I have, for convenience sake, classed among pies all preparations bakedin crustin a pie-dish. Many of these, however, are called puddings, such as custards of various kinds, lemon, cocoa-nut, and orange puddings. The reader will have no trouble in finding the receipts for these, if she will bear the above remark in mind.
Beat your eggs very light—and, if you put in only one or two, whip white and yolk separately, beating the latter into the sugar before adding the whites.
Fruit, rice, corn-starch, and bread puddings require a steady, moderate oven in baking. Custard and batter puddings should be put into the dish, and this into the oven, the instant they are mixed, and baked quickly.Nopudding, unless it be raised with yeast, should be allowed to stand out of the oven after the ingredients are put together. Give one final hard stir just before it goes in, and be sure the mould is well greased.
Sweeten and spice, and, while the apple is still very hot, stir in the butter, and, a little at a time, the yolks. Beat all light, pour into a buttered dish, and bake ten minutes. Cover, without drawing from the oven, with a méringue made of the beaten whites, two tablespoonfuls white sugar, and the bitter almond seasoning. Spread smoothly and quickly, close the oven again, and brown very slightly.
Eat cold, with white sugar sifted over the top, and send around cream to pour over it instead of sauce.
Beat butter and sugar to a cream, stir in the yolks, the lemon, the grated apple, lastly the whites. Grate nutmeg over the top, and bake until nicely browned.
Eat cold with cream.
Beat the yolks very light, add the milk, seasoning, and flour. Stir hard five minutes, and beat in the apple, then the whites, lastly the soda, well mixed in.
Bake in two square shallow pans one hour, and eat hot, with sweet sauce. Much of the success of this pudding depends upon the mixing—almost as much upon the baking. Cover with paper when half done, to prevent hardening.
Soak the bread-crumbs in the milk, cream the butter and sugar, and beat into this the yolks. Next, adding the milk and soaked bread, stir until very smooth and light. Put in the nutmeg and citron, and whip in the whites lightly. Butter a deep dish, and put in your sliced apple, sprinkling each piece well with sugar, and scattering the cloves among them. Pour the custard you have prepared over them, and bake three-quarters of an hour.
Sift powdered sugar over the top, and eat cold.
Butter a deep dish, and put a layer of the chopped apple at the bottom; sprinkle with sugar, a few bits of butter, and cinnamon; cover with bread-crumbs; then more apple. Proceed in this order until the dish is full, having a layer of crumbs at top. Cover closely, and steam three-quarters of an hour in a moderate oven; then uncover and brown quickly.
Eat warm with sugar and cream, or sweet sauce.
This is a homely but very good pudding, especially for the children’s table. Serve in the dish in which it is baked.
Peel and core eight apples carefully, and range them closely together in a deep dish. Beat the batter very light and pour over them. Unless the apples are very ripe and sweet (for tart apples), fill the centre of each with white sugar. Bake an hour, and eat hot with sweet sauce.
Stir the beaten yolks and sugar very light, add the suet and apples with the spice; then the raisins, well dredged with flour; next the flour, and when this is all in, the liquor; lastly the whites beatenverystiff. Bake in two buttered moulds, in a moderate oven, an hour and a half at least. Eat hot, with sauce.
You may boil this pudding if you like.
Cover the tapioca with three cups of lukewarm water, and set it in a tolerably warm place to soak five or six hours, stirring now and then. Pack your apples in adeep dish, adding a cup of lukewarm water; cover closely and steam in a moderate oven until soft all through, turning them as they cook at bottom. If the dish is more than a quarter full of liquid, turn some of it out before you pour the soaked tapioca over all. Unless your apples areverysweet fill the centre with sugar and stick a clove in each, just before you cover with the tapioca. Indeed, I always do this. It softens the hard acid of the fruit. Bake, after the tapioca goes in, one hour.
Eat warm, with sweet hard sauce.
Chop the shortening into the flour after you have sifted this and the cream-tartar together; put in the soda and wet up quickly—just stiff enough to roll into a paste less than half an inch thick. Cut into squares, and lay in the centre of each a juicy, tart apple, pared and cored; bring the corners of the square neatly together and pinch them slightly. Lay in a buttered baking-pan, the joined edges downward, and bake to a fine brown. When done, brush over with beaten egg, and set back in the oven to glaze for two or three minutes. Sift powdered sugar over them, and eat hot with rich sweet sauce.
