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Take a pint and a half (or three large breakfast cups,) of sifted flour, and the same quantity of powdered white sugar, and half a pint of milk; a quarter of a pint or half a cup of the best fresh butter, and the grated yellow rind and juice of a large lemon. Have ready four well-beaten eggs, and two table-spoonfuls of strong fresh yeast.
Cut up the butter into the pan of flour. Add the milk and sugar gradually, and then the beaten egg, and then the lemon; next the yeast. Stir the whole very well, and set it to rise in a buttered pan. Place it near the fire, and cover it with a clean flannel or a double cloth. When it has risen and is quite light, and is cracked all over the surface, transfer it to a square baking pan, put it immediately into the oven, and bake it well. When cool, either ice it or sift white sugar over it, and cut it into squares. Or, you may bake it in a round loaf, or in small round cakes.
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Stir together a pound of nice fresh butter, and a pound of powdered white sugar, till they become a light thick cream. Then stir in, gradually, three pounds of sifted flour. Add, by degrees, a tea-spoonful of soda dissolved in a small tea-cup of milk, and then a half salt-spoonful of tartaric acid, melted in a large table-spoonful of warm water. Then mix in, gradually, three table-spoonfuls of fine carraway seeds. Roll out the dough into sheets half an inch thick, and cut it with a jagging iron into oval or oblong cakes, pricked with a fork. Bake them immediately in shallow iron pans, slightly greased with fresh butter. The bakers in New York ornament these cakes, with devices or pictures raised by a wooden stamp. They are good plain cakes for children.
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Take two handfuls of hops. The best hops have a fresh light green color, and a pleasant, lively smell. Pour on them two quarts of boiling water, and let them boil five minutes after they have come to a boil; not longer, for it makes them bitter. Then strain the liquid into a pan, and add a table-spoonful of brown sugar and one of salt. When lukewarm, stir in flour enough to make a thick batter. Add a jill and a half of fresh baker's yeast. Set it in a warm place till it begins to ferment; then keep it in the cellar well corked.
This yeast will continue good two weeks. Whenyou open the jug to take out some yeast, put in always a table-spoonful of flour before you cork it up again.
A stone jug or pitcher is a good vessel for yeast. Wash it very clean in hot water, always before you put in fresh yeast, and then rinse the jug with water in which a spoonful of pearlash has been melted, letting the pearlash water remain in it five or six minutes, and shaking it round hard. Then rinse it with plain cold water.
All vessels that have contained acids should have pearlash or soda in the rinsing water, and then be finished with plain water.
Never clean a bottle by rinsing it with shot. The lead is poisonous, and has caused death. Some bits of raw potato chopped, and put in the water, will clean the inside of bottles or jugs, and brighten decanters.
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Get two ounces of bicarbonate of soda, and one ounce of tartaric acid. Divide the soda into equal portions, about a level tea-spoonful in each, and the tartaric acid into level salt-spoonfuls. Bylevelwe mean that the article is not to be heaped in the least, not rising above the edge of the spoon. Cut some papers of regular and sufficient size, and fold them nicely. Put the soda into white papers, and the tartaric acid into blue papers. Place an equal number of each in a little square or oblong box, standing up the papers on their folded edges. Dissolve themin two separate cups, in as much tepid water as will cover the powder. They must be entirely melted before using. Stir in the soda at the beginning, and the tartaric acid at the conclusion of the batter or cake mixture.
We do not approve of the introduction of these substances into cakes. They give a sort of factitious lightness very different from that honestly produced by a liberal allowance of egg and butter, genuine yeast, and good beating and stirring—but they destroy the taste of the seasoning, and are certain destruction to the taste of lemon, orange, strawberry, pine-apple, and every kind of fruit flavoring. The justly celebrated Mrs. Goodfellow never used any of them in her school, and the articles made there by her pupils, (of whom the author was one) were such as no money can purchase in the present times. Any confectioner who wouldfaithfullyrevive them could make a fortune by doing so.
