Part 5

One pound of sugar, three quarters of a pound of ground rice, thirteen eggs with the whites of four taken out, a small teaspoonful of salt. Flavor as above, or with the essence of lemon.

=Pound.=

A pound each of flour, sugar, and butter, ten eggs, half a nutmeg, the juice and part of the rind of a lemon. Some persons use only fourteen ounces of butter, and add a quarter of a teaspoonful of saleratus.

=Cream.=

Stir one teacup of cream, and two of sugar till well mixed, add two eggs beaten to a froth, and a little salt. Dissolve a teaspoonful of saleratus in a spoonful or two of milk, and add it. Then, immediately put in a cup or two of flour, and some essence of lemon, or other spice, and stir it a little. Then add flour enough to make it as thick as cup cake; stir it well eight or ten minutes, and bake in common cup-cake pans.

=Harrison.=

To two cups of molasses, put one of brown sugar, one of butter, one of sour cream, or milk, a cup of raisins, and one of currants, a teaspoonful of powdered clove, and two (rather small) of saleratus.

To mix it, cut the butter in little pieces, and put into a saucepan with the molasses, to melt. When the molasses boils up pour it immediately upon three or four cups of flour, and add the sugar, and half the cream. Stir it well, then add the saleratus, the rest of the cream, the spice, and flour enough to make it of the consistence of cup cake, and last, the fruit. Bake in cup-cake pans, rather slowly. All cake containing molasses is more liable to burn than that which has none.

CREAM CAKES, COOKIES, WAFERS, KISSES, JUMBLES, GINGERBREAD, ETC.

[The eggs for these articles, except for the wafers, need not be broken separately, but yolks and whites may be added without beating, after the sugar and butter have been stirred. When all has been well beaten together eight or ten minutes, add part of the flour, then the saleratus and spice or ginger; and then place the pan upon a table, and work in flour enough to enable you to handle it without its sticking.

Dough for cookies or gingerbread, is much more easily and neatly rolled out and stamped the day after it is made, than on the same day. In cold weather, set it when made where it will not become hard, or else bring it into a warm room an hour or two before it is to be rolled out. Cookies should be about as thick as the end of your little finger; gingerbread half as thick. These things bake very quickly, and should be carefully attended to. Sugar gingerbread should be cut up as it lies in the pan, before it has time to cool, and laid upon a sieve. It cannot be cut after it is cold without being very much broken.]

=Cream Cakes.=

A pint of water, half a pound of butter, three quarters of a pound of flour, and ten eggs. Boil the water, melt the butter in it, stir in the flour dry while it boils; when it is cool, add a teaspoonful of saleratus, and the eggs well beaten. Drop the mixture on buttered tins with a table-spoon, and bake twenty minutes.

To make the inside, take one cup of flour, two cups of sugar, one quart of milk, and four eggs. Beat the flour, sugar, and eggs together, and stir into the boiling milk. When the mixture is sufficiently scalded, season it with lemon.

When the cakes are cool, cut them open and add the cream.

=Cookies.=

To one teacup of butter, three of sugar, half a cup of milk or cream, three eggs, one small teaspoonful of saleratus, and flour to make it rather stiff.

=Another.=

Seven teacups of flour, three of sugar, two of butter, one of milk or cream, one nutmeg, three eggs, one large teaspoonful of saleratus.

=Wafers.=

One cup of butter, two of sugar, six of flour, half a cup of new milk, three eggs, half a nutmeg, a few drops of essence of lemon, and one teaspoonful of saleratus. Roll the dough thin, then take it up and sift a little white sugar upon the board, and lay it down upon the sugar and make it _very_ thin. Then cut it in rounds, and with a wide knife take them from the board and turn them over upon the baking pan, so that the sugared side will be uppermost. Bake five or six minutes.

=Kisses.=

Beat the whites of nine fresh eggs to a stiff froth, then mix with it fifteen spoonfuls of finest white sugar, and five or six drops of essence of lemon. Drop them on paper with a teaspoon, sift sugar over them, and bake them in a slow oven.

=Cocoanut Drops.=

Grate a cocoanut, and weigh it, then add half the weight of powdered sugar, and the white of one egg cut to a stiff froth. Stir the ingredients together, then drop the mixture with a dessert spoon upon buttered white paper, or tin sheets, and sift sugar over them. Bake in a slow oven fifteen minutes.

