Chapter 24

Slice a pound of pippins or codlings into a pint of clear spring water; let them boil till the water has extracted all the flavour of the fruit; strain it out, and to a pint of this liquor take a pound of double-refined sugar, boiled to sugar again; then put in your codling liquor; boil it a little together as fast as you can. Put in your golden pippins; boil them up fast for a little while; just before the last boiling, squeeze in the juice of a lemon; boil it up quick once more, taking care the apples do not lose their colour; cut them, and put them in glasses with the jelly. It makes a very pretty middle or corner dish.

_Apples and Pears, to dry._

Take Kirton pippins or royal russets, golden pippins or nonpareils; finely pare and quarter the russets, and pare and take out the core also of the smaller apples. Take the clean tops of wicker baskets or hampers, and put the apples on the wickers in a cool oven. Let them remain in till the oven is quite cold: then they must be turned as you find necessary, and the cool oven repeated till they are properly dry. They must stand some time before they are baked, and kept carefully from the damp air. The richer the pears the better; but they must not be over-ripe.

_Apricots in Brandy._

The apricots must be gathered before they are quite ripe, and, as the fruit is usually riper on one side than the other, you must prick the unripe side with the point of a penknife, or a very large needle. Put them into cold water, and give them a great deal of room in the preserving-pan; and proceed in the same manner as directed for peaches. If they are not well coloured, it is owing to an improper choice of the fruit, being too ripe or too high coloured, provided the brandy be of the right sort.

_Apricot Chips._

Cut apricots when ripe in small thin pieces; take double-refined sugar, pounded very small and sifted through a fine sieve, and strew a little at the bottom of a silver basin; then put in your chips, and more of your sugar. Set them over a chaffing-dish of coals, shaking your basin, lest the chips should stick to the bottom, till you put in your sugar. When your sugar is all candied, lay them on glass plates; put them in a stove, and turn them out.

_Apricot Burnt Cream._

Boil a pint of cream with some bitter almonds pounded, and strain it off. When the cream is cold, add to it the yolks of four eggs, with half a spoonful of flour, well mixed together; set it over the fire; keep stirring it till it is thick. Add to it a little apricot jam; put it in your dish; sift powdered sugar over it, and brown it with your salamander.

_Apricots, to dry._

Pare and stone a pound of apricots, and put to them three quarters of a pound of double-refined sugar, strewing some of the sugar over the apricots as you pare them, that they may not lose colour. When they are all pared put the remainder of the sugar on them; let them stand all night, and in the morning boil them on a quick fire till they are clear. Then let them stand till next day covered with a sheet of white paper. Set them on a gentle fire till scalding hot; let them stand three days in the syrup; lay them out on stone plates; put them into a stove, and turn them every day till they are dry.

_Apricot Jam._

Take two pounds of apricot paste in pulp and a pint of strong codling liquor; boil them very fast together till the liquor is almost wasted; then put to it one pound and a half of fine sugar pounded; boil it very fast till it jellies; put it into pots, and it will make clear cakes in the winter.

_Apricot and Plum Jam._

Stone the fruit; set them over the fire with half a pint of water; when scalded, rub them through a sieve, and to every pound of pulp put a pound of sifted loaf-sugar. Set it over a brisk fire in a preserving-pan; when it boils, skim it well, and throw in the kernels of the apricots and half an ounce of bitter almonds blanched; boil it together fast for a quarter of an hour, stirring it all the time.

_Apricot Paste._

Take ripe apricots, pare, stone, and quarter them, and put them into a skillet, setting them on embers, and stirring them till all the pieces are dissolved. Then take three quarters of their weight in fine sugar, and boil it to a candy; put in the apricots, and stir it a little on the fire; then turn it out into glasses. Set it in a warm stove; when it is dry on one side, turn the other. You may take apricots not fully ripe, and coddle them, and that will do also.

_Another._

Pare and stone your apricots; to one pound of fruit put one pound of fine sugar, and boil all together till they break. Then to five pounds of paste put three pounds of codling jelly, and make a candy of three pounds of fine sugar. Put it in all together; just scald it, and put it in little pots to dry quickly. Turn it out to dry on plates or glasses.