The present introduction of hartshorn into bread and cakes is an abomination, rendering the articles equally unpalatable and unwholesome. Cannot the use of hartshorn in food be put down? Which of ourAmericandoctors will write a book on "culinary poisons."
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Mix together in a clean keg three gallons of clear rain water, (that has been caught in a clean tub without running over the roof of a house,) one quart ofWest Indiamolasses, and onepint of baker's yeast. Cover it, and set it in a warm place where it will be exposed to the summer sun. Remember to shake the cask every day. In three months it will be excellent vinegar. Then transfer it to stone jugs, and keep it closely corked. Begin it in May.
So much of the vinegar sold in stores is concocted of pernicious drugs, that we recommend all families to make their own, or to buy it from a cider farmer. Good cider, set in the sun, will after a while become good vinegar.
What is shamefully called the best white wine vinegar is frequently a slow poison, as may be known by its action upon oysters, pickles, &c. It is quite clear and well to look at. Its taste is very sharp and pungent, as to overpower and render every thing that is with it painfully sour, and it has a singular and disagreeable smell when boiling. Oysters cooked with this vinegar go immediately into rags, and are soon entirely eaten up, or dissolved into a thin whitish liquid, fit for nothing but to throw away.
Pickles the same. A punishment should be provided by law for persons who manufacture and sell these deleterious compounds, of which we have now so many, that it would indeed be well if we could make at home, as far as possible, every thing we eat and drink.
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(Domestic.)—Pick from the stems three quarts of fine ripe red currants,and mix with them three quarts of ripe white currants. Bruise them all. Put nine pounds of loaf sugar to melt in three gallons of very clear soft water. Boil the water and sugar together for half an hour, skimming carefully, and pour the liquid boiling hot over the currants. When it is nearly cold, add a small tea-cupful of excellent strong fresh yeast. Let it ferment for two days, and then strain it into a small cask through a very clean hair sieve. Put into the cask half an ounce of finely-chipped isinglass. Have rather more liquor than will fill the cask at first, and keep it to fill up as it works over. In about a fortnight bung it up. Let it remain in the cask till April. Then transfer it to bottles, (putting into each a lump of double-refined loaf sugar,) and letting them remain one day uncorked. Then cork and wire them. They must stand upright in the cellar; but when likely to be wanted, lay a few of them on their sides for a week.
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Lay in the bottom of a large tumbler, two table-spoonfuls of powdered loaf sugar, and squeeze over it (through a strainer) the juice of a large lemon that has been softened by rolling under your hand. Then half fill the tumbler with ice, broken very small. Add a large glass of very good sherry wine. Take another tumbler, and pour the liquid back and forward from glass to glass, till completely mixed withoutstirring. Sip it through a clean straw, or one of the tubes made on purpose.
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Cut two or three round slices from a fine ripe pine-apple that has been pared; and take out the core or hard part from the centre of each slice. A still better way is to split down the pine-apple into four pieces, and grate two of the quarters with a coarse grater, standing it upright while doing so. Put it into a large tumbler, and cover the fruit with two or three heaped table-spoonfuls of powdered loaf sugar. Add a large glass of the best brandy, and pour on cold water till the tumbler is two-thirds full. Then put in a thick layer of finely broken ice, till it almost reaches the top. Finish by sticking in a full bunch of fresh green mint in handsome sprigs, that rise far above one side of the tumbler; and at the other side place a clean straw, or one of the tubes used for the same purpose.
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Mix together a tumbler of peach brandy and a tumbler of water, the juice of two lemons, the yellow rinds of four, pared to transparent thinness, and four large juicy free-stone peaches cut in half, and the kernels of their stones blanched and broken up. If you cannot obtain peaches, quarter and grate down a ripe pine-apple. Let all these ingredientsinfuse with a quart of Jamaica spirits in a bowl for two days before the punch is wanted. Keep it carefully covered with a cloth. Then pour on sufficient cold water to make the punch of the desired strength; and strain the liquid into another bowl, and put in a large lump of ice. Serve it out in small glasses.
