Sauce for Plum Pudding.
Melt good fresh butter, thicken it, and stir in by degrees, a wine-glassful of white wine, the same of brandy or old rum; sweeten to your taste, and add grated lemon peel and cinnamon.A Store Pudding Sauce.—To ½ pint brandy, and 1 pint sherry, add 1 oz. thinly pared lemon peel, and ½ oz. mace; infuse these two or three weeks, then strain and bottle it. Add as much as you like to thick melted butter, and sweeten to taste.
French Plum Pudding.
Mix 6 oz. suet, 7 oz. grated bread, 2 oz. sugar, 3 eggs, a coffee-cupful of milk, a table-spoonful ratafia, or 2 of rum, and ½ lb. French plums; let it stand two hours, stir well again, and boil it in a mould, two hours.
Plum Pudding of Indian Corn Flour.
To 1 lb. corn flour add ½ lb. shred suet, and what currants, raisins, and spices you choose; mix the whole well together, with a pint of water, and boil the pudding in a cloth three hours.
Maigre Plum Pudding.
Simmer in ½ pint milk, 2 blades mace, and a bit of lemon peel, for ten minutes; strain into a basin, to cool. Beat 3 eggs, with 3 oz. lump sugar, ¼ of a nutmeg grated, and 3 oz. flour; beat well together, and add the milk by degrees; then put in 3 oz. fresh butter, 2 or 3 oz. bread-crumbs, 2 oz. currants, and 2 oz. raisins; stir all well together. Boil it in a mould two hours and a half. Serve melted butter sweetened, and flavoured with brandy.
Bread Pudding.
Pour a pint of boiling new milk over a breakfast-cupful of stale bread-crumbs, cover till cold, then beat them with a spoon; add 2 oz. currants, or a few cut raisins, a little sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and 3 or 4 eggs, well beaten; beat well together, and either boil in a buttered mould, orbake in a dish. It may be enriched by candied citron, or lemon peel, and flavoured with orange flower or rose water. This may be baked in little cups, turned out into a dish, and served with sweet sauce.Brown Bread Pudding.—Grate ½ lb. stale brown bread, and mix it with ½ lb. shred suet, and ½ lb. currants; sugar and nutmeg to taste, 4 eggs, 1 table-spoonful of brandy, and 2 of cream. Boil it three hours, and serve with sweet sauce.
Sweet Sauce.
Flavour thick melted butter with cinnamon and grated lemon peel, sweeten to taste, add 1 or 2 wine-glassfuls of white wine.—Or: sweeten some thin cream, put in a little piece of butter, heat it, then flavour with cinnamon or lemon peel, and white wine; pour it hot over the pudding, or serve in a tureen.—Or: break a stick of cinnamon into bits, boil it ten minutes, in water enough to cover it, add ¼ pint of white wine, 2 table-spoonsful of powdered sugar, and boil it up, strain, and pour over the pudding.
Bread and Butter Pudding.
Lay thin slices of stale bread and butter in a pudding dish, sprinkle currants over, then another layer of bread and butter, and so on till the dish is full to about an inch; pour over an unboiled custard (3 eggs to a pint of milk), sweeten to taste, soak it an hour, and bake half an hour.
Custard Pudding.
Boil a stick of cinnamon and a roll of lemon peel, in a pint of new milk, or cream, and set it by to cool. Beat 5 eggs, pour the milk to them, sweeten to taste, and bake in a dish lined with puff paste twenty minutes. You may add a wine-glassful of brandy.To Boil.—Prepare a mould as follows; put into it enough powdered sugar, to cover it, set it on the stove for the sugar to melt, and take care that the syrup cover the whole inside of the mould; grate lemon peel over the sugar, and pour the above mixture of milk or cream and eggs into it; tie a cloth over, and put instantly into boiling water, and boil it half an hour. Turn it out, and garnish with preserves. These puddings are good, hot or cold.
Little Puddings.
Grate a penny loaf, and mix well with a handful of currants, a very little fresh butter, nutmeg, and the yolk of an egg; make it into little balls, flour them, tie separately in a cloth, and boil them half an hour. Serve quite hot, with wine sauce.
An Excellent Pudding.
Boil a bit of cinnamon in a pint of milk, pour it over thin slices of French roll, or an equal quantity of rusks, cover with a plate to cool; beat it quite smooth with 6 oz. shred suet, ¼ lb. currants, 3 eggs beaten, and a little brandy, old rum, or orange-flower water. Bake an hour.
Oatmeal Pudding.
Steep the oatmeal all night in milk. Pour off the milk, and stir into the meal some cream, currants, spice, sugar, or salt, to your taste, and 3 or 4 eggs; or, if no cream, use more eggs. Stir well, and boil it in a basin an hour. Pour melted butter, sweetened, over it.
Batter Pudding.