_Apricots, to preserve._

Stone and pare four dozen of large apricots, and cover them with three pounds of fine sugar finely beaten; put in some of the sugar as you pare them. Let them stand at least six or seven hours; then boil them on a slow fire till they are clear and tender. If any of them are clear before the rest, take them out and put them in again. When the rest are ready, let them stand closely covered with paper till next day. Then make very strong codling jelly: to two pounds of jelly add two pounds of sugar, which boil till they jelly; and while boiling make your apricots scalding hot; put the jelly to the apricots, and boil them, but not too fast. When the apricots rise in the jelly and jelly well, put them in pots or glasses, and cover closely with brandy paper.

_Another way._

Cut in half, and break in pieces, ripe apricots; put them in a preserving pan, simmer for a few minutes, and pass through a fine hair sieve: no water to be used. Add three quarters of a pound of white powdered sugar to a pound of fruit; put in the kernels; mix all together, and boil for twenty minutes: well skim when it begins to boil. Put it into pots; when cold, cover close with paper dipped in brandy, and tie down with an outer cover of paper.

_Apricots, to preserve whole._

Gather the fruit before it is too ripe, and to one pound put three quarters of a pound of fine sugar. Stone and pare the apricots as you put them into the pan; lay sugar under and over them, and let them stand till next day. Set them on a quick fire, and let them just boil; skim well; cover them till cold, or till the following day; give them another boil; put them in pots, and strew a little sugar over them while coddling, to make them keep their colour.

_Apricots, to preserve in Jelly._

To a pound of apricots, before they are stoned and pared, weigh a pound and a quarter of the best pounded sugar. Stone and pare the fruit, and, as you pare, sprinkle some sugar under and over them. When the sugar is pretty well melted, set them on the fire and boil them. Keep out some sugar to strew on them in the boiling, which assists to clear them. Skim very clear, and turn the fruit with a ladle or a feather. When clear and tender, put them in glasses; add to the syrup a quarter of a pint of strong pippin liquor, and nearly the weight of it in sugar; let it boil awhile, and put it to the apricots. The fire should be brisk, as the sooner any sweetmeat is done the clearer and better it will be. Let the liquor run through a jelly-bag, that it may clear before you put the syrup to it, or the syrup of the apricots to boil.

_French Bances._

Take half a pint of water, a bit of lemon-peel, a piece of butter the size of a walnut, and a little orange-flower water; boil them gently three or four minutes; take out the lemon-peel, and add to it by degrees half a pint of flour: keep it boiling and stirring until it is a stiff paste; then take it off the fire, and put in six eggs, well beaten, leaving out three whites. Beat all very well for at least half an hour, till it is a stiff light paste; then take two pounds of hog's-lard; put it in a stewpan; give it a boil up, and, if the bances are of a right lightness, fry them; keep stirring them all the time till they are of a proper brown. A large dish will take six or seven minutes boiling. When done, put them in a dish to drain; keep them by the fire; strew sugar over them; and, when you are going to fry them, drop them through the handle of a key.

_Barberries, to preserve._

Tie up the finest maiden barberries in bunches; to one pound of them put two pounds and a quarter of sugar; boil the sugar to a thick syrup, and when thick enough stir it till it is almost cold. Put in the barberries; set them on the fire, and keep them as much under the syrup as you can, shaking the pan frequently. Let them just simmer till the syrup is hot through, but not boiling, which would wrinkle them. Take them out of the syrup, and let them drain on a lawn sieve; put the syrup again into the pot, and boil it till it is thick. When half cold put in the barberries, and let them stand all night in the preserving-pan. If the syrup has become too thin, take out the fruit and boil it again, letting it stand all night: then put it into pots, and cover it with brandy paper.

_Biscuits._

Take one pound of loaf sugar, finely beaten and sifted; then take eight eggs, whites and all; beat them in a wooden bowl for an hour; then take a quarter of a pound of blanched almonds, beat them very small with some rose-water; put them into the bowl, and beat them for an hour longer; then shake in five ounces of fine flour and a spoonful of coriander seed, and one of caraways. Beat them half an hour; butter your plates, and bake them.

_Another way._

Take one pound of flour; mix it stiff with water; then roll it very thin; cut out the biscuits with cutters, and bake them.

