Miss Beecher's Domestic Receipt Book / Designed as a Supplement to Her Treatise on Domestic Economy

by Catharine Esther Beecher

BROILED MEATS.

General Remarks.

It is best to oil the bars of the gridiron with suet and also warm them before putting the meat on. Chalk is sometimes rubbed on to the gridiron, when fish is to be broiled. It is desirable to keep a gridiron expressly for fish, otherwise meat is often made to taste fishy.

Broiled Ham.

Cut the ham into thin slices, and broil it very quickly over a hot fire, then put on butter and a little pepper.

Broiled Veal Cutlets.

Cut the veal into slices a quarter of an inch thick, lay them on the gridiron with an equal number of slices of salt pork beside them. When cooked, put the veal on to the dish, butter, salt, and pepper it well, and lay the salt pork on the top of it. Veal needs to broil a good while, till it looks done when cut open.

Broiled Mutton Chops.

These must be broiled over a quick fire and not cooked so much as veal.

Broiled Pork Steaks.

These must be cut rather thin, broiled quick, and very thoroughly.

Beef Steaks.

Those from the sirloin are best, those from the shoulder clod and round are not so good, but cheaper. Meat, if tough, is made more tender by pounding, if it is done very thoroughly, so as to break the fibres. Cut the steaks from half an inch to an inch thick. Broil on hot coals, and the quicker it is done the better. Ten or twelve minutes is enough time. Turn it four or five times, and when done put on butter, salt, and if you like pepper, and on both sides. Do not let your butter be turned to oil before putting it on. It is best to have beef tongs to turn beef, as pricking it lets out the juices. Often turning prevents the surface from hardening and cooks it more equally.

Beef Liver.

Cut it in slices half an inch thick, pour boiling water on it, broil it with some thin slices of salt pork dipped in flour; then cut the liver and pork up into mouthfuls, put them in a frying-pan with a little butter, pepper, and salt, and stew them three or four minutes.

To Poach Eggs.

Beat the eggs to a froth, pour them into a buttered tin, set it on coals, add salt and butter, stir till cooked, and then put it on to buttered toast.

To Boil Eggs.

Put them into boiling water and allow three minutes if you wish only the white hardened, and five minutes if you wish them hard. Another and more delicate way is to break them into boiling water and let them boil three or four minutes. Then take them up with a skimmer, draining them well, and lay them on buttered toast, and spread a little butter on them.

Another, and the best way to boil them when in the shell, is to pour on boiling water and let them stand five minutes. Then pour it off and pour on more boiling water, and let them stand five minutes longer.

This is the way in which they are cooked in egg boilers, which are set upon the table.

A Salt Relish.

Cut salt pork into thin slices, fry them till crisp, take them out and pour a little water to the fat, dredge in a little flour, and put in a little pepper. Then cut up the pork in mouthfuls and put to this gravy.

Egg Frizzle (very good).

Pour boiling water on to salt, smoked beef slivered. Pour off the water and then frizzle it in the frying-pan with butter. When done, break in two or three eggs, and stir it till the egg is hardened.

Frizzled Beef.

Sliver smoked beef, pour on boiling water to freshen it, then pour off the water and frizzle the beef in butter.

Veal Cheese.

Prepare equal quantities of sliced boiled veal and smoked tongue, boiled, skinned, and sliced.

Pound each separately in a mortar, moistening with butter as you proceed.

Then take a stone jar, or tin can, and mix them in it, so that it will, when cut, look mottled and variegated. Press it hard and pour on melted butter. Keep it covered in a dry place. To be used at tea in slices.

A Codfish Relish.

Take thin slivers of codfish, lay them on hot coals, and when a yellowish brown, set them on the table.

Another Way.

Sliver the codfish fine, pour on boiling water, drain it off, and add butter, and a very little pepper, and heat them three or four minutes, but do not let them fry.

Salt Herrings.

Heat them on a gridiron, remove the skin, and then set them on the table.

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[CHAPTER VI.]
SOUPS.

The delicate and proper blending of savors is the chief art of good soup-making.

Be sure and skim the grease off the soup when it first boils, or it will not become clear. Throw in a little salt to bring up the scum. Remove all the grease.

Be sure and simmer softly, and never let a soup boil hard.

Put the meat into cold water, and let it grow warm slowly. This dissolves the gelatine, allows the albumen to disengage, and the scum to rise, and diffuses the savory part of the meat. But if the soup is over a hot fire the albumen coagulates and hardens the meat, prevents the water from penetrating, and the savory part from disengaging itself. Thus the broth will be without flavor, and the meat tough. Allow about two tablespoonfuls of salt to four quarts of soup, where there are many vegetables, and one and a half where there are few.

Be sure not to leave any fat floating on the surface.

A quart of water, or a little less, to a pound of meat is a good rule.

Soup made of uncooked meat is as good the second day, if heated to the boiling point.

If more water is needed, use boiling hot water, as cold or lukewarm spoils the soup.

It is thought that potato water is unhealthy; and therefore do not boil potatoes in soup, but boil elsewhere, and add them when nearly cooked.

The water in which poultry, or fresh meat is boiled should be saved for gravies, or soup, the next day. If you do not need it, give it to the poor.

Keep the vessel covered tight in which you boil soup, that the flavor be not lost.

Never leave soup in metal pots, as sometimes a family is thus poisoned.

Thickened soups require more seasoning; nearly double the quantity used for thin soups.

French Vegetable Soup.

Take a leg of lamb, of moderate size, and four quarts water. Of potatoes, carrots, cabbage, onions, tomatoes, and turnips take a tea-cup full of each, chopped fine. Salt and black pepper to your taste.

Wash the lamb, and put it into the four quarts of cold water. When the scum rises take it off carefully with a skimmer. After having pared and chopped the vegetables, put them into the soup. Carrots require the most boiling, and should be put in first; onions require the least boiling, and are to be put in the last.

This soup requires about three hours to boil.

Plain Calf’s Head Soup.

Boil the head and feet in just water enough to cover them; when tender take out the bones, cut in small pieces, and season with marjoram, thyme, cloves, salt, and pepper.

Put all into a pot, with the liquor, and four spoonfuls of thin batter, stew gently an hour, then, just as you take it up, add two or three glasses of Port wine, and the yolks of eggs boiled hard.

An Excellent Simple Mutton Soup.

Put a piece of the fore quarter of mutton into salted water, enough to more than cover it, and simmer it slowly two hours. Then peel a dozen turnips, and six tomatoes, and quarter them, and boil them with the mutton till just tender enough to eat. Thicken the soup with pearl barley. Some add sliced tomatoes, or the juice and rind of a lemon. Use half a tea-cup of rice if you have no pearl barley.

Pea Soup.

Soak dry peas over night, putting a quart of water to each quart of peas. Next morning boil them an hour in this water, and ten minutes before the hour expires put in a teaspoonful of saleratus. Change them to fresh water, put in a pound of salt pork, and boil three or four hours, till the peas are soft. Green peas need no soaking, and must boil not more than an hour. When taken up, add butter.

Portable Soup.

Boil down the meat to a thick jelly, season it highly with salt, spices, and wine, or brandy; when cold, cut it in square inches, and dry them in the sun. Keep them in a tight tin vessel, and when you use them put a quart of boiling water to one, or two of the cakes, which should be one inch square, and the fourth of an inch thick. Vegetables can be added.

A Rich Mock Turtle Soup.

Divide the lower from the upper part of the head, and put the head in a gallon of water, and boil till tender.

Strain the liquor, and let it stand till the next day, and then take off the fat. Three quarters of an hour before serving it, hang it over the fire and season it with pepper, salt, mace, cloves, and sweet herbs, tied up in a small bag; add half a pint of rich gravy. Darken it with fried sugar, or browned flour; add the juice of two lemons, the yolks of eight eggs, boiled hard, and force meat balls. Just before taking up, pour in half a pint of wine.

Another Dry Pea Soup.

Soak the peas over night. Put a pound and a half of split peas into four quarts of water, with roast beef, or mutton bones, and a ham bone, or slices of ham. Add two heads of celery and two onions, and stew slowly till the peas are soft. Then strain the peas through a coarse sieve, and put them back and season to your taste with pepper and salt. Let it boil one hour longer. When you have no celery use a teaspoonful of essence of celery, or a spoonful of celery vinegar.

Clam Soup.

Wash a peck of clams and boil them in a pint of water, till those on the top open and they come out easily. Strain the liquor, and add a quart of milk. When it just boils thicken with two and a half spoonfuls of flour, worked into three of butter, with pepper, mace, and other spices to your taste. It is better without spice.

Oyster Soup.

Put a gallon of water to a knuckle of veal, boil it to two quarts, strain and add the juice of the oysters you are to use. Add pepper and salt to your taste. Fifteen minutes before taking it up, put in the oysters. Ten minutes before taking up, put in eight rolled crackers, and after it stops boiling, add half a pint of milk.

Veal Soup.

Take the knuckle and put it into salted water, enough to cover it, and also put in a pound of ham. When it is boiled very tender take up the meat, and strain the soup, and add a head of celery, cut small, one onion, a turnip and carrot sliced, four sliced tomatoes, a dozen corns of pepper, and salt to your taste. Thicken with three great spoonfuls of rice, or vermicelli, or a thin flour paste. Simmer it gently till all the vegetables are done.

Almost any kind of meat can be made into soup, by taking the broth, and adding various kinds of seasoning and thickening; such as tomatoes, ochra, vermicelli, sweet herbs, and vegetables, and in such proportions as each one likes best. The preceding kinds of soup will be a guide as to proportions.

Macaroni Soup (Mrs. F.’s Receipt).

Take six pounds of beef, and put it into four quarts of water, with two onions, one carrot, one turnip, and a head of celery. Boil it down three or four hours slowly, till there is about two quarts of water, and let it cool. Next day take off the grease, without shaking the sediment, and pour it off into the kettle, half an hour before dinner (leaving the sediment out), and add salt to suit the taste, a pint of macaroni, broken into inch pieces, and a tablespoonful and a half of tomato catsup.

Southern Gumbo (Mrs. L.’s Receipt).

This is a favorite dish at the South and West, and is made in a variety of ways. The following is a very fine receipt, furnished by a lady, who has had an extensive opportunity for selection.

Fry one chicken, when cut up, to a light brown, and also two slices of bacon. Pour on to them three quarts of boiling water. Add one onion and some sweet herbs, tied in a rag. Simmer them gently three hours and a half. Strain off the liquor, take off the fat, and then put the ham and chicken, cut into small pieces, into the liquor. Add half a tea-cup of ochre, cut up; if dry, the same quantity; also half a tea-cup of rice. Boil all half an hour, and just before serving add a glass of wine and a dozen oysters, with their juice. Ochre is a fine vegetable, especially for soups, and is easily cultivated. It is sliced and dried for soups in winter.

Giblet Soup.

Take the feet, neck, pinions, and giblets of two fowls, and add a pound and a half of veal, and a slice of lean ham. Pour on three quarts of cold water, and boil gently till the meat is very soft. Strain off the liquor, and, when cold, take off the fat. Cut the giblets and meat into half-inch pieces; add a tablespoonful of flour with one of butter, and some of the soup to thin it. Then put into the soup the butter and meat, with some sweet herbs tied in a bag, with salt to your taste. Boil it half an hour and it is done.

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[CHAPTER VII.]
FISH.

Put fish into cold water to boil.

Remove any mud taste by soaking in strong salt and water.

It is cooked enough when it easily cleaves from the bone, and is injured by cooking longer.

Put a napkin under, to absorb dampness, when boiled fish is laid on the dish.

To fry, dip in egg and bread crumbs, and use lard, not butter. Garnish with parsley.

Halibut is best cut in slices, and fried, or broiled. Bass are good every way. Black fish are best broiled or fried. Shad are best broiled, and sprinkle them with salt some hours before broiling. Salt shad and mackerel must be soaked over night for broiling. Sturgeons are best fried; the part near the tail is best for this.

Directions for making Chowder.

The best fish for chowder are haddock and striped bass. Cut the fish in pieces of an inch thick, and two inches square. Take six or eight good-sized slices of salt pork, and put in the bottom of an iron pot, and fry them in the pot till crisped. Take out the pork, leaving the fat. Chop the pork fine. Put in the pot a layer of fish, a layer of split crackers, some of the chopped pork, black and red pepper, and chopped onion, then another layer of fish, split crackers, and seasoning. This do till you have used your fish. Then just cover the fish with water, and stew slowly till the fish is perfectly tender. Take out the fish, and put it in the dish in which you mean to serve it; set it to keep warm. Thicken the gravy with pounded cracker; add, if you like, mushroom catsup and Port wine. Boil the gravy up once, and pour over the fish; squeeze in the juice of a lemon, and garnish with slices of lemon.

If not salt enough from the pork, more must be added.

To Fry Fish.

Fry some slices of salt pork, say a slice for each pound, and when brown take them up, and add lard enough to cover the fish. Skim it well, and have it hot, then dip the fish in flour, without salting it, and fry a light brown. Then take the fish up, and add to the gravy a little flour paste, pepper, salt; also wine, catsup, and spices, if you like. Put the fish and pork on a dish, and, after one boil, pour this gravy over the whole.

Fish are good dipped first in egg and then in Indian meal, or cracker crumbs and egg, previous to frying.

To Boil Fish.

