BUENA VISTA CAKE.—Put half a pound of powdered white sugar into a deep pan, and cut up in it half a pound of fresh butter. Stir them together hard, till perfectly light. Add a nutmeg powdered. (This cake should be highly-flavoured with nutmeg.) Beat four eggs in a shallow pan, till they are very thick and smooth. Then stir them, gradually, into the pan of beaten butter and sugar; in turn with three-quarters of a pound of sifted flour. Add a wine-glass of rose-water. Have ready three large wine-glasses of cream or rich milk, divided equally in two portions, and put into two cups. Take one yeast-powder, of the very best sort; dissolve in one cup of the cream, the contents of the blue paper, (or the carbonate of soda,) and in the other cup the contents of the white paper, (tartaric acid,) and mix the first with the cake-batter; and then, immediately after, stir in the other, lightly and slowly. Transfer the batter to a large well-buttered square pan, and set it immediately into a brisk oven. Bake it steadily an hour, or more. If not thoroughly baked, it will be heavy. When cool, cut it into squares, and sift powdered sugar over it. It will be still better to ice it, adding rose-water or lemon-juice to the icing. It is best when fresh, the day it is baked; though very good the following day.
This cake will be found excellent, if the foregoing directions are exactly followed. If wanted fresh for tea, at a short notice, it can be made and baked in two hours. For instance, if commenced at five o’clock in the afternoon it may be on the table at seven. The above quantity of ingredients will make enough to fill a large cake-basket.
If you wish to have a large Buena Vista cake baked in a loaf, take double the above quantity of ingredients, viz., one pound of butter, one pound of powdered sugar, a pound and a half of flour; eight eggs, two nutmegs, and two wine-glasses of rose water; six wine-glasses of cream or milk, and two yeast-powders; that is, two of the blue papers and two of the white. Put the mixture into a circular pan, and setting it directly in a brisk oven bake it from four to five hours in proportion to its thickness, keeping up a steady heat all the time. When done, ice and ornament it; flavouring the icing with rose or lemon. One of the decorations should be the words Buena Vista.
All cakes that have milk or cream in them require longer baking than those that have not; and the heat of the oven must be well kept up.
YEAST-POWDERS.—Get at a druggist’s a pound of super-carbonate of soda, and three-quarters of a pound of tartaric acid. Both these articles must be of the very best quality. Prepare an equal number of square blue papers, and square white papers; nicely folded. To be very accurate, weigh the articles alternately. In every blue paper put a hundred grains of the super-carbonate of soda, and in each white paper ninety grains of tartaric acid; and then fold them up so as to secure their contents. If you have not suitable scales and weights, you may guess tolerably well at the proportions of the articles by measuring a full tea-spoonful of the soda for each blue paper, and three-quarters of a tea-spoonful of the acid for each white paper. Put them up in boxes, and keep them in a dry place. The contents of one blue paper and of one white paper are considered as one yeast-powder; half the contents of each paper are called half a yeast-powder.
Yeast-powders of themselves have not sufficient power to raise bread or cakes so as to make them light enough to be wholesome. They should only be employed when real yeast, or eggs, are also used. Then they add greatly to the lightness of the cake. They are also an improvement to batter puddings. They must always be added at the last.
To use them, dissolve first the soda in a wine-glass and a half of milk or lukewarm water, and when thoroughly melted, stir it into the batter. Then melt in another cup the acid, with a similar quantity of milk or water, and stir it in at the last.
These powders entirely destroy the flavour of lemon or orange-juice. But they will convert sour milk into sweet. A yeast-powder added to buckwheat batter that has already been raised by real yeast, will render it surprisingly light. One blue and one white powder will suffice for two quarts of batter.
FINE WAFER CAKES.—Wash and squeeze half a pound of fresh butter in a pan of cold water. Then take it out, and cut it up in another pan, into which you have sifted half a pound of powdered white sugar; and stir them together with a spaddle (a round stick flattened at one end) till they are very light and creamy. Then stir in half a grated nutmeg, a small tea-spoonful of powdered mace, a glass of sherry or Madeira, and a glass of rose or lemon brandy. Put the whites of four eggs into a deep plate, beat them to a stiff froth with a whisk, and add the beaten white of eggs gradually to the mixture. Lastly, stir in as much sifted flour as will make a light soft dough or paste. Divide it into equal portions; flour your hands, and roll each portion in your palms till it becomes round like a small dumpling. Then having heated the wafer-iron, butter the inside, and put in one of the dumplings, making it to fit well. Put the wafer-iron into a clear hot fire, and bake each cake five minutes. When done, take them out carefully and lay them separately on an inverted sieve to cool.
This mixture may be more easily baked in thin flat cakes. Roll out the dough into a thin sheet, and then cut it into round cakes with the edge of a tumbler, or with a tin cutter of that circumference. Butter large square iron pans, and lay the cakes in them, but not so close as to touch. Put them into a quick oven, and bake them brown.
LANCASTER GINGERBREAD.—Cut up a quarter of a pound of fresh butter into two pounds of sifted flour; rub it well in, and add a small teacup of ground ginger, and a tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon. Stir in a pint and a half of West India molasses, and milk enough to make it into a thick batter. Lastly, add a tea-spoonful of soda dissolved in a little tepid water; and immediately after dissolve in another cup a salt-spoonful of tartaric acid, and stir that in. Stir the whole very hard. Butter square pans, put into them the mixture, and bake it well; seeing that the oven is not so hot as to scorch it. It requires very long baking. When cool, cut it into squares.
Never put allspice into gingerbread or any other cake. It communicates a disagreeably bitter taste. Allspice is now rarely used for any purpose; cloves being far better. Either of them will considerably darken the colour of the cake.
WARM ICING FOR CAKES.—Beat to a stiff froth the whites of four eggs; then beat into them, gradually, (a spoonful at a time,) a pound of finely-powdered loaf-sugar. Next put the beaten white of egg and sugar into a very clean porcelain-lined kettle, (or something that will not discolour it,) and boil and skim it till the scum ceases to rise. Then remove it from the fire; and while it is warm, stir in the juice of two large lemons or oranges, or a tea-spoonful of extract of roses, or a wine-glass of rose-water, or a large table-spoonful of extract of vanilla. Have ready your cake, which must first be dredged with flour all over, and the flour wiped off with a clean cloth. This will make the icing stick. With a spoon, place a large portion of the warm icing on the centre of the top of the cake; and then with a broad-bladed knife, (dipped now and then into a bowl of cold water) spread it thick and evenly all over the surface. When done, let it dry gradually. It is best that the cake, when iced, should be warm from the oven.
This warm icing is now much in use. It spreads easily; rises up high and thick in cooling; and has a fine gloss on the surface.
To give it a fine red or pink colour, use cochineal. For green colouring, pound in a mortar some raw spinach till you have extracted a tea-cup full of green juice. Put the juice into a very clean porcelain or earthen pan, set it over the fire, and give it one boil up, (not more,) and when cold it will be fit for use. This is the best way of preparing green colouring for all culinary purposes.
CINNAMON BREAD.—On a bread-baking day, (having made more than your usual quantity of wheat bread,) when the dough has risen quite light, so as to be cracked all over the surface, take out as much as would suffice for a moderate-sized loaf, (for instance, a twelve-cent one,) and make it into a large round cake. Having dissolved a yeast-powder in two separate cups in a little lukewarm water, the carbonate of soda in one cup, and the tartaric acid in another, mix the first with the dough of the cake, and then mix in the second. Have ready a half-pint of brown sugar, moistened with fresh butter, so as to make it a thick stiff paste, and flavoured with a heaping table-spoonful of powdered cinnamon. Make deep cuts or incisions, at equal spaces, over the cake, and fill them with the above mixture, pressed in hard; and pinch the dough with your thumb and finger, so as to close up each cut, to prevent the seasoning from running out. Set it immediately into the oven with the other bread, and bake it thoroughly. When cool, brush it over with white of egg, in which some sugar has been melted.
This is an excellent plain cake for children, and can be prepared any bread-baking day.
It is much improved by mixing with the dough two large heaped table-spoonfuls of butter that has been melted in a teacup of warm milk, and also one or two beaten eggs. Do this before you add the yeast-powder.
SNOW CREAM.—Take a large pint of very rich cream, and half a pound of the best loaf-sugar, powdered. Rub off, on a lump of sugar, the yellow rind of three large lemons or oranges, (or, four or five, if small;) scraping it off the sugar with a teaspoon as you proceed, and transferring it to a saucer. Then powder this lump of sugar, and add it to the rest. Mix with the sugar the juice of the fruit, and the grated rind; and then mix the whole with two quarts of clean snow, in a broad pan. Set the pan into a tub, and pack it closely all round with coarse salt and snow; taking care that they do not quite reach to the edge of the pan, lest some of the salt should get in, and spoil the whole. While packed in the snow and salt, beat the mixture very hard till it is smooth and stiff. Then set it on ice; or in a very cold place, till wanted for use. Turn it out into a glass bowl.
This is a good and easy way of imitating ice-cream in families that are not provided with the regular apparatus of a freezer and moulds. The pint of cream must be very rich, and the flavouring very high. All flavouring loses much strength in freezing.
You may flavour it with vanilla, by boiling a vanilla bean in half a pint of milk, till the vanilla taste is well infused. Then strain the milk, and mix it with the cream. Or, instead of vanilla, you may boil in the milk a handful of shelled bitter almonds, or peach-kernels, to be afterwards strained out.
LEMON HONEY.—Take three large ripe lemons, (or four or five small ones,) and (having rolled them under your hand on a table, to increase the juice,) rub off on a piece of loaf-sugar the yellow rind or zest, scraping it up with a teaspoon as you proceed, and putting it aside on a saucer. Then squeeze the juice of the lemons through a strainer, upon a pound of loaf-sugar, (broken small or powdered,) and add the zest or grated rind. Cut up, among the sugar, a large quarter of a pound of the best fresh butter. Break six eggs into a shallow earthen pan, and beat them till as light as possible. Then mix in, gradually, the sugar and lemon, stirring all very hard. Put the whole into a porcelain-lined kettle; set it over a moderate fire that has no blaze, and (stirring it all the time) let it boil till it becomes of the consistence of very thick honey. If the weather is warm, you may add to its thickness by stirring in a table-spoonful of ground arrow-root, or of sifted flour. When done, put it warm into glass jars; cover them, closely, and seal the covers. It will keep in a cool dry place a month or more. If made in winter, it will continue good for two months.
ORANGE HONEY is made as above, except that you must have five or six oranges, all of the largest size, using the juice only and none of the rind. Orange peel will give it an unpleasant taste after it has been kept a few days.
RAISIN CURRANTS.—Strip as many ripe currants from the stems as will fill a quart measure when done. Put them into a porcelain-lined kettle; mash them, and add three quarters of a pound of sugar—brown will do. Prepare three quarters of a pound of the largest and best raisins, washed, drained, seeded, and cut in half. Or, use the small sultana or seedless raisins. When the currants and sugar have come to a boil, and been skimmed, mix in the raisins, gradually, and let them boil till quite soft; skimming the surface well; and after each skimming stir the whole down to the bottom of the kettle. When done, take it up in a deep dish, and set it to cool. This is a nice, plain dessert.
