Mr. Jas. W. Parkinson gives in a recent number of theConfectioner's Journalthe following useful recipes:
Stone a pound of bloom raisins; wash and clean a pound of Zante currants; mince finely a pound of beef suet; mix with this, in a large pan, a pound of stale bread crumbs and half a pound of sifted flour. Beat together in another pan six eggs, and mix with them half a pint of milk. Pour this over the suet and flour, and stir and beat the whole well together; then add the raisins, currants, and a seasoning of ground cinnamon, grated nutmeg, powdered ginger, and a little ground cloves, a teaspoonful of salt, one pound of sugar, and a glass of Jamaica rum. This pudding may now be boiled in a floured cloth or in an ornamental mould tied up in a cloth. In either way it requires long and constant boiling, six hours at least for one such as the above. Every pudding in a cloth should be boiled briskly, till finished, in plenty of water, in a large pot, so as to allow it to move about freely.
To take the boiled pudding out of the cloth without breaking it, dip it into cold water for a minute or two, then place it in a round bottomed basin that will just hold it, untie the cloth and lay bare the pudding down to the edge of the basin; then place upon it, upside down, the dish on which it is to be served, and invert the whole so that the pudding may rest on the dish; lastly, lift off the basin and remove the cloth. The use of the cold water is to chill and solidify the surface, so that it may part from the cloth smoothly.
Plum pudding may also be baked in a mould or pan, which must be well buttered inside before pouring the pudding into it. Two hours' boiling suffices.
Put into a saucepan two ounces of best butter and a tablespoonful of flour; mix these well together with a wooden spoon, and stir in half a pint of cold water and a little salt and pepper. Set this on the fire and stir constantly till nearly boiling; then add half a tumbler of Madeira wine, brandy, or Jamaica rum, fine sugar to the taste, and a little ground cinnamon or grated nutmeg. Make the sauce very hot, and serve over each portion of the pudding.
An excellent plum pudding is made as follows: Half a pound of flour, half a pound of grated bread crumbs, a pound of Zante currants, washed and picked; a pound of raisins, stoned; an ounce of mixed spices, such as cinnamon, mace, cloves, and nutmeg; an ounce of butter, two ounces of blanched almonds, cut small; six ounces of preserved citron and preserved orange peel, cut into small pieces; four eggs, a little salt, four ounces of fine sugar, and half a pint of brandy. Mix all these well together, adding sufficient milk to bring the mixture to a proper consistency. Boil in a floured cloth or mould for eight hours.
Into a gill of melted butter put an ounce of powdered sugar, a little grated nutmeg, two wine glasses of Madeira wine and one of Curacoa. Stir all well together, make very hot, and pour it over the pudding.
Separate the whites and yolks of a dozen fresh eggs. Put the yolks into a basin and beat them to a smooth cream with half a pound of finely pulverized sugar. Into this stir half a pint of brandy, and the same quantity of Jamaica rum; mix all well together and add three quarts of milk or cream, half a nutmeg (grated), and stir together. Beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth; stir lightly into them two or three ounces of the finest sugar powder, add this to the mixture, and dust powdered cinnamon over the top.
Beat up in a bowl half a dozen fresh eggs; add half a pound of pulverized sugar; stir well together, and pour in one quart or more of boiling water, about half a pint at a time, mixing well as you pour it in; when all is in, add two tumblers of best brandy and one of Jamaica rum.
The turkey is without doubt the most savory and finest flavored of all our domestic fowls, and is justly held in the highest estimation by the good livers in all countries where it is known. Singe, draw, and truss the turkey in the same manner as other fowls; then fill with a stuffing made of bread crumbs, butter, sweet herbs rubbed fine, moistened with eggs and seasoned with pepper, salt, and grated nutmeg. Sausage meat or a forced meat, made of boiled chicken meat, boiled ham grated fine, chopped oysters, roasted or boiled chestnuts rubbed fine, stewed mushrooms, or last but not the least in estimation, a dozen fine truffles cut into pieces and sauted in the best of butter, and added part to the stuffing and part to the sauce which is made from the drippings (made into a good brown gravy by the addition of a capful of cold water thickened with a little flour, with the giblets boiled and chopped fine in it). A turkey of ten pounds will require two and a half hours' roasting and frequent basting. Currant jelly, cranberry jelly, or cranberry sauce should always be on the table with roast turkey.
