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Mince very fine a quarter of a pound of beef suet. Have ready a pint and a half of finely-grated bread-crumbs. Prepare the yellow rind of a large lemon, grated off from the white skin beneath, and squeeze the juice among it. Mix together in a deep pan the bread-crumbs and suet, adding four or five table-spoonfuls of powdered sugar, and a tea-spoonful of mixed spice, cinnamon, nutmeg and mace. Beat in a broad shallow pan five eggs till very smooth and thick. Add them gradually to the other ingredients, a little at a time. Have ready a square pudding-cloth, scalded and floured. Pour in the mixture, and tie the cloth tightly, but not closely, as room must be left for the pudding to swell in boiling. Put it into a pot of hot water, and boil it steadily for two hours. Send wine sauce to table with it—or cold sauce, of beaten butter, and sugar, and nutmeg.
If you use butter instead of suet, you can bake this pudding.
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This is for a small plain-living family. Chop very fine half apound of nice fresh beef suet. Stone a half pound of very good raisins, or use the sultana or seedless sort. Dredge them well on all sides with flour to prevent their sinking to the bottom. Grate the yellow rind of a large fresh lemon, and strain the juice into the saucer on which you have grated the rind. It will be still better if you use the rind and juice of an orange as well as of a lemon. Put into a bowl half a pint of grated bread-crumbs, and a heaped table-spoonful of flour, and pour on them a half pint of boiling milk. Beat in a shallow pan four eggs till very thick and light. Mix the suet gradually into the bread, adding alternately the beaten egg, (a little at a time) the lemon and orange, and four heaped table-spoonfuls of sugar. Lastly, stir in by degrees, the raisins, well floured. Put the mixture into a square pudding-cloth spread out into a deep pan, and dipped in boiling water. Tie it securely, leaving room to swell. Boil it three hours.
Eat with it a sauce of butter, sugar, and nutmeg, beaten together.
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To a pound of the best fresh butter allow a pound of the finest flour, sifted into a deep pan. Have on a plate some additional sifted flour for sprinkling androlling in. Divide the pound of butter into four equal parts, and three of those parts divide again into two portions. Mix the first quarter of butter into the mass of flour, cutting it with a broad-bladed knife. If your hands are naturally warm, avoid touching the dough with them, as their heat will render it heavy. Paste, to be very good, should be made on a marble slab. All well-furnished kitchens or pastry rooms should be provided with marble-topped tables, and marble mortars. Add gradually to the lump of dough avery little coldwater, barely sufficient to moisten it with the first quarter of butter, and mix it well with the aid of the broad knife; but proceed as fast as you can, and do not work with it too long. Too much water will render it tough, and too much working will make it heavy. Then sprinkle the marble slab with some of the spare flour, take the lump of paste from the pan, and roll it out into a sheet. Divide one of the portions of butter into little bits, and with the knife disperse them equally all over the sheet of paste. Then sprinkle it again with flour, fold it up so as to cover the butter, and roll it out again. Proceed in this manner till you have got in all the butter, rolling always lightly, and you will soon see the surface of the dough puffing up in little blisters, a sign that it is becoming light. Besides the first mixing in the lump, the butter will then be put in with what are called six turns. When baked, you will see that every turn makes a layer or sheet. If you choose to multiply them, you may make ninesheets. We have seen twelve. All this must be done fast and lightly. Then put away the paste to cool for ten minutes before arranging it in the dishes. This quantity will make two pies or four tarts. In baking, let the oven be hot, and keep up a steady heat, so the paste may not fall after it has first risen. When pale brown, it is done.
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For shells take the best puff paste, and line with it large deep plates, the size of a soup-plate. They should have broad rims. Notch the edges of the paste handsomely with a sharp penknife, and be careful not to plaster on, afterwards, any bits by way of mending or rectifying an error. When baked, every patch in the border will show itself plainly. Bake the shells entirely empty, till pale brown all over. When cool fill them,quite up the top, with whatever marmalade or stewed fruit you have prepared for the purpose. In this way (baking them empty,) the shells are thoroughly done, and not clammy and heavy at the bottom, as they always are when filledbeforebaking. The fruit requires no other cooking, having been done once already. Sift white sugar over the surface. If for company whip some cream, sweeten it, and flavor it with lemon, orange, pine-apple, strawberry or vanilla, and pile it on the surface of the shell before it goes to table.