For a larger quantity, take two quarts of stripped currants; a pound and a half of sugar; and a pound and a half of raisins. None but raisins of the best quality should be used for this or any other purpose. Low-priced raisins are unwholesome, being always of bad quality.
CURRANT-RAISIN JAM.—Wash, drain, seed, and chop fine two pounds of the best bloom or muscatel raisins, and put them into a large pan till wanted. Having stripped them from the stems, squeeze through a linen bag into a large bowl as many ripe currants as will yield three quarts of juice. Sweeten this juice with two pounds and a half of sugar. Having put the minced raisins into a preserving kettle, pour the currant-juice over them, and give the whole a hard stirring. Set it over the fire, and boil and skim it, (stirring it down after skimming,) till it is thoroughly done, forming a thick smooth jam or marmalade. When cool, put it into jars. Cork them closely, covering the corks with paper tied down over the top, and set them away in a dry place. It is an excellent jam for common use, and very nice with cream.
TO KEEP PINE-APPLES, WITHOUT COOKING.—Take large fine pine-apples—the ripest you can procure. Pare and slice them thin, removing the hard core from the centre. Weigh the slices, and to each pound allow a pound of double-refined powdered loaf-sugar. Spread the slices on large flat dishes, with a layer of sugar both under and over them. Let them stand several hours; then put them up (without any cooking) in large glass tumblers, with the syrup that has issued from them; and put a thick layer of sugar at the top of each tumblerful. Cover the glasses closely, and tie a piece of bladder over each.
If the sugar is of the best quality, and the pine-apples ripe and without blemishes, they will keep perfectly well, done as above, and retain the flavour of the fruit better than when cooked. They must be kept in a dry cool place.
FINE PINE-APPLE MARMALADE.—Take pine-apples of large size, and as ripe as possible. Having removed the green leaves, cut each pine-apple (without paring) into four quarters; and then, with a large coarse tin grater, grate them down as near the rind as you can go. Do this in a large dish, carefully saving the juice. Then weigh the grated pine-apple, and to every pound allow three large quarters of a pound of the best double-refined loaf-sugar, finely powdered. Too much sugar will, after boiling, cause the marmalade to candy in the jars. Mix with the sugar the pine-apple and all its juice, and put them into a preserving kettle over a moderate, but very clear, fire. Boil them slowly together, skimming them when necessary, and frequently stirring them up from the bottom with a silver spoon. Let them boil till they become a very thick smooth mass, of a fine gold colour. Put the marmalade warm into glass jars. Lay upon the surface a double tissue paper, cut circular, and fitting exactly; then cover the jars, and tie a piece of bladder over each.
Instead of grating the pine-apple, you may pare, core, and cut it into small thin pieces; but it will require a longer time to boil, and will be less smooth and beautiful. With a coarse grater the trouble is not much.
MELON MARMALADE.—Take fine large citron melons, and cut them into quarters, having removed the seeds. Weigh the pieces, and to every pound allow a pound of the best double-refined loaf-sugar. To every three pounds of melon allow two lemons, and a tea-spoonful of ground white ginger. Then grate the melon slices on a coarse grater, but not too close to the rind. Grate off the yellow rind of the lemons, and add it with the ginger to the sugar, which must be finely powdered. Then mix the whole with the grated melons in a preserving kettle. Set it over a moderate fire, and boil, skim, and stir it till it is a very thick smooth jam. Put it warm into glass jars, or large tumblers; lay a double round of tissue paper on the surface of the marmalade; cover the jars closely, and tie a piece of bladder over each.
Pumpkin marmalade may be made in the above manner, omitting the ginger.
TOMATO MARMALADE.—Take large fully-ripe tomatoes, and scald them in hot water, so that the skins can be easily peeled off. Weigh the tomatoes; and to every pound, allow a pound of the best sugar; to every three pounds, two lemons and a small tea-spoonful of ground ginger. Grate off the yellow rind of the lemons, and mix it with the sugar and ginger; then add their juice. Put the tomatoes into a preserving kettle, and mash them with the back of a wooden ladle. Then mix in the sugar, &c., stirring the whole very hard. Set the kettle over a moderate fire, and boil it very slowly for three hours, till it is a smooth mass, skimming it well; and stirring it to the bottom after each skimming.
This is an excellent sweet-meat; and as the lemon must on no account be omitted, it should be made when lemons are plenty. The best time is the month of August, as lemons are then to be had in abundance, and the tomatoes are less watery than in the autumn months. For children it may be made with brown sugar, and with less lemon and more ginger. Like all preparations of tomato it is very wholesome.
YANKEE APPLE PUDDING.—Butter the bottom and inside of a deep tin pan. Pare, core, and quarter six or eight large, fine, juicy apples; and strew among them a heaped half-pint or more of broken sugar. Dissolve a tea-spoonful either of soda, sal-eratus, or pearlash, in a pint of sour milk. The soda will take off entirely the acid of the milk, and render the whole very light. Stir the milk, and pour it among the apples. Have ready a good pie-crust, rolled out thick. Lay it over the top of the pan of apples, &c.; trim the edge nicely, and notch it neatly. Put the pudding into a hot oven, and bake it brown. It will require at least an hour, or more, according to its depth. Eat it warm.
This is a good plain family pudding. A similar one may be made of peaches; pared; stoned, and quartered.
406-*FILET GUMBO.—Cut up a pair of fine plump fowls into pieces, as when carving. Lay them in a pan of cold water, till all the blood is drawn out. Put into a pot, two large table-spoonfuls of lard, and set it over the fire. When the lard has come to a boil, put in the chickens with an onion finely minced. Dredge them well with flour, and season slightly with salt and pepper; and, if you like it, a little chopped marjoram. Pour on it two quarts of boiling water. Cover it, and let it simmer slowly for three hours. Then stir into it two heaped tea-spoonfuls of sassafras powder. Afterwards, let it stew five or six minutes longer, and then send it to table in a deep dish; having a dish of boiled rice to be eaten with it by those who like rice.
This gumbo will be much improved by stewing with it three or four thin slices of cold boiled ham, in which case omit the salt in the seasoning. Whenever cold ham is an ingredient in any dish, no other salt is required.
A dozen fresh oysters and their liquor, added to the stew about half an hour before it is taken up, will also be an improvement.
If you cannot conveniently obtain sassafras-powder, stir the gumbo frequently with a stick of sassafras root.
This is a genuine southern receipt. Filet gumbo may be made of any sort of poultry, or of veal, lamb, venison, or kid.
FINE CABBAGE SOUP.—Take a fine large cabbage, and, after removing the outside leaves, and cutting the stalk short, divide the cabbage into quarters, more than half way down, but not quite to the stem. Lay the cabbage in cold water for half an hour or more. Then set it over the fire in a pot full of boiling water, and let it boil for an hour and a half, skimming it frequently. Then take it out, drain it, and laying it in a deep pan, pour on cold water, and let the cabbage remain in it till cold all through. Next (having drained it from the cold water) cut the cabbage into shreds or small pieces, and put it into a clean pot containing three pints of rich boiling milk, into which you have stirred a quarter of a pound of the best fresh butter; adding a very little salt and pepper. Boil it in the milk about two hours, or till thoroughly done, and quite tender. Then cut up some pieces of bread into small squares. Lay them in a tureen, and pour the soup upon them.
This, being made without meat, is an excellent soup for Lent or fast-days.
It is still better when cauliflowers or broccoli are substituted for cabbage; adding a few blades of mace, or some grated nutmeg.
EXCELLENT PICKLED CABBAGE.—Shred very fine, with a cabbage-cutter, a large fresh red cabbage. Pack it down (with a little salt sprinkled between each layer) in a large stone jar. The jar should be three parts full of the shred cabbage. Then tie up, in a bag of very thin clean muslin, two table-spoonfuls of whole black pepper; the same quantity of cloves; and the same of cinnamon, broken very small, but not powdered. Also a dozen blades of mace. Put two quarts of the best cider-vinegar into a porcelain-lined kettle; throw in the bag of spices, and boil it. Five minutes after it has come to a hard boil, take out the bag of spice, and pour the vinegar hot over the cabbage in the jar; stirring it up from the bottom, so that the vinegar may get all through the cabbage. Then lay the bag of spice on the top, and while the pickle is hot, cover the jar closely. It will be fit for use in two days.
If you find, after awhile, that the pickle tastes too much of the spice, remove the spice-bag.
You may pickle white cabbage in the same way; omitting the cloves, and boiling in the vinegar a second muslin bag, with three ounces of turmeric, which will give the cabbage a fine bright yellow colour. Having put up the cabbage into the jar, lay the turmeric-bag half way down, and the spice-bag on the top. But the turmeric-bag need not be put into the jar if the vinegar has sufficiently coloured the cabbage.
Small onions may be pickled, as above, with turmeric. Always, in preparing onions, for any purpose, peel off the thin outer skin.
MADEIRA HAM.—Take a ham of the very finest sort; a Westphalia one, if you can obtain it. Soak it in water all day and all night; changing the water several times. A Westphalia ham should be soaked two days and nights. Early in the morning of the day it is to be cooked, put it over the fire in a large pot, and boil it four hours, skimming it well. Then take it out; remove the skin, and put the ham into a clean boiler, with sufficient Madeira wine to cover it well. Boil, or rather stew it an hour longer, keeping the pot covered, except when you remove the lid to turn the ham. When well stewed take it up, drain it, and strain the liquor into a porcelain-lined saucepan. Have ready a sufficiency of powdered white sugar. Cover the ham all over with a thick coating of the sugar, and set it into a hot oven to bake for an hour.
Mix some orange or lemon-juice with the liquor, adding sugar and nutmeg. Give it one boil up over the fire, and serve it up in a tureen, as sauce to the ham.
What is left of the ham may be cut next day into thin slices, put into a stew-pan, with the remains of the liquor or sauce poured over it, and stewed for a quarter of an hour. Serve it up all together in the same dish. Instead of Madeira you may use champagne. Bottled cider is also a good substitute.
Fresh venison, pheasants, partridges, grouse, or any other game, (also canvas-back ducks,) cut up and stewed with a mixture of Madeira wine, orange, or lemon-juice, sugar, nutmeg, and a little butter will be found very fine. The birds should first be half roasted, and the gravy saved to add to the stew.
NEW WAY OF DRESSING TERRAPINS.—In buying terrapins, select those only that are large, fat, and thick-bodied. Put them whole into water that is boiling hard at the time, and (adding a little salt) boil them till thoroughly done throughout. Then, taking off the shell, extract the meat, and remove carefully the sand-bag and gall; also all the entrails. They are disgusting, unfit to eat; and are no longer served up in cooking terrapin for the best tables. Cut the meat into pieces, and put it into a stew-pan with its eggs, and sufficient fresh butter to stew it well. Let it stew till quite hot throughout, keeping the pan carefully covered that none of the flavour may escape; but shake it over the fire while stewing. In another pan, make a sauce of beaten yolk of egg, highly flavoured with Madeira or sherry, and powdered nutmeg and mace, and enriched with a large lump of fresh butter. Stir this sauce well over the fire, and when it has almost come to a boil, take it off. Send the terrapin to table hot in a covered dish, and the sauce separately in a sauce-tureen, to be used by those who like it, and omitted by those who prefer the genuine flavour of the terrapin when simply stewed with butter.
