1 quart of new milk, or as fresh as you can get it.

1 cup raw rice.

4 eggs.

1 great spoonful of butter.

1 cup sugar, and same of fine bread-crumbs.

½ cup suet (powdered).

½ lb. raisins, seeded and chopped.

½ lb. currants, washed well and dried.

¼ lb. citron, minced fine.

Soak the rice over night, or for five hours, in a little warm water. Boil until tender in one pint of the milk. Simmer gently, and do not stir it. Set the saucepan in hot water, and cook in that way to avoid burning, shaking up the rice now and then. When done, beat in the butter. Butter a mould well, and cover the bottom with the bread-crumbs. Cover this with rice; wet with a raw custard made of the other pint of milk, the yolks of the eggs and the sugar. On this sprinkle suet; then a layer of the mixed fruit. More bread-crumbs, rice, custard, suet and fruit, until the dish is nearly full. The top layer should be crumbs. Bake for an hour in a moderate oven. When nearly done, draw to the door of the oven and cover with a mÉringue made of the whites of the eggs whisked stiff with a very little powdered sugar.

Eat warm, with sweetened cream as sauce. But it is also very good cold, eaten with cream.

This, in my opinion, deserves the highest rank among rice puddings, which are, by the way, far more respectable as desserts than is usually believed. There are so many indifferent, and worse than indifferent ones made and eaten, that discredit has fallen upon the whole class. If properly made and cooked, they are not only wholesome, but palatable dainties.

Almond Rice Pudding.

1 quart of milk.

1 cup raw rice.

5 eggs.

1 cup sugar.

A little salt.

A little grated lemon-peel—about one teaspoonful.

½ pound sweet almonds, blanched.

Soak the rice in a very little water for four hours; put it into a farina-kettle; fill the outer kettle with hot water; pour a pint of milk over the rice, and simmer gently until it is tender, and each grain almost translucent. Beat the eggs and sugar together, add the other pint of milk, then the rice. Mix all well together, flavor with the lemon-peel (or two or three peach-leaves may be boiled with the rice, if you do not like the lemon). Boil in a buttered mould. An oval fluted one is prettiest if you have it—what is known as the musk-melon pattern. It should be cooked steadily about an hour—certainly not less. Dip the mould in cold water; let it stand uncovered an instant; turn out upon a flat dish and stick it all over with the almonds blanched, and cut into long shreds.

Have ready some rich, sweet custard for sauce, or sweetened cream.

Southern Rice Pudding. Maltese cross

1 quart fresh, sweet milk.

1 cup raw rice.

2 table-spoonfuls butter.

1 cup sugar.

4 eggs, beaten light.

Grated lemon-peel—about one teaspoonful.

A pinch of cinnamon, and same of mace.

Soak the rice in a cup of the milk for two hours. Turn into a farina-kettle; add the rest of the milk, and simmer until the rice is tender. Rub the butter and sugar to a cream. Beat up the eggs, and whisk this into them until the mixture is very light. Let the rice cool a little while you are doing this. Stir all together, flavor, put into a buttered mould, and bake about three-quarters of an hour in a moderate oven. If baked too long the custard will separate into curds and whey.

Eat warm with sauce, or cold with sugar and cream.

Rice MÉringue. Maltese cross

Make according to the above receipt, but when done, draw to the door of the oven, and cover with the following mixture:

Whites of four eggs, whisked stiff.

1 large table-spoonful powdered sugar.

Juice of 1 lemon.

Spread quickly and evenly. Close the oven and bake three minutes more, or until it is very delicately browned.

Rosie’s Rice Custard. Maltese cross

1 quart of milk.

3 eggs, well beaten.

4 table-spoonfuls sugar.

1 scant table-spoonful butter.

A little salt.

1 small cup boiled rice.

Boil the rice, and while still warm, drain, and stir into the milk. Beat the eggs; rub butter and sugar together, and add to them. Mix all up well, and bake in buttered dish half an hour in a pretty quick oven.

Tapioca Custard Pudding. Maltese cross

1 cup tapioca, soaked over night in cold water enough to cover it.

1 quart of milk.

1 large cup powdered sugar.

5 eggs.

Half the grated peel of one lemon.

A very little salt.

Make a custard of the yolks, sugar and milk. Warm the milk slightly in a farina-kettle before mixing with the other ingredients. Beat this custard into the soaked tapioca; salt; whisk the whites of the eggs to a standing froth, stir in swiftly and lightly; set the pudding-dish (well buttered) into a pan of boiling water, and bake, covered, in a moderate oven until the custard is well “set.” Brown delicately by setting it for a minute on the upper grating of a quicker oven.

This may be eaten warm or cold, with or without sauce.

English Tapioca Pudding. Maltese cross

1 cup tapioca.

3 pints fresh milk.

5 eggs.

2 table-spoonfuls butter.

1 cup sugar.

½ pound raisins, seeded and cut in half.

Half the grated peel of 1 lemon.

Soak the tapioca one hour in a pint of the milk; pour into a glass, or stone-ware jar; set in a pot of warm water and bring to a boil. When the tapioca is soft all through, turn out to cool somewhat, while you make the custard. Beat the eggs very light; rub butter and sugar together; mix all with the tapioca, the fruit last. Bake in buttered dish one hour.

Arrowroot Pudding. (Cold.)

3 even table-spoonfuls arrowroot.

2 table-spoonfuls of sugar.

1 table-spoonful of butter.

3 cups rich new milk.

¼ pound crystallized peaches, chopped fine.

Heat the milk scalding hot in a farina-kettle. Wet the arrowroot with cold milk, and stir into this. When it begins to thicken, add sugar and butter. Stir constantly for fifteen minutes. Turn out into a bowl, and when almost cold beat in the fruit. Wet a mould, put in the mixture, and set in a cold place until firm.

Eat with powdered sugar and cream.

Arrowroot Pudding. (Hot.)

3 even table-spoonfuls arrowroot.

1 quart new milk.

1 table-spoonful butter.

4 table-spoonfuls sugar.

4 eggs, beaten light.

A little nutmeg.

Vanilla flavoring.

Scald the milk; wet the arrowroot with cold milk, and pour the hot gradually upon it, stirring all the time. Beat the eggs very light, rub butter and sugar together; mix with the eggs; whisk hard for a minute before pouring the milk in with them. Flavor; put into a buttered mould. The water should be nearly boiling when it goes in, and boil steadily for one hour. If you have a steamer, it is best cooked in that, the heat reaching all parts of the covered mould at the same time. Set in cold water a minute before turning it out. Eat with brandy or wine sauce.

Sago Pudding. Maltese cross

1 small cup of sago, soaked over night in cold water.

1 quart of milk.

5 eggs.

4 table-spoonfuls of sugar.

A pinch of cinnamon, and same of nutmeg.

1 table-spoonful of butter.

In the morning put the soaked sago into a farina-kettle, with one pint of milk; bring to a slow boil, and keep it on the fire until it is tender and clear, and has soaked up all the milk. Make a custard of the beaten eggs, the milk, the butter and sugar rubbed together, the spice, and when the sago is nearly cold, beat it in. Bake in a buttered dish. It should be done in little over half an hour.

You can boil the same mixture, if desired, in a buttered mould. It will take more than an hour to cook.

Eat cold or hot. If warm, with sauce. If cold, with powdered sugar and cream. It is nice with a mÉringue on top.

Almond Corn-Starch Pudding. Maltese cross

1 quart of milk.

4 table-spoonfuls corn-starch.

1 table-spoonful of butter.

Yolks of five eggs, whites of two.

¼ pound sweet almonds—blanched.

Rose-water, and bitter almond.

¾ cup powdered sugar.

Scald the milk; wet the corn-starch to smooth paste with a little cold milk, and stir into the boiling milk. Cook until it begins to thicken well. Take from the fire and stir in the butter. Let it cool while you make the almond paste and the custard. The almonds should be blanched long enough beforehand to get perfectly cold before you pound them to a paste, a few at a time, in a bowl or Wedgewood mortar. Drop in rose-water, now and then, to prevent them from oiling. Make a custard of the yolks, the whites of two eggs, and the sugar. Beat this gradually and thoroughly into the corn-starch paste; flavor with bitter almond; finally stir in the almond paste. Bake in a buttered dish about half an hour. When almost done cover with a mÉringue made of the whites reserved, and a very little powdered sugar. Eat warm—not hot, with cream and sugar. It is also good when it has been set on the ice until very cold. In winter it is easy to freeze it. It is then delicious, eaten with rich cream or custard.