Small tarts may, in this way, be baked empty, for patty-pans, and filled with ripe fruit, such asstrawberries, raspberries, or grated pine-apple, made very sweet, and creamed on the top—or you may fill the shells with any sort of sweetmeats, either preserves or marmalade, or with mince-meat. Shells may be made thus, and filled with stewed oysters, or reed-birds, cooked previously, and served up warm; or with nicely-dressed lobster. You may make lids for them of the same paste baked by itself on a shallow plate, and when taken off fitting well as a cover to put on afterwards before sending to table.
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These are made of fine puff-paste cut into handsome patterns, or wreaths of leaves or flowers. They are laid round the broad edge of the deep plate that contains a rich pudding, such as lemon, orange, almond, cocoa-nut, pine-apple, &c.; the dish being full down to the bottom and up to the top, and having no paste but the border round the edge. They must be baked in the dish on which they come to table, and not in tin or iron, as the pudding cannot be transferred. At handsome tables, a pudding baked with a pasteunderit (lining the dish,) is now seen but seldom.
Instead of wreaths, you may make a puff-paste border by laying a thick evenly cut band of paste round the flat rim of the dish, and notching it, forming with a penknife small squares about an inch wide, and turning one square up and one square down alternately,cheveux de frizefashion. Or youmay make the squares near two inches wide and turn over one corner sharp, leaving the other flat. This looks pretty when baked, if the paste isvery puff.
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To make two puddings take two fine large ripe lemons, and rub them under your hand on a table. Grate off the thin yellow rind upon a large lump of loaf sugar. Cut the lemon, and squeeze the juice into a saucer through a strainer, to avoid the seeds. Put half a pound of powdered white sugar into a deep earthen pan, (including the sugar on which you have rubbed the lemons) and cut up in it half a pound of the best fresh butter, adding the juice. Stir them to a light cream with a wooden spaddle, which is shorter than a mush-stick, and flattened at one end; that end rather thin, and rather broad. Beat in a shallow pan, (with hickory rods) six eggs, till very thick and smooth, and stir them gradually into the mixture. Have ready some of the best puff-paste, made in the proportion of a pint or half a pound of very nice fresh butter to a pint or half a pound of sifted flour. Take china or white-ware dishes with broad rims. Butter the rim, and lay round it neatly a border of the paste.Put no paste inside the dish beneath the mixture.Fill each dish to the top with the pudding mixture, and set it immediately into the oven. It will bake in about half an hour When done, and browned on the surface, set it tocool, and send it to table in the dish it was baked in.
Fine puddings are now made without an under crust, but merely a handsome border of puff-paste laid round the edge, and helped with the pudding. Sift sugar over the surface. This quantity will make one large pudding, or two small ones.
To almost all puddings the flavor of lemon or orange is an improvement. A genuinebakedlemon pudding, (such as was introduced by the justly celebrated Mrs. Goodfellow,) and is well known at Philadelphia dinner parties, must haveno flouror bread whatever. The mixture only of butter, sugar, and eggs, (with the proper flavoring) and when baked it cuts down smooth and shining, like a nice custard. Made this way, they are among the most delicious of puddings; but, of course, are not intended for children or invalids. We have already given numerous receipts forplainfamily desserts. In thischapterthe receipts are "for company." The author wasreallya pupil of Mrs. Goodfellow's, and for double the usual term, and while there took notes of every thing that was made, it being the desire of the liberal and honest instructress that her scholarsshould learn in reality.
