The English Housekeeper: Or, Manual of Domestic Management / Containing advice on the conduct of household affairs and practical instructions concerning the store-room, the pantry, the larder, the kitchen, the cellar, the dairy; the whole being intended for the use of young ladies who undertake the superintendence of their own housekeeping

by Anne Cobbett

Prepare a mixture of white lettuce, and green salading, mix it with cream or oil; take out the coral of the lobster, and dispose it amongst the vegetables so as best to contrast the colours.—Or: lobster may be cut up, dressed as eaten at table, then mixed with lettuce and small salading also cut up and dressed; the dressing of each must be according to taste. Some persons dress their lobster with lemon juice and cayenne. Put the mixture into a salad bowl, light sprigs of cresses on the top, and heaps of the coral amidst them.

Italian Salad.

About three hours before the salad is wanted, bone and chop 2 anchovies, and mix them in a salad bowl, with an eschalot, and some small salading, or lettuce, or any herbs, fresh gathered; boil 2 eggs hard, bruise the yolks, then mix them with 2 spoonsful of oil, 1 of vinegar, a little pepper, and a little made mustard. To this sauce, put very thin slices of cold roast meat of any kind, fowl, game, or lobster (and any cold gravy), and leave them to soak. Garnish it prettily. Cold fish may be dressed in this way; then hard-boiled eggs may be added; and, with either meat or fish, cold boiled vegetables. Nicely garnished, these salads are pretty for supper tables. Capsicums, barberries, and pickled fruit are of use in ornamenting them.

Cucumbers

Should be fresh, mixed with onion, and never eaten without oil.

CHAPTER XIX.

PASTRY.

Practice is more requisite than judgment to arrive at perfection in making pastry, particularly raised crusts, and very little can be given in the way of general instruction on the subject.—The flour should be of the best quality, dried before the fire, and then allowed to get cool before it is wetted.—Good salt butter, washed in several waters, to extract the salt, is cheaper in some seasons, and is as good as fresh butter. Fresh butter should be worked, on a board, with a wooden spoon, or the hand, to extract the butter-milk, before it is used for delicate pastry; after you have well worked, dab it with a soft cloth.

Finely shred suet makes very good crust for fruit, as well as meat pies, and, if good, is more delicate and wholesome than lard; veal suet is the most delicate. Some cooks cut the suet in pieces, and melt it in water, then, when cold, press out the water, pound the suet in a mortar, with a very little oil, till it becomes the consistence of butter, and use it for pie crust; but I prefer fresh suet very finely shred, not chopped. For this purpose it must be quite sweet.—Lard varies much in quality; and if not good, the paste will not be light. Sweet marrow is very good.

A marble slab is very useful for making pastry, particularly in hot weather. Pastry is never good made in a warm room, neither will it bear being exposed to a draught of air. The sooner it is baked, the lighter it will be. There is ample room for display of taste in ornamenting pastry, both for meat pies and sweets. Paste cutters are not expensive, and if kept in good order, will last a long time; but, if not delicately clean, the paste will be spoiled.