Beat 4 eggs and mix them smoothly, with 4 table-spoonsful of flour, then stir in by degrees, 1 pint of new milk, beat it well, add a tea-spoonful of salt, and boil in a mould an hour, or bake it half an hour.—Black Cap Puddingis made in the same way, with the addition of 3 oz. currants; these will fall to the bottom of the basin, and form a black cap when the pudding is turned out.—Batter Pudding with Fruitis made as follows: pare, core, and divide, 8 large apples, put them in a deep pudding dish, pour a batter over, and bake it.—Cherries, plums, damsons, and most sorts of fruit, make nice puddings in this way.—Serve sweet sauce with batter puddings.—Or: raspberry vinegar, such as is made at home, clear, and possessing the flavour of the fruit.
Yorkshire Pudding.
This is batter, the same as the last receipt, baked, andeaten with roast meat; but in some houses it is not baked, but cooked under the meat thus: pour it into a shallow tin pan, put it under roasting meat, and stir till it begins to settle. After one or two trials a cook will know when to put the pudding under the meat, for that must depend upon the size of the joint, as it ought to go to table as soon as it is done, or it will be heavy. They are much lighter not turned. The fat will require to be poured off, once or twice.
Potato Puddings.
Boil in a quart of milk, a bit of lemon peel, and some nutmeg. Rub smooth, in a little cold milk, 4 table-spoonsful of potato flour, and stir it, by degrees, into the hot milk; when cool, add sugar, and 3 or 4 eggs, or more as you like, put it into a dish, and bake an hour. Add brandy or orange-flower water.
Carrot Pudding.
Mix ½ lb. grated raw carrot with ½ lb. grated bread, and stir these into a pint of thick cream and the yolks of 8 eggs well beaten, then stir in ½ lb. fresh butter, melted, 3 spoonsful of orange-flower water, ½ a wine-glassful of brandy, a nutmeg grated, and sugar to your taste; stir all well together, and if too thick, add a very little new milk, pour it into a dish lined with paste and bake it an hour.
Hasty Pudding.
Beat the yolk of an egg into ½ pint new milk with a little salt, stir this by degrees into 3 table-spoonsful of flour, and beat it to a smooth batter. Set 1½ pint of milk on the fire; when scalding hot pour in the batter, keep stirring that it may be smooth and not burn: let it thicken, but not boil. Serve it directly.
Buttermilk Pudding.
Use fresh buttermilk, and make the same as batter pudding, but without eggs. This is very good, with roast meat.—Or: warm 3 quarts of milk with a quart ofbuttermilk, then pour it through a sieve; when the curd is dry, pound it with ½ lb. sugar, the peel of a lemon boiled till tender, the crumb of a roll, 6 bitter almonds, 4 oz. butter, the yolks of 5 and whites of 3 eggs, a tea-cupful of good cream, a wine-glassful of sweet wine and of brandy; mix well, and bake in small cups, well buttered. Serve quite hot, with sweet sauce.
Save-all Pudding.
Put scraps of bread, or dry pieces of home-made cake, into a saucepan, with milk according to the quantity of bread; when it boils, beat the bread smooth, add 3 eggs, sugar, nutmeg, ginger, and lemon peel; put it into a buttered dish, and strew over the top 2 oz. shred suet, or butter. Bake or boil it three quarters of an hour.Currantsorraisinsare an improvement.
Camp Puddings.
Melt ¼ lb. butter in ½ pint of water, with a little salt, sugar to your taste, and grated lemon peel. When melted, stir in ¼ lb. flour, and when nearly cold, add 3 eggs well beaten. Bake in cups twenty minutes, or fry them in plenty of lard.
Pretty Puddings.
A pint of cream, or new milk, 4 eggs (leave out 2 whites), ½ a nutmeg grated, the pulp of 2 large apples (boiled), ¼ lb. butter melted, and a tea-cupful of grated bread. Beat it well together, sweeten to your taste, and bake it.
Nursery Pudding.
Cut the crumb of a twopenny loaf in slices, pour on it a quart of boiling milk, cover close for ten minutes; beat it and stir in ¼ lb. fresh butter, 4 eggs, a little nutmeg, and sugar. Bake in patty-pans, or in a dish, half an hour.
Arrow Root Pudding.
Rub 2 dessert-spoonsful of arrow root quite smooth in a little cold milk, pour upon it by degrees, stirring all thetime, a pint of scalded new milk; put it on the fire a few minutes to thicken, but not boil; stir carefully, or it will be lumpy. When cold add sugar, and 3 yolks of eggs. Boil, or bake it half an hour.
Ground Rice Pudding.