This is now the usual mode of dressing terrapins in Maryland and Virginia, and will be found superior to any other.
No dish of terrapins can be good unless the terrapins themselves are of the best quality. It is mistaken economy to buy poor ones. Besides being insipid and tasteless, it takes more in number to fill a dish. The females are the best.
A TERRAPIN POT-PIE.—Take several fine large terrapins, the fattest and thickest you can get. Put them into a large pot of water that is boiling hard; and boil them half an hour or more. Then take them out of the shell, pulling off the outer skin and the toe-nails. Remove the sand-bag and the gall, taking care not to break it, or it will render the whole too bitter to be eaten. Take out also the entrails, and throw them away; as the custom of cooking them is now, very properly, exploded. Then cut up all the meat of the terrapins, taking care to save all the liquid that exudes in cutting up, and also the eggs. Season the whole with pepper, mace, and nutmeg, adding a little salt; and lay among it pieces of fresh butter slightly rolled in flour.
Have ready an ample quantity of paste, made in the proportion of a pound of butter to two large quarts (or pounds) of flour, or a pound and a half of butter to three quarts of flour, and rolled out thick. Butter the inside of an iron pot, and line the sides with paste, till it reaches within one-third of the top. Then put in the pieces of terrapin, with the eggs, butter, &c., and with all the liquid. Lay among the terrapin, square pieces of paste. Then pour in sufficient water to stew the whole properly. Next, cover all with a circular lid, or top-crust of paste, but do not fit it so closely that the gravy cannot bubble up over the edges while cooking. Cut a slit in the top-crust. Place the pot-pie over a good fire, and boil it till the whole is thoroughly done, which will be from three-quarters to an hour, (after it comes to a boil;) taking care not to let it get too dry, but keeping a kettle of hot water to replenish it if necessary. When done, take it up in a deep dish, and serve it hot. Then let every one add what seasoning they choose.
It may be much improved by mixing among the pieces of terrapin (before putting them into the pie) some yolks of hard-boiled eggs, grated or minced. They will enrich the gravy.
A BEEF-STEAK POT-PIE.—Take a sufficiency of tender beef-steaks from the sirloin, removing all the fat and bone. Season them slightly with pepper and salt; adding also some nutmeg. Put them into a pot with plenty of water, and par-boil them. Meanwhile, make a large portion of paste, (a pot-pie with but little paste is no better than a mere stew,) and roll it out thick. If you use suet for shortening, allow to every two quarts or two pounds of flour a large half-pound of suet, divested of the skin and strings, and minced as finely as possible with a chopping-knife. Sprinkle in a very little salt. Mix the suet with the flour in a large pan, rubbing it fine with your hands, and adding gradually sufficient cold water to make a stiff dough. Then transfer the lump of dough to the paste-board; knead it well with your hands; and beat it hard on all sides with the rolling-pin. Next roll it out into sheets. Line the sides of a pot with a portion of the dough. Then put in the beef; adding for gravy the liquid in which it was boiled, and a little hot water. Also, some potatoes sliced or quartered. Intersperse the meat with square slices of paste. Finish by covering it with a lid of paste, having a slit in the top: but do not fit the lid too closely. Then placing the pot over the fire, let it boil from three-quarters to an hour, (after it comes to a boil,) replenishing it, if necessary, with more hot water. This will be found an excellent family dish.
CHICKEN POT-PIE.—Cut up, and par-boil a pair of large fowls, seasoning them with pepper, salt, and nutmeg. You may add some small slices of cold ham; in which case add no salt, as the ham will make it salt enough. Or you may put in some pieces of the lean of fresh pork. You may prepare a suet-paste; but for a chicken pot-pie it is best to make the paste of butter, which should be fresh, and of the best quality. Allow to each quart of flour, a small half-pound of butter. There should be enough for a great deal of paste. Line the sides of the pot, two-thirds up, with paste. Put in the chickens, with the liquor in which they were parboiled. You may add some sliced potatoes. Intersperse the pieces of chicken with layers of paste in square slices. Then cover the whole with a lid of paste, not fitting very closely. Make a slit in the top, and boil the pie about three-quarters of an hour or more.
This pie will be greatly improved by adding some clams to the chickens while par-boiling, omitting salt in the seasoning, as the clams will salt it quite enough.
BROILED MUSHROOMS.—Take the largest and finest fresh mushrooms. Peel them, and cut off the stems as closely as possible. Lay the mushrooms on their backs, upon a large flat dish; and into the hollow or cup of each put a piece of fresh butter, and season it with a little black pepper. Set a clean gridiron over a bed of clear hot coals, and when it is well heated, put on the mushrooms, and broil them thoroughly. The gridiron should be one with grooved bars, so as to retain the gravy. When the first gridiron-full of mushrooms is well broiled, put them with their liquor into a hot dish, and keep them closely covered while the rest are broiling. This is an excellent way of cooking mushrooms.
AN EASY WAY TO PICKLE MUSHROOMS.—Take two quarts of small freshly-gathered mushrooms. With a sharp-pointed knife peel off, carefully, their thin outside skin; and cut off the stalks closely. Prepare eight little bags of very thin clear muslin, and tie up in each bag six blades of mace; six slices of root-ginger; and a small nutmeg (or half a large one) broken small, but not powdered. Have ready four glass jars, such as are considered to hold a quart. Lay a bag of spice in the bottom of each; then put in a pint of the mushrooms, laying a second bag of spice on the top. Have ready a sufficiency of the best cider-vinegar, very slightly seasoned with salt; allowing to each quart of vinegar but a salt-spoon of salt. Fill up the jars with the vinegar, finishing at the top with two table-spoonfuls of sweet oil. Immediately close up the jars, corking them tightly; and pasting thick paper, or tying a piece of leather or bladder closely down over the corks.
These mushrooms will be found very fine; and as they require no cooking, are speedily and easily prepared. When a jar is once opened, it will be well to use them fast. They may be put up in small jars, or in glass tumblers, such as hold but a pint altogether; seeing that the proportions of spice in each jar or tumbler are duly divided, as above. Keep them in a very dry place.
If you wish the mushrooms to be of a dark colour when pickled, add half a dozen cloves to each bag of spice; but the clove-taste will most likely overpower that of the mushrooms. On no account omit the oil.
If you cannot obtain button-mushrooms, cut large ones into four quarters, first peeling them and removing the stems.
BREAKFAST ROLLS.—These rolls must be mixed the night before, near bed-time. Sift three quarts of flour into a deep pan, and cut up into it a half-pint cup-full (or a quarter of a pound) of fresh butter. Rub the butter with your hands into the flour till thoroughly incorporated, and add a very small tea-spoonful of salt. Make a hole in the middle of the flour, and pour in four large table-spoonfuls of excellent yeast. Have ready sufficient warm milk; a pint will generally be enough, (heated but not boiling,) to make it into a light dough. Add the milk gradually; and then knead the dough. Put it into a pan, cover it with a clean thick cloth, and set it in a warm place. Early in the morning, add to the dough a small tea-spoonful of pearl-ash or sal-eratus, or a large tea-spoonful of soda, dissolved in a little warm water. Mix it well in, and knead the dough over again. Then divide it into equal portions, and make each portion into an oval-shaped roll. Draw a deep mark along the top-surface of each with a knife. Put them into a hot oven, and bake them brown.
If intended for tea, mix them in the forenoon; and previous to baking, make out the dough into round cakes, pricking them with a fork.
BUCKWHEAT BATTER PUDDING.—Mix early in the day, a quart of buckwheat meal with a large tea-cup full of Indian meal or of wheat flour; and add a tea-spoonful of salt. Have ready some water, warm but not boiling; and stir it gradually into the pan of meal till it makes a thick batter. Then add two large table-spoonfuls of fresh strong yeast from the brewer’s. Of home-made yeast you will require three or four spoonfuls. Stir the whole very hard; cover the pan and set it near the fire to rise. When quite light, and covered with bubbles, melt a small tea-spoonful of soda or pearl-ash in a little warm water, and stir it into the batter. This, added to the yeast, will make the mixture light enough for a pudding without eggs. Have ready on the fire, a pot of boiling water. Dip in the pudding-cloth, then shake it out, spread it into a bread pan, and dredge it with flour. Pour the batter into the cloth as soon as you have added the soda, and tie it tightly, leaving a vacancy of about one-third, to allow for the swelling of the pudding. Put it into the pot while the water is boiling hard, and boil the pudding fast during an hour or more; buckwheat meal requiring much less time than indian or wheat. While boiling, turn the pudding several times in the water. When done, turn it out on a dish, and send it to table hot. Eat it with butter and sugar, or molasses.
This is a good plain pudding; but the batter must be perfectly light before it is tied up in the cloth; and if the water boils away, replenish the pudding-pot with boiling water from a kettle. To put cold water into a boiling pot will most certainly spoil whatever pudding is cooking in it, rendering it heavy, flat, and unfit to eat.
If you intend having buckwheat cakes at breakfast, and this pudding at dinner, mix at once sufficient batter for both purposes, adding the soda at the last, just before you put the pudding into the cloth.
Yeast-powders will be still better than soda; real yeast having previously been used when first mixing the batter. To use yeast-powders, dissolve the contents of the blue paper (super-carbonate of soda) in a little warm water, and stir it into the batter. Then, directly after, melt in another cup the powder from the white paper, (tartaric acid,) and stir that in also.
BUCKWHEAT PORRIDGE.—Boil a quart of rich milk, and when it has come to a hard boil, stir in, gradually, as much buckwheat meal as will make it of the consistence of very thick mush, adding a tea-spoon of salt, (not more,) and a table-spoonful of fresh butter. Five minutes after it is thick enough, remove it from the fire. If the milk is previously boiling hard, and continues to boil while the meal is going in, but little more cooking will be necessary.
Send it to table hot, and eat it with butter and sugar, or with molasses and butter.
This is sometimes called a Five Minute Pudding, from its being made so soon. It is very good for children, as a plain dessert; or for supper.
Before it goes to table, you may season it with powdered ginger, or nutmeg.
APPLE TAPIOCA.—Take a quart bowl, and half fill it with tapioca: then fill it very nearly to the top with cold water, allowing a little space for the tapioca to swell in soaking. Cover it, and let it stand all night. In the morning, pare and core six or eight fine pippin or bell-flower apples. Put them into a preserving kettle; filling up the holes from whence the cores were extracted with powdered sugar, and the grated yellow rind of one large lemon, or two small ones; and also the juice. Stew among the apples additional sugar, so as to make them agreeably sweet. Add about half enough of water to cover them. This will be sufficient to keep them from burning. Stew them gently till about half done; turning them carefully several times. Then put in the tapioca, and let it simmer with them till perfectly clear, and the apples are tender and well done throughout; but not long enough for them to break and fall to pieces. The tapioca will form a fine clear jelly all round the apples.
This is a nice dessert for children. And also, cooling and nourishing for invalids.
Quinces may be done in the same manner. They require more cooking than apples. For quinces, it is best to use, as flavouring, the grated yellow rind, and the juice of very ripe oranges.