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Take two pounds ofthe bestraisins, seeded and chopped; the grated yellow rind and the juice of four fine lemons, and two pounds of loaf sugar, powdered. Put the sugar into a large porcelain kettle, and melt it in a gallon of water. Boil and skim it for half an hour, and while it is boiling hard, put in by degrees the raisins and lemons. Continue the boiling about ten minutes. Put the mixture into a stoneware crock, and cover it closely. Let it stand three days, stirring it down to the bottom twice every day. Then strain it through a linen bag, and bottle it, sealing the corks. It will be fit for use in a fortnight. Take it in wine-glasses, with a bit of ice in each. This is a nice temperance drink.
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Take half a pint of rich milk, and put it to boil in a porcelain kettle; scrape down a square and a half of Baker's chocolate, put it into a very clean tin cup, and set on the top of a stove till it becomes soft. Let the milk boil uptwice. Then add, gradually,the chocolate, and stir both over the fire till thoroughly mixed and free from lumps. Stir in a half pint of the best white sugar powdered, and half a jill (or four large table-spoonfuls,) of molasses. Let the whole boil fast and constantly (so as to bubble,) for at least one hour or more, till it is nearly as stiff as good mush. When all is done add a small tea-spoonful of essence of vanilla, and transfer the mixture to shallow tin pans, slightly greased with very nice sweet oil. Set it on ice, or in a very cool place, and while yet soft mark it deeply in squares with a very sharp knife. When quite hard, cut the squares apart. If it does not harden well it has not been boiled long enough, or fast enough.
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The water must be boiling fast when the eggs are put in. First wipe them clean all over, with a wet cloth. It is true that the shells are never eaten, but still, if brought to table dirty and discolored, they look slovenly, disgusting, and vulgar, such as are never seen in good houses. Put them into water that is boiling fast; and if desired very soft, four minutes will be sufficient. Six or eight minutes will barely set the whites and yolks, and ten or twelve minutes (in water that is really boiling,) will render them hard enough for salad. In the egg-boilers that are set on the table no egg will ever boil hard, as the water cools too soon. Astaleegg never boils hard.
Except in the spring, and late in the winter, there is often much difficulty in obtaining good eggs, unless you have fowls of your own. If an egg is really fresh, when held up against the light, the yolk looks round and compact and the white clear and transparent; you may then trust it. But if the yolk is thick, broken, and mixed among the white, and the white is cloudy and muddled, it is certainly bad, and should be thrown away. When tried in a pan of cold water the freshest will sink, and the stale ones float on the surface. It requires strong brine to bear up a good egg. Eggs may be preserved for keeping a few months, by putting every one in fast boiling water forone minute. Then grease them all over the outside with good melted fat, and wedge down close together (layer above layer,) in a box of powdered charcoal. This preserves them for a sea voyage of several weeks. The charcoal box must be kept closely covered, and closed immediately whenever opened. Pack the eggs with the small end downwards.
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See that the eggs are quite fresh. Pour from a kettle of boiling water enough to fill a broad shallow stew-pan. Break the eggs into a saucer, (one at a time,) slip them carefully into the hot water, and let them stand in it till the whites are set. Then put the pan over a moderate fire; and, as soon as the water boils again, the eggs are ready. The whites should be firm, and the yolks should appear in the centrelooking yellow through a thin transparent coating of the white. Take them out carefully (one by one,) with an egg-slice. Have ready, for each egg, a nice slice of toast of a light brown or yellow all over. Trim off all the crust, and dip the toast for a minute in hot water. Then butter itslightlywith fresh butter. Trim off neatly the ragged and discolored white from the edge of each egg. Lay a poached egg in the middle of every toast, and serve them up warm.