=Fruit Jumbles.=

A pound and a quarter of flour, a pound of sugar, three quarters of a pound of butter, five eggs, a quarter of a pound of currants, a gill or small teacup of milk, half a teaspoonful of saleratus, half a wine-glass of wine. Drop them on tins with a spoon, and bake in rather a quick oven.

=Hard Sugar Gingerbread.=

Two cups of butter, four of sugar, two eggs, a cup and a half of milk, two teaspoonfuls of ginger, and two of saleratus. Flour to make rather a stiff dough.

=Another (very plain).=

Ten ounces of butter, twenty ounces of sugar, a cup and a half of milk, four teaspoonfuls of ginger, one large teaspoonful of saleratus, a few drops of essence of rose, or half a cup of rose-water; in which case omit the half cup of milk.

=Soft Sugar Gingerbread.=

Two pounds of flour, one of butter, one and a half of sugar, seven eggs, half a gill of rose-water or wine. To be baked in such pans as are used for cup cake. This keeps good a long time, and is very nice.

=Another (without eggs).=

One pound of butter, two of sugar, three of flour, a pint of milk, a large spoonful of ginger, two teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar mixed in the flour, and one teaspoonful of saleratus. Stir the butter and sugar to a cream, then add half of the milk, and a large part of the flour; then the remainder of the milk having the saleratus dissolved in it, and the rest of the flour. Make half the quantity for a small family. Bake it in cup-cake pans.

=Ginger Crackers.=

A pint of molasses, two cups of butter, one and a half of sugar, one teaspoonful of saleratus, and two of ginger; add flour enough to make it easy to roll out. Stir the butter and sugar together, boil the molasses and pour it into the pan, and stir steadily until the butter and sugar are melted, then put in a few handfuls of flour, and add the saleratus. Stir it a few minutes, and then work in all the flour. To be rolled very thin, and baked but a few minutes.

=New York Ginger Snaps.=

Half a pound each of butter and sugar, two and a half pounds of flour, a pint of molasses, a teaspoonful of saleratus, caraway seeds, or ginger. Mix it just like the ginger crackers, and bake them thin.

=Soft Molasses Gingerbread.=

For three pints of flour, allow a pint of molasses, a pint of sour milk, or butter-milk, a gill of butter, half a gill of nice drippings, three teaspoonfuls of ginger, two of saleratus, and a very little salt.

To mix it, boil the molasses with the butter and shortening cut up in it, and pour it hot upon the flour. Stir it a little, and then add the sour milk with the saleratus and ginger. Stir it well. Gingerbread is as much better for being thoroughly beaten, as any other cake. You can make it rather more delicate by using butter only, adding a gill of brown sugar, and substituting cinnamon and clove instead of ginger. On the other hand, very good gingerbread is made by omitting the butter, and using shortening instead, and cold water or cider in place of the sour milk. A teaspoonful of salt is necessary where the butter is omitted.

=Hard Molasses Gingerbread.=

A half a pint of molasses, a gill of butter, half a gill of nice drippings, half a gill of sour milk, two teaspoonfuls of saleratus, and the same of ginger. Melt the butter, drippings, and molasses together, and pour hot upon a quart of flour; add the ginger and saleratus, and when well mixed add more flour until it can be handled without sticking. Then roll it out about as thick as the little finger, stamp or mark it, and bake it in shallow iron or tin pans. Bake it in a moderate heat. When done, cut it up before you take it out of the pans, as it cannot be done after it is cold without crumbling the edges.

If you prefer to have it thin, and cut into rounds like cookies, it is a very good way.

By omitting the sour milk and adding a cup of sugar, a rather nicer gingerbread is made.

=Another.=

Melt one cup of butter in two of molasses, pour it hot upon a quart of flour; dissolve one teaspoonful of saleratus in a little hot water and add it. Put in flour enough to roll it out neatly. Make it very thin, cut it in rounds, and bake it quick. These cakes are very crisp, and keep so in a tin chest.

FRIED CAKES.