Mix 2 oz. ground rice with ½ pint of cold milk; scald 1½ pint of new milk, and pour the rice and milk into it, stirring over the fire till it thickens: let it cool, then add 5 eggs well beaten, 6 oz. of powdered sugar, nutmeg, and a spoonful of orange-flower water, stir all well together, and bake in a dish, with a paste border, half an hour. Currants may be added. It may be boiled in a mould, an hour. Indian corn flour makes good puddings the same way; and there are preparations of Indian corn, such assoujie,semolina, andgolden polenta, which may be dressed in the same way.
Semolina Pudding.
Mix 2 oz. of semolina quite smooth, with a little cold milk, then pour over it a pint of boiled milk, and sweeten to your taste, then put it into a saucepan, and keep stirring till it boils, take it off the fire, and stir till only lukewarm; add a slice of butter, the yolks of 4 eggs, the juice of a lemon, and a wine-glassful of brandy. Bake in a dish lined with paste, half an hour.
Indian Corn Mush.
The same thing as oatmeal porridge, but made of Indian corn meal. Boil 2 quarts of water with a little salt, and mix it, by degrees, into 1 lb. corn meal; boil very gently three quarters of an hour, stirring all the time, that the meal may not adhere to the bottom of the saucepan, and burn.
Hommony.
Boil one third of a pound of Indian meal in water to cover it, for twenty minutes, or until nearly all the water is wasted; it must be like thick paste. Put a piece of butter the size of a walnut into a vegetable dish, pour in the hommony,and serve it, like mashed turnips. Dip your spoon in the middle when you help it. In some parts of America, what they callhommonyis made of thecrackedcorn: and if so, it must be something of the same kind as our peas-pudding, but not boiled in a cloth.
Polenta.
The best thing to prepare this in, is a three legged iron pot, hung over the fire. Let the fire be hot, and also blazing, if possible. To a quart of water, when it boils, put in a little salt, then add 12 oz. of meal, but be careful to do it in the following manner: while the water is boiling stir in half the meal first, but be sure to stir quickly all the time, or it may be lumpy, then you may put in the remainder at once, but keep stirring constantly. When it has been on the fire a quarter of an hour, cease to stir, take the pot off the fire and set it on the floor for two minutes, then put it on the fire again, and you will see the polenta first rise in a great puff, then break and fall; as soon as you perceive this, take it off the fire, and turn it out into a dish; it ought to come out quite clean, not leaving a particle adhering to the pot, else there has been some fault in the boiling. It is stirred with a long stick, thicker at one end than the other. Of this the Italians make an endless variety of dishes, some of which are the following: the most simple mode of dressing the polenta is thus: pour it from the boiling into a bowl, when cold turn it out; take a coarse thread in your two hands, put it on the side of the polenta away from you, draw the thread towards you, and you will find that it cuts a clean slice of polenta off, continue till you have cut it all into slices, and then you may dress them in different ways: the commonest is to cut the slicesthickand brown them on a gridiron.
Whole Rice Pudding.
Rice should be soaked an hour in cold water. Wash well, and pick, a tea-cupful of good rice, boil it slowly ten minutes, in a little water, pour that off, and pour over the rice 1½ pint of new milk; let the milk boil up, pour it into a deep dish, stir in a bit of butter, sugar to your taste, a little pounded cinnamon, and grated lemon peel;bake it, and it will be a good plain pudding. This is made richer by adding to the rice and milk, when poured into the dish, some sliced suet, and raisins, or candied peel, also 3 or 4 eggs.—Or: apples pared, cored, and sliced, spread at the bottom of the dish, the rice and milk poured over them.—Little rice puddingsare made by boiling the rice (after it has been parboiled in water) in a pint of cream, with a bit of butter; let it get quite cold, then mix with it the yolks of 6 eggs, sugar, lemon peel, and cinnamon; butter some little cups, lay slices of candied citron, or lemon, at the bottom, fill up with rice, bake, turn them out in a dish, and pour sweet sauce round. Ratafia is an improvement.
Rice Pudding to Boil.
Wash and pick ¼ lb. of rice, tie it in a cloth, leaving room to swell, boil it two hours. Turn it out in a dish, pour melted butter and sifted sugar over.—Or: apples sliced may be mixed with the rice when it is put into the pudding cloth.—Or: boil ½ lb. of rice in 1½ pint of milk till tender, then mix with it ½ lb. suet, and the same of currants and raisins chopped, 3 eggs, 1 table-spoonful of sugar, the same of brandy, a little nutmeg and lemon peel; beat well, put 2 table-spoonsful of flour to bind it, and boil in a mould or bason three hours.
Snow Balls.
Boil ½ lb. whole rice tender in water, with a large piece of lemon peel; drain off the water. Pare and core 4 large apples. Divide the rice into equal parts, roll out each one, put an apple in, cover with the rice, and tie each one tightly up in a cloth, and boil half an hour. Pour pudding sauce round.
Buxton Pudding.