Instead of toast, you may lay beneath every egg a thin slice of ham, that has been soaked, and nicely broiled and trimmed. Or, large thin slices from the breast of a cold roast turkey, or cold fillet of roast pork or veal. These are nice breakfast dishes.
Scrambled Eggs.—Make a mixture as for an omelet, but instead of frying put it into a sauce-pan, and when it has boiled five minutes take it off, and chop and mix all the ingredients into confusion. Serve it up hot in a deep dish. It is eaten at breakfast, and is by many preferred to a fried omelet. You may season it with grated ham, tongue, or sweet herbs.
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Beat, till very light and thick, the yolks only of six eggs. Stir the eggs, gradually, into a quart of rich unskimmed milk, and add half a pound of powdered loaf sugar, a half pint of brandy, and a grated nutmeg. Next beat three whites of the eggs by themselves, and stirthem quickly into the mixture. Divide it into two pitchers, and pour it back and forward from one pitcher to the other till it has a fine froth. Then serve it in a large china bowl, with a silver ladle in it, and distribute it in glasses with handles.
To Beat Eggs.—For beating eggs have a broad shallow earthen pan. If beaten in tin, the coldness of the metal retards their lightness; for the same reason, hickory rods are better than tin wire. Beat with a short quick stroke, holding the egg rods in your right hand close to your side, and do not exert your elbow, or use your arm violently with a hard sweeping stroke; of this there is no necessity. If beaten in a proper manner, (moving your handonlyat the wrist) the eggs will be light long before you are fatigued. But you must continue beating till after the froth has subsided, and the pan of eggs presents a smooth thick surface, like a nice boiled custard. White of egg is done if it stands stiff alone, and will not fall from the beater when held upon it.
Butter and sugar should always be stirred with a strong hickory spaddle, which resembles a short mush stick, rather broad and flattened at one end.
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Take three quarts of bran, (unbolted wheat flour) and sift it into a large pan. Warm three half pints of rich milk, mixing with it half a common tumbler ofWest Indiamolasses. Cut up in the warm milk and molasses two ounces or two large heaped table-spoonfuls of fresh butter, and stir it about till well mixed all through. Then stir all the liquid into the flour. Beat in a shallow pan three eggs till very thick and light, and then stir them gradually into the pan of flour, &c. Lastly, add two table-spoonfuls of strong fresh yeast. Cover the mixture and set it to rise. When risen very light heat a griddle on the oven of a stove, set muffin rings upon it, fill the rings nearly to the top, and bake the muffins. Send them to table hot, pull them open with your fingers, and butter them. They will be much liked if properly made and baked.
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This is a good way of using up a pan of milk that is found to be turning sour. Or you may turn it, on purpose, by stirring in a spoonful of cider vinegar. Having covered it, set it in a warm place till it becomes a curd. Then pour off the liquid, and tie up the curd in a clean linen bag with a pointed end, and set a bowl under it to catch the droppings; but do not squeeze it. After it has drained ten or twelve hours, transfer the curd to a deep dish, enrich it with some cream, and press and chop it with a large spoon till it is a soft mass; adding, as you proceed, an ounce or more of nice fresh butter. Then set it on ice till tea-time.
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Having soaked, boiled, and skinned a small ham of the best quality, andtaken out the bone, trim it into a handsome oval shape. Of the trimmings make a rich gravy by stewing them in a sauce-pan with a little water, and four pigs feet, (split up.) Have ready a plentiful sufficiency of nice forcemeat made of cold roast chicken or veal, minced suet, and grated bread-crumbs, butter, minced sweet marjoram or tarragon, and some hard-boiled yolk of egg crumbled. Have ready, prepared, a very nice puff paste; line with it the bottom and sides of a large deep dish, and lay in it the oval ham, filling up at the corners and all round with the forcemeat, and spreading a layer of it on the top. Pour on gravy to moisten the whole, and put on the paste intended for the lid. Notch the edges handsomely, and stick a flower or tulip of paste in the cross slit at the top, and place a wreath of paste leaves all round. Bake it light brown, and eat it warm or cold. It is a fine dish for a dinner or supper party, or for a handsome luncheon or breakfast.
