Part 36

One cupful of chopped suet, one cupful of milk, two eggs beaten, half a teaspoonful of salt and enough flour to make a stiff batter, but thin enough to pour from a spoon. Put into a bowl, cover with a cloth and boil three hours. The same, made a little thinner, with a few raisins added and baked in a well-greased dish is excellent. Two teaspoonfuls of baking powder in the flour improves this pudding. Or if made with sour milk and soda it is equally as good.

SUET PLUM PUDDING.

One cupful of suet chopped fine, one cupful of cooking molasses, one cupful of milk, one cupful of raisins, three and one-half cupfuls of flour, one egg, one teaspoonful of cloves, two of cinnamon and one of nutmeg, a little salt, one teaspoonful of soda; boil three hours in a pudding-mold set into a kettle of water; eat with common sweet sauce. If sour milk is used in place of sweet, the pudding will be much lighter.

PEACH COBBLER.

Line a deep dish with rich thick crust; pare and cut into halves or quarters some juicy, rather tart peaches; put in sugar, spices and flavoring to taste; stew it slightly and put it in the lined dish; cover with thick crust of rich puff paste and bake a rich brown; when done, break up the top crust into small pieces and stir it into the fruit; serve hot or cold; very palatable without sauce, but more so with plain rich cream or cream sauce, or with a rich brandy or wine. Other fruits can be used in place of peaches. Currants are best made in this manner:--

Press the currants through a sieve to free it from pips; to each pint of the pulp put two ounces of crumbed bread and four ounces of sugar; bake with a rim of puff paste; serve with cream. White currants may be used instead of red.

HOMINY PUDDING.

Two-thirds of a cupful of hominy, one and a half pints of milk, two eggs, one tablespoonful of butter, one teaspoonful of extract of lemon or vanilla, one cupful of sugar. Boil hominy in milk one hour; then pour it on the eggs, extract and sugar beaten together; add butter, pour in buttered pudding-dish, bake in hot oven for twenty minutes.

BAKED BERRY ROLLS.

Roll rich biscuit dough thin, cut it into little squares four inches wide and seven inches long. Spread over with berries. Roll up the crust, and put the rolls in a dripping-pan just a little apart; put a piece of butter on each roll, spices if you like. Strew over a large handful of sugar, a little hot water. Set in the oven and bake like dumplings. Served with sweet sauce.

GREEN CORN PUDDING.

Take two dozen full ears of sweet green corn, score the kernels and cut them from the cob. Scrape off what remains on the cob with a knife. Add a pint and a half or one quart of milk, according to the youngness and juiciness of the corn. Add four eggs well beaten, a half teacupful of flour, a half teacupful butter, a tablespoonful of sugar, and salt to taste. Bake in a well-greased earthen dish, in hot oven two hours. Place it on the table browned and smoking hot, eat it with plenty of fresh butter. This can be used as a dessert by serving a sweet sauce with it. If eaten plainly with butter, it answers as a side vegetable.

GENEVA WAFERS.

Two eggs, three ounces of butter, three ounces of flour, three ounces of pounded sugar. Well whisk the eggs, put them into a basin and stir to them the butter, which should be beaten to a cream; add the flour and sifted sugar gradually, and then mix all well together. Butter a baking sheet, and drop on it a teaspoonful of the mixture at a time, leaving a space between each. Bake in a cool oven; watch the pieces of paste, and, when half done, roll them up like wafers and put in a small wedge of bread or piece of wood, to keep them in shape. Return them to the oven until crisp. Before serving, remove the bread, put a spoonful of preserve in the widest end, and fill up with whipped cream. This is a very pretty and ornamental dish for the supper-table, and is very nice and very easily made.

MINUTE PUDDING. No. 1.

Set saucepan or deep frying pan on the stove, the bottom and sides well buttered, put into it a quart of sweet milk, a pinch of salt and a piece of butter as large as half an egg; when it boils have ready a dish of sifted flour, stir it into the boiling milk, sifting it through your fingers, a handful at a time, until it becomes smooth and quite thick. Turn it into a dish that has been dipped in water. Make a sauce very sweet to serve with it. Maple molasses is _fine_ with it. This pudding is much improved by adding canned berries or fresh ones just before taking from the stove.

MINUTE PUDDING. No. 2.