Some epicures say that the woodcock should never be drawn, but that they should be fastened to a small bird spit, and should be put to roast before a clear fire; a slice of toast, put in a pan below each bird, in order to catch the trail; baste them with melted butter; lay the toast on a hot dish, and the birds on the toast. They require from fifteen to twenty minutes to roast. Snipe are dressed in the same manner, but require less time to cook. My pet plan to cook woodcock is to draw the bird and split it down the back, and then to broil it, basting it with butter; chop up the intestines, season them with pepper and salt, and saute them on a frying pan with butter; lay the birds on toast upon a hot dish and pour the saute over them.
Select young fat ducks; pick them nicely, singe, and draw them carefully without washing them so as to preserve the blood and consequently the full flavor of the bird; then truss it and place it on the spit before a brisk fire, or in a pan in a hot oven for at least fifteen or twenty minutes; then serve it hot with its own gravy, which is formed by its own blood and juices, on a hot dish. It may also be a little less cooked, and then carved and placed on a chafing dish with red currant jelly, port wine, and a little butter.
A pheasant should have a clear, steady fire, but not a fierce one. The pheasant, being a rather dry bird, requires to be larded, or put a piece of beef or a rump steak into the inside of it before roasting.
In order to serve these birds in their most succulent state and finest flavor, let them hang in their feathers for a few days after being shot; then pluck, clean, and draw, and roast them in a quick oven or before a brisk fire; dredge and baste them well, and allow them twenty minutes to roast; serve them with gravy sauce and red currant jelly, or with a gravy sauce to which a chopped shallot and the juice of an orange has been added.
The following exquisite sauce is applicable to all wild fowl: Take one saltspoon of salt, half to two-thirds salt spoon of Cayenne, one dessert spoon lemon juice, one dessert spoon powdered sugar, two dessert spoons Harvey sauce, three dessert spoons port wine, well mixed and heated; score the bird and pour the sauce over it.
Cut a couple of rabbits into joints, fry these in a little fresh butter till they are of a light brown color; then put them into a stewpan, with a pint of water, two tablespoonfuls of lemon juice, the same of mushroom catchup, one of Worcester sauce, and a couple of burnt onions, a little Cayenne and salt; stew over a slow fire till perfectly done; then take out the meat, strain the gravy, and thicken it with a little flour if necessary; make it quite hot, and pour it over the rabbits.
Beat up the yolks of eight eggs, grate the yellow rinds from two oranges, add these to a quarter of a pound of finely powdered sugar, the same weight of fresh butter, three teaspoonfuls of orange-flower water, two glasses of sherry wine, two or three stale Naples biscuits or lady fingers, and a teacupful of cream. Line a dish with puff paste, pour in the ingredients, and bake for half an hour in a good oven.
A neck or breast of venison is rendered very savory by treating it as follows: Take off the skin and cut the meat off the bones into pieces of about an inch square; put these, with the bones, into a stewpan, cover them with veal or mutton broth, add two thirds of a teaspoon of powdered mace, half a dozen allspice, three shallots chopped fine, a teaspoonful of salt, a saltspoon of Cayenne, and a tumbler of port wine; stew over a slow fire until the meat is half done, then take it out and let the gravy remain on the fire ten or fifteen minutes longer. Line a good sized dish with pastry, arrange your meat on it, pour the gravy upon it through a sieve, adding the juice of a lemon; put on the top crust, and bake for a couple of hours in a slow oven.
Rub well into a round of beef a half pound of saltpeter, finely powdered. Next day mix half an ounce of cloves, half an ounce of black pepper, the same quantity of ground allspice, with half a pound of salt; wash and rub the beef in the brine for a fortnight, adding every other day a tablespoonful of salt. At the expiration of the fortnight, wipe the beef quite free from the brine, and stuff every interstice that you can find with equal portions of chopped parsley, and mixed sweet herbs in powder, seasoned with ground allspice, mace, salt, and Cayenne. Do not be sparing of this mixture. Put the round into a deep earthen pan, fill it with strong ale, and bake it in a very slow oven for eight hours, turning it in the liquor every two hours, and adding more ale if necessary. This is an excellent preparation to assist in the "keeping of the Christmas season."