_Dutch Biscuits._

Take the whites of six eggs in fine sugar, and the whites of four in flour; then beat your eggs with the sugar and flour well with a whisk: butter your pans, and only half fill them; strew them over with sugar before you put them in the oven; grate lemon-peel over them.

_Ginger Biscuits._

One pound of flour, half a pound of butter, half a pound of loaf sugar, rather more than one ounce of ginger powdered, all well mixed together. Let it stand before the fire for half an hour; roll it into thin paste, and cut out with a coffee-cup or wine-glass: bake it for a few minutes.

_Lemon Biscuits._

Blanch half a pound of sweet almonds in cold water; beat them with the whites of six eggs, first whipped up to a froth; put in a little at a time as they rise; the almonds must be very fine. Then add one pound of double-refined sugar, beaten and sifted; put in, by degrees, four ounces of fine flour, dried well and cold again; the yolks of six eggs well beaten; the peels of two large lemons finely grated: beat these all together about half an hour; put them in tin pans; sift on a little sugar. The oven must be pretty quick, though you keep the door open while you bake them.

_Another way._

Take three pounds of fine sugar, and wet it with a spoonful and a half of gum-dragon, and put in the juice of lemons, but make the mass as stiff as you can: mix it well, and beat it up with white of eggs. When beaten very light, put in two grains of musk and a great deal of grated lemon; drop the paste into round papers, and bake it.

_Ratafia Biscuits._

Blanch two ounces of bitter almonds in cold water, and beat them extremely fine with orange-flower water and rose-water. Put in by degrees the whites of five eggs, first beaten to a light froth. Beat it extremely well; then mix it up with fine sifted sugar to a light paste, and lay the biscuits on tin plates with wafer paper. Make the paste so light that you may take it up with a spoon. Lay it in cakes, and bake them in a rather brisk oven. If you make them with sweet almonds only, they are almond puffs or cakes.

_Table Biscuits._

Flour, milk, and sugar, well mixed together. Shape the biscuits with the top of a glass, and bake them on a tin.

_Blancmange._ No. 1.

To one pint of calves' foot or hartshorn jelly add four ounces of almonds blanched and beaten very fine with rose and orange-flower water; let half an ounce of the almonds be bitter, but apricot kernels are better. Put the almonds and jelly, mixed by degrees, into a skillet, with as much sugar as will sweeten it to your taste. Give it two or three boils; then take it up and strain it into a bowl; add to it some thick cream: give it a boil after the cream is in, and keep it stirred while on the fire. When strained, put it into moulds.

_Blancmange._ No. 2.

Boil three ounces of isinglass in a quart of water till it is reduced to a pint; strain it through a sieve, and let it stand till cold. Take off what has settled at the bottom: then take a pint of cream, two ounces of almonds, and a few bitter ones; sweeten to your taste. Boil all together over the fire, and pour it into your moulds. A laurel leaf improves it greatly.

_Blancmange._ No. 3.

Take an ounce of isinglass dissolved over the fire in a quarter of a pint of water, strain it into a pint of new milk; boil it, and strain again; sweeten to your taste. Add a spoonful of orange-flower water and one of mountain. Stir it till it is nearly cold, and put it into moulds. Beat a few bitter almonds in it.

_Blancmange._ No. 4.

Into two quarts of milk put an ounce of isinglass, an ounce of sugar, half the peel of a lemon, and a bit of cinnamon. Keep stirring till it boils.

_Dutch Blancmange._

Steep an ounce of the best isinglass two hours in a pint of boiling water. Take a pint of white wine, the yolks of eight eggs well beaten, the juice of four lemons and one Seville orange, and the peel of one lemon; mix them together, and sweeten to your taste. Set it on a clear fire; keep it stirred till it boils, and then strain it off into moulds.

_Bread._

Forty pounds of flour, a handful of salt, one quart of yest, three quarts of water; stir the whole together in the kneading trough. Strew over it a little flour, and let it stand covered for one hour. Knead it and make it into loaves, and let them stand a quarter of an hour to rise, before you put them in the oven.

_Diet Bread, which keeps moist._

Three quarters of a pound of lump sugar, dissolved in a quarter of a pint of water, half a pound of the best flour, seven eggs, taking away the whites of two; mix the liquid sugar, when it has boiled, with the eggs: beat them up together in a basin with a whisk; then add by degrees the flour, beating all together for about ten minutes; put it into a quick oven. An hour bakes it.