One quart of milk, salt, two eggs, about a pint of flour. Beat the eggs well; add the flour and enough milk to make it smooth. Butter the saucepan and put in the remainder of the milk well salted; when it boils, stir in the flour, eggs, etc., lightly; let it cook well. It should be of the consistency of thick corn mush. Serve immediately with the following simple sauce, _viz_: Rich milk or cream sweetened to taste and flavored with grated nutmeg.

SUNDERLAND PUDDING.

One cupful of sugar, half a cupful of cold butter, a pint of milk, two cupfuls of sifted flour and five eggs. Make the milk hot; stir in the butter and let it cool before the other ingredients are added to it; then stir in the sugar, flour and eggs, which should be well whisked and omit the whites of two; flavor with a little grated lemon rind and beat the mixture well. Butter some small cups, rather more than half fill them; bake from twenty minutes to half an hour, according to the size of the puddings, and serve with fruit, custard or wine sauce, a little of which may be poured over them. They may be dropped by spoonfuls on buttered tins and baked, if cups are not convenient.

JELLY PUDDINGS.

Two cupfuls of _very_ fine stale biscuit or bread crumbs, one cupful of rich milk--half cream, if you can get it; five eggs beaten very light, half a teaspoonful of soda stirred in boiling water, one cupful of sweet jelly, jam or marmalade. Scald the milk and pour over the crumbs. Beat until half cold and stir in the beaten yolks, then whites, finally the soda. Fill large cups half full with the batter, set in a quick oven and bake half an hour. When done, turn out quickly and dexterously; with a sharp knife make an incision in the side of each; pull partly open, and put a liberal spoonful of the conserve within. Close the slit by pinching the edges with your fingers. Eat warm with sweetened cream.

QUICK PUDDING.

Soak and split some crackers; lay the surface over with raisins and citron; put the halves together, tie them in a bag, and boil fifteen minutes in milk and water; delicious with rich sauce.

READY PUDDING.

Make a batter of one quart of milk and about one pound of flour; add six eggs, the yolks and whites separately beaten, a teaspoonful of salt and four tablespoonfuls of sugar. It should be as stiff as can possibly be stirred with a spoon. Dip a spoonful at a time into quick boiling water, boil from five to ten minutes, take out. Serve hot with sauce or syrup.

A ROYAL DESSERT.

Cut a stale cake into slices an inch and a half in thickness; pour over them a little good sweet cream; then fry _lightly_ in fresh butter in a smooth frying pan; when done, place over each slice of cake a layer of preserves or you may make a rich sauce to be served with it.

Another dish equally as good, is to dip thin slices of bread into fresh milk; have ready two eggs well beaten; dip the slices in the egg and fry them in butter to a light brown; when fried, pour over them a syrup, any kind that you choose, and serve hot.

HUCKLEBERRIES WITH CRACKERS AND CREAM.

Pick over carefully one quart of blueberries and keep them on ice until wanted. Put into each bowl, for each guest, two soda crackers, broken in not too small pieces; add a few tablespoonfuls of berries, a teaspoonful of powdered sugar and fill the bowl with the richest of cold sweet cream. This is an old-fashioned New England breakfast dish. It also answers for a dessert.

SAUCES FOR PUDDINGS.

BRANDY SAUCE, COLD.

Two cupfuls of powdered sugar, half a cupful of butter, one wine-glassful of brandy, cinnamon and nutmeg, a teaspoonful of each. Warm the butter slightly and work it to a light cream with the sugar, then add the brandy and spices; beat it hard and set aside until wanted. Should be put into a mold to look nicely and serve on a flat dish.

BRANDY OR WINE SAUCE. No. 1.

Stir a heaping teaspoonful of cornstarch in a little cold water to a smooth paste (or instead use a tablespoonful of sifted flour); add to it a cupful of boiling water, with one cupful of sugar, a piece of butter as large as an egg, boil all together ten minutes. Remove from the fire and when cool stir into it half of a cupful of brandy or wine. It should be about as thick as thin syrup.

BRANDY OR WINE SAUCE. No. 2.

Take one cupful of butter, two of powdered sugar, the whites of two eggs, five tablespoonfuls of sherry wine or brandy and a quarter of a cupful of boiling water. Beat butter and sugar to a cream, add the whites of the eggs, one at a time, unbeaten, and then the wine or brandy. Place the bowl in hot water and stir till smooth and frothy.

RICH WINE SAUCE.