A Tongue Pie—Is made in a similar manner of a boiled smoked tongue, peeled and trimmed, and filled in with forcemeat. For a large company havetwotongue pies, as it will be much liked, if made as above.
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Take a pint of very ripe figs, (peeled,) cut them up and mash them smooth with the grated yellow rind of a large ripe lemon or orange, and the juice of two. Mix together a large spoonful of fresh butter, and two table-spoonfulsof sugar, and stir the whole very hard. Bake it in a deep dish, and eat it fresh, but not warm. Grate sugar over the surface. Whenripefigs can be obtained, this pudding is much liked.
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Early in the spring, the young green stalks of the pokeberry plant, (when they are still mild and tender, and have not yet acquired a reddish tinge or a strong unpleasant taste,) are generally much liked as a vegetable, and are by many persons considered equal to asparagus. They are brought in bundles to Philadelphia market. Wash and drain them, and put them on to boil in a pot of cold water. Whenquite tenderall through they are done. Dish them in the manner of asparagus, laid on a toast dipped for a minute in hot water, and then buttered.
You may pour a very little drawn or melted butter over the poke.
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Take large fresh stalks of the rapontica plant, such as are full-grown and reddish. Peel off the thin skin, and cut them into bits all of the same size, either one inch or two inches long. Wash them in cold water through a cullender, (but do not drain them much,) and put them into a stew-pan without any more water. Mix with them plenty of good sugar, in the proportion of half a pound of sugar to a pint of cut-up rhubarb stalks. Cover it, and stew it slowlytill quite soft. Then mash it into a smooth mass. Have some puff-paste shells baked empty; and when cool, fill them to the top, and grate nutmeg and powdered sugar thickly over them. The juice and grated yellow rind of a lemon (added when the rhubarb is half stewed,) will be a pleasant flavoring. This is sometimes called "spring-fruit" and "pie-plant." It comes earlier, but is by no means so good as gooseberries. We do not think it worth preserving, or making into a sweetmeat.
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Have ready a large quantity of the best and lightest puff paste. Roll it an inch thick, and then cut it neatly into shapes, either square or circular. Bake every one separately on a flat tin pan, cutting a round hole in the centre of each, and fitting in pieces of stale bread to keep the holes open while baking. The cakes of paste should diminish in size as they ascend to the top, but the holes should all be of exactly the same dimensions. The lower cake, which goes at the bottom, should be solid and not perforated at all. The small cake which finishes the top of the pyramid must also be left solid, for a lid. When all the cakes are baked and risen high, (as good puff-paste always does) take them carefully off the baking plates; remove the bread that has kept the centres open and in shape; brush over every cake, separately, with beaten white of egg, and pile one upon another nicely and evenly so as to form a pyramid. Have ready avery nice stew of oysters or game cut small, and cooked with cream, &c. Fill the pyramid with this, and then put on the top or lid, which may terminate in a flower of baked paste.
A Sweet Vol-au-Vent—May be filled with small preserves, or with ripe strawberries or raspberries, made very sweet. Vol-au-vents are for dinner, or supper parties. The paste should be peculiarly light. The nameVol-au-ventsignifies, in French, something that will fly away in the wind; which, however, it never does.