Fill the fish with a stuffing of chopped salt pork, and bread, or bread and butter, seasoned with salt and pepper, and sew it up. Then sew it into a cloth, or you cannot take it up well. Put it in cold water, with water enough to cover it, salted at the rate of a teaspoonful of salt to each pound of fish, and about three tablespoonfuls of vinegar. Boil it slowly for twenty or thirty minutes, or till the fin is easily drawn out. Serve with drawn butter and eggs, with capers or nasturtions in it.

Fish can be baked in the same way, except sewing it up in a cloth. Instead of this, cover it with egg and cracker, or bread crumbs.

To Broil Fish.

Salt fish must be soaked several hours before broiling. Rub suet on the bars of your gridiron, then put the fish flesh side down (some say skin side down, as it saves the juices better), and broil till nearly cooked through. Then lay a dish on it, and turn the fish by inverting the gridiron over the dish. Broil slowly, and never pile broiled fish one above another on the dish.

Baked Fish.

Cod, bass, and shad are good for baking. Stuff them with a seasoning made of bread crumbs or crackers, butter, salt, pepper, and, if you like, spices. Put the fish in a bake-pan, with a tea-cup of water, and a bit of butter, and bake from forty-five to sixty minutes.

Cod Sounds and Tongues.

Soak them four hours in blood-warm water, then scrape off the skin, cut them up, and stew them in a little milk till tender. Just before taking up stir in butter, and a little flour paste, and scatter cold boiled eggs cut up over them.

To Cook Salt Codfish.

Soak the fish in a pailful of water all night. Then hang it in a good deal of water where it will be kept warm. Put one even great spoonful of saleratus in the water. (This last softens it as nothing else will do.) Change the water an hour before dinner, and hang it where it will get scalding hot. It must not boil, but only simmer. Take it up into a napkin, so as to keep it dry and hot.

To Cook Cold Codfish.

Mash boiled potatoes, mash the fish and mix with them, adding some cream or milk, and a little pepper, make them into round cakes an inch thick, and fry them in fresh lard.

To Cook Oysters.

Oysters are best roasted in the shell, convex side downward, to hold the juices, and cooked till they will open well. They are good also cooked in a batter made by adding wheat flour to the juice till it is a batter, and adding two eggs and a salt spoonful of salt. Fry in hot lard to a light brown.

Lobsters.

These must never be cooked after they are dead. Put them alive into boiling water, and boil them till the small joints come off easily.

Scolloped Oysters.

Take the oysters from the liquor, and place some at the bottom of the dish, then grate some bread over them, a little nutmeg, pepper, salt, and cloves. Add another laying of oysters, and the seasoning, a little butter, and a glass of wine. Cover the whole with grated bread, and bake half an hour, or perhaps a little more. There will be liquor enough without adding any water or oyster broth.

Pickled Oysters.

After taking out the oysters, to each quart of liquor put a teaspoonful of pepper, two blades of mace, three tablespoonfuls of white wine, and four of vinegar, also a tablespoonful of salt. Simmer the oysters in this five minutes, then take them out and put in jars, then boil the pickle, skim it, and pour it over them.

To Crimp Fresh Fish.

Cut in slices and lay them for three hours in salt and water, and a glass of vinegar, then fry or broil them.

To Cook Eels.

Dress them, lay them open flat, rub them with salt and pepper, cut them in short pieces, and broil them. Small ones are best skinned and fried.

To Cook Scollops.

Boil them, take out the hearts (which is the only part used), dip them in flour and fry brown in lard, or stew with butter, pepper, salt, and a little water.

A Good Way of Using Cold Fresh Fish.

Take cold cooked fish, chop it with bread crumbs, pepper, salt, and boiled salt pork, or ham; season with salt, pepper, catsup, or wine. Mould into balls with egg and bread crumbs, and fry in lard.

To Cook Clams.

Thin-edged clams are the best ones. Roast them in a pan over a hot fire, or in a hot oven, placing them so as to save the juice. When they open, empty the juice into a sauce-pan, and add the clams with butter, pepper, and very little salt.

To boil them, put them in a pot with a very little water, and so as to save their juices. Proceed as above, and lay buttered toast in the dish when you take them up. Clams are good put into a batter and fried.

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[CHAPTER VIII.]
ON THE PREPARATION OF HASHES, GRAVIES, AND SAUCES.

There is nothing worse for the health, or for the palate, than a poor hash, while a good hash is not only a favorite dish in most families, but an essential article of economy and convenience. For this reason, a separate article is devoted to this subject.

The following are the ways in which hashes are spoilt.

The first is by cooking them. Meat, when once cooked, should only be heated. If it is again stewed or fried, it tends to make it hard and tough, and diminishes its flavor.

The second is by frying the butter or gravy in which they are prepared. It has been shown that this is very injurious to the healthfulness of food. Butter and oils may be melted without changing their nature, but when cooked, they become much more indigestible and injurious to weak stomachs.

The third mode of injuring hashes is by putting in flour in such ways that it is not properly cooked. Flour dredged on to hashes while they are cooking generally imparts the raw taste of dough.

The fourth mode is by putting in so much water as to make them vapid, or else so much grease as to make them gross.

The fifth is by seasoning them with so little care, that they either have very little savory taste, or else are so hot with pepper and spice as to be unhealthy.

If a housekeeper will follow these directions, or give them to a cook who will follow them exactly, she will always have good and healthful hashes.

To prepare Gravy for a Cold Beef Hash, or Steak Hash.

For a small dish for six persons, put a tea-cup and a half of boiling water into a small sauce-pan, and make a thin paste with a heaping teaspoonful of flour, wet with a great spoonful of cold water. Stir it in, and boil it three minutes. Then put in half a teaspoonful of black pepper and rather more salt, and let it stand where it will be kept hot, but not boiling, till fifteen minutes before it is to be used.

Then cut the beef into half-inch mouthfuls and take as many mouthfuls of cold boiled potato, and half as many of cold turnip. Put these all together into a tin pan the size of a dining plate. Then stir in two great spoonfuls of butter into the gravy till melted, and, if you like tomato catsup, add a great spoonful, and pour it over the hash, and cover it with a plate and let it heat on the stove, or trivet, ten minutes, and then serve it.

If the hash is made without vegetables, take only a tea-cup full of water, and a teaspoonful of flour, and a little less pepper and salt.

If you have the beef gravy of yesterday, use it instead of butter, and put in less pepper, salt, butter, and water, and only one spoonful of butter.

If tomatoes are liked, peel and slice two large ones, and add with the potatoes and turnips.

Let a housekeeper try this, and then vary it to her own taste, or the taste of her family, and then write the exact proportions for the use of all the future cooks of her family.

Gravy for a Mutton Hash, or Venison Hash.

For a dish for six persons, take a tea-cup and a half of boiling water, and slice fine one small onion (say one an inch in diameter) into it, to give a slight flavor of onion, and thus hide the strong mutton taste. Mix a thin paste made with a heaping teaspoonful of flour, wet with a great spoonful of water, stir it in, and let it boil three minutes, adding a half a teaspoonful of black pepper, and rather more salt. Then set it where it will keep hot, but not boil, till wanted.

Cut the mutton into half-inch mouthfuls, leaving out most of the fat. Cut up the same number of mouthfuls of cold boiled potatoes, and half as much cold boiled turnips, and slice in two large peeled tomatoes, or cold boiled parsnip, or both. Mix them in a tin pan the size of a dining plate, stir two great spoonfuls of butter into the gravy, and, if you like, a great spoonful of tomato catsup, and pour it on to the hash. Cover it with a plate, and set it to heat ten minutes on the stove, or on a trivet over coals.

If you do not put in vegetables, take less water, salt, and pepper. If you do not put in onion, put in a wine-glass of currant, plum, or grape jelly, or squeeze in some lemon juice when you add the butter, and leave out the catsup, or not, as you like. Modify to suit your taste, and then write the proportions exactly, for all future cooks of your family.

To prepare a Veal Hash.

Take a tea-cup of boiling water in a sauce-pan, and mix in an even teaspoonful of flour wet with a spoonful of cold water, and let it boil five minutes. Then add, not quite half a teaspoonful of black pepper, as much salt, and two great spoonfuls of butter, and set it where it will keep hot, but not boil.

Chop the veal very fine, and mix with it, while chopping, half as much stale bread crumbs. Put it in a tin pan and pour the gravy on to it, and let it heat on a stove or trivet ten minutes.

Toast some bread and cut it into triangular pieces, and lay it on the bottom of a dish. Spread the hash over, and pour on the gravy. Cut slices of lemon to lay on the top and around the edge of the platter.

If you like a seasoning of sweet herbs with this hash, the nicest way is to tie some in a rag and boil it in the water of the gravy when you first mix it.

Common Gravies.

Pour out the drippings of the tin roaster through a gravy strainer, into a pan, and set it away till cold. Next day, scrape the sediment from the bottom and then use it to make gravy in place of butter, for hashes. Mutton drippings must never be used for cooking.

It is not fashionable to have gravy made for roast beef or mutton, as the juice of the meat is preferred, which, on the plate, is mixed with catsup or whatever is preferred.

Gravies for poultry are made as directed in the article on roasting meats.

Drawn butter is the foundation of most common gravies, and is to be prepared in either of the two ways described below.

Drawn Butter, or Melted Butter.

Rub in two teaspoonfuls of flour into a quarter of a pound of butter. Add five tablespoonfuls of cold water. Set it into boiling water and let it melt, and heat until it begins to simmer, and it is done. Never simmer it on coals, as it fries the oil and spoils it. Be careful not to have the flour in lumps. If it is to be used with fish, put in chopped eggs and nasturtions, or capers.

If used with boiled fowl, put in oysters while it is simmering, and let them heat through.

Another Mode of preparing Drawn Butter.

Make three teaspoonfuls of flour into a thin batter, and stir it into a tea-cup of boiling water in a sauce-pan, and let it boil five minutes. Then take it off, and cut up a quarter of a pound of butter into pieces, and put in and keep it hot till it is melted. This is the easiest way, and if it is for very rich cooking more butter may be added.

Drawn Meat Gravies, or Brown Gravies.

Put into a sauce-pan fresh meat cut in small pieces, seasoned with salt and pepper and a bit of butter, and heat it half an hour, till brown, stirring so that it shall not stick.

Pour on boiling water, a pint for each pound—simmer three hours and skim it well. Settle and strain it, and set it aside to use. Thicken, when you need it, with brown flour, a teaspoonful to a half pint.

A Nice Article to use for Gravy, or Soup.

Take butter the size of an egg, add a tablespoonful of sugar, put it in a skillet, and stir it till a dark brown, then dredge in flour, and use it to darken gravy or soup.

Burnt Butter for Fish, or Eggs.

Heat two ounces of butter in a frying-pan, till a dark brown, then add a tablespoonful of vinegar, half a teaspoonful of salt, and half a dozen shakes from the pepper box.

Sauce for Salad, or Fish.

Take the yolk of two eggs boiled hard, mash them with a mustard spoonful of mustard, a little black pepper, a little salt, three tablespoonfuls of salad oil, and three of vinegar. A tablespoonful of catsup would improve it for many.

Wine Sauce for Mutton, or Venison.

Take half a pint of the liquor in which the meat was cooked, and when boiling, put in pepper, salt, currant jelly, and wine to your taste; add about a teaspoonful of scorched flour, mixed with a little water.

Oyster Sauce.

Take a pint of oyster juice, add a little salt and pepper, and a stick of mace, boil it five minutes, and then add two teaspoonfuls of flour, wet up in half a tea-cup of milk. Let this boil two minutes, then put in the oysters and a bit of butter the size of an egg; in two minutes take them up.

Lobster Sauce.

Mix in six tablespoonfuls of vinegar, the yolks of two boiled eggs, some of the lobster spawn, a mustard spoonful of mustard, two tablespoonfuls of salad oil or melted butter, and a little salt and pepper.

Apple Sauce.

Boil peeled and quartered tart apples, and put in butter and sugar to your taste. If boiled in cider with quinces, it will keep a long time. The fresh-made is best.

Celery Sauce for Boiled Fowls.

Take four or five celery heads, and cut up all but the green tops into small pieces, and boil it in half a pint of water till tender. Mix two teaspoonfuls of flour with a little milk and put in, with a salt spoonful of salt, and butter the size of an egg. When it boils, take it up.

Celery Vinegar.

This is fine to keep in the castor stand. Pound two gills of celery seed, and add sharp vinegar. Shake every day for a week or two. The flavor of sweet herbs and sage can be obtained by pouring vinegar on to them, and for three successive days taking them out, and putting in a fresh supply of herbs. It must be kept corked and sealed.

Essence of Celery, to flavor Soup.

Bruise celery seed, and steep it in brandy for a fortnight. An ounce to half a pint of brandy is enough. Half a teaspoonful will flavor soup.

Herb Spirit.

It is convenient sometimes to use herb spirit instead of the herbs. It is made thus. Take all the sweet herbs, as thyme, marjoram, sweet basil, and summer savory, dry, pound, sift, and steep in brandy for a fortnight; an ounce to half a pint.

Soup Powder.

The following is a very convenient article for soups. Dry, pound, and sift the following ingredients together. Take one ounce each, of lemon, thyme, basil, sweet marjoram, summer savory, and dried lemon peel, with two ounces of dried parsley, and a few dried celery seeds. Bottle it tight. Horseradish can be sliced thin, dried and pounded, and kept in a bottle for use. Mushrooms can be dried in a moderately warm oven, then powdered with a little mace and pepper, and kept to season soup or sauces.