One cupful of butter, two of powdered sugar, half a cupful of wine. Beat the butter to a cream. Add the sugar gradually and when very light add the wine, which has been made hot, a little at a time, a teaspoonful of grated nutmeg. Place the bowl in a basin of hot water and stir for two minutes. The sauce should be smooth and foamy.

SAUCE FOR PLUM PUDDING. (Superior.)

Cream together a cupful of sugar and half a cupful of butter; when light and creamy, add the well-beaten yolks of four eggs. Stir into this one wine-glass of wine or one of brandy, a pinch of salt and one large cupful of hot cream or rich milk. Beat this mixture well; place it in a saucepan over the fire, stir it until it cooks sufficiently to thicken like cream. Be sure and not let it boil. Delicious.

LIQUID BRANDY SAUCE.

Brown over the fire three tablespoonfuls of sugar; add a cupful of water, six whole cloves and a piece of stick cinnamon, the yellow rind of a lemon cut very thin; let the sauce boil, strain while hot, then pour it into a sauce bowl containing the juice of the lemon and a cup of brandy. Serve warm.

GRANDMOTHERS SAUCE.

Cream together a cupful of sifted sugar and half a cupful of butter, add a teaspoonful of ground cinnamon and an egg well beaten. Boil a teacupful of milk and turn it, boiling hot, over the mixture slowly, stirring all the time; this will cook the egg smoothly. It may be served cold or hot.

SUGAR SAUCE.

One coffeecupful of granulated sugar, half of a cupful of water, a piece of butter the size of a walnut. Boil all together until it becomes the consistency of syrup. Flavor with lemon or vanilla extract. A tablespoonful of lemon juice is an improvement. Nice with cottage pudding.

LEMON SAUCE.

One cupful of sugar, half a cupful of butter, one egg beaten light, one lemon, juice and grated rind, half a cupful of boiling water; put in a tin basin and thicken over steam.

LEMON CREAM SAUCE, HOT.

Put half a pint of new milk on the fire and when it boils stir into it one teaspoonful of wheat flour, four ounces of sugar and the well-beaten yolks of three eggs; remove it from the fire and add the grated rind and the juice of one lemon; stir it well and serve hot in a sauce tureen.

ORANGE CREAM SAUCE, HOT.

This is made as LEMON CREAM SAUCE, substituting orange for lemon.

Creams for puddings, pies and fritters may be made in the same manner with any other flavoring; if flour is used in making them, it should boil in the milk three or four minutes.

COLD LEMON SAUCE.

Beat to a cream one teacupful of butter and two teacupfuls of fine white sugar; then stir in the juice and grated rind of one lemon; grate nutmeg upon the sauce and serve on a flat dish.

COLD ORANGE SAUCE.

Beat to a cream one teacupful of butter and two teacupfuls of fine white sugar; then stir in the grated rind of one orange and the juice of two; stir until all the orange juice is absorbed; grate nutmeg upon the sauce and serve on a flat dish.

COLD CREAM SAUCE.

Stir to a cream one cupful of sugar, half a cupful of butter, then add a cupful of sweet, thick cold cream, flavor to taste. Stir well and set it in a cool place.

CREAM SAUCE, WARM.

Heat a pint of cream slowly in a double boiler; when nearly boiling, set it off from the fire, put into it half a cupful of sugar, a little nutmeg or vanilla extract; stir it thoroughly and add, when cool, the whites of two well-beaten eggs. Set it on the fire in a dish containing hot water to keep it warm until needed, stirring once or more.

CARAMEL SAUCE.

Place over the fire a saucepan; when it begins to be hot, put into it four tablespoonfuls of white sugar and one tablespoonful of water. Stir it continually for three or four minutes, until all the water evaporates; then watch it carefully until it becomes a delicate brown color. Have ready a pint of cold water and cup of sugar mixed with some flavoring; turn it into the saucepan with the browned sugar and let it simmer for ten minutes; then add half a glass of brandy or a glass of wine. The wine or brandy may be omitted if preferred.

A GOOD PLAIN SAUCE.

A good sauce to go with plain fruit puddings is made by mixing one cupful of brown sugar, one cupful of best molasses, half a cupful of butter, one large teaspoonful of flour; add the juice and grated rind of one lemon, half a nutmeg grated, half a teaspoonful of cloves and cinnamon. When these are all stirred together, add a teacupful of boiling water; stir it constantly, put into a saucepan and let it boil until clear; then strain.