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Take eight rusks, or soft sugar-biscuits, or plain buns. Lay them in a large deep dish, and pour on a pint of milk, sufficient to soak them thoroughly. Cover the dish, and let them stand undisturbed for about an hour and a half before dinner. In the mean time, boil half a pint of milk in a small sauce-pan with a handful of bitter almonds or peach kernels broken small, or a small bunch of fresh peach-leaves, with two large sticks of cinnamon, broken up. Boil this milk slowly, (keeping it covered,) and when it tastes strongly of the flavoring articles, strain it, and set it away to cool. When cold, mix it into another pint of milk, and stir in a quarter of a pound of powdered loaf sugar. Beat eight eggs very light, and add them gradually to the milk, so as to make a rich custard. After dinner has commenced, beat and stir the soaked rusk very hard till it becomes a smooth mass,and then, by degrees, add to it the custard. Stir the whole till thoroughly amalgamated. Set the dish into a brisk oven, and bake the pudding rather more than ten minutes. The yeast, &c., in the rusk, will cause it to puff up very light. When done, send it to table warm, with white sugar sifted over it. You may serve up with it as sauce sweetened thick cream flavored with rose-water, and grated nutmeg, or powdered loaf sugar and fresh butter stirred together in equal portions, and seasoned with lemon or nutmeg.
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Take two dozen sweet and half a dozen bitter almonds. Blanch them in scalding water, and then throw them into a bowl of cold water. Pound them one at a time in a mortar, till they become a smooth paste, free from the smallest lumps. As you proceed, add frequently a few drops of rose-water or lemon juice to make them light, and prevent their oiling. Seed and cut in half a quarter of a pound of the best bloom raisins. Mix with them a quarter of a pound of Zante currants, picked, washed, and dried; and add to the raisins and currants three ounces of citron, chopped. Mix the citron with the raisins and currants, and dredge them all with flour to prevent their sinking or clodding. Take a half pint of very rich milk; split a vanilla bean, and cut it into pieces two or three inches long, and boil it in the milk till the flavor of the vanilla is well extracted; then strainit out, and mix the vanilla milk with a pint of rich cream, and stir in, gradually, a half pound of powdered loaf sugar, and a nutmeg grated. Then add the pounded almonds, and a large wine-glass of either marasquino, noyau, curaçoa, or the very best brandy. Beat, in a shallow pan, the yolks of eight eggs till very light, thick, and smooth, and stir them gradually into the mixture. Simmer it over the fire, (stirring it all the time,) but take it off just as it is about to come to a boil, otherwise it will curdle. Then, while the mixture is hot, stir in the raisins, currants, and citron. Set it to cool, and then add a large tea-cupful of preserved strawberries or raspberries, half a dozen preserved apricots or peaches; half a dozen preserved green limes; and any other very nice and delicate sweetmeats. Then whip to a stiff froth another pint of cream, and add it lightly to the mixture. Put the whole into a large melon-mould that opens in the middle, and freeze it in the usual way. It will take four hours to freeze it well. Do not turn it out till just before it is wanted. Then send it to table on a glass dish. It will be found delicious. Iced puddings are now considered indispensable on fashionable supper tables or at dinner parties. There is no flour in this pudding. The freezing will keep it together.
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Milk turned into a curd with wine is by no means so good as that which is done with rennet-water alone. The curd andwhey do not separate so completely; the curd is less firm, and the whey less clear; the latter being thick and white, instead of thin and greenish, as it ought to be. Neither is it so light and wholesome as when turned with rennet.
Rennets of the best quality can be had at all seasons in the Philadelphia market; particularly in the lower part, called the Jersey market. They are sold at twelve, eighteen, or twenty-five cents, according to their size, and will keep a year or two; but have most strength when fresh. You may prepare excellent rennets yourself at a very trifling expense, by previously bespeaking them of a veal butcher; a rennet being the stomach of a calf. Its form is a bag. As soon as you get the rennet, empty out all its contents, and wipe it very clean, inside and out; then rince it with cold water, but do not wash it much, as washing will weaken its power of turning milk into curd. When you have made it quite clean, lay the rennet in a broad pan, strew it over on both sides with plenty of fine salt; cover it, and let it rest five days. When you take it out of the pan, do not wipe or wash it, for it must be stretched and dried with the salt on. For this purpose hold it open like a bag, and slip within it a long, thick, smooth rod, bent into the form of a large loop wide at the top, and so narrow at the bottom as to meet together. Stretch the rennet tightly and smoothly over this bent rod, on which it will be double, and when you have brought the two ends of the rod together at the bottom, and tied them fast, the formwill somewhat resemble that of a boy's kite. Hang it up in a dry place, and cut out a bit as you want it. A piece about two inches square will turn one quart of milk; a piece of four inches, two quarts. Having first washed off all the salt in several cold waters, and wiped the bit of rennet dry, pour on it sufficientlukewarmwater to cover it well. Let it stand several hours; then pour the rennet-water into the milk you intend for the curd, and set it in a warm place. When the curd is entirely formed, set the vessel on ice.
