Old Cookery Books and Ancient Cuisine

by William Carew Hazlitt

Potato, or Lemon Cheesecakes:—Take six ounces of potatoes, four ounces of lemon-peel four ounces of sugar, four ounces of butter; boil the lemon-peel til tender, pare and scrape the potatoes, and boil them tender and bruise them; beat the lemon-peel with the sugar, then beat all together very well, and melt all together very well, and let it lie till cold: put crust in your pattipans, and fill them little more than half full: bake them in a quick oven half an hour, sift some double-refined sugar on them as they go into the oven; this quantity will make a dozen small pattipans.

To make Almond Cheesecakes:—Take a good handful or more of almonds, blanch them in warm water, and throw them in cold; pound them fine, and in the pounding put a little sack or orange-flower-water to keep them from oiling; then put to your almonds the yolks of two hard eggs, and beat them together: beat the yolks of six eggs, the whites of three, and mix with your almonds, and half a pound of butter melted, and sugar to your taste; mix all well together, and use it as other cheesecake stuff.

To make the light Wigs:—Take a pound and half of flour, and half a pint of milk made warm; mix these together, and cover it up, and let it lie by the fire half an hour; then take half a pound of sugar, and half a pound of butter; then work these in the paste, and make it into wigs, with as little flour as possible. Let the oven be pretty quick, and they will rise very much.

To make very good Wigs:—Take a quarter of a peck of the finest flour, rub into it three quarters of a pound of fresh butter, till 'tis like grated bread, something more than half a pound of sugar, half a nutmeg, and half a race of ginger grated; three eggs, yolks and whites beaten very well, and put to them half a pint of thick ale-yeast, three or four spoonfuls of sack. Make a hole in your flour, and pour in your yeast and eggs, and as much milk just warm, as will make it into a light paste. Let it stand before the fire to rise half an hour; then make it into a dozen and half of wigs; wash them over with eggs just as they go into the oven; a quick oven, and half an hour will bake them.

To make Carrot or Parsnip Puffs:—Scrape and boil your carrots or parsnips tender; then scrape or mash them very fine, add to a pint of pulp the crumb of a penny-loaf grated, or some stale biscuit, if you have it, some eggs, but four whites, a nutmeg grated, some orange-flower-water, sugar to your taste, a little sack, and mix it up with thick cream. They must be fry'd in rendered suet, the liquor very hot when you put them in; put in a good spoonful in a place.

A Tansy:—Boil a quart of cream or milk with a stick of cinamon, quarter'd nutmeg, and large mace; when half cold, mix it with twenty yolks of eggs, and ten whites; strain it, then put to it four grated biskets, half a pound of butter, a pint of spinage-juice, and a little tansy, sack, and orange-flower-water, sugar, and a little salt; then gather it to a body over the fire, and pour it into your dish, being well butter'd. When it is baked, turn it on a pye-plate; squeeze on it an orange, grate on sugar, and garnish it with slic'd orange and a little tansy. Made in a dish; cut as you please.

To make Sack Cream:—Take the yolks of two eggs, and three spoonfuls of fine sugar, and a quarter of a pint of sack: mix them together, and stir them into a pint of cream; then set them over the fire till 'tis scalding hot, but let it not boil. You may toast some thin slices of white bread, and dip them in sack or orange-flower-water, and pour your cream over them.

To make Quince Cream:—Take quinces, scald them till they are soft; pare them, and mash the clear part of them, and pulp it through a sieve; take an equal weight of quince, and double-refin'd sugar beaten and sifted, and the whites of eggs, and beat it till it is as white as snow, then put it in dishes.

To make Pistachia Cream:—Peel your pistachias, and beat them very fine, and boil them in cream; if 'tis not green enough, add a little juice of spinage; thicken it with eggs, and sweeten to your taste; pour it in basons, and set it by till 'tis cold.

To make white Jelly of Quinces:—Pare your quinces, and cut them in halves; then core them and parboil your quinces; when they are soft, take them up, and crush them through a strainer, but not too hard, only the clear juice. Take the weight of the juice in fine sugar; boil the sugar candy-height, and put in your juice, and let it scald awhile, but not boil; and if any froth arise, scum it off, and when you take it up, have ready a white preserved quince cut in small slices, and lay them in the bottom of your glasses, and pour your jelly to them, it will candy on the top and keep moist on the bottom a long time.