Corn-Meal Fruit Pudding.

3 pints of milk.

1 heaping cup white Indian meal.

1 cup flour.

4 eggs, well beaten.

1 cup white sugar.

2 table-spoonfuls butter, melted.

½ pound raisins, seeded, and cut in two.

1 teaspoonful, heaping, of salt.

1 teaspoonful mixed cinnamon and mace.

1 teaspoonful soda, wet up with boiling water.

2 teaspoonfuls cream of tartar, sifted in the flour.

Scald a pint of the milk, and with it wet the meal. Stir it up well, and let it get almost, or quite cold. While cooling, beat in the flour wet with cold milk. Beat all up hard and long. Make a custard of the remaining milk, the eggs and sugar. Beat gradually into the cooled paste. When all are mixed into a light batter, put in the butter, spice, the fruit, dredged well with flour; last of all, the dissolved soda. Beat up hard and quickly, bringing your spoon up from the bottom of the dish, and full of batter at every stroke. Pour into a buttered dish, and bake in a tolerably quick, steady oven. It should be done in from half to three-quarters of an hour, if the heat be just right. If it should brown too rapidly, cover with paper.

This is a very good pudding.

Corn-Meal Pudding without Eggs. Maltese cross

2 cups Indian meal.

1 cup flour.

2 table-spoonfuls sugar (or molasses).

3 cups sour milk—if thick, all the better.

1 great spoonful melted butter.

1 teaspoonful—a full one—of soda.

1 teaspoonful of salt.

½ teaspoonful cinnamon.

Put meal and flour together in a bowl, and mix them up well with the salt. Make a hole in the middle, and pour in the milk, stirring the meal, etc., down into it from the sides gradually. Beat until free from lumps. Put in butter, spice and sugar—the soda, dissolved in hot water, at the last. Beat up well for five minutes. Butter a tin mould with a cover; pour in the batter and boil steadily for an hour and a half.

Eat hot with sweet sauce.

Hasty Pudding. Maltese cross

1 heaping cup of Indian meal.

½ cup flour.

1 quart boiling water.

1 pint milk.

1 table-spoonful butter.

1 teaspoonful salt.

Wet up meal and flour with the milk and stir into the boiling water. Boil hard half an hour, stirring almost constantly from the bottom. Put in salt and butter, and simmer ten minutes longer. Turn into a deep, uncovered dish, and eat with sugar and cream, or sugar and butter with nutmeg.

Our children like it.

Rice-Flour Hasty Pudding. Maltese cross

1 quart new milk.

3 table-spoonfuls rice-flour.

1 table-spoonful butter.

1 teaspoonful salt.

Scald the milk and stir into it the rice flour, wet up with cold milk. Boil steadily, stirring all the while, for half an hour. Add salt and butter; let the pudding stand in hot water three minutes after you have ceased to stir, and turn out into deep, open dish.

Eat with cream and sugar.

N. B. Always boil hasty puddings and custards in a farina-kettle, or a pail set within a pot of hot water. It is the only safe method.

Farina Pudding. Maltese cross

Make according to last receipt, but boil three-quarters of an hour, and, ten minutes before taking it up, stir into it two eggs beaten light and thinned with three table-spoonfuls of milk. Cook slowly, and stir all the time, after these go in. To a quart of milk, use at least four table-spoonfuls of farina.

A good dessert for children—and not to be despised by their elders.

Susie’s Bread Pudding. Maltese cross

1 quart of milk.

4 eggs—the whites of 3 more for mÉringue.

2 cups very fine, dry bread-crumbs.

1 table-spoonful melted butter.

1 teacupful sugar.

Juice and half the grated peel of 1 lemon.

Beat eggs, sugar and butter together. Soak the crumbs in the milk and mix all well, beating very hard and rapidly. Season, and bake in greased baking-dish. When almost done, cover with a mÉringue made of the whites of three eggs and a little powdered sugar.

Eat cold. It is very nice.

Fruit Bread Pudding. (Very Fine.) Maltese cross

1 quart of milk.

1 cup of sugar.

3 large cups very fine bread-crumbs.

½ cup suet—powdered.

½ pound raisins seeded and cut in two.

1 table-spoonful finely shred citron.

½ pound sultana raisins, washed well and dried.

1 teaspoonful soda, dissolved in hot water.

2 teaspoonfuls cream of tartar, stirred into the dry crumbs.

A little salt, nutmeg and cinnamon.

3 eggs beaten light.

Soak the bread-crumbs in the milk; next, beat in the whipped eggs and sugar; the suet and spice. Whip the batter very light before the fruit—strictly dredged with flour and well mixed—goes in. Put the soda in last. Beat three minutes steadily, before putting it into buttered mould. Boil two hours. Keep the water boiling hard all the time. Eat with brandy-sauce.

Bread and Raisin Pudding.

1 quart milk.

Enough slices of baker’s bread—stale—to fill your dish.

Butter to spread the bread.

4 eggs.

½ cup of sugar.

¾ pound of raisins, seeded and each cut into three pieces.

Butter the bread, each slice of which should be an inch thick, and entirely free from crust. Make a raw custard of eggs, sugar and milk. Butter a pudding-dish and put a layer of sliced bread at the bottom, fitted closely together and cut to fit the dish. Pour a little custard upon this, strew the cut raisins evenly over it; and lay in more buttered bread. Proceed in this order until the dish is full. The uppermost layer should be bread well buttered and soaked in the custard. Cover the dish closely, set in a baking pan nearly full of hot water, and bake an hour. When done, uncover, and brown lightly.

Or,

You can spread with a mÉringue, just before taking from the oven.

Eat hot, with sauce.

Cherry Bread Pudding.

Is very good made as above, substituting nice dried cherries—without stones—for the raisins.

Both of these are more palatable than one would imagine from reading the receipts; are far more easily made, less expensive, and more digestible than the pie, “without which father wouldn’t think he could live.”

Willie’s Favorite. (Very good.)

1 loaf stale baker’s bread. French bread, if you can get it. It must be white and light.

½ cup suet, powdered.

¼ pound citron, chopped very fine.

½ pound sweet almonds blanched and shaved thin.

5 large pippins, pared, cored and chopped.

1 cup cream and same of milk.

A little salt, stirred into the cream.

1 cup of powdered sugar.

Cut the bread into slices an inch thick, and pare off the crust. Cover the bottom of a buttered mould (with plain sides) with these, trimming them to fit the mould and to lie closely together. Soak this layer with cream; spread with the suet, and this with the fruit chopped fine and mixed together. Sprinkle this well with sugar, and strew almond shavings over it. Fit on another stratum of bread; soaking this with milk; then suet, fruit, sugar, almonds, and another layer of bread wet with cream. The topmost layer must be bread, and very wet. Boil two hours. Dip the mould in cold water, and turn out carefully upon a dish. Sift powdered sugar over it.

Eat hot with sweet sauce.

Steamed Bread Pudding. Maltese cross

1 pint milk.

2 cups fine bread-crumbs.

½ pound suet powdered.

½ pound sultana raisins, picked, washed and dried.

3 eggs.

1 dessert-spoonful corn-starch.

1 tablespoonful sugar.

A little salt.

½ pound macaroons or ratifias.

Make a custard of milk, eggs and sugar; heat almost to a boil and stir in the corn-starch wet with milk. Cook one minute; take from the fire and pour, a little at a time, over the bread-crumbs; beating into a rather thick batter. Butter a mould thickly; line it with the macaroons, and put, spoonful by spoonful, a layer of batter in the bottom. Cover this with suet, then raisins; sprinkle with sugar—put in more batter, and so on until the mould is nearly full. Fit on the top; put into the steamer over a pot of boiling water and steam, with the water at a hard boil, at least two hours. Dip the mould into cold water to make the pudding leave the sides; let it stand a moment, and turn out, with care, upon a hot dish.

Eat hot with wine sauce.

Custard Bread Pudding. (Boiled.) Maltese cross

2 cupfuls fine bread-crumbs—stale and dry.

1 quart of milk.

6 eggs—whites and yolks beaten separately.

1 table-spoonful rice flour.

1 teaspoonful salt, and ½ teaspoonful soda.