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Blanch in hot water a quarter of a pound of shelled sweet and two ounces of bitter almonds, and as you blanch them throw them into a bowl of cold water. When all arethus peeled, take them out singly, wipe them dry in a clean napkin, and lay them on a plate. Pound them one at a time in a marble mortar till they become a smooth paste, adding frequently a few drops of rose-water to make them light and preserve their whiteness, mixing the bitter almonds with the sweet. As you pound them, take out the paste and lay it in a saucer with a tea-spoon. Without the rose-water they will become oily and dark-colored. Without a few bitter almonds the others will be insipid. The almonds may be thus prepared a day before they are wanted for use. Cut up a large quarter of a pound of fresh butter in a large quarter of a pound of powdered sugar, and stir them together with a spaddle till very light and creamy. Add a large wine-glass of mixed wine and brandy, and half a grated nutmeg. Beat, till they stand alone, the whites only of six eggs, and stir them gradually into the butter and sugar, in turn with the pounded almonds. Stir the whole very hard at the last. Put the mixture into a deep dish with a broad rim, and fill it up to the top, laying a border of puff-paste all round the rim. Serve up the pudding cool, having sifted sugar over it.
Boiled Almond Pudding—Is made as above; only with whole eggs, both yolks and whites beaten together. Boil it in abain-marieor in a thick square cloth, in a pot of boiling water. When done, turn it out and send it to table warm. Eat it with sugar, wet with rose-water.
Orange Pudding—Is made exactly like lemonpudding; the ingredients in the same proportion, and baked without an under crust, having a border of puff-paste all round the edge, and sent to table in the dish it was baked in. These fine-baked puddings should have no addition whatever of bread-crumbs or flour. They should cut down smooth and glassy.
Boiled Lemon or Orange Pudding—Make the foregoing mixture either with two lemons or two oranges, adding to the other ingredients a half pint finely-crumbled sponge cake. Boil the mixture either in abain-marieor a thick pudding cloth, and serve it up warm. For sauce, have ready butter and sugar beaten to a cream, and flavored well with lemon or orange, and grated nutmeg.
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Break up a ripe cocoa-nut. Having peeled off the brown skin, wash all the pieces of nut in cold water, and wipe them dry on a clean napkin. Then grate the cocoa-nutvery fineinto a pan, till you have a quart. In a deep pan cut up a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, and add a very light quarter of a pound of powdered white sugar. Stir together (with a spaddle,) the butter and sugar till they are very light and creamy, and add a grated nutmeg. Beat, (till they stand alone) thewhites onlyof six eggs; the yolks may be reserved for soft custards. Stir the beaten white of egg gradually into the pan of butter and sugar,alternately with the grated cocoa-nut, a little at a time of each, and a glass of mixed brandy and white wine. Stir the whole very hard. Fill with it a broad-edged deep white dish, and lay a puff-paste border all round the rim. Bake it light brown, and when cool sift white sugar over it, serving it up in the dish it was baked in.
Boiled Cocoa-nut Pudding.—For this make the above mixture, and boil it in a mould, or in abain-marie, with the water in the outside kettle. Eat it either warm or cold.
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Wash, boil, and peel some fine sweet potatos. Mash them, and rub them through a coarse sieve—this will make them loose and light. If merelymashedthe pudding will clod and be heavy. In a deep pan stir to a cream a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, and a quarter of a pound of powdered sugar; adding a grated nutmeg, a tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon, a half glass of white wine, and a half glass of brandy. Beat in a shallow pan three eggs, till very thick and smooth, and stir them into the mixture of butter and sugar, alternately with the sweet potato. At the last mix all thoroughly with a very hard stirring. Put the mixture into a deep dish, and lay a border of puff-paste all round the rim. Set the pudding immediately into a rather brisk oven, and when cool sift white sugar over it. For two of these puddingsdoublethe quantities of all the ingredients.
White Potato Pudding—Is made exactly as above. Chestnut pudding also—the large Spanish chestnuts, boiled, peeled, and mashed.
Fine Pumpkin Pudding—Also, allowing to the above ingredients a half pint of stewed pumpkins, squeezed dry and rubbed through a sieve.