TERRA FIRMA.—Take a piece of rennet about four inches square, and wash it in two or three cold waters to get off all the salt. Then wipe it dry, put it into a cup, and pour on sufficient lukewarm water to cover it well. Let it stand four or five hours, or all night. Then stir the rennet-water into three pints of rich unskimmed milk, flavoured with rose or peach-water. Cover the pan of milk, and set it on the hearth near the fire, till it forms a very firm curd. Then take it out, (draining off the whey,) put it into a clean sieve, (under which set a pan to receive the droppings,) and with the back of a broad flat wooden ladle, press all the remaining whey out of the curd. Next put the mass of curd into a deep bowl to mould it; and set it on ice till tea-time. Then transfer it to a deep glass bowl or dish, and pour all round it some cream sweetened well with sugar, and flavoured with rose or peach like the curd. On the curd lay circles of small sweetmeats, such as preserved strawberries, raspberries, or gooseberries. You may add to the cream that is to surround it, white wine and nutmeg.
TO USE COLD PUDDING.—If you have a large piece of boiled pudding left after dinner, (such as plum pudding, indian pudding, or batter pudding,) and you wish to cook it next day, tie it up in a cloth, and put it into a pot of boiling water, and keep it boiling hard for half an hour or more. It will be found as good as on the first day, and perhaps rather better; and it will be far more palatable, as well as more wholesome than if sliced, and fried, or broiled. Eat it with the same sauce as on the preceding day.
TO KEEP EGGS.—Break some glue into pieces, and boil it in sufficient water to make a thin solution. While warm, dip a brush into it, and go carefully over every egg. They must all be quite fresh. When the eggs are thoroughly glazed with the glue, spread them out to dry. When quite dry, pack them in kegs or boxes, with dry wood-ashes or saw-dust, (of which there must be a plentiful portion,) putting a thick layer of the ashes or saw-dust at the bottom and top of the keg. This is an excellent way of keeping eggs for sea-voyages, and is well worth the trouble. Before using them, soak them in warm water to get off the coating of glue.
Eggs of parrots and other tropical birds preserved in this manner, and the glue-coating soaked off in cold water, it is said have afterwards been hatched in the usual way; and the young birds have lived.
FINE FRENCH MUSTARD.—Take a sufficient quantity of green tarragon leaves, (picked from the stalks) and put them into a wide-mouthed glass jar till it is half full; pressing them down hard. Then fill up the jar with the best cider-vinegar, and cork it closely. Let it infuse a week or two. Then pour off the vinegar into a pitcher, remove all the tarragon from the jar, and put in an equal quantity of fresh leaves of the plant, and pour back the same vinegar from the pitcher. Cork it again, and let the last tarragon remain in the jar. In another fortnight the vinegar will be sufficiently flavoured with tarragon to use it for French mustard, or for other purposes. Then peel a clove of garlic, (not more than one,) and mince it as fine as possible. Mix it into four ounces (a quarter of a pound) of the best mustard-powder, in a deep white pan. Take a jill, or two large wine-glasses of the tarragon vinegar, (strained from the leaves,) pour it into a mug, and mix with it thoroughly an equal quantity of salad oil. Then with the mixture of vinegar and oil, moisten the mustard-powder, gradually, (using a wooden spoon,) till you get it a very little thicker than the usual consistence of made mustard. Put it into small clean, white jars, and cork them closely.
If you find that the above quantity of oil and vinegar will make the mustard too thin, you need not use the whole of the liquid. If the mustard seems too thick, dilute it gradually with a little more of the oil and vinegar.
This mustard is very superior to the common preparation, and is universally liked; particularly with beef and mutton. It must be kept closely corked. It is usual to bring it to table in the little white jar, with a small spoon beside it.
The herb tarragon may be had green and fresh in July and August. It is much used in French cookery, as a seasoning for stews, soups, &c.
Tarragon vinegar is very good with boiled cabbage or greens. The tarragon leaves of the second infusion should be kept remaining in the jar, pouring off the vinegar from them as it is wanted. A small quantity may be kept in a cruet; retaining the leaves at the bottom.
A WASHINGTON PUDDING.—Pick, and wash clean half a pound of Zante currants; drain them, and wipe them in a towel, and then spread them out on a flat dish, and place them before the fire to dry thoroughly. Prepare about a quarter of a pound or half a pint of finely-grated bread-crumbs. Have ready a heaping tea-spoonful of powdered mace, cinnamon, and nutmeg mixed. When the currants are dry, dredge them thickly on all sides with flour, to prevent their sinking or clodding in the pudding while baking. Cut up in a deep pan half a pound of the best fresh butter, and add to it half a pound of fine white sugar, powdered. Stir the butter and sugar together, with a wooden spaddle, till they are very light and creamy. Then add a table-spoonful of wine, and a table-spoonful of brandy. Beat in a shallow pan eight eggs till perfectly light, and as thick as a good boiled custard. Afterwards, mix with them, gradually, a pint of rich milk and the grated bread-crumbs, stirred in alternately. Next, stir this mixture, by degrees, into the pan of beaten butter and sugar; and add the currants, a few at a time. Finish with a table-spoonful of strong rose-water, or a wine-glass full, if it is not very strong. Stir the whole very hard. Butter a large deep white dish; or two of soup-plate size. Put in the batter. Set it directly into a brisk oven, and bake it well. When cold, dredge the surface with powdered sugar. Serve it up in the dish in which it was baked. You may ornament the top with bits of citron cut into leaves and forming a wreath; or with circles of preserved strawberries.
This will be found a very fine pudding. It must be baked in time to become quite cold before dinner.
For currants, you may substitute raisins of the best quality; seeded, cut in half, and well dredged with flour.
Instead of rose-water you may stir in the yellow rind (finely grated) of one large lemon, or two small ones, and their juice also.
NEW WAY OF WASHING SILK.—For ribbons, cravats, and other small articles of silk, put a sufficiency of the best fresh camphine oil into a large basin, and press and squeeze the things well through it, without either soap or water. Then squeeze them, till as dry as you can get them: open them out; and having washed the basin, put into it some fresh camphine, and wash the articles through that in the same manner as before. Have hot irons ready, and as the things come out of the second camphine, (after well squeezing and shaking them, but not rinsing,) spread them open on the ironing-sheet, and iron them smoothly and evenly on the wrong side. Do each article, as soon as it has had the second washing, as they should remain wet as short a time as possible.
There is no way of washing silk things that will make them look so well as this. It injures no colour, but rather brightens all, and gives the silk just the right degree of stiffness, besides making it very clean and fresh. When done, hang them in the open air for a while. A silk dress may be washed in this manner, putting the camphine into a large queensware-foot-bath. It should not go into a vessel of either wood or metal. The dress must first be taken entirely apart; but it will look so well when washed and ironed, that you will not regret the trouble.
Camphine generally sells at about fifty cents a gallon, sometimes lower.
TO SAVE STAIR-CARPETS.—Stair-carpets always wear out first (and sometimes very soon) at those parts that go against the edges or ledges of the stairs. They will last much longer at the edges, (indeed, as long as any other part of the carpet,) if the following precaution is taken. Get some old carpeting, (first made very clean,) and cut it into strips just the width of the stair-carpet. Each strip must be wide enough to put on double. Nail these strips, carefully and smoothly, on the round edge of each stair, so as to cover it entirely, above and below. Afterwards, put down the stair-carpet. When it is taken up to have the stairs washed, these strips will be found no inconvenience to the cleaning; taking care, however, if any of the nails or tacks get loosened, to drive them in again tightly; and if bent, to replace them by new ones. The slips must have time to get quite dry before the carpet is put down again.
Another way to save a stair-carpet, is to buy enough to make it a yard or more too long. Whenever the carpet is put down again, after it has been taken up for the purpose of cleaning the stairs, shift its position every time, so that the same places of the carpet may not always go against the ledges of the stairs. The extra length must be folded under, sometimes at the top of the staircase, and sometimes at the bottom.
Both these methods of saving a stair-carpet we know to be good. The first is the least expensive; but it is more trouble to nail on all the double slips of old carpeting, than to buy the additional yard of new.
In hotels where there is always plenty of old carpeting, and where there are men who can easily nail on the slips, this is a much better way than to cover the stairs first with oil-cloth, and then with zinc to save the oil-cloth; corners of the zinc frequently getting loose and catching and tearing the ladies’ dresses.
Oil spilt on a stair-carpet can generally be taken away by immediately wiping off as much as can thus be removed, and then directly washing the place with cold water; renewing the water with fresh, till the grease disappears. If it will not come out, cover the place thoroughly with scraped fuller’s earth. Let it rest an hour or two: then brush that off, and put on a fresh layer of fuller’s earth; repeating it till the oil is entirely expelled. Scraped Wilmington clay is still better than fuller’s earth.
SPERMACETI, TO EXTRACT FROM CARPETS OR CLOTHES.—There is no better way of removing spermaceti, than, (after scraping off with a knife as much as you can get from the surface of the spot,) to cover it with a piece of clean blotting paper, or any paper that is soft and thin, and press it with a warm iron. By repeating this, (taking each time a clean part of the paper,) any spermaceti spot may be removed from carpets, coats, ladies’ dresses, or other similar articles.
When spermaceti has been dropped on a table, lay a blotting paper on the spot, and then hold over it, carefully, at a small distance above, a hot coal in the tongs. Pressing it with a warm iron would mark the mahogany.
CHEAP OIL FOR KITCHEN LAMPS.—Let all scraps of fat (including even whatever bits are left on the dinner-plates) and all drippings be carefully saved, and put into an earthen crock, covered, and set in a cold place. When the crock is full, transfer the fat to an iron pot, filling it half-way up with fat; and pour in sufficient cold water to reach the top. Set it over the fire, and boil and skim it till all the impurities are removed. Next pour the melted fat into a large broad pan of cold water, and set it away to cool. It will harden into a cake. Then take out the cake, and put it away in a cool place. When wanted for use, cut off a sufficient quantity, melt it by the fire till it becomes liquid, and then fill the lamp with it, as with lard. It will give a clear bright light, quite equal to that of lard, and better than whale oil; and it costs nothing but the trouble of preparing the fat. We highly recommend this piece of economy.
RELIEF FOR CORNS.—Experience proves that there is scarcely a possibility of removing corns on the feet, so that they will never return. The following remedy we know to be an excellent palliative; it will for a time diminish their size, and take away their soreness, and is easily renewed when they again become troublesome. It is peculiarly excellent for corns between the toes, which, of all others, are the most painful when they inflame.
Get at a druggist’s a sixpenny box of Simple Cerate, (which is made of white wax, spermaceti, and lard, melted together, and stewed to a salve,) and with your finger, apply a small portion of this to each corn, letting it stay on for two or three hours; and then repeat the application. Do this several times during the day. For corns between the toes, add to the cerate a little soft, open white wool, such as you may pick off the surface of a blanket. Stick this in between the toes—the salve that adheres to it will keep it in its place. Repeat this through the day with fresh cerate and wool; putting on your stockings carefully. At night, before going to bed, wash off the cerate. In the morning renew it, as before. It gives not the least pain, but is soothing and pleasant. Proceed in this manner for a few days or a week, and you will find great relief. Try it, and be convinced.
