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.