Make a good strong broth from four pounds of veal and an equal quantity of shin of beef. Strain and skim off the fat when cold. Wash and stone three pounds and a half of raisins; wash and well dry the same weight of best Zante currants; take out the stones from two and a half pounds of French prunes; grate up the crumbs of two small loaves of wheat bread; squeeze the juice of eight oranges and four lemons; put these, with a teaspoonful of powdered cinnamon, a grated nutmeg, half a dozen cloves, and five pounds of sugar into your broth; stir well together, and then pour in three quarts of sherry. Set the vessel containing the mixture on a slow fire. When the ingredients are soft add six bottles of hock; stir the porridge well, and as soon as it boils it is fit for use.
Half a dozen of those fine pears called the "Bartlett" will make a small dish worthy the attention of any good Christian who has a sweet tooth in his head. Pare the fruit, cut out the cores, squeeze lemon juice over them, which will prevent their discoloration. Boil them gently in enough sirup to cover them till they become tender. Serve them cold, with Naples biscuit round the dish.
Table beer of a superior quality may be brewed in the following manner, a process well worth the attention of the gentleman, the mechanic, and the farmer, whereby the beer is altogether prevented from working out of the cask, and the fermentation conducted without any apparent admission of the external air. I have made the scale for one barrel, in order to make it more generally useful to the community at large; however the same proportions will answer for a greater or less quantity, only proportioning the materials and utensils. Take one peck of good malt, ground, one pound of hops, put them in twenty gallons of water, and boil them for half an hour; then run them into a hair-cloth bag or sieve, so as to keep back the hops and malt from the wort, which when cooled down to sixty-five degrees by Fahrenheit's thermometer, add to it two gallons of molasses, with one pint, or a little less, of good yeast. Mix these with your wort, and put the whole into a clean barrel, and fill it up with cold water to within six inches of the bung hole (this space is requisite to leave room for fermentation), bung down tight. If brewed for family use, would recommend putting in the cock at the same time, as it will prevent the necessity of disturbing the cask afterward. In one fortnight this beer may be drawn and will be found to improve to the last.
This inevitable Christmas luxury is vastly improved by being mixed some days before it is required for use; this gives the various ingredients time to amalgamate and blend.
Peel, core, and chop fine a pound of pippin apples, wash and clean a pound of Zante currants, stone one pound of bloom raisins, cut into small pieces a pound of citron, remove the skin and gristle from a pound and a half of cold roast or boiled beef, and carefully pick a pound of beef suet; chop these well together. Cut into small bits three-quarters of a pound of mixed candied orange and lemon peel; mix all these ingredients well together in a large earthen pan. Grate one nutmeg, half an ounce of powdered ginger, quarter of an ounce of ground cloves, quarter of an ounce of ground allspice and coriander seed mixed, and half an ounce of salt. Grate the yellow rind of three lemons, and squeeze the juice over two pounds of fine sugar. Put the grated yellow rind and all the other ingredients in a pan; mix well together, and over all pour one pint of brandy, one pint of sherry, and one pint of hard cider; stir well together, cover the pan closely, and when about to use the mince meat, take it from the bottom of the pan.
"What moistens the lip, and what brightens the eye?What calls back the past like the rich pumpkin pie?"
"What moistens the lip, and what brightens the eye?What calls back the past like the rich pumpkin pie?"
Stew about two pounds of pumpkins, then add to it three-quarters of a pound of sugar, and the same quantity of butter, well worked together; stir these into the pumpkin and add a teaspoonful of powdered mace and grated nutmeg, and a little ground cinnamon; then add a gill of brandy, beat them well together, and stir in the yolks of eight well-beaten eggs. Line the pie plates with puff paste, fill them with the pumpkin mixture, grate a little nutmeg over the top, and bake.