I greatly prefer the above simple crust for all kinds of dumplings, to the rich paste which becomes heavy so soon as it begins to cool. It is also more quickly and easily made, and far more wholesome than pastry.
Soak the tapioca, in enough cold water to cover it, two hours; drain off the water, if it be not all absorbed; soak two hours longer in the milk, which should be slightly warmed. When the tapioca is quite soft, beat the sugar and butter together; add the yolks, the milk and tapioca, lastly the whites. Stir very well, and bake in a buttered dish. Eat warm with sweet sauce.
You may make a sago pudding in the same way.
Dissolve the corn-starch in a little cold milk, and having heated the rest of the milk to boiling, stir this in and boil three minutes, stirring all the time. Remove from the fire, and while still very hot, put in the butter. Set away until cold; beat the eggs very light—the sugar and seasoning with them, and stir into the corn-starch, beating thoroughly to a smooth custard. Turn into a buttered dish, and bake half an hour. Eat cold, with powdered sugar sifted over it.
Heat the milk to boiling, and stir in the corn-starch, which has previously been dissolved in a little cold milk. Boil fifteen minutes, stirring all the while. Remove from the fire, and while still hot, add gradually the yolks of the eggs beaten up with the sugar and seasoned with vanilla, lemon, or bitter almond. Pour this into a buttered pudding-dish and bake fifteen minutes, or until the custard begins to “set.” Without withdrawing it further than the door of the oven, spread lightly andquicklyupon this a méringue of the whites whipped up stiff with a half-cup jelly—added gradually. Use crab-apple jelly, if bitter almond has been put into the custard; currant, for vanilla; strawberry or other sweet conserve, if you season the custard with lemon. Bake, covered, for five minutes. Then remove the lid, and brown the méringueveryslightly.
Eat cold, with powdered sugar sifted thickly over the top.
Is made according to either of the foregoing receipts, substituting arrow-root for corn-starch. Farina pudding also.
Beat the yolks very light, and having soaked the bread-crumbs well in the milk, stir these together; then the butter and seasoning, with the soda; lastly the whites. Bake to a fine brown, and eat hot with pudding-sauce.
This, if well mixed and baked, is quite a different dish from the traditional and much-despised bread-pudding of stingy housekeepers and boarding-house landladies. “Which,” says an English Josh. Billings, “nothing can be more promiskus than a boarding-house bread-pudding.” Try mine instead, putting all the sugar into the sauce, and enough there, and you will cease to sneer.
You may boil this pudding, if you like, in a floured cloth or buttered mould.
Beat the yolks light with the sugar, add the bread-crumbs when they have been well soaked in the milk, and stir until smooth. Next put in the fruit, well dredged with flour, the soda, and finally the whites, whipped to a stiff froth.
This will require longer and steadier baking than if the fruit were not in. Cover it if it threatens to harden too soon on top. Send to table hot in the dish in which it was baked, or turn out very carefully upon a hot plate. Eat warm, with pudding-sauce.
Cut thin slices of bread (stale), spread thickly with butter, and sprinkle with sugar. Fit them neatly and closely into a buttered pudding-dish until it is half full. Lay a small, heavy plate upon them to prevent them from floating, and saturate them gradually with a hot custard made of the milk, heated almost to boiling, then taken from the fire, and the beaten eggs and sugar stirred in with the seasoning. Let the bread soak in this fifteen minutes or so, adding by degrees all the custard. Just before you put the pudding in the oven, take up the plate gently. If the bread still rise to the top, keep down with a silver fork or spoon, laid upon it from the side of the dish, until the custard thickens, when slip it out. Eat cold.
Is made precisely as above, except that each slice is spread with marmalade or jam besides the butter.
Either of these puddings is good boiled.
Butter a pudding-dish; sprinkle the bottom with bread-crumbs; pour over these half a cup jam, and cover this well with the rest of the crumbs, wet with a very little milk. Heat the quart of milk untilnearboiling, take it from the fire and add, gradually, the beaten yolks and sugar, stirring in the beaten whites lightly at the last. Heat this by degrees, stirring constantly until it begins to thicken; put it, spoonful by spoonful, upon the layer of bread-crumbs, taking care not to disturb these, and when all is in, bake until well “set” and very slightly browned.
Eat cold. Cream is a delicious accompaniment to it.