=On Frying Cakes.=

[To have fried cakes good, it is necessary that the fat should be of the right heat. When it is hot enough, it will cease to bubble, and be perfectly still. It is best to try it with a little bit of the cake to be fried. If the heat is right, the dough will rise in a few seconds to the top, and occasion a bubbling in the fat; it will swell, and the under-side quickly become brown. It should then be turned over. Cakes should be turned two or three times. The time necessary to fry them, depends on their thickness; if about as thick as the little finger, they will be done in seven or eight minutes. It is best to break open one, in order to judge. When done, drain them well with a skimmer. If the fat is too hot, the outside will be burned before the centre is cooked at all; if too cool, they will become fat-soaked, which makes them very unhealthy and disagreeable. The fire must be carefully regulated. A person who fries cakes must attend to nothing else; the cakes, the fat, and the fire will occupy every minute. The use of many eggs prevents cakes from absorbing much fat. But they can be so made without eggs, as not to take up much fat.]

=Crullers.=

To two pounds of flour, put three quarters of a pound of sugar, half a pound of butter, nine eggs, mace, and rose-water unless the butter has been kept in rose leaves.

=Another.=

To six teacups of flour, put two of sugar, half a one of butter, half a one of cream, eight eggs, one nutmeg; or if more convenient, nine eggs, no cream, and a full cup of butter.

=Another (plainer, but very good).=

To a pint of warm milk, put two spoonfuls of lard, and three of butter cut into little bits. Beat four eggs and five heaping spoonfuls of sugar together, and stir into the milk. Grate in a nutmeg, put in a very heaping teaspoonful of saleratus, and knead in flour enough to roll out.

=Cream of Tartar.=

Make them precisely like the cream of tartar biscuit (see page 34), with the addition of five spoonfuls of sugar, half a nutmeg, one egg, and a small piece more of butter.

=Raised Doughnuts.=

Boil a quart of milk, and rub smooth in a little cold milk a large gill of ground rice; when the milk boils up, stir in the rice and a little salt. Let it boil till it thickens, stirring it two or three times. Pour it, hot, upon a quart of flour; when cool enough, add a gill of yeast, and flour enough to make it stiff as bread. Knead it a great deal. Let it rise over night, and when very light, work in three quarters of a pound of butter, a pound and a half of sugar beaten in five eggs, and add nutmeg and lemon, juice and rind. Let it rise again, and then roll out and fry it.

Light bread dough, which is wet with milk, may be made into plain, or rich dough-nuts, as preferred, with very little trouble. Prepare the dough as directed in the receipt for rusk, and add two or three eggs, if convenient. It is not necessary.

=Fried Biscuit.=

Work a piece of batter the size of an egg into a large pint of light bread dough. When it has risen again, roll it very thin, cut it into circles or squares, and fry them for breakfast. Eat them with salt, or with cider and sugar. All crullers and dough-nuts are much more healthful fried in clarified drippings of roast meat, than in lard; and it is, besides, good economy.

ON MAKING PASTRY.

The flour, as in making bread or cake, should be sifted. The best-looking pastry is made with lard, but it is not so healthy or good, as that which is made with half or two thirds butter. Whichever you use, rub a third of it into the flour, but do not try to rub out every lump; the less the hands are used the better. Add cold water; in summer, ice water. If your crust is shortened wholly with lard, allow a teaspoonful of salt to a pound (or quart) of flour, and a small teaspoonful of saleratus to every three pounds. Sprinkle the salt into the flour, and dissolve the saleratus in the water. If butter only or chiefly is used, omit the saleratus. When you have put in the water, stir it quickly, rather stiff, with a knife. Do not mould it; it will make it tough; but when it is barely stirred together, put it on the board, roll it out, lay thin shavings of butter on every part, sprinkle a little flour over it, and roll it out again, then lay on butter as before. To avoid much handling of the crust, roll it so thin that all the butter will be taken up by two or three times rolling in. When it is all rolled in, fold up the crust in a long roll, and double it, laying the ends together; then lay it aside, and cut from it for each pie. In rolling out for the plates press the pin equally, so as to make all parts of the same thickness, and as nearly circular as possible. Have the plates ready buttered, or greased with lard, lay in the crust, and see that all parts touch the plate. Take the dish up on the palm of the left hand, and with the right trim the edges, holding the knife under and _aslant_, and so cut the crust that the edge of the dish will be perfectly covered. People differ in regard to the proper thickness of pie-crust. A pie in which the fruit constitutes one third of the thickness, and the two crusts the other two thirds, although it may look more elegant, is neither so healthful or good as one made with thinner crust and plenty of fruit. Some fruit requires thicker crust than others; for apple, peach, and pumpkin it should be thin as a common earthen plate; for juicy fruits, such as berries, cherries, currants, plums, and for mince, it should be a little thicker. Lay some of the trimmings round the rim of the plate to make the edge of the pie handsome, and put the rest by themselves, and when there are enough, roll them out for an under-crust.