Stockings with toes too narrow or pointed, are just as apt to produce corns, and to increase their pain and inflammation, as the wearing of narrow-toed shoes.
BROILED CANVAS BACK DUCKS.—To have these ducks with their flavour and juices in perfection, they should be cooked immediately after killing. If shot early in the morning, let them be broiled for breakfast; if killed in the forenoon, they should be dressed for that day’s dinner. When they can be obtained quite fresh, broiling is now considered the best way of cooking them.
As soon as the ducks have been plucked, and drawn, and washed, split them down the back, and lay them, spread open, on a very clean gridiron, set over a bed of clear bright coals. The gridiron should have grooved bars to retain as much as possible of the gravy. Broil them well and thoroughly, so that the flesh may not have the least redness when sent to table. They will generally be done in twenty minutes or more. Serve them up as hot as possible. They will be found full of gravy, and require no sauce when cooked in this manner; but you may season them as you please when on your plate.
AUTUMN LEAVES.—The autumnal colours of our American forest trees are justly admired for the brightness, richness, and variety of their tints. Some of our fair countrywomen have worn them in Europe, formed into wreaths for the hair, or trimmings for ball-dresses, and the effect was considered beautiful. They may be preserved for this purpose by the following process. Gather as many varieties of autumn foliage as you can obtain; seeing that every leaf is perfect, and that there is a stem to each. The best time is in the month of October. Include among them those of the crimson maple, the purple beech, the willow oak with its underside of silvery white, the yellow hickory, the aspen, and any others that are richly tinted by the frost. Also, by way of contrast, some green pine sprigs. Lay them separately between the leaves of a large writing-paper book, (an old ledger will do very well,) and do not put tree-leaves between all the book-leaves successively, but alternately; otherwise they will not be smooth and flat when pressed. That is, put tree-leaves between the second and third pages of the book, and then no more till between the sixth and seventh pages. Lay the next tree-leaves between the tenth and eleventh pages, and so on, till they are all in. Place several other heavy books upon the ledger so as to press well the leaves beneath.
Stretch a twine across the room, or from the backs of two chairs, and tie a small twine string to each stem. Have ready some very fine clear varnish, (such as is used for maps, &c.) and with a large camels’ hair brush, go carefully over both sides of the leaves, including the stem. Fasten them all, separately, to the stretched twine; seeing that none of them are near enough to each other to touch. Then lock the door of the room, that nothing may get in to disturb them, or raise the slightest dust while the varnish is drying. When perfectly dry, and not in the least sticky to the touch of the finger, have ready some sheets of smooth thick white paper. In each sheet cut small double slits to admit the stems, and in this way secure the leaves from slipping about and being injured. Write the name of each leaf above it. Let the other half of the sheet lie upon them. Put these sheets within a double cover of binders-board, (like a port-folio,) which you must then seal up in paper, like a large parcel, and the leaves in all their autumn beauty may be safely transported to any part of the world.
They will be found very useful to landscape-painters.
MADEIRA CHARLOTTE RUSSE.—Take one ounce of gelatine, or of the very best Russia isinglass, and soak it, near half an hour, in as much cold water as will barely cover it. It must merely soften, and not dissolve. Then drain off the water, and put the gelatine or isinglass into a pint of rich cream; adding a vanilla bean split, cut to pieces, and tied closely in a very thin muslin bag. Set the cream over a slow fire in a porcelain preserving-kettle, and let it boil till the gelatine is entirely dissolved, and thoroughly mixed with the cream. Give it a hard stirring, down to the bottom, several times while boiling.
Have ready the yolks only, of eight eggs, beaten till very light and thick; and then beat, gradually, into the yolk of egg three quarters of a pound of the best powdered loaf-sugar. Then take the cream off the fire, and (having first removed the vanilla) stir into it, by degrees, the mixture of beaten yolk of egg and sugar. Set the kettle again over a slow fire, and let it simmer till very thick; but do not allow it to boil hard, or too long, lest it should curdle.
When the mixture is sufficiently thick, take it off, and set it away to cool. Have ready the whites of four of the eight eggs beaten to a stiff froth. Then stir two heaping table-spoonfuls of powdered loaf-sugar into half a tumbler-full of Madeira wine, and beat it slowly into the white of egg; adding a little more powdered sugar if the wine seems likely to curdle the egg.
When the yellow or yolk-of-egg mixture is quite cold, stir gradually into it the white mixture, till all is thoroughly amalgamated. Have ready a mould or moulds lined with very thin slices of almond sponge-cake. Fill them up with the mixture, and set them on ice till the charlotte is wanted. Then turn it out. You may cover the top with icing made in the usual way, and flavoured with extract of vanilla, or extract of bitter almond—or peach-water.
LEMON CHARLOTTE RUSSE.—Is made as in the preceding receipt; substituting for the vanilla and Madeira, the yellow rind and the juice of two large whole lemons, or three if not of the largest size. Rub off the yellow rind (or zest) upon lumps of loaf-sugar, scraping it off with a knife as you proceed, and saving it on a saucer. Then powder these lumps, and mix them with half the remainder of the three-quarters of a pound of sugar, and the scraped yellow rind. Add it (as above) to the beaten yolk of egg, and boil it slowly with the isinglass and cream. Then cut the lemons, and squeeze their juice into the remaining sugar. Having beaten the whites of half the eight eggs to a stiff froth, add to it the lemon-juice and sugar; and when the mixture of cream, egg, and isinglass is cold, mix gradually with it the beaten white of egg, &c. Lastly, line the mould with thin slices of lady-cake, or almond sponge-cake; put in the mixture, and set it on ice. Before it goes to table ice the top; flavouring the icing with lemon-juice.
ORANGE CHARLOTTE RUSSE.—Is made as above—substituting for the lemons three fine large oranges, and flavouring the icing with orange-juice. Line the moulds with almond sponge-cake. Orange cake will be still better for this purpose.
ROSE CHARLOTTE RUSSE.—Take an ounce of Russia isinglass or of gelatine, and soften it by soaking a while in cold water. Then boil it slowly in a pint of cream, sweetened with a quarter of a pound of fine loaf-sugar, (adding a handful of fresh rose-leaves tied in a thin muslin bag,) till it is thoroughly dissolved, and well mixed. Take it off the fire; set it to cool; and beat together till very light and thick, four whole eggs, and the yolks only of four others. Stir the beaten eggs gradually into the mixture of cream, sugar and isinglass, and set it again over the fire. Stir it well, and see that it only simmers; taking it off before it comes quite to a boil. Then, while it is warm, stir in sufficient extract of roses, to give it a high rose-flavour and a fragrant smell. Have ready two moulds lined with lady-cake, or almond sponge-cake. Fill them with the mixture, and set them on ice. Before they go to table, ice the tops of the charlotte, flavouring the icing with rose.
CHOCOLATE CHARLOTTE RUSSE.—Having soaked in cold water an ounce of Russia isinglass, or of gelatine, shave down three ounces of the best chocolate, which must have no spice or sugar in it, (Baker’s Prepared Cocoa is excellent for this and all other chocolate purposes,) and mix it gradually into a pint of cream, adding the soaked isinglass. Set the cream, chocolate, and isinglass over the fire, in a porcelain kettle; and boil it slowly till the isinglass is dissolved thoroughly, and the whole is well mixed. Then take it off the fire and let it cool. Have ready eight yolks of eggs and four whites, beaten all together till very light; and stir them gradually into the mixture, in turn with half a pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Simmer the whole over the fire, but do not let it quite boil. Then take it off, and with a chocolate-mill, (or with rods,) whip it to a strong froth. Line your moulds with sponge-cake, and set them on ice.
If you like a strong chocolate flavour, take four ounces of the cocoa.
ALMOND ICE-CREAM.—To every quart of cream, allow two ounces of shelled sweet almonds, and two ounces of shelled bitter almonds. Blanch the almonds in scalding water, and then throw them into cold water; afterwards, put them, one at a time, (bitter and sweet alternately,) into a marble mortar, and pound them to a fine, smooth paste, moistening them with a little cream as you proceed. When the almonds are all done, stir them gradually into the cream you intend to freeze. Set it over a fire, and continue to boil it five minutes after it has come to a boil. Then strain it into a freezer, and while it is warm stir in gradually sufficient powdered loaf-sugar to make it very sweet, allowing three-quarters of a pound to every quart of cream. Freeze it in the usual manner.
ALMOND ICE-CREAM—Another way. To each quart of cream, allow three ounces of shelled bitter-almonds, and no sweet ones. Blanch them and break them up slightly. Put them into a porcelain sauce-pan, and pour on water, allowing half a pint of water to each ounce of almonds. Boil them long and slowly, till the water is highly-flavoured, and so reduced in quantity that it barely covers the almonds. Then strain it off; and when cool, stir the almond water into the cream, adding sugar by degrees; allowing three-quarters of a pound to every quart of cream. Put the mixture into a freezer, and proceed as usual.
CHOCOLATE ICE-CREAM.—Chocolate used for this purpose must have neither sugar nor spice in it. Baker’s Prepared Cocoa is the best. For each quart of cream, scrape down three large ounces of cocoa or chocolate, put it into a sauce-pan with half a pint of hot water for each ounce, and mix it into a smooth paste with a spoon. Place it over hot coals, and when it has come to a boil, take it off the fire and set it to cool. When it has become lukewarm, stir the chocolate into the cream, and strain it. When strained, add gradually, for each quart of cream, three-quarters of a pound of powdered loaf-sugar; and give the whole a boil up. Then put it into a freezer.
Another way.—To every quart of cream, allow three ounces of Baker’s Prepared Cocoa, and half a pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Scrape the cocoa very fine, and stir it into the cream, alternately with the sugar, a little of each at a time. Having well mixed the whole, boil and stir it, continuing to do so five or six minutes after it has come to a boil. Then strain it into the freezer.
ORANGE ICE-CREAM.—To each quart of cream, allow two fine ripe oranges, and three-quarters of a pound of loaf-sugar. Rub the yellow rinds of the oranges upon a large lump of sugar, and scraping it off as you proceed, transfer it to a saucer. Then powder the lump of sugar, and put it, with the rest, all of which must be powdered. Squeeze the juice of the oranges among the sugar, mixing it well in. Then stir it gradually into the cream. Give it one boil up, and then transfer it to the freezer.
LEMON ICE-CREAM.—May be made as in the above receipt. It will require more sugar, as lemons are more acid than oranges.
Never use oil of lemon or essence of lemon for any flavouring. This article is now too generally made of tartaric acid, vitriol, or other drugs that render it unpalatable and unwholesome. Some of it tastes like peppermint. All lemon-flavouring should be obtained from the fruit only.
