Sugar and flour should be quite dry, and a drum sieve is recommended for the sugar. The old way of beating the yelks and whites of eggs separate (except in very few cases), is not only useless, but a waste of time. They should be well incorporated with the other ingredients, and, in some instances, they cannot be beaten too much.
[378-*] Take fine brown Holland, and make a bag in the form of a cone, about five inches over at the top. Cut a small hole at the bottom, and tie in a small pipe of a tapering form, about two inches long; and the bore must be large or small, according to the size of the biscuits or cakes to be made. When the various mixtures are put in, lay the pipe close to the paper, and press it out in rows.
Some use a bullock’s bladder for the purpose.
[379-*] A wide-mouthed earthen pan, made quite hot in the oven, or on a fire, will be a good substitute.
[391-*] If you do not mind the expense, the cake will be much lighter if, instead of the milk, you put four eggs.
OBSERVATIONS ON PUDDINGS AND PIES.
The quality of the various articles employed in the composition of puddings and pies varies so much, that two puddings, made exactly according to the same receipt, will be so different[392-*] one would hardly suppose they were made by the same person, and certainly not with precisely the same quantities of the (apparently) same ingredients. Flour fresh ground, pure new milk, fresh laid eggs, fresh butter, fresh suet, &c. will make a very different composition, than when kept till each article is half spoiled.
Plum puddings, when boiled, if hung up in a cool place in the cloth they are boiled in, will keep good some months; when wanted, take them out of the cloth, and put them into a clean cloth, and as soon as warmed through, they are ready.
Mem.—In composing these receipts, the quantities of eggs, butter, &c. are considerably less than are ordered in other cookery books; but quite sufficient for the purpose of making the puddings light and wholesome;—we have diminished the expense, without impoverishing the preparations; and the rational epicure will be as well pleased with them as the rational economist.