In making cherries, currants, &c., into pies, use deep dishes, and be careful not to fill them even full, as the syrup will boil over, and thus, much of the richness of the pie be lost. There is one way effectually to prevent the loss of syrup. After you have laid in the fruit, or mince, and rolled out the upper-crust, wet the rim of the under-crust all around with cold water [not omitting a single spot, if you do the syrup will escape at that spot], and sprinkle a very little flour upon it, lay the trimming upon the rim, wet and flour that in the same manner, then lay the upper-crust immediately over, and press it down gently upon the rim. The flour and water act as a paste to fasten the crusts together. Trim the edge as before, and prick the top eight or ten times with a fork. This is necessary for the escape of the steam, and without it, the closing of the edge will not avail to keep in the syrup. It is a good way to invert a teacup in the centre of a juicy fruit-pie, as in making an oyster-pie.

A clammy lower-crust is neither good or digestible. Therefore never fill pies made of moist materials until just before putting them into the oven. Squash pies, cocoanut, and Marlborough puddings, &c., should not be filled until the last minute, and mince and stewed apple should only stand long enough for the upper-crust to be laid on. Pie-crust becomes yellow from standing long before being baked; therefore, delay rolling out the upper-crust for any kind of pies until the oven is nearly ready. Pastry should be baked in a quick oven, to be light, and be slightly browned to be healthy. When you bake pumpkin and similar kinds of pies, if you have the least doubt whether the crust is well done, set the dishes a few minutes on embers, or the top of a cooking stove. This sort of pies requires nearly an hour to bake; more, if the dishes are very deep. When done enough, the top will be gently swelled all over, and in moving, tremble like jelly; if not done, the middle will look like a thick liquid. Most pies require an hour to bake; those made of stewed apple or cranberry, three quarters of an hour. Much depends on the kind of oven used.

It is difficult to make flaky crust in warm weather. But cooling the butter and water with ice, and having the pastry-table in the cellar, will insure tolerable success.

There is hardly another article of food in which so much is sacrificed to appearance as in pastry. Everybody likes a light crust, a little brown, and not excessively rich, better than one that is half butter or lard, and baked white.

Cherries should not be stewed or stoned for pies. Apples, after they are pared, cut, and cored, should be washed. Steam pumpkin and squash, or stew it with very little water. Meat for pies must not be chopped till after it is cold.

After a little practice and observation, it will be just as well to omit weighing the materials for pastry. One very heaping handful of flour will make a common-sized pie; not, however, allowing for the flour to be used in rolling the paste.

When all the pies but the last one are made, scrape the remains of crust from the moulding-board and the rolling-pin, and add any parings of edges that you have, work them together, and use for the under-crust.

For almost all kinds of pies, good brown sugar is nice enough. The Havana is seldom clean. The Porto-Rico and Santa Cruz are considered the best. The New Orleans is very sweet.

The very early apples, when used for pies or sauce, should not be pared, as the greatest part of the richness of the fruit, at that season, is in the skin. Some kinds are so delicate, that when stewed, the skin is entirely absorbed in the pulp, so as not to be visible, and the color, if it is red, is beautifully diffused through the whole mass.

=Rich Puff Paste.=

For a pound and a half of flour, take one pound of butter; divide it into three parts, and reserve a third of the flour for use in rolling in two parts. Rub one third of the butter into the flour, add water enough just to make it a stiff dough, then roll it out, and put in the rest of the butter as directed above.

=A plainer Paste.=

Three pounds (or quarts) of flour, half a pound of lard, and a pound of butter.

=Good common Pie-crust.=

Allow one heaping handful of flour for a pie, and a table-spoonful of lard or butter for each handful.