Rub the butter into a cup of sugar; beat the yolks very light, and stir these together to a cream. The bread-crumbs, soaked in milk, come next, then the seasoning. Bake this in a buttered pudding-dish—a large one and but two-thirds full—until the custard is “set.” Draw to the mouth of the oven, spread over with jam or other nice fruit-conserve. Cover this with a méringue made ofthe whipped whites and half a cup of sugar. Shut the oven and bake until the méringue begins to color.
Eat cold, with cream.
You may, in strawberry season, substitute the fresh fruit for preserves. It is then truly delightful.
Heat the milk slightly, and pouring it over the cracker, let them stand together fifteen minutes. Stir into this first the beaten yolks, then the butter and soda; beat all smooth and add the whipped whites.
Eat hot, with pudding sauce.
Make a custard of the milk, eggs, and sugar, seasoned with the spices, by heating the milkalmostto boiling, then taking it from the fire and adding gradually the yolks, sugar, seasoning, and whites. Do not boil it again. Butter a pudding-dish; put a layer of crackers in the bottom, moistening with a few spoonfuls of the hot custard. On this lay some of the raisins—a thick stratum; cover with crackers—the buttered side downward; moisten with the custard, and proceed in this order until your crackers andfruit are used up. Pour in custard until only the top of the upper layer is visible, but not enough to float them; cover closely and set in the cellar over night. In the morning add the rest of the custard, at intervals of five or six minutes between the cupfuls.
Bake two hours in a moderate oven. Cover with paper if it should seem likely to harden too fast.
Eat hot, with sauce.
Beat the yolks with the sugar; add to these the milk in which the cracker has been soaked for half an hour; work into a smooth paste before putting in the suet and soda. Whip the whites in last, and bake nearly, if not quite an hour. Cover, should the crust form too rapidly. Eat hot, with wine sauce.
You may also steam or boil this pudding.
Blanch the almonds and cut with a sharp knife into thin shavings. Beat the yolks with the sugar until light and thick; mix in the cracker and milk; the suet and the fruit well dredged; the spice and rose-water; then the whipped whites, finally the almonds.
Bake in a buttered mould one hour and a half. Turn out and eat with wine sauce.
Boil in a well-buttered mould. In this case, blanch, but do not cut the almonds, and do not stone the raisins. Butter the mould so thickly that you can stick the almonds to the sides in regular rows, alternately with rows of whole raisins. Put in the mixture gently, not to disturb these; cover the mould and boil or steam three hours. Treated in this way, it makes a pretty-looking pudding. It is palatable in any shape.
Soak the cracker in the milk; rub the butter and sugar together, adding the lemon, and beating to a cream; then stir in the beaten yolks; next the cracker and milk; lastly, the whites. Butter a deep dish, and put the jam, whichshould be pretty stiff, at the bottom. Fill up with the mixture, and bake about half an hour.
Eat cold, with sugar sifted over the top.
Wash and pick over the rice, and soak in one pint of the milk two hours. Then add the rest of the milk, the sugar, salt, butter and spice. Bake two hours, and eat cold.
Soak the tapioca in a cup of the milk three hours; wash the rice in several waters, and soak in another cup of milk as long as you do the tapioca. Sweeten the remaining quart of milk; put all the ingredients together, and bake two hours in a slow oven. Eat cold.
Soak the rice in a pint of the milk an hour, then set the saucepan containing it where it will slowly heat to a boil. Boil five minutes; remove and let it cool. Beat the yolks, add the sugar and butter, the rice and the milk in which it was cooked, with the pint of unboiled; the beaten whites, and finally the raisins. Grate nutmeg on the top, and bake three-quarters of an hour, or until the custard is well set and of a light brown. Eat cold.
Heat the milk to a boil, and stir in the rice-flour wet to a smooth paste with a little cold milk; boil until well thickened, stirring all the time. Take from the fire, and while still hot stir in the butter, the yolks beaten light with the sugar, the lemon, nutmeg, and the whites of three eggs. Mix well, and bake in a buttered dish three-quarters of an hour. Just before you take it up, draw to the mouth of the oven and cover with a méringue of the remaining whites, beaten stiff with two tablespoonfuls powdered sugar, and flavored with vanilla or rose-water. Bake until the méringue begins to brown. Sift sugar on the top and eat cold.
Bake in a buttered dish three-quarters of an hour. Serve in the pudding-dish as soon as it is drawn from the oven, and eat with rich sauce.
You may boil it in a buttered mould or floured bag, flouring itverythickly. Boil two hours, taking care the boiling does not cease for a moment until the pudding is done.
