COLUMBIAN PUDDING.—Tie up closely in a bit of very thin white muslin, a vanilla bean cut into pieces; and a broken-up stick of cinnamon. Put this bag with its contents into half a pint of rich milk, and boil it a long time till very highly flavoured. Then take out the bag; set the milk near the fire to keep warm in the pan in which it was boiled, covering it closely. Slice thin a pound of almond sponge-cake, and lay it in a deep dish. Pour over it a quart of rich cream, with which you must mix the vanilla-flavoured milk, and leave the cake to dissolve in it. Blanch, in scalding water, two ounces of shelled bitter almonds or peach-kernels; and pound them (one at a time) to a smooth paste in a marble mortar; pouring on each a few drops of rose-water or peach-water to prevent their oiling. When the almonds are done, set them away in a cold place till wanted. Beat eight eggs till very light and thick; and having stirred together, hard, the dissolved cake and the cream, add them, gradually, to the mixture in turn with the almond, and half a pound of powdered loaf sugar, a little at a time of each. Butter a deep dish, and put in the mixture. Set the pudding into a brisk oven and bake it well. Have ready a star nicely cut out of a large piece of candied citron, a number of small stars all of equal size, as many as there are states in the Union: and a sufficiency of rays or long strips also cut out of citron. The rays should be wide at the bottom and run to a point at the top. As soon as the pudding comes out of the oven, while it is smoking, arrange these decorations. Put the large star in the centre, then the rays so that they will diverge from it, widening off towards the edge of the pudding. Near the edge place the small stars in a circle.
Preserved citron-melon will be still better for this purpose than the dry candied citron.
This is a very fine pudding; suitable for a dinner party, or a Fourth of July dinner.
A MARIETTA PUDDING.—Take a teacup-full of loaf-sugar broken up. On some of the largest lumps rub off the yellow rind of a large lemon. Then put all the sugar into a pint of rich cream; when the sugar is melted, set it over the fire, and when it comes to a boil, pour it hot over half a pound of fresh savoy biscuits or lady-fingers, (maccaroons will be still better,) laid in a deep dish. Cover the dish, and when the cakes are quite dissolved, stir the cream well among them. Beat eight eggs very light; and when the mixture is quite cold, stir the beaten eggs gradually into it. Add, by degrees, four peels of candied citron, cut into slips, and dredged with flour to prevent their sinking to the bottom. Put the mixture into a deep dish, and bake it. When done, sift sugar over the top. It may be eaten warm or cold. Send to table with it a sauce, made of fresh butter and white sugar, beaten together till very light, and flavoured with the juice of the lemon, whose rind was rubbed on the lumps of sugar, and also with some grated nutmeg.
Instead of citron you may put into this pudding a pound of Zante currants, (picked, washed, dried, and floured,) stirred gradually in at the last.
AN ORLEANS PUDDING.—Half fill a deep dish with almond sponge-cake sliced thin, or with sliced lady-cake. Grate the yellow rind of a lemon, and mix it among the cake; adding also the juice of the lemon, and sufficient white wine to moisten the cake, so that after standing awhile it can be easily mashed. For wine you may substitute brandy; or wine and brandy mixed. Beat six eggs very light, and stir them gradually into a pint of cream or rich milk; adding four table-spoonfuls of powdered white sugar, and half a nutmeg grated. Mix the eggs, &c., by degrees, with the dissolved cake; stirring it very hard. The dish should be full. Set it into the oven, and bake it brown. When cold, have ready a meringue, made of beaten white of egg thickened with powdered loaf-sugar, and flavoured with lemon-juice or rose-water. Spread this evenly over the top of the pudding, putting one layer of the meringue over another till it is very thick. Then set it for a few minutes into the oven to brown slightly on the top.
Any very nice baked pudding will be improved by covering the surface with a meringue.
HANOVER PUDDING.—Cut up half a pound of fresh butter in half a pint of milk. Set them over the fire till the butter is soft enough to mix thoroughly with the milk. Then take it off, and let it stand till lukewarm. Have ready four well-beaten eggs. Stir them hard into the butter and milk. Then add very gradually a pound of sifted flour. Last stir in two large table-spoonfuls of strong fresh yeast. Beat the whole very hard. Cover the pan, and let it stand near the fire for three hours or till the mixture is quite light. Have ready half a pound of Zante currants, picked, washed, and dried; or half a pound of fine raisins, seeded and cut in half. Dredge the fruit thickly with flour to prevent its sinking. Then mix it, gradually, into the pudding with two large table-spoonfuls of sugar, and a tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon; and a salt-spoon of sal-eratus, or small tea-spoonful of bi-carbonate of soda, dissolved in a very little lukewarm water. Stir the whole very hard. Transfer it to a deep tin pan, well-buttered, and bake it thoroughly. Before it goes to table, turn it out on a dish, and serve it up warm with any sort of nice sweet sauce.
TURKISH RICE PUDDING.—Pick and wash half a pound of rice. Prepare also half a pound of Zante currants, which must be carefully picked clean, washed through two waters, drained well, and then spread out to dry on a flat dish before the fire. Put the rice into a sauce-pan, with a quart of rich milk. Having dredged the currants with flour, stir them a few at a time into the rice and milk. Then add four ounces of broken up loaf-sugar, on which you have rubbed off the yellow rind of a large ripe lemon or orange, and squeezed the juice. Stir in two ounces of fresh butter divided into bits. When the rice is well swollen and quite soft, take it from the fire, and mix with it gradually eight well-beaten yolks of eggs. Transfer it to a deep china dish, and put it into an oven for half an hour. Then sift powdered sugar thickly over the top, and brown it by holding above it a red-hot shovel or salamander. Serve it up warm.
This pudding may be made with ground rice, or rice flour.
CREAM COCOA-NUT PUDDING.—Take two cocoa-nuts of large size. Break them up, and pare off the brown skin from the pieces. Then grate them very fine. Stir together a quarter of a pound of the best fresh butter, and a quarter of a pound of finely-powdered loaf-sugar, till perfectly light. Beat six eggs till very thick and smooth: afterwards mix them, gradually, with a pint of rich cream. Add this mixture, by degrees, to the beaten butter and sugar, in turn with the grated cocoa-nut; a little at a time of each, stirring very well as you proceed. Then give the whole a hard stirring. Put the mixture into a deep white dish and bake it well. Send it to table cold, with loaf-sugar sifted over the top.
You may season the mixture by stirring in, at the last, a tea-spoonful of mixed nutmeg and cinnamon finely powdered. And you may add a table-spoonful of rose-brandy.
This pudding may be baked in puff-paste in two deep plates, with a broad border of paste round the edge, handsomely notched. Or it may be done without any paste beneath the mixture; but merely a paste border round the edge of the dish, which last is the better way. Paste at the bottom of these soft pudding-mixtures is usually tough and clammy, from the almost impossibility of getting it thoroughly done; and therefore it is best omitted, as is now generally the case. If there is no paste under it, the pudding should be baked in the dish in which it is to go to table. Unless the oven is so hot as to burn the pudding, no dish will be injured by baking. No pie or pudding should be sent to table in any thing inferior to white-ware.
PINE-APPLE PUDDING.—Take half a pound of grated pine-apple; half a pound of powdered white sugar, and a quarter of a pound of fresh butter. Put the sugar into a deep pan, cut up the butter among it, and stir them together till very light. Then add, by degrees, the grated pine-apple. Grate a small two-penny sponge-cake, and mix it with a large tea-cup of rich cream, and grate into it a small nutmeg, or half a large one. Add this to the pine-apple mixture in the pan. Beat six eggs very light, and stir them in gradually a little at a time. Stir the whole very hard, after all the ingredients are put together. Butter a deep dish, put in the mixture, and bake it well.
If your dish has a broad rim, lay round the edge a border of puff-paste, cut into leaves resembling a wreath.
AN ALMOND RICE PUDDING.—Blanch, in boiling water, three ounces of shelled bitter almonds, afterwards throwing them into cold water. Pound them, one at a time, in a mortar, till they become a smooth paste; adding frequently, as you pound them, a few drops of rose-water, to make them white and light, and to prevent their oiling. Take a quart of rich, unskimmed milk, and stir into it, gradually, three large, heaping table-spoonfuls of ground rice flour, alternately with the pounded almonds, and four heaping table-spoonfuls of powdered loaf-sugar. Set the mixture over the fire, and boil and stir it till very thick. Then put it into a deep dish, and set it away to cool. When cold, have ready the whites of two eggs beaten to a stiff froth, and thickened with powdered sugar, that has been melted in rose-water. Cover with this the surface of the pudding. Set it in an oven just long enough to be slightly coloured of a light brown. Send it to table cold.
BOILED ALMOND PUDDING.—Blanch, in boiling water, a quarter of a pound of shelled sweet almonds, and two ounces of shelled bitter almonds. Throw them into a pan of cold water, as you blanch them. Afterwards pound them, one at a time, in a mortar; adding to them, as you proceed, the beaten whites of two or three eggs, a little at a time. They must be pounded till they become a smooth paste; mixing together the sweet and the bitter almonds, and removing them, as you go on, from the mortar to a plate. Then set them in a cool place. Boil slowly a quart of cream, or rich, unskimmed milk, with half a dozen blades of mace, whole; and half a nutmeg, powdered. It may simmer half an hour, and when it comes to a boil, take it off, remove the mace, and set the milk to cool. Beat eight eggs very light, (omitting the whites of three,) and then add to them a heaped table-spoonful of flour. Stir the beaten eggs and the pounded almonds, alternately, into the pan of milk, (after it has become quite cold,) add a table-spoonful of orange-flower or rose-water, and stir the whole very hard. Have ready, over the fire, a pot of boiling water. Dip into it a thick pudding-cloth, shake it out, spread it open in a large empty pan, dredge it well with flour, and pour the pudding-mixture into it. Tie it very closely, leaving sufficient space for the pudding to swell, and plug the tying-place with a small lump of flour-and-water dough. Lay an old plate in the bottom of the pot of boiling water. Put in the pudding, and turn it over in a quarter of an hour. Boil it very fast for an hour, or more, after it has commenced boiling; replenishing the pot from a kettle of boiling water. When the pudding is done, dip it a moment into cold water; then turn it out on a dish. Send it to table immediately, with a sauce of sweetened cream, flavoured with rose or orange-flower water.
BISCUIT PUDDINGS.—Grate some stale milk-biscuits, till you have six heaping table-spoonfuls of fine crumbs. Then sift them through a coarse sieve. Beat six eggs very light, and stir them into a pint of cream, or rich, unskimmed milk, alternately with the biscuit crumbs, a little of each at a time. Beat the mixture very hard, and then butter some large breakfast-cups, such as hold near half a pint. Nearly fill them with the batter. Set them immediately into a brisk oven, and bake them half an hour, or more. This quantity will make five puddings. Serve them up hot in the cups, and eat them with wine-sauce, or with sauce of butter and sugar, stirred to a cream, and flavoured with nutmeg and lemon.
MARMALADE PUDDINGS.—Make the above mixture, and, when they are baked, turn the puddings out of the cups, make a slit or opening in the side of each, and fill up the inside or cavity of each pudding with any sort of nice marmalade or jam; taking care to fill them well. Then close the slit with your fingers. They may be eaten warm or cold, and require no other sauce than sweetened cream.