Soy.

One pound of salt, two pounds of sugar, fried half an hour over a slow fire, then add three pints of boiling water, half a pint of essence of anchovies, a dozen cloves, and some sweet herbs. Boil till the salt dissolves, then strain and bottle it.

Tomato Catsup.

Pour boiling water on the tomatoes, let them stand until you can rub off the skin, then cover them with salt, and let them stand twenty-four hours. Then strain them, and to two quarts put three ounces of cloves, two ounces of pepper, two nutmegs. Boil half an hour, then add a pint of wine.

Mushroom Catsup.

Put the mushrooms in layers, with salt sprinkled over each layer, and let them stand four days. Then mash them fine, and to every quart add two-thirds of a teaspoonful of black pepper, and boil it in a stone jar set in boiling water two hours. Strain it without squeezing, boil the liquor, let it stand to cool and settle, then bottle, cork, and seal it, and set it in a cool place.

Walnut Catsup.

Bruise ten dozen young walnuts, add a quart of vinegar, and three-fourths of a pound of fine salt. Let them stand two weeks, stirring every day. Strain off the liquor, and add half an ounce of black pepper whole, thirty cloves, half an ounce of bruised nutmeg, half an ounce of ginger, and four sticks of mace. Boil the whole an hour, then strain and bottle tight.

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[CHAPTER IX.]
VEGETABLES.

Potatoes.

The great art of cooking potatoes is, to take them up as soon as they are done. Of course it is important to begin to cook them at the proper time.

When boiled, baked, fried, or steamed, they are rendered watery by continuing to cook them after they reach the proper point. For this reason, potatoes, to bake or boil, should be selected so as to have them nearly the same size. Begin with the largest first, and continue to select the largest till all are gone. Be careful that the water does not stop boiling, as thus the potatoes will be watery. Never boil them very hard, as it breaks them.

Boiled Potatoes.

Wash, but do not cut them. Put them in boiling water, having only a small quantity more than enough to cover them. Put salt in, say a great spoonful to half a pailful of potatoes. Boil them moderately; when nearly done, let them simmer slowly, and when cooked (as is discovered, not by their cracking, but by a fork) pour off the water, and let them stand till dry. Medium-sized potatoes, when young, will cook in from twenty to thirty minutes; when old, it requires double the time. When peeled they boil fifteen minutes quicker. Old potatoes, in the spring, are improved by soaking in water all night.

Other Modes of Cooking Potatoes.

After boiling and peeling them, divide them and lay them on a gridiron to brown. Or when cold, the day after boiling, cut them in slices, and cook them on a griddle, with just enough lard to make them brown, or you can brown them on a gridiron.

Another pretty mode for a fancy dish is, to peel large potatoes and then cut them round and round in shavings, as you pare an apple. Fry them with clean sweet lard in a frying-pan, till brown, stirring them to brown alike, drain them on a sieve, and after sprinkling a little fine salt over them, place them on the table.

Another tasteful mode is, after boiling and peeling them, to flour them, then dip them in the yolk of an egg, and roll them in fine bread crumbs. Then fry them till brown and they look very handsomely, and are excellent to the taste. Fry them without this preparation and they are very nice.

When potatoes become old, mash them fine, season with salt and butter, and a little cream or milk, place them in a dish, smoothing and shaping the top handsomely, and making checks with a knife; then brown them in a stove, or range-oven, and they are excellent. These can also be made into balls, dipped in egg and crumbs, and fried as directed above, and they look very handsomely.

Potatoes, when roasted, should be very carefully washed and rinsed, and then roasted in a Dutch oven, or stove oven. Notice, lest they be put in too soon, and thus be made watery by cooking too long.

The following is a very nice way of preparing potatoes for breakfast. Peel them, and cut them in very thin slices into a very little boiling water, so little that it will be evaporated when they are cooked. At this point, add salt to your taste, some cream, or if you have not cream put in a very little milk and a bit of butter. A little practice will make this a very favorite dish in any family. The art is, to cook the potatoes with very little water, so that it will be evaporated at the time the potatoes are done. They must be stirred while cooking occasionally.

Another mode is, to mash the potatoes and add salt, butter, and a little cream, and set them away. Then cut them in slices, and fry for breakfast.

Many think the following the best way of boiling potatoes. Peel them, and soak in cold water two hours. Boil in just enough water to cover them. When about done, pour off the water, and let them steam five minutes uncovered.

Turnips.

Boil turnips in a vessel by themselves. Try them with a fork, and if sweet and good, send them to the table when taken up. If watery, mash them, wring them in a cloth, and add salt and butter, and if the sweetness is gone, add a little white sugar, and they will be as good as new. Boil them in a good deal of water, with salt in it. If they boil too long, they lose their sweetness and become bitter. An hour is the medium time required.

Asparagus.

Keep it cool and moist on the cellar bottom till wanted.

Throw it into cold water, cut off all that is tough, tie it in small bundles, salt the water when boiling, and then put them in and let them boil from fifteen to twenty-five minutes. When done, take it up with a skimmer, lay it on buttered toast, and put butter on to it. Drain it well on the skimmer before putting it on the toast, or it will spoil the dish.

Beets.

Beets must not be cut, as this makes them lose their sweetness. Salt the water, and boil them in summer an hour, and in winter three hours.

Parsnips and Carrots.

Parsnips and carrots must be split, or else the outside is done too much before the inside is cooked sufficiently. Salt the water, and boil them when young half an hour, and two hours when old. Boil enough to have some to slice and fry for the next day’s dinner or breakfast, as they are much the best cooked in this way.

Onions.

Select the white kind, peel them and put them in boiling milk, a little salted, and boil them from half to three quarters of an hour. When taken up, drain in a colander, pour a little melted butter over them, or put on cold butter.

Jerusalem Artichokes.

Scrape them, and put them in boiling salted water. Boil large ones about two hours, then take them up and butter them.

Squashes.

Summer squashes boil whole, when very young. When older, quarter them, and take out the seeds. Put them into boiling salted water; when done, squeeze out the water by wringing in a cloth, and add butter and salt to your taste.

The neck part of the winter squash is the best; cut it into slices, peel it, boil it in salted water till tender, then drain off the water, and serve it without mashing, or, if preferred, wring it and season with butter and salt. What is left over is excellent fried for next day’s breakfast or dinner. It must be in slices, and not mashed. Save the water in which they are boiled, to make yeast or brown bread, for which it is excellent.

Cabbage and Cauliflowers.

Take off the outer leaves of a cabbage, cut the stalky part in quarters, down to the centre, put it in boiling salted water, and boil them from half an hour to an hour. Cabbages, like turnips, must have a good deal of water, or they will taste strong.

For cauliflowers, cut off all the leaves but the small ones mixed with the head, and boil in salted water till it is tender. Some wrap some of the large leaves around the head, and tie them on, and when cooked throw aside the leaves. Drain the cauliflower with a skimmer and eat it with drawn butter.

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Most vegetables must be put in water only sufficient to cover them, allowing a little more for evaporation. Strong vegetables like turnips, cabbage, and some of the greens, require a good deal of water.

Peas.

Peas, to be good, must be fresh from the vines. Throw them into boiling salted water, and cook them from fifteen to thirty minutes, according to their age. When old, they are improved by putting a very little saleratus into the water, say a quarter of a teaspoonful to half a peck of shelled peas.

Sweet Corn.

If it is to be boiled on the cob, put it in salted boiling water, and let it cook from twenty minutes to three quarters of an hour after it begins to boil, according to the age of the corn.

Succatosh.

If you wish to make succatosh, boil the beans from half to three quarters of an hour, in water a little salt, meantime cutting off the corn and throwing the cobs to boil with the beans. Take care not to cut too close to the cob, as it imparts a bad taste. When the beans have boiled the time above mentioned, take out the cobs, and add the corn, and let the whole boil from fifteen to twenty minutes, for young corn, and longer for older corn. Make the proportions two-thirds corn and one-third beans. Where you have a mess amounting to two quarts of corn and one quart of beans, take two tablespoonfuls of flour, wet it into a thin paste, and stir it into the succatosh, and let it boil up for five minutes. Then lay some butter in a dish, take it up into it, and add more salt if need be.

Beans.

Throw them into salted boiling water, and cook them from an hour to an hour and a half, according to the age. A little saleratus improves them when old; a piece as big as a pea will do. If you put in too much, the skins will slip off.

Egg Plant.

Boil them in a good deal of water a few minutes, to get out the bitter taste, then cut them in slices, and sprinkle a little salt on them. Then fry them brown in lard or butter. If they are fried on a griddle, with only butter enough to keep them from sticking, they are better than when more butter is used.

Baked Beans.

Pick over the beans the night before, and put them in warm water to soak, where they will be kept warm all night. Next morning pour off the water, and pour on boiling water, and let them stand and simmer till the beans are soft, and putting in with them a nice piece of pork, the skin gashed. Put them into the deep dish in which they are to bake, having water just enough to cover them. Bury the pork in the middle, so that the top will be even with the surface. All the garden beans are better for baking than the common field bean. They must bake in a moderately hot oven from two to three hours.

Tomatoes.

Pour on scalding water, and let them remain in it five minutes, to loosen the skins. Peel them, and put them in a stew-pan with a little salt and butter, and let them stew half an hour, and then pour them on to buttered toast.

Another Way.—Peel them, put them in a deep dish, put salt and pepper, and a little butter over them, then make a layer of bread crumbs, or pounded crackers, then make another layer of tomatoes, and over these another layer of crumbs, till the dish is filled. The top layer must be crumbs. Some persons put nutmeg and sugar with the other seasoning. Bake three quarters of an hour, or more, according to the size.

Another Way.—Peel them, put them in a stew-pan with some salt, boil them nearly half an hour, then put into them three or four beaten eggs, and more salt if needed, and very little pepper. Many would add a few small slices of onion. Most who have tried this last are very fond of it.

Greens.

Beet tops, turnip tops, spinach, cabbage sprouts, dandelions, cowslips, all these boil in salted water till they are tender, then drain in a colander, pressing hard. Chop them a little, and warm them in a sauce-pan, with a little butter.

Lay them on buttered toast, and if you like, garnish them with hard-boiled egg, cut in slices. If not fresh, soak them half an hour in salt and water.

Cucumbers.

The chief art of preparing cucumbers consists in making them cool and crisp. This is done by putting them in cold water for half an hour, and then cut them in thin slices into cold water. Then drain them in a colander, and season them with pepper, salt, and vinegar.

Cucumbers are very nice cooked in this way. Peel and cut them into quarters, take out the seeds, and boil them like asparagus. Put them on to buttered toast, and put a little butter over them.

Macaroni.

Mix a pint of milk, and a pint of water, and a teaspoonful of salt; put in two ounces of macaroni, and boil till the liquor is wasted and the macaroni tender. Put on butter, or pour over some gravy. Cut the macaroni in pieces of three or four inches, in order to help it out more conveniently.

Another Way.

Simmer it in thin gravy; when tender lay it in a dish, and grate on it old cheese, and over that grated bread. Pour over it melted butter, and set in a Dutch oven till of a brown color.

To Cook Hominy.

Wash in several waters, and boil it five hours, allowing two quarts of water, and half a teaspoonful of salt, to every quart of hominy. Drain it through a colander, and add butter and salt, if needed. The small-grained requires less water and time.

Macaroni Pudding, to eat with Meat.

Simmer a quarter of a pound of macaroni in plenty of water, until it is tender. Strain off the water, and add a pint of milk or cream, an ounce of grated cheese, and a teaspoonful of salt. Mix well together, and strew over the top two ounces of grated cheese and crumbs of bread. Brown it well, in baking, on the top. It will bake in a quick oven in half an hour. It is appropriate to be eaten with boiled ham, or forms a course by itself, after meat.

Salad.

Salad, to be in perfection, should be fresh gathered, and put into salted cold water, which will remove all insects. Let them stand half an hour, and then drain them thoroughly.

Mode of Dressing Salad.

Take the yolks of one or two eggs boiled hard, mash them fine, mix with them pepper, salt, mustard, oil, and vinegar to your taste. Then cut up the salad, and mix it with this preparation. This is usually done at table.

Mushroom.

Cut off the lower part of the stem, peel them, and put them in a sauce-pan, with just water enough to prevent their burning at the bottom, put in a little salt, and shake them occasionally while cooking, to prevent burning. When tender, add butter, salt, and pepper to your taste, and wine and spice, if you like them. Serve them on buttered toast.

Celeriac.

This is very good, and but little known. It resembles celery in flavor, and is much more easily cultivated. Scrape and cut the roots in slices. Boil them very tender, drain off the water, add a little salt, and turn in just milk enough to cover them. Then take them up and add a little butter.

Salsify, or Vegetable Oyster.

Boil it till tender, then pour off the water, and add a little milk, and a little salt and butter.

Another Way.—Parboil it, scraping off the outside, cut it in slices, dip it into beaten egg and fine bread crumbs, and fry it in lard.

Another Way.—Make a batter of wheat flour, milk and eggs, and a little salt. Cut the salsify in slices; after it is boiled tender, put it in the batter, and drop this mixture into hot fat by the spoonful. Cook them a light brown.

Southern Mode of Cooking Rice.