Flavor to taste.

Soak the bread-crumbs in the milk; put into a farina-kettle and heat almost to a boil. Stir in the rice-flour wet with cold milk; cook one minute; turn into a basin and beat hard several minutes. When almost cold, add the yolks of the eggs, the soda (dissolved in hot water) and the flavoring; finally, the whipped whites, mixing them in swiftly and thoroughly. Boil in a greased mould an hour and a half. Turn out, and eat hot with sweet sauce.

Macaroni and Almond Pudding.

½ pound best Italian macaroni, broken into inch lengths.

3 pints milk.

2 table-spoonfuls butter.

1 cup white sugar.

5 eggs.

½ pound sweet almonds, blanched and chopped.

Rose-water and bitter almond flavoring.

A little salt and nutmeg.

Simmer the macaroni half an hour in a pint of the milk.

Stir in the butter and salt. Cover the saucepan, and take from the fire, letting it stand covered while you make a custard of the rest of the milk, the eggs and sugar. Chop the almonds, adding rose-water to keep them from oiling. When the macaroni is nearly cold, put into the custard; stir up well, but break it as little as possible; put in nutmeg, bitter-almond extract; lastly the almonds.

Bake in the dish in which it is to be served.

Plain Macaroni Pudding. Maltese cross

¼ pound macaroni, broken into pieces an inch long.

1 pint water.

1 table-spoonful butter.

1 large cup of milk.

2 table-spoonfuls powdered sugar.

Grated peel of half a lemon.

A little cinnamon and salt.

Boil the macaroni slowly in the water, in one vessel set within another of hot water, until it is tender and has soaked up the water. Add the butter and salt. Let it stand covered five minutes without removing it from the range; put in the rest of the ingredients. Stir frequently, taking care not to break the macaroni, and simmer, covered ten minutes longer before turning it out into a deep dish.

Eat hot with butter and sugar, or sugar and cream.

Essex Pudding.

2 cups fine bread-crumbs.

¾ cup powdered suet.

2 table-spoonfuls sago, soaked over night in a little water.

5 eggs, beaten light.

1 cup of milk.

1 cup of sugar.

1 table-spoonful corn-starch, wet in cold milk.

About ½ pound whole raisins, “plumped” by laying them in boiling water two minutes.

A little salt.

Set the sago over the fire in a farina-kettle with enough water to cover it, and let it cook gently until tender and nearly dry. Make a custard of the eggs, milk and sugar; add the crumbs, beating into a thick batter; next the suet, corn-starch, sago and salt. Beat all up long and hard.

Butter a mould very thickly, and lay the raisins in the bottom and sides, in rings or stripes, or whatever pattern you may fancy. Fill the mould by spoonfuls—not to spoil your pattern—with the batter. Steam one hour and a half, or boil one hour.

Dip in cold water; let it stand one minute, and turn out upon a flat dish. The raisins should be imbedded in the pudding, but distinctly visible upon the surface.

Eat with jelly sauce.

Note.—For instructions about pudding-sauces, please see “Common Sense in the Household—General Receipts,” page 419.

Boiled Apple Pudding.

6 large juicy apples, pared, cored and chopped.

2 cups fine bread-crumbs.

1 cup powdered suet.

Juice of 1 lemon, and half the peel.

½ teaspoonful of salt.

1 teaspoonful of soda dissolved in hot water.

Mix all together with a wooden spoon, stirring until the ingredients are well incorporated into a damp mass. Put into a buttered mould, and boil three hours.

Eat with a good, sweet sauce.

Baked Apple Pudding. Maltese cross

6 or 7 fine juicy apples, pared and sliced.

Slices of stale baker’s bread, buttered.

½ pound citron, shred thin.

Grated peel of half a lemon, and a little cinnamon.

1 cup light, brown sugar.

Cut the crust from the bread; butter it on both sides, and fit a layer in the bottom of a buttered mould. Lay sliced apple over this, sprinkle with citron; strew sugar and a little of the seasoning over all, and put the next layer of bread. The slices of bread should be not quite half an inch thick. Butter the uppermost layer very abundantly. Cover the mould or dish, and bake an hour and a half.

Turn out and eat with pudding-sauce.

Apple Batter Pudding. Maltese cross

6 or 8 fine juicy apples, pared and cored.

1 quart of milk.

10 table-spoonfuls of flour.

6 eggs, beaten very light.

1 table-spoonful butter—melted.

1 saltspoonful of salt.

½ teaspoonful soda.

1 teaspoonful cream of tartar.

Set the apples closely together in the baking-dish; put in enough cold water to half cover them, and bake, closely covered, until the edges are clear, but not until they begin to break. Drain off the water, and let the fruit get cold before pouring over them a batter made of the ingredients enumerated above. Bake in a quick oven.

Serve in the baking-dish, and eat with sauce.

Peach Batter Pudding.

This is made in the same way, but if the peaches are fully ripe and soft, they need no previous cooking. The stones must be left in.

This is a delightful pudding.

Peach LÉche CrÉma.

Some fine, ripe peaches pared, and cut in half, leaving out the stones.

3 eggs, and the whites of two more.

3 cups of milk.

½ cup powdered sugar.

2 table-spoonfuls corn-starch, or rice-flour. If you have neither, take 3 table-spoonfuls best family flour.

1 table-spoonful melted butter.

Scald the milk; stir in the corn-starch wet with cold milk. Simmer, stirring carefully until it begins to thicken. Take from the fire and put in the butter. Beat the eggs light, and add when the corn-starch is lukewarm. Whip all until light and smooth. Put a thick substratum of peaches in the bottom of a buttered baking-dish; strew with the sugar and pour the crÉma gently over them. Bake in a pretty quick oven ten minutes. Then spread with a mÉringue made of the whites of five eggs, whisked stiff with a little powdered sugar. Shut the oven-door for two minutes to harden this.

Eat warm with sauce, or cold with cream.

Ristori Puffs. Maltese cross

5 eggs.

The weight of the eggs in flour.

Half their weight in butter and in sugar.

Juice of 1 lemon, and half the grated peel.

½ teaspoonful soda, dissolved in hot water.

Rub the butter and sugar to a cream, whisking until it is very light. Beat the whites to a standing froth; the yolks thick and smooth. Strain the latter through a sieve into the butter and sugar; stir in well; add the lemon, the soda, and the flour alternately with the whites, beating up rapidly after these go in. Have ready small cups or muffin-rings, well-buttered; put the mixture into them, and bake at once. In less than half an hour they should rise high in the pans. Test with a clean straw to see if they are done; turn out upon a hot dish, and serve with jelly sauce.

These are almost sure to be a success if made with good prepared flour—Hecker’s, for example. In this case, use no soda.

Jam Puffs.

3 eggs.

Half a cup of sweet jam or jelly.

The weight of the eggs in Hecker’s prepared flour.

Half their weight in sugar and butter.

Beat the eggs stiff, whites and yolks separately.

Cream the butter and sugar, strain the yolks into the cream; beat well before putting in the whites. The flour should go in last. Put the mixture in great spoonfuls upon your baking-tin. They should not touch, and must be as uniform in size as you can make them. Bake fifteen minutes in a quick oven. When cold, run a sharp knife around each, leaving about an inch uncut to serve as a hinge. Pull far enough open to put in a spoonful of jelly or jam; close, and sift white sugar over all when they are filled.

Cottage Puffs.

1 cup milk, and same of cream.

4 eggs beaten stiff, and the yolks strained.

1 table-spoonful butter, chopped into the flour.

A very little salt.

Enough prepared flour for thick batter.

Mix the beaten yolks with the milk and cream; then the salt and whites, lastly the flour. Bake in buttered iron pans, such as are used for “gems” and corn-bread. The oven should be quick. Turn out and eat with sweet sauce.

Lemon Puffs.

1 cup of prepared flour. Hecker’s always, if procurable.

½ cup powdered sugar.

1 table-spoonful butter.

3 eggs, beaten stiff. Strain the yolks.

A little salt, and grated peel of 1 lemon.

3 table-spoonfuls milk.

Mix, and bake in little pans as directed in previous receipt.

Vanilla Cream Puffs. Maltese cross

1 cup boiling water.

2 table-spoonfuls butter.

1 cup prepared flour.

2 eggs—beaten well.

1 cup powdered sugar and }

Whites of 2 eggs, } for icing.

