CHAPTER XV.
PUDDINGS AND PIES.

Where sugar is made by slaves, the little children feed constantly on it, and grow fat and healthy. But they are nearly naked, live out-of-doors, exercise constantly, and have nothing to do but play. Thus their lungs and skin gain the healthful and purifying action of the air and the sun, and the excess of carbonaceous food is rendered harmless. But for those whose skin never meets the sun, rarely meets the air, and only now and then some water, a very different regimen is needful. Sugar, molasses, butter, and fats are chiefly carbonaceous, and therefore demand a large supply of oxygen through lungs and skin. And yet our custom is to use fine flour, which is chiefly carbon; butter and cream, chiefly carbon; sweet cakes, chiefly carbon; sweetmeats and candy, chiefly carbon; and worst of all, pie-crusts, chiefly carbon, and the most difficult of all food for digestion.

But the love for sweet food is common to all, and demands gratification. All that is required is moderation and temperance. For these reasons, a large supply is here provided of cakes and puddings, which are not rich, and yet are as highly relished as richer food. As pies are the most unhealthful of all food, some instruction and but few recipes are given, lest, if entirely omitted, the book would not be read so widely, and other more unhealthful ones be used.

The puddings here offered afford a great variety for desserts, are made with far less labor than pies, and are both more economical and more healthful. They also can be made more ornamental and attractive in appearance, and equally good to the taste. It is hoped, therefore, that the conscientious housekeeper will not tempt her family to eat unhealthful food when such an abundance is offered that is at once economical of labor, time, expense, and health. The first recipe for pudding can be varied in many ways, and has the advantage which heretofore has recommended pies, namely, that several can be made at once, and kept on hand as equally good either cold or warmed over. It is also economical and convenient, as not requiring eggs or milk.

The Queen of all Puddings.—Soak a tea-cup of tapioca and a tea-spoonful of salt in three tumblerfuls of warm, not hot, water for an hour or two, till softened. Take away the skins and cores of apples without dividing them, put them in the dish with sugar in the holes, and spice if the apples are without flavor: not otherwise. Add a cup of water, and bake till the apples are softened, turning them to prevent drying, and then pour over the tapioca, and bake a long time, till all looks A BROWNISH YELLOW. Eat with a hard sauce. Do not fail to bake a long time.

This can be extensively varied by mixing chopped apples, or quinces, or oranges, or peaches, or any kind of berries with the tapioca; and then sugar must be added according to the acid of the fruit, though some would prefer it omitted when the sauce is used.

The beauty may be increased by a cover of sugar beaten into the whites of eggs, and then turned to a yellow in the oven. Several such puddings can be made at once, kept in a cool place, and when wanted warmed over; many relish it better when very cold. Sago can be used instead of tapioca. When no sago or tapioca are at hand, the following recipe for flour pudding may be used, baking a long time.

Flour Puddings.—Take four table-spoonfuls of flour, half a tea-spoonful of salt, a pint of water or milk, three eggs, and a salt-spoonful of soda. Mix and beat very thoroughly, and bake as soon as done, or it will not be light. It must bake till the middle is not lower than the rest. Eat with liquid sauce. This can be cooked in a covered tin pan set in boiling water. This is enough for a family of five. Change the quantity according to the family.

This may be made richer by a spoonful of butter, more sugar, and some flavoring.

It will be lighter not to beat the eggs separately. If a bag is used to boil, rub flour or butter on the inside, to prevent sticking.

Flour and Fruit Puddings.—Add to the above, chopped apples or any kind of berries. Chopped apples and quinces together are fine when dried. When berries are used, a third more flour is needed for those very juicy, and less for cherries. Put in fruit the last thing.

Rusk and Milk.—Keep all bits of bread, dry in the oven, and pound them, putting half a salt-spoonful of salt to a pint. This eaten with good milk is what is especially relished by children, and named “rusk and milk.”

Rusk Puddings.—Mix equal quantities of rusk-crumbs with stewed fruit or berries, then add a very sweet custard, made with four or five eggs to a quart of milk. Eaten with sweet sauce. This may be made without fruit, and is good with sauce.

Meat and Rusk Puddings.—Chop any kind of cold meat with salt pork or ham, season it well with butter, pepper, and salt, and add two or three beaten eggs. Then make alternate layers of wet rusk-crumbs, with milk or cold boiled hominy or rice, and bake half or three quarters of an hour. Let the upper layer be crumbs, and cover with a plate while baking, and, when nearly done, take it off to brown the top.