Boil 1 pint new milk; rub smoothly with a little cold milk, 2 table-spoonsful of flour, and mix it by degrees to the boiled milk, and set it over the fire, let it boil five minutes, then cool; stir in 4 oz. melted butter, 5 eggs, 6 oz. lump sugar, and the rind of a lemon grated. Bake half an hour.
Vermicelli Pudding.
Boil 1½ pint of new milk, put to it 4 oz. fine vermicelli, boil them together till the latter is cooked; add ¼ lb. butter; the yolks of 4 eggs, ¼ lb. sugar, a little cinnamon, nutmeg, and lemon peel grated. Boil in a bason; or bake twenty minutes. Cream is an improvement.
Sago, or Tapioca Pudding.
Wash it in several waters, then soak it an hour. Boil 5 table-spoonsful in a quart of new milk, with sugar, cinnamon, lemon peel and nutmeg, to taste; when cold add 4 eggs, bake it in a dish with a paste border, in a slow oven. Some prefer the prepared sago powder.
Pearl Barley Pudding.
Wash 3 table-spoonsful of pearl barley in cold water, then boil it two hours or till quite soft, in a quart of milk, then beat in 2 eggs, some sugar, and 3 drops of essence of lemon: bake it in a pie dish.
Millet Pudding.
Wash 4 oz. of the seeds, pour on them 1½ pint of boiling milk, add 2 oz. butter, a little sugar, ginger, and nutmeg; cover with a plate, and let it remain till cold, then stir in 3 eggs: boil or bake it.
Maccaroni Pudding.
Simmer 3 oz. pipe maccaroni in 1½ pint of milk, and a little salt, till tender. (Or: simmer it in water, pour that off, then put the hot milk to the maccaroni.) Let it cool, add the yolks of 4 eggs, a little nutmeg, cinnamon, powdered sugar, and a table-spoonful of almond-flower water, and bake it.—Or: to make it richer, put a layer of any preserve in the centre of the maccaroni. Lay a paste round the edge of the dish.—Or: simmer 6 oz. maccaroni till tender, pour the water off, and let the maccaroni cool. Beat the yolks of 6 eggs, the whites of 3, and stir them into ½ pint of good cream, with a very little salt and pepper.Skin and mince the breast of a cold fowl, with half its quantity of lean ham; grate 1½ oz. parmesan over the mince, and mix it with all the rest; then pour it into a shape or bason; boil or steam it.—Excellent.Serve a good clear gravy with this.
A Pudding always liked.
Put ¼ lb. ratafia drops, 2 oz. jar raisins stoned and slit in two, 1 oz. sweet almonds slit and blanched, 1 oz. of citron and candied lemon (both sliced), in layers in a deep dish, and pour over a wine-glassful of sherry and the same of brandy; pour over a good, rich, unboiled custard, to fill up the dish, then bake it.
Cheese Pudding.
Grate ½ lb. of Cheshire cheese into a table-spoonful of finely grated bread-crumbs, mix them up with 2 eggs, a tea-cupful of cream, and the same of oiled butter; bake in a small dish lined with puff paste. Serve this quite hot.
Ratafia Pudding.
Blanch, and beat to a paste, in a mortar, ½ lb. of sweet, and ½ oz. of bitter, almonds, with a table-spoonful of orange-flower water; add 3 oz. of fresh butter, melted in a wine-glassful of hot cream, 4 eggs, sugar to taste, a very little nutmeg, and a table-spoonful of brandy. Bake in a small dish, or little cups buttered: serve white wine sauce.
Staffordshire Pudding.
Put into a scale 3 eggs in the shells, take the same weight of butter, of flour, and of sugar: beat the butter to a cream, then add the flour, beat it again, then the sugar and eggs. Butter cups, fill them half full, and bake twenty minutes in a slow oven. Serve in sweet sauce.
Baked Almond Pudding.
Beat 6 oz. of sweet and 12 bitter almonds to a paste; mix this with the yolks of 6 eggs, 4 oz. butter, the grated peeland juice of a lemon, 1½ pint of cream, a glass of white wine, and some sugar. Put a paste border round a dish, pour in the pudding, and bake it half an hour.
Wafer Pudding.
Melt 1 oz. butter and mix it with a gill of cream; when this is cold, work it into 1½ table-spoonful flour, and 4 eggs, mix well, and bake it in saucers, half an hour. Serve with wine sauce.
Orange Pudding.
Grate the rind of a large Seville orange into a mortar, put to it 4 oz. fresh butter and 6 oz. finely powdered sugar; beat well, and mix in, gradually, 8 eggs; have ready soaked in milk 3 sponge biscuits, and mix them to the rest; beat well, pour it into a shallow dish, lined with a rich puff paste, and bake till the paste is done.—Or: the yolks of 8, and whites of 4, eggs well beaten, 4 table-spoonsful of orange marmalade, 4 oz. pounded sugar, 4 oz. fresh butter, 2 oz. pounded Naples biscuits, 2 table-spoonsful of cream, 2 of sherry, and 1 of good brandy; mix all together, and bake in a dish with a very thin paste.