Pick over the rice, and wash it in cold water. To a pint of rice, put three quarts of boiling water, and half a teaspoonful of salt. Boil it just seventeen minutes from the time it fairly begins to boil. Then turn off all the water, and set it over a moderate fire, with the lid off, to steam fifteen minutes. Great care must be taken to be accurate. The rice water poured off is good to stiffen muslins.

Common Mode of Cooking Rice.

To a pint of clean rice, put three quarts of cold water, and a teaspoonful of salt. Boil it fifteen or twenty minutes, then pour off the water, add milk and some cream, and let it boil a few minutes longer. It should not be so soft as to lose its form.

In case you wish to fry it next morning, boil it longer in the water, and omit the milk, or not, as you please. It is always a good plan to boil a good deal, so as to have it next day for griddle cakes, or to cut in slices and fry.

Best Mode of Cooking Tomatoes.

This vegetable is much improved by cooking a long time.

Immediately after breakfast, begin by boiling two onions. If they are not liked, omit this part; but it is best to make the trial, as some can eat this, who cannot take onions any other way comfortably.

Pour boiling water over a dozen large tomatoes, and peel them. Cut them into a stew-pan; add a tea-cup and a half of bread crumbs, a teaspoonful of black pepper, a tablespoonful of salt, four tablespoonfuls of butter, and also the cooked onion. Set them where they will stew very slowly all the forenoon, the longer the better. Fifteen minutes before serving them, beat up six eggs, and add, and give them a good boil, stirring all the time. (Indiana Receipt.)

Sweet Potatoes.

The best way to cook sweet potatoes is to bake them with their skins on. When boiled, the largest should be put in first, so as to have all cook alike. Drain them and dry them, then peel them. They are excellent sliced and fried for breakfast next day; much better than at first.

Artichokes.

Boil them till tender, drain them, and serve them with melted butter.

Stewed Egg Plant.

Take the purple kind, stew till soft, take off the skin, mash it with butter and sweet herbs, grate bread over the top, and bake it till brown.

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[CHAPTER X.]
OVENS, YEAST, BREAD, AND BISCUIT.

On Constructing and Heating an Oven.

The best ovens are usually made thus. After the arch is formed, four or five bushels of ashes are spread over it, and then a covering of charcoal over that, then another layer of bricks over all. The use of this is, that the ashes become heated, and the charcoal being a non-conductor, the heat is retained much longer. In such an oven, cake and pies can be baked after the bread is taken out, and then custards after them. Sometimes four bakings are done in succession.

The first time an oven is used, it should be heated the day previous for half a day, and the oven lid kept up after the fire is out, till heated for baking.

As there is so little discretion to be found in those who heat ovens, the housekeeper will save much trouble and mortification by this arrangement. Have oven wood prepared of sticks of equal size and length. Find, by trial, how many are required to heat the oven, and then require that just that number be used, and no more.

The fire must be made the back side of the oven, and the oven must be heated so hot as to allow it to be closed fifteen minutes after clearing, before the heat is reduced enough to use it. This is called soaking. If it is burnt down entirely to ashes, the oven may be used as soon as cleared.

How to know when an Oven is at the right Heat.

An experienced cook will know without rules. For a novice, the following rules are of some use in determining. If the black spots in the oven are not burnt off, it is not hot, as the bricks must all look red. If you sprinkle flour on the bottom, and it burns quickly, it is too hot.

If you cannot hold your hand in longer than to count twenty moderately, it is hot enough.

If you can count thirty moderately, it is not hot enough for bread.

These last are not very accurate tests, as the power to bear heat is so diverse in different persons; but they are as good rules as can be given, where there has been no experience.

How to know when Bread is Sour, or Heavy.

If the bread is sour, on opening it quick and deeply with your fingers, and applying the nose to the opening, a tingling and sour odor escapes. This is remedied by taking a teaspoonful of saleratus, for every four quarts of flour, very thoroughly dissolved in hot water, which is to be put in a hole made in the middle, and very thoroughly kneaded in, or there will be yellow streaks.

If the bread is light and not sour, it will, on opening it deep and suddenly, send forth a pungent and brisk, but not a sour odor, and it will look full of holes, like sponge. Some may mistake the smell of light bread for that of sour bread, but a little practice will show the difference very plainly.

If the bread is light before the oven is ready, knead it a little without adding flour, and set it in a cool place.

If it rises too much, it loses all sweetness, and nothing but care and experience will prevent this. The best of flour will not make sweet bread, if it is allowed to rise too much, even when no sourness is induced.

How to treat Bread when taken from the Oven.

Never set it flat on a table, as it sweats the bottom, and acquires a bad taste from the table.

Always take it out of the tins, and set it up end way, leaning against something.

If it has a thick, hard crust, wrap it in a cloth wrung out of cold water.

Keep it in a tin box, in a cool place, where it will not freeze.

Yeast.

The article in which yeast is kept must, when new yeast is made, or fresh yeast bought, be scalded and emptied, and then have a salt spoonful of saleratus put in, and be rinsed out again with warm water. If it is glass, rinsing twice with warm water will answer. Junk bottles are best for holding yeast, because they can be corked tight, and easily cleansed.

Potato Yeast.

By those who use potato yeast, it is regarded as much the best, as it raises bread quicker than common home-brewed yeast, and, best of all, never imparts the sharp, disagreeable yeast taste to bread or cake, often given by hop yeast.

Mash half a dozen peeled boiled potatoes, and mix in a handful of wheat flour, and two teaspoonfuls of salt, and after putting it through a colander, add hot water till it is a batter. When blood warm, put in half a tea-cup of distillery yeast, or twice as much potato, or other home-brewed. When raised, keep it corked tight, and make it new very often in hot weather. It can easily be made when potatoes are boiled for dinner.

Home-made Yeast, which will keep Good a Month.

Four quarts of water, two handfuls of hops, eight peeled potatoes, sliced, all boiled soft, mixed and strained through a sieve. To this, add a batter, made one-third of Indian, and two-thirds of rye, in a pint of cold water, and then boil the whole ten minutes. When cool as new milk, add a tea-cup of molasses, a tablespoonful of ginger, and a tea-cup of distillery yeast, or twice as much home-brewed.

Home-brewed Yeast more easily made.

Boil a handful of hops half an hour in three pints of water. Pour half of it, boiling hot, through a sieve, on to nine spoonfuls of flour, mix, and then add the rest of the hop water. Add a spoonful of salt, half a cup of molasses, and when blood warm, a cup of yeast.

Hard Yeast.

This often is very convenient, especially for hot weather, when it is difficult to keep yeast.

Take some of the best yeast you can make, and thicken it with Indian meal, and if you have rye, add a little to make it adhere better. Make it into cakes an inch thick, and three inches by two in size, and dry it in a drying wind, but not it the sun. Keep it tied in a bag, in a dry, cool place, where it will not freeze.

One of these cakes is enough for four quarts of flour. When you wish to use it, put it to soak in milk or water for several hours, and then use it like other yeast.

Rubs, or Flour Hard Yeast.

This is better than hard yeast made with Indian.

Take two quarts of best home-brewed yeast, and a tablespoonful of salt, and mix in wheat flour, so that it will be in hard lumps. Set it in a dry, warm place (but not in the sun) till quite dry. Then leave out the fine parts to use the next baking, and put up the lumps in a bag, and hang it in a dry place.

In using this yeast, take a pint of the rubs for six quarts of flour, and let it soak from noon till night. Then wet up the bread to bake next day.

Brewer’s and distillery yeast cannot be trusted to make hard yeast. Home-brewed is the best, and some housekeepers say, the only yeast for this purpose.

Milk Yeast.

One pint of new milk, and one teaspoonful of fine salt. One large spoonful of flour. Mix, and keep it blood warm an hour. Use twice as much as the common yeast. Bread soon spoils made of this.

Wheat Bread of Distillery, or Brewer’s Yeast.

Take eight quarts of flour, and two of milk, a tablespoonful of salt, a gill and a half of distillery yeast, and sometimes rather more, if not first rate. Take double the quantity of home-brewed yeast.

Sift the flour, then make an opening in the middle, pour in a part of the wetting, and put in the salt. Then mix in a good part of the flour. Then pour in the yeast, and mix it well, then add the rest of the wetting, using up the flour so as to make a stiff dough. Knead it half an hour, till it cleaves clean from the hand.

This cannot be wet over night, as, if the yeast is good, it will rise in one or two hours.

Some persons like bread best wet with water, but most very much prefer bread wet with milk. If you have skimmed milk, warm it with a small bit of butter, and it is nearly as good as new milk.

You need about a quart of wetting to four quarts of flour. Each quart of flour makes a common-sized loaf.

Wheat Bread of Home-brewed Yeast.

Sift eight quarts of flour into the kneading tray, make a deep hole in the middle, pour into it a pint of yeast, mixed with a pint of lukewarm water, and then work up this with the surrounding flour, till it makes a thick batter. Then scatter a handful of flour over this batter, lay a warm cloth over the whole, and set it in a warm place. This is called sponge.

When the sponge is risen so as to make cracks in the flour over it (which will be in from three to five hours), then scatter over it two tablespoonfuls of salt, and put in about two quarts of wetting, warm, but not hot enough to scald the yeast, and sufficient to wet it. Be careful not to put in too much of the wetting at once.

Knead the whole thoroughly for as much as half an hour, then form it into a round mass, scatter a little flour over it, cover it, and set it to rise in a warm place. It usually will take about one quart of wetting to four quarts of flour.

In winter, it is best to put the bread in sponge over night, when it must be kept warm all night. In summer it can be put in sponge early in the morning, for if made over night, it would become sour.

Baker’s Bread.

Take a gill of distillery yeast, or twice as much fresh home-brewed yeast, add a quart of warm (not hot) water, and flour enough to make a thin batter, and let it rise in a warm place all night. This is the sponge.

Next day, put seven quarts of sifted flour into the kneading tray, make a hole in the centre, and pour in the sponge. Then dissolve a bit of volatile salts, and a bit of alum, each the size of a hickory-nut, and finely powdered, in a little cold water, and add it, with a heaping tablespoonful of salt, to the sponge, and also a quart more of blood-warm water.

Work up the flour and wetting to a dough, knead it well, divide it into three or four loaves, prick it with a fork, put it in buttered pans, and let it rise one hour, and then bake it about an hour. Add more flour, or more water, as you find the dough too stiff, or too soft.

A teaspoonful of saleratus can be used instead of the volatile salts and alum, but it is not so good.

Wheat Bread of Potato Yeast.

This is made like bread made with home-brewed yeast, except that you may put in almost any quantity of the potato yeast without injury. Those who use potato yeast like it much better than any other. The only objection to it is, that in summer it must be made often, as it will not keep sweet long. But it is very easily renewed. The chief advantage is, that it rises quick, and never gives the sharp and peculiar taste so often imparted to bread and cake by all yeast made with hops.

Potato Bread.

Rub a dozen peeled and boiled potatoes through a very coarse sieve, and mix with them twice the quantity of flour, mixing very thoroughly. Put in a coffee-cup full of home-brewed, or of potato yeast, or half as much of distillery yeast, also a teaspoonful of salt. Add whatever water may be needed to make a dough as stiff as for common flour bread.

An ounce or two of butter rubbed into the flour, and an egg beat and put into the yeast, and you can have fine rolls, or warm cakes for breakfast.

This kind of bread is very moist, and keeps well.

Cream Tartar Bread.

Three pints of dried flour, measured after sifting.

Two cups of milk.

Half a teaspoonful of salt.

One teaspoonful of soda (Super Carbonate).

Two teaspoonfuls of cream tartar.

Dissolve the soda in half a tea-cup of hot water, and put it with the salt into the milk. Mix the cream tartar very thoroughly in the flour: the whole success depends on this. Just as you are ready to bake, pour in the milk, knead it up sufficiently to mix it well, and then put it in the oven as quick as possible. Add either more flour or more wetting, if needed, to make dough to mould. Work in half a cup of butter after it is wet, and it makes good short biscuit.

Eastern Brown Bread.

One quart of rye.

Two quarts of Indian meal: if fresh and sweet, do not scald it; if not, scald it.

Half a tea-cup of molasses.

Two teaspoonfuls of salt.

One teaspoonful of saleratus.

A tea-cup of home-brewed yeast, or half as much distillery yeast.

Make it as stiff as can be stirred with a spoon with warm water. Let it rise from night till morning. Then put it in a large deep pan, and smooth the top with the hand dipped in cold water, and let it stand a while. Bake five or six hours. If put in late in the day, let it remain all night in the oven.

Rye Bread.

A quart of water, and as much milk.

Two teaspoonfuls of salt, and a tea-cup of Indian meal.

A tea-cup full of home-brewed yeast, or half as much distillery yeast.

Make it as stiff as wheat bread, with rye flour.

Rice Bread.—No. 1.

One pint of rice, boiled till soft.

Two quarts of rice flour, or wheat flour.

A teaspoonful of salt.

A tea-cup of home-brewed, or half as much distillery yeast.

Milk to make it so as to mould like wheat bread.

Rice Bread.—No. 2.

Three half pints of ground rice.

Two teaspoonfuls (not heaping) of salt.

Two gills of home-brewed yeast.

Three quarts of milk, or milk and water. Mix the rice with cold milk and water to a thin gruel, and boil it three minutes. Then stir in wheat flour till as stiff as can be stirred with a spoon. When blood warm, add the yeast. This keeps moist longer than No. 1.

Bread of Unbolted Wheat, or Graham Bread.

Three pints of warm water.

One tea-cup of Indian meal, and one of wheat flour.