Cashaw Pudding.—A similar pudding may be made of stewed cashaw, or winter squash.
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Take a fine large ripe pine-apple. Remove the leaves, and quarter it without paring, standing up each quarter in a deep plate, and grating it down till you come to the rind. Strew plenty of powdered sugar over the grated fruit. Cover it, and let it rest for an hour. Then put it into a porcelain kettle, and steam it in its own syrup till perfectly soft. Have ready some empty shells of puff-paste, baked either in patty-pans or in soup plates. When they are cool, fill them full with the grated pine-apple; add more sugar, and lay round the rim a border of puff-paste.
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Wash well, pare, and core some fine ripe quinces, having cut out all the blemishes. Put the cores and parings into a small sauce-pan, and stew them in a little water, till all broken to pieces. Then strain and save the quince water. Having quartered the quinces, or sliced them in round slices, transfer them to a porcelain stew-pan, and pour over thequinces water extracted from boiling the cores and parings. Let them cook in this till quite soft all through. Make them very sweet with powdered sugar, and fill with them two deep soup plates that have been baked empty, with a puff paste border round the rims. Fill them up to the top, (they are already cooked) and sift sugar over them—or, you may pile on the surface of each some ice-cream. You may cook the quinces whole, and lay one on each tart.
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May be made in the same manner, flavored with the grated yellow rind and juice of a lemon. The apples should be fine juicy pippins. If done whole, lay one on each patty-pan tart, and stick into the core hole a slip of the yellow rind of lemon, pared so thin as to be nearly transparent.
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Rub off upon a large lump ofsugarthe yellow rind of two fine ripe lemons, and mix it with a pound of powdered loaf sugar, adding the juice. Whip, to a stiff froth, thewhites onlyof eight eggs; and then, gradually, beat in the sugar and lemon, adding a heaped table-spoonful of the finest flour. Spread part of the mixture thickly over the bottom of a deep dish, the rim of which has been bordered with a handsome wreath of puff-paste, and baked. Lay upon it a thick layer of stiff currant or strawberryjelly. Then fill up the dish, and set it, a few minutes in a rather cool oven to brown slightly. This pudding is for dinner company. If you use oranges, omit half the grated peel.
You may flavor the meringue with vanilla. Split, and break up a small vanilla bean, and boil it in avery littlecream till all the vanilla flavor is extracted, the cream tasting of it strongly. Then strain it well, and mix the vanilla cream with the white of egg. Or, a littlehome-madeextract of vanilla will be still better. This is obtained by splitting and breaking up some vanilla beans, and steeping them for a week or two in a bottle ofabsolutealcohol; then straining the liquid, transferring it to a clean bottle, and keeping it closely corked. Very little of what is called "Extract of Vanilla" is good, and it is more expensive than to make it yourself. Also, what is generally sold for essence of lemon is very inferior to real lemon juice.
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Divide the paste equally and line two puff-paste shells. Bake them empty; and while baking, beat till very light and thick, the yolks of six eggs. Mix the beaten egg with a liberal portion of any nice kind of fruit, jelly or marmalade, and boil it ten minutes in a sauce-pan, stirring it well. Take it up and set it away to cool. When cold, fill with it the baked shells. Fill them up to the top with the mixture, and before they go to table sift powdered white sugar over the surface of the puddings.
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Take a quarter of a pound of excellent cheese; rich, but not strong or old. Cut it in small bits, and then beat it (a little at a time) in a marble mortar. Add a quarter of a pound of the best fresh butter. Cut it up, and pound it in the mortar with the cheese, till perfectly smooth and well mixed. Beat five eggs till very thick and smooth. Mix them, gradually, with the cheese and butter. Put the mixture into a deep dish with a rim. Have ready some puff-paste, and lay a broad border of it all round the edge, ornamenting it handsomely. Set it immediately into a moderate oven, and bake it till the paste is browned, and has risen very high all round the edge of the dish. Sift white sugar over it before it goes to table.
It is intended that the cheese taste shall predominate. But, if preferred, you may make the mixture very sweet by adding powdered sugar; it may be seasoned with nutmeg and mace. Either way is good.