OLD STYLE SAUCE.

One pint of sour cream, the juice and finely grated rind of a large lemon; sugar to taste. Beat hard and long until the sauce is very light. This is delicious with cold "Brown Betty"--a form of cold farina--cornstarch, blanc mange and the like.

PLAIN COLD, HARD SAUCE.

Stir together one cupful of white sugar and half a cupful of butter until it is creamy and light; add flavoring to taste. This is very nice, flavored with the juice of raspberries or strawberries, or beat into it a cupful of ripe strawberries or raspberries and the white of an egg beaten stiff.

CUSTARD SAUCE.

One cupful of sugar, two beaten eggs, one pint of milk, flavoring to taste, brandy or wine, if preferred.

Heat the milk to boiling; add by degrees the beaten eggs and sugar, put in the flavoring and set within a pan of boiling water; stir until it begins to thicken; then take it off and stir in the brandy or wine gradually; set, until wanted, within a pan of boiling water.

MILK SAUCE.

Dissolve a tablespoonful of flour in cold milk; see that it is free from lumps. Whisk an ounce of butter and a cupful of sugar to a cream and add to it a pinch of salt. Mix together half a pint of milk, one egg and the flour; stir this into the butter and add a dash of nutmeg, or any flavor; heat until near the boiling point and serve. Very nice in place of cold cream.

MILK OR CREAM SAUCE.

Cream or rich milk, simply sweetened with plenty of white sugar and flavored, answers the purpose for some kinds of pudding, and can be made very quickly.

FRUIT SAUCE.

Two-thirds of a cupful of sugar, a pint of raspberries or strawberries, a tablespoonful of melted butter and a cupful of hot water. Boil all together slowly, removing the scum as fast as it rises; then strain through a sieve. This is very good served with dumplings or apple puddings.

JELLY SAUCE.

Melt two tablespoonfuls of sugar and half a cupful of jelly over the fire in a cupful of boiling water, adding also two tablespoonfuls of butter; then stir into it a teaspoonful of cornstarch, dissolved in half a cupful of water or wine; add it to the jelly and let it come to a boil. Set it in a dish of hot water to keep it warm until time to serve; stir occasionally. Any fruit jelly can be used.

COMMON SWEET SAUCE.

Into a pint of water stir a paste made of a tablespoonful of cornstarch or flour (rubbed smooth with a little cold water); add a cupful of sugar and a tablespoonful of vinegar. Cook well for three minutes. Take from the fire and add a piece of butter as large as a small egg; when cool, flavor with a tablespoonful of vanilla or lemon extract.

SYRUP FOR FRUIT SAUCE.

An excellent syrup for fruit sauce is made of Morello cherries (red, sour cherries). For each pound of cherry juice, allow half a pound of sugar and six cherry kernels; seed the cherries and let them stand in a bowl over night; in the morning, press them through a fine cloth, which has been dipped in boiling water, weigh the juice, add the sugar, boil fifteen minutes, removing all the scum. Fill small bottles that are perfectly dry with the syrup; when it is cold, cork the bottles tightly, seal them and keep them in a cool place, standing upright.

Most excellent to put into pudding sauces.

ROSE BRANDY. (For Cakes and Puddings.)

Gather the leaves of roses while the dew is on them, and as soon as they open put them into a wide-mouthed bottle, and when the bottle is full pour in the best of fourth proof French brandy.

It will be fit for use in three or four weeks and may be frequently replenished. It is sometimes considered preferable to wine as a flavoring to pastries and pudding sauces.

LEMON BRANDY. (For Cakes and Puddings.)

When you use lemons for punch or lemonade, do not throw away the peels but cut them in small pieces--the thin yellow outside (the thick part is not good)--and put them in a glass jar or bottle of brandy. You will find this brandy useful for many purposes.

In the same way keep for use the kernels of peach and plum stones, pounding them slightly before you put them into the brandy.

PRESERVES, JELLIES, ETC.

Fruit for preserving should be sound and free from all defects, using white sugar, and also that which is dry, which produces the nicest syrup; dark sugar can be used by being clarified, which is done by dissolving two pounds of sugar in a pint of water; add to it the white of an egg and beat it well, put it into a preserving kettle on the fire and stir with a wooden spoon. As soon as it begins to swell and boil up, throw in a little cold water; let it boil up again, take it off and remove the scum; boil it again, throw in more cold water and remove the scum; repeat until it is clear and pours like oil from the spoon.