1 pint cream whipped with a little sugar.

Vanilla seasoning in cream.

Put the water over the fire with one table-spoonful of butter. Boil up, and work in the flour without removing from the fire. Stir until stiff, and work in the rest of the butter. Take from the range, turn out into a bowl and beat in the eggs. Put upon a greased baking-tin in table-spoonfuls, taking care not to let them touch. Bake quickly, but thoroughly. When done and cold, cut a round piece out of the bottom of each, introduce the handle of a teaspoon, and scrape out most of the inside. Fill the cavity with the whipped cream into which you have beaten two table-spoonfuls of icing; fit back the round piece taken from the bottom; set on a dish, and ice. Put into a quick oven one minute to dry.

Coffee Cream Puffs.

Make as above, but beat into the icing two table-spoonfuls of black coffee—as strong as can be made, and a little of this icing into the whipped cream.

Chocolate Cream Puffs.

Instead of coffee, season the cream and icing with 2 table-spoonfuls sweet chocolate, grated. That flavored with vanilla is best. If you have not this, add a little vanilla extract.

Corn-Meal Puffs.

1 quart boiling milk.

2 scant cups white “corn flour.”

½ cup wheat flour.

1 scant cup powdered sugar.

A little salt.

4 eggs—beaten light.

1 table-spoonful butter.

½ teaspoonful of soda, dissolved in hot water.

1 teaspoonful cream of tartar, sifted into flour.

½ teaspoonful mixed cinnamon and nutmeg.

Boil the milk, and stir into it the meal, flour and salt. Boil fifteen minutes, stirring well up from the bottom. Put in the butter and beat hard in a bowl for three minutes. When cold, put in the eggs whipped light with the sugar, the seasoning and soda. Whip up very faithfully; bake in greased cups in a steady oven.

Turn out of cups and eat with pudding sauce, or with butter alone.

White Puffs (Very nice).

1 pint rich milk.

Whites of 4 eggs whipped stiff.

1 heaping cup prepared flour.

1 scant cup powdered sugar.

Grated peel of ½ lemon.

A little salt.

Whisk the eggs and sugar to a mÉringue, and add this alternately with the flour to the milk. (If you have cream, or half cream half milk, it is better.) Beat until the mixture is very light, and bake in buttered cups or tins. Turn out, sift powdered sugar over them, and eat with lemon sauce.

These are delicate in texture and taste, and pleasing to the eye.

White Pudding. Maltese cross

3 cups of milk.

Whites of 6 eggs—whipped stiff.

1 cup powdered sugar.

1 table-spoonful melted butter.

1 table-spoonful rose-water.

2 heaping cups prepared flour.

Whip the sugar into the stiffened whites; add butter and rose-water; then the flour, stirred in very lightly.

Bake in buttered mould in a rather quick oven. Eat with sweet sauce.

Rusk Pudding. Maltese cross

8 light, stale rusk.

A little more than 1 quart of milk.

5 eggs—whites and yolks beaten separately.

½ cup powdered sugar, ½ teaspoonful soda.

Flavor to taste, with lemon, vanilla or bitter almond.

Pare every bit of the crust from the rusk, wasting as little as possible. Crumb them fine into a bowl and pour a pint of milk boiling hot over them. Cover and let them stand until cold. Make a raw custard of the rest of the milk, the eggs and the sugar. Stir the soda, dissolved in hot water, into the soaked rusk, when they are cold, put in the custard. Pour the mixture into a buttered baking-dish—the same in which it is to be served—and bake in a brisk oven. It should puff up very light.

Sift powdered sugar over the top and eat warm with sweet sauce. Cream sauce is particularly good with it.

This is a good way to use up stale buns, rusk, etc. But they must be really good at first, or the pudding will be a failure. Rusks soon dry out, and become comparatively tasteless. Never try to renew their youth by steaming them. You will only make them as sour and flat as a twice-told tale.

Fig Pudding.

½ pound best Naples figs, washed, dried and minced.

2 cups fine bread-crumbs.

3 eggs.

½ cup best suet, powdered.

2 scant cups of milk.

½ cup white sugar.

A little salt.

A pinch of soda, dissolved in hot water and stirred into the milk.

Soak the crumbs in the milk; stir in the eggs beaten light with the sugar, the salt, suet and figs. Beat three minutes; put in buttered mould and boil three hours.

Eat hot with wine sauce. It is very good.

Fig Custard Pudding.

1 pound best white figs.

1 quart of milk.

Yolks of 5 eggs, and whites of two.

½ package of gelatine, soaked in a little cold water.

1 cup made wine jelly—lukewarm.

4 table-spoonfuls sugar.

Flavor to taste.

Soak the figs for a few minutes in warm water to make them pliable. Split them in two, dip each piece in jelly, and line the inside of a buttered mould with them. Make a custard of the milk, yolks and sugar; boil until it begins to thicken well; take off the fire and let it cool. Meanwhile, beat the whites of two eggs to a stiff froth; melt the soaked gelatine in a very little hot water, by setting the vessel containing this in a saucepan of boiling water; stir until clear. Turn out to cool. When nearly cold, whip gradually into the whisked eggs. The mixture should be white and thick before you stir it into the custard. Whip all rapidly for a few minutes, and fill the fig-lined mould. Set on ice, or in a cold place to form.

Dip the mould in hot water, to loosen the pudding, and turn out upon a cold dish.

Or,

Besides lining the mould with figs, you may chop some very fine and mix in with the custard before moulding it.

This pudding is delicious if made with fresh, ripe figs.

Marrow Sponge Pudding.

2 cups fine sponge-cake crumbs—made from stale cake—the drier the better.

½ cup beef marrow, finely minced.

Juice of 1 lemon and half the grated peel.

½ cup white sugar.

½ teaspoonful grated nutmeg.

½ pound fresh layer raisins, seeded and chopped.

¼ pound citron, minced.

1 cup milk.

4 eggs—beaten light—strain the yolks.

1 table-spoonful flour, and a little salt.

Mix the powdered marrow with the crumbs. Make a raw custard of milk, eggs, and sugar, and pour over the cake. Beat well; put in the flour, seasoning, lastly, the fruit very thickly dredged with flour. Stir hard before pouring into a greased mould. Boil three hours. Turn out and eat hot, with cabinet-pudding sauce.

Be sure that the water actually boils before you put in a pudding, and do not let it stop boiling for an instant until it is done. Replenish from the boiling tea-kettle.

Plain Sponge-Cake Pudding. Maltese cross

1 stale sponge-cake.

2 table-spoonfuls sugar.

4 eggs—beaten light.

2 cups of milk.

1 table-spoonful rice-flour or corn-starch wet up with cold milk.

Juice of 1 lemon and half the grated rind.

Slice the cake and lay some in the bottom of a buttered dish. Make a custard of the milk boiled for a minute with the corn-starch in it. Flavor to taste when you have added the eggs and sugar; pour over the cake; put another layer of slices; more custard, and so on, until the mould is full. Let it stand a few minutes, to soak up the custard; put the dish in the oven—covered—and bake half an hour. Uncover a few minutes before you take from the oven and brown slightly.

Cocoanut Sponge pudding. Maltese cross

2 cups stale sponge-cake crumbs.

2 cups rich milk.

1 cup grated cocoanut.

Yolks of 2 eggs and whites of four.

1 cup of white sugar.

1 table-spoonful rose-water.

1 glass white wine.

Heat the milk to boiling; stir in the crumbed cake and beat into a soft batter. When nearly cold, add the beaten eggs, sugar, rose-water and cocoanut—the wine last. Bake in a buttered pudding-dish about three-quarters of an hour, or until it is firm in the centre and of a nice brown. Eat cold, with white sugar sifted over the top.

You can make an elegant dessert of this by spreading it with a mÉringue made of—

Whipped whites of 4 eggs.

2 table-spoonfuls powdered sugar.

½ cupful of grated cocoanut.

A little lemon-juice.

Whisk until stiff; cover the pudding and leave it in a quick oven two or three minutes to harden it.

Fruit Sponge-Cake Pudding (Boiled). Maltese cross

12 square sponge-cakes—stale.

1 pint milk, }

3 eggs—beaten light, } for the custard.

½ cup sugar, }

½ pound currants well washed and dried.

½ pound sweet almonds blanched and cut small.