AN EXCELLENT CORN-MEAL PUDDING.—Boil a quart of rich milk, and pour it scalding hot into a large pan. Stir in, gradually, a quart of sifted Indian meal, and a quarter of a pound of fresh butter; adding the grated yellow rind of a lemon or orange. Squeeze the juice upon a quarter of a pound of brown sugar, and stir that in also. Add a large tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon. Have ready a pound of raisins, seeded, and cut in half, and dredged thickly with wheat flour, to prevent their sinking. Beat six eggs very light, and stir them gradually into the mixture. Lastly, stir in the raisins, a few at a time, and stir the whole very hard. Have ready a large pot of boiling water; dip into it a square pudding-cloth, shake it out, and dredge it with flour. Spread out the cloth in a deep, empty pan, and pour into it the pudding-mixture. Tie it firmly, leaving room for the pudding to swell. Put it into the pot of hot water, and boil it four hours, or five; turning it several times, while boiling; and replenishing the water, as it boils away, with water kept hot, for the purpose, in a kettle. When done, take out the pudding from the pot; dip it, for a minute into cold water, before you untie the cloth; then turn it out into a dish, and send it to table. It should not be taken out of the pot till a minute or two before it is wanted.
Eat it with wine-sauce; or with butter, white sugar nutmeg, and lemon or orange-juice, beaten together to a light cream.
What is left, may be tied again in a cloth, and boiled for an hour, next day.
Instead of butter, you may use a quarter of a pound of beef-suet, minced as fine as possible.
PEACH INDIAN PUDDING.—Wash a pint, or more, of dried peaches; then drain them well; spread them on a large dish, and set them in the sun, or near the fire, till all the water that remains about them is entirely exhaled. Boil a quart of rich milk; mix it, while hot, with a pint of West India molasses, and then set it away to cool. Chop, very fine, a quarter of a pound of beef-suet, (veal-suet will do,) and stir it gradually into the milk, a little at a time. Beat six eggs very light, and stir them, by degrees, into the mixture, in turn with as much yellow Indian meal (sifted) as will make a moderately thick batter. Having dredged the peaches thickly with wheat flour, to prevent their sinking, add them, one at a time, to the mixture, stirring it well; and, lastly, stir in a table-spoonful of ground ginger, or a tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon. Dip a thick, square pudding-cloth into boiling water, then shake it out, spread it open in a large pan, dredge it with flour, and pour in the pudding-mixture. Tie it fast; leaving room for it to swell; and plaster the tying-place with a bit of dough, made of flour and water. Put the pudding into a large pot of boiling water, with an old plate laid at the bottom, and boil it from four to five or six hours, filling up the pot, as it boils away, with hot water from a tea-kettle, and turning the pudding frequently. When done, dip it in cold water, lay it in a pan, and turn it out of the cloth. Eat it with butter and sugar, beaten to a cream, and seasoned with powdered nutmeg.
If there is not time to boil the pudding several hours, on the day you want it for dinner, prepare it the day before; boil it then all the afternoon, and boil it again the following day. Indian puddings can scarcely be boiled too long. They will be the better, indeed, for eight hours’ boiling.
A FINE INDIAN PUDDING.—Take a pound of raisins, and cut them in half, having first removed the seeds. Then spread them on a large dish, and dredge them thickly with fine wheat flour, turning them about, that both sides may be well floured. Boil a quart of rich milk, and when it has come to a boil, take it off the fire, and set it to cool. Transfer the half of this milk (one pint) to another pan, and, while it is still warm, stir into it a quarter of a pound of butter, cut into bits; a quarter of a pound of brown sugar, (or else a half pint of West India molasses,) mixed with the grated yellow rind of a large lemon or orange, and also the juice. Add a large tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon and nutmeg, mixed, and a glass of brandy. Beat eight eggs very light; and, when it is quite cold, stir the eggs, gradually, into the other pint of milk. Then mix the ingredients of both pans together; adding eight large table-spoonfuls of Indian meal, or enough to make a thick batter. Lastly, mix in the floured raisins, a few at a time, stirring the whole very hard. Have ready, over the fire, a large pot of boiling water. Dip a square pudding-cloth into it; shake it out; spread it open over the inside of an empty pan, and dredge it with flour; pour the batter into it, and tie it firmly; leaving room for the pudding to swell. Plaster a small lump of flour-and-water dough upon the crevice of the tying-place, to assist in keeping out the water, which, if it gets in, will render the pudding heavy. Put it into the pot of hot water, and boil it steadily for four, five, or six hours, turning it frequently in the water. It can scarcely be boiled too long. Keep at the fire a kettle of hot water, to replenish the pudding-pot, as it boils away. Do not take up the pudding, till immediately before it is to go to table. Dip it into cold water, and then turn it out of the cloth upon a dish. Eat it with wine-sauce, or with butter, sugar, and nutmeg. If enough of the pudding is left, it may, next day, be tied in a cloth, and re-boiled for an hour.
RASPBERRY PUDDING.—Fill a deep dish with a quart of ripe raspberries, well mixed with four or five large table-spoonfuls of powdered sugar. As you put in the raspberries mash them slightly with the back of a spoon. Beat six eggs as light as possible, and mix them with a pint of cream or rich unskimmed milk, and four more spoonfuls of sugar, adding some grated nutmeg. Pour this over the raspberries. Set the dish immediately into a moderate oven, and bake the pudding about half an hour. When done, set the dish on ice, or where it will become quite cold before it goes to table.
A similar pudding may be made with ripe currants, picked from the stalks; or with ripe cherries stoned.
A pine-apple pudding made in this way is excellent. There must be as much pine-apple as will measure a quart, after it is pared, sliced, and grated fine. Sweeten it well with loaf-sugar.
A COTTAGE PUDDING.—Take ripe currants, and having stripped them from the stalks, measure as many as will make a heaping quart. Cover the bottom of a deep dish with slices of bread, slightly buttered, and with the crust cut off. Put a thick layer of currants on the bread; and then a layer of sugar. Then other layers of bread, currants, and sugar, till the dish is full; finishing at the top with very thin slices of bread. Set it into the oven, and bake it half an hour. Serve it either warm or cold; and eat it with sweetened cream.
Instead of currants you may take cherries, (first stoning them all,) raspberries, ripe blackberries, or barberries, plums, (first extracting the stones,) stewed cranberries, or stewed gooseberries. If the fruit is previously stewed, the pudding will require but ten minutes’ baking. When it is sent to table have sugar at hand in case it should not be sweet enough.
RIPE CURRANT PUDDING.—Take two quarts of fine ripe currants, strip them from the stalks, and mix with them a quarter of a pound of sugar. Make a paste of a pound and a half of sifted flour, and three-quarters of a pound of the best fresh butter. Cut up half a pound of the butter into the pan of flour, and rub the butter into the flour with your hands till it is thoroughly mixed all through. Mix with it barely as much cold water as will make it into a stiff dough. If you use too much water the paste will be tough. Beat the lumps of dough on both sides with the rolling-pin. Then transfer it to your paste-board; roll it out into a thin sheet, and spread over it with a knife another quarter of a pound of butter. Then flour it, fold it up, and beat it again with the rolling-pin. Afterwards roll it out thicker. Put the currants into it, and close the paste over the top in the manner of a large dumpling. Boil it in a cloth in the usual manner. It will require two hours or more. Eat it with sugar.
You may make the paste of minced suet instead of butter.
CHERRY PUDDING may be made as above, first stoning the cherries, which should be ripe and red, and made very sweet with sugar.
GOOSEBERRY PUDDING.—Take a quart or more of full-grown green gooseberries. Pick off the tops and tails, and as you do so, lay the gooseberries in a pan. Then pour on sufficient boiling water to scald them thoroughly, cover the pan, and let the gooseberries stand till they grow cold. Next put them into a sieve and drain off the water. While the gooseberries are cooling, prepare a paste for them. Take six ounces of fresh beef-suet; weighed after you have trimmed it, and removed the strings. Mince it as finely as possible. Sift a pound of flour into a pan, and rub the minced suet into it; adding half a pint of cold water, or barely enough to make it into a dough, and a small salt-spoon of salt. Beat the lump of dough on all sides with the rolling-pin; this will add to its lightness. Then transfer it to your paste-board, and roll it out very evenly into a circular sheet. When the gooseberries are cold, mix with them half a pound of the best brown sugar, and lay them in a heap in the middle of the sheet of paste. Close the paste over them in the manner of a large dumpling. Have ready a pot of boiling water. Dip your pudding cloth into it; shake it out; spread it open in a broad pan; and dredge it with flour. Then lay the pudding in it, and tie the cloth very firmly, but leaving room for the pudding to swell. Stop up the crevice at the tying-place with a small lump of stiff dough made of flour and water. Put the pudding into the pot, (which should be boiling hard at the time,) having placed an old plate at the bottom as a preventive to the pudding sticking there, and scorching. After it has been in fifteen minutes, turn it with a fork. If the water boils away replenish it with more hot water from a kettle. Boil the pudding three hours or more. Then take it up, dip it into cold water and turn it out into a dish. Send it to table hot, and eat it with additional sugar. If too much sugar is put in with the gooseberries at first, and boiled with them, it will render them tough. It is best to depend chiefly on sweetening them at table.
A similar pudding may be made of currants either green or ripe. They will not require scalding. The paste may be of fresh butter instead of suet.
A RAISIN PUDDING.—Stone a pound of large fine fresh raisins, and cut them in half. If using the sultana, or seedless raisins, you may leave them whole. Spread the raisins on a large flat dish; and mix with them the yellow rind of a large fresh lemon, or orange. This rind must be pared off as thin as possible, and cut into very small slips. Dredge the raisins and peel thickly with flour to prevent their sinking or clodding, tumbling them about with your hands that they may be well floured all over. Mix the juice of the lemon or orange with five or six large table-spoonfuls of sugar heaped up. Mince, as finely as possible, half a pound of beef-suet. Beat six eggs very light, and then stir into them, gradually, the suet and the sugar, in turn with six heaped table-spoonfuls of sifted flour. Then add by degrees the fruit and a powdered nutmeg. Lastly, stir in gradually a pint of rich milk. Stir the whole very hard. Scald a large square pudding-cloth; shake it out; spread it open in a deep pan; dredge it with flour; put in the pudding-mixture, and tie the cloth firmly. It should be little more than three-quarters full, that the pudding may have room to swell. Mix with flour and water a small lump of stiff dough, and plaster it on the tying-place to prevent the water getting inside. Have ready a pot full of boiling water; and put in the pudding, having laid an old plate at the bottom of the pot, to keep it from burning if it should sink. Turn the pudding several times while boiling. It should boil hard at least four hours, (five will not be too long,) and if the water boils away so as not entirely to cover the whole of the bag it must be replenished from a boiling kettle. Take up the pudding immediately before it is to go to table. Dip it in cold water for an instant, then turn it out of the cloth into a dish, and serve it up hot. Eat it with wine-sauce; or with butter and sugar beaten to a cream.