Rennet may be used with good effect before it hasquitedried.
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The following will be found an excellent method of making butter in cold weather for family use. We recommend its trial. Take, in the morning, the unskimmed milk of the preceding evening, (after it has stood all night in atinpan,) and set it over a furnace of hot coals, or in a stove; being careful not to disturb the cream that has risen to the surface. Let it remain over the fire till it simmers, and begins to bubble round the edges; but on no account let it come to a boil. Then take the pan carefully off, (without disturbing the cream) and carry it to a cool place, but not where it is cold enough to freeze. In the evening take a spoon, and loosen the cream round the sides of the pan. If very rich, it will be almost a solid cake. Slip off the sheet of creaminto another and larger pan, letting as little milk go with it as possible. Cover it, and set it away. Repeat the process for several days, till you have thus collected a sufficiency of clotted cream to fill the pan. Then scald a wooden ladle, and beat the cream hard with it during ten minutes. You will then have excellent butter. Take it out of the pan, lay it on a flat dish, and with the ladle squeeze and press it hard, till all the buttermilk is entirely extracted and drained off. Then wash the butter in cold water, and work a very little salt into it. Set it away in a cool place for three hours. Then squeeze and press it again; also washing it a second time in cold water. Make it up into pats, and keep it in a cool place.
The unskimmed morning's milk, of course, may also be used for this purpose, after it has stood twelve hours. The simmering over the fire adds greatly to the quantity of cream, by throwing all the oily part of the milk to the surface; but if allowed to boil, this oleaginous matter will again descend, and mix with the rest, so as not to be separated.
This is the usual method of making winter butter in the south of England; and it is very customary in the British provinces of America. Try it.
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Stir together till very light and white, three quarters of a pound of fresh butter, and three quarters of a pound of powdered white sugar, adding two table-spoonfulsof ginger. Grate a pound and a half of sweet potato. Beat eight eggs very light, and stir them gradually into the butter and sugar, in turn with the grated sweet potato. Dissolve a tea-spoonful of saleratus or soda in a jill of sour milk, and stir it in at the last, beating the whole very hard. Butter the inside of a tin pan. Put in the mixture, and bake it four hours or more. It should be eaten fresh, cut into slices.
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To a pint of well boiled rice add half a pint of wheat flour, mixing them well together. Take six eggs, and beat the whites and yolks separately. Having beaten the whites to a stiff froth, mix them gradually with a pint of rich milk, and two large table-spoonfuls of fresh butter, softened at the fire. Mix, by degrees, the yolks of the eggs with the rice and flour. Then add the white-of-egg mixture, a little at a time. Stir the whole very hard. Put it into a buttered tin pan with straight or upright sides. Set it in a moderate oven, and bake it an hour or more. Then turn it out of the pan, put it on a dish, and send it warm to the breakfast table, and eat it with butter.
This cake may be baked, by setting the pan that contains it into an iron dutch-oven, placed over hot coals. Heat the lid of the oven on the inside, by standing it up before the fire while the rice-bread is preparing; and, after you put it on, keep the lid covered with hot coals.
Rice-bread may be made of ground rice flour, instead of whole rice.
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Sift into a pan a pint and a half of rice flour, and a pint and a half of fine wheat flour. Add two large table-spoonfuls of fresh butter or lard, and mix in a pint and a half of milk. Beat four eggs very light; then stir them gradually into the mixture. When the whole has been well mixed, add, at the last, a small tea-spoonful of soda or saleratus, dissolved in as much warm water as will cover it. Put the whole into a buttered tin pan, set it immediately into a quick oven, and bake it well. It is best when eaten fresh. Slice and butter it.