Wet the flour gradually with the milk to a very smooth paste; next add the beaten yolks, then the salt and soda, lastly the whites, whipped to a stiff froth. Bake in a buttered dish for an hour, and serve at once. Eat hot, with sauce.
If you boil it, leave plenty of room to swell in the bag, and boil two hours.
Rub the butter and sugar together, beat in the yolks, then the milk and soda, the salt, and the beaten whites, alternately with the flour. Bake in a buttered mould; turn out upon a dish; cut in slices, and eat with liquid sauce.
This is a simple but very nice pudding.
Pour in nine well-buttered cups of same size as that used for measuring, and bake to a fine brown. Eat as soon as done, with sauce.
Rub the sugar and butter together; beat the yolks light, and add then the milk and soda; lastly the flour and beaten whites alternately. Fill six small cups, wellbuttered, and bake twenty minutes, or until a nice brown. Eat warm.
Heat the milk to boiling, and stir in the corn-starch, wet with a few spoonfuls of cold water. Boil five minutes, stirring constantly. While hot, mix in the butter, and set it away to cool. Beat the yolks light, and add the sugar, mixing very thoroughly before putting in the lemon juice and grated rind. Beat this to a stiff cream, and add gradually to the corn-starch milk, when the latter is cold. Stir all smooth, put in a buttered dish, and bake. Eat cold.
Soak the bread in the milk; add the beaten yolks, with the butter and sugar rubbed to a cream, also the lemon. Bake in a buttered dish until firm and slightly brown. Draw to the door of the oven and cover with a méringue of the whites whipped to a froth with three tablespoonfulsof powdered sugar, and a little lemon-juice. Brown very slightly; sift powdered sugar over it, and eat cold.
You may make an orange pudding in the same way.
Cream the butter and sugar, and add the beaten yolks. When these are well mixed, put in the cocoanut; stir well before adding the milk, cake-crumbs, flavoring; and lastly, the whites of three eggs. Whip the other whites stiff with three tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar; flavor with vanilla, and just before taking the pudding from the oven, spread this méringue over the top, and close the oven until the icing is slightly browned.
Bake in all three-quarters of an hour.
Rub the butter and sugar together; add the yolks well beaten, the milk, bread-crumbs, and the whites whipped to a froth. Put a layer of this in the bottom of a well-buttered mould, spread thickly with some pretty stiff marmalade—orangeis nicest—then another layer of the mixture, and so on until the mould is full, having the custard mixture at top. Bake in a moderate oven about an hour, turn out of the mould upon a dish and serve, with sweetened cream or custard.
Simmer the macaroni in half the milk until tender. While hot stir in the butter, the yolks, well beaten up with the sugar, the lemon, and lastly the whipped whites. Bake in a buttered mould about half an hour, or until nicely browned.
May be made according to the foregoing receipt.
Rub the butter and sugar together; put the beatenyolks in next; then the soaked bread-crumbs, the lemon, juice, and rind, and beat to a smooth, light paste before adding the whites. Butter your mouldverywell, and put in the bottom a light layer of dry bread-crumbs; upon this one of macaroons, laid evenly and closely together. Wet this with wine, and cover with a layer of the mixture; then with slices of sponge-cake, spread thickly with jelly or jam; next macaroons, wet with wine, more custard, sponge-cake, and jam, and so on until the mould is full, putting a layer of the mixture at the top. Cover closely, and steam in the oven three-quarters of an hour; then remove the cover to brown the top. Turn out carefully into a dish, and pour over it a sauce made of currant jelly warmed, and beaten up with two tablespoonfuls melted butter and a glass of pale Sherry.
A plain round mould is best for the pudding, as much of its comeliness depends upon the manner in which the cake and macaroons are fitted in.
It is a pretty and good pudding, and will well repay the trifling trouble and care required to manage it properly.
It is also nice boiled in a buttered mould.
Prepare the stalks as for pies; cover the bottom of a buttered pudding-dish with slices of bread and butter; cover with the rhubarb cut into short pieces; sprinkle abundantly with sugar; then put on another layer of bread and butter, and so on until your dish is full. Cover and steam, while baking, for half an hour. Remove the lid and bake ten minutes, or until browned.
Eat with hot sauce.