Three great spoonfuls of molasses, or a tea-cup of brown sugar.

One teaspoonful of salt, and one teaspoonful of saleratus, dissolved in a little hot water.

One tea-cup of yeast.

Mix the above, and stir in enough unbolted wheat flour to make it as stiff as you can work with a spoon. Some put in enough to mould it to loaves. Try both. If made with home-brewed yeast, put it to rise over night. If with distillery yeast, make it in the morning, and bake when light.

In loaves the ordinary size, bake one hour and a half.

Apple Bread.

Mix stewed and strained apple, or grated apple uncooked, with an equal quantity of wheat flour; add yeast enough to raise it, and mix sugar with the apple, enough to make it quite sweet. Make it in loaves, and bake it an hour and a half, like other bread.

Pumpkin Bread.

Stew and strain some pumpkin, stiffen it with Indian meal, add salt and yeast, and it makes a most excellent kind of bread.

Walnut Hill’s Brown Bread.

One quart of sour milk, and one teaspoonful of salt.

One teaspoonful of pulverized saleratus, and one tea-cup of molasses put into the milk.

Thicken with unbolted wheat, and bake immediately, and you have first-rate bread, with very little trouble.

French Rolls, or Twists.

One quart of lukewarm milk.

One teaspoonful of salt.

A large tea-cup of home-brewed yeast, or half as much distillery yeast.

Flour enough to make a stiff batter.

Set it to rise, and when very light, work in one egg and two spoonfuls of butter, and knead in flour till stiff enough to roll.

Let it rise again, and when very light, roll out, cut in strips, and braid it. Bake thirty minutes on buttered tins.

Raised Biscuit.

Rub half a pound of butter into a pound of flour.

One beaten egg.

A teaspoonful of salt.

Two great spoonfuls of distillery yeast, or twice as much home-brewed.

Wet it up with enough warm milk to make a soft dough, and then work in half a pound of butter. When light, mould it into round cakes, or roll it out and cut it with a tumbler.

Very Nice Rusk.

One pint of milk.

One coffee-cup of yeast. (Potato is best.)

Four eggs.

Flour enough to make it as thick as you can stir with a spoon.

Let it rise till very light, but be sure it is not sour; if it is, work in half a teaspoonful of saleratus, dissolved in a wine-glass of warm water.

When thus light, work together three quarters of a pound of sugar and nine ounces of butter; add more flour, if needed, to make it stiff enough to mould. Let it rise again, and when very light, mould it into small cakes. Bake fifteen minutes in a quick oven, and after taking it out, mix a little milk and sugar, and brush over the rusk, while hot, with a small swab of linen tied to a stick, and dry it in the oven. When you have weighed these proportions once, then measure the quantity, so as to save the trouble of weighing afterward. Write the measures in your receipt-book, lest you forget.

Potato Biscuit.

Twelve pared potatoes, boiled soft and mashed fine, and two teaspoonfuls of salt.

Mix the potatoes and milk, add half a tea-cup of yeast, and flour enough to mould them well. Then work in a cup of butter. When risen, mould them into small cakes, then let them stand in buttered pans fifteen minutes before baking.

Crackers.

One quart of flour, with two ounces of butter rubbed in.

One teaspoonful of saleratus in a wine-glass of warm water.

Half a teaspoonful of salt, and milk enough to roll it out.

Beat it half an hour with a pestle, cut it in thin round cakes, prick them, and set them in the oven when other things are taken out. Let them bake till crisp.

Hard Biscuit.

One quart of flour, and half a teaspoonful of salt.

Four great spoonfuls of butter, rubbed into two-thirds of the flour.

Wet it up with milk till a dough; roll it out again and again, sprinkling on the reserved flour, till all is used. Cut into round cakes, and bake in a quick oven on buttered tins.

Sour Milk Biscuit.

A pint and a half of sour milk, or buttermilk.

Two teaspoonfuls of salt.

Two teaspoonfuls of saleratus, dissolved in four great spoonfuls of hot water.

Mix the milk in flour till nearly stiff enough to roll, then put in the saleratus, and add more flour. Mould up quickly, and bake immediately.

Shortening for raised biscuit or cake should always be worked in after it is wet up.

A good Way to use Sour Bread.

When a batch of bread is sour, let it stand till very light, and use it to make biscuit for tea or breakfast, thus:

Work into a portion of it, saleratus dissolved in warm water, enough to sweeten it, and a little shortening, and mould it into small biscuits, bake it, and it is uncommonly good. It is so much liked that some persons allow bread to turn sour for the purpose. Bread can be kept on hand for this use any length of time.

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[CHAPTER XI.]
BREAKFAST AND TEA CAKES.

General Directions for Griddle and other Breakfast Cakes.

The best method of greasing a griddle is, to take a bit of salt pork, and rub over with a fork. This prevents adhesion, and yet does not allow the fat to soak into what is to be cooked.

In putting cakes on to griddles, be careful to form them a regular round shape, and put on only one at each dip, and so as not to spill between the cakes.

In frying mush, cold rice slices, and hominy cakes, cut them half an inch thick, and fry in fresh lard, with enough to brown them handsomely. Make the slices smooth and regular.

Buckwheat Cakes wet with Water.

Take a quart of buckwheat flour, and nearly an even tablespoonful of salt. Stir in warm water, till it is the consistency of thin batter. Beat it thoroughly. Add two tablespoonfuls of yeast, if distillery, or twice as much if home-brewed.

Set the batter where it will be a little warm through the night. Some persons never stir them after they have risen, but take them out carefully with a large spoon.

Add a teaspoonful of pearlash in the morning, if they are sour. Sift it over the surface, and stir it well.

Some persons like to add one or two tablespoonfuls of molasses, to give them a brown color, and more sweetness of taste.

Extempore Buckwheat Cakes.

Three pints of buckwheat.

One teaspoonful carbonate of soda, dissolved in water enough to make a batter, and when mixed, add a teaspoonful of tartaric acid, dissolved in a few spoonfuls of hot water. Mix it in, and bake immediately.

Use salt pork to grease the griddle.

Buckwheat Cakes wet with Milk.

One quart of flour, and in winter stir in lukewarm milk, till it is a thin batter, and beat it thoroughly, adding nearly an even tablespoonful of salt.

Add a small tea-cup of Indian meal, two tablespoonfuls of distillery yeast, or a good deal more if home-brewed; say half a tea-cup full. Set it where it will keep warm all night, and in the morning add a teaspoonful of saleratus, sifted over the top, and well stirred in. If sour, add more saleratus. This is the best kind of buckwheat cakes.

Griddle Cakes of Unbolted Wheat.

A quart of unbolted wheat, and a teaspoonful of salt. Wet it up with water, or sweet milk, in which is dissolved a teaspoonful of saleratus. Add three spoonfuls of molasses. Some raise this with yeast, and leave out the saleratus. Sour milk and saleratus are not as good for unbolted as for fine flour.

These are better and more healthful cakes than buckwheat.

Best Rice Griddle Cakes.

A pint and a half of solid cold boiled rice, put the night before in a pint of water or milk to soak.

One quart of milk, added the next morning.

One quart of flour stirred into the rice and milk.

Two eggs, well beaten.

Half a teaspoonful of saleratus, dissolved in a little hot water.

One teaspoonful of salt. Bake on a griddle.

Stale, or rusked bread in fine crumbs, are very nice made into griddle cakes by the above rule; or they can be mixed with the rice. The rice must be well salted when boiled.

A very delicate Omelet.

Six eggs, the whites beaten to a stiff froth, and the yolks well beaten.

A tea-cup full of warm milk, with a tablespoonful of butter melted in it.

A tablespoonful of flour, wet to a paste with a little of the milk and poured to the milk.

A teaspoonful of salt, and a little pepper.

Mix all except the whites; add those last; bake immediately, in a flat pan, or spider, on coals, and when the bottom is done, raise it up towards the fire, and bake the top, or cover with an iron sheet, and put coals on it. The remnants of ham, cut fine and added, improve this. Some like sweet herbs added, and some fine-cut onion.

Wheat Waffles.

One quart of flour, and a teaspoonful of salt.

One quart of milk, with a tablespoonful of melted butter in it, and mixed with the flour gradually, so as not to have lumps.

Three tablespoonfuls of distillery yeast. When raised, two well-beaten eggs.

Bake in waffle irons well oiled with lard each time they are used. Lay one side on coals, and in about two minutes turn the other side to the coals.

Miss B.’s Waffles (without yeast).

One quart of flour, and a teaspoonful of salt.

One quart of sour milk, with two tablespoonfuls of butter melted in it.

Five well-beaten eggs. A teaspoonful or more of saleratus, enough to sweeten the milk. Baked in waffle irons.

Some like one tea-cup full of sugar added.

Rice Waffles.

A quart of milk.

A tea-cup of solid boiled rice, soaked three hours in half the milk.

A pint and a half of wheat flour, or rice flour.

Three well-beaten eggs. Bake in waffle irons.

The rice must be salted enough when boiled.

Good Cakes for Tea, or Breakfast.

One pint of milk, and a salt spoonful of salt.

One teaspoonful of molasses, and a great spoonful of butter.

One egg well beaten, and two tablespoonfuls of distillery yeast, or twice as much home-brewed.

Stir the ingredients into flour enough to make a stiff batter.

Let it rise all night, or if for tea, about five hours. Add a salt spoonful of saleratus just before baking it, dissolved in warm water.

Bake in shallow pans, in a quick oven, half an hour.

Fried Rice for Breakfast.

Boil the rice quite soft the day before, so that it will adhere well. For breakfast, cut it in slices an inch thick, cook it on a griddle, with enough sweet lard to fry it brown. Cold mush is good in the same way.

It must be salted properly when boiling.

Fried Hominy.

When cold hominy is left of the previous day, it is very good wet up with an egg and a little flour, and fried.

Rye Drop Cake (excellent).

One pint of milk, and three eggs.

A tablespoonful of sugar, and a salt spoonful of salt.

Stir in rye flour, till about the consistency of pancakes.

Bake in buttered cups, or saucers, half an hour.

Wheat Drop Cake.

One pint of milk, and a little cream.

Three eggs, and a salt spoonful of salt.

With these materials make a thick batter of wheat flour, or unbolted flour. Drop on tins, and bake about twenty minutes. If unbolted flour is used, add a great spoonful of molasses.

Corn Griddle Cakes with Yeast.

Three coffee-cups of Indian meal, sifted.

One coffee-cup of either rye meal, Graham flour, or fine flour.

Two tablespoonfuls of yeast, and a salt spoonful of salt.

Wet at night with sour milk or water, as thick as pancakes, and in the morning add one teaspoonful of pearlash.

Bake on a griddle. If Graham flour is used, add a very little molasses.

Pilgrim Cake.

Rub two spoonfuls of butter into a quart of flour, and wet it to dough with cold water. Rake open a place in the hottest part of the hearth, roll out the dough into a cake an inch thick, flour it well both sides, and lay it on hot ashes. Cover it with hot ashes, and then with coals. When cooked, wipe off the ashes, and it will be very sweet and good.

The Kentucky corn cake, and common dough, can be baked the same way. This method was used by our pilgrim and pioneer forefathers.

Sour Milk Corn Cake.

One quart of sour milk, or buttermilk.

A large teaspoonful of pearlash.

A teaspoonful of salt.

Stir the milk into the meal enough to make a stiff batter, over night. In the morning dissolve the pearlash in warm water. Stir it up quickly, and bake it in shallow pans.

If the milk is sweet, it should be made sour by adding to it a tablespoonful of vinegar.

Corn Muffins (from the South).

One pint of sifted meal, and half a teaspoonful of salt.

Two tablespoonfuls of melted lard.

A teaspoonful of saleratus, in two great spoonfuls of hot water.

Wet the above with sour milk, as thick as for mush or hasty pudding, and bake in buttered rings on a buttered tin.

Corn Griddle Cakes with Eggs.

Turn one quart of boiling milk, or water, on to a pint of Indian meal.

When lukewarm, add three tablespoonfuls of flour, three eggs well beaten, and a teaspoonful of salt. Bake on a griddle.

Sachem’s Head Corn Cake.

One quart sifted Indian meal, and a teaspoonful of salt.

Three pints of scalded milk cooled, and a teaspoonful of saleratus, dissolved in two spoonfuls of hot water, and put into it.

Beat eight eggs, and mix all together. Bake one hour in pans, like sponge cake.

It looks, when broken, like sponge cake, and is very fine. If the whites are cut to a froth, and put in, just as it goes to bake, it improves it very much. Some think this improved by adding a tea-cup of sugar. Much depends on the baking, and if you fail, it is probably owing to the baking.

Royal Crumpets.

Three tea-cups of raised dough.

Four great spoonfuls of melted butter, worked into the dough.

Three well-beaten eggs.

One tea-cup of rolled sugar, beaten into the eggs.

Turn it into buttered pans, and bake twenty minutes.

Some like them better without the sugar.

Bachelor’s Corn Cake.

A pint of sifted corn meal, and a teaspoonful of salt.

Two spoonfuls of butter, and a quarter of a cup of cream.

Two eggs well beaten.

Add milk, till it is a thin fritter batter, and bake in deep tin pans. Beat it well, and bake with a quick heat, and it rises like pound cake.

Mrs. W.’s Corn Cake.

One pint of milk, and one pint of cream.

Two eggs, well beaten, and a teaspoonful of salt.

