BAKED MILK. A very useful article may be made for weakly and consumptive persons in the following manner. Put a gallon of milk into a jar, tie white paper over it, and let it stand all night in the oven when baking is over. Next morning it will be as thick as cream, and may be drank two or three times a day.
BAKED PEARS. Those least fit to eat raw, are often the best for baking. Do not pare them, but wipe and lay them on tin plates, and bake them in a slow oven. When done enough to bear it, flatten them with a silver spoon; and when done through, put them on a dish. They should be baked three or four times, and very gently.
BAKED PIKE. Scale and open it as near the throat as possible, and then put in the following stuffing. Grated bread, herbs, anchovies, oysters, suet, salt, pepper, mace, half a pint of cream, four yolks of eggs; mix all over the fire till it thickens, and then sow it up in the fish. Little bits of butter should be scattered over it, before it is sent to the oven. Serve it with gravy sauce, butter and anchovy. In carving a pike, if the back and belly be slit up, and each slice drawn gently downwards, fewer bones will be given at table.
BAKED SOUP. A cheap and plentiful dish for poor families, or to give away, may be made of a pound of any kind of meat cut in slices, with two onions, two carrots sliced, two ounces of rice, a pint of split peas, or whole ones if previously soaked, seasoned with pepper and salt. Put the whole into an earthen jug or pan, adding a gallon of water: cover it very close, and bake it.
BALM WINE. Boil three pounds of lump sugar in a gallon of water; skim it clean, put in a handful of balm, and boil it ten minutes. Strain it off, cool it, put in some yeast, and let it stand two days. Add the rind and juice of a lemon, and let it stand in the cask six months.
BALSAMIC VINEGAR. One of the best remedies for wounds or bruises is the balsamic or anti-putrid vinegar, which is made in the following manner. Take a handful of sage leaves and flowers, the same of lavender, hyssop, thyme, and savory; two heads of garlic, and a handful of salt. These are to be infused in some of the best white-wine vinegar; and after standing a fortnight or three weeks, it will be fit for use.
BANBURY CAKES. Work a pound of butter into a pound of white-bread dough, the same as for puff paste; roll it out very thin, and cut it into bits of an even form, the size intended for the cakes. Moisten some powder sugar with a little brandy, mix in some clean currants, put a little of it on each bit of paste, close them up, and bake them on a tin. When they are taken out, sift some fine sugar over them.
BARBERRIES, when preserved for tarts, must be picked clean from the stalks, choosing such as are free from stones. To every pound of fruit, weigh three quarters of a pound of lump sugar; put the fruit into a stone jar, and either set it on a hot hearth, or in a saucepan of water, and let them simmer very slowly till soft. Then put them and the sugar into a preserving-pan, and boil them gently fifteen minutes.—To preserve barberries in bunches, prepare some fleaks of white wool, three inches long, and a quarter of an inch wide. Tie the stalks of the fruit on the stick, from within an inch of one end to beyond the other, so as to make them look handsome. Simmer them in some syrup two successive days, covering them each time with it when cold. When they look clear, they are simmered enough. The third day, they should be treated like other candied fruit. See [Candied].
BARBERRY DROPS. Cut off the black tops, and roast the fruit before the fire, till it is soft enough to pulp with a silver spoon through a sieve into a china bason. Then set the bason in a saucepan of water, the top of which will just fit it, or on a hot hearth, and stir it till it grows thick. When cold, put to every pint a pound and a half of double refined sugar, pounded and sifted through a lawn sieve, which must be covered with a fine linen, to prevent waste while sifting. Beat the sugar and juice together three hours and a half if a large quantity, but two and a half for less. Then drop it on sheets of white thick paper, the size of drops sold in the shops. Some fruit is not so sour, and then less sugar is necessary. To know when there is enough, mix till well incorporated, and then drop. If it run, there is not enough sugar; and if there be too much, it will be rough. A dry room will suffice to dry them. No metal must touch the juice but the point of a knife, just to take the drop off the end of the wooden spoon, and then as little as possible.
BARLEY BROTH. Wash three quarters of a pound of Scotch barley in a little cold water, put it in a soup pot with a shin or leg of beef, or a knuckle of veal of about ten pounds weight, sawn into four pieces. Cover it with cold water, and set it on the fire; when it boils skim it very clean, and put in two onions. Set it by the side of the fire to simmer very gently about two hours; then skim off all the fat, put in two heads of celery, and a large turnip cut into small squares. Season it with salt, let it boil an hour and a half longer, and it is done. Take out the meat carefully with a slice, cover it up and keep it warm by the fire, and skim the broth well before it is put into the tureen. This dish is much admired in Scotland, where it is regarded, not only as highly nutricious, but as a necessary article of domestic economy: for besides the excellent soup thus obtained, the meat also becomes an agreeable dish, served up with sauce in the following manner. Reserve a quart of the soup, put about an ounce of flour into a stewpan, pour the liquor to it by degrees, stirring it well together till it boils. Add a glass of port wine or mushroom ketchup, and let it gently boil up; strain the sauce through a sieve over the meat, and add to it some capers, minced gherkins, or walnuts. The flavour may be varied or improved, by the addition of a little curry powder, ragout, or any other store sauces.