It may be baked in small patty-pans, lined at the bottom and sides with puff-paste. Remove them from the tins as soon as they come out of the oven, and place them on a large dish.
This pudding is very nice made of rich fresh cream cheese; the rind, of course, being pared off. Cream cheese pudding will require sugar and spice—that is, a heaped tea-spoonful of powdered nutmeg, mace, and cinnamon, all mixed; two ounces of fresh butter, and six eggs.
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These are made of any sort of fruit, stewed in its own juice or in sweetmeat syrup, but when practicable, without any water. A pint of this fruit is mixed with half a pint of fresh butter, and half a pint of powdered sugar stirred together to a light cream, and then mixed with three well-beaten eggs, and the fruit stirred in alternately with the beaten butter and sugar. Have ready baked shells of puff-paste, ready to be filled with the mixture. The fruit may be apples, quinces, peaches, gooseberries, currants, raspberries. Cranberries, gooseberries, and currants, require additional sugar, as they are naturally very sour. If you use plums or cherries for any sort of cooking, stone them first.
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Take a sufficient number of fine juicy freestone peaches. Clingstones are very hard and insipid when raw, and still more tasteless when cooked. Peel the peaches and quarter them, having removed the stones. Stew them in their own juice, and while hot make them very sweet with white sugar. When you put them to stew, place among them a bunch of fresh green peach leaves, to be removed when the peaches are done. Or, cook with them some peach kernels, blanched in hot water, to be picked out when the stewing is finished. Peach leaves or kernels communicate a flavor which to most persons is pleasant. Have ready some puff-paste shells; baked, and beginning to cool. Fill them to the top withthe stewed peaches, and pile on them some whipped cream sweetened, and flavored with noyau or rose-water.
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Have ready a large fresh almond sponge cake, or lady cake. Cut a round or circular piece to fit the bottom of a great glass bowl. Also, about twelve or fourteen oblong slices, to stand up all round to line the sides. Have ready two quarts or more of ripe strawberries or raspberries. Mash the fruit to a jam, and having made it very sweet with white sugar, spread it thickly over the pieces of cake. Lay the circular piece of cake in the bottom of the bowl and stand up the others all round the sides, all close to each other or wrapping over a little. Proceed to fill the bowl with the fruit; and when half way up, put on another layer of sliced cake spread with fruit. Then fill up with fruit to the top. Have ready a quart of whipped cream flavored with vanilla or bitter almonds. Heap it high on the bowl, and set it in a cool place till it goes to table. This is a very fine article for a nice dessert, and can be prepared at a short notice, and without going down stairs, as it requires no cooking.
For the whipped cream, you may pile the bowl with any sort of white ice-cream ready made, and if there is no fresh fruit in season, substitute marmalade or fruit jelly.
If you have no large bowl you may serve up this charlotte in glass or china saucers, laying in the bottom of each a circular slice of cake spreadover with ripe fruit or marmalade. Fill up with the same, and finish with whipped cream, or ice-cream heaped on the top.
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Split a vanilla bean, break it into small bits, and boil it in a half pint of milk, till all the flavor of the vanilla is extracted. Strain it through a very fine strainer, cover it, and set it aside. Boil a quart of rich milk, and when it comes to a boil set it away to cool. Beat eight eggs till very thick and smooth, (and when the milk is cold) add that which is flavored with vanilla, and stir it in gradually with a quarter of a pound of powdered white sugar. Divide the mixture in custard cups, (filling them to the top) and set them into an iron bake-pan filled with boiling water, reaching nearly to the the rim of the cups. Put them into a moderate oven, and bake them a pale brown. When cool, grate nutmeg, or lay a maccaroon on the top over each. Never send custards warm to table. If well made, and baked not too much, there will be no whey at the bottom of the cups, and the custards will be smooth and firm all through, and have no spongy holes in them.
To make soft custards, omit the whites of all the eggs, and have a double quantity of yolks. The whites may be used for almond or cocoa-nut pudding, for lady cake, for meringue or icing, and for kisses or maccaroons.
