druggists in bottles), mix well with a tea-spoon, drop it on tins, and bake in a moderate oven, a quarter of an hour.
_Plain Biscuits._
To 1 lb. flour, put the yolk of 1 egg, and milk sufficient to mix it to a stiff paste, knead it smooth, then roll out thin, cut it in round shapes, prick with a fork, and bake them in a slow oven.--_Or_: to 1 lb. flour add ¼ lb. butter, beaten to a cream, 5 oz. loaf sugar, 5 eggs, and some {277}carraway seeds: beat well for an hour, and pour the biscuits on tins, each one a large spoonful. If not sufficiently thin and smooth, add another egg, or a little milk.--_Or_: rub 4 oz. fresh butter very smooth into 8 oz. flour, add 3 oz. sifted sugar, and a table-spoonful of carraways: then add the yolks of 4 eggs, and a table-spoonful of cream. Bake in a quick oven.
_Indian Corn Biscuits._
To ½ lb. butter, add 6 oz. pounded sugar, and 3 eggs; when well mixed, add ¾ lb. corn flour, a little nutmeg, and carraway seeds, beat well, and bake on little tins.--_Or_: into ¾ lb. flour, rub 4 oz. butter, add 4 oz. sifted sugar, and nearly 1 oz. carraway seeds; make into a paste with 3 eggs, roll out thin, and cut them in any shape you like.
_Dr. Oliver's Biscuits._
Put 2 lbs. flour into a shallow pan, mix 1 table-spoonful of yeast with a little warm water, and pour it into a hole in the middle of the flour, work a little of the flour into the yeast, and set the pan before the fire a quarter of an hour. Melt ¼ lb. butter in milk to mix the flour into a stiff paste, and bake on tins.
_Lemon Biscuits._
Beat the yolks of 12, and the whites of 6 eggs, with 1 lb. loaf sugar: when the oven is ready, add 2 table-spoonsful rose water, 12 oz. flour, the juice and rind of 2 lemons, grated, a few almonds if you choose. Bake in a quick oven.--_Or_: mix 1 lb. sifted sugar with ¼ lb. butter melted, the rind of a lemon grated, 2 eggs, and a very little flour: roll into little flat cakes, and bake on tins.
_Rusks._
Boil a quart of milk, let it cool, then put to it ½ pint of yeast, 2 eggs, 2 oz. coriander seeds, 2 oz. carraway seeds, a little ginger, and ¼ lb. finely pounded sugar, beat these together and add flour to make a stiff paste: divide it into {278}long thin bricks, put these on tins and set them before the fire a short time to rise, then bake them. When cold, cut in slices, and dry them in a slack oven.--_Or_: melt ½ lb. butter in a quart of milk, let it cool, add 1 egg, ½ pint yeast, and 4 oz. sifted sugar, beat this a few minutes, then work in flour to make a light dough, and set it by the fire to rise. Make this into little loaves, bake them on tins, in a quick oven; when half done take them out of the oven, split, and put them back to finish.
_Maccaroons, and Ratafia Cakes._
Blanch, and pound, with the whites of 4 eggs, 1 lb. of sweet almonds, 2 lbs. fine sugar, and beat it to a paste; add 8 more whites of eggs and beat well again. Drop it from a knife, on buttered paper, and bake on tins. _Ratafia Cakes._--The same as maccaroons, only use half bitter and half sweet almonds.
_Jumbles._
Rub ½ lb. flour, ½ lb. sifted sugar, with ¼ lb. butter, add a table-spoonful brandy and 2 eggs; keep out part of the flour to roll them out with; twist them up, and bake on tins. If too soft, leave out 1 white of egg.
_Small Plum Cakes._
Mix 2 lbs. flour with 1 lb. sugar, rub in 1 lb. butter, 1 lb. currants, add 6 eggs. When well mixed, roll out the paste equally thin and flat; cut it into small round cakes with a wine-glass, and bake them in a moderate oven.--_Or_: do not _cut_, but _pull_ it into small cakes.
_Small Carraway Cakes._
Mix 1 lb. flour, 14 oz. butter, 5 or 6 table-spoonsful of yeast, 3 yolks of eggs and 1 white, into a paste, with cream. Set it before the fire half an hour, to rise; add a small tea-cupful of sugar and ½ lb. carraway seeds. Roll out into cakes, wash them over with rose water and sugar, and prick the top, with a knife. The oven rather quick.