MINCE PUDDING.—Take a pound and a half of mince-meat, and sift three-quarters of a pound of flour. Beat six eggs very light, and stir into them, alternately, the mince-meat and the flour, a little at a time of each. Stir the whole very hard. Have ready a pudding-cloth dipped into a pot of boiling water, then shook out, and dredged with flour. Spread out the cloth in a large pan, and pour into it the pudding. Tie it tightly, leaving room for the pudding to swell; and stop up the tying-place with a small bit of dough made of flour and water. Put it immediately into a large pot of boiling water, having an old plate at the bottom to keep the pudding from scorching. Boil it steadily five or six hours, turning it in the pot every hour. As the water boils away, replenish it from a kettle of water that is kept boiling hard. Do not turn out the pudding till immediately before it is sent to table. Eat it with wine-sauce.
This pudding is excellent. The mince-meat is the same that is prepared for mince-pies.
A TEMPERANCE PLUM PUDDING.—Take a pound of the best raisins, and cut them in half, after removing the seeds. Or use sultana raisins that have no seeds. Pick, and wash clean, a pound of currants, and dry them before the fire, spread out on a large flat dish. Cut into slips half a pound of citron. Then mix together, on the same dish, the currants, the raisins, and the citron, and dredge them thickly with flour to prevent their sinking or clodding in the pudding; tumbling them about with your hands till they are all over well-covered with the flour. Mince very fine a pound of beef-suet. Mix a pint of West India molasses with a pint of rich milk. Sift into a pan a pound of flour. In another pan beat eight eggs very light. Stir the beaten eggs, gradually, into the mixed molasses and milk; alternately with the flour, and half a pound of sugar, (which should previously be crushed smooth by roiling it with a rolling-pin,) a little at a time of each. Then add, by degrees, the fruit and the suet, a little of each alternately. Beat and stir the whole very hard, till all the ingredients are thoroughly mixed. Take a large clean square cloth of coarse strong linen, dip it in boiling water, shake it, spread it out in a large pan, and dredge it with flour to prevent the pudding from sticking to it when boiled. Then pour the pudding-mixture into the cloth; leave room for it to swell, and tie it firmly, plastering up the tying-place with a bit of coarse dough made of flour and water. Have ready a large pot full of water, and boiling hard. Put in the pudding, and boil it well from six to eight hours. Less than six will not be sufficient, and eight hours will not be too long. Turn it several times while boiling, and keep at hand a kettle of hot water to replenish the pot as it boils away. Do not take it up till immediately before it is wanted on the table. Then dip it for a moment into cold water, untie the cloth, and turn out the pudding. Serve it up with a sauce-boat of sweetened cream, seasoned with nutmeg; or with butter and sugar beaten together till light and white, and flavoured with lemon. What is left of the pudding may be tied up in a cloth and boiled again next day for an hour or more. It will be equally as nice as on the first day. This is a much better way of re-cooking than to slice and fry it.
This pudding may be made with sifted yellow Indian meal, instead of wheat flour.
MARROW PUDDING.—Grate a quarter of a pound of sponge-cake, and mix with it a quarter of a pound of beef-marrow, finely minced. Add the grated peel and the juice of a large lemon or orange; half a grated nutmeg; and four table-spoonfuls of sugar. Stone half a pound of very good fresh raisins, cut them in half, and dredge them well with flour. Beat four eggs very light, and stir them gradually into half a pint of cream or rich milk. Mix it, by degrees, with the other ingredients. Lastly add the raisins, a few at a time; and stir the whole very hard. Butter a deep dish; put in the mixture; bake it an hour or more, and send it to table warm, with slips of candied citron stuck all over the top, so as to stand upright. For sauce have white wine, mixed with sugar and lemon juice.
This pudding may be boiled in a cloth. It will require three hours’ boiling.
TRANSPARENT PUDDING.—Warm half a pound of fresh butter, but do not allow it to melt. Mix with it half a pound of powdered loaf-sugar, and stir them together till they are perfectly light. Add a small nutmeg grated, or half a large one. Beat eight eggs as light as possible; and stir them gradually into the butter and sugar. Finish with sufficient extract of roses to give it a fine flavour. Stir the whole very hard; butter a deep dish, put in the mixture, and bake it half an hour. Serve it up cold.
You may bake this pudding in puff-paste.
TAPIOCA PUDDING.—Put four large table-spoonfuls of tapioca into a quart of milk, and let it stand all night. In the morning put half a pint of milk into a small sauce-pan, and boil in it a large stick of cinnamon broken up, and a handful of bitter almonds or peach-kernels broken small. Keep it covered and boil it slowly, till highly flavoured with the cinnamon and almond, which must then be strained out, and the milk mixed with that which has the tapioca in it. Put it into a tin vessel or one lined with porcelain, and boil it till it becomes very thick with the dissolved tapioca; stirring it frequently down to the bottom. Add a piece of fresh butter as large as an egg; a quarter of a pound of sugar, and four well-beaten eggs stirred in gradually; a table-spoonful of brandy; and a grated nutmeg. Stir the whole well together, put it into a deep dish, and bake it an hour.
Instead of boiling bitter almonds with the cinnamon in the extra half pint of milk, you may boil the cinnamon only. And when you are afterwards finishing the whole mixture, stir in a table-spoonful of peach-water at the last.
Tapioca is to be bought at the grocer’s, and also at the druggist’s.
EXCELLENT GROUND RICE PUDDING.—Take half a pint from a quart of rich milk, and boil in it a large handful of bitter almonds or peach kernels, blanched and broken up; also half a dozen blades of mace, keeping the sauce-pan closely covered. When the milk is highly flavoured and reduced to one half the quantity, take it off and strain it. Stir, gradually, into the remaining pint and a half of milk, five heaping table-spoonfuls of ground rice; set it over the fire in a sauce-pan, and let it come to a boil. Then take it off, and while it is warm, mix in gradually a quarter of a pound of fresh butter and a quarter of a pound of white sugar. Afterwards, beat eight eggs as light as possible, and stir them, gradually, into the mixture. Add some grated nutmeg. Stir the whole very hard; put it into a deep dish; and set it immediately into the oven. Keep it baking steadily for an hour. It should then be done. It may be eaten either warm or cold.
To ornament it, have ready some sweet almonds blanched whole, and then split in half. Place six of them on the centre of the pudding, so as to form a star. Lay others in lines like rays diverging from the star, and place the remainder in a circle near the edge of the pudding.
Any pudding may be ornamented as above.
A SOUFFLÉ PUDDING.—Take eight rusks, or soft sugar-biscuits, or plain buns. Lay them in a large deep dish, and pour on a pint of milk, sufficient to soak them thoroughly. Cover the dish, and let them stand, undisturbed, for about an hour and a half before dinner. In the mean time, boil half a pint of milk in a small sauce-pan with a handful of bitter-almonds or peach-kernels, broken small; or a small bunch of fresh peach-leaves, with two large sticks of cinnamon broken up. Boil this milk slowly, (keeping it covered,) and when it tastes strongly of the flavouring articles, strain it, and set it away to cool. When cold, mix it into another pint of milk, and stir in a quarter of a pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Beat eight eggs very light, and add them gradually to the milk, so as to make a rich custard. After dinner has commenced, beat and stir the soaked rusk very hard till it becomes a smooth mass, and then, by degrees, add to it the custard. Stir the whole till thoroughly amalgamated. Set the dish into a brisk oven, and bake the pudding rather more than ten minutes. The yeast, &c., in the rusk will cause it to puff up very light. When done, send it to table warm, with white sugar sifted over it. You may serve up with it as sauce, sweetened thick cream flavoured with rose-water, and grated nutmeg. Or powdered loaf-sugar and fresh butter stirred together in equal portions, and seasoned with lemon and nutmeg.
Another way in making a soufflÉ pudding, instead of boiling the flavouring in a separate half pint of milk, is, after making the custard of cold milk, sugar, and eggs, to stir into it a wine-glass of peach-water, rose-water, or orange-flower water; or else two table-spoonfuls of Oliver’s extract of vanilla. Or you may flavour it with the yellow rind of a large lemon rubbed off upon some lumps of the sugar before it is powdered.
A CHARLOTTE PUDDING.—Have ready a sufficiency of dried peaches that have been stewed very soft, and flavoured, while stewing, with the yellow rind of one or two oranges, pared very thin and cut into small slips. The stewed peaches must be mashed very smooth. Take a deep dish, and cover the inside with a layer of brown sugar mixed with powdered cinnamon or nutmeg. Upon this put a layer of thin slices of bread and butter with all the crust pared off; turning the buttered side downward. Next put on a thick layer of the stewed peaches. Then more sugar and spice; then more bread and butter, and then another layer of peach. Proceed thus till the dish is full; and cover the top slightly with grated bread-crumbs. Put it into a moderate oven; and bake it brown.
It may be eaten either warm or cold.
Instead of peaches, you may make this pudding of stewed apple flavoured with lemon; or with stewed goose-berries made very sweet with brown sugar. If you use goose-berries, the spice should be nutmeg, not cinnamon.
A NOVICE’S PUDDING.—Beat to a stiff froth the whites only of eight eggs. Then beat into them half a pound of powdered white sugar—a tea-spoonful at a time. Stir into a pint of rich cream or unskimmed milk a wine-glass of rose-water, or a table-spoonful of extract of roses. You may substitute two table-spoonfuls of extract of vanilla; or two of peach water. Stir the beaten egg and sugar into the milk, alternately with four ounces of sifted flour, a spoonful at a time. Beat the whole very hard; put it into a deep dish, well-buttered, and set it immediately into a rather quick oven, and bake it well. Serve it up warm; and eat it with butter and white sugar beaten to a cream, and flavoured in the same manner as the pudding.
This pudding will be found very white and delicate. It is peculiarly excellent made with melted ice-cream that has been left.
CHOCOLATE PUDDING.—Have the best and strongest American chocolate or cocoa. Baker’s prepared cocoa will be found excellent for all chocolate purposes; better indeed than any thing else, as it is pure, and without any adulteration of animal fat, being also very strong, and communicating a high flavour. Of this, scrape down, very fine, two ounces or more. Add to it a tea-spoonful of mixed spice, namely, powdered nutmeg and cinnamon. Put it into a very clean sauce-pan, and pour on a quart of rich milk, stirring it well. Set it over the fire, or on hot coals; cover it; and let it come to a boil. Then remove the lid; stir up the chocolate from the bottom, and press out all lumps. Then return it to the fire, and when thoroughly dissolved and very smooth, it is done. Next stir in, gradually, while the chocolate is still boiling-hot, a quarter of a pound or more of powdered loaf-sugar. If you use such white sugar as is bought ready powdered, you must have near half a pound, as that sugar has very little strength, being now adulterated with ground starch. When the chocolate is well sweetened, set it away to cool. Beat eight eggs very light, and pour them through a strainer into the pan of chocolate, when it is quite cold. Stir the whole very hard. Then put it into the oven, and bake it well. Try it when you think it done, with the twig from a broom. If on putting the twig into the middle of the pudding, and sticking it quite down to the bottom, the twig comes out clean, and with nothing clammy adhering to it, the pudding is then sufficiently baked. It should be eaten cold. Sift white sugar thickly over it before it goes to table. It will be found very nice.
This pudding will bake best by sitting the pan in a dutch oven half-filled with boiling water.