Lemon Pudding.
Put ½ lb. fresh butter with ½ lb. lump sugar into a saucepan, and stir it over the fire till the sugar is melted, turn it out to cool; beat 8 eggs, very well, add to them the juice of 2, and the grated peel of 3, lemons, and mix these well with the butter and sugar, also a wine-glassful of brandy; bake in a dish lined with puff paste, half an hour.—Or: boil in several waters the peel of 4 large lemons, and when cold pound it in a mortar with ½ lb. of lump sugar; add ½ lb. fresh butter beaten to a cream, 6 yolks of eggs, 3 whites, 2 table-spoonsful of brandy, and the juice of 3 lemons, mix well, and bake in a moderately quick oven; when done strew sifted sugar over.—Some persons put 2 sponge biscuits into the mixture.
Cabinet or Brandy Pudding.
Line a mould, first with raisins stoned, or with driedcherries, then with thin slices of French roll, then with ratafias or maccaroons, then put in preserved, or fresh, fruit as you like, mixed with sponge, and what other cakes you choose, until the mould be full, sprinkling in at times 2 glasses of brandy. Beat 4 eggs, yolks and whites, and put them into a pint of scalded and sweetened new milk or cream, add grated nutmeg and lemon peel; let the liquid sink gradually into the solid part, tie a floured cloth tight over, and boil the pudding one hour, keeping the bottom of the bason up.—Another: pour a pint of hot cream over ½ lb. of Savoy biscuit, and cover it; when cold, beat it up, with the yolks and whites of 8 eggs, beaten separately, sugar and grated lemon peel: butter a mould, stick some stoned raisins round, and pour in the pudding: boil or bake it.
Baked Apple or Gooseberry Pudding.
Having pared and cored them, stew 1 lb. of apples, or 1 quart of gooseberries, in a small stew-pan, with a very little water, a stick of cinnamon, 2 or 3 cloves, and grated lemon peel: when soft, pulp the apples through a sieve, sweeten them, or, if they want sharpness, add the juice of half, or a whole lemon, also ¼ lb. good fresh butter, and the yolks of 6 eggs well beaten; line a pudding dish, or patty-pans, with a good puff paste; pour the pudding in, and bake half an hour, or less, as required. A little brandy, or orange-flower water, may be used.—You may mix 2 oz. of Naples biscuit, with the pulp of gooseberries.Another.—Prepare the apples as in the last receipt: butter a dish and strew a very thick coating of crumbs of bread, put in the apples and cover with more crumbs; bake in a moderate oven half an hour, then turn it carefully out, and strew bits of lemon peel and finely sifted sugar over.—Rice may be used instead of crumbs of bread, first boiled till quite tender in milk, then sweetened, and flavoured with nutmeg and pounded cinnamon; stir a large piece of butter into it.
Quince Pudding.
Scald 1 lb. fruit till tender, pare them, and scrape off all the pulp. Strew over it pounded ginger and cinnamon,with sugar enough to sweeten it. To a pint of cream, put the yolks of 3 eggs, and stir enough pulp to make it as thick as you like. Pour it into a dish lined with puff paste, and bake it. Any stone fruit may be coddled, then baked in the same way.
Swiss Apple Pudding.
Break some rusks in bits, and soak them in boiling milk. Put a layer of sliced apples and sugar in a pudding dish, then a layer of rusks, and so on; finish with rusks, pour thin melted butter over, and bake it.
Peach, Apricot, and Nectarine Pudding.
Pour a pint of boiling, thin cream, over a breakfast-cupful of bread-crumbs, and cover with a plate. When cold, beat them up with the yolks of 5 eggs, sugar to taste, and a glass of white wine. Scald 12 large peaches, peel them, take out the kernels, pound these with the fruit, in a mortar, and mix with the other ingredients; put all into a dish with a paste border, and bake it.Another Apricot Pudding.—Coddle 6 large apricots till quite tender, cut them in quarters, sweeten to your taste, and when cold, add 6 yolks of eggs and 2 whites, well beaten, also a little cream. Put this in a dish lined with puff paste, and bake it half an hour in a slow oven: strew powdered sugar over, and send it to table.
For this and all delicate puddings requiring little baking, rather shallow dishes are best; and if the pudding is not to beturned out, a pretty paste border only is required; this formed of leaves neatly cut, and laid round the dish, their edges just laying over each other.
A Charlotte.
