PORTUGAL CAKES. Take a pound of well-dried flour, a pound of loaf sugar, a pound of butter well washed in orange-flower water, and a large blade of mace. Take half the flour, and fifteen eggs, leaving out two of the whites, and work them well together with the butter for half an hour, shaking in the rest of the flour with a dredger. Put the cakes into a cool oven, strewing over them a little sugar and flour, and let them bake gently half an hour.
PORTUGUESE SOLES. If the fish be large, cut it in two: if small, they need only be split open. The bones being taken out, put the fish into a pan with a bit of butter, and some lemon juice. Fry it lightly, lay it on a dish, spread a forcemeat over each piece, and roll it round, fastening the roll with a few small skewers. Lay the rolls into a small earthen pan, beat up an egg and smear them, and strew some crumbs over. Put the remainder of the egg into the bottom of the pan, with a little meat gravy, a spoonful of caper liquor, an anchovy chopped fine, and some minced parsley. Cover the pan close, and bake in a slow oven till the fish is done enough. Place the rolls in a dish for serving, and cover it to keep them hot till the baked gravy is skimmed. If not enough, a little fresh gravy must be prepared, flavoured as above, and added to the fish. This is the Portuguese way of dressing soles.
PORTUGUESE STUFFING. Pound lightly some cold beef, veal, or mutton. Add some fat bacon lightly fried and cut small, some onions, a little garlic or shalot, some parsley, anchovy, pepper, salt, and nutmeg. Pound all fine with a few crumbs, and bind it with two or three yolks of eggs. This stuffing is for baked soles, the heads of which are to be left on one side of the split part, and kept on the outer side of the roll; and when served, the heads are to be turned towards each other in the dish. Garnish with fried or dried parsley.
POT HERBS. As some of these are very pungent, they require to be used with discretion, particularly basil, savoury, thyme, or knotted marjoram. The other sorts are milder, and may be used more freely.
POT POURRI. Put into a large china jar the following ingredients in layers, with bay salt strewed between. Two pecks of damask roses, part in buds and part blown; violets, orange flowers and jasmine, a handful of each; orris root sliced, benjamin and storax, two ounces of each; a quarter of an ounce of musk, a quarter of a pound of angelica root sliced, a quart of the red parts of clove gilliflowers, two handfuls of lavender flowers, half a handful of rosemary flowers, bay and laurel leaves, half a handful of each; three Seville oranges, stuck as full of cloves as possible, dried in a cool oven and pounded, and two handfuls of balm of gilead dried. Cover all quite close, and when the pot is uncovered the perfume is very fine.
POTATOE BALLS. Mix some mashed potatoes with the yolk of an egg, roll the mass into balls, flour them, or put on egg and bread crumbs, and fry them in clean drippings, or brown them in a Dutch oven.—Potatoe balls ragout are made by adding to a pound of potatoes, a quarter of a pound of grated ham, or some chopped parsley, or sweet herbs; adding an onion or shalot, salt and pepper, a little grated nutmeg or other spice, and the yolks of two eggs. They are then to be dressed as potatoe balls.
POTATOE BREAD. Weigh half a pound of mealy potatoes after they are boiled or steamed, and rub them while warm into a pound and a half of fine flour, dried a little before the fire. When thoroughly mixed, put in a spoonful of good yeast, a little salt, and warm milk and water sufficient to work into dough. Let it stand by the fire to rise for an hour and a half, then make it into a loaf, and bake it in a tolerably brisk oven. If baked in a tin the crust will be more delicate, but the bread dries sooner.—Another. To two pounds of well-boiled mealy potatoes, rubbed between the hands till they are as fine as flour, mix in thoroughly two large double handfuls of wheat flour, three good spoonfuls of yeast, a little salt, and warm milk enough to make it the usual stiffness of dough. Let it stand three or four hours to rise, then mould it, make it up, and bake it like common bread.
POTATOE CHEESECAKES. Boil six ounces of potatoes, and four ounces of lemon peel; beat the latter in a marble mortar, with four ounces of sugar. Then add the potatoes, beaten, and four ounces of butter melted in a little cream. When well mixed, let it stand to grow cold. Put crust in pattipans, and rather more than half fill them. This quantity will make a dozen cheesecakes, which are to be baked half an hour in a quick oven, with some fine powdered sugar sifted over them.
POTATOE FRITTERS. Boil two large potatoes, scrape them fine; beat up four yolks and three whites of eggs, and add a large spoonful of cream, another of sweet wine, a squeeze of lemon, and a little nutmeg. Beat this batter at least half an hour, till it be extremely light. Put a good quantity of fine lard into a stewpan, and drop a spoonful of the batter at a time into it, and fry the fritters. Serve for sauce a glass of white wine, the juice of a lemon, one dessert spoonful of peach leaf or almond water, and some white sugar. Warm them together, but do not put the sauce into the dish.—Another way. Slice some potatoes thin, dip them in a fine batter, and fry them. Lemon peel, and a spoonful of orange-flower water, should be added to the batter. Serve up the fritters with white sugar sifted over them.
POTATOE PASTE. Pound some boiled potatoes very fine, and while warm, add butter sufficient to make the mash hold together. Or mix it with an egg; and before it gets cold, flour the board pretty well to prevent it from sticking, and roll the paste to the thickness wanted. If suffered to get quite cold before it be put on the dish, it will be apt to crack.