¼ pound citron chopped.

Nearly a cup of sherry wine.

Soak the cakes in the wine. Butter a mould very thickly and strew it with currants, covering the inside entirely. Put a layer of cakes at the bottom; spread with the chopped citron and almonds; put on three or four spoonfuls of the raw custard, more cakes, fruit, custard, until the mould is full, or nearly. The pudding will swell a little. Fit on the cover, and boil one hour.

Eat cold or hot. If the latter, serve jelly-sauce with it. If cold, turn out of the mould the day after it is boiled, and sift powdered sugar over it. Pile a nice “whip” about the base.

Fruit Sponge-Cake Pudding (Baked).

2 cups sponge-cake crumbs—very dry.

2 cups boiling milk.

1 table-spoonful of butter.

½ cup of sugar.

2 table-spoonfuls flour—prepared flour is best.

½ pound currants, washed and dried.

Whites of 3 eggs—whipped stiff.

Bitter almond flavoring.

Soak the cake in the hot milk; leave it over the fire until it is a scalding batter; stir in the butter, sugar and flour—(the latter previously wet up with cold milk), and pour into a bowl to cool. When nearly cold, stir in the fruit, well dredged with flour, the flavoring, and whip up hard before adding the beaten whites. Bake in a buttered mould from half to three-quarters of an hour. When done, take from the oven and let it cool. Just before sending to table, heap high with a mÉringue made of—

Whites of 3 eggs.

2 table-spoonfuls sugar.

½ pint cream, whipped stiff.

1 glass white wine.

This is a handsome and delightful dessert.

If eaten hot, serve cream sauce with it.

Orange Pudding.

2 oranges—juice of both and grated peel of one.

Juice of 1 lemon.

½ pound lady’s-fingers—stale and crumbed.

2 cups of milk.

4 eggs.

½ cupful sugar.

1 table-spoonful corn-starch, wet up with water.

1 table-spoonful butter—melted.

Soak the crumbs in the milk (raw), whip up light and add the eggs and sugar, already beaten to a cream with the batter. Next the corn-starch, and when your mould is buttered and water boiling hard, stir in the juice and peel of the fruit. Do this quickly, and plunge the mould directly into the hot water. Boil one hour; turn out and eat with very sweet brandy sauce.

Derry Pudding.

2 cups of milk.

4 table-spoonfuls of sugar.

1 heaping cup prepared flour.

Yolks of 4 eggs and whites of two.

2 oranges. The pulp chopped very fine. Half the grated peel of 1 orange.

1 table-spoonful melted butter.

Beat eggs and sugar together; whip in the butter until all are a yellow cream. To this put the orange, and beat five minutes. Rub the flour smooth in the milk, added gradually, and stir up this with the other ingredients. Pour at once into a buttered mould, and boil one hour.

Eat hot with jelly sauce.

Boiled Lemon Pudding.

2 cups of dry bread-crumbs.

1 cup powdered beef-suet.

4 table-spoonfuls flour—prepared.

½ cup sugar.

1 large lemon. All the juice and half the peel.

4 eggs—whipped light.

1 cup of milk—a large one.

Soak the bread-crumbs in the milk; add the suet; beat eggs and sugar together and these well into the soaked bread. To these put the lemon, lastly the flour, beaten in with as few strokes as will suffice to mix up all into a thick batter. Boil three hours in a buttered mould.

Eat hot with wine sauce.

Wayne Pudding (Good).

2 full cups of prepared flour.

½ cup of butter.

1 cup of sugar—powdered.

½ pound Sultana raisins, washed and dried.

1 lemon—the juice and half the grated peel.

? pound citron, cut into long strips—very thin.

5 eggs—whites and yolks beaten light separately.

Rub butter and sugar to a cream, and strain into this the beaten yolks. Whip up light with the lemon; then the flour, alternately with the stiff whites. The raisins should be dredged with flour and go in last. Butter a mould thickly, line it with the strips of citron; put in the batter, a few spoonfuls at a time; cover, and set in a pan of boiling water in the oven. Keep the water in the pan replenished from the boiling kettle, and bake steadily an hour and a half. Turn out upon hot plate.

Eat warm with brandy sauce. It is a delicious pudding. Leave room in mould for the pudding to swell.

Almond Sponge Pudding.

4 eggs—beaten very light.

The weight of the eggs in sugar and the weight of 5 eggs in prepared flour.

Half the weight of 4 in butter.

¼ pound sweet almonds blanched and pounded.

Extract of bitter almond.

A little rose-water.

Rub butter and sugar to a light cream; add the yolks and beat hard before putting in the whites alternately with the flour. The almonds, pounded to a paste with a little rose-water and bitter almond extract, should be put in last.

Boil in buttered mould; or set in a pan of water as directed in the last receipt. The mould should not be much more than half full. Boil nearly an hour. Eat with lemon sauce—not very sweet.

This is nice baked as a cake.

Boston Lemon Pudding. Maltese cross

2 cups fine, dry bread-crumbs.

¾ cup of powdered sugar, and half as much butter.

2 lemons, all the juice, and half the grated peel.

2 table-spoonfuls prepared flour.

5 eggs, beaten light. The yolks must be strained.

Rub butter and sugar to a cream; add the beaten yolks and lemon; whip very light; put in handful by handful the bread-crumbs alternately with the stiffened whites, then the flour. Butter a mould, and put in the batter (always remembering to leave room for swelling), and boil two hours steadily.

If you have a pudding-mould with a cylinder in the centre, use it for this pudding. Turn out upon a hot dish, and fill the hole in the middle with the following mixture:

1 cup powdered sugar, }

3 table-spoonfuls butter, } rubbed to a cream.

Juice of one lemon.

Whipped white of 1 egg.

½ teaspoonful nutmeg.

Beat all well together.

If you have not an open mould, make this sauce, and pour half over the pudding, sending the rest in a boat to table.

Boston Orange Pudding.

Is made in the same way, substituting oranges for lemons in the pudding, but retaining the lemon in the sauce.

Both of these are excellent desserts, and if the directions be strictly followed, are easy and safe to make. Either can be baked as well as boiled.

Lemon Pudding.

6 butter-crackers soaked in water, and crushed to pulp.

3 lemons. Half the grated peel.

1 cup of molasses.

A pinch of salt.

1 table-spoonful melted butter.

Some good pie-crust for shells.

Chop the pulp of the lemons very fine; stir into the crushed crackers, with the butter and salt. Beat the molasses gradually into this with the grated peel. Fill open shells of pastry with the mixture, and bake.

Queen’s Pudding. Maltese cross

8 or 10 fine, juicy apples, pared and cored.

½ pound macaroons, pounded fine.

2 table-spoonfuls sugar.

½ teaspoonful cinnamon.

½ cup crab-apple, or other sweet firm jelly, like quince.

1 table-spoonful brandy.

1 pint of milk.

1 table-spoonful best flour or corn-starch.

Whites of 3 eggs.

A little salt.

Put the apples into a pudding-dish, well buttered; fill half full of water; cover closely and steam in a slow oven until so tender that a straw will pierce them. Let them stand until cold, covered. Then drain off the water. Put into each apple a spoonful of jelly, and a few drops of brandy; sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Cover again and leave alone for ten minutes. Scald the milk, and stir in the macaroons, the salt, the flour, wet in a little cold milk. Boil all together one minute. Take from the fire; beat for a few minutes, and let it cool before whipping in the beaten whites. Pour over the apples, and bake half an hour in a moderate oven.

Eat hot with cream sauce.

Orange Custard Pudding. Maltese cross

1 quart milk.

5 eggs. The beaten yolks of all, the whites of two.

Grated peel of 1 orange.

4 table-spoonfuls powdered sugar for custard, and 2 spoonfuls for mÉringue.

Scald the milk, and pour carefully over the eggs which you have beaten light with the sugar. Boil one minute, season, and pour into a buttered pudding-dish. Set this in a pan of boiling water, and bake about half an hour, or until well “set.” Spread with a mÉringue made of the reserved whites. Return to oven to harden, but do not let it scorch.

Eat cold.

Rock Custard Pudding. Maltese cross

1 quart milk.

6 eggs.

1 cup powdered sugar for custard and mÉringue.

1 table-spoonful rice-flour, wet up with cold water.

A little salt.

Vanilla flavoring.