Cut slices of bread, an inch thick, butter them on both sides, and cut them into dice or long slips, and make them fit the bottom, and round the sides of a small buttered dish or baking tin, and fill up with apples which have been stewed, sweetened, and seasoned to taste; have some slicesof bread soaked in warm milk and butter, cover these over the top, put a plate or dish on the top, and a weight on that, to keep it down, and bake in a quick oven: when done, turn it out of the dish.—This is very nice, made of layers of different sorts of marmalade or preserved fruit, and slices of stale sponge cake between each layer.Another of Currants.—Stew ripe currants with sugar enough to sweeten them: have ready a basin or mould buttered and lined with thin slices of bread and butter, pour in the stewed fruit hot, just off the fire, cover with more slices of bread and butter, turn a plate over, and a weight on that: let it stand till the next day, then turn it out, and pour cream or a thin custard round it, in the dish.
Bakewell Pudding.
Line a dish with puff paste, spread over a variety of preserves, and pour over them the following mixture:—½ lb. clarified butter, ½ lb. lump sugar, 8 yolks, and 2 whites of eggs, and any thing you choose to flavour with; bake it in a moderate oven. When cold you may put stripes of candied lemon over the top, and a few blanched almonds. To be eaten cold.—This without any preserves is calledAmber Pudding.
Citron Pudding.
Mix ½ pint of good cream by degrees, with 1 table-spoonful of fine flour, 2 oz. of lump sugar, a little nutmeg and the yolks of 2 eggs; pour it into a dish or little cups, stick in 2 oz. of citron cut very fine, and bake in a moderate oven.
Maccaroon Pudding.
Pour a pint of boiling cream or new milk, flavoured with cinnamon and lemon peel, over ¼ lb. maccaroon and ¼ lb. almond cakes; when cold break them small, add the yolks of 6 and the whites of 4 eggs, 2 table-spoonsful of orange marmalade, 2 oz. fresh butter, 2 oz. sifted sugar, a glass of sherry, and one of brandy mixed: mix well, put it into cups, and bake fifteen minutes.
New College Pudding.
(The Original Receipt.)
Grate a stale penny loaf, shred fine ½ lb. suet, beat 4 eggs, and mix all well together, with 4 oz. of sifted sugar, a little nutmeg, a wine-glassful of brandy, a little candied orange and lemon peel, and a little rose or orange flower water. Fry these in good butter, and pour melted butter with a glass of white wine over them in the dish. The several ingredients may be prepared apart, but must not be mixed till you are ready to fry them.—Another: to 4 oz. of grated bread add 4 oz. suet shred fine, 4 oz. currants, 2 eggs, 3 table-spoonsful of brandy, with sugar, lemon peel, and nutmeg to your taste; mix well together, make into 4 little puddings, and boil them an hour.
Paradise Pudding.
Pare and chop 6 apples very fine, mix them with 6 oz. bread-crumbs, 6 oz. powdered sugar, 6 oz. currants, 6 eggs, 6 oz. of suet, a little salt, nutmeg, and lemon peel, also a glass of brandy. Boil in a bason one hour and a half.
Yeast or Light Dumplings.
Put 1½ table-spoonful of good yeast into as much lukewarm water as will mix a quartern of fine flour into dough; add a little salt, knead it lightly, cover with a cloth, and let it stand in rather a warm place, not exposed to a current of air, two hours. Make it into 12 dumplings, let them stand half an hour, put them into a large vessel of boiling water, keep the lid on, and they will be done in fifteen or twenty minutes. Serve melted butter.
Hard Dumplings.
Sprinkle a little salt into the flour and mix it up rather stiff with water, make it into dumplings, and boil them with beef or pork. They may be made in cakes as broad as a small plate, about an inch thick; place a skimmer in the pot, lay the cake on it, boil it half an hour; score it deeply, and slip slices of butter in, sprinkle a little salt over, and serve it quite hot. A very littlelardmay be rubbed into the flour.
Pancakes.
The batter requires long beating, but the great art consists in frying them. The lard, butter, or dripping must be fresh and hot, as for fish. Beat 2 eggs and stir them, with a little salt, into 3 table-spoonsful of flour, or allow an egg to each spoonful of flour, add pounded cinnamon, and, by degrees, a pint of new milk, and beat it to a smooth batter. Make a small round frying-pan quite hot, put a piece of butter or lard into it, and, when melted, pour it out and wipe the pan; put a piece more in, and when it has melted and begins to froth, pour in a ladle or tea-cupful of the batter, toss the pan round, run a knife round the edges, and turn the pancake when the top is of a light brown; brown the other side; roll it up, and serve very hot. Currant jelly, or marmalade, may be spread thinly on the pancake before it is rolled up. Cream and more eggs will make it richer; also brandy or lemon juice.
Whole Rice Pancakes.
Boil ½ lb. rice in water till quite tender, strain, and let it cool; then break it very fine, and add ½ lb. clarified butter, ½ pint of scalded cream, or new milk, a little salt, nutmeg, and 5 eggs, well beaten. Mix well, and fry them. Garnish with slices of lemon, or Seville orange.
