Cut up in a deep pan half a pound of the best fresh butter, with a half pound of excellent brown sugar; and stir it to cream with a spaddle. Add a pint of West India molasses, mixed with half a pint of warm milk; four table-spoonfuls of ginger; a heaped table-spoonful of mixed powdered cinnamon and powdered mace and nutmeg; and a glass of brandy. Sift in a pound and a half of fine flour. Beat six eggs till very light and thick, and mix them, alternately, into the pan of butter, sugar, molasses, &c. At the last, mix in the yellow rind (grated fine) of two large oranges and the juice. Stir the whole very hard. Melt in one cup a very small level tea-spoonful of soda, and in another a small level salt-spoon of tartaric acid. Dissolve them both in lukewarm water, and see that both are quite melted. First stir the soda into the mixture, and then put in the tartaric acid. On no account exceed the quantity of the two alkalis, as if too much is used, they will destroy entirely the flavoring, and communicate a very disagreeable taste instead. Few cakes are the better for any of the alkaline powders, and many sorts are entirely spoiled by them. Even in gingerbread they should be used very sparingly, rather less than more of the prescribed quantity. Having buttered, (with the same butter) a large round or oblong pan, put in the mixture, and bake it in a moderate oven till thoroughly done, keeping up a steady heat, but watching that it does not burn. There is no gingerbread superior to this, if well made. Instead of lemon or orange, cut in half a pound of seedless raisins, dredge them well with flour, and stir them, gradually, into the mixture.
This is also called Franklin gingerbread.
GINGER NUTS.—
Cut a pound of the best fresh butter into two pounds or two quarts of sifted flour, and half a pound of fine brown sugar. Add four heaped table-spoonfuls of ground ginger; a heaped table-spoonful of powdered cinnamon, and the same quantity of mixed nutmeg and mace. Mix all the ingredients thoroughly together; adding, gradually, a large pint of West India molasses, and the grated yellow rind and juice of a lemon or orange. Stir it very hard with a spaddle. Flour your hands, break off pieces of the dough, and knead each piece a little; then flatten them on the top. Make them the size of a quarter dollar. Or, (flouring your pasteboard) roll out the dough, and cut out the ginger-nuts with the edge of a small wine-glass. Bake them on buttered tins, having first glazed them with a thin mixture of molasses and water. The same dough may be baked in long straight sticks, divided by lines deeply marked with a knife.
There are many other gingerbreads; but any of the soft sorts may be made with little variation from the foregoing directions for Lafayette gingerbread; and of the hard sort of ginger-nut preparation, the above is the basis of the rest. If the receipts are liberally and exactly followed, it will be found that to those two none are superior.
PIGEON PIE.—
For this pie take six fine fat tame pigeons, carefully cleaned and picked. Lay them in cold water for an hour, changing the water twice during that time. This is to remove what is called "the taste of the nest." Have ready the yolks of six hard-boiled eggs, seasoned with powdered nutmeg. Place a bit of fresh butter rolled in flour, in the inside of each pigeon, with its liver cut up, and with a yolk of egg seasoned with powdered mace. Lay a nice tender beef steak, or thin veal cutlet, in the bottom of a large deep dish, that has been lined with puff-paste. Butter the steak, and dredge it with flour. There must be meat enough to cover well the bottom of the pie dish. Lay the pigeons upon it, with the breast downward, (their heads and feet cut off, and their livers cut up, and put inside with the stuffing.) Fill up the dish with water. Roll out and put on the lid of the pie, which you may ornament with paste leaves or flowers, according to your taste. For company, pigeon pies are expected to look handsome. It is no longer fashionable to have the feet of the pigeons sticking out of the slit in the top of the paste.
Moorfowl, pheasants, partridges, or quails, may be made into pies in the above manner. It is usual, for partridge pies, to peel two fine sweet oranges; and having divided them into quarters, carefully remove the strings and seeds, and put the oranges into the birds without any other stuffing. Instead of beef steak or veal cutlet, lay a thin slice of cold ham in the bottom of the pie-dish.