Tin moulds are the best: the dimensions for this quantity are six inches in length and four in depth.

_Potato Bread._

Boil a quantity of potatoes; drain them well, strew over them a small quantity of salt, and let them remain in the vessel in which they were boiled, closely covered, for an hour, which makes them mealy: then peel and pound them as smooth as flour. Add eight pounds of potatoes to twelve of wheaten flour; and make it into dough with yest, in the way that bread is generally made. Let it stand three hours to rise.

_Rice Bread._

Boil a quarter of a pound of rice till it is quite soft; then put it on the back of a sieve to drain. When cold, mix it with three quarters of a pound of flour, a tea-cupful of milk, a proper quantity of yest, and salt. Let it stand for three hours; then knead it very well, and roll it up in about a handful of flour, so as to make the outside dry enough to put into the oven. About an hour and a quarter will bake a loaf of this size. When baked, it will produce one pound fourteen ounces of very good bread; it is better when the loaves are not made larger than the above-mentioned quantity will produce, but you may make any quantity by allowing the same proportion for each loaf. This bread should not be cut till it is two days old.

_Rye Bread._

Take one peck of wheaten flour, six pounds of rye flour, a little salt, half a pint of good yest, and as much warm water as will make it into a stiff dough. Let it stand three hours to rise before you put it into the oven. A large loaf will take three hours to bake.

_Scotch short Bread._

Melt a pound of butter, pour it on two pounds of flour, half a tea-cupful of yest, two ounces of caraway seeds, one ounce of Scotch caraways; sweeten to your taste with lump sugar, then knead it well together and roll it out, not too thin; cut in quarters and pinch it round: prick it well with a fork.

_Buttered Loaves._

Take three quarts of new milk; put in as much runnet as will turn it; whey the curds very clean; break them small with your hands; put in nine yolks of eggs and one white, a handful of grated bread, half a handful of flour, and a little salt. Mix these well together, working it well with your hands; roll it into small loaves, and bake them in a quick oven three quarters of an hour. Then take half a pound of butter, four spoonfuls of clear water, half a nutmeg sliced very thin, and a little sugar. Set it on a quick fire, stirring it quickly, and let it boil till thick. When the loaves are baked, cut out the top and stir up the crumb with a knife; then pour some of the butter into each of them, and cover them up again. Strew a little sugar on them: before you set them in the oven, beat the yolk of an egg and a little beer together, and with a feather smear them over with it.

_Egg Loaf._

Soak crumb of bread in milk for three hours; strain it through a sieve; then put in a little salt, some candied citron and lemon-peel cut small, and sugar to your taste. Put to your paste the yolks only of six or eight new-laid eggs, and beat it till the eggs are mixed. Whip the whites of the eggs till they are frothed; add to the other ingredients, and mix them well. Butter the pan or dish in which you bake your loaf. When baked, turn it out into your dish, scrape some fine sugar upon it, and glaze with a hot shovel.

_Buns._ No. 1.

Two pounds of flour, a quarter of a pound of butter; rub the butter in the flour like grated bread; set it to the fire to dry: put in one pound of currants and a quarter of a pound of moist sugar, with a few caraway seeds, and two spoonfuls of good yest; make the dough into small buns; set them to rise half an hour: you may put two or three eggs in if you like.

_Buns._ No. 2.

One pound of fine flour, two pounds of currants, a few caraway seeds, a quarter of a pound of moist sugar, a pint of new milk, and two table-spoonfuls of yest; mix all well together in a stiff paste, and let it stand half an hour to rise; then roll them out, and put them in your tins; let them stand another half hour to rise before you bake them. The above receipt answers equally well for a cake baked in a tin.

_Buns._ No. 3.

Take flour, butter, and sugar, of each a quarter of a pound, four eggs, and a few caraway seeds. This quantity will make two dozen. Bake them on tins.

_Bath Buns._

Take a quarter of a pound of loaf sugar finely powdered, the same quantity of butter, and nearly double of flour dried before the fire, a walnut-shell full of caraway-seeds just bruised, and one egg. Work all these up together into a paste, the thickness of half-a-crown, and cut it with a tea-cup, flour a tin; lay the cakes upon it; take the white of an egg well beat and frothed; lay it on them with a feather, and then grate upon them a little fine sugar.