Boil the milk; beat up the yolks of the eggs with three-quarters of the sugar; cook in the milk until the mixture is smoking hot; stir in the rice-flour, salt, and boil just one minute. Pour into a buttered baking-dish, and bake in a pan of hot water until the custard is nearly, but not quite “set.” Have ready the whites beaten very stiff with the rest of the sugar, and flavored with vanilla. Without drawing the dish from the oven, drop this all over it in great spoonfuls, covering it as irregularly as possible. Do it quickly, lest the custard should cool and fall. Shut the oven-door for about five minutes more until the mÉringue is delicately browned and the custard firm.

Eat cold, with powdered sugar sifted over it.

A Plain Boiled Pudding. (No. 1.)

3 cupfuls of flour—full ones.

2 cupfuls of “loppered” milk or buttermilk. Sour cream is best of all if you can get it.

1 full teaspoonful of soda, dissolved in hot water.

A little salt.

½ cupful powdered suet.

Stir the sour milk gradually into the flour until it is free from lumps. Put in suet and salt; lastly beat in the soda-water thoroughly, but quickly.

Boil an hour and a half, or steam two hours.

Eat at once, hot, with hard sauce.

Plain Boiled Pudding. (No. 2.)

1 cup loppered milk or cream.

½ cup molasses.

½ cup butter, melted.

2½ cups flour.

2 even teaspoonfuls of soda, dissolved in hot water.

A little salt.

Mix molasses and butter together, and beat until very light. Stir in the cream or milk, and salt; make a hole in the flour, and pour in the mixture. Stir down the flour gradually until it is a smooth batter. Beat in the soda-water thoroughly, and boil at once in a buttered mould, leaving room to swell. It should be done in an hour and a half. Eat hot with a good sauce.

Jelly Puddings. Maltese cross

2 cups very fine stale biscuit or bread-crumbs.

1 cup rich milk—half cream, if you can get it.

5 eggs, beaten very light.

½ teaspoonful soda, stirred in boiling water.

1 cup sweet jelly, jam or marmalade.

Scald the milk and pour over the crumbs. Beat until half cold, and stir in the beaten yolks, then the 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.

3 cups of flour.

1 cup of milk.

½ cup powdered suet.

1 cup best molasses, slightly warmed.

1 teaspoonful soda, dissolved in hot water.

1 pound raisins, stoned and chopped.

1 teaspoonful mixed cinnamon and mace.

1 saltspoonful ginger.

1 teaspoonful of salt.

Beat suet and molasses to a cream; add the spice, the salt, and two-thirds of the milk; stir in the flour; beat hard; put in the rest of the milk, in which the soda must be stirred. Beat vigorously up from the bottom for a minute or so, and put in the fruit well dredged with flour. Boil in a buttered mould at least three hours.

Eat very hot with butter-and-sugar sauce.

Nursery Plum Pudding. Maltese cross

1 scant cup of raw rice.

1 table-spoonful rice-flour, wet up with milk.

3 pints rich milk.

2 table-spoonfuls butter.

4 table-spoonfuls sugar.

½ pound currants, washed and dried.

¼ pound raisins, stoned and cut in two.

3 well-beaten eggs.

Soak the rice two hours in just enough warm water to cover it; setting the vessel containing it in another of hot water on one side of the range. When all the water is soaked up, shake the rice well and add a pint of milk. Simmer gently, still in the saucepan of hot water until the rice is again dry and quite tender. Shake up anew, and add another pint of milk. So soon as this is smoking hot, put in the fruit, well dredged with flour; cover the saucepan and simmer twenty minutes. Take from the fire and put with it the butter, the rice-flour and a custard made of the remaining pint of milk, the eggs and sugar. Add while the rice is still hot; stir up well and bake in a buttered pudding-dish three-quarters of an hour, or less, if your oven be brisk.

Eat warm or cold, with rich cream and sugar.

Cocoanut Pudding.

1 heaping cup finest bread-crumbs.

1 table-spoonful corn starch wet with cold water.

1 cocoanut, pared and grated.

½ cup butter.

1 cup powdered sugar.

2 cups milk.

6 eggs.

Nutmeg and rose-water to taste.

Soak the crumbs in the milk; rub the butter and sugar to a cream, and put with the beaten yolks. Beat up this mixture with the soaked crumbs; stir in the corn-starch; then the whisked whites, flavoring, and, at the last, the grated cocoanut. Beat hard one minute; pour into a buttered pudding-dish—the same in which it is to be served—and bake in a moderate oven three-quarters of an hour.

Eat very cold, with powdered sugar on top.

Impromptu Christmas Pudding. (Very fine.)

2 cups of best mince meat made for Christmas pies. Drain off all superfluous moisture. If the meat be rather too dry for pies, it will make the better pudding.

1½ cups prepared flour.

6 eggs—whites and yolks beaten separately.

Whip the eggs and stir the yolks into the mince-meat. Beat them in hard for two or three minutes until thoroughly incorporated. Put in the whites and the flour, alternately beating in each instalment before adding the next. Butter a large mould very well; put in the mixture, leaving room for the swelling of the pudding, and boil five hours steadily. If the boiling should intermit one minute, there will be a heavy streak in the pudding. Six hours’ boiling will do no harm.

Turn out upon a hot dish; pour brandy over it and light just as it goes into the dining-room. Eat with rich sauce. I know of no other pudding of equal excellence that can be made with so little trouble as this, and is as apt to “turn out well.”

If you have no mince-meat in the house, you can buy an admirable article, ready made, at any first-class grocery store. It is put up in neat wooden cans (which are stanch and useful for holding eggs, starch, etc., after the mince-meat is used up) and bears the stamp, “Atmore’s Celebrated Mince Meat.”

And what is noteworthy, it deserves to be “celebrated.” It has never been my good fortune to meet with any other made mince-meat that could compare with it.

Lemon SoufflÉ Pudding.

1 heaping cup of prepared flour.

2 cups of rich milk.

½ cup of butter.

Juice of 1 lemon and half the grated peel.

4 table-spoonfuls of sugar.

5 eggs—whites and yolks beaten separately and very light.

Chop the butter into the flour. Scald the milk and stir into it while still over the fire, the flour and butter. When it begins to thicken, add it, gradually, to the beaten yolks and sugar. Beat all up well and turn out to cool in a broad dish. It should be cold when you whip in the stiffened whites. Butter a mould; pour in the mixture, leaving abundance of room for the soufflÉ to earn its name—and steam one hour and a half, keeping the water under the steamer at a fast, hard boil.

When done, dip it into cold water for an instant, let it stand one minute, after you take it out of this, and turn out upon a hot dish.

Eat with brandy sauce.

LÉche CrÉma SoufflÉ. Maltese cross

1 quart of milk.

3 table-spoonfuls corn-starch, wet with cold milk.

1 cup powdered sugar.

½ cup strawberry jam, or sweet fruit jelly.

6 eggs—beaten very light.

Flavoring to taste.

Boil the milk, and stir in the corn-starch. Stir one minute and pour into a bowl containing the yolks, the whites of two eggs and half the sugar. Whip up for two or three minutes and put into a nice baking-dish, buttered. Set in a pan of boiling water and bake half an hour, or until firm. Just before withdrawing it from the oven, cover with jelly or jam, put on dexterously and quickly, and this, with a mÉringue made of the reserved whites and sugar. Shut the oven until the mÉringue is set and slightly colored.

Eat cold, with cream.

Cherry SoufflÉ Pudding.

1 cup prepared flour.

2 cups of milk.

5 eggs.

3 table-spoonfuls powdered sugar.

Bitter almond flavoring.

½ pound crystallized or glacÉ cherries.

A pinch of salt.

Scald the milk, and stir into it the flour, wet up with a cup of the milk. Boil one minute, stirring well up from the bottom of the farina-kettle; mix in the yolks beaten light with the sugar, flavor, and let it get perfectly cold. Then whip the whites until you can cut them with a knife, and beat, fast and hard, into the custard. Butter a mould thickly; strew with the cherries until the inside is pretty well covered; put in the mixture—leaving room for puffing—and boil for an hour and a half.

Dip into cold water; take it out and let it stand, after the lid is removed, a full minute, before turning it out.

Eat warm with wine, or lemon sauce.

Sponge-Cake SoufflÉ Pudding. Maltese cross

12 square (penny) sponge-cakes—stale.

5 eggs.