Ground Rice Pancakes.
Stir, by degrees, into a quart of new milk, 4 table-spoonsful of ground rice, and a little salt; stir it over the fire till it is as thick as pap; stir in ½ lb. butter and grated nutmeg, and let it cool; add 4 table-spoonsful of flour, a little sugar, and 9 eggs; beat well, and fry them.
Fritters.
Make batter the same as pancakes, but stiffer; pour a large spoonful into boiling lard; fry as many at a time as the pan will hold. Sift powdered sugar over, and serve on a hot dish. Fritters are usually made with minced apple or currants, stirred into the batter, or any sweetmeat stiff enough to be cut into little bits, or candied lemon or orangepeel.—Or: grate the crumb of a stale roll, beat it smooth in a pint of milk over the fire, then let it get cold, and mix it with the yolks of 5 eggs, 3 oz. sifted sugar, and ½ a nutmeg. Fry in boiling lard, and serve hot. Sweet sauce in a tureen.Curd Fritters—Rub a quart basin full of dried curd with the yolks of 8 and whites of 4 eggs; 3 oz. sugar, ½ a nutmeg grated, and a dessert-spoonful of flour; beat well, and drop the batter into boiling lard.Apple Fritters—Make a stiff common pancake batter. Boil ½ a stick of cinnamon in a breakfast-cupful of water, and let it cool. Peel and core some large apples, cut them in round slices, and steep them half an hour, or more, in the cinnamon water; then dip each piece in the batter, and fry them in lard, or clarified dripping. Drain, dust sugar over each one, and serve hot.—Or: to make a pretty dish, drop enough batter into the pan to form a fritter the size of the slices of apple, lay a slice of apple upon that, and drop batter on the top.—Or: the apples may be pared, cored, half baked (whole), then dipped in the batter, and fried.
A Rice White Pot.
Boil 1 lb. whole rice quite tender, in 2 quarts of new milk, strain, and beat it in a mortar with ¼ lb. blanched almonds, and a little rose water. Boil 2 quarts of cream with a blade or 2 of mace, let it cool, and stir into it 5 eggs well beaten, sweeten to taste, pour it into the rice, mix well, and bake half an hour. Lay some slices of candied orange and citron on the top before you put it into the oven.—Or: to a quart of new milk add the yolks of 4 and the whites of 2 eggs, a table-spoonful of rose water, and 2 oz. sugar; beat well, and pour it into a pie dish, over some thin slices of bread: bake it half an hour.
Pain Perdu.
Boil a pint of cream, or new milk; when cold, stir in 6 eggs and put in a French roll, cut in slices, to soak an hour. Fry the slices in butter, of a light brown, and serve with pudding sauce poured over.
BREAD, CAKES, BISCUITS, ROLLS, AND MUFFINS.
Almostevery county has its peculiar fashion of making bread: and almost every hand differs in the practice. The receipt here given is the one followed by most persons in Hampshire; and I select it, being the one I am most familiar with, and not because that county is famed for excellence in bread; for much depends upon the goodness of the flour, and some other parts of England excel Hampshire in this respect.
Good bread is so essential, that no pains ought to be spared to procure it. For this purpose the flour ought to be well prepared, and kept in a dry place. Some persons like brown bread, but it is not, in general, so wholesome as that which is all white. Six pounds of rye flour, to a peck of wheaten flour, makes very good bread.
The advantages of making breadat home, in preference to buying it at the baker's, are stated inCobbett's"Cottage Economy"; and I refer my readers to that little work, to convince them that they will benefit greatly by following the advice there given on this subject.
Small beer yeast is the best for making bread, as ale, or strong beer yeast, is generally too bitter.
To take the Bitter from Yeast.—Put the yeast to the water you use to mix the "batter," or as the country people call it, "set the sponge," and stir into it 2 or 3 good handfuls of bran; pour it through a sieve or jelly bag (kept for the purpose), and then mix it into the flour. The bran not only corrects the bitterness of the yeast, but communicates a sweetness to the bread.—Or: put into the yeast 2 or 3 pieces of wood coal, stir them about, pour the water in, and then strain it.
Household Bread.
(From Cobbett's Cottage Economy.)