MACCARONI PUDDING.—Boil a quarter of a pound of maccaroni in a pint of rich unskimmed milk, with a handful of blanched bitter almonds or peach-kernels, and two sticks of cinnamon broken into pieces. It must boil till the maccaroni is soft, and dissolving. Then remove the bitter almonds and the cinnamon; stir in, while it is hot, a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, a quarter of a pound of powdered sugar, and half a pint of rich cream. Mix all well, and beat it hard. Then beat four eggs till very thick and light, and stir them gradually into the mixture after it has cooled. Add a grated nutmeg, and a table-spoonful of brandy. Butter a deep dish; put in the mixture; set it directly into the oven, and bake it.
Vermicelli pudding may be made as above. Also a ground rice pudding.
A LADY’S PUDDING.—Rub off on lumps of loaf sugar the yellow rind of one large lemon, or two small ones. Then crush that sugar, and add more to it till you have four heaped table-spoonfuls. Beat to a stiff froth the whites only of four eggs. Then gradually add the sugar (a little at a time) to the beaten white of egg. Have ready in a pan, a pint of cream or rich unskimmed milk. Stir into it by degrees the mixture of white of egg and sugar, alternately with four heaped table-spoonfuls or four ounces of sifted flour. When the whole is mixed, stir it long and hard; and then transfer it to a deep dish, the inside of which must be slightly buttered. Bake it from half an hour to three quarters; and when done sift powdered sugar over the top. Send it to table warm, with a sauce of equal quantities of fresh butter and powdered white sugar stirred together to a light cream, and flavoured with lemon-juice and grated nutmeg.
This pudding will be found very delicate. For a large one, take the whites of eight eggs, the rind of two large lemons, half a pound of sugar, a quart of cream or rich milk, and eight heaped table-spoonfuls of flour.
BOILED LEMON PUDDING.—Grate very fine as many bread-crumbs as will weigh half a pound. Take half a pound of broken up loaf-sugar, and on some of the lumps rub off the yellow rind of two large lemons, or three small ones, having first rolled the lemons under your hand upon a table to increase the juice. Then powder finely all the sugar, including the lumps on which the lemon-rind has been rubbed. Cut up in a deep pan a quarter of a pound of fresh butter. Add to it half the powdered sugar, and stir them hard together till very light and thick. Beat six eggs till as light as possible; and then (having stirred in two table-spoonfuls of sifted flour) add them gradually to the beaten butter and sugar, in turn with the bread crumbs, a little at a time of each. Squeeze the juice of the lemons through a strainer, and mix it with the remaining sugar. Then add that sugar, gradually, to the other ingredients, and stir the whole very hard. Have ready a pudding-cloth dipped in boiling water, shaken out, spread open over a pan, and then dredged with flour. Put in the pudding-mixture, and tie it firmly, leaving room for it to swell, and not forgetting to stop up the little aperture at the tying-place with a bit of flour-and-water dough. Put the pudding into a large pot of boiling water, and keep it boiling steadily for two hours or more, turning it several times in the pot. Serve it up hot, accompanied by a cold sauce of equal portions of powdered white sugar and fresh butter, beaten together to a cream, and flavoured with lemon-juice and nutmeg.
You may boil it in a pudding-mould, with a hole or cavity in the centre. After turning it out on the dish, fill up the hole with the above-mentioned sauce, heaping high in the middle. For this purpose the sauce should be made rather stiff, allowing more sugar and less butter.
A boiled orange pudding may be made in the same manner.
POTATOE-FLOUR PUDDING.—Boil a quart of rich milk; and while boiling, stir in gradually a quarter of a pound of potatoe-flour well pulverized; add a quarter of a pound of sugar, three ounces of butter, and a tea-spoonful of powdered nutmeg and cinnamon. When it has thoroughly boiled, set it to cool. When cold, stir in, by degrees, four eggs well beaten. Put it into a deep dish, and bake it half an hour. Send it to table cold with white sugar sifted over the top.
GREEN CUSTARD.—Pound in a marble or white-ware mortar a sufficient quantity of fresh spinach, till you have extracted as much green juice as will half fill a half-pint tumbler, or two common-sized wine-glasses. Mix this quantity of spinach juice with a quart of rich unskimmed milk, and a quarter of a pound of loaf-sugar, broken very small. Flavour it with a wine-glass of peach water, or with the yellow rind of two large lemons grated off on some of the largest lumps of the sugar. Or, for the flavouring, you may use a vanilla bean, or a handful of bitter almonds or peach-kernels, boiled a long time in half a pint of milk, which must then be strained, and mixed with the other milk. Beat very light eight eggs, or the yolks only of sixteen; mix them with the milk, &c., (having first strained the beaten eggs,) and having stirred the whole very hard, pour it into a white-ware pitcher, and set it into a pot rather more than half-full of boiling water. Place it on a stove or a bed of hot coals on the hearth, and stir it to the bottom, and watch it continually till it has almost come to a boil. When very near boiling, take it off the fire immediately; for if it quite boils, it will curdle. Set it away to get cold. When lukewarm it will be an improvement to stir into it two table-spoonfuls or more of rose-water. Cover the bottom of a large glass-bowl or a deep dish, with slices of sponge-cake or Naples biscuit. Then put on green sweetmeats, such as preserved goose-berries, green gages, green grapes, or green citron melon. When the custard is quite cold pour it on, and fill up the bowl with it. If made as above, this will be found both delicious and ornamental for a dessert, or supper table.
It may be served up in glass cups; putting into the bottom of each cup a portion of sponge-cake, then a portion of green sweetmeats, and then filling up with the green custard after it has become cold.
Pistachio-nuts pounded in a mortar will give a fine green colour.
RED CUSTARD—May be made according to the foregoing receipt, only colouring it red by adding a teacup-full of milk, in which has been steeped a small thin muslin bag filled with alkanet. Instead of green sweet-meats, use preserved cherries, strawberries, or raspberries.
Alkanet is to be bought at the druggists, is very cheap, perfectly innoxious, and is now much used for colouring confectionary. The colour it imparts is more beautiful than any other red.
You may obtain a good red colouring by pounding boiled beets in a mortar. Pounded beet-leaves will also furnish a juice for colouring red.
GELATINE CUSTARD.—Soak half an ounce of gelatine for three or four hours in a pan of cold water. Have ready a quart of milk. Boil in half a pint of it a bunch of peach-leaves, or a handful of bitter almonds broken up; also, a stick of cinnamon broken in pieces. When it is highly flavoured, strain this milk into the pan that contains the rest. Beat four eggs very light, and mix them gradually with the milk, adding, by degrees, the gelatine, (well drained,) and four heaping table-spoonfuls of sugar. Set it over a slow fire and boil it, stirring it frequently. As soon as the gelatine is entirely dissolved, and thoroughly mixed, the custard will be done. Transfer it to a deep dish or to cups, and set it on ice or in a cold place till wanted.
INDIAN PUFFS.—Boil a quart of milk; and when it has come to a boil, stir into it, gradually, eight large table-spoonfuls of Indian meal; four large table-spoonfuls of powdered sugar; and a grated nutmeg. Stir it hard; letting it boil a quarter of an hour after all the Indian meal is in. Then take it up, and set it to cool. While cooling, beat eight eggs as light as possible, and stir them, gradually, into the batter when it is quite cold. Butter some large tea-cups; nearly fill them with the mixture; set them into a moderate oven; and bake them well. Send them to table warm, and eat them with butter and molasses; or with butter, sugar, lemon-juice, and nutmeg stirred to a cream. They must be turned out of the cups.
SWEETMEAT DUMPLINGS.—Make a paste of half a pound of fresh butter, or finely minced suet, and a pound of flour, moistened with a very little cold water. Beat the lump of paste on all sides with a rolling-pin. Then roll it out into a sheet, and divide it into equal portions. Lay on the middle of each two halves (laid on each other) of preserved peaches, or quinces, or large preserved plums. Then close the paste round the sweetmeat, so as to form a dumpling. Have ready a pot of boiling water. Throw the dumplings into it, tied up in little cloths, and let them boil twenty-five minutes or half an hour. Try one first, to see if they are done. When quite done, take them up, dip them in cold water, turn them out of the cloths, and send the dumplings to table immediately. Eat them with sugar only, or with sweetened cream.
These dumplings may be made with jam or marmalade, formed into a heap or lump, and laid in the centre of each piece of paste.
ALTONA FRITTERS.—Pare some fine pippin or bell-flower apples that are quite ripe, and of the largest size. Then extract the cores with a tin apple-corer, so as to leave the hole in the centre smooth and even. Spread the sliced apples on a large flat dish, and squeeze on each slice some lemon-juice. Then sprinkle them thickly with powdered white sugar. Prepare a batter, made in the proportion of eight eggs to a quart of rich milk, and a pint and a half of sifted flour. Having beaten the eggs till very light and thick, add them gradually to the milk in turn with the flour, a little at a time of each, and stir the whole very hard. Have ready, over hot coals, a skillet with a plentiful portion of the best fresh butter, melted and boiling hard. Dip the slices of apple twice into the batter, and then put them into the skillet of butter; as many at a time as it will contain without danger of running into each other as they spread. While they are frying, keep shaking the skillet about, holding it by the handle. They will puff up very light, and must be done of a bright brown. Take them out with a perforated skimmer, that will drain off the butter. Have ready some powdered sugar, flavoured with nutmeg or cinnamon. Roll the fritters in this, and send them to table hot. This is a German preparation of fritters, and will be found excellent on trial. They may be made of large peaches instead of apples; paring the peaches, and cutting them in two, having removed the stones. Allow half a peach (well sugared) to each fritter.
You may fry these fritters in lard, but they will not be so nice as if done in fresh butter.
WASHINGTON FRITTERS.—Boil four large potatoes; peel them; and, when cold, grate them as fine as possible. Mix well together two large table-spoonfuls of cream, two table-spoonfuls of sweet white wine, half a grated nutmeg, two table-spoonfuls of powdered sugar, and the juice of a lemon. Beat eight eggs very light, (omitting the whites of two,) and then mix them gradually with the cream, wine, &c., alternately with the grated potatoe, a little at a time of each. Beat the whole together at least a quarter of an hour after all the ingredients are mixed. Have ready, in a frying-pan over the fire, a large quantity of boiling lard; and when the bubbling has subsided, put in spoonfuls of the batter, so as to make well-formed fritters. Fry them a light brown, and take them up with a perforated skimmer, so as to drain them from the lard. Lay them on a hot dish, and send them immediately to table. Serve up with them, in a boat, a sauce made in the proportion of two glasses of white wine, the juice of two lemons, and a table-spoonful of peach-water, or a glass of rose-water. Make the sauce very sweet with powdered white sugar, and grate nutmeg into it.
These fritters may be made with boiled sweet potatoes, grated when cold.
WINE FRITTERS.—Beat six eggs till very thick and smooth; and when they are quite light, beat into them, gradually, six table-spoonfuls of sweet malaga or muscadel wine, and six table-spoonfuls of powdered white sugar. Have ready a sufficient number of large fresh milk biscuits, split in two, soaked in a bowl of sweet wine about five minutes, and drained on a sieve. Put some fresh lard into a frying-pan, and when it boils, and has been skimmed, dip each piece of the split biscuit into the batter of wine, eggs, and sugar, and fry them a light brown. When done, take them up with a perforated skimmer, and drain them well from the lard. Strew powdered white sugar over them.