A teaspoonful of saleratus, dissolved in a little hot water.

Indian meal, enough to make a thick batter.

Throw the salt into the meal. Then stir in the milk and cream slowly. Beat the eggs, and add them. Add the saleratus last. Bake it one hour in shallow pans, well buttered.

Corn Muffins.

One quart of Indian meal, sifted.

A heaping spoonful of butter.

One quart of milk, and a salt spoonful of salt.

Two tablespoonfuls of distillery yeast, and one of molasses.

Let it rise four or five hours. Bake in muffin rings.

The same will answer to bake in shallow pans, like corn cake. Bake one hour.

Graham, or unbolted flour, is good made by this receipt.

Savoy Biscuit.

Beat six eggs into one pound of sugar, until white. Grate the outside of a lemon into it, mix in three quarters of a pound of flour, and drop them on buttered paper, a spoonful at a time.

Cream Cakes.

One quart of cream.

One quart of sifted flour.

One salt spoon of salt.

A wine-glass of distillery yeast, or twice as much home-brewed.

When quite light, bake in cups, or muffin rings.

Wheat Muffins.

One pint of milk, and two eggs.

One tablespoonful of yeast, and a salt spoonful of salt.

Mix these ingredients with sufficient flour to make a thick batter. Let it rise four or five hours, and bake in muffin rings. This can be made of unbolted flour, adding two great spoonfuls of molasses, and it is very fine.

Albany Breakfast Cakes.

Ten well-beaten eggs.

Three pints of milk, blood warm.

A quarter of a pound of melted butter, and two teaspoonfuls of salt.

A teaspoonful of saleratus, dissolved in a spoonful of hot water.

Make a thick batter with white Indian meal, and bake in buttered tins, an inch thick when put in. Bake thirty or forty minutes, in a quick oven.

Sally Lunn.

Seven cups of sifted flour.

Half a tea-cup of butter, warmed in a pint of milk.

One salt spoonful of salt, and three well-beaten eggs.

Two tablespoonfuls brewer’s yeast. If the yeast is home-made, use twice as much.

Pour this into square pans, to rise, and then bake it before it sours.

With brewer’s, or distillery yeast, it will rise in two or three hours, and must not be made over night. With home-brewed yeast, it rises in four or five hours.

Cream Tea Cakes.

One quart of flour, and a teaspoonful of salt.

One pint of sour cream, and half a tea-cup of melted butter.

Half a teaspoonful of saleratus, in a spoonful of hot water.

Mix lightly in dough, to mould in small cakes and bake in buttered tins.

Buttermilk Short Cakes.

Two quarts of flour, and a teaspoonful of salt.

Rub in two tea-cups full of soft butter, or lard, or beef drippings.

Work it up into a paste, with sour milk or buttermilk, and add a heaping teaspoonful of saleratus, dissolved in a spoonful of hot water.

Make a soft dough, and mould it into cakes, and bake it in buttered tins. If the shortening is fresh, add another teaspoonful of salt.

Wafers.

Two tablespoonfuls of rolled white sugar.

Two tablespoonfuls of butter.

One coffee-cup of flour, and essence of lemon, or rose water to flavor.

Add milk enough for a thick batter, bake in wafer irons, buttered, and then strew on white sugar.

Pennsylvania Flannel Cakes.

One quart of milk, and half a teaspoonful of salt.

Three eggs, the whites beaten separately to a stiff froth.

Mix the milk, salt, and yolks, stir in flour till a batter is made, suitable for griddle cakes. Then, when ready to bake, stir in the whites.

Rye flour is very fine, used in this way, instead of wheat, but the cakes adhere so much that it is difficult to bake them. Many love them much better than the wheat.

Kentucky Corn Dodgers.

Three pints of unsifted yellow corn meal.

One tablespoonful (heaped) of lard.

One pint of milk.

Work it well, and bake in cakes the size of the hand, and an inch thick.

Ohio Corn Cake.

One pint of thick sour cream, and one quart of milk, or buttermilk. If cream cannot be got, add a tablespoonful of melted lard, or butter.

Dissolve enough saleratus in the above to sweeten it, and thicken with yellow corn meal to the consistency of pound cake. Put it in buttered pans, an inch thick, and bake in a quick oven.

Scarborough Puffs.

Take one pint of new milk, and boil it. Take out one cup full, and stir into it flour enough to make a thick batter. Pour this into the boiling milk. Stir and boil until the whole is thick enough to hold a silver spoon standing upright. Then take it from the fire, and stir in six eggs, one by one. Add a teaspoonful of salt, and less than a tablespoonful of butter. Drop them by the spoonful into boiling lard, and fry like doughnuts. Grate on the outside sugar and spice.—(Maine Receipt.)

Cream Griddle Cakes.

One pint of thick cream, and a pint of milk.

Three eggs, and a teaspoonful of salt.

Make a batter of fine flour, and bake on a griddle.

Crumpets.

A quart of warm milk, and a teaspoonful of salt.

Half a gill of distillery yeast, and flour enough for a batter, not very stiff.

When light, add half a cup of melted butter, or a cup of rich cream, let it stand twenty minutes, and then bake it as muffins, or in cups.

Fine Cottage Cheese.

Let the milk be turned by rennet, or by setting it in a warm place. It must not be heated, as the oily parts will then pass off, and the richness is lost. When fully turned, put it in a coarse linen bag, and hang it to drain several hours, till all the whey is out. Then mash it fine, salt it to the taste, and thin it with good cream, or add but little cream and roll it into balls. When thin, it is very fine with preserves or sugared fruit.

It also makes a fine pudding, by thinning it with milk, and adding eggs and sugar, and spice to the taste, and baking it. Many persons use milk when turned for a dessert, putting on sugar and spice. Children are fond of it.

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[CHAPTER XII.]
PLAIN PUDDINGS AND PIES.

General Directions in regard to Puddings and Custards.

Make pudding-bags of thick close sheeting, to shut out the water. Before putting in the pudding, put the bag in water, and wring it out, then flour the inside thoroughly. In tying it, leave room to swell; flour and Indian need a good deal, and are hard and heavy if cramped.

Put an old plate in the bottom of the pot, to keep the bag from burning to the pot. Turn the pudding after it has been in five minutes, to keep the heavy parts from settling. Keep the pudding covered with water, and do not let it stop boiling, as this will tend to make it water soaked. Fill up with boiling water, as cold would spoil the pudding. Dip the bag a moment in cold water, just before turning out the pudding.

Avoid stale eggs. When eggs are used, the whites should be beat separately, and put in the last thing. In many cases, success depends upon this. Never put eggs into very hot milk, as it will poach them. Wash the salt out of butter used to butter pans, as otherwise it imparts a bad taste to the outside.

Put almonds in hot water till you are ready to blanch, or skin them, and put orange, or rose water with them when you pound them, to prevent adhesion. Boil custards in a vessel set in boiling water.

Little Girl’s Pie.

Take a deep dish, the size of a soup plate, fill it, heaping, with peeled tart apples, cored and quartered; pour over it one tea-cup of molasses, and three great spoonfuls of sugar, dredge over this a considerable quantity of flour, enough to thicken the syrup a good deal. Cover it with a crust made of cream, if you have it, if not, common dough, with butter worked in, or plain pie crust, and lap the edge over the dish, and pinch it down tight, to keep the syrup from running out. Bake about an hour and a half. Make several at once, as they keep well.

Little Boy’s Pudding.

One tea-cup of rice. One tea-cup of sugar. One half tea-cup of butter. One quart of milk. Nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt to the taste.

Put the butter in melted, and mix all in a pudding dish, and bake it two hours, stirring it frequently, until the rice is swollen.

This is good made without butter.

Children’s Fruit Dumpling.

Invert a plate in a preserve kettle, or an iron or brass kettle. Put in a quart or more of sliced apples or pears. Put in no water or sugar, but simply roll out some common dough an inch thick, and just large enough to cover them, and hang it over the fire fifteen or twenty minutes. When the fruit is cooked the dough will have risen to a fine puff, and also be cooked. There must not be any thing laid on the top of the dough to prevent it from rising, but the kettle may be covered. When it is done, take off the dough cover, with a fork and skimmer, put it on to a plate, pour the fruit into a round dish, put the cover on, and eat it with a sweet sauce. It is more healthful, and much better than dumplings boiled the common way.

Birth-day Pudding.

Butter a deep dish, and lay in slices of bread and butter, wet with milk, and upon these sliced tart apples, sweetened and spiced. Then lay on another layer of bread and butter and apples, and continue thus till the dish is filled. Let the top layer be bread and butter, and dip it in milk, turning the buttered side down. Any other kind of fruit will answer as well. Put a plate on the top, and bake two hours, then take it off and bake another hour.

Children’s Boiled Fruit Pudding.

Take light dough and work in a little butter, roll it out into a very thin large layer, not a quarter of an inch thick. Cover it thick with strawberries, and put on sugar, roll it up tight, double it once or twice and fasten up the ends. Tie it up in a bag, giving it room to swell. Eat it with butter, or sauce not very sweet.

Blackberries, whortleberries, raspberries, apples, and peaches, all make excellent puddings in the same way.

English Curd Pie.

One quart of milk. A bit of rennet to curdle it.

Press out the whey, and put into the curds three eggs, a nutmeg, and a tablespoonful of brandy. Bake it in paste, like custard.

Fruit Fritters.

A pint of milk. A pint and a half of flour. Two teaspoonfuls of salt. Six eggs, and a pint of cream if you have it; if not, a pint of milk with a little butter melted in it.

Mix with this, either blackberries, raspberries, currants, gooseberries, or sliced apples or peaches, and fry it in small cakes in sweet lard. Eat with a sauce of butter beat with sugar, and flavored with wine or nutmeg, or grated lemon peel.

Common Apple Pie.

Pare your apples, and cut them from the core. Line your dishes with paste, and put in the apple; cover and bake until the fruit is tender. Then take them from the oven, remove the upper crust, and put in sugar and nutmeg, cinnamon or rose water to your taste; a bit of sweet butter improves them. Also, to put in a little orange peel before they are baked, makes a pleasant variety. Common apple pies are very good to stew, sweeten, and flavor the apple before they are put into the oven. Many prefer the seasoning baked in. All apple pies are much nicer if the apple is grated and then seasoned.

Plain Custard.

Boil half a dozen peach leaves, or the rind of a lemon, or a vanilla bean in a quart of milk; when it is flavored, pour into it a paste made by a tablespoonful of rice flour, or common flour, wet up with two spoonfuls of cold milk, and stir it till it boils again. Then beat up four eggs and put in, and sweeten it to your taste, and pour it out for pies or pudding.

A Richer Custard.

Beat to a froth six eggs and three spoonfuls sifted sugar, add it to a quart of milk, flavor it to your taste, and pour it out into cups, or pie plates.

Another Custard.

Boil six peach leaves, or a lemon peel, in a quart of milk, till it is flavored; cool it, add three spoonfuls of sugar, and five eggs beaten to a froth. Put the custard into a tin pail, set it in boiling water, and stir it till cooked enough. Then turn it into cups, or, if preferred, it can be baked.

Mush, or Hasty Pudding.

Wet up the Indian meal in cold water, till there are no lumps, stir it gradually into boiling water which has been salted, till so thick that the stick will stand in it. Boil slowly, and so as not to burn, stirring often. Two or three hours’ boiling is needed. Pour it into a broad, deep dish, let it grow cold, cut it into slices half an inch thick, flour them, and fry them on a griddle with a little lard, or bake them in a stove oven.

Stale Bread Fritters (fine).

Cut stale bread in thick slices, and put it to soak for several hours in cold milk.

Then fry it in sweet lard, and eat it with sugar, or molasses, or a sweet sauce. To make it more delicate, take off the crusts.

To prepare Rennet.

Put three inches square of calf’s rennet to a pint of wine, and set it away for use. Three tablespoonfuls will serve to curdle a quart of milk.

Rennet Custard.

Put three tablespoonfuls of rennet wine to a quart of milk, and add four or five great spoonfuls of white sugar, flavor it with wine, or lemon, or rose water. It must be eaten in an hour or it will turn to curds.

Bird’s Nest Pudding.

Pare tart, well-flavored apples, scoop out the cores without dividing the apple, put them in a deep dish with a small bit of mace, and a spoonful of sugar in the opening of each apple. Pour in water enough to cook them; when soft, pour over them an unbaked custard, so as just to cover them, and bake till the custard is done.

A Minute Pudding of Potato Starch.

Four heaped tablespoonfuls of potato flour. Three eggs, and half a teaspoonful of salt. One quart of milk.

Boil the milk, reserving a little to moisten the flour. Stir the flour to a paste, perfectly smooth, with the reserved milk, and put it into the boiling milk. Add the eggs well beaten, let it boil till very thick, which will be in two or three minutes, then pour into a dish and serve with liquid sauce. After the milk boils, the pudding must be stirred every moment till done.

Tapioca Pudding.

Soak eight tablespoonfuls of tapioca in a quart of warm milk till soft, then add two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, five eggs well beaten, spice, sugar, and wine to your taste. Bake in a buttered dish, without any lining.

Sago Pudding.

Cleanse the sago in hot water, and boil half a pound in a quart of milk with a stick of mace or cinnamon, stirring very often, lest it burn. When soft, take out the spice and add half a cup of melted butter, four heaping spoonfuls of sugar, six eggs, and, if you like, some Zante currants, strewed on just as it is going into the oven.

