N.B. The most economical way of making suet dumplings, is to boil them without a cloth in a pot with beef or mutton; no eggs are then wanted, and the dumplings are quite as light without: roll them in flour before you put them into the pot; add six ounces of currants, washed and picked, and you have currant pudding: or divided into six parts, currant dumplings; a little sugar will improve them.
Cottage Potato Pudding or Cake.—(No. 115.)
Peel, boil, and mash, a couple of pounds of potatoes: beat them up into a smooth batter, with about three quarters of a pint of milk, two ounces of moist sugar, and two or three beaten eggs. Bake it about three quarters of an hour. Three ounces of currants or raisins may be added. Leave out the milk, and add three ounces of butter,—it will make a very nice cake.
[392-*] An old gentlewoman, who lived almost entirely on puddings, told us, it was a long time before she could get them made uniformly good, till she made the following rule:—“If the pudding was good, she let the cook have the remainder of it; if it was not, she gave it to her lapdog;” but as soon as this resolution was known, poor little Bow-wow seldom got the sweet treat after.
OBSERVATIONS ON PICKLES.
We are not fond of pickles: these sponges of vinegar are often very indigestible, especially in the crisp state in which they are most admired. The Indian fashion of pounding pickles is an excellent one: we recommend those who have any regard for their stomach, yet still wish to indulge their tongue, instead of eating pickles, which are really merely vehicles for taking a certain portion of vinegar and spice, &c. to use the flavoured vinegars; such as burnet ([No. 399]), horseradish ([No. 399*]), tarragon ([No. 396]), mint ([No. 397]), cress (Nos. [397*], [401], [403], [405*], [453], [457]), &c.; by combinations of these, a relish may easily be composed, exactly in harmony with the palate of the eater.
The pickle made to preserve cucumbers, &c. is generally so strongly impregnated with garlic, mustard, and spice, &c. that the original flavour of the vegetables is quite overpowered; and if the eater shuts his eyes, his lingual nerves will be puzzled to inform him whether he is munching an onion or a cucumber, &c., and nothing can be more absurd, than to pickle plums, peaches, apricots, currants, grapes, &c.
The strongest vinegar must be used for pickling: it must not be boiled or the strength of the vinegar and spices will be evaporated. By parboiling the pickles in brine, they will be ready in much less time than they are when done in the usual manner, of soaking them in cold salt and water for six or eight days. When taken out of the hot brine, let them get cold and quite dry before you put them into the pickle.
To assist the preservation of pickles, a portion of salt is added; and for the same purpose, and to give flavour, long pepper, black pepper, allspice, ginger, cloves, mace, garlic, eschalots, mustard, horseradish, and capsicum.