SWEETMEAT FRITTERS.—Having boiled a large beet till it is tender all through, and scraped off the outside, cut the beet into pieces, and pound them in a marble mortar till you have extracted the juice. Then stir into a quart of milk enough of the beet-juice to give it a deep red colour. Beat seven eggs till very smooth and light, and stir them gradually into the milk; alternately with a pint and a half of sifted flour. The red colour will look paler after the egg is mixed with the milk. If you find it too pale, add more beet-juice. Have ready some boiling lard in a frying-pan over the fire; and when it has ceased to bubble, and the surface has become smooth, put in the mixture by spoonfuls, so as to form round or oval cakes of an equal size, and fry them a light brown. If you find the batter too thin, stir in a very little more flour. As the fritters are done, take them out, on a perforated skimmer, draining the lard back into the frying-pan. Dredge the fritters thickly with powdered sugar, and lay on each some preserved peach, plum, or other sweetmeat. You may heap on every one a table-spoonful or more of marmalade. Send them to table hot.
GREEN FRITTERS.—Are made as above; but coloured with the juice of spinach, extracted by pounding in a mortar.
BREAD FRITTERS.—Pick, wash, and dry half a pound of Zante currants, and having spread them out on a flat dish, dredge them well with flour. Grate some bread into a pan, till you have a pint of crumbs. Pour over the grated bread a pint of boiling milk, into which you have stirred, as soon as taken from the fire, a piece of fresh butter, the size of an egg. Cover the pan, and let it stand an hour. Then beat it hard, and add nutmeg, and a quarter of a pound of powdered white sugar, stirred in gradually, and two table-spoonfuls of the best brandy. Beat six eggs till very light, and then stir them, by degrees, into the mixture. Lastly, add the currants, a few at a time; and beat the whole very hard. It should be a thick batter. If you find it too thin, add a little flour. Have ready over the fire a hot frying-pan with boiling lard. Put in the batter in large spoonfuls, (so as not to touch,) and fry the fritters a light brown. Drain them on a perforated skimmer, or an inverted sieve placed in a deep pan, and send them to table hot. Eat them with wine, and powdered sugar.
Instead of currants, you may use sultana raisins, cut in half and well floured.
INDIAN FRITTERS.—Having beaten eight eggs very light, stir them gradually into a quart of rich milk, in turn with twelve large table-spoonfuls of yellow Indian meal, adding a salt-spoon of salt. When all is in, stir the whole very hard. Have ready over a clear fire, in a pot or a large frying-pan, a pound of fresh lard, boiling fast. Drop the batter into it, a ladleful at a time. If you find the batter too thin, stir into it a little more Indian meal. As the lard boils away, replenish it with more. As fast as they are done, take out each fritter with a perforated skimmer; through the holes of which let the lard drip back into the pot. The fritters must all be well drained. Send them to table hot, and eat them with wine and sugar, or with molasses.
In cooking these fritters, you may drop in three or four, one immediately after another; and they will not run, if the lard is boiling fast, and the batter thick enough, and made with the proper number of eggs.
VERY FINE MINCE-MEAT.—Boil two beef’s tongues, (perfectly fresh,) and, when cold, skin and mince them; including the fat about the roots. Mince, also, one pound of beef-suet, and mix it with the chopped tongues. Add four nutmegs powdered; two ounces of powdered cinnamon; and an ounce of powdered mace, with a table-spoonful of powdered cloves. Pick clean, wash, and dry three pounds of Zante currants. Seed and chop three pounds of the best raisins. Mix the fruit with the other ingredients, adding a pound of citron sliced, and the grated yellow rind, and the juice of three large lemons or oranges. Sweeten the mixture with two pounds of sugar, and moisten it with a quart of excellent brandy, and a quart of sherry or Madeira wine. Having thoroughly mixed the whole, pack it down, hard, into small stone jars, covering them closely, and pasting strong white paper over the lids. Do not add the apples till you take out the mince-meat for use, as it keeps better without them. Then take a sufficient number of pippins or bell-flowers, pare, core and chop them, and mix them with the mince-meat, allowing three large apples to a pint of mince-meat. Their freshness will improve the flavour.
It is best to make mince-meat two or three times during the winter; as it will not continue very good longer than five or six weeks. Whenever you take any out of the jars, put some additional brandy to the remainder.
For mince-meat, and all other purposes, use none but the best raisins. What are called cooking raisins, (like cooking butter and cooking wine,) injure instead of improving the articles with which they are mixed. All things of bad quality are unwholesome as well as unpalatable. It is better to do without mince-pies, plum-puddings and plum-cakes, than to spoil them with hard, dried up, indigestible raisins; to say nothing of the trouble of stoning and stemming them, when they are nearly all seeds and stems.
TEMPERANCE MINCE-MEAT.—Take three pounds of the lean of a round of fresh beef, that has been boiled the day before. It must be thoroughly boiled, and very tender. Mince it, as finely as possible, with a chopping-knife; and add to it two pounds of beef-suet, cleared from the skin and filaments, and minced very small. Mix the suet and the lean beef well together; and add a pound of brown sugar. Pick, wash, and dry before the fire, two pounds of Zante currants. Seed and chop two pounds of the best raisins. Sultana raisins have no seeds, and are therefore the most convenient for all cookery purposes. Grate the yellow rind of three large lemons or oranges into a saucer, and squeeze upon it their juice, through a strainer. Mix this with the currants and raisins. Prepare a heaped-up table-spoonful of powdered cinnamon; the same quantity of powdered ginger; a heaped tea-spoonful of powdered nutmeg; the same of powdered cloves; and the same of powdered mace. Mix all these spices into a quart of the best West India molasses. Then mix well together the meat and the fruit; and wet the whole with the spiced molasses; of which you must have enough to make the mixture very moist, but not too thin. If you want the mince-meat for immediate use, add to it four pounds of minced apple. The apples for this purpose should be pippins or bell-flowers, pared, cored, quartered, and chopped fine. Add, also, half a pound of citron, not minced, but cut into long slips.
If you intend the mince-meat for keeping, do not add the apple and citron until you are about to make the pies, as it will keep better without them. Mix all the other articles thoroughly, and pack down the mince-meat, hard, in small stone jars. Lay upon the top of it, a round of thin white paper, dipped in molasses, and cut exactly to fit the inside circumference of the jar. Secure the jars closely with flat, tight-fitting corks, and then with a lid; and paste paper down over the top on the outside.
West India molasses will be found a good substitute for the wine and brandy generally used to moisten mince-meat.
TRANSPARENT PASTE.—Take twelve ounces (or a pint and a half) of the best fresh butter. Wash and squeeze it through several cold waters, and press out whatever milk may remain about it. Then set it over the fire to soften all through; but do not allow it to melt, so as to become liquid or oily. Beat two eggs till very light and smooth; and when the butter is cool, stir the eggs into it, adding, very gradually, a pound of sifted flour that has been dried before the fire. Mix the whole into a lump of soft dough, and beat it well on all sides with the rolling-pin. Then transfer it to a paste-board, and roll it out thin. As quickly as possible butter some tart-pans, and line them with the paste; then brush it lightly with a little cold water, and sift on, thickly, some powdered sugar. They must be baked empty. Set them immediately in a rather brisk oven, and bake them a light brown. When cool, turn them out, and fill them with marmalade, jam, or any very nice sweetmeats. If properly made and baked, this paste looks very handsome. It may be baked in large patty-pans the size of soup-plates.
LIGHT PASTE.—Sift into a pan three quarters of a pound of flour, and another quarter on a plate. Beat the whites of two eggs to a stiff froth, and mix them with a wine-glass or more of cold water. With this wet the flour to a stiff paste; and when it is formed into a lump, beat it on all sides with the rolling-pin. Then lay it on the paste-board, and roll it out into a thin sheet. Use the extra quarter of flour for sprinkling and rolling. Have ready three quarters of a pound of the best fresh butter, divided into three portions. Cover the sheet with one portion of the butter, placed all over it in bits of equal size, and laid on at equal distances. Then sprinkle on a little flour; fold up the sheet of paste; flour it slightly when folded; roll it out again; and put on in the same manner another portion of the butter; then flour it slightly; fold it up; roll it out again; and add the third division of butter. Then fold it, flour it, and give it a hard final rolling, always moving the rolling-pin from you instead of towards you. The paste will then be ready for any nice purpose.
ORANGE TARTS.—Take six or seven fine large sweet oranges; roll them under your hand on a table to increase the juice, and then squeeze them through a strainer over half a pound or more of powdered loaf-sugar. Mix the orange-juice and the sugar thoroughly together. Use none of the peel. Break twelve eggs into a large shallow pan, and beat them till thick and smooth. Then stir in, gradually, the orange-juice and sugar. Have ready a sufficiency of the best puff-paste, roll it out thin, and line some patty-pans with it, having first buttered them inside. Then fill them with the orange-mixture, and set them immediately into a rather brisk oven. Bake the tarts a light brown; and when done, set them to cool. When quite cold, take them out of the patty-pans, put them on a large dish, and grate sugar over their tops.
Lemon tarts may be made in a similar manner, but they require double the quantity of sugar.
For baking tarts it is well to use (instead of tin patty-pans) small deep plates of china or white-ware, with broad flat edges, like little soup-plates. You can then have all round the edge a rim of paste ornamentally notched. In notching the edge of a tart, (this must, of course, be done before it goes into the oven,) use a sharp knife. Make the cuts at equal distances about an inch broad, so as to form squares. Turn upwards one square, and leave the next one down; and so on all round the edge. This is the chevaux-de-frize pattern. For the shell-pattern, having notched the edge of the paste into squares, turn up one half of every square, giving the corner a fold down. The paste should always be thickest round the rim or edge.
All tarts are best the day they are baked; but they should never be sent to table warm.
A VERY FINE CHARLOTTE RUSSE.—Boil a vanilla bean and a few blades of mace in half a pint of rich milk till it is highly flavoured. Then take out the bean; wipe it; and put it away for another time, and remove the mace also. Mix the flavoured milk with a large half-pint of cream. Beat four or five eggs till very light and thick; strain them, and add them gradually to the cream, (when it is entirely cold,) to make a rich custard. Set this custard over the fire, (stirring it all the time,) and before it comes to a hard boil, take it off, and set it on ice. Have ready, in another sauce-pan, an ounce of the best Russia isinglass boiled to a thick jelly in a half pint of water. When the custard and isinglass are both cold, (but not hard,) mix them well together, and add four table-spoonfuls of powdered loaf-sugar. Then take half a pound of loaf-sugar in lumps, and rub on them the yellow rind of two lemons. Mix together the strained juice of the lemons, and two glasses of sherry or madeira, and a glass of brandy; pour it upon the sugar; and when the sugar is entirely dissolved, mix it with a quart of rich cream, and whip it with rods or a whisk to a stiff froth. Take off the froth as it stiffens, and add it gradually to the custard, stirring it very hard, at the time; and also after the whole is mixed. Then set it on ice.
Cover the bottom of a handsome china dish or a glass bowl, with sliced almond sponge-cake cut to fit. Then place round the sides slices of the cake all of the same shape and size, making them wrap a little over each other. Pour in the mixture. Cover the top with a layer of cake cut very thin. Have ready an icing made in the usual manner of beaten white of egg and powdered loaf-sugar; and flavoured with rose or lemon. Spread it thickly and evenly over the surface of the top, smoothing it with a broad knife dipped in cold water. Then set it on ice till wanted. This Charlotte Russe is not to be turned out of the dish. It may be made in two dishes.
