Boil a pint of rich milk, and then take it off, and stir into it a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, mixed with a small table-spoonful of flour. Then let it again come to a boil. Have ready two deep plates with half a dozen slices of toast in each. Pour the milk over them hot, and keep them covered till they go to table. Milk toast is generally eaten at breakfast.
POTATO YEAST.—
Pare half a dozen middle-sized potatoes, and boil them in a quart of soft water, mixed with a handful of hops, till quite soft. Then mash the potatoes smooth, not leaving in a single lump. Mix with them a handful of wheat flour. Set a sieve over the pan in which you have the flour and mashed potatoes, and strain into them the hop-water in which they were boiled. Then stir the mixture very hard, and afterwards pass it through a cullender to clear it of lumps. Let it stand till it is nearly cold. Then stir in four table-spoonfuls of strong yeast, and let it stand to ferment. When the foam has sunk down in the middle, (which will not be for several hours,) it is done working. Then put it into a stone jug and cork it. Set it in a cool place.
This yeast will be found extremely good for raising home-made bread.
Yeast when it becomes sour may be made fit to use by stirring into it a little sal-eratus, or pearl-ash, allowing a small tea-spoonful to a pint of yeast. This will remove the acidity, and improve the bread in lightness. The pearl-ash must be previously melted in a little lukewarm water.
CREAM CHEESE.—
The cheese so called, of which numbers are brought to Philadelphia market, is not made entirely of cream, but of milk warm from the cow, (and therefore unskimmed,) mixed with cream of last night. To a small tub of fresh morning's milk, add the cream skimmed from an equal quantity of last evening's milk. Mix the cream and the new milk together, and warm them to about blood-heat or 100 degrees of the thermometer. Have ready a cup of water in which has been soaking, since last night, a piece of rennet, (the salt wiped off,) about the length and breadth of two fingers. Stir the rennet-water into the vessel of mixed milk and cream, and set it in a warm place till the curd has completely formed. Then, with a knife, cut the curd into squares. Next, take a large, thin, straining-cloth, and press it down on the curd so as to make the whey rise up through it. As the whey rises, dip it off with a saucer or skimming dish. When the whey is nearly all out, put the curd into the cloth, and squeeze and press it with your hands till it becomes dry. Next, crumble the curd very fine with your hands, and then salt it to your taste. Then wash the straining-cloth clean, and lay it in the cheese-hoop (a bottomless vessel, about the size of a dinner-plate, perforated with small gimlet-holes) put the crumbled curd into the cloth, and then fold the rest of the cloth closely over it. The cheese-hoop should be set on a clean wooden bench or table. Place on it its round wooden cover, so as to fit exactly; and lay on the top two bricks or a heavy stone. After it has stood six hours in the hoop or mould, turn it, and let it stand six hours longer.
When you take out the cheese, rub it all over with a little fresh butter. Set it in a dark, dry place, turning it every day, and in four or five days it will be fit for use. When once cut, it should be eaten immediately, if the weather is warm. But while uncut, it may keep a week in a cold place, provided it is turned several times a-day.