1 cup milk.

2 glasses sherry.

½ cup of powdered sugar.

Put the cakes in the bottom of a buttered pudding-dish; pour the wine over them, and cover while you make the custard. Heat the milk and pour over the yolks of the eggs, beaten and strained, and half the sugar. Return to the fire, and stir until quite thick. Pour this upon the soaked cakes, slowly, that they may not rise to the top; put in the oven, and when it is again very hot, spread above it the whites whisked stiff with the rest of the sugar.

Bake ten minutes, or until the mÉringue is lightly browned and firm. Serve in the baking-dish.

Eat cold. It will be found very nice.

Apple SoufflÉ Pudding. Maltese cross

6 or 7 fine juicy apples.

1 cup fine bread-crumbs.

4 eggs.

1 cup of sugar.

2 table-spoonfuls butter.

Nutmeg and a little grated lemon-peel.

Pare, core and slice the apples, and stew in a covered farina-kettle, without a drop of water, until they are tender. Mash to a smooth pulp, and, while hot, stir in butter and sugar. Let it get quite cold, and whip in, first the yolks of the eggs, then the whites—beaten very stiff—alternately with the bread-crumbs. Flavor, beat hard three minutes, until all the ingredients are reduced to a creamy batter, and bake in a buttered dish, in a moderate oven. It will take about an hour to cook it properly. Keep it covered until ten minutes before you take it out. This will retain the juices and prevent the formation of a crust on the top.

Eat warm with “bee-hive sauce.”

Rice SoufflÉ Pudding. Maltese cross

½ cup raw rice.

1 pint of milk.

6 eggs.

4 table-spoonfuls powdered sugar.

1 table-spoonful butter.

Soak the rice in warm water enough to cover it well for two hours. Put it over the fire in the same water, and simmer in a farina-kettle until the rice is dry. Add the milk, shaking up the rice—not stirring it—and cook slowly, covered, until tender throughout. Stir in the butter, then the yolks of the eggs, beaten and strained, whatever flavoring you may desire, and when these have cooled somewhat, the whipped whites. Bake in a handsome pudding-dish, well buttered, half an hour.

Eat warm—not hot—or very cold.

Arrowroot SoufflÉ Pudding.

3 cups of milk.

5 eggs.

1 large table-spoonful butter.

3 table-spoonfuls sugar.

4 table-spoonfuls Bermuda arrowroot, wet up with cold milk.

Vanilla or other flavoring.

Heat the milk to a boil, and stir into this the arrowroot. Simmer, using your spoon freely all the time, until it thickens up well. Put in the butter; take from the fire and beat into it the yolks and sugar, previously whipped together. Stir hard and put in the whites, whisked very stiff, and the flavoring.

Butter a neat baking-dish; put in the mixture and bake half an hour.

Sift powdered sugar over it, and serve immediately.

A very Delicate SoufflÉ.

5 eggs—whites and yolks beaten separately.

2 table-spoonfuls of arrowroot wet up in 4 table-spoonfuls cold water.

4 table-spoonfuls powdered sugar.

Rose-water flavoring.

Beat the sugar into the whipped yolks, and into the whites, little by little, the dissolved arrowroot. Flavor and whisk all together. Butter a neat mould, pour in the mixture until half way to the top, and bake half an hour.

If quite firm, and if you have a steady hand, you may turn it out upon a hot dish. It then makes a handsome show. It is safer to leave it in the baking-dish. It must be served at once. It is very nice.

Batter Pudding. (Very nice.) Maltese cross

1 quart of milk.

16 table-spoonfuls of flour.

4 eggs beaten very light.

Salt to taste.

Stir until the batter is free from lumps, and bake in two buttered pie plates, or very shallow pudding-dishes.

Apple and Batter Pudding. (Very good.) Maltese cross

1 pint of milk.

2 eggs, beaten light.

1 dessert-spoonful butter, rubbed in the flour.

¼ teaspoonful of soda, dissolved in hot water.

½ teaspoonful of cream of tartar, sifted in the flour.

A pinch of salt.

Flour enough for thin batter.

6 apples—well flavored and slightly tart.

Pare and core the apples and put them in a buttered pudding-dish. Pour the batter over them and bake three-quarters of an hour. Eat hot with hard sauce.

Pudding-dishes.

The baking-dish of “ye olden time” was never comely; often positively unsightly. Dainty housewives pinned napkins around them and wreathed them with flowers to make them less of an eyesore. In this day, the pudding-maker can combine the Æsthetic and useful by using the enameled wares of Messrs. Lalange and Grosjean, 89 Beekman Street, New York. The pudding-dishes made by them are pretty in themselves, easily kept clean; do not crack or blacken under heat, and are set on the table in handsome stands of plated silver that completely conceal the baking-dish. A silver rim runs around the top and hides even the edge of the bowl. They can be had, with or without covers, and are invaluable for macaroni, scallops, and many other “baked meats.” Saucepans and kettles of every kind are made in the same ware by this firm.

Fritters.

Not even so-called pastry is more ruthlessly murdered in the mixing and baking than that class of desserts the generic name of which stands at the head of this bake. Heavy, sour, sticky and oleaginous beyond civilized comparison, it is no marvel that the compound popularly known and eaten as “fritter” has become a doubtful dainty in the esteem of many, the object of positive loathing to some.

I do not recommend my fritters to dyspeptics and babies, nor as a standing dish to anybody. But that they can be made toothsome, spongy and harmless, as well as pleasant to those blessed with healthy appetites and unimpaired digestions, I hold firmly and intelligently.

Two or three conditions are requisite to this end. The fritters must be quickly made, thoroughly beaten, of right consistency,—and they must not lie in the fat the fraction of a minute after they are done. Take them up with a perforated spoon, or egg-beater, and lay on a hot sieve or cullender to drain before serving on the dish that is to take them to the table. Moreover, the fat must be hissing hot when the batter goes in if you would not have them grease-soaked to the very heart. Line the dish in which they are served with tissue-paper fringed at the ends, or a clean napkin to absorb any lingering drops of lard.

Bell Fritters. Maltese cross

2 cups of milk.

2 cups of prepared flour.

3 table-spoonfuls sugar.

4 eggs, very well beaten.

A little salt.

½ tea-spoonful of cinnamon.

Beat the sugar into the yolks; add the milk, salt and seasoning, the flour and whites alternately. Beat hard for three minutes.

Have ready plenty of lard in a deep frying-pan or Scotch kettle; make very hot; drop in the batter in table-spoonfuls, and fry to a good brown. Be careful not to scorch the lard, or the fritters will be ruined in taste and color.

Throw upon a warm sieve or cullender as fast as they are fried, and sift powdered sugar over them.

Eat hot with lemon sauce.

Rusk Fritters. Maltese cross

12 stale rusks.

5 eggs.

4 table-spoonfuls white sugar.

2 glasses best sherry.

Pare all the crust from the rusk, and cut each into two pieces if small—into three if large. The slices should be nearly an inch thick. Pour the wine over them; leave them in it two or three minutes, then lay on a sieve to drain. Beat the sugar into the yolks (which should first be whipped and strained), then the whites. Dip each slice into this mixture and fry in boiling lard to a light golden brown.

Drain well; sprinkle with powdered sugar mingled with cinnamon, and serve hot, with or without sauce.

Light Fritters.

3 cups stale bread-crumbs.

1 quart of milk.

4 eggs.

Salt and nutmeg to taste.

3 table-spoonfuls prepared flour.

Scald the milk and pour it over the crumbs. Stir to a smooth, soft batter, add the yolks, whipped and strained, the seasoning, the flour—then, the whites whisked very stiff. Mix well, and fry, by the table-spoonful, in boiling lard. Drain; serve hot and eat with sweet sauce.

Currant Fritters. (Very nice.)

2 cups dry, fine bread-crumbs.

2 table-spoonfuls prepared flour.

2 cups of milk.

½ pound currants, washed and well dried.

5 eggs whipped very light, and the yolks strained.

½ cup powdered sugar.

1 table-spoonful butter.

½ teaspoonful mixed cinnamon and nutmeg.

Boil the milk and pour over the bread. Mix and put in the butter. Let it get cold. Beat in, next, the yolks and sugar, the seasoning, flour and stiff whites; finally, the currants dredged whitely with flour. The batter should be thick.