{279}_Shrewsbury Cakes._
Beat ½ lb. butter to a cream, mix it with 6 oz. sifted sugar, 8 oz. flour, pounded cinnamon, carraway seeds, 2 eggs, and a little rose water. Roll out the paste a ¼ inch thick, cut the cakes into shapes, and bake on tins in a slack oven.
_Shortbread._
Melt 1 lb. butter and pour it on 2 lbs. flour, ½ a tea-cupful of yeast, and 1 oz. carraway seeds; sweeten to your taste, and knead well. Roll out thin, cut this into 4 pieces, pinch round the edges, prick well with a fork, and bake on tins.--_Or_: rub 1½ lb. butter, melted without water, into the 4th of a peck of flour, add 6 oz. sifted sugar, 2 oz. each of candied orange, citron and blanched almonds, all these cut in rather large pieces; work it together, but not too much, or the cake will not be crisp; roll the paste out, about 1½ inch thick, divide it into cakes, pinch the edges neatly, and mark them on the top with a fork; strew carraways, strips of citron, and little bits of almonds on the top, and bake on buttered papers.
_Derby Short Cakes._
Rub 1 lb. butter into 2 lbs. flour, ½ lb. sifted sugar, 1 egg, and milk to make it into a paste. Roll out thin, cut the cakes in slices, and bake on tins, twenty minutes.
_Cinnamon Cakes._
Beat 6 eggs, with a coffee-cupful of rose water, add 1 lb. sifted sugar, ¼ oz. pounded cinnamon, and sufficient flour to make it into a paste. Roll out thin, and stamp it into small cakes. Bake on paper.
_Rout Cakes._
Beat 1 lb. butter to a cream, and stir in the yolks of 12 eggs, 12 oz. flour, some grated lemon peel, and a few pounded almonds, or some orange flower water. Mix well, and pour it into a mould not more than an inch high, and lined with paper; bake it, and when it has cooled, cut it into {280}shapes, with a sharp knife; moisten the sides of these with sugar, and crisp them before the fire.
_Queen Cakes._
1 lb. well dried flour, 1 lb. butter, worked to a cream, 1 lb. sifted sugar, and 8 eggs. Beat the yolks and whites separately, put half the sugar into the butter, and the other half into the eggs, beat them well, then beat all together, except the flour, which must be lightly dredged in as you continue beating the mixture, and shaking in ½ lb. currants.
_Buns._
Mix ½ lb. moist sugar with 2 lbs. flour, make a hole in the centre, and stir in ½ pint of lukewarm milk and a _full_ table-spoonful of yeast. Cover it for two hours, in a warm place. Melt to an oil, 1 lb. butter, stir it into the mixture in the middle of the pan, and, by degrees, work it into a soft dough, dust it over with flour, cover with a cloth, and let it stand another hour. Make it into buns the size of a large egg, then lay them on a floured paste-board, and put them before the fire to rise to the proper size; bake on tins, in a hot oven; when done, brush them over with milk.--_Cross Buns_: in the same way, adding to the plain buns, about 1 oz. of ground allspice, mace, and cinnamon; when half baked, take them out of the oven, and press the form of a cross on the top; brush them over with milk when done.--_Another for Plain Buns_: melt 6 oz. butter, mix it well with 4 eggs, ½ lb. sifted sugar, 1 lb. flour, and a tea-spoonful of volatile salts dissolved in a tea-spoonful of warm milk; add ¼ lb. currants, with seeds to taste, and bake ten minutes. A tea-spoonful of essence of lemon, and one drop of essence of almond may be added.--_Seed or Plum Buns_: mix into the same quantity of bun dough as the first receipt, 1 oz. carraway seeds, or currants, or Smyrna raisins. Butter small tart pans, mould the dough into buns, put one into each pan, and set them to rise; ice them, with white of egg, dust fine sugar over, and dissolve that by sprinkling water lightly over. Bake them ten minutes, in a quick oven. Mark the edges, and ice the top, or not, as you choose.--_Bath Buns_: rub ½ lb. butter {281}into 1 lb. flour, wet it with 4 eggs, and a wine-glassful of yeast, set it before the fire to rise; add 4 oz. sifted sugar, and a few carraway seeds. Make into buns, brush them over with white of egg, and strew sugar carraways over the top.