Stew the gooseberries ten minutes—very slowly, not to break them. Cut your slices of bread to fit your pudding-dish, and toast to a light brown on both sides. (Cut off all the crust before toasting.) Dip each slice, while hot, in milk, and spread with the melted butter. Cover the bottom of the dish with them; put next a layer of the gooseberries, sprinkled thickly with sugar; more toast, more berries, and so on, until the dish is full. Cover closely and steam in a moderate oven twenty or twenty-five minutes. Turn out upon a hot dish and pour over it a good pudding-sauce.
This is considered a wholesome breakfast dish, and is certainly good. In this case omit the sauce, sift powdered sugar over the top, and eat with the same.
Beat the yolks light; add the soaked bread-crumbs and milk; stir to a smooth batter, put in the rice-flour, wet upfirst with cold milk; the reserved pint of milk, the seasoning, butter, the fruit, lastly the whites whipped stiff. Bake an hour in a buttered mould; turn out and pour sauce over it, serving hard sauce also with it.
You may boil the mixture two hours in a floured cloth or buttered mould.
Beat the yolks and sugar together; add the suet and spice, then the flour, moistening the mixture gradually with milk until you can move the spoon in it. Dredge the fruit and put in by degrees; finally, stir in the beaten whites. Beat all very hard and long before baking in a buttered mould. It will requireat leastan hour and a half in a moderate oven.
Turn out, and eat with rich sweet sauce.
Roll out a quarter of an inch thick, cut into oblongpieces, rounded at the corners; put a great spoonful damson, cherry, or other tart preserve in the middle and roll into a dumpling. Bake three-quarters of an hour, brush over with beaten egg while hot, set back in the oven three minutes to glaze.
Eat hot with brandy or wine sauce.
You may make a roll-pudding of it by rolling out the paste into an oblong sheet, spreading thickly with the preserves, folding it up as one would a travelling-shawl to be put into a strap, pinching the ends together that the juice may not escape, and boiling in a floured cloth fitted to the shape of the “roley-poley.” Boil an hour and a half.
You can boil puddings in a bowl, a mould, or a cloth. The mould should have a closely-fitting top, and be buttered well—top and all—before the batter or dough is put in. These moulds are usually made with hasps or other fastening. In lack of this, you had better tie down the cover securely. I once boiled a pudding in a tin pail, the top of which I made more secure by fitting it over a cloth floured on the inside, lest the pudding should stick. The experiment succeeded admirably, and I commend the suggestion to those who find, after the pudding is mixed, that their mould leaks, or the bowl that did duty as a substitute has been broken, and nothing said to “the mistress” about it. If you use a bowl, butter it, and tie a floured cloth tightly over the top. If a cloth, have it clean and sweet, and flour bountifully on the inside. In all, leave room for batter, bread, rice, and cracker puddings to swell. Tie the string very tightly about the mouth of thebag, which must be made withfelledseams at sides and bottom, the better to exclude the water.
The water must be boiling when the pudding goes in, and not stop boiling for one instant until it is done. If it is in a bag, this must be turned several times,under water, to prevent sticking or scorching to the sides of the pot. The bag must also be entirely covered, while the water should not quite reach to the top of a mould. If you use a basin, dip the cloth in boiling water before dredging with flour on the inside.
When the time is up, take mould, basin, or cloth from the boiling pot, and plungeinstantlyinto cold water; then turn out without the loss of a second. This will prevent sticking, and leave a clearer impression of the mould upon the contents.
Boiled puddings should be served as soon as they are done, as they soon become heavy.
Many of the baked puddings I have described are quite as good boiled. As a safe rule,double the time of baking if you boil.
Make a batter of eggs, milk, flour, yeast, salt, and soda, and set it to rise in a warm place about four hours. When you are ready to boil it, stir in the dredged fruit quickly and lightly. Boil in a buttered mould or a floured cloth for two hours.
This will be found lighter and more wholesome than boiled pastry.
Eat hot with sweet sauce.
Roll out the crust less than half an inch thick—indeed, a quarter of an inch will do—into an oblong sheet. Cover thickly with the fruit and sprinkle with sugar. Begin at one end and roll it up closely, the fruit inside. In putting this in, leave a narrow margin at the other end of the roll, which should be folded down closely like the flap of a pocket-book. Pinch the ends of the folded roll together, to prevent the escape of the fruit, and baste up ina bag, the same size and shape as the “valise.” Flour the bag well before putting in the pudding, having previously dipped it—the cloth—into hot water, and wring it out.
Boil an hour and a half. Serve hot with sauce, and cut crosswise in slices half an inch thick.