WINE JELLY.—Take three ounces of Cooper’s isinglass or gelatine, and soak it in cold water during five minutes. Then take it out and put it into a preserving kettle, and dissolve it in two quarts of boiling water. Stir into it a pound of loaf-sugar, on part of which has been rubbed off the thin yellow rind of four large lemons. Add two large sticks of cinnamon broken up, and the juice of the lemons mixed with a pint of white wine, (madeira, sherry, or malaga,) and add also the broken shells and beaten whites of four eggs. Having mixed all the ingredients well in the preserving kettle, put on the cover, set the kettle over the fire, and boil it steadily during twenty minutes. Then take it off, and let it stand five minutes or more, to settle. Pour the whole carefully into a thin flannel bag, and let it run into your jelly moulds. On no account squeeze the bag, as that will injure the clearness of the jelly.
This mode of preparing jelly with artificial isinglass saves the trouble of boiling calves’ feet the day before. It can be made in a short time.
VERY FINE APPLE JELLY.—Having cut out all blemishes, quarter half a bushel of the best pippin or bell-flower apples, without peeling or coring, and as you cut them, throw them into a pan of cold water to preserve the colour. When all the apples have been thus cut up, take them out of the water, but do not wipe or dry them. Then weigh the cut apples, and to each pound, allow a pound of the best loaf-sugar. Put them with the sugar into a large preserving-kettle and barely enough of water to prevent their burning, mixing among them the yellow rind of half a dozen lemons pared off very thin and cut into pieces. Also the juice of the lemons. When perfectly soft, and boiled to a mash, put the apples, &c., into a large linen jelly-bag, and run the liquid into moulds, if wanted for present use; and into jars if intended for keeping. Lay brandy paper on the top of each jar, and cover them closely.
PEAR MARMALADE.—Take large fine juicy pears. Pare, core, and cut them up into small pieces. Weigh the pieces; and to every two pounds allow a pound and a half of sugar, and the grated peel and juice of a large orange or lemon, adding a tea-spoonful of powdered ginger. Put the whole into a preserving-kettle and boil it over a moderate fire, till it becomes a very thick, smooth marmalade, stirring it up from the bottom frequently, and skimming the surface before each stirring. When quite done, put it warm into jars—and cover it.
For children, or for common family use, it may be made with large pound pears and brown sugar; but it always requires the acid of orange or lemon to make it palatable; pears, when cooked, having no acid of their own.
FIG-MARMALADE.—Take fine fresh figs that are perfectly ripe, such as can only be obtained in countries where they are cultivated in abundance. Weigh them, and to every two pounds of figs allow a pound and a half of sugar, and the yellow rind of a large orange or lemon, pared very thin. Cut up the figs, and put them into a preserving-kettle with the sugar, and orange or lemon-rind, adding the juice. Boil them till the whole is reduced to a thick, smooth mass, frequently stirring it up from the bottom. When done, put it warm into jars, and cover it closely.
TOMATA MARMALADE.—This is the best sort of tomata sweetmeat. Take ripe tomatas in the height of the season. In autumn they become watery, and insipid. Weigh them; and to every pound of tomatas allow a pound of sugar. Put the tomatas into a large pan, or a small tub, and scald them with boiling water, so as to make the skin peel off easily. When you have entirely removed the skins, put the tomatas (without any water) into a preserving-kettle, mash them, and add the sugar, with spoonfuls of ground ginger to your taste; also fresh lemon-peel finely grated, and sufficient lemon-juice to give it a fine flavour. Stir up the whole together, and set it over a moderate fire. Boil it gently for two or three hours, till the whole becomes a thick, smooth mass—skimming it well, and stirring it to the bottom after every skimming. When done, put it warm into jars; cover it tightly, (pasting paper over the lids,) and keep it in a dry place. This will be found a very fine sweetmeat. There should be enough of ginger and lemon to overpower the tomata flavour.
For children, this sweetmeat is better than any other; and it may be made for them very economically with good brown sugar, (always allowing a pound of sugar to a pound of tomatas,) and with no other flavouring than ginger. The natural taste of the tomatas must not be perceptible, it is their substance only that is wanted, and their wholesome properties.
RED FLUMMERY.—Boil a pound of ground rice in as much water as will cover it. When it is thoroughly boiled, and very thick and smooth, stir into the rice (while hot) a half pound of powdered white sugar, and about three jills, or six large wine-glasses of fresh currant or cherry juice, that has been pressed through a linen bag. Next replace it on the fire, and boil the whole together for about ten minutes, stirring it well. Then put it into moulds, and set it on ice. When cold, turn it out, and eat it with sweetened cream, or with boiled custard.
You may use the juice of fresh strawberries or raspberries, stirred in while the flummery is hot, but not boiled afterwards. The flavour of strawberries and raspberries is always impaired and weakened by cooking.
RICE BLANCMANGE.—Boil half a pint of whole rice in as little water as possible, till all the grains lose their form and become a soft mass. Next put it into a sieve, and drain and press out all the water. Then return it to the sauce-pan, and mix with it a large half pint of rich milk, and a quarter of a pound of powdered sugar. Boil it again till the whole is reduced to a pulp. Then remove it from the fire, and stir in, (while hot,) a wine-glass of rose-water. Dip your moulds into cold water, and then fill them with the rice; set them on ice, and when quite firm and cold, turn out the blancmange, and serve it up on dishes with a sauce-tureen of sweetened cream flavoured with nutmeg. Or you may eat it with a boiled custard, or with wine sauce.
You may mould it in large breakfast cups. Always dip your moulds for a moment in lukewarm water before you turn out their contents.
FARINA.—Farina is a very fine and delicate preparation made from the inner part of the grain of new wheat. It is exceedingly nutritious, and excellent, either for invalids or for persons in health. It is now much in use, and is to be had in packages of a pound or half a pound at the best grocers’ and druggists’, or in large quantities at No. 101 South Front Street, Philadelphia; and 201 Cherry Street, New York. It is highly recommended by physicians.
FARINA GRUEL.—Have some water boiling on the fire, and slowly sprinkle in sufficient farina to thicken it to the desired consistence. Continue the boiling twenty minutes afterwards. Sweeten it with loaf-sugar.
FARINA PANADA.—Soak the farina for several hours in milk. Then drain it, and put it into a vessel that has a close lid. Set this vessel in a kettle of water, raising it on a trivet or something similar. Place it over the fire, and make it boil all round the outside of the inner vessel. This will cook the farina very nicely. Keep it boiling till it becomes a thick, smooth mass. When done, sweeten it with white sugar; and, if permitted, you may flavour it with a little nutmeg and white wine. Some fresh lemon peel may be boiled with it, to be removed when the farina is taken up.
BAKED FARINA PUDDING.—Boil a quart of milk, gradually stirring into it, while boiling, a quarter of a pound of farina. Then take it up; and, while warm, mix into it a quarter of a pound of sugar; half a nutmeg grated; and a wine-glass of rose-water, or of white wine, or half a glass of brandy. Then beat four eggs very light, and stir them gradually into the farina mixture. Bake it in a buttered, deep dish, and grate sugar over it when done.
FARINA FLUMMERY or BLANCMANGE.—From a quart of rich milk take out a half pint. Put the half-pint into a small sauce-pan, and add to it a handful of bitter almonds broken up; or a bunch of fresh peach-leaves; or a vanilla bean split and cut into pieces, and tied up in a bit of thin muslin. Having boiled the milk till it is very highly-flavoured, strain it, and add it to the pint and a half. Then set it over the fire in a porcelain or delft-lined vessel, and boil it well. When it has come to a boil, begin to sprinkle in gradually a quarter of a pound (or four large heaping table-spoonfuls) of farina, stirring it well. Let it boil a quarter of an hour after all the farina is in. When done, remove it from the fire, and stir in (if you have used bitter almond or peach-leaf flavouring) a wine-glass of rose-water; add four large table-spoonfuls of powdered sugar. Put the flummery into a blancmange mould, set it on ice, and turn it out when wanted for dinner. Have ready to eat with it, a boiled custard, flavoured either with bitter almond or vanilla.
Another way.—Grate on a lump of sugar the yellow rind of a large lemon or orange, scraping it off with a tea-spoon as you proceed, and saving it on a saucer. Then mix it with a quarter of a pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Boil a quart of water, and when it has come to a boil, stir in alternately the sugar and four large heaping table-spoonfuls of farina. Let it boil a quarter of an hour longer. Then add the juice of the lemon or orange. Then put it into a mould and set it on ice to congeal. Eat with it boiled custard, flavoured with lemon or orange.
Another way.—Mix with a pint of water a pint of ripe currant-juice, strained through a sieve or bag, and well sweetened. In winter you may substitute the juice of stewed cranberries made very sweet. Boil the water and juice together. Then stir in gradually a quarter of a pound of farina, and boil it fifteen minutes longer. Transfer it to a mould, and set it on ice to congeal. Eat it with sweetened cream.
FARINA PLUM PUDDING.—Having extracted the seeds from half a pound of the best raisins, cut them in half, and dredge them well with sifted flour, to prevent their clodding, or sinking in the pudding. Pick, wash, and dry half a pound of Zante currants, and dredge them also with flour. Prepare a heaped teaspoonful of powdered spice; nutmeg, mace, and cinnamon, mixed together. Boil three pints of milk, and while it is boiling, sprinkle in a half pound of farina. Next add the spice, and let it boil a quarter of an hour longer. Then take it up, and set it to cool. When it is lukewarm, stir in gradually, six well-beaten eggs, in turn with the raisins and currants; a large piece of fresh butter; and a small glass of brandy. You may add some slips of citron, dredged with flour. Stir the mixture very hard. Put it into a buttered pudding-mould. Tie a double cloth tightly over the top, and place it in a pot of boiling water. Boil it three or four hours; and then turn it out on a dish. Eat it with wine-sauce; or with cold butter and sugar stirred together to a cream, and flavoured with nutmeg and lemon.
ROXBURY TEA CAKE.—On bread-making day take a pound or a quart of very light wheaten bread-dough, just before the loaves are put into the oven. Lay it in an earthen pan, and mix in, gradually, and alternately, three well-beaten eggs; a half-pint of powdered white sugar; half a pint of rich milk or cream; half a pint or a half-pound of fresh butter; and a tea-spoonful of mixed spice, powdered mace, nutmeg and cinnamon; with a wine-glass of rose-water. Mix the whole thoroughly, beating and stirring it well. Lastly, add a yeast powder; dissolving in one cup the portion of soda in a little lukewarm water, and mixing it into the dough; and melting in another cup the tartaric acid, and then stirring that in. Sprinkle some flour on your paste-board, and make the dough into small round cakes. Having pricked the tops with a fork, lay them in a buttered pan, set them immediately into the oven, and bake them brown. Eat them fresh, the day they are baked. You may bake the dough all in one loaf.
This cake will be improved by the addition of some raisins of the best quality, seeded and cut in half; and well-dredged with flour to prevent their sinking into a clod.
For a larger quantity, you must have two quarts of risen bread-dough; six eggs; a pint of powdered sugar; a pint of milk; a pound of fresh butter; and a table-spoonful of mixed spice; two wine-glasses of rose-water; and two yeast powders, or a full tea-spoonful of soda, and somewhat less than a tea-spoon of tartaric acid.