In the old way of preserving, we used pound for pound, when they were kept in stone jars or crocks; now, as most preserves are put up in sealed jars or cans, less sugar seems sufficient; three-quarters of a pound of sugar is generally all that is required for a pound of fruit.

Fruit should be boiled in a porcelain-lined or granite-ware dish, if possible; but other utensils, copper or metal, if made bright and clean, answer as well.

Any of the fruits that have been preserved in syrup may be converted into dry preserves, by first draining them from the syrup, and then drying them in a stove or very moderate oven, adding to them a quantity of powdered loaf sugar, which will gradually penetrate the fruit, while the fluid parts of the syrup gently evaporate. They should be dried in the stove or oven on a sieve, and turned every six or eight hours, fresh powdered sugar being sifted over them every time they are turned. Afterwards they are to be kept in a dry situation, in drawers or boxes. Currants and cherries preserved whole in this manner, in bunches, are extremely elegant and have a fine flavor. In this way it is, also, that orange and lemon chips are preserved.

Mold can be prevented from forming on fruit jellies by pouring a little melted paraffine over the top. When cool, it will harden to a solid cake, winch can be easily removed when the jelly is used, and saved to use over again another year. It is perfectly harmless and tasteless.

Large glass tumblers are the best for keeping jellies, much better than large vessels, for by being opened frequently they soon spoil; a paper should be cut to fit and placed over the jelly; then put on the lid or cover, with thick paper rubbed over on the inside with the white of an egg.

There cannot be too much care taken in selecting fruit for jellies, for if the fruit is over ripe, any amount of time in boiling will never make it jelly--there is where so many fail in making good jelly; and another important matter is overlooked--that of carefully skimming off the juice after it begins to boil and a scum rises from the bottom to the top; the juice should not be stirred, but the scum carefully taken off; if allowed to boil under, the jelly will not be clear.

When either preserves or canned fruits show any indications of fermentation, they should be immediately re-boiled with more sugar, to save them. It is much better to be generous with the sugar at first than to have any losses afterwards. Keep all preserves in a cool, dry closet.

PRESERVED CHERRIES.

Take large, ripe Morello cherries; weigh them and to each pound allow a pound of loaf sugar. Stone the cherries (opening them with a sharp quill) and save the juice that comes from them in the process. As you stone them, throw them into a large pan or tureen and strew about half the sugar over them and let them lie in it an hour or two after they are all stoned. Then put them into a preserving kettle with the remainder of the sugar and boil and skim them till the fruit is clear and the syrup thick.

PRESERVED CRANBERRIES.

The cranberries must be large and ripe. Wash them and to six quarts of cranberries allow nine pounds of the beat loaf sugar. Take three quarts of the cranberries and put them into a stewpan with a pint and a half of water. Cover the pan and boil or stew them till they are all to pieces. Then squeeze the juice through a jelly bag. Put the sugar into a preserving kettle, pour the cranberry juice over it and let it stand until it is all melted, stirring it up frequently. Then place the kettle over the fire and put in the remaining three quarts of whole cranberries. Let them boil till they are tender, clear and of a bright color, skimming them frequently. When done, put them warm into jars with the syrup, which should be like a thick jelly.

PRESERVED STRAWBERRIES.

For every pound of fruit weigh a pound of refined sugar; put them with the sugar over the fire in a porcelain kettle, bring to a boil slowly about twenty minutes. Take them out carefully with a perforated skimmer and fill your _hot_ jars nearly full; boil the juice a few minutes longer and fill up the jars; seal them _hot_. Keep in a cool, dry place.

TO PRESERVE BERRIES WHOLE. (Excellent.)

Buy the fruit when not _too ripe_, pick over immediately, wash if absolutely necessary and put in glass jars, filling each one about two-thirds full.

Put in the preserving kettle a pound of sugar and one cupful of water for every two pounds of fruit, and let it come slowly to a boil. Pour this syrup into the jars over the berries, filling them up to the brim; then set the jars in a pot of _cold_ water on the stove, and let the water boil and the fruit become scalding hot. Now take them out and seal perfectly tight. If this process is followed thoroughly, the fruit will keep for several years.

PRESERVED EGG PLUMS.