Take three dozen lemons, chip off the yellow rinds, taking care that none of the white underlying pith is taken, as that would make the punch bitter, whereas the yellow portion of the rinds is that in which the flavor resides and in which the cells are placed containing the essential oil. Put this yellow rind into a punch bowl, add to it two pounds of lump sugar; stir the sugar and peel together with a wooden spoon or spatula for nearly half an hour, thereby extracting a greater quantity of the essential oil. Now add boiling water, and stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. Squeeze and strain the juice from the lemons and add it to the mixture; stir together and taste it; add more acid or more sugar, as required, and take care not to render it too watery. "Rich of the fruit and plenty of sweetness," is the maxim. Now measure the sherbet, and to every three quarts add a pint of cognac brandy and a pint of old Jamaica rum, the spirit being well stirred as poured in. This punch may be bottled and kept in a cool cellar; it will be found to improve with age.
The rump is the most applicable for this savory dish. Take six or eight pounds of it, and cut it into bits of a quarter of a pound each; chop a couple of onions very fine; grate one or two carrots; put these into a large stewpan with a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, or fresh and well clarified beef drippings; while this is warming, cover the pieces of beef with flour; put them into the pan and stir them for ten minutes, adding a little more flour by slow degrees, and taking great care that the meat does not burn. Pour in, a little at a time, a gallon of boiling water; then add a couple of drachms of ground allspice, one of black pepper, a couple of bay leaves, a pinch each of ground cloves and mace. Let all this stew on a slow fire, and very gently, for three hours and a quarter; ascertain with a fork if the meat be tender; if so, you may serve it in a tureen or deep dish. A well-dressed salad is the proper accompaniment of bœuf à la mode.
Make a bowl of punch according to the directions for brandy punch, only alittlestronger. To every pint of punch add an ounce of gelatine dissolved in half a pint of water; pour this into the punch while quite hot, and then fill your moulds, taking care not to disturb it until the jelly is completely set. This preparation is a very agreeable refreshment, but should be used in moderation. The strength of the punch is so artfully concealed by its admixture with the gelatine that many persons, particularly of the softer sex, have been tempted to partake so plentifully of it as to render them somewhat unfit for waltzing or quadrilling after supper.
This somewhat inappropriately-named dish is made by removing the rind and cutting the fruit in slices crosswise and adding equal quantities of brandy and Madeira, in proportion to the quantity of fruit thus dressed, strewing a liberal allowance of finely-powdered sugar over all.
Put two quarts of cranberries into a large earthen pipkin, and cover them with water; place them on a moderate fire, and boil them until they are reduced to a soft pulp; then strain and press them through a hair sieve into an earthen or stone ware pan, and for each pint of liquid pulp allow one pound of pulverized sugar; mix the pulp and sugar together in a bright copper basin and boil, stirring constantly for ten or fifteen minutes, or until the mixture begins to coagulate upon the spatula; then remove it from the fire and fill your moulds; let them stand in a cool place to set. When wanted for use, turn it out of the mould in the same manner as other jellies.
For three gallons, peel the yellow rind from one and a half dozen fresh lemons, very thin, and steep the peelings for forty-eight hours in a gallon of brandy; then add the juice of the lemons, with five quarts of water, three pounds of loaf sugar, and two nutmegs grated; stir it till the sugar is completely dissolved, then pour in three quarts of new milk,boiling hot, and let it stand two hours, after which run it through a jelly bag till it is fine. This is fit for immediate use, but may be kept for years in bottles, and will be improved by age.
For this Christmas luxury take one pound of butter and one pound of pulverized sugar; beat them together to a cream, stir in one dozen eggs beaten to a froth, beat well together, and add one pound of sifted flour; continue the beating for ten minutes, then add and stir in three pounds of stoned raisins, three pounds of Zante currants, washed, cleaned, and dried, a pound and a half of citron sliced and cut into small pieces, three grated nutmegs, quarter of an ounce of powdered mace, half an ounce of powdered cinnamon, and half a teaspoonful of ground cloves; mix all well together; bake in a well-buttered pan in a slow oven for four hours and a half.
"If you have lips, prepare to smack them now."
—Shakspeare, slightly altered.