Instead of vanilla, you may flavour the custard with a handful of peach-leaves, or of broken up bitter almonds, boiled in the first half-pint of milk, and two large sticks of cinnamon broken in pieces.
When the icing on the top has about half-dried, you may ornament it by sticking on ripe strawberries of equal size in circles, stars, or any fanciful figures. Or it may be decorated with white grapes, each grape standing on end, if oval or long shaped.
ANOTHER CHARLOTTE RUSSE.—Take a large circular or oval lady cake, and with a sharp knife cut out nicely the inside, leaving the sides and bottom standing, (about half an inch thick,) in the form of a mould. Make a rich boiled custard, allowing eight eggs to a quart of unskimmed milk, half a pint of which has been previously flavoured by boiling in it half a dozen blades of mace with a vanilla bean, or a handful of shelled bitter almonds or peach-kernels blanched and broken up. Strain this flavoured milk and add it to the other. Then beat the eggs very light and stir them gradually into the milk. Set it over hot coals, stirring it all the time, but take it off before it comes to a boil, or it will curdle. Have ready an ounce of isinglass boiled to a jelly in a little water. When the custard and the isinglass are both cold (not hard) mix them well together and add sufficient powdered loaf-sugar to make it very sweet. Take a quart of rich cream that has been seasoned with extract of roses, and whip it to a stiff froth. Take off the froth as it stiffens, and add it gradually to the custard, stirring it very hard after it is all in to prevent its separating. Fill with the mixture the scooped-out sponge cake. Then cover the whole with an icing made in the usual way of white of egg and sugar, flavoured with rose or lemon. Then set it on ice till wanted.
AN ITALIAN CHARLOTTE.—Take a pint of rich cream; set it on ice, and beat and stir it till it becomes a solid froth. Then boil a vanilla bean in half a pint of rich milk till it is highly flavoured. Strain the milk, and when cold mix with it six ounces of loaf-sugar and the beaten yolks of four eggs, and set it over the fire, or rather on a bed of hot coals. Boil it ten minutes, stirring it frequently. When it comes to a boil, add half a pint of clear firm jelly-stock that has been made of calves’ feet, or else an ounce of isinglass that has been melted in barely as much boiling water as will cover it. Stir the mixture well, and let it remain five minutes over the fire. Then take it off, and place it on ice, stirring it till it begins to thicken. When it is about the consistence of very thick gruel, add the whipped cream. Have ready an almond sponge cake, baked in the form of a circular loaf. With a sharp knife cut out the inside of this cake carefully and smoothly; leaving the sides and bottom together, so as to form a mould not quite an inch thick. Fill this up to the top with the Charlotte mixture; and placing a large plate beneath it, set it on ice to congeal. In the mean time, prepare a meringue or icing of beaten white of egg, thickened with powdered loaf-sugar, and flavoured with extract of orange-flowers. Cover the top and sides of the Charlotte with this icing; spread on evenly, and smoothed with a knife dipped in cold water. Ornament it with coloured sugar-jelly rings, handsomely arranged, or any other nice bonbons.
A FRENCH CHARLOTTE.—Lay in a deep dish or pan half a pound of bitter almond maccaroons (chocolate maccaroons will be still better) and pour on sufficient white wine to cover them well, and let them stand till entirely dissolved. Whip to a stiff froth a pint of rich cream, sweetened with sugar and flavoured with rose or lemon. Have ready a large circular almond sponge cake with the inside cut out, so as to leave the sides and bottom standing in the form of a mould, not quite an inch thick. Ornament the edge with a handsome border of icing. In the bottom of this mould put the dissolved maccaroons; over them a layer of thick jelly, made of some very nice fruit; and fill up with the whipped cream, heaping it high in the centre.
This is a very fine Charlotte, and is easily made, no cooking being required, after the materials are collected.
A SWEET OMELET.—Break small in an earthen pan six maccaroons made with bitter almonds, and mix with them a dozen orange-blossoms pounded to a paste. If the orange-flowers are not quite blown, the fragrance and flavour will be finer. If more convenient, substitute for the blossoms a large wine-glass of orange-flower water. Add six ounces of powdered loaf-sugar, and mix all well together. Separate the whites from the yolks of six eggs. Beat the yolks in a broad earthen pan till very light and smooth, and add to them, gradually, the other ingredients. Have ready the whites beaten to a stiff froth, and stir them in at the last, a little at a time. Put four ounces of fresh butter into an omelet pan (or a small, clean, short-handled frying-pan, tinned or enamelled inside.) Set it over hot coals, and when the butter is all melted put in the omelet-batter; which some one should continue to beat till the last minute. When the omelet has become hot and has begun to colour, transfer it to a well-buttered dish. Place it instantly in a rather brisk oven and bake it from five to ten minutes, till it is a light-yellowish brown, and puffed up high. Sift powdered sugar over it as quickly as possible, and carry it immediately to the dinner-table; handing it round rapidly for every one to take a piece, as it falls very soon.
These omelets are served up at dinner-parties immediately on the removal of the meats.
They must be made, cooked, served up, and eaten with great celerity. Therefore it is not usual to commence mixing a sweet or soufflÉe omelet, till after the company has set down to dinner.
If exactly followed, this receipt will be found excellent.
SUNDERLANDS OR JELLY PUFFS.—Take a broad pan, and put into it a pint of rich milk, and half a pound of the best fresh butter. Cut up the butter in the milk, and, if in cold weather, set it in a warm place, on the stove, or on the hearth near the fire, till the butter is quite soft; but do not allow it to melt or oil; it must be merely warmed so as to soften. Then take it off, and with a knife stir the butter well through the milk till thoroughly mixed. Have ready half a pound of fine flour sifted into a deep dish. In a broad pan beat eight eggs, with a whisk, till they are very thick and light. Then stir the beaten egg into the pan of milk and butter, in turn with the sifted flour, a little at a time of each. Stir the whole very hard, and then put the mixture into buttered tea-cups, filling them only two-thirds. Set them immediately into a brisk oven, and bake them twenty minutes or more, till they are well browned, and puffed up very light. Then take them from the oven, and with a knife open a slit in the side of each puff, and carefully put in, with a spoon, sufficient fruit jelly or marmalade to fill up the whole inside or cavity. Afterwards close the slit, and press it together with your fingers. As you fill them, lay each on a large dish; and before they go to table, sift powdered white sugar over them. Eat them cold. If properly made they will be found delicious.
Instead of jelly or marmalade, you may fill the Sunderlands with a rich boiled custard, flavoured with vanilla or bitter almonds; and made with yolk of egg, omitting the whites.
Or the filling may be of thick cream, made very sweet with loaf sugar, and flavoured with rose or peach water, or with orange-flower water, or with white wine.
RHUBARB CUPS.—Take twenty stalks of green rhubarb; cut them, and boil them in a quart of water. When it comes to a hard boil, take it from the fire; strain off the water; drain the rhubarb as dry as possible, and then mash it, and make it very sweet with brown sugar. Have ready half a pint of rice, that has been boiled in a quart of water, till soft and dry. Mix the rhubarb and the rice well together; beating them hard. Then mould it in cups slightly buttered, and set them on ice, or in a very cold place. Just before dinner, turn them out on a large dish. Serve up with them, in a bowl, cream and sugar, into which a nutmeg has been grated; or else a sauce made of equal portions of fresh butter and powdered white sugar, beaten together till very light, and flavoured with powdered cinnamon, or nutmeg, and oil of lemon or lemon-juice.
SPANISH BLANC-MANGE.—Weigh half a pound of broken-up loaf-sugar of the best quality. On one of the pieces rub off the yellow rind of a large lemon. Then powder all the sugar, and mix with it a pint of rich cream, the juice of the lemon, and half a pint (not less) of madeira or sherry. Stir the mixture very hard, till all the articles are thoroughly amalgamated. Then stir in, gradually, a second pint of cream.
Put into a small sauce-pan an ounce of the best isinglass, with one jill (or two common-sized wine-glass-fulls) of cold water. Set the pan over hot coals, and boil it till the isinglass is completely dissolved, and not the smallest lump remaining. Frequently, while boiling, stir it down to the bottom; taking care not to let it scorch. When the melted isinglass has become lukewarm, stir it, gradually, into the mixture of other ingredients; and then give the whole a hard stirring. Have ready two or three white-ware moulds, that have just been dipped and rinsed in cold water. Fill them with the mixture, and set them immediately on ice, and in about two hours (or perhaps more) the blanc-mange will be congealed. Do not remove it from the ice till perfectly firm. Dip the moulds for a moment in lukewarm water; then turn out the cream on glass dishes.
This will be found a delicious article for a dessert, or an evening party, provided the receipt is exactly followed. We highly recommend it, and know that if fairly tried, precisely according to the above directions, there can be no failure. It is superior to any of the usual preparations of blanc-mange. The wine (which must be of excellent quality) gives it a delicate and beautiful colour, and a fine flavour.
VANILLA BLANC-MANGE.—Chip fine an ounce of the best isinglass, and put it into a small sauce-pan, with a jill of cold water, and boil it till entirely dissolved. In another sauce-pan boil half a pint of rich milk and a vanilla bean. Boil it, (with the lid on,) till the flavour of the vanilla is well extracted. Whip a quart of rich cream to a stiff froth. Separate the whites and yolks of four eggs. Beat the whites till they stand alone. Then, in another pan, beat the yolks, and when they are very light and smooth, add to them, gradually, a quarter of a pound of powdered loaf-sugar, beaten in very hard. Then (having strained out the bean) mix with the cream the milk in which it was boiled. Then beat in, by degrees, the yolk of egg and sugar; then the white of egg; and, lastly, the melted isinglass. When all the ingredients are united, beat and stir the whole very hard. Rinse your moulds in cold water. Then put in the mixture, and set it on ice, for two hours or more, to congeal. When quite firm, (and just before it is wanted,) dip each mould down, into a pan of lukewarm water, (taking care that the water does not reach the top,) and turn out the blanc-mange on glass or china dishes. Keep it on ice, till the minute before it is served up. It will be found very fine.
MACCAROON BLANC-MANGE.—Chip small an ounce of the best Russia isinglass; put it into a small sauce-pan; pour on it a jill of cold water; and boil it till the isinglass is entirely melted, stirring and skimming it well. Then strain it; cover it; and set it away. Have ready a quart of cream, or very rich milk, boiling hot. Crush half a pound or more of bitter-almond maccaroons; mix them well with the boiling cream; cover the vessel, and let it stand (stirring it occasionally) till the maccaroons are all dissolved. Next add the lukewarm isinglass; stir the whole very hard, and then transfer it to blanc-mange moulds, that have been slightly rubbed on the inside with a little sweet oil. Set it on ice, (or in a very cold place,) and stir it occasionally till it begins to congeal; then let it rest. When quite firm all through, loosen it in the moulds, by slipping a knife beneath the edge of the blanc-mange, and warm a clean cloth, and lay it a minute over the top. This will render it easy to turn out. Or you may loosen the blanc-mange by setting the mould in a pan of lukewarm water. Turn it out into a glass dish. Lay on the top of the blanc-mange a sufficient number of whole maccaroons, handsomely arranged in a large star, or in a circle, and place another circle on the dish, round the bottom.