Cocoanut Pudding (Plain).

One quart of milk.

Five eggs.

One cocoanut, grated.

The eggs and sugar are beaten together, and stirred into the milk when hot. Strain the milk and eggs, and add the cocoanut, with nutmeg to the taste. Bake about twenty minutes like puddings.

New England Squash, or Pumpkin Pie.

Take a pumpkin, or winter squash, cut in pieces, take off the rind and remove the seeds, and boil it until tender, then rub it through a sieve. When cold, add to it milk to thin it, and to each quart of milk three well-beaten eggs. Sugar, cinnamon, and ginger to your taste. The quantity of milk must depend upon the size and quality of the squash.

These pies require a moderate heat, and must be baked until the centre is firm.

Ripe Fruit Pies.

Peach, Cherry, Plum, Currant, and Strawberry.—Line your dish with paste. After picking over and washing the fruit carefully (peaches must be pared, and the rest picked from the stem), place a layer of fruit and a layer of sugar in your dish, until it is well filled, then cover it with paste, and trim the edge neatly, and prick the cover. Fruit pies require about an hour to bake in a thoroughly heated oven.

Batter Pudding.

One quart of milk.

Twelve tablespoonfuls of flour.

Nine eggs.

A teaspoonful of salt.

Beat the yolks thoroughly, stir in the flour, and add the milk slowly. Beat the whites of the eggs to a froth and add the last thing. Tie in a floured bag, and put it in boiling water, and boil two hours. Allow room to swell.

Mock Cream.

Beat three eggs well, and add three heaping teaspoonfuls of sifted flour. Stir it into a pint and a half of boiling milk, add a salt spoon of salt, and sugar to your taste. Flavor with rose water, or essence of lemon.

This can be used for cream cakes, or pastry.

Bread Pudding.

Three pints of boiled milk.

Eleven ounces of grated bread.

Half a pound of sugar.

A quarter of a pound of butter.

Five eggs.

Pour the boiling milk over the bread, stir the butter and sugar well together, and put them into the bread and milk. When cool enough, add the eggs, well beaten. Three quarters of an hour will bake it.

A richer pudding may be made from the above recipe by using twice as much butter and eggs.

Sunderland Pudding.

Six eggs.

Three spoonfuls of flour.

One pint of milk. A pinch of salt.

Beat the yolks well, and mix them smoothly with the flour, then add the milk. Lastly, whip the whites to a stiff froth, work them in, and bake immediately.

To be eaten with a liquid sauce.

An Excellent Apple Pie.

Take fair apples; pare, core, and quarter them.

Take four tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar to a pie.

Put into a preserving pan, with the sugar, water enough to make a thin syrup; throw in a few blades of mace, boil the apple in the syrup until tender, a little at a time, so as not to break the pieces. Take them out with care, and lay them in soup dishes.

When you have preserved apple enough for your number of pies, add to the remainder of the syrup, cinnamon and rose water, or any other spice, enough to flavor it well, and divide it among the pies. Make a good paste, and line the rim of the dishes, and then cover them, leaving the pies without an under crust. Bake them a light brown.

Boiled Apple Pudding.

One quarter of a pound of butter.

One pound of flour.

Two dozen apples.

Make a plain paste of the flour and butter. Sprinkle your pudding-bag with flour, roll the paste thin, and lay inside of the bag, and fill the crust with apples nicely pared and cored. Draw the crust together, and cut off any extra paste about the folds; tie the bag tight, and put it into boiling water. Boil it two hours. A layer of rice, nicely picked and washed, sprinkled inside the bag, instead of crust, makes a very good pudding, called an Avalanche.

Common dough rolled out makes a fine crust for the above, especially with a little butter worked in it. It is more healthful than the unleavened crust.

Spiced Apple Tarts.

Rub stewed or baked apples through a sieve, sweeten them, and add powdered mace and cinnamon enough to flavor them. If the apples are not very tart, squeeze in the juice of a lemon. Some persons like the peel of the lemon grated into it. Line soup dishes with a light crust, double on the rim, and fill them and bake them until the crust is done. Little bars of crust, a quarter of an inch in width, crossed on the top of the tart before it is baked, is ornamental.

Boiled Indian Pudding.

Three pints of milk.

Ten heaping tablespoonfuls of sifted Indian meal.

Half a pint of molasses.

Two eggs.

Scald the meal with the milk, add the molasses, and a teaspoonful of salt. Put in the eggs when it is cool enough not to scald them. Put in a tablespoonful of ginger. Tie the bag so that it will be about two-thirds full of the pudding, in order to give room to swell. The longer it is boiled the better. Some like a little chopped suet with the above.

Baked Indian Pudding.

Three pints of milk.

Ten heaping tablespoonfuls of Indian meal.

Three gills of molasses.

A piece of butter, as large as a hen’s egg.

Scald the meal with the milk, and stir in the butter and molasses, and bake four or five hours. Some add a little chopped suet in place of the butter.

Rice Balls, or German Pudding.

Two tea-cups of rice.

One quart of milk.

Four ounces of sugar.

One wine-glass of wine.

Spice to the taste.

Wash the rice carefully, and throw it in a pan of boiling salted water. Let it boil very fast seventeen minutes, then pour off the water, and in its place put one-third of the milk, and a stick of cinnamon. Let it boil till it is as thick as very stiff hasty pudding, then put in half the sugar; fill small tea-cups with this rice, and set them to cool. When cool, turn out the rice on to a large dish, pour over it a syllabub (not whipped), made of the remaining milk and sugar, with the wine. It is still better made with a syllabub of rich cream, and whipped.

Apple Custard.

Take half a dozen very tart apples, and take off the skin and cores. Cook them till they begin to be soft, in half a tea-cup of water. Then put them in a pudding dish, and sugar them. Then beat eight eggs with four spoonfuls of sugar, mix it with three pints of milk; pour it over the apples, and bake for about half an hour.

Rhubarb Pie.

Cut the stalks of the rhubarb into small pieces, and stew them with some lemon peel till tender. Strain them, sweeten to your taste, and add as many eggs as you can afford. Line pie plates with paste, and bake it like tarts, without upper crust.

Plain Macaroni or Vermacelli Puddings.

Put two ounces of macaroni, or vermacelli, into a pint of milk, and simmer until tender. Flavor it by putting in two or three sticks of cinnamon while boiling, or some other spice when done. Then beat up three eggs, mix in an ounce of sugar, half a pint of milk, and a glass of wine. Add these to the macaroni or vermacelli, and bake in a slow oven.

Green Corn Pudding.

Twelve ears of corn, grated. Sweet corn is best.

One pint and a half of milk.

Four well-beaten eggs.

One tea-cup and a half of sugar.

Mix the above, and bake it three hours in a buttered dish. More sugar is needed if common corn is used.

Bread Pudding for Invalids, or Young Children.

Grate half a pound of stale bread, add a pinch of salt, and pour on a pint of hot milk, and let it soak half an hour. Add two well-beaten eggs, put it in a covered basin just large enough to hold it, tie it in a pudding cloth, and boil it half an hour; or put it in a buttered pan in an oven, and bake it that time. Make a sauce of thin sweet cream, sweetened with sugar, and flavored with rose water or nutmeg.

Plain Rice Pudding, without Eggs.

Mix half a pint of rice into a quart of rich milk, or cream and milk. Add half a pint of sugar and nutmeg, and powdered cinnamon. Bake it two hours or more, till the rice is quite soft. It is good cold.

Another Sago Pudding.

Six tablespoonfuls of sago, soaked two hours in cold water, and then boiled soft in a quart of milk. Add four spoonfuls of butter, and twenty spoonfuls of sugar beaten into the yolks of six or eight eggs. Add currants or chopped raisins dredged with flour, and nutmeg, and cinnamon, or a grated lemon peel and juice. Bake it in a buttered dish three quarters of an hour. It is good cold.

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Note.—All custards are much improved by a little salt, say a small half teaspoonful to a quart of milk. In all the preceding receipts, where no butter is used, a little salt must be put in, say a small half teaspoonful to each quart. Many puddings are greatly injured by neglecting it.

Oat Meal Mush.

This is made just like Indian mush, and is called Bourgoo.

Modes of Preparing Apples for the Table.

Pippins are the best apples for cooking.

1. Put them in a tin pan, and bake them in a reflector or stove, or range oven, or a Dutch oven. Try them with a fork, and when done, put them on a dish, and if sour fruit, grate white sugar over them. Sweet ones need to bake much longer than sour. Serve them in a saucer with cream, or a thin custard.

2. Take tart and large apples, and peel them; take the cores out with an apple corer, put them in a tin, and fill the openings with sugar, and a small bit of orange or lemon peel, or a bit of cinnamon. Scatter sugar over the top, and bake till done, but not till they lose their shape. Try with a fork.

3. Peel large tart apples, and take out the cores with the apple corer. Put them in a Dutch oven, or preserving kettle, and simmer them till cooked through. Then take them out and put into the kettle a pint of the water in which they were boiled, and beat the white of an egg and stir in. Then throw in three or four cups of nice brown sugar, and let it boil up, and skim it till clear. Then put in the apples, and let them boil up for five minutes or more. Then put them in a dish for tea, and serve with cream if you have it; if not, take a pint or pint and a half of rich milk in a sauce-pan, and beat up two eggs, and stir in and cook it in a tin pail in boiling water, and serve it like cream to eat with the apple.

4. Peel large tart apples, put them in a tin pan with sugar in the openings, and bits of lemon or orange peel, or cinnamon, to flavor and scatter sugar over. Bake till soft, then put them in a dish, and pour over them a custard made of four eggs and a quart of milk.

5. Peel tart apples, and grate them in a dish, and grate in as much stale bread. Beat up two eggs in a pint or pint and a half of milk, and make it quite sweet, and flavor with rose water, or grated lemon, or orange peel, and pour it in and mix it well. Then bake it, and eat it either as a pudding for dinner, or as an article for the tea-table, to be eaten cold and with cream. If you have quinces, grate in one-third quince, and add more sugar, and it is a great improvement. Various berries can be stewed and mixed with bread crumbs, and cooked in this way.

6. Peel apples (or prepare any other fruit), and put them in layers in a stone or earthen jar with a small mouth. Intermix quinces if you have them. Scatter sugar between each layer in abundance. Cover the mouth with wheat dough, and set the jar in with the bread, and let it remain all night, and it makes a most healthful and delicious dish. Some place raw rice in alternate layers with the fruit. Children are very fond of this dish thus prepared with rice, and it is very little trouble, and nothing can be more healthful.

7. Peel and core apples (or take peaches, or pears, or damsons), and allow half a pound of sugar to a pound of fruit. Clarify the sugar, by adding water and the beaten white of an egg, and stirring and skimming it. Boil the fruit in the syrup all day very slowly, mashing and stirring often, till it is a thick, smooth paste. If it has skins in it, it must be strained through a colander. Put it in buttered pans to cool. Then lay it in a dry, cool place. It can be cut in slices for the tea-table. Quinces make the best. Apples, with the juice and some of the peel of lemons or oranges, are fine. This is called Fruit Cheese.

8. Boil down new sweet cider to one half the original quantity. Stew peeled and cored apples, with one quarter as many quinces, in this cider, till it is a very dark color. If well boiled, it will keep a year in jars, and is called Apple Butter.

9. The following mode of cooking dried fruits is the best. Take dried peaches, quinces, or apples, and put them to swell in cold water for several hours. Peaches must be very thoroughly washed. Then put them into a stewing kettle, with a great deal of water, and a pint of brown sugar to each pound of fruit. Cover them, and let them simmer very slowly for several hours, till the water is boiled down to as much liquid as you wish.

Peaches have a finer flavor when dried with the skin on, as fully ripe peaches cannot be pared and dried. When finely flavored, peaches have a solid pulp; when ripe they should be pared and then dried, and such are much the best for cooking in the above way.

They will, when cooked thus, be preferred by every body to the finest and most expensive sweetmeats.

10. The following is the best and cheapest method of making the finest Apple Jelly. Grapes and damsons can be made the same way.

Take the best pippins, and wipe them, taking out stem and eye. Cut them in thin slices, without paring or quartering, as the chief flavor is in the peel, and the jelly part is in the cores.

Put them in a preserving kettle, and put in just water enough to cover them, and boil them very soft. Then mash and strain through a jelly-bag made of coarse flannel. Put the liquid into the kettle, with a pint of brown sugar to each pint of the liquid, and add the juice and rind of a lemon cut in slices. Beat up the white of one egg, and stir in very thoroughly. Boil up three times, throwing in some cold water to stop it from running over. Then let it stand quiet on the hearth half an hour. Try it, and if not hard enough, let it boil till it will turn to jelly on cooling. Then skim off the scum, and pour off the clear jelly, and strain the sediment through the jelly-bag. Then put it in glasses. It can be boiled down, and make elegant apple candy.

Grapes and damsons should have water put in when first boiled, as the flavor is thus more perfectly extracted. Frost grapes make an elegant jelly, as do the wild plum, by this method. In summer these jellies are fine for effervescing drinks, with some good wine vinegar mixed with them.

Fruit Custards.

A pint and a half of fruit stewed and strained, cooled and sweetened.

Six eggs well beaten, and stirred into a quart of milk.

Mix the above and flavor with spice, and bake in cups or a deep dish twenty minutes, or half an hour, according to the size. It is good cold.

It may be boiled in a tin pail in boiling water.

