The puffs made me light,
And now that’s all over, I’m pretty well, thank you.
Moore.
Weigh an equal quantity of flour and butter, rub rather more than half the flour into one-third of the butter; add as much cold water as will make it into a stiff paste; work it until the butter be completely mixed with the flour, make it round, beat it with the rolling-pin, dust it, as also the rolling-pin with flour, and roll it out towards the opposite side of the slab, or paste-board, making it of an equal thickness, then with the point of a knife, put little bits of butter all over it, dust flour over it and under it, fold in all the sides, and roll it up, dust it again with flour, beat it a little, and roll out, always rubbing the rolling-pin with flour, and throwing some underneath the paste to prevent its sticking to the board.
It should be touched as little as possible with the hands.
PYRAMID PASTE.
You that from pliant paste would fabrics raise,
Expecting thence to gain immortal praise,
Your knuckles try, and let your sinews know
Their power to knead, and give the form to dough;
From thence of course the figure will arise,
And elegance adorn the surface of your pies.
King.
Make a rich puff paste, roll it out a quarter of an inch thick, cut it into five or seven pieces with scalloped tin cutters, which go one within another; leave the bottom and top piece entire, and cut a bit out of the centre of the others. Place them upon buttered baking tins, and bake them of a light brown. Build them into a pyramid, laying a different preserved fruit upon each piece of paste, and on the top a whole apricot with a sprig of myrtle stuck in it.
FRUIT PIES.
Unless some sweetness at the bottom lie,
Who cares for all the crinkling of the pie!
King.
Fruit pies for family use are generally made with common paste. Allow three quarters of a pound of butter to a pound and a half of flour. Peaches and plums for pies should be cut in half, and the stones taken out. Cherries also should be stoned, and red cherries only should be used for pies. Apples should be cut into very thin slices, and are much improved by a little lemon-peel. Apples stewed previous to baking, should not be done till they break, but only till they are tender. They should then be drained in a cullender, and chopped fine with a knife or edge of a spoon. In making pies of juicy fruit, it is a good way to set a small teacup on the bottom crust, and lay the fruit round it. The juice will collect under the cup, and not run out at the edges or top of the pie. The fruit should be mixed with a sufficient quantity of sugar, and piled up in the middle, so as to make the pie highest in the centre.
The upper crust should be pricked with a fork. The edges should be nicely crimped with a knife. If stewed fruit is put in warm, it will make the paste heavy. If your pies are made in the form of shells, the fruit should always be stewed first, or it will not be sufficiently done, as the shells (which should be made of puff paste) must not bake so long as covered pies.
Fruit pies with lids should have loaf sugar grated over them.
MINCE PIES.
When Terence spoke, oraculous and sly,
He’d neither grant the question nor deny,
Pleading for tarts, his thoughts were on mince pie.
My poor endeavors view with gracious eye,
To make these lines above a Christmas pie.
Two pounds of boiled beef’s heart or fresh tongue, or lean fresh beef chopped, when cold; two pounds of beef suet chopped fine, four pounds of pippin apples chopped, two pounds of raisins stoned and chopped, two pounds of currants picked, washed, and dried, two pounds of powdered sugar, one quart of white wine, one quart of brandy, one wine-glass of rose-water, two grated nutmegs, half an ounce of cinnamon, powdered, a quarter of an ounce of mace, powdered, a teaspoonful of salt, two large oranges, and half a pound of citron cut in slips. Pack it closely into stone jars, and tie them over with paper. When it is to be used, add a little more wine.
PLUM PUDDING.
All you who to feasting and mirth are inclined,
Come, here is good news for to pleasure your mind.
Old Christmas is come, for to keep open house:
He scorns to be guilty of starving a mouse.
Then come, boys, and welcome, for diet the chief,—
Plum pudding, goose, capon, minced pies, and roast beef.
The cooks shall be busied, by day and by night,
In roasting and boiling, for taste and delight.
Provision is making for beer, ale, and wine,
For all that are willing or ready to dine.
Meantime goes the caterer to fetch in the chief,—
Plum pudding, goose, capon, minced pies, and roast beef.
Ancient Christmas Carol.