"Supposing the quantity to be a bushel of flour, put it into the trough, and make a deep hole in the middle. Stir into a pint (or if very thick and good, ½ or ¾ pint), of yeast, a pint of soft warm water, and pour it into the hole in the flour. In very cold weather the water should be nearly hot, in very warm weather only lukewarm. Take a spoon and work it round the outside of this body of moisture, so as to bring into that body, by degrees, flour enough to form athin batter, which you must stir about well for a minute or two. Then take a handful of flour and scatter it thinly over the head of this batter, so as tohideit. Cover a cloth over the trough to keep the air from the bread, and the thickness of this covering, as well as the situation of the trough as to distance from the fire, must depend on the nature of the place and state of the weather, as to heat and cold. When you perceive that the batter has risen enough to makecracksin the flour that you covered it over with, you begin to form the whole mass intodough, thus: you begin round the hole containing the batter, working the flour into the batter, and pouring in, as it is wanted, soft water, or half milk and half water, in winter alittlewarm, in summer quite cold; but before you begin this, you scatter the salt over the heap, at the rate of a lb. to a bushel of flour. When you have got the wholesufficiently moist, youknead it well. This is a grand part of the business; for unless the dough bewell worked, there will belittle round lumps of flour in the loaves; besides which, the original batter, which is to give fermentation to the whole, will not be duly mixed. The dough must, therefore, be well worked. Thefistsmust go heartily into it. It must be rolled over; pressed out; folded up, and pressed out again, until it be completely mixed, and formed into astiffandtough dough."
The loaves are made up according to fancy, both as to size and shape; but the time they require to bake will greatly depend upon the former, for the household loaf of a Hampshire farm-house takes three hours or three hours and a half, while that of a Norfolk farm-house does not, I should imagine, require half the time.
French Bread or Rolls.
Warm 1½ pint of milk, add ½ pint yeast; mix them with fine flour to a thick batter, put it near the fire to rise, keeping it covered. When it has risen as high as it will, add ¼ pint of warm water, ½ oz. salt, 2 oz. butter; rub the butter first with a little dry flour, mix the dough not quite so stiff as for common bread; let it stand three quarters of an hour to rise, then make it into rolls. Bake in a quick oven.
Rice Bread.
To ¼ lb. wheat flour, allow 1 lb. rice; the latter first boiled in four times its weight of water, till it becomes a perfect pulp, then mix by degrees, the flour with the rice, and sufficient yeast for the quantity of bread; knead and set it to rise.
It was the fashion in this country to present a variety of cakes, some hot and some cold, on the tea-table; but now, except in some of the northern counties, the good custom is obsolete.
In America, it is the general custom to dine early, to take tea rather late, and no supper; and there the tea table is a matter of as much consideration as the dinner table is in England or France. Every house in America, especially in the country, has one, two, or more cottage ovens of various sizes. I believe that these very useful things are known in some parts of England, but I never saw them except in America. They are particularly adapted to open fire-places, where wood or peat are burnt. They are much the same as the iron pots, which stand on legs, except that the bottom of the oven is flat, not round, and that the lid fits into the top, leaving a space sufficient to hold a layer of hot coals: the oven stands upon legs, at a little distance from the ground, to admit of hot coals being placed under it. A loaf the size of our quartern loaf may be baked in this way, as well as tarts, cakes, custards, apples, pears, &c., &c. By means of this little oven, much labour and fuel are saved. Another appendage to an American kitchen, is thegirdlefor baking many sorts of cakes, and crumpets; and on this girdle they cook their far-famed buckwheat cakes. It is a round iron plate with a handle over it, which is hung upon the crane upon whichiron pots are hung, or it will stand upon a trivet, and then the crumpets are cooked in the same way as pancakes; and are much better thus, fresh made, than as they are generally eaten.
In the country, where eggs, cream, and flour (the chief ingredients), are always to be obtained in perfection, there is no excuse for an absence of cakes for the tea, or of rolls at the breakfast table. In most houses, there are young ladies who might attend to this department, with very little loss of time, and with much credit to themselves, and I should be glad if I saw reason to hope that those who are now growing up would not despise the practice. The more difficult and intricate articles of ornamental confectionary, may be too troublesome for any but professors of the art; but allcakesmay be made at home. Nothing worth knowing, is to be learned without trouble; but in the art of making and baking cakes, few failures can arise after any number of trials.
Flour for cakes should be of the best quality, well dried, and sifted. The eggs fresh, beaten separately, and beaten well. Currants well washed, picked, and dried in a cloth, or before the fire. The ingredients thoroughly mixed, and the cake put into the oveninstantly, unless there be yeast, and then time must be given for it to rise.
Sal Volatile is used, not to make cakes rise, but to prevent their flattening, after they have risen, but though the practice may not be injurious, it had better be avoided. Yeast ought to be sweet, white, and thick; and may be prepared in the manner directed for bread. Pearl-ash is sometimes used to lighten bread and cakes.
An iceing is made as follows: to ½ lb. finely sifted sugar put the whites of 2 eggs, beaten with a little water; beat all well with a whisk till quite smooth, and spread it thickly over the cake, with a spoon; for small cakes, put it on lightly, with a brush.
Ovens vary so much, that experience alone can teach what quantity of fuel, and what portion of time may be required to heat any particular one. When such knowledge is once obtained, it will be a matter of no great difficulty so to manage the oven that it be always of the right temperature; which it must be, or all labour is lost.
Cakes keep moist covered with a cloth, in a pan.