Modes of preparing Rice for the Dinner or Tea Table.

Pick over and wash the rice, and boil it fifteen minutes in water with salt in it. Rice is very poor unless the salt is cooked into it. Then pour off the water, and pour in good rich milk, and let it simmer slowly till the rice is soft. There should be milk just sufficient to make the rice of a pudding consistency, so that it can be put in cups and turned out without losing its form.

1. Fill a tea-cup with this rice, and invert it in a platter or shallow large pudding dish, and fill the dish with cups of rice inverted. On the summit of each mound thus made, make an opening with a teaspoon, and lay a pile of jelly or sweetmeats. Then pour into the dish a custard made of two eggs and a pint of milk, boiled in a tin pail in boiling water. This looks very pretty, and is excellent.

If you have cream, take half milk and half cream, and pour into the dish, instead of the custard.

2. Put the rice into a large bowl, and press it down hard. Then invert the bowl in a pudding dish, and empty the rice, so as to leave it in the shape of the bowl. Make, at regular distances, openings in the rice, and lay in them jelly, or sweetmeats. Help some of the rice and sweetmeats to each person in a saucer, and have a small pitcher of sweetened cream, flavored with wine and nutmeg, and pour some into each saucer. Or prepare a thin custard of two eggs to a pint of milk, boiling it in a tin pail in boiling water.

3. Set the rice away till cold. Then cut it into slices half an inch thick. Put a layer of rice in the bottom of a soup plate, and cover it with stewed apple, or jelly, or sweetmeats half an inch thick. Continue thus, with alternate layers of rice and jelly (or other cooked fruit) till it is as high as you wish. Then cut the edges around smooth and even, so as to show the stripes of fruit and rice, smooth it on the top, and grate on white sugar, or nutmeg.

Help it in saucers, and have cream, or a thin boiled custard, to pour on to it. If you wish to ornament it a good deal, get colored sugar plums of various sizes, and put them in fanciful arrangements on the top.

4. Set away boiled rice till it is cold, and so solid as to cut in slices. Then lay in a buttered deep pudding dish alternate layers of this rice, half an inch thick, and stewed or grated apple. Add sugar enough to sweeten it, and spice grated or sifted on each layer of fruit. When piled up as high as you wish, cover with rice, smooth it with a spoon dipped in milk, and bake it from half to three quarters of an hour. If the apples are grated raw, you must bake three quarters of an hour. When it is done, grate white sugar over the top, and eat it for a pudding.

Pears, plums, peaches, quinces, and all the small berries can be stewed and used with rice in this way.

Rice can be made into rice avalanches and snow-balls, by taking a pudding cloth and flouring it, and laying raw rice over it an inch thick, and then put pared and cored fruit on it and draw it up and tie it so that the rice will cook around the fruit. Tie it tight, allowing a little room for the rice to swell. Make several small ones in this way, and they are called snow-balls. These are eaten with cream sweetened and spiced, or with hard or soft pudding sauces.

Rice and Meat Pudding.

Take any kind of cold meat, and chop it fine, with cold ham, or cold salt pork. Season it to your taste with salt, pepper, and sweet herbs, a little butter, and stir in two eggs. Then make alternate layers of cold boiled rice and this mixture, and bake half an hour. Or make it into cakes with the rice and fry it.

Modes of preparing Dishes with Dry Bread, or Bread so old as to be not good for the table.

Put all dry bits of crust and crumbs, and leavings of the table, in a tin pan. When the bread is drawn, set it in the oven, and let it stand all night. It is, when pounded, called rusk crumbs, and is good to eat in milk, and also in these ways.

1. Take apple sauce or stewed pears, or peaches, or any kind of small berries, and mix them with equal quantities of rusk crumbs. Make a custard of four eggs to a quart of milk, sweetening it very sweet. Mix it with the bread crumbs and fruit, and bake it twenty minutes, as a pudding.

2. Make a custard with four eggs to a quart of milk, thicken it with rusk crumbs, and bake it twenty minutes, and eat it with pudding sauce, flavored with wine and nutmeg.

3. Take any kind of cold meats, chop them fine with cold ham, or cold salt pork. Season with salt and pepper, and mix in two eggs and a little butter. Mix this up with bread crumbs or rusk crumbs, and bake it like a pudding. Or put it in a skillet, and warm it like hash. Or put it into balls, and flatten it and fry it like forced meat balls.

4. Soak dry bread crumbs in milk till quite soft. Then beat up three eggs and stir in, and put in sliced and peeled apples, or any kind of berries. Flour a pudding cloth, and tie it up and boil it half or three quarters of an hour, according to the size.

This pudding does not swell in boiling. Eat with sauce.

5. Take stale bread and crumble it fine, and mix it with egg and a little milk, and boil it in a large pudding cloth, or put it around small peeled apples, and boil it for dumplings in several smaller cloths.

6. Take bread crumbs, or rusk crumbs, and mix them with eggs and milk, and bake them for griddle cakes. If you have raspberries, blackberries, whortleberries, strawberries, or ripe currants, put them in and then thicken with a little flour, so as to make drop cakes, and bake them (a large spoonful at a time), on a griddle, as drop cakes. Or put them in muffin rings, and bake them. Eat with butter and sugar, or with pudding sauces.

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[CHAPTER XIII.]
RICH PUDDINGS AND PIES.

Ellen’s Pudding, or Rhubarb Tart.

One pint of stewed pie plant.

Four ounces of sugar.

One half pint of cream.

Two ounces of pounded cracker.

Three eggs.

Stew the pie plant, and rub it through a sieve. Beat the eggs well, and mix with the sugar and cream. Stir the cracker crumbs into the fruit, and add the other ingredients. Line your plate with a moderately rich paste, and bake half an hour.

Nottingham Pudding.

One pint of sifted flour.

Three gills of milk.

One gill of rich cream.

Six apples.

Four eggs.

A salt spoonful of salt.

Pare the apples, and take out the core without cutting the apple. Mix the batter very smooth, and pour over the apples. Eat with liquid sauce. This pudding requires an hour to bake.

Rice Plum Pudding.

Three gills of rice.

One quarter of a pound of butter.

One quarter of a pound of sugar.

One quart of milk.

A teaspoonful of salt.

Six eggs.

A pound and a half of stoned raisins or currants.

Half a tablespoonful of cinnamon.

A little rose water, and one nutmeg.

Boil the rice with lemon peel in the milk, till soft. Mix the butter, sugar, and eggs. Dredge the fruit with flour, and put in with the spice the last thing. Bake an hour and a half.

Eve’s Pudding (the best kind).

Half a pound of beef suet, and half a teaspoonful of salt.

Half a pound of pared and chopped apples.

Half a pound of sugar.

Half a pound of flour.

Half a pound of stoned raisins, dredged with flour.

Five eggs. A grated nutmeg. A glass of brandy.

Chop and mix the suet and apples. Beat the sugar into the yolks of the eggs. Mix all, putting in the whites cut to a stiff froth just before going into the oven. Bake two hours.

Baked English Plum Pudding.

A quarter of a pound of suet, chopped first, and half a teaspoonful of salt.

Half of a pound of bread crumbs.

Half of a pound of stoned raisins, wet and dredged with flour.

Half of a pound of currants.

Half of a pound of sugar.

Three ounces of citron.

Milk, and six eggs.

Pour enough scalded milk on to the bread crumbs to swell them; when cold, add the other ingredients. If it is too stiff, thin it with milk; if it is too thin, add more bread crumbs. Then add two grated nutmegs, a tablespoonful of mace and cinnamon, and half a gill of brandy. Bake two hours.

A Boiled English Plum Pudding.

One pound of currants.

One pound of stoned raisins, dredged with flour.

Half a pound of beef suet, chopped fine, and a teaspoonful of salt.

One pound of bread crumbs.

One-fourth of a pound of citron.

Eight eggs.

Half a pint of milk, and one gill of wine, or brandy.

A heaping coffee cup of sugar, and mace and nutmeg to your taste.

Eaten with a sauce of butter, sugar, and wine.

It requires six or seven hours to boil, and must be turned several times.

In both these puddings, cut the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, and put in the last thing.

Almond Cheese Cake.

Beat eight eggs, and stir them into a quart of boiling milk, and boil to curds. Press the curds dry, and add two cups of cream, six heaping spoonfuls of sugar, and a teaspoonful of powdered mace and cinnamon.

Then stir in three ounces of blanched almonds, beat to a thin paste with rose water, and a few bitter almonds, or peachnuts, beat with them. Lastly, put in half a pound of stoned raisins, cut up, and dredged with flour, and bake immediately, half an hour.

Some persons make the curd with rennet, and then add the eggs and other articles.

Cocoanut Pudding.

Three quarters of a pound of grated cocoanut.

One quarter of a pound of butter.

One pound of sugar.

One half pint of cream.

Nine eggs.

One gill of rose water.

Stir the butter and sugar as for cake, add the eggs well beaten. Grate the cocoanuts, and stir it in with the butter and eggs. Put in the other ingredients, and bake with or without a crust.

It requires three quarters of an hour for baking. Some persons grate in stale rusk, or sponge cake.

Arrowroot Pudding.

Take four tea-cups of arrowroot, and mix it with a pint of cold milk. Boil another pint of milk, flavoring it with cinnamon, or peach leaves, or lemon peel. Stir the arrowroot into this boiling milk. When cold, add the yolks of six eggs beaten into four ounces of sugar. Last of all, add the whites cut to a stiff froth, and bake in a buttered dish an hour. Ornament the top with sweetmeats, or citron cut up.

Ground Rice Pudding.

Make a batter of a quarter of a pound of ground rice, stirred into a pint of cold milk. Pour it into three pints of boiling milk, and let it boil three minutes. Mix three spoonfuls of butter with four ounces of sugar, and the yolks of eight eggs, and put to the rice. When cool, strain through a sieve. Flavor with nutmeg and essence of lemon, or boil lemon peel in the milk. Add the whites of the eggs last, cut to a stiff froth, and also the juice of a lemon. Ornament with jelly.

Mrs. O.’s Pumpkin Pie.

One quart of strained pumpkin, or squash.

Two quarts of milk, and a pint of cream.

One teaspoonful of salt, and four of ginger.

Two teaspoonfuls of pounded cinnamon.

Two teaspoonfuls of nutmeg, and two of mace.

Ten well-beaten eggs, and sugar to your taste.

Bake with a bottom crust and rim, till it is solid in the centre.

Cracker Plum Pudding (excellent).

Take eight Boston soda crackers, five pints of milk, and one dozen eggs.

Make a very sweet custard, and put into it a teaspoonful of salt.

Split the crackers, and butter them very thick.

Put a layer of raisins on the bottom of a large pudding dish, and then a layer of crackers, and pour on a little of the custard when warm, and after soaking a little put on a thick layer of raisins, pressing them into the crackers with a knife. Then put on another layer of crackers, custard, and fruit, and proceed thus till you have four layers. Then pour over the whole enough custard to rise even with the crackers. It is best made over night, so that the crackers may soak. Bake from an hour and a half to two hours. During the first half hour, pour on, at three different times, a little of the custard, thinned with milk, to prevent the top from being hard and dry. If it browns fast, cover with paper.

Bread and butter pudding is made in a similar manner, except the custard need not be cooked when poured in, and the fruit may be left out.

Minced Pie.

Two pounds and a half of tongue, or lean beef.

A pound and a half of suet.

Eight good-sized apples.

Two pounds of raisins.

Two pounds of sugar.

Two gills of rose water.

One quart of wine.

Salt, mace, cloves, and cinnamon, to the taste.

Boil the meat, and chop very fine. Chop the suet and apples very fine. Stone the raisins, cutting each into four pieces. Dissolve the sugar in the wine and rose water, and mix all well together with the spices. Twice this quantity of apple improves the pies, making them less rich. Line your plates with a rich paste, fill, cover, and bake. Measure the spices used, to save tasting next time, and to prevent mistakes.

Marlborough Pudding.

Six tart apples.

Six ounces of sifted sugar.

Six ounces of butter, or a pint of thick cream.

Six eggs.

The grated peel of one lemon, and half the juice.

Grate the apples after paring and coring them. Stir together the butter and sugar as for cake. Then add the other ingredients, and bake in a rich paste. Some persons grate in crackers, and add rose water and nutmeg. It is much better to grate than to stew the apples, for this and all pies.

Orange, or Lemon Pudding.

Two large lemons, or oranges.

One pound of loaf sugar.

Four ounces of butter.

One pint of cream.

Nine eggs.

A little rose water.

Grate the yellow part of the peel of the fruit, squeeze the juice, mix the butter and sugar thoroughly together, beat the eggs well. Mix all the ingredients except the juice, which must not be added until ready to bake. Line your dishes with a rich paste, and fill and bake three quarters of an hour in a moderate oven.

Sweet Potato Pudding.

Grate half a pound of parboiled sweet potatoes, and stir to a cream six ounces of sugar and six of butter, and then add the beaten yolks of eight eggs.

Mix the above, and add the grated peel and juice of a lemon, a glass of wine, and a grated nutmeg.

The last thing, put in the whites of the eggs beat to a stiff froth.

Common potatoes and carrots may be made as above, only they are to be boiled soft, and put through a colander, and more sugar used.

Quince Pudding.

Peel and grate six large quinces. Add half a pint of cream, half a pound of sugar, and six well-beaten eggs. Flavor with rose water, and bake in a buttered dish three quarters of an hour.