CHOCOLATE BLANC-MANGE.—The day before you want the blanc-mange, take four calves’ feet, (singed but not skinned,) or eight or ten pigs’ feet. Boil them slowly, (with frequent skimming,) in four quarts of water, till all the meat drops from the bones. Then strain the liquid, through a sieve, into a broad tin pan, cover it, and set it away in a cold, dry place. Next day it should be a solid cake of clear jelly. Then scrape off all the fat and sediment; cut the jelly into small bits; and put it into a porcelain kettle or preserving pan, and melt it over the fire. Have ready six ounces, or more, of cocoa or chocolate, that has been scraped fine, and melted, over the fire, in a pint of boiling cream, with six ounces of powdered loaf-sugar. When the chocolate, cream, and sugar have boiled together five minutes after coming to a boil, mix them with the melted jelly, and let the whole come to a boil again; and then boil them together five minutes more, stirring it occasionally. Next put it into moulds that have set all night in cold water. Do not wipe the moulds, but leave them damp. Stir their contents well; and when the blanc-mange is thickening, so that it is hard to stir, set the moulds on ice, or place them in the cellar, in pans of cold water. When the blanc-mange has quite congealed, and is very firm, turn it out of the moulds, first setting them in lukewarm water, and serve it up on china dishes.
Instead of calves’ or pigs’ feet, you may substitute an ounce of the best Russia isinglass, or an ounce and a half of the common sort. The isinglass must be previously dissolved, by boiling it in as much water as will cover it, taking care not to let it burn. It must be melted quite smooth. Mix it, while warm, with the chocolate, cream, and sugar.
COFFEE BLANC-MANGE may be made as above, substituting, for the chocolate, six ounces of the best coffee, freshly roasted and ground, and boiled in a pint of rich, unskimmed milk; or of cream, into which there has been stirred an ounce or an ounce and a half of isinglass, previously melted by boiling in water; and, also, six ounces of powdered sugar. Boil all together, and then strain the liquid into moulds, and set them on ice.
GELATINE BLANC-MANGE.—From two quarts of rich milk take a pint, and put the pint into a small saucepan, with the yellow rinds of three lemons, pared thin, and half a beaten nutmeg. For the lemon-rind, you may substitute a handful of bitter almonds or peach-kernels, broken up; or else a vanilla bean. Having boiled the pint of milk long and slowly, till it tastes strongly of the flavouring articles, (keeping it closely covered,) strain it, and mix it, in a larger sauce-pan, with the other three pints of milk. Add an ounce and a half of gelatine, (that has first been soaked in cold water,) and a quarter of a pound of fine loaf-sugar. Set it over the fire, and continue to boil and stir it five minutes after it has come to a boil. Then strain it, and transfer it to blanc-mange moulds, first wetting the inside of each mould with cold water. Place the moulds on ice, or in a very cold place, till the blanc-mange has thoroughly congealed. Then turn it out on dishes.
CAKE SYLLABUB.—Half fill a glass bowl with thin slices of sponge-cake or almond-cake. Pour on sufficient white wine to dissolve the cake. Then rub off, on pieces of loaf-sugar, the yellow rind of two lemons, and dissolve the sugar in a pint of rich cream. Squeeze the juice of the lemons on some powdered loaf-sugar, and add it, gradually, to the cream. Whip or mill the cream to a stiff froth; and then pile it on the dissolved cake in the glass bowl. It should be heaped high above the edge of the bowl. You may ornament the top of the syllabub with a circle of real roses or other flowers,—a large one in the centre, and smaller ones placed round in a ring.
ORANGE FLUMMERY.—Begin the day before, by boiling four large calves’ feet or eight small ones in three quarts of water. The best feet for this purpose are those that are scalded and scraped, but not skinned. After they have boiled slowly about five hours, put in the yellow rind of four large oranges, pared very thin and cut small, and several sticks of cinnamon broken up; and, if you choose, a dozen bitter almonds or peach-kernels slightly pounded. Then let it boil an hour longer, till the meat all drops from the bones, and is reduced to shreds, and till the liquid is little more than a quart. Strain it through a sieve over a broad white pan, and set it in a cold place till next morning, when it ought to be a solid cake. Scrape off all the fat and sediment carefully; otherwise it will not be clear when melted. Cut the cake into pieces; put it into a porcelain kettle, with half a pound of double-refined loaf-sugar, broken up, and melt it over the fire, adding, when it has entirely dissolved, the juice of six large oranges. Next stir in, gradually, the yolks of six eggs well-beaten, and continue stirring till it has boiled ten minutes. Then take it off the fire, transfer it to a broad pan, and set it on ice or in cold water. Continue stirring till it is quite cold but not set. Wet some moulds with cold water, put the mixture into them, and set it in a cold place or on ice to congeal. When perfectly firm, wrap a cloth dipped in warm water round the moulds, and turn it out on glass dishes.
Lemon flummery may be made in the same manner.
VANILLA FLUMMERY.—Take two quarts of rich milk. Put a pint of it into a clean sauce-pan, and boil in it a vanilla bean, (keeping it closely covered,) till the milk is highly flavoured. Then strain it into a pan, and stir into it, gradually, half a pound of ground rice flour, mixing it smoothly and free from lumps, till it becomes a thick batter. If you find it too stiff, thin it with a little milk. Put the rest of the milk (about three pints) into a larger sauce-pan, and set it over the fire. When it comes to a boil, stir in, gradually, the rice-flour-batter, alternately with a quarter of a pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Let it continue boiling five minutes after all the batter has been put in. Then take it off, and stir in two table-spoonfuls of rose-water. Wet some moulds with cold water; put in the flummery and set it on ice or in a very cold place to congeal. When quite firm, set the moulds for an instant into a pan of lukewarm water.
Have ready a rich boiled custard, flavoured by boiling in the milk the same vanilla bean that was previously used for the flummery. The custard should be made in the proportion of a pint of milk to four eggs, and four table-spoonfuls of sugar. Stir it all the time it is over the fire, and take it off just as it begins to boil hard. When it is quite cold, send it to table in a glass pitcher or bowl to eat with the flummery.
Rice flummery may be flavoured by boiling in the first pint of milk a stick of cinnamon and a handful of bitter almonds or peach-kernels all broken up.
The custard should then be flavoured also with cinnamon and bitter almonds boiled in the custard milk.
Flummery may be coloured green by boiling in the last milk, spinach juice extracted by pounding in a mortar some raw spinach, or some pistachio nuts.
To colour it red, mix with the milk the juice of a beet that has been boiled, scraped, cut up and pounded. Or boil in the milk a very small muslin bag with alkanet tied up in it.
MERINGUED APPLES.—Pare and core (with a tin apple-corer) some fine large pippin apples, but do not quarter or slice them. Wash them separately in cold water, and then with the water still remaining about the surface of the apples, stand them up in a deep baking-dish, but do not place them so near each other as to touch. Pour into the bottom of the dish just water enough to prevent their burning, set them into a close oven, and bake them till they are perfectly tender all through, but not to break; as they must on no account lose their shape. When done, take them out; remove them to a flat china dish; and set them immediately to cool, clearing off any juice that may be about them. When quite cold, fill up the hole from whence the cores were extracted with thick marmalade or fruit jelly. Have ready a meringue or icing made of beaten white of egg, thickened with finely powdered loaf-sugar and flavoured with lemon-juice, or extract of roses. In making a meringue the usual proportion is the whites of four eggs to a pound of powdered sugar. The white of egg must first be whisked to a stiff firm froth, and the sugar then beaten into it, gradually, a spoonful at a time; the flavouring being added at the last. When the apples are quite cold cover them all over with the meringue, put on in table-spoonfuls, beginning at the top of each apple and then spreading it down evenly with a broad-bladed knife dipped frequently into a bowl of cold water. The meringue must be put on very smoothly and of equal thickness all over. Then dredge the surface with finely powdered loaf-sugar sifted in from a very small sieve. Set them into a rather cool oven, and as soon as the meringue is hardened, take them out.
Fine large free-stone peaches may be meringued in this manner. To extract the stones of peaches loosen them carefully all round with a sharp, narrow-pointed knife. You may then easily thrust them out, without breaking the peaches, which for this purpose should not be over-ripe.
CHOCOLATE CREAM.—Scrape down a quarter of a pound of the best chocolate, or of Baker’s prepared cocoa. Put it into a marble mortar. Pour on by degrees as much boiling water as will dissolve it, and beat it well for about a quarter of an hour. Then sweeten it with four table-spoonfuls of powdered loaf-sugar. Add, gradually, a pint and a half of rich cream. Mill it with a chocolate mill, or a little tin churn; or beat it hard with rods. As the froth rises, take it off and lay it on the inverted bottom of a sieve that is placed in a deep pan. When done, take the liquid that has drained through the sieve, and put a portion of it in the bottom of each glass. Then fill the glasses with the froth, heaping it high on the top, and set it in a cool dry place till wanted.
ANOTHER WAY.—Boil a vanilla bean in half a pint of milk till the flavour is well-extracted. Then take out the bean, wipe it dry, and put it away. It may be used a second time for a slight vanilla flavouring. Scrape down a quarter of a pound of excellent chocolate, or of Baker’s prepared cocoa, and mix with it the vanilla-milk. Put it into a chocolate pot or a sauce-pan, and pour on it a pint and a half of rich milk. Set it over the fire, or on a bed of hot coals, and boil it slowly; stirring it till the chocolate is entirely dissolved and thoroughly incorporated with the milk. Beat six eggs very light, and stir them, gradually, into the mixture; continuing to stir, lest it should curdle. When the egg is all in, and it begins to boil up, take it off, and when cool enough transfer it to glasses, or to a bowl.
PISTACHIO CREAM.—Take half a pound of pistachio nuts. Throw them into scalding water, and peel off the skins. Put the nuts (not more than two at a time) into a marble mortar, and pound them to a smooth paste, adding frequently, as you proceed, a few drops of rose-water. Sweeten a quart of cream with half a pound of powdered loaf-sugar, and stir into it, gradually, the pistachio paste. Set the mixture over the fire; and let it just come to a boil. Then take it out; stir in two table-spoonfuls of rose-water or peach-water, and set on ice to cool. Either serve it up liquid in a glass bowl, or put it into a freezer, and freeze it as ice-cream. If you freeze it, you must substitute for the rose-water or peach-water, a table-spoonful of extract of roses, or the same quantity of extract of bitter almonds. The process of freezing diminishes the strength of every sort of flavouring; and of sweetening also.
If you serve it up as frozen, stick it all over with slips of pistachio nut, peeled and sliced.
ALMOND CREAM.—Take a pound of shelled sweet almonds, and two ounces or more of shelled bitter almonds, or peach-kernels. Blanch them in scalding water, throwing them as you proceed into a bowl of cold water. Then pound them (one at a time) in a mortar, till each becomes a smooth paste; pouring in, as you proceed, a little rose-water to make the almonds white and light, and transferring the paste to a plate as you go on. Then when they are all done, mix the almonds with a quart of rich cream, and a quarter of a pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Add half a dozen blades of mace; put the mixture into a porcelain kettle, and boil it, slowly, stirring it frequently down to the bottom. Having given it one boil up, remove it from the fire, take out the mace, and when it has cooled a little, put the cream into glass cups, grating nutmeg over each. Serve it up quite cold. You may ornament each cup of this cream with white of egg, beaten to a stiff froth, and heaped on the top.