Drop in great spoonfuls into the hot lard and fry. Drain them and send hot to table.

Eat with a mixture of wine and powdered sugar.

Lemon Fritters. Maltese cross

2 heaping cups of prepared flour.

5 eggs—beaten stiff. Strain the yolks.

½ cup cream.

Grated peel of half a lemon.

½ cup powdered sugar.

1 teaspoonful mingled nutmeg and cinnamon.

A little salt.

Beat up the whipped and strained yolks with the sugar; add the seasoning and cream; the whites, at last the flour, worked in quickly and lightly. It should be a soft paste, just stiff enough to roll out. Pass the rolling-pin once or twice over it until it is about three-quarters of an inch thick. Cut into small, circular cakes with a tumbler or cake-cutter; drop into the hot lard and fry. They ought to puff up like crullers. Drain on clean, hot paper. Eat warm with a sauce made of—

Juice of 2 lemons.

Grated peel of one.

1 cup of powdered sugar.

1 glass wine.

Whites of 2 eggs beaten stiff.

Apple Fritters.

8 or 10 fine pippins or greenings.

Juice of 1 lemon.

3 cups prepared flour.

6 eggs.

3 cups milk.

Some powdered sugar.

Cinnamon and nutmeg.

A little salt.

Pare and core the apples neatly, leaving a hole in the centre of each. Cut crosswise into slices half an inch thick. Spread these on a dish and sprinkle with lemon-juice and powdered sugar.

Beat the eggs light, straining the yolks, and add to the latter the milk and salt, the whites and the flour, by turns. Dip the slices of apple into the batter, turning them until they are thoroughly coated, and fry, a few at a time, in hot lard. Throw upon a warm sieve as fast as you take them out, and sift powdered sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg over them.

These fritters require dexterous handling, but if properly made and cooked, are delicious.

Eat with wine sauce.

Rice Fritters. Maltese cross

2 cups of milk.

Nearly a cup raw rice.

3 table-spoonfuls sugar.

¼ pound raisins.

3 eggs.

1 table-spoonful butter.

1 table-spoonful flour.

Nutmeg and salt.

Soak the rice three hours in enough warm water to cover it well. At the end of this time, put it into a farina-kettle, set in an outer vessel of hot water, and simmer until dry. Add the milk and cook until it is all absorbed. Stir in the butter and take from the fire. Beat the eggs very light with the sugar, and when the rice has cooled, stir these in with the flour and seasoning. Flour your hands well and make this into flat cakes. Place in the middle of each two or three raisins which have been “plumped” in boiling water. Roll the cake into a ball enclosing the raisins, flour well and fry in plenty of hot lard.

Serve on a napkin, with sugar and cinnamon sifted over them. Eat with sweetened cream, hot or cold.

Corn-Meal Fritters.

3 cups milk.

2 cups best Indian meal.

½ cup flour.

4 eggs.

½ teaspoonful soda, dissolved in hot water.

1 teaspoonful cream of tartar, sifted in flour.

1 table-spoonful sugar.

1 table-spoonful melted butter.

1 teaspoonful salt.

Beat and strain the yolks; add sugar, butter, milk and salt, the soda-water, and then stir in the Indian meal. Beat five minutes hard before adding the whites. The flour, containing the cream of tartar, should go in last. Again, beat up vigorously. The batter should be just thick enough to drop readily from the spoon. Put into boiling lard by the spoonful. One or two experiments as to the quantity to be dropped for one fritter will teach you to regulate size and shape.

Drain very well and serve at once. Eat with a sauce made of butter and sugar, seasoned with cinnamon.

Some persons like a suspicion of ginger mixed in the fritters, or in the sauce. You can add or withhold it as you please.

Peach Fritters. (With Yeast.)

1 quart of flour.

1 cup of milk.

½ cup of yeast.

2 table-spoonfuls sugar.

4 eggs.

2 table-spoonfuls of butter.

A little salt.

Some fine, ripe freestone peaches, pared and stoned.

Sift the flour into a bowl; work in milk and yeast, and set it in a tolerably warm place to rise. This will take five or six hours. Then beat the eggs very light with sugar, butter and salt. Mix this with the risen dough, and beat with a stout wooden spoon until all the ingredients are thoroughly incorporated. Knead vigorously with your hands; pull off bits about the size of an egg; flatten each and put in the centre a peach, from which the stone has been taken through a slit in the side. Close the dough upon it, make into a round roll and set in order upon a floured pan for the second rising. The balls must not touch one another. They should be light in an hour. Have ready a large round-bottomed Scotch kettle or saucepan, with plenty of lard—boiling hot. Drop in your peach-pellets and fry more slowly than you would fritters made in the usual way. Drain on hot white paper; sift powdered sugar over them and eat hot with brandy sauce.

You can make these of canned peaches or apricots wiped dry from the syrup.

Potato Fritters.

6 table-spoonfuls mashed potato—very fine.

½ cup good cream.

5 eggs—the yolks light and strained—the whites whisked very stiff.

2 table-spoonfuls powdered sugar.

2 table-spoonfuls prepared flour.

Juice of 1 lemon. Half the grated peel.

½ teaspoonful nutmeg.

Work the cream into the potato; beat up light and rub through a sieve, or very fine cullender. Add to this the beaten yolks and sugar. Whip to a creamy froth; put in the lemon, flour, nutmeg, and beat five minutes longer before the whites are stirred in. Have your lard ready and hot in the frying-pan. Drop in the batter by the spoonful and fry to a light brown. Drain on clean paper, and serve at once.

Eat with wine sauce.

Cream Fritters. (Very nice.)

1 cup cream.

5 eggs—the whites only.

2 full cups prepared flour.

1 saltspoonful nutmeg.

A pinch of salt.

Stir the whites into the cream in turn with the flour, put in nutmeg and salt, beat all up hard for two minutes. The batter should be rather thick. Fry in plenty of hot sweet lard, a spoonful of batter for each fritter. Drain and serve upon a hot, clean napkin.

Eat with jelly sauce. Pull, not cut them open.

Roll Fritters, or Imitation Doughnuts. Maltese cross

8 small round rolls, stale and light.

1 cup rich milk.

2 table-spoonfuls sugar.

1 teaspoonful mixed nutmeg and cinnamon.

Beaten yolks of 3 eggs.

1 cupful powdered crackers.

Pare every bit of the crust from the rolls with a keen knife, and trim them into round balls. Sweeten the milk with the sugar, put in the spice; lay the rolls upon a soup-plate, and pour the milk over them. Turn them over and over, until they soak it all up. Drain for a few minutes on a sieve; dip in the beaten yolks, roll in the powdered cracker, and fry in plenty of lard.

Drain and serve hot with lemon-sauce.

They are very good.

Sponge-Cake Fritters.

6 or 8 square (penny) sponge-cakes.

1 cup cream, boiling hot, with a pinch of soda stirred in.

4 eggs, whipped light.

1 table-spoonful corn-starch, wet up in cold milk.

¼ pound currants, washed and dried.

Pound the cakes fine, and pour the cream over them. Stir in the corn-starch. Cover for half an hour, then beat until cold. Add the yolks—light and strained, the whipped whites, then the currants thickly dredged with flour. Beat all hard together. Drop in spoonfuls into the boiling lard; fry quickly; drain upon a warmed sieve, and send to table hot.

The syrup of brandied fruit makes an excellent sauce for these.

Curd Fritters.

1 quart sweet milk.

2 glasses white wine.

1 teaspoonful liquid rennet.

5 eggs, whipped light.

4 table-spoonfuls prepared flour.

2 table-spoonfuls powdered sugar.

Nutmeg to taste.

Scald the milk, and pour in the wine and rennet. Take from the fire, cover, and let it stand until curd and whey are well separated. Drain off every drop of the latter, and dry the curd by laying for a few minutes upon a soft, clean cloth. Beat yolks and sugar together, whip in the curd until fully mixed; then the flour, nutmeg and whites. The batter should be smooth, and rather thick.

Have ready some butter in a small frying-pan; drop in the fritters a few at a time, and fry quickly. Drain upon a warm sieve, lay within a dish lined with white paper, or a clean napkin; sift powdered sugar over them, and eat with jelly sauce.

Odd as the receipt may seem in the reading, the fritters are most palatable. In the country, where milk is plenty, they may be made of cream—unless, as is too often the case, the good wife will save all the cream for butter.

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