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Melt a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, or lard, in a quart of milk; but be careful not to let it begin to boil. Divide the milk equally, by putting it into two pans. Beat three eggs very light, and stir them into one half of the milk with the addition of a large table-spoonful of wheat flour. Stir in as much ground rice flour as will make a thick batter. Then put in asmalltea-cupful of strong fresh yeast, and thin the batter with the remainder of the milk. Cover it, and set it to rise. When it has risen high, and is covered with bubbles, bake it on a griddle in the manner of buckwheat cakes. Send them to table hot, and butter them.
Similar cakes may be made with indian meal instead of rice flour.
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Take a sufficiency of ground-nuts, or pea-nuts, that have been roasted in an iron pot over the fire; remove the shells, and weigh a pound of the nuts. Put them into a pan of cold water, and wash off the skins. Have ready some beaten white of egg. Pound the ground-nuts (two or three at a time,) in a marble mortar, adding frequently a little cold water to prevent their oiling. They must be pounded to a smooth light paste; and, as you proceed, remove the paste to a saucer or a plate. Beat, to a stiff froth, the whites of four eggs, and then beat into it gradually a pound of powdered loaf sugar, and a large tea-spoonful of powdered mace and nutmeg mixed. Then stir in, by degrees, the pounded ground-nuts, till the mixture becomes very thick. Flour your hands, and roll between them portions of the mixture, forming each portion into a little ball. Lay sheets of white paper on flat baking tins, and place on them the macaroons at equal distances, flattening them all a little, so as to press down the balls into cakes. Then sift powdered sugar over each. Place them in a brisk oven, with more heat at the top than in the bottom. Bake them brown.
Almond macaroons may be made as above, mixing one quarter of a pound of shelled bitter almonds, with three quarters of shelled sweet almonds. For almond macaroons, instead of flouring your hands, you may dip them in cold water; and when the macaroons are formed on the papers, go slightly over every one with your fingers wet with cold water.
Macaroons may be made, also, of grated cocoa-nut mixed with beaten white of egg and powdered sugar.
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Tie up closely in a bit of very thin muslin a split vanilla bean, cut into pieces, and a broken-up stick of cinnamon. Put this bag, with its contents, into half a pint of rich milk, and boil it a long time till very highly flavored. Then take out the bag; set the milk near the fire to keep warm in the pan in which it was boiled, covering it closely. Slice thin a pound of almond sponge cake, and lay it in a deep dish. Pour over it a quart of rich cream, with which you must mix the vanilla-flavored milk, and leave the cake to dissolve in it. Blanch, in scalding water, two ounces of shelled bitter almonds or peach kernels, and pound them (one at a time,) to a smooth paste in a marble mortar, pouring on each a few drops of rose-water or peach-water to prevent their oiling. When the almonds are done, set them away in a cold place till wanted. Beat eight eggs till very light and thick; and having stirred together hard the dissolved cake and the cream, add them gradually to the mixture in turn with the almond, and half a pound of powdered loaf sugar, a little at a time of each. Butter a deepdish, and put in the mixture. Set the pudding into a brisk oven and bake it well. Have ready a star nicely cut out of a large piece of candied citron, a number of small stars, all of equal size, as many as there are States in the Union, and a sufficiency of rays or long strips also cut out of citron. The rays should be wide at the bottom and run to a point at the top. As soon as the pudding comes out of the oven, while it is smoking, arrange these decorations. Put the large star in the centre, then the rays so that they will diverge from it, narrowing off towards the edge of the pudding. Near the edge place the small stars in a circle.
Preserved citron-melon will be still better for this purpose than the dry candied citron.
This is a very fine pudding; suitable for a dinner party, or a Fourth of July dinner.