One quarter of a pound of beef suet; take out the strings and skin; chop it to appear like butter; stone one pound of raisins, one pound of currants, well washed, dried, and floured, one pound loaf sugar, rolled and sifted, one pound of flour, eight eggs well beaten; beat all well together for some time, then add by degrees two glasses of brandy, one wine, one rose-water, citron, nutmeg, and cinnamon; beat it all extremely well together, tie it in a floured cloth very tight, let it boil four hours constantly; let your sauce be a quarter pound of butter, beat to a cream, a quarter pound loaf sugar pounded and sifted; beat in the butter with a little wine and sugar and nutmeg.
COCOANUT PUDDING.
Whatever was the best pie going,
In that Ned—trust him—had his finger.
Moore.
Take the thin brown skin off of a quarter pound of cocoa, wash it in cold water, and wipe it dry; grate it fine, stir three and half ounces of butter and a quarter pound of powdered sugar, to a cream; add half teaspoonful of rose-water, half glass of wine and of brandy mixed, to them. Beat the white of six eggs till they stand alone, and then stir them into the butter and sugar; afterwards sprinkle in the grated nut, and stir hard all the time. Put puff paste into the bottom of the dish, pour in the mixture, and bake it in a moderate oven, half an hour. Grate loaf sugar over it when cold.
APPLE PUDDING.
Where London’s column, pointing to the skies,
Like a tall bully, lifts the head and lies,
There dwelt a citizen of sober fame,
A plain, good man, and Balaam was his name;
Religious, punctual, frugal, and so forth,
His word would pass for more than he was worth;
One solid dish his week-day meal affords,
And apple pudding solemnized the Lord’s.
Pope.
Make a batter of two eggs, a pint of milk and three or four spoonfuls of flour; pour it into a deep dish, and having pared six or eight apples, place them whole in the batter, and bake them.
HASTY PUDDING.
But man, more fickle, the bold license claims,
In different realms, to give thee different names.
Thee, the soft nations round the warm Levant
Polanta call; the French, of course, Polante.
E’en in thy native regions, how I blush
To hear the Pennsylvanians call thee mush!
All spurious appellations, void of truth;
I’ve better known thee from my earliest youth:
Thy name is Hasty Pudding! Thus our sires
Were wont to greet thee from the fuming fires;
And while they argued in thy just defence,
With logic clear, they thus explained the sense:
“In haste the boiling caldron, o’er the blaze,
Receives and cooks the ready-powdered maize;
In haste ’tis served, and then in equal haste,
With cooling milk, we make the sweet repast.
No carving to be done, no knife to grate
The tender ear, and wound the stony plate;
But the smooth spoon, just fitted to the lip,
And taught with art the yielding mass to dip,
By frequent journeys to the bowl well stored,
Performs the hasty honors of the board.”
Such is thy name, significant and clear,—
A name, a sound, to every Yankee dear;
But most to me, whose heart and palate chaste
Preserve my pure, hereditary taste.
Barlow.
YORKSHIRE PUDDING.
The strong table groans
Beneath the smoking sirloin, stretch’d immense
From side to side; in which with desperate knife
They deep incisions make, and talk the while
Of England’s glory, ne’er to be defaced
While hence they borrow vigor; or amain
Into the pudding plunged at intervals,
If stomach keen can intervals allow,
Relating all the glories of the chase.
Thomson.
This pudding is especially an excellent accompaniment to a sirloin of beef. Six tablespoonfuls of flour, three eggs, a teaspoonful of salt, and a pint of milk, make a middling stiff batter; beat it up well; take care it is not lumpy. Put a dish under the meat; let the drippings drop into it, till it is quite hot and well greased; then pour in the batter. When the upper surface is browned and set, turn it, that both sides may be brown alike. A pudding an inch thick will take two hours. Serve it under the roast beef, that the juice of the beef may enter it. It is very fine.
SUET PUDDING.
Sir Balaam now, he lives like other folks;
He takes his chirping, and cracks his jokes.
Live like yourself, was soon my lady’s word;
And lo! suet pudding was seen upon the board.
Pope.
Suet, a quarter of a pound; flour, three tablespoonfuls; eggs two, and a little grated ginger; milk, half a pint. Mince the suet as fine as possible; roll it with the rolling-pin, so as to mix it well with the flour; beat up the eggs, mix them with the milk, and then mix them all together; wet your cloth well in boiling water, and boil it an hour and a quarter. Mrs. Glasse has it: “When you have made your water boil, then put your pudding into your pot.”