A handsome and good Pudding easily made.—Put a pint of scalded milk (water will do as well) to a pint of bread-crumbs, and add the yelks of four eggs, well beaten, a tea-cup of sugar, butter the size of an egg, and the grated rind of one lemon. Bake, and, when cool, cover with stewed fruit of any kind. Then beat the whites of the eggs into five table-spoonfuls of powdered sugar and the juice of one lemon. Cover the pudding with it, and set in the oven till it is a brownish yellow. Puddings covered with sugar and eggs in this way are called Meringue Puddings.

Pan Dowdy.—Put apples pared and sliced into a large pan, and put in an abundance of molasses or sugar, and some spice if the apples have little flavor; not otherwise. Cover with bread-dough, rolled thin, or a potato pie-crust. Bake a long time, and then break the crust into the fruit in small pieces. Children are very fond of this, especially if well sweetened and baked a long time.

Corn-Meal Pop-overs.—Two tumblers of scalded corn-meal fresh ground, three well-beaten eggs, a cup of milk or water, a tea-spoonful of salt, and three of sugar, two spoonfuls of melted butter. Bake in hot patties, and eat with sweet sauce.

Best Apple-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 sirup 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, lapping the edge over the dish, and pinching it down tight, to keep the sirup from running out. Bake about an hour and a half. Make several at once, as they keep well.

Rice Pudding.—One tea-cup of rice.

Put the butter in melted, mix all in a pudding-dish, and bake it two hours, stirring it frequently, until the rice is swollen. It is good made without butter.

Bread and Fruit 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.

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 berries or stewed fruit, 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 Pudding.—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 table-spoonful of brandy. Bake it like custard.

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 table-spoonful of rice flour, or common flour, wet up with two spoonfuls of cold milk and a half tea-spoonful of salt, 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. More eggs make it a rich custard.

Bake as pudding, or boil in a tin pail set in boiling water, stirring often, and pour into cups.

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, a tea-spoonful of salt, 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; 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 a little sugar and more salt added; boil 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 Pudding, (fine.)—Cut stale bread in thick slices, and put it to soak for several hours in cold milk.

Then cook on a griddle, with some salt, and eat it with sugar, or molasses, or a sweet sauce. To make it more delicate, take off the crusts. It is still better to soak it in uncooked custard. Baker’s bread is best.

To prepare Rennet Wine.—Put three inches square of calf’s rennet to a pint of wine, and set it away for use. Three table-spoonfuls will serve to curdle a quart of milk.

Rennet Custard.—Put three table-spoonfuls of rennet wine to a quart of milk, and add four or five great-spoonfuls of white sugar and a salt-spoonful of salt. Flavor it with wine, or lemon, or rose-water. It must be eaten in an hour, or it will turn to curds.

Bird’snest 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.—Take four heaped table-spoonfuls of potato flour, three eggs, and a tea-spoonful of salt, and 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 table-spoonfuls of tapioca in a quart of warm milk and tea-spoonful of sugar, till soft, then add two table-spoonfuls of melted sweet lard or butter, five eggs well beaten, spice, sugar, and wine to your taste. Bake in a buttered dish, without any lining. Sago may be used in place of tapioca.

Cocoa-Nut Pudding (plain).—Take one quart of milk, five eggs, and one cocoa-nut, grated. The eggs and sugar are beaten together, and stirred into the milk when hot. Strain the milk and eggs, and add the cocoa-nut, 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 five 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.

Mock Cream.—Beat three eggs well, and add three heaping tea-spoonfuls 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.

A Pudding of Fruit and Bread Crumbs.—Mix a pint of dried and pounded bread-crumbs with an equal quantity of any kind of berries, or of dried and chopped sour apples. Add three eggs, half a pint of milk, three spoonfuls of fine flour, and half a tea-spoonful of salt. Bake on a griddle or in an oven in muffin-rings, or, when made thinner, as griddle-cakes. If dried fruit is used, more milk is needed than for fresh berries.

This may also be boiled for a pudding. Flour the pudding-cloth and tie tight, as it will not swell in cooking.

Bread and Apple Dumplings.—Mix half a pint of dried bread-crumbs and half a pint of fine flour. Wet it with water and two eggs thick enough to roll. Then put it around large apples peeled and cored whole, and boil for dumplings in several small floured cloths, or put all into one large floured cloth, tied tight, as they will not swell. Try with a fork, and when the apples are soft, take up and serve with a sweet sauce.

