Old Cookery Books and Ancient Cuisine

by William Carew Hazlitt

To make a Cabbage Pudding:—Take two pounds of the lean part of a leg of veal; take of beef-suet the like quantity; chop them together, then beat them together in a stone mortar, adding to it half a little cabbage, scalded, and beat that with your meat; then season it with mace and nutmeg, a little pepper and salt, some green gooseberries, grapes, or barberries in the time of year. In the winter put in a little verjuice; then mix all well together, with the yolks of four or five eggs well beaten; then wrap it up in green cabbage leaves; tye a cloth over it, boil it an hour: melt butter for sauce.

To make a Calf's Foot Pudding:—Take two calf's feet finely shred; then of biskets grated, and stale mackaroons broken small, the quantity of a penny loaf; then add a pound of beef-suet, very finely shred, half a pound of currants, a quarter of a pound of sugar; some cloves, mace and nutmeg, beat fine; a very little salt, some sack and orange-flower-water, some citron and candied orange-peel; work all these well together, with yolks of eggs; if you boil it, put it in the caul of a breast of veal, and tie it over with a cloth; it must boil four hours. For sauce, melt butter, with a little sack and sugar; if you bake it, put some paste in the bottom of the dish, but none on the brim; then melt half a pound of butter, and mix with your stuff, and put it in your dish, and stick lumps of marrow in it; bake it three or four hours; scrape sugar over it, and serve it hot.

To make a Chestnut Pudding:—Take a dozen and half of chestnuts, put them in a skillet of water, and set them on the fire till they will blanch; then blanch them, and when cold, put them in cold water, then stamp them in a mortar, with orange-flower-water and sack, till they are very small; mix them in two quarts of cream, and eighteen yolks of eggs, the whites of three or four; beat the eggs with sack, rose-water and sugar; put it in a dish with puff-paste; stick in some lumps of marrow or fresh butter, and bake it.

To make a Brown-bread Pudding:—Take half a pound of brown bread, and double the weight of it in beef-suet; a quarter of a pint of cream, the blood of a fowl, a whole nutmeg, some cinnamon, a spoonful of sugar, six yolks of eggs, three whites: mix it all well together, and boil it in a wooden dish two hours. Serve it with sack and sugar, and butter melted.

To make a baked Sack Pudding:—Take a pint of cream, and turn it to a curd with a sack; then bruise the curd very small with a spoon; then grate in two Naples-biskets, or the inside of a stale penny-loaf, and mix it well with the curd, and half a nutmeg grated; some fine sugar, and the yolks of four eggs, the whites of two, beaten with two spoonfuls of sack; then melt half a pound of fresh butter, and stir all together till the oven is hot. Butter a dish, and put it in, and sift some sugar over it, just as 'tis going into the oven half an hour will bake it.

To make an Orange Pudding:—Take two large Sevil oranges, and grate off the rind, as far as they are yellow; then put your oranges in fair water, and let them boil till they are tender; shift the water three or four times to take out the bitterness; when they are tender, cut them open, and take away the seeds and strings, and beat the other part in a mortar, with half a pound of sugar, till 'tis a paste; then put in the yolks of six eggs, three or four spoonfuls of thick cream, half a Naples-biscuit grated; mix these together, and melt a pound of very good fresh butter, and stir it well in; when 'tis cold, put a bit of fine puff-paste about the brim and bottom of your dish, and put it in and bake it about three quarters of an hour.

Another sort of Orange Pudding:—Take the outside rind of three Sevil oranges, boil them in several waters till they are tender; then pound them in a mortar with three quarters of a pound of sugar; then blanch and beat half a pound of almonds very fine, with rose-water to keep them from oiling; then beat sixteen eggs, but six whites, and a pound of fresh butter; beat all these together very well till 'tis light and hollow; then put it in a dish, with a sheet of puff-paste at the bottom, and bake it with tarts; scrape sugar on it, and serve it up hot.

To make a French-Barley Pudding:—Take a quart of cream, and put to it six eggs well beaten, but three of the whites; then season it with sugar, nutmeg, a little salt, orange-flower-water, and a pound of melted butter; then put to it six handfuls of French-barley that has been boiled tender in milk: butter a dish, and put it in, and bake it. It must stand as long as a venison-pasty, and it will be good.

To make a Skirret Pye:—Boil your biggest skirrets, and blanch them, and season them with cinamon, nutmeg, and a very little ginger and sugar. Your pye being ready, lay in your skirrets; season also the marrow of three or four bones with cinamon, sugar, a little salt and grated bread. Lay the marrow in your pye, and the yolks of twelve hard eggs cut in halves, a handful of chesnuts boiled and blanched, and some candied orange-peel in slices. Lay butter on the top, and lid your pye. Let your caudle be white-wine, verjuice, some sack and sugar; thicken it with the yolks of eggs, and when the pye is baked, pour it in, and serve it hot. Scrape sugar on it.

To make a Cabbage-Lettuce Pye:—Take some of the largest and hardest cabbage-lettuce you can get; boil them in salt and water till they are tender; then lay them in a colander to drain dry; then have your paste laid in your pattipan ready, and lay butter on the bottom; then lay in your lettuce and some artichoke-bottoms, and some large pieces of marrow, and the yolks of eight hard eggs, and some scalded sorrel; bake it, and when it comes out of the oven, cut open the lid; and pour in a caudle made with white-wine and sugar, and thicken with eggs; so serve it hot.