ForSyllabubs, to one quart of cream put the rinds and juice of two lemons, a teacupful of white wine, two table-spoonfuls of brandy, a little nutmeg, and sugar to the taste; and then whip them to a froth with a whisk.
ADevonshire syllabub, orjunket, is made by putting a pint of cider, with two table-spoonfuls of brandy, and sugar to the taste, into a large bowl, and milking upon it till the bowl is nearly full. In twenty minutes some clotted cream is heaped up in the middle of the dish, and powdered cinnamon, grated nutmeg, and Harlequin comfits strewed over the top. When cider cannot be procured, half