COCOA-NUT CREAM may be made as above; substituting for the almonds a pound of cocoa-nut grated finely. When it has boiled, and is taken from the fire, stir into the cream a wine-glass of rose-water.
A similar cream may be made with pounded pistachio nuts.
Pecan nuts, blanched and pounded, (adding occasionally a little cold water to take off the oiliness,) may be boiled as above, with cream, sugar, and spice.
All these creams may be frozen, and served up as ice-cream.
VANILLA CREAM.—Boil a vanilla bean in half a pint of rich milk, till the milk is highly flavoured with the vanilla. Then (having taken out the bean) strain the milk into a pint of thick cream. Beat the yolks of five eggs till very light, and then mix gradually with the beaten egg a quarter of a pound of powdered loaf-sugar, beating it in very hard. Set the cream over hot coals, and add to it by degrees the egg and sugar. Stir it continually till it is on the point of coming to a boil. It must be very thick and smooth. Cover the bottom and sides of a glass bowl or dish, with three quarters of a pound of lady-cake, cut into nice even slices. Pour on the mixture, and then set the bowl on ice or snow till wanted.
For lady-cake, you may substitute finger-biscuit, or slices of almond sponge-cake.
You may ornament the bowl by beating to a stiff froth the whites of two or three of the eggs, and heaping it on the top.
ICED JELLY.—Make calves’ feet jelly in the usual way. Then put it into a freezer, and freeze it as you would ice-cream. Serve it up in a glass bowl or in jelly-glasses. You cannot mould it this way; but the taste of jelly when broken up is much more lively than when moulded; also it sparkles and looks handsomer.
CURRANT ICE.—Pick a sufficiency of ripe currants from their stems. Then squeeze the currants through a linen bag, and to each quart of the juice allow a pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Mix them together, and when the sugar is thoroughly melted, put it into a freezer, and freeze it in the manner of ice-cream. Serve it up in glass bowls. It will be found delicious in warm weather.
PLUM-WATER ICE.—Take some fine ripe plums. Wash them; cut them in half, and stone them. Crack the stones, and take out the kernels. Weigh the plums, and to every pound allow a pound and a half of loaf-sugar, and the white of an egg beaten to a stiff froth. Mix, in a preserving kettle, the white of egg with the sugar, which should be finely powdered; and allow to each pound and a half of sugar, half a pint of water. Having stirred it well, set on the fire, (but not till all the sugar is melted,) add the plum-kernels, and boil and skim it. When the scum ceases to rise, take the syrup off the fire, pour it into a white-ware vessel, and remove the kernels. While you are boiling the sugar, put the plums into another vessel and boil them by themselves to draw out the juice. Then put them into a linen bag, and squeeze all the juice into a deep pan or pitcher placed beneath. Afterwards mix the plum-juice with the syrup; stirring them thoroughly together; and put it into a freezer. Freeze it well, and when done, serve it in a glass bowl, and eat it in saucers.
DAMSON-WATER ICE may be made as above; except that you boil the damsons whole and make no use of the kernels. When the damsons have all burst open, put them into a linen bag; squeeze it well, mix the juice with the syrup which you have previously prepared, and freeze it. The juice of damsons is much thicker and richer than that of plums; but it requires still more sugar.
CHERRY-WATER ICE is made nearly as above; except that the cherries must be stoned, but not boiled. Put them raw into the bag, and squeeze them. The cherries should be of the best and most juicy red sort, and thoroughly ripe.
STRAWBERRY ICE is made of ripe strawberries put into a linen bag, and the juice squeezed out. Then measure it, and to each pint of juice allow half a pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Having mixed thoroughly the juice and the sugar, put it into a freezer and freeze it. In this manner ices (without cream) may be made of currant and raspberry juice, mixed raw with sugar.
GOOSEBERRY-WATER ICE.—Having stewed the gooseberries, squeeze out the juice through a linen bag. To every pint, allow a pound of loaf-sugar. Mix it well, and freeze it.
PEACH ICE-CREAM.—Take fine soft free-stone peaches, perfectly ripe. Pare them, and remove the stones. Crack about half the stones, and extract the kernels, which must be blanched by putting them into a bowl, and pouring on boiling water to loosen the skins. Then break them up, or pound them slightly; put them into a little sauce-pan, and boil the kernels in a small quantity of rich milk, till it is highly flavoured with them; keeping the sauce-pan covered. Strain out the kernels, and set the milk to cool. Cut up the peaches in a large, broad, shallow pan, or a flat dish, and chop them very small. Mix with the chopped peaches sufficient powdered loaf-sugar to make them very sweet, and then mash them to a smooth jam with a silver spoon. Measure the peach jam; and to each quart allow a pint of cream, and a pint of rich unskimmed milk. Mix the whole well together, and put it into the freezer; adding when the mixture is about half-frozen, the milk in which you boiled the kernels, and which will greatly improve the peach-flavour. When well frozen, turn out the cream and serve it in a glass bowl. If you wish to have it in a shape, transfer it to a mould, and give it a second freezing. Before you turn it out, wash the outside of the mould all over with cold water, or wrap a wet cloth round it. Then open it, and the ice-cream will come out easily.
Apricot ice-cream may be made as above.
CHOCOLATE ICE-CREAM.—Scrape down half a pound of the best chocolate or of Baker’s prepared cocoa. Put it into a sauce-pan, and pour on it a pint of boiling milk. Stir, and mix it well, and smoothly. Then set it over the fire, and let it come to a boil. Mix together in a pan, a quarter of a pound of powdered loaf-sugar, and a pint of rich cream. In another pan beat very light the yolks of nine eggs. Afterwards gradually stir the beaten egg into the cream and sugar, and then put the mixture into a sauce-pan; stir in, by degrees, the chocolate; set it over the fire, and simmer it till it is just ready to come to a boil. Strain it through a sieve, transfer it to a freezer, and freeze it in the usual manner of ice-cream.
BISCUIT ICE-CREAM.—Take some pieces of broken loaf-sugar, and rub off on them the yellow rind of four lemons. Then pulverize the sugar and mix it with half a pound of loaf-sugar already powdered. Have ready eight small Naples biscuits or sponge-cakes, grated fine; stir them, in turn with the sugar, into a quart of cream. Give the whole one boil up. Then put it into a freezer, and freeze it in the usual manner. Afterwards transfer it to a pyramid mould, and freeze it a second time.
Similar ice-cream may be made with maccaroons broken small and dissolved in the cream, from whence half a pint must be previously taken and boiled with a handful of broken up bitter almonds. Afterwards strain this, and mix it with the rest.
FLAVOURED CURDS AND WHEY.—To turn two quarts of milk, take a piece of dried rennet about the size of the palm of your hand; wash it well through several cold waters to get the salt entirely off, and then wipe it dry. Put it into a small bowl, and pour on it half a tumbler (a quarter of a pint) of lukewarm water. The water must on no account be hot, as to scald rennet weakens it and diminishes its power of converting milk into curd. Cover the bowl; and let it stand to infuse at least four hours. A longer time will do no harm; therefore, if you intend making the curd early in the day, you may put the rennet in soak over night. For lemon-flavouring—to two quarts of milk allow two lemons, using only the yellow rind or surface of the skin, and grating it as finely as possible. Reserve the juice of the lemons for some other purpose. Mix the grated rind with the rennet-water, first removing the piece of rennet that has been soaking in it. Have ready in a large china or glass bowl two quarts of rich milk, and stir into it the rennet-water and lemon-rind. Cover the bowl, and set it in a moderately warm place till the curd has become a firm, smooth, unbroken mass, and the whey looks clear and greenish. Then set the bowl on ice, and keep it there till wanted for the table. Accompany it with a small pitcher of rich cream, and a little bowl of powdered loaf-sugar and nutmeg. Send it round on saucers. It is a delicious article for summer dessert, or for a summer tea-table.
To flavour curds and whey with vanilla—boil a vanilla bean slowly in half a pint of milk, keeping the saucepan closely covered. When the milk is highly flavoured with the vanilla, strain it; and when cold, mix it with the milk you intend for the curds. Afterwards add the rennet-water. Or you may use instead of the bean, extract of vanilla, allowing four table-spoonfuls to two quarts of milk. Oliver’s extract of vanilla is of excellent quality, and may be obtained in small bottles at most of the drug stores in Philadelphia.
To give curds and whey a peach-flavour—stir into the milk some peach-water, as soon as you have added the rennet-water; allowing two table-spoonfuls of the peach-water to each quart of milk. If you have no peach-water, take a handful of peach-kernels, (saved from the stones,) pound them, and boil them slowly in half a pint of milk till it tastes strongly of them. Then strain the milk, and when cold, mix it with the rest, and add the rennet-water. A handful of fresh peach-leaves boiled long and slowly in a small portion of milk will produce a similar flavour.
For a rose taste, stir into two quarts of milk a tea-spoonful of extract of roses; or more if it is not very strong; or add four table-spoonfuls of rose-water.
Curds and whey that has not been previously flavoured, should be sent to table with a small pitcher containing white wine, loaf-sugar, and powdered nutmeg.
RENNETS.—Milk turned into a curd with wine, is by no means so good as that which is done with rennet-water alone. The curd and whey do not separate so completely: the curd is less firm, and the whey less clear; the latter being thick and white, instead of thin and greenish as it ought to be. Neither is it so light and wholesome as when turned with rennet.
Rennets of the best quality can be had at all seasons in Philadelphia market; particularly in the lower part, called the Jersey market. They are sold at twelve, eighteen, or twenty-five cents, according to their size, and will keep a year or two; but have most strength when fresh. You may prepare excellent rennets yourself at a very trifling expense, by previously bespeaking them of a veal butcher; a rennet being the stomach of a calf. Its form is a bag. As soon as you get the rennet, empty out all its contents, and wipe it very clean, inside and out; then rinse it with cold water; but do not wash it much, as washing will weaken its power of turning milk into curd. When you have made it quite clean, lay the rennet in a broad pan, strew it over on both sides with plenty of fine salt; cover it, and let it rest five days. When you take it out of the pan, do not wipe or wash it, for it must be stretched and dried with the salt on. For this purpose hold it open like a bag, and slip within it a long, thick, smooth rod, bent into the form of a large loop; wide at the top, and so narrow at the bottom as to meet together. Stretch the rennet tightly and smoothly over this bent rod, on which it will be double, and when you have brought the two ends of the rod together at the bottom, and tied them fast, the form will somewhat resemble that of a boy’s kite. Hang it up in a dry place, and cut out a bit as you want it. A piece about two inches square will turn one quart of milk, a piece of four inches two quarts. Having first washed off all the salt in several cold waters, and wiped the bit of rennet dry; pour on it sufficient lukewarm water to cover it well. Let it stand several hours; then pour the rennet-water into the milk you intend for the curd, and set it in a warm place. When the curd is entirely formed, set the vessel on ice.
Rennet may be used with good effect before it has quite dried.
HINTS ON CALVES’ FOOT JELLY.—In making calves’ foot jelly, if you intend it for moulds, put in two or three pieces of isinglass when you are boiling the ingredients. If you wish it a deep rich colour, put into the bottom of the straining-bag a large tea-spoonful of brown sugar, before you pour in the jelly. After all the jelly has run through the bag, (which must on no account be squeezed,) let it, gradually, become perfectly cold before you remove it to a colder place to congeal.