Take one and a half pounds of the best butter, and the same weight of pulverized sugar; beat them together to a cream; stir into this two dozen eggs, beaten to a froth; add one gill of old Jamaica rum; then add one and a half pounds of sifted flour. Stir and beat all well together, and add two pounds of finest bloom raisins, stoned; two pounds of Zante currants, washed, cleaned, and dried; one pound of preserved citron, sliced thinly and cut into small pieces; one pound of preserved French cherries, in halves; one pound of green gages, and one pound of preserved apricots, stoned and cut into small pieces; half a pound of preserved orange and lemon peel, mixed, and cut into small pieces; three grated nutmegs, half an ounce of ground mace, half an ounce of powdered cinnamon, and a quarter ounce of ground cloves. Mix all the ingredients well together, and bake in a well-buttered mould or pan, in aslow oven, for five and a half hours.
This cake is vastly improved by age. Those intended for the Christmas festivities should be made at or about the first of October; then put the cake into a round tin box, half an inch larger in diameter than the cake; then pour over it a bottle of the best brandy mixed with half a pint of pure lemon, raspberry, strawberry, or simple sirup, and one or more bottles of champagne. Now put on the lid of the box, and have it carefully soldered on, so as to make all perfectly air-tight. Put it away in your store-room, and let stand till Christmas, only reversing the box occasionally, in order that the liquors may permeate the cake thoroughly.
This heroic treatment causes the ingredients to amalgamate, and the flavors to harmonize and blend more freely; and when, on Christmas day, you bring out this hermit, after doing a three months' penance in a dark cell, it will come out rich, succulent, and unctuous; you will not only have a luxury, "fit to set before a king," or before the Empress of India, but fit to crown a feast of the very gods themselves, on high Olympus' top.
Take two or three fine white potatoes, raw; peel and chop them upvery, very fine. Then chop up just as fine the breast of a good-sized boiled fowl; they should be chopped as fine as unboiled rice; mix the meat and the potatoes together, and dust avery littleflour over them and a pinch or two of salt. Now put an ounce or so of the best butter into a frying pan, and when it is hot, put in the mixture, and stir constantly with a wooden spatula until they are fried to a nice golden color, then immediately serve on a hot plate.
Cold boiled ham grated fine, or boiled beef tongue chopped very fine, may be used instead of chicken, omitting the salt. A dozen or two of prime oysters, parboiled, drained, and chopped fine, mixed with the potatoes prepared as above, and fried, makes a most delicious lunch or supper dish. Try any of the above styles, and say no, if you can.
Professor Hind, of the British Nautical Almanac Office, recently sent an interesting letter to the LondonTimeson the comet depicted in that famous piece of embroidery known as the Bayeux Tapestry. Probably no one of the great comets recorded in history has occasioned a more profound impression upon mankind in the superstitious ages than the celebrated body which appeared in the spring of the year 1066, and was regarded as the precursor of the invasion of England by William the Norman. As Pingre, the eminent cometographer, remarks, it forms the subject of an infinite number of relations in the European chronicles. The comet was first seen in China on April 2, 1066. It appeared in England about Easter Sunday, April 16, and disappeared about June 8. Professor Hind finds in ancient British and Chinese records abundant grounds for believing that this visitant was only an earlier appearance of Halley's great comet, and he traces back the appearances of this comet at its several perihelion passages to B.C. 12. The last appearance of Halley's comet was in 1835, and according to Pontecoulant's calculations, its next perihelion passage will take place May 24, 1910.
Some interesting information as to the way in which the human system is affected under the peculiar conditions of work in mines has been furnished by M. Fabre, from experiences connected with the coal mines of France. He finds that the deprivation of solar light causes a diminution in the pigment of the skin, and absence of sunburning, but there is no globular anæmia—that is, diminution in the number of globules in the blood. Internal maladies seem to be more rare. While there is no essential anæmia in the miners, the blood globules are often found smaller and paler than in normal conditions of life, this being due to respiration of noxious gases, especially where ventilation is difficult. The men who breathe too much the gases liberated on explosion of powder or dynamite suffer more than other miners from affections of the larynx, the bronchia, and the stomach. Ventilation sometimes works injury by its cooling effect.
By means of igneous fusion the authors have succeeded in reproducing two types of crystalline associations, which, in their mineralogical composition and the principal features of their structure, are analogous, if not identical with certain oligosideric meteorites. The only notable difference results from the habitual brecchoid state of the meteorites, which contrasts with state of quiet solidification of the artificial compounds.—F. Fouqué and Michel Lévy.
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