Make a paste according to the above receipt; cut in squares, and put in the centre of each an apple, pared and cored. Bring the corners together; enclose each dumpling in a small square cloth, tied up bag-wise, leaving room to swell. Each cloth should be dipped in hot water, wrung out and floured on the inside before the apple is put in.
Boil one hour.
Roll out, cut into squares, put in the middle of each a fine, juicy apple, pared and cored. Fill the hole left by the core with marmalade, or with sugar wet with lemon-juice. Stick a clove in the sugar. Close the paste, tie up in the cloths, when you have wet them with hot water and floured them, and boil one hour.
A pleasing idea for dumpling cloths is to crochet them in a close stitch with stout tidy cotton. They are easily done, wash and wear well, and leave a very pretty pattern upon the paste when they are opened. Crochet them round, with a cord for drawing run into the outer edge.
Prepare a paste in accordance with either of the foregoing receipts, but roll into one sheet. Lay apples, peaches, or berries in the centre, paring and slicing the fruit; sprinkle with sugar, and close the paste over them as you would a dumpling. Dip a stout cloth in hot water, flour the inside, put in the pudding, tie tightly, and boil two hours and a half.
Eat hot with sauce.
Let the rice cool upon a sieve or coarse cloth, that it may dry at the same time. Dip your dumpling cloths in hot water; wring them out and flour well inside. Put a handful of the cold rice upon each, spreading it out into a smooth sheet. Lay in the centre an apple; fill the hole left by the core with marmalade or jelly; draw up the cloth carefully to enclose the apple with a coating of rice; tie, and boil one hour.
Turn over with care; pour sweet sauce or rich sweetened cream over them, and send around more in a boat with them.
Make into large balls with floured hands; put into dumpling cloths dipped into hot water and floured inside; leave room to swell, and tie the strings very tightly.
Boil three-quarters of an hour. Serve hot with wine sauce.
Are made as above, with the addition of ½ lb. raisins, seeded, chopped, and dredged with flour, and ¼ lb. currants, washed, dried, and dredged.
Boil one hour and a quarter.
Scald the milk, and while boiling hot stir in the meal and suet with the salt. When cold add the yolks, beaten light with the sugar, then the whites. Dip your bag in hot water, flour it, and fill half-full with the mixture, as it will swell very much. Boil five hours.
Eat very hot with butter and sugar.
Cream the butter and sugar; add the beaten yolks, then the milk and the flour, alternately, with the whites. Lastly, stir in the fruit, well dredged with flour, turn into a buttered mould, and boil two hours and a half at least.
Serve hot, with cabinet pudding sauce over it. (SeeSweet Sauces.)
Work the sugar into the beaten yolks; then the suet and crumbs, with the chopped apples; next the brandy and spice, then the whipped whites; lastly the fruit, well dredged with flour.
Boil in a buttered bowl or mould three hours. Eat hot with sauce.
Cream the butter and sugar; beat in the yolks when you have whipped them smooth and light; next put in the milk; then the flour, alternately with the beaten whites; then the brandy and spice; lastly the fruit, well dredged with flour. Mix all thoroughly; wring out your pudding-cloth in hot water; flour well inside, pour in the mixture, and boil five hours.
I can confidently recommend this as the best plum pudding I have ever tasted, even when the friend at whose table I had first the pleasure of eating it imitated the example of “good King Arthur’s” economical spouse, and what we “couldn’t eat that night,” “nextdayfried,” by heating a little butter in a frying-pan, and laying in slices of her pudding, warmed them into almost their original excellence. It will keep a long time—in alockedcloset or safe.
Make a light paste as for apple dumplings or valise pudding, roll in an oblong sheet, and lay oranges (sweet ones), peeled, sliced, and seeded, thickly all over it. Sprinkle with white sugar; scatter a teaspoonful or two of the grated yellow peel over all and roll up closely, foldingdown the end to secure the syrup. Boil in a pudding-cloth one hour and a half.
Eat with lemon sauce.
Wash and stone the cherries, or pick the currants from their stems. Make some good light crust, roll it out a quarter of an inch thick, and cut for the bottom a round piece about the size of a tea-plate. You can use the top of a tin pail for a cutter. Spread your fruit upon this, and sprinkle with sugar, leaving a half inch margin all around. Roll out a second sheet an inch less in diameter than the first, lay it carefully upon the fruit, and turn up the margin of the lower piece over the edge of this. Spread this, in turn, with fruit and sugar, and cover with a third and lessening round; proceeding in this order until the sixth and topmost cover is not more than three inches across. Have ready a conical cap of stout muslin adapted to the proportions and dimensions of your pile; dip it in boiling water, flour inside, and draw gently over all. It should be large enough to meet and tie under the base without cramping the pyramid.