Orange Custards.—Prepare four large ripeoranges, by rolling them under your hand on a table to increase the juice. Use none of the peel for these custards, but reserve it for something else. Beat in a shallow pan twelve eggs till thick and smooth. Mix the orange juice with a wineglass of cold water, and stir it gradually into the beaten egg, with a small tumblerful of powdered sugar. There is no milk in these custards. Divide them into custard cups, and beat them ten minutes. When cold, grate nutmeg over them.
Lemon Custard—Is made in the above manner, with the juice of four large lemons, (omitting the rind) a small wineglass of cold water, twelve beaten eggs, and a quarter of a pound of powdered sugar. Any of these fine custards may be boiled in abain-marie, with water in the outside kettle, and there is no way better. When boiled and cool, grate in some nutmeg, and serve up the custard in a glass or china pitcher, with saucers of the same to eat it from, or divide it in small glass cups with handles to them.
Lemon or orange custards are very fine. They are made without milk.
Chocolate Custard.—Make some strong chocolate, allowing a quarter of a pound of the best, (which is Baker's prepared cocoa) to a quart of rich milk; first mixing the milk and scraped chocolate to a smooth paste. Boil them together a quarter of an hour. While warm, stir in two or three table-spoonfuls of loaf sugar. Then set it away to cool. Have ready eight well-beaten eggs, and stir them gradually into the chocolate.Bake the mixture in cups, and serve them up with a chocolate maccaroon laid on the top of each.
Almond and Maccaroon Custard.—Boil in half a pint of rich milk a handful ofbitteralmonds, blanched and broken up. When highly flavored, strain that milk and set it aside. Boil a quart of milk by itself, and when cold stir in, gradually, eight well beaten eggs, adding the flavored milk, and half a pint of powdered sugar. Stir the whole very hard at the last. Bake it in cups, and when done and cold, lay on the top of each a maccaroon with four others placed around it; five maccaroons to each custard. Or, if the maccaroons are made in the house, let every one be large enough to cover the top of the custard like a lid.
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This pudding is best when prepared, (all but the milk and eggs,) the day before it is wanted. Seed and cut in half one pound of the best bloom raisins; and pick, wash, and dry before the fire, a pound of Zante currants, (commonly called plums.) Dredge the fruit well with flour, to prevent its sinking or clogging. Take one pound of fresh beef suet, freed from the skin and strings, and choppedvery fine; a pint of grated bread-crumbs, and half a pint of sifted flour; a large quarter of a pound of the best sugar, a large table-spoonful of powdered mace and cinnamon mixed, and two powdered nutmegs—all the spice steeped in a half pint of mixed wine and brandy. Put away theseingredients separately, closely covered, and let them stand undisturbed all night. Next morning proceed to finish the pudding, which requires at least six hours boiling. Beat nine eggs till very thick and smooth, then add gradually a pint of rich milk, in turn with the bread-crumbs and flour. Mix with the sugar the grated yellow rind and juice of two large lemons or two oranges, and add gradually to the mixture all the ingredients, stirring very hard. If you find it too thick, add by degrees some more milk; if too thin, some more bread-crumbs. But take care not to have too much bread or flour, or the pudding will be solid and heavy. Dip a large strong cloth in boiling water; shake it out, and spread it in a large pan. Dredge it lightly with flour, and pour in the mixture. Tie it tightly, but leave sufficient space for the pudding to swell in boiling. Put it into a pot of fast-boiling water, and boil it steadily six hours or more, not taking it up till wanted for table. Before turning it, dip the cloth for a moment in cold water to make the pudding come out easily. Have ready some slips of citron or of blanched sweet almonds, or both, and stick them, liberally, all over the surface of the pudding after you have dished it. Serve it up with wine sauce highly flavored, or with butter and sugar beaten to a cream, and seasoned with nutmeg and rose. Do not set the pudding on fire to burn out the liquor; that practice has had its day, and is over. It was always foolish.
