PLOVERS, to Dress.
Ingredients.—3 plovers, butter, flour, toasted bread. Choosing and Trussing.—Choose those that feel hard at the vent, as that shows their fatness. There are three sorts,—the grey, green, and bastard plover, or lapwing. They will keep good for some time, but if very stale, the feet will be very dry. Plovers are scarcely fit for anything but roasting; they are, however, sometimes stewed, or made into a ragoût, but this mode of cooking is not to be recommended. Mode.—Pluck off the feathers, wipe the outside of the birds with a damp cloth, and do not draw them; truss with the head under the wing, put them down to a clear fire, and lay slices of moistened toast in the dripping-pan, to catch the trail. Keep them well basted, dredge them lightly with flour a few minutes before they are done, and let them be nicely frothed. Dish them on the toasts, over which the traill should be equally spread. Pour round the toast a little good gravy, and send some to table in a tureen. Time.—10 minutes to ¼ hour. Average cost, 1s. 6d. the brace, if plentiful. Sufficient for 2 persons. Seasonable.—In perfection from the beginning of September to the end of January.
PLUM CAKE, Common.
Ingredients.—3 lbs. of flour, 6 oz. of butter or good dripping, 6 oz. of moist sugar, 6 oz. of currants, ½ oz. of pounded allspice, 2 tablespoonfuls of fresh yeast, 1 pint of new milk. Mode.—Rub the butter into the flour; add the sugar, currants, and allspice; warm the milk, stir to it the yeast, and mix the whole into a dough; knead it well, and put it into 6 buttered tins; place them near the fire for nearly an hour for the dough to rise, then bake the cakes in a good oven from 1 to 1¼ hour. To ascertain when they are done, plunge a clean knife into the middle, and if on withdrawal it comes out clean, the cakes are done. Time.—1 to 1¼ hour. Average cost, 1s. 8d. Sufficient to make 6 small cakes.
PLUM CAKE, a Nice.
Ingredients.—1 lb. of flour, ¼ lb. of butter, ½ lb. of sugar, ½ lb. of currants, 2 oz. of candied lemon-peel, ½ pint of milk, 1 teaspoonful of ammonia or carbonate of soda. Mode.—Put the flour into a basin with the sugar, currants, and sliced candied peel; beat the butter to a cream, and mix all these ingredients together with the milk. Stir the ammonia into 2 tablespoonfuls of milk; add it to the dough, and beat the whole well, until everything is thoroughly mixed. Put the dough into a buttered tin, and bake the cake from 1½ to 2 hours. Time.—1½
to 2 hours. Average cost, 1s. 3d.
Seasonable at any time.
PLUM JAM.
Ingredients.—To every lb. of plums, weighed before being stoned, allow ¾ lb. of loaf sugar. Mode.—In making plum jam, the quantity of sugar for each lb. of fruit must be regulated by the quality and size of the fruit, some plums requiring much more sugar than others. Divide the plums, take out the stones, and put them on to large dishes, with roughly-pounded sugar sprinkled over them in the above proportion, and let them remain for one day; then put them into a preserving-pan, stand them by the side of the fire to simmer gently for about ½ hour, and then boil them rapidly for another 15 minutes. The scum must be carefully removed as it rises, and the jam must be well stirred all the time, or it will burn at the bottom of the pan, and so spoil the colour and flavour of the preserve. Some of the stones may be cracked, and a few kernels added to the jam just before it is done: these impart a very delicious flavour to the plums. The above proportion of sugar would answer for Orleans plums; the Impératrice, Magnum-bonum, and Winesour would not require quite so much. Time.—½ hour to simmer gently, ¼ hour to boil rapidly. Best plums for preserving.—Violets, Mussels, Orleans, Impératrice, Magnum-bonum, and Winesour. Seasonable from the end of July to the beginning of October.
PLUM PUDDING, Baked.
Ingredients.—2 lbs. of flour, 1 lb. of currants, 1 lb. of raisins, 1 lb. of suet, 2 eggs, 1 pint of milk, a few slices of candied peel. Mode.—Chop the suet finely; mix it with the flour, currants, stoned raisins, and candied peel; moisten with the well-beaten eggs, and add sufficient milk to make the pudding of the consistency of very thick batter. Put it into a buttered dish, and bake in a good oven from 2¼ to 2½ hours; turn it out, strew sifted sugar over, and serve. For a very plain pudding, use only half the quantity of fruit, omit the eggs, and substitute milk or water for them. The above ingredients make a large family pudding; for a small one, half the quantity will be found ample; but it must be baked quite 1½ hour. Time.—Large pudding, 2¼ to 2½ hours; half the size, 1½ hour. Average cost, 2s. 6d. Sufficient for 9 or 10 persons. Seasonable in winter.