An excellent Indian Pudding without Eggs.—Take seven heaping spoonfuls of scalded Indian meal, half a tea-spoonful of salt, two spoonfuls of butter or sweet lard, a tea-cup of molasses, and two tea-spoonfuls of ginger or cinnamon, to the taste. Pour into these a quart of milk while boiling hot. Mix well and put in a buttered dish. Just as you set in the oven, stir in a tea-cup of cold water, which will produce the same effect as eggs. Bake three-quarters of an hour in a dish that will not spread it out thin.

Boiled Indian and Suet Pudding.—Three pints of milk, ten heaping table-spoonfuls of sifted Indian meal, a tumblerful of molasses, two eggs. Scald the meal with the milk, add the molasses and a tea-spoonful of salt. Put in the eggs when it is cool enough not to scald them. Put in a table-spoonful 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.

A Dessert of Rice and Fruit.—Pick over and wash the rice, and boil it fifteen minutes in water, with salt at the rate of a heaping tea-spoonful to a quart. Rice is much improved by having the salt put in while cooking. Pour out the water in fifteen minutes after it begins to boil. Then pour in rich milk and boil till of a pudding thickness. Then pour it into cups to harden, when it is to be turned out inverted upon a platter in small mounds. Make an opening on the top of each, and put in a pile of jelly or fruit. Lastly, pour over all a custard made of three eggs, a pint of milk, and a tea-spoonful of salt boiled in a tin pail set in boiling water. This looks very prettily. Sweet cream with a little salt can be used instead of custard. This can be modified by having the whole put in a bowl and hardened, and then inverted and several openings made for the fruit.

Another Dessert of Rice and Fruit.—Boil the rice in salt and water, a tea-spoonful to a quart of water. When cooked to a pudding consistency, cool it, and then cut it in slices. Then put a thin layer of rice at the bottom of a pudding-dish, cover it with a thin layer of jelly or stewed fruit half an inch thick. Continue to add alternate layers of rice and jelly or fruit, smooth it at top, grate on sugar, and then cut the edges to show stripes of fruit and rice. Help it in saucers, and have cream or a thin custard to pour on it. Make the custard with two eggs, half a pint of milk, and half a tea-spoonful of salt. Boil it in a pail set in boiling water.

Dessert of cold Rice and stewed or grated Apple.—Cut cold boiled rice in slices, and then lay in a buttered pudding-dish alternate layers of rice and grated or stewed apples. Add sugar and spice to each layer of apples. Cover with the rice, smooth with a spoon dipped in cold water or milk, and bake three-quarters of an hour if the apples are raw. To be served with a sweet sauce.

A rich Flour Pudding.—Six eggs.

Beat the yelks 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.

Apple-Pie.—Take fair apples; pare, core, and quarter them.

Take four table-spoonfuls of powdered sugar to a pie.

Put into a preserving-pan, with the sugar; water enough to make a thin sirup; throw in a few blades of mace; boil the apple in the sirup 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 sirup 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.

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, are ornamental.

Baked Indian Pudding.—Three pints of milk.

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. This can be boiled.

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 six eggs with four spoonfuls of sugar; mix it with three pints of milk, and two tea-spoonfuls of salt; pour it over the apples, and bake for about half an hour.

Plain Macaroni or Vermicelli Puddings.—Put two ounces of macaroni or vermicelli 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, a tea-spoonful of salt, and a glass of wine. Add these to the broken macaroni or vermicelli, 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.

A good Pudding.—Line a buttered dish with slices of wheat bread, first dipped in milk. Fill the dish with sliced apple, and add sugar and spice. Cover with slices of bread soaked in milk; cover close with a plate, and bake three hours.

Loaf Pudding.—When bread is too stale, put a loaf in a pudding-bag and boil it in salted water an hour and a half, and eat it with hard pudding-sauce.

A Lemon Pudding.—Nine spoonfuls of grated apple, one grated lemon, (peel and pulp,) one spoonful of butter, and three eggs. Mix and bake, with or without a crust, about an hour. Cream improves it.

Green Corn Patties, (like oysters.)—Twelve ears of sweet-corn grated. (Yellow corn will do, but not so well.)

Mix, make into small cakes, and cook on a griddle.

Cracker Plum Pudding, (excellent.)—Make a very sweet custard, and put into it a tea-spoonful of salt.

Take soda crackers, split them, 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.