If you wish to send it to a distant place, (forinstance, to some part of the world where plum puddings are not known or not made) you may preserve it, (after boiling it well,) by leaving it tied up in the cloth it was cooked in; hanging it up in a cool dry place, and then packing it well in a tin vessel having a close fitting cover. Paste a band of thick white paper all around the place where the lid shuts down, and put into a tight box the vessel that contains the pudding. When it arrives at its destination, the friend who receives it will pare off thinly the outside, and tying up the pudding in a fresh clean cloth, will boil it over again for an hour or more; and when done the surface may be then decorated with slips of citron or almond. It has been said that in this way a plum pudding can be kept forsixmonths, as good as ever. It cannot. But it may keep sixweeks. Do notfryorbroilplum pudding that is left at dinner. The slices will be greasy and heavy. But tie the piece that remains in a small cloth, andboilit over again for an hour. It will then be nearly as good as on the first day. Believe in no wonders that you hear, of the long keeping of either plum pudding, plum cake, or mince meat, which are all of the same family. However long they may be preserved from absolute decomposition, these things are always best when fresh.
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The best mince meat is made of fresh beef's tongue boiled, peeled, and when quite cold, chopped very fine. The next best isof beef's heart boiled and chopped. The next of cold roast beef. And the next, of the lean of cold boiled beef, quite fresh, and cooked especially for the purpose. All the meat must be fresh, and not minced till entirely cold. To two large pounds of lean meat allow two small pounds of nice kidney suet, cleared from skin and strings, and chopped very small; two pounds of fine juicy apples, pared, cored, and minced; two pounds of Zante currants, washed, and picked clean; two pounds of fine bloom raisins, seeded and chopped, or of seedless sultana raisins cut in half; two pounds of the best sugar; two large nutmegs, powdered; a table-spoonful of ground cinnamon; the same quantity of ground ginger, with the juice and grated yellow rind of six large lemons, or the juice of six oranges, and their grated rind; a pint of Madeira or sherry, and half a pint of brandy; lastly, half a pound of citron cut into slips, rather large. If the citron is chopped small it cannot be distinguished among the other ingredients, and its flavor is lost. When all is prepared, mix well in a large pan the chopped meat, suet, and fruit. Then, gradually add the spice, having steeped it in the liquor all the preceding night, mixing the whole thoroughly, and putting in the citron at the last. Line with fine puff-paste deep pie-dishes, or patty-pans. Fill them, quite full of the mince, heaping it higher towards the centre; and put on a lid, handsomely decorated with puff-paste ornaments, and having a cross slit in the centre surrounded with paste leaves orflowers. Set the pies immediately into a moderately brisk oven, and bake them a light brown. Eat them warm. If baked the preceding day, heat them again before they go to table. The foolish custom of setting the pies on fire after they come to table, and causing a blue blaze to issue from the liquor that is in them, is now obsolete, and considered ungenteel and tavern-like. If this practice originated in a polite desire tofrighten the ladies, its purpose is already a failure, for the ladies are not frightened; that is, not really.
Mincemeat will taste more fresh and pleasant if the apples are not added till the day the pies are made. It should be kept well-secured from air and damp, in stone jars closely covered. Whenever a jar is opened to take out some for immediate use, pour in a large glass or two of brandy, and stir it about. It is not true that mincemeat will keep all winter, even by this preservative. It is sure to become musty (or worse,) before two months. It is best to make fresh mincemeat at least three times during the season. When the cold weather is over, do not attempt it, unless a little for immediate use.
Mincemeat, with a double portion of excellent raisins, (cut in half,) will do very well without currants, which are very troublesome to prepare; and those imported of late years are rarely of good quality.
We have heard of West India mincemeat made with cold roast turkey; chopped pine-apple; gratedcocoa-nut; preserved ginger chopped, and moistened with its own syrup; and seasoned with nutmeg and noyau.
The above mince pies are for company.