_Sally Lumm's Tea Cakes._
Warm a pint of new milk, or cream, with 2 oz. butter; then add ¼ lb. flour to make it a stiff dough. Roll to the size you choose, and bake it on a tin. When done, cut it in 3 or more slices, butter, and send it to table directly; if it wait before the fire it will quickly be spoiled.--Some add eggs, a little yeast, and sugar, to make it eat shorter.
_Breakfast Cakes._
Rub 3 oz. butter into 1 lb. flour, and a little salt. Mix 1 egg with a table-spoonful of yeast, and a little warm milk, and wet the flour, using as much milk as is required to make a light batter, as for fritters; beat well with the hand, then cover, and let it stand three or four hours, in a warm place, to rise. Add flour to make it into a paste to roll out. Make the cakes the size you choose, let them stand half an hour before the fire, prick them in the middle, with a skewer, and bake in a quick oven.--_Or_: mix 1 pint of cream, 2 eggs, a table-spoonful of yeast, and a little salt, into ½ lb. flour. Cover and let it rise. Bake on tins.--_Or_: melt ¼ lb. butter in new milk enough to wet up 2 lbs. flour, add 4 eggs, 4 table-spoonsful yeast, and wet up the flour; let it stand ten minutes, make it into 6 cakes, prick them with a fork, and let them stand covered near the fire, half an hour; bake in a moderate oven, a quarter of an hour.
_Yorkshire Cakes._
Mix 1½ pint of warm milk, with a tea-spoonful of good yeast, into flour to make a thick batter; let it stand, covered, in a warm place, to rise. Rub 6 oz. butter into a little flour, add 3 eggs, mix well, then mix it with the batter, add flour enough to work it into a stiff dough, and let it stand again a quarter of an hour; then knead again, {282}and break it into small cakes, roll round and smooth, then put them on tins, cover lightly, and set them by the fire fifteen minutes, to rise, before you put them into the oven.
_Roehampton Rolls._
To 1 lb. of flour, add the whites of 3 eggs, 3 oz. butter, and 1 spoonful of yeast, wet it with milk into a stiff dough; let this rise, before the fire, an hour, make it into rolls, and bake ten minutes.--_Or_: to ½ pint of yeast add 2 eggs, 2 lumps of sugar, a piece of butter the size of an egg, and 2 quarts of milk, beat well, and strain in as much fine flour as it will take up, mix well, and divide it into rolls; set them before the fire, an hour, then bake half an hour.
_Muffins._
Mix a pint of scalded milk, with ¼ pint fresh yeast, and flour to make a thick batter. Set it in a warm place to rise. Rub 2 oz. butter in a little flour and add it to the batter, with flour to make it into dough; cover and let it stand again; knead well, and make it into muffins: put them on tins, let them stand a quarter of an hour, then bake them.
_Crumpets._
Mix a quart of good milk into flour to make a thick batter, add a little salt, 1 egg, and a table-spoonful of small beer yeast; beat well, cover, and let it stand near the fire half an hour, to rise. Hang the girdle, or put the frying-pan over the fire, and when hot wipe it clean with a wet cloth. Tie a piece of butter in muslin, and rub it over the girdle: then pour on it a tea-cupful of batter, and as it begins to cook, raise the edge all round, with a sharp knife; when one side is done, turn it and bake the other side. When done, put it in a plate before the fire, rub the girdle with the buttered rag, and pour in another cupful of batter, then spread butter over the one in the plate, and so on, till they are all baked. Send a few at a time, quite hot, to table. Crumpets made thus are lighter than in the common way. Rye flour makes excellent cakes this way, and likewise Indian Corn meal. N.B.--Receipts for various ways of cooking _Indian Corn_ flour or meal will be found in "COBBETT'S COTTAGE ECONOMY."
{283}_Scotch Slim Cakes._
Rub 3 oz. butter into ½ lb. flour, mix it into a light dough with 2 eggs and warm milk. Roll lightly out, and cut them round, the size of a saucer, bake them, as directed, for crumpets. Butter, and serve them quite hot.