=Bread-dough Pie-crust.=

Take very light dough and roll in shavings of butter three times, using as little flour as you can.

=Potatoe-crust.=

Boil six good-sized mealy potatoes, and mash them fine; add salt, a spoonful of butter and two of water while they are hot. Then work in flour enough for making a paste to roll out, or put in two or three spoonfuls of cream, and no butter or water. This is a good crust for pot-pies or dumplings.

PIES.

=Of Stewed Apple.=

Stew the apple with water enough to prevent its burning; sweeten and flavor it to your taste, and, while it is hot, add butter in the proportion of a dessert spoonful to a quart of apple. The spices most appropriate are nutmeg and lemon, cinnamon and orange. Two kinds are enough; one does very well. When you have laid the under crust in the plate, roll out the upper one, so that it may be laid on the moment the apple is put in, as the under crust will be clammy if the pie is not put immediately into the oven.

=Another (without an upper crust).=

Pare and quarter fourteen or eighteen fair sour apples, weigh them, and make a syrup of the same weight of sugar and a little water. Grate off the outside of a lemon and set it aside; take out the seeds, cut up the inside, and put it into the syrup. When the syrup is boiled clear, lay in half of the apples and boil them, but not till they are very soft. Take them out carefully, and lay them separately on a dish, so as not to break them. Stew the rest of the apples, and when they are taken out, boil the syrup a little while longer. Have ready three or four medium sized deep plates, with a nice paste in them. If any of the apple is broken or stewed soft, lay that into the middle of the plate, then put the quarters around in regular tiers, one above another, so as to form a sort of half sphere or pyramid, then sprinkle the grated lemon over the top, and pour on some of the syrup. Bake in a quick oven half an hour. When they are taken out, sift fine sugar over the top.

=Of uncooked Apples.=

To eat immediately, the following is excellent. Lay the slices into the plate upon an under crust; fill it quite full; sprinkle the rim with a little flour, to prevent the upper crust from adhering to the under one. Bake forty minutes, or till the apple is tender, and then slide off the upper crust and add a small bit of butter, some nutmeg or lemon, and sugar to your taste. Mix them well with the apple with a silver spoon, and return the upper crust to its place.

=Another.=

The other method is to lay the apples into a deep dish with an under crust, and for a large family, no matter how large a dish is used; grate a whole or half nutmeg over, according to the size of the pie, or if you have a fresh orange, cut small the peel of half a one, and sprinkle in with the apple; add a few sticks of cinnamon, a few little bits of butter, and lastly, put on as much sugar as your judgment directs. Cover it, and close the edge, so that the syrup will not escape. Bake from an hour and a half to two hours.

=Another (sweetened with molasses).=

Make a plain crust, and line a deep dish; fill it with sliced apples, grate a good deal of nutmeg over them, and lay on two or three thin shavings of butter. Then pour over a teacupful or two of good molasses, according to the size of the pie; lay on the upper crust, and close it so that the syrup cannot escape. Bake it two hours and a half.

For directions how to make a pie of Dried Apples, see the receipt for stewing them.

=Whortleberry.=

Fill the dish not quite even full, and to each pie of the size of a large soup plate, add four large spoonfuls of sugar; (for blackberries and blueberries, five). Dredge a very little flour over the fruit before you lay on the upper crust. Close the edge with special care.

=Cherry.=

The common red cherry makes the best pie. Bake it in a deep dish. Use sugar in the proportion directed for blackberries. All cherries, except the very sweet ones, are good for pies.

=Cranberry.=

Take the sauce as prepared to eat with meat; grate a little nutmeg over it, put three or four thin shavings of butter on it, and then lay on the upper crust. If not sweet enough, add more sugar. Make it without an upper crust, if you prefer, and lay very narrow strips across diagonally.

=Green Currants and Gooseberries.=

These require a great deal of sugar, at least two thirds as much in measure as of fruit. Currant pies should be made in a deep plate or a pudding dish, and with an upper crust.

Gooseberries should be stewed like cranberries, sweetened to suit the taste, and laid upon the under crust, with strips placed diagonally across the top, as directed for the cranberry tarts. Currants that are almost ripe make a nice pie, and require the same measure of sugar as blackberries.

=Lemon.=