Boil two hours, and eat with sweet sauce.
Have plenty of nice sweet lard in which to fry fritters, and test the heat by dropping in a teaspoonful before you risk more. If right, the batter will rise quickly to the surface in a puff-ball, spluttering and dancing, and will speedily assume a rich golden-brown. Take up, as soon asdone, with a skimmer, shaking it to dislodge any drops of lard that may adhere; pile in a hot dish, sift sugar over them, and send instantly to the table. Fry as many at a time as the kettle will hold, and send in hot fresh ones while the batter lasts. A round-bottomed saucepan or kettle, rather wide at top, is best for frying them.
Use a frying-pan for pancakes; heat it; put in a teaspoonful or two of lard and run it quickly over the bottom; then pour in a large ladleful of batter—enough to cover the bottom of the pan with a thin sheet. Turn with a tin spatula, very carefully, to avoid tearing it. The frying-pan should be a small one. Have ready a hot dish; turn out the pancake upon it, cover with powdered sugar, and roll up dexterously like a sheet of paper. Send half a dozen to table at once, keeping them hot by setting the dish in the oven until enough are baked.
I am thus explicit in these general instructions to save myself the trouble, and the reader the tedium, of a repetition under each receipt.
In olden times it was a boast of notable cooks that they could toss a pancake from the pan out of the top of the chimney with such accuracy of calculation, that it would turn itself on the way back, and settle in its place, ready, like St. Lawrence, to have the other side fried.Inever saw a pancake tossed, although in my childish days I saw hundreds fried by the honorable tribe—now so fast passing away—of Old Virginia cooks. I do not advise this acrobatic system of culinary exploit, especially for beginners. Indeed, I doubt if the pancakes would be found equal to the journey in these days of tight chimney-throats and cooking stoves. They must be out of practice as well as their manufacturers. Be careful not to have too much grease in the pan.
Stir the flour into the water by degrees, and stir until it has boiled three minutes. Let it get almost cold, when beat in the yolks, then the whites of the eggs, which must be previously whippedstiff.
Beat the yolks and whites separately, of course; stir the milk in with the former, then the soda, the flour, and salt, finally the whites. Beat very hard, and fryat once, in great ladlefuls.
Put the brandy, a very little water, the sugar, and the spice into a covered saucepan with the apples. Stir gently until half done; drain off the liquor, every drop; mince the apple when cold, and stir into the batter.
You may parboil the apples in clear water, with a very little sugar, and proceed as just directed.
Soak the cake-crumbs in the boiling milk, and stir in the corn-starch. Heat all together to a boil, stirring all the time. Beat the yolks light, and add to this as it cools, with the sugar. Whip in the jelly, a little at a time, and put in the whites—beaten to a stiff froth—at the last.
Fry immediately.
Soak the bread in the boiling milk ten minutes, in a covered bowl. Beat to a smooth paste; add the whipped yolks, the butter, salt, soda, and finally the whites, whipped stiff.
Fry slices of stale baker’s bread—aërated, if you canget it—in boiling lard to a fine brown. Dip each slice quickly in boiling water to remove the grease. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and pile upon a hot plate. Before toasting, cut the slices with a round cake-cutter, taking off all the crust. They look better when piled up. Pour sweet wine sauce over them when hot, and serve at once.
Cut the cake carefully and fry a nice brown. Dip each slice for a second in a bowl of boiling milk, draining this off on the side of the vessel; lay on a hot dish and spread thickly with strawberry jam, peach jelly, or other delicate conserve. Pile them neatly and send around hot, with cream to pour over them.
This is a nice way of using up stale cake, and if rightly prepared, the dessert is almost equal to Neapolitan pudding.
Milk to make athinbatter. Begin with two cups and add until the batter is of the right consistency. Beat the yolks light, add the salt, soda, and two cups of milk, then the flour and beaten whites alternately, and thin with more milk.
A batter as above. When the pancakes are fried, lay upon a hot plate, spread quickly with nice jam or jelly, and roll up neatly upon the preserves. Sprinkle lightly with powdered sugar, and send around with wine sauce or sweetened cream.