Beefsteak Pudding.
- 1 quart of prepared flour.
- ¼ lb. powdered suet.
- 1 cup of ice-water.
- 2 lbs. good steak without bone.
- Pepper and salt.
- 1 tablespoonful of tomato catsup.
Rub the suet into the flour, salt slightly, and make, with the water, into a paste just soft enough to roll out. Roll into a sheet nearly half an inch thick. Butter well a round-bottomed pudding mould; line with the paste, and leave in a cold place while you cut the steak into small squares, seasoning with pepper, salt, and catsup. Fill the paste-lined mould (or bowl) with this. Cut a piece of paste for the top. Cover with this, pinching the two sheets of paste tightly together at the edges. Let an assistant hold up the bowl while you cover with a stout pudding-cloth and tie tightly under the bottom, not straining the cloth so strongly over the top as to hinder the paste from swelling. (Flour the cloth before tying it over the bowl.) Plunge into a gallon of boiling water, and keep it at a fast boil for two hours, filling up from the tea-kettle when the water sinks. Turn the bowl bottom upward and dip in cold water; untie the cloth, invert a hot dish upon the mould, and turn over carefully, to get the pudding out without breaking. This is a favorite English dish.
Stewed Potatoes.
Old potatoes, by this time, need a little management to make them acceptable at a season when appetites crave fresh vegetables. This is a good way to cook them. Pare very thin, and leave in cold water one hour. Put on to cook in cold water, bringing it soon to a boil. When a fork will run easily into the largest, strain off the water, throw in a handful of salt, and dry, for a minute, on the stove. Then take out the potatoes; crack each one by pressing with a wooden spoon; put into a deep dish, and pour over them a cup of hot milk thickened with two tablespoonfuls of butter, cut up in flour; cooked for a minute, then seasoned with pepper, salt, and a tablespoonful very finely-minced parsley. Cover the dish; set in boiling water ten minutes, and serve.
Mashed Turnips.
Boil tender; press all the water out in a colander, as you mash them; return to the fire with a good lump of butter, pepper, and salt, and stir until smoking hot.
Cold Slaw.
Shred the heart of a white cabbage, and pour over it a dressing of two tablespoonfuls of oil, four of vinegar, one teaspoonful each of salt and sugar, and half as much pepper and mustard, beaten up well with the whipped yolks of two eggs. The mixture should be quite thick. Use an egg-beater in mixing.