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Select the largest and best calf's feet. Four is called a set. Choose those that, after the hair has been well scalded and scraped off, are prepared with the skins left on. There is much glutinous substance in the skin itself, therefore it adds to the strength and firmness of the jelly. The feet being made perfectly clean, split them upwards as far as you can, and put them to boil in a gallon ofvery clearsoft water. Boil them till they have all gone to pieces, and the flesh is reduced to rags, and the liquid to one half. Strain the liquid through a fine sieve into a white-ware pan, and set it away to cool. When quite cold, it should be a cake of firm jelly. Take it out, and scrape from it all the fat at the top and sediment at the bottom. Press on the surface, some clean blotting paper, to remove any grease that may yet remain about it. Cut the cake of jelly into pieces, and put it into avery cleanporcelain kettle, with a large pint of sherry, (inferior wine will spoil it,) a pound of the best loaf sugar, broken small; the yellow rind of six lemons, pared so thin as to be transparent, and their juice squeezed over the sugar through a strainer; thewhitesof six or seven eggs, with their shells mashed small. If the jelly is to bemoulded, add a quarter ounce of the best Russia isinglass. Boil together all these ingredients for near twenty minutes. Then take it off the fire, and let it stand undisturbed for about five minutes, to settle. Next, have ready a pointed jelly bag, made of clean white flannel. Spread it open, suspended by strings to a table edge. Set a large tureen or white-ware pan beneath it, and let the jelly drip as long as it will; but on no account squeeze or press the bag, as that will spoil all, rendering the whole jelly cloudy or streaked. If it is not quite clear at the first straining, empty the contents of the bag into a basin, wash the bag clean, hang it up again, pour the jelly back, wash the tureen or pan, and let the jelly pass into it again. Repeat this straining if necessary. When quite clear, shape the jelly in white-ware moulds, which have been setting two hours in cold water. When the jelly is wanted, wrap round the moulds for a moment, a cloth dipped in warm water, and turn it out on glass dishes. The ingredients that are left in the bag may be boiled and strained over again for children. If the jelly isnotto be moulded, you may omit the isinglass. In that case break it up, and serve it in a glass bowl. It is now the general opinion that jellies have a more lively taste when broken up, from the numerous acute angles they present to the tongue and palate. We think this opinion correct; and also they look brighter and more glittering, andgo farther.
Apple Jelly—Is far less expensive than that of calf's feet, and if well made looks beautifully. Itrequires the very best and most juicy apples, (for instance, two dozen large pippins or bell-flowers.) Wash and wipe them well, (removing all blemishes,) pare, core, and slice or quarter them. Put them into abain-marieor double kettle, with the water outside, and let them boil till broken and dissolved, putting in with them the grated yellow rind of four large lemons. Press and mash the stewed apples through a very clean sieve, till you have extracted all the juice. Measure it while warm, and allow to each quart a pound of the finest powdered and sifted loaf sugar well mixed in, and the juice of the lemons. Transfer it to a clean white flannel jelly bag, and let it drip into a large white-ware pan. When quite clear, put it into moulds, and set it on ice to congeal. When wanted, turn it out of the moulds, (loosened by wrapping round their outsides cloths dipped a minute in warm water) and serve it up in glass dishes.
Siberian Jelly.—A fine pink-colored jelly may be made in the above manner, of the red Siberian crab-apple, but it requires anadditionalquarter of a pound of sugar to a pint of juice. Instead of lemon you may flavor it, (after all the juice has done dripping) by mixing with extract of rose, or strong rose-water, allowing a wine-glassful to each quart of jelly. Rose-water, or extract of rose, evaporates so speedily when over the fire, that it should never be added till the very last.
Orange Jelly—Is made in the proportion of a pint of strained orange juice to a pound of loaf sugar, boiled with an ounce of isinglass, thathas first been melted over the fire by itself in a very little water. Add theyellowrind of the oranges pared from the white as thin as possible. Give it one boil up, and strain it into the jelly-bag. When clear, transfer it to moulds. Twelve large oranges will generally yield a pint of juice. Lemon jelly is made in the same manner, but with more sugar.