OATMEAL PUDDING.
Of oats decorticated take two pounds,
And of new milk enough the same to drown;
Of raisins of the sun, stoned, ounces eight;
Of currants, cleanly picked, an equal weight;
Of suet, finely sliced, an ounce at least;
And six eggs, newly taken from the nest:
Season this mixture well with salt and spice;
’Twill make a pudding far exceeding rice;
And you may safely feed on it like farmers,
For the recipe is learned Dr. Harmer’s.
EVE’S PUDDING.
If you want a good pudding, mind what you are taught:
Take eggs, six in number, when bought for a groat;
The fruit with which Eve her husband did cozen,
Well pared and well chopped, take at least half a dozen;
Six ounces of bread—let the cook eat the crust—
And crumble the soft as fine as the dust;
Six ounces of currants from the stalks you must sort,
Lest they husk out your teeth, and spoil all the sport;
Six ounces of sugar won’t make it too sweet,
And some salt and some nutmeg will make it complete.
Three hours let it boil, without any flutter,
And Adam won’t like it without sugar and butter.
Anonymous.
CHARLOTTE DES POMMES.
Charlotte, from rennet apples first did frame
A pie, which still retains her name.
Though common grown, yet with white sugar stewed,
And butter’d right, its goodness is allowed.
King.
Pare, core, and mince fifteen French rennet apples; put them into a frying-pan with some powdered loaf sugar, a little pounded cinnamon, grated lemon-peel, and two ounces and a half of fresh butter; fry them a quarter of an hour over a quick fire, stirring them constantly. Butter the shape the size the Charlotte is intended to be; cut strips of bread long enough to reach from the bottom to the rim of the shape, so that the whole be lined with bread; dip each bit into melted butter, and put a layer of fried apples, and one of apricot jam or marmalade, and then one of bread dipped into butter; begin and finish with it. Bake it in an oven for an hour. Turn it out to serve.
BATTER PUDDING.
A frugal man, upon the whole,
Yet loved his friend, and had a soul;
Knew what was handsome, and would do’t
On just occasion, coÛte qui coÛte.
He brought him bacon (nothing lean);
Pudding, that might have pleased a dean;
Cheese, such as men of Suffolk make,
But wished it Stilton for his sake.
Pope.
Take six ounces of flour, a little salt, and three eggs; beat it well with a little milk, added by degrees, till the batter becomes smooth; make it the thickness of cream; put it into a buttered and floured bag; tie it tightly; boil one and a half hour, or two hours. Serve with wine sauce.
APPLE DUMPLINGS.
By the rivulet, on the rushes,
Beneath a canopy of bushes,
Colin Blount and Yorkshire Tray
Taste the dumplings and the whey.
Smart.
Pare and scoop out the core of six large baking apples; put part of a clove and a little grated lemon-peel inside of each, and enclose them in pieces of puff paste; boil them in nets for the purpose, or bits of linen, for an hour. Before serving, cut off a small bit from the top of each, and put a teaspoonful of sugar and a bit of fresh butter; replace the bit of paste, and strew over them pounded loaf sugar.
SWEETMEAT FRITTERS.
If chronicles may be believed,
So loved the pamper’d gallant lived,
That with the nuns he always dined
On rarities of every kind;
Then hoards, occasionally varied,
Of biscuits, sweetmeats, nuts, and fruits.
Cut small any sort of candied fruit, and heat it with a bit of fresh butter, some good milk, and a little grated lemon-peel; when quite hot, stir in enough of flour to make it into a stiff paste; take it off the fire, and work in eight or ten eggs, two at a time. When cold, form the fritters, fry, and serve them with pounded loaf sugar strewed over them.
FRITTERS.
Methinks I scent some rich repast:
The savor strengthens with the blast.
Gay.
Take a dozen apricots, or any other fruit preserved in brandy; drain them in half; then wrap them in wafers, cut round, and previously moistened. Make the batter by putting a glass and a half of water, a grain of salt, and two ounces of fresh butter, into a saucepan. When it boils, stir in sufficient quantity of flour to make it rather a firm batter; keep it stirring three minutes; then pour it into another vessel: dip the fruit in this batter, and fry them; sprinkle them with sugar, then serve.