_Another way._

Take one pound of fine flour, dry it well by the fire, sift it, and rub into it a pound of butter, the yolks of four eggs, the whites of two, both beaten light, three spoonfuls of cream, and the like quantity of white wine and ale yest. Let this sponge stand by the fire to rise; then beat it up extremely well and light with your hand; grate in a nutmeg; continue beating till it is ready for the oven; then add a pound of rough caraway seeds, keeping a few out to strew on the top of the cakes before they are put into the oven.

_Plain Buns._

Take three pounds of flour, six ounces of butter, six ounces of sugar sifted fine, six eggs, both yolks and whites. Beat your eggs till they will not slip off the spoon; melt the butter in a pint of new milk, with which mix half a pint of good yest; strain it into the flour, and throw in half an ounce of caraway seeds. Work the whole up very light; set it before the fire to rise; then make it up into buns of the size of a penny roll, handling them as little as possible. Twenty minutes will bake them sufficiently.

_Butter, to make without churning._

Tie up cream in a fine napkin, and then in a coarse cloth, as you would a pudding: bury it two feet under ground; leave it there for twelve hours, and when you take it up it will be converted into butter.

_Black Butter._

To one quart of black gooseberries put one pint of red currants, picked into an earthen jar. Stop it very close, and set it in a pot of cold water over the fire to boil till the juice comes out. Then strain it, and to every pint of liquor put a pound of sugar; boil and skim it till you think it done enough: put it in flat pots, and keep it in a dry place. It will either turn out or cut in slices.

_Spanish Butter._

Take two gallons of new milk, boil it, and, when you take it off the fire, put in a quart of cream, giving it a stir; then pour it through a sieve into an earthen pan: lay some sticks over your pan, and cover it with a cloth; if you let it stand thus two days, it will be the better. Skim off the cream thick, and sweeten it to your taste; you may put in a little orange-flower water, and whip it well up.

_Cake._

Five pounds of flour dried, six pounds of currants, a quart of boiled cream, a pound and a half of butter, twenty eggs, the whites of six only, a pint of ale yest, one ounce of cinnamon finely beaten, one ounce of cloves and mace also well beaten, a quarter of a pound of sugar, a little salt, half a pound of orange and citron. Put in the cream and butter when it is just warm; mix all well together, and let it stand before the fire to rise. Put it into your hoop, and leave it in the oven an hour and a quarter. The oven should be as hot as for a manchet.

_An excellent Cake._

Beat half a pound of sifted sugar and the same quantity of fresh butter to a cream, in a basin made warm; mixing half a pound of flour well dried, six eggs, leaving out four whites, and one table-spoonful of brandy. The butter is to be beaten in first, then the flour, next the sugar, the eggs, and lastly, the brandy. Currants or caraways may be added at pleasure. It must be beaten an hour, and put in the oven immediately.

_A great Cake._

Take six quarts of fine flour dried in an oven, six pounds of currants, five pounds of butter, two pounds and a half of sugar, one pound of citron, three quarters of a pound of orange-peel, and any other sweetmeat you think proper; a pound of almonds ground very small, a few coriander seeds beat and sifted, half an ounce of mace, four nutmegs, sixteen eggs, six of the whites, half a pint of sack, and half a pint of ale yest.

_Light Cake._

One pound of the finest flour, one ounce of powdered sugar, five ounces of butter, three table-spoonfuls of fresh yest.

_A nice Cake._

Take nine eggs; beat the yolks and whites separately; the weight of eight eggs in sugar, and five in flour: whisk the eggs and the sugar together for half an hour; then put in the flour, just before the oven is ready to bake it. Both the sugar and the flour must be sifted and dried.

_A Plain Cake._

Take a pound of flour, well dried and sifted; add to it one pound of sugar also dried and sifted; take one pound of butter, and work it in your hands till it is like cream; beat very light the yolks of ten eggs and six whites. Mix all these by degrees, beating it very light, and a little sack and brandy. It must not stand to rise. If you choose fruit, add one pound of currants, washed, picked, and dried.

_A very rich Cake._