ALPISTERAS. (Spanish cakes.)—To one pound of fine flour, (well sifted and dried,) add half a pound of powdered loaf-sugar, (also sifted,) and mix them well together. In a shallow pan beat your eggs very light, and then gradually wet with them the mixed flour and sugar, adding a wine-glass of rose-water, or orange-flower water, or else the juice of two large oranges or lemons. Work the whole into a stiff dough, and knead it well. Roll it out into a very thin sheet, and cut it into squares of about five inches in size each way. Divide each square (half way down) into slips, so as to resemble a hand with fingers. Then curl or bend up the slips or fingers; or twist and twirl them so as to look like bunches of ribbons. Have ready, in a pot over the fire, a large portion of boiling lard. Put the alpisteras carefully into it, a few at a time, and fry them a light brown. Take them up on a perforated skimmer, draining back the lard into the pot. Spread them to cool on a large dish; and when cool, sift powdered sugar over them.
PISTO OMELETTE.—This is a favourite omelette in Spain. Mince together cold turkey or chicken, and an equal quantity of cold ham or tongue; adding a chopped onion or two, and sufficient sweet marjoram and sweet basil to season it well: also a little cayenne. No salt, as the ham will render it quite salt enough. Have ready sufficient well-beaten eggs to make it into a good omelette mixture; and stir the whole very hard at the last. Have ready over the fire, a broad pan of boiling lard. Put in the mixture with a ladle, and fry it in flat cakes. Serve it up hot.
GUISADA OR SPANISH STEW.—Take hare, rabbit, partridges, pheasants, or chickens. Cut them up as in carving; and save the giblets. Do not wash the pieces, but dry them in a cloth. Put them into a pan in which there is a sufficiency of hot sweet oil, (adding a sliced onion,) and fry them brown. Then transfer them (with the gravy) to an earthen stew-pan or pipkin. Add some bits of cold ham cut thin and small, and a bunch of sweet herbs chopped fine; also a little cayenne. Pour in wine and broth in equal portions, sufficient to cover the pieces well; adding the giblets. Let it simmer gently, till thoroughly done, carefully skimming off all the grease, and stirring the meat up from the bottom with a wooden spoon. Serve it hot in a covered dish.
It will be improved by the juice of one or two oranges, squeezed in toward the last.
POLLO VALENCIANO.—This is also a Spanish dish. Cut up a large fine fowl into pieces. Wipe them clean and dry, but do not wash them or lay them in water. Put into a broad sauce-pan, a tea-cup of sweet oil, and a bit of bread. Let it fry, (stirring it about with a wooden spoon,) and when the bread is browned take it out, and throw it away. Then put in a sliced onion, and fry that; but take care not to let it burn or it will become bitter, and spoil the stew. Then put in the pieces of fowl, and let them brown for a quarter of an hour. Then transfer it to a stew-pan, adding a little bit of chili or red pepper minced small, and some chopped sweet herbs. Also half a dozen large tomatas quartered; and two tea-cups of boiled rice. Add a little salt, and stir the whole well together, having poured on sufficient hot broth to cover it. Place it over the fire, and when it has come to a hard boil, put the lid on the pan and set it aside to simmer till the whole is completely cooked, and the gravy very thick. About ten minutes before the stew goes to table, take off the lid of the stew-pan, lest the steam should condense on it and clod the rice, or render it watery. Serve it up uncovered.
GAZPACHO.—In Spanish countries this is a common luncheon or supper for working people. Take onions, cucumbers, and a small chili or red pepper. Peel them, chop them fine, and mix them with plenty of bread crumbs, and a little salt. Mix equal quantities of vinegar and water, and add an ample portion of sweet oil. Put the whole into a pipkin, and stir it well. Set it on hot coals, and simmer it till well cooked. Eat slices of bread with it.
In summer it is usual to serve up this mixture in a large bowl without any cooking.
SPANISH SALAD.—A Spanish proverb says that for compounding a good salad, four persons are required—a spendthrift for oil; a miser for vinegar; a counsellor for salt, (or a man of judgment;) and a madman for stirring up the whole, hard and furiously. Get a very large salad-bowl, that there may be ample room for stirring well. Prepare in separate vessels the lettuce and the seasoning. They should not be put together till a few minutes before the salad is to be eaten; otherwise it will be tough and sodden instead of crisp and fresh. Do not cut it with a knife, but tear or strip off the leaves of the lettuce, and throw all the stalk away. Then wash the leaves through several cold waters, and dry them in a clean napkin. Put them into the large bowl; and in a smaller bowl mix the seasoning, for which you must have equal quantities of mixed vinegar and water; a small tea-spoonful of mixed cayenne and salt; and four times as much sweet oil as the mixed vinegar and water. Mix all the seasoning thoroughly, stirring it very hard. Have ready on a plate some tarragon finely minced or powdered.
Just before the salad is to be eaten, pour the dressing over the lettuce and strew the surface with tarragon. You may decorate the top with nasturtion flowers; they are very nice to eat.
CAROLINA WAY OF BOILING RICE.—Pick the rice carefully, and wash it through two or three cold waters till it is quite clean. Then (having drained off all the water through a cullender) put the rice into a pot of boiling water, with a very little salt; allowing as much as a quart of water to half a pint of rice. Boil it twenty minutes or more. Then pour off the water, draining the rice as dry as possible. Lastly, set it on hot coals with the lid off, that the steam may not condense upon it and render the rice watery. Keep it drying thus for a quarter of an hour. Put it into a deep dish, and loosen and toss it up from the bottom with two forks one in each hand, so that the grains may appear to stand alone.
A NICE WAY OF COOKING ASPARAGUS.—Where asparagus is plenty, there is no better way of cooking it than the following. Take it as nearly of a size as possible, wash it, and cut off the stalks very short; leaving them not more than half an inch in length. Two quarts of water will be sufficient to boil one quart of asparagus tops; allow a tea-spoonful of salt to this quantity of water, and set it over the fire to boil. When the water is boiling hard, put in the asparagus; and boil it fast for at least half an hour. To see if it is done, take up two or three of the largest pieces and taste them. While it is boiling, prepare two slices of bread cut half an inch thick, and (having removed the crust) toast the bread brown on both sides. Have ready a large jill of melted (or drawn) fresh butter. When the asparagus is done, take it up with a perforated skimmer, and lay it on a sieve to drain. Dip the slices of toast (one at a time) first in the hot asparagus liquor, and then in the melted butter. Lay the slices, side by side, in a deep dish and cover it with the asparagus, laid evenly over and round the toast. Then add the remainder of the drawn butter, and send the asparagus to table hot, in a covered dish.
This is a much nicer way than that of boiling and serving it up with the long stalks left on. And where you have asparagus in abundance, (for instance in a country garden,) it may always be cooked in this manner.
This is from the receipt of Mr. N. Darling of New Haven.
FRENCH WAY OF DRESSING ASPARAGUS.—Having boiled the asparagus-tops as above; drain them on a sieve, and put them into a deep dish with a large lump of the best fresh butter. Mix the butter well among the asparagus, till it is melted throughout, and sprinkle in (if you like) a very little pepper. Cover the dish, and keep it hot by the fire till it is time to send it to table. You may lay in the bottom, of the dish two thin slices of toast, spread over with butter, after being first dipped in the asparagus water.
Another way is to substitute salad oil for butter, mixed among the asparagus.
ONION EGGS.—Boil a dozen eggs quite hard. Slice and fry in fresh butter five or six onions. Slice (whites and yolks together) ten of the eggs, reserving two for the seasoning. Drain the sliced onions, and lay them on a dish with the sliced eggs placed upon them. Cover the dish, and keep it hot. Take the two remaining eggs; grate the yolks; and mix them with cream and grated nutmeg, and a very little cayenne. Put this mixture into a very small sauce-pan; give it one boil up; pour it over the eggs and onions; and send it to table hot. For those who have no objection to onions, this is a nice side dish.
EGG BALLS.—Boil eight eggs till quite hard; and when done, throw them directly into cold water. Then put the yolks into a mortar, and pound them to a paste, moistening them as you proceed with the beaten yolks of three raw eggs, seasoned with as much salt as will lie flat upon a shilling, and a little cayenne, and powdered nutmeg and mace. Mix the whole well together, and make it up into small, round balls. Throw them into mock-turtle soup, or into stewed terrapin, about two minutes before you take it up.
CURRY BALLS.—Take a sufficiency of finely-grated bread-crumbs; hard-boiled yolk of egg, grated; fresh butter; and a little curry powder. Pound the whole in a mortar, moistening it with raw yolk of egg (well-beaten) as you proceed. Make it into small balls, and add them to stewed chicken or stewed rabbit, about five minutes before you take it up.
TOMATA PASTE.—Scald and peel as many ripe tomatas as will fill a large, deep, stone jar. Set them into a warm oven for an hour. Then skim off the watery liquid that has risen to the top, and press and squeeze the tomatas in a sieve. Afterwards add salt, cayenne, pounded mace, and powdered cloves to your taste; and to every quart of tomatas allow a half a pint of cider vinegar. Stew the whole slowly in a porcelain kettle for three hours, (stirring it frequently from the bottom,) till it becomes a smooth, thick paste. Then put it into small jars or glasses, and cover it closely; pasting paper over each. It is an excellent sauce, at the season when fresh tomatas are not to be had, and is very good to thicken soup.
DRIED OCHRAS.—Take fine large fresh ochras; cut them into thin, round slices; string them on threads, and hang them up in festoons to dry in the store-room. Before using, they must be soaked in water during twenty-four hours. They will then be good (with the addition of tomata paste) to boil in soup or gumbo.
BEEF GUMBO.—Put into a large stew-pan some pieces of the lean of fresh beef, cut up into small bits, and seasoned with a little pepper and salt. Add sliced ochras and tomatas, (either fresh, or dried ochras and tomata paste.) You may put in some sliced onions. Pour on water enough to cover it well. Let it boil slowly, (skimming it well,) till every thing is reduced to rags. Then strain and press it through a cullender. Have ready a sufficiency of toasted bread, cut into dice. Lay it in the bottom of a tureen, and pour the strained gumbo upon it.
FRIED CAULIFLOWER.—Having boiled the cauliflower in milk till thoroughly done; take it out, drain it, and cut it up into very small pieces, adding a very little salt and cayenne. Have ready in a frying-pan, sufficient fresh butter; and when it comes to a boil and is bubbling all over, put in the cauliflower and fry it, but not till it becomes brown. Make a slice or two of toast, dip it in hot water, butter it; lay it on a dish; and put the fried cauliflower upon it.
FRIED CABBAGE.—Parboil a fine cabbage. Then take it out, drain it, and lay it a while in cold water to remove the cabbage smell. Next put it into a clean pot of fresh water, and boil it again till thoroughly done. Afterwards chop it small, season it with a little pepper and salt, and fry it in fresh butter.
A less delicate way is to fry it in boiling lard.
TO PREPARE LARD.—As soon it is cut off from the newly-killed pork, put the fat into a crock; cover it; and let it stand all night in a cool place. Next day, cut it into small bits, (carefully removing all the fleshy particles of lean,) and put the fat into a pot without either water or salt. The pot should not be more than half-full. Let it boil slowly (stirring it frequently from the bottom lest it burn) till it becomes quite clear, and transparent. Then ladle it out into clean pans. When almost cold, put it into stone jars, which must be closely covered, and kept in a cool place. If to go to a distance, tie it up in bladders.
There are two sorts of pork fat for lard. The leaf fat, which is the best; and the fat that adheres to the entrails. These two fats should be boiled separately.
The entrails, whose skins are to be used for sausage-cases, must be well scraped and cleaned out, and thrown into strong salt and water for two days, and afterwards into strong lye for twenty-four hours. This lye, when strained, will afterwards be good to assist in soap-making.
BRINE FOR HAM OR BACON.—To every four gallons of water, allow four pounds of salt; two ounces of salt-petre; three pounds of sugar, and two quarts of molasses. Boil the whole together; skimming it well. When clear, let it cool. Rub the meat all over with ground red pepper. Then put as much meat into the pickling tub as can be very well covered by the brine, which must be poured on cold. Let it remain six weeks in the pickle, turning each piece every day. Afterwards, smoke it well for a fortnight, hanging the large end downward. The fire in the smoke-house should be well kept up. Hickory or oak is the best wood for this purpose. On no account use pine, spruce, fir, or hemlock. Corncobs are excellent for smoking meat.
Sew up the hams closely in thick cotton cloth—or canvas covers, and then white-wash them.
Tongues may be pickled and smoked as above. Also beef.
HOG’S HEAD CHEESE.—Hog’s head cheese is always made at what is called “killing-time.” To make four cheeses of moderate size, take one large hog’s head, two sets of feet, and the noses of all the pigs that have been killed that day. Clean them well, and then boil them to rags. Having drained off the liquid through a cullender, spread out the things in a large dish, and carefully remove all the bones, even to the smallest pieces. With a chopper, mince the meat as small as possible, and season it to your taste with pepper, salt, powdered cloves, and some chopped sage or sweet marjoram. Having divided the meat into four equal parts, tie up each portion tightly in a clean coarse towel, and press it into a compact cake, by putting on heavy weights. It will be fit for use next day. In a cool dry place it will keep all winter. It requires no farther cooking, and is eaten sliced at breakfast, or luncheon.
FRYING FISH.—Fish should be fried in fresh butter or lard; a large allowance of which must be put by itself into the frying-pan, and held over a clear fire till it becomes so hot as to boil hard in the pan. Till it bubbles, the fish must not be put in. They must first be dried separately, in a clean cloth, and then scored on the back, and slightly dredged with flour. Unless the butter or lard for frying is sufficient in quantity to cover the fish well, and bear them up, they will sink heavily to the bottom of the pan, and perhaps stick there and burn. Also, if there is not fat enough, the fish will absorb all of what there is, and be disagreeably greasy.
AXJAR PICKLES.—Take a variety of young fruits or vegetables, and put them into strong salt and water for three days; stirring them well, night and morning. Then take them out, and spread them on trays, or old servers, or large flat dishes; taking care that they do not touch each other. Set them out in the sun every fine morning, and let them remain till sunset; but not if it becomes damp, or even cloudy. Do this till they are perfectly dry. Then wash them well in cold water, drain them, and wipe them separately with a coarse cloth. Put them into large jars. To a three gallon jar, put in half a pound of horse-radish, sliced, and two cloves of garlic; half a hundred small white onions; two ounces of mace; one ounce of cloves; two nutmegs powdered; two pounds of the best crushed sugar; half a bottle of the best ground mustard; one pound of yellow mustard seed; and half a pound of green ginger, sliced or scraped. Then take half an ounce of turmeric powder; mix it with sufficient vinegar to render it liquid, and pour it over the pickles in the jar, which must not be more than half full of them. Have ready some boiling vinegar of the best cider kind, and pour it scalding hot into the jar, till it is three parts full. The pickles will expand to their natural size. When they are perfectly cold, cork the jar tightly, and seal the cork. These pickles will be fit for use in a month; but they improve by keeping.
For this pickle you may use plums, small peaches; grapes picked from the stems; cherries; barberries; nasturtion seeds; button tomatas; radish-pods; beans, cauliflowers sliced; white cabbages sliced, small cucumbers; and limes or small lemons—mixed together in any proportion you like. The turmeric powder gives the whole a yellow tinge, and is indispensable to this pickle.
Axjar is an East Indian word.
FINE PEACH MANGOES.—Take fine, large, free-stone peaches. They should be ripe, but not the least bruised. The best for this purpose are the large white free-stones. Having rubbed off the down with a clean flannel, cut the peaches in half, and remove the stones. Prepare a mixture, in equal portions, of mace, nutmeg, and root-ginger; all broken up small, but not powdered. Fill with this the cavities of the peaches whence the stones were extracted. Then put together the two halves of each peach, (making them fit exactly,) and tie them round with coarse thread or fine twine. If you choose, you may stick the outside of the peaches all over with cloves. Put them into stone jars, filling each jar rather more than three-quarters full; and laying among them little thin muslin bags of turmeric to colour them yellow. If you prefer to colour them red, tie up some cochineal in thin muslin bags.
Fill up the jars to the top with cold vinegar of the best quality—real white wine vinegar, if you are sure it is real. If the pickles are to be sent to a distant place, or to a warmer climate, boil the vinegar, and pour it on, scalding hot. Close the jars immediately; sealing the corks with red cement, and tie a bladder tightly over the top of each.
These peach mangoes will be fit for use in two months.
TO PICKLE PEPPERS, SMALL CUCUMBERS, AND BEANS.—Put all these vegetables together into a brine strong enough to bear up an egg to the surface; and let them stay in it for three days. Then take them out, and lay them in cold water for an hour. Change that water for fresh, and let them remain another hour. Do this a third or fourth time.
Having washed them well in a fresh water, put them into a preserving-kettle, (one lined with delft-porcelain is best,) and surround and cover them with fresh cabbage leaves, or vine-leaves. Fill up the kettle with cider-vinegar mixed with an equal quantity of water; and during four hours let them simmer without boiling. Then take them off the fire; take them out of the kettle, transfer them to broad pans, and pour the vinegar over them. When they are cold, return the pickles to the kettle, (having first washed it out clean,) and scald them four times with fresh vinegar boiled for the purpose in another vessel. When cold, put them into jars, (three parts full,) and pour on fresh vinegar till it reaches the top. Lay among the pickles, mace; nutmegs broken small; mustard seed; and whole white-pepper-corns, tied up in thin white muslin bags.
PICKLED ONIONS.—Take small button-onions; remove the outer skin, and lay the onions in dry salt for twenty-four hours. Then soak off the salt, in several waters; wash them well; and put them into a porcelain kettle, with equal quantities of vinegar and water. Simmer them till tender. Then take them out; drain them; and, returning them to the kettle, scald them with fresh vinegar boiled in another vessel. When cold, take them out, drain them again; put them into wide-mouthed jars, and fill up with cold vinegar. Place among them thin muslin bags with mace and broken nutmegs. On the top of each jar, put a table-spoonful of sweet oil. Cover them tightly.
PICKLED PLUMS or DAMSONS.—The fruit must be large, fine, fully ripe, and with no blemishes. To every quart of plums allow a quarter of a pound of loaf-sugar powdered, and a pint of the best cider vinegar. Damsons being more acid will require half a pound of sugar. Put the fruit with the sugar and vinegar into a preserving kettle, adding little bags with some broken pieces of cinnamon and some blades of mace, and, if you choose, a few cloves. Give them one boil up, and skim them well. Put them warm into stone jars, and cover them closely at once. By winter they will be fit for use.
Another way.—Is to pack a jar more than three-fourths full with layers of ripe plums or damsons; and thick layers of powdered sugar between. Fill up with cold vinegar, and cover them tightly.
PICKLED CHERRIES.—Take large, fine, red cherries, perfectly ripe, and cut the stems about an inch long. Put the cherries into jars with layers of powdered sugar between each layer of fruit, interspersing them with little, thin muslin bags of broken cinnamon, mace, and nutmeg. The jars should be three-quarters full of cherries and sugar. Fill up with cold vinegar, and cover them closely.
TO KEEP STRING BEANS AND GREEN PEAS.—String the beans, (which should be full grown but not old,) and cut them into three pieces—not more. Pack them in wide-mouthed stone-jars; a layer of beans and a thin layer of fine salt. The day before they are to be cooked, take out a sufficient quantity, and soak them at least twenty-four hours in a pan of cold water, changing the water several times, till it no longer tastes salt. Having drained them well, boil the beans till quite tender. Then take them up, drain off the water thoroughly, so as to have the beans as dry as possible. Next put them into a sauce-pan, with a piece of fresh butter and a little black pepper. Cover the pan, and stew them in the butter till they almost come to a boil.
Green peas may be kept in a similar manner. They should be fresh and young. When you take them out of the salt, soak them, as above, for twenty-four hours or more; changing the water till it tastes quite fresh. Boil them soft; then drain them, and stew them a while with butter and pepper.
You may, while boiling, add a very little soda to the peas or beans. This will green and soften them. Too much soda will give them a disagreeable taste, and render them unfit to eat.
SCOTCH SHORT-CAKE.453-*—Take a pound of Zante currants; and, after they are well picked and washed, dry them on a large dish before the fire, or on the top of a stove. Instead of currants, you may use sultana or seedless raisins cut in half. When well dried, dredge the fruit profusely with flour to prevent its clodding while baking. Have ready a tea-spoonful of mixed spice, powdered mace, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Sift two quarts of flour, and spread it to dry at the fire. Cut up a pound of the best fresh butter; put it into a clean sauce-pan, and melt it over the fire; shaking it round and taking care that it does not burn. Put the flour into a large pan, and mix with it a pound of powdered white sugar. Pour the melted butter warm into the midst of the flour and sugar; and with a large spoon or a broad knife mix the whole thoroughly into a soft dough or paste, without using a drop of water. Next sprinkle in the fruit, a handful at a time, (stirring hard between each handful) and finish with a tea-spoonful of spice, well mixed in. Let all the ingredients be thoroughly incorporated.
Strew some flour on your paste-board; lay the lumps of dough upon it, flour your hands, and knead it a while on all sides. Then cut it in half, and roll out each sheet about an inch thick. With a jagging-iron cut it into large squares, ovals, triangles, or any form you please, and prick the surface handsomely, with a fork. Butter some square pans, put in the cakes, and bake them brown.
For currants and raisins, you may substitute citron cut into slips and floured. This cake will be found very fine if the receipt is exactly followed. In cold weather it keeps well; and packed in a tin or wooden box, may be sent many hundred miles, for Thanksgiving-day, Christmas, or New Year’s.
It is still more Scotch made of fine fresh oatmeal, sifted and dried. When in London, the author has eaten Scotch cake sent from Edinburgh, and made as above, but of oatmeal.
RICE WAFFLES.—Take a tea-cup and a half, or a common sized tumbler-full and a half, of rice that has been well boiled, and warm it in a pint of rich milk, stirring it till smooth and thoroughly mixed. Then remove it from the fire, and stir in a pint of cold milk and a small teaspoonful of salt. Beat four eggs very light, and stir them into the mixture, in turn with sufficient rice flour to make a thick batter. Bake it in a waffle-iron. Send them to table hot; butter them; and eat them with powdered sugar and cinnamon, prepared in a small bowl for the purpose.
Pronounced Feelay.
This receipt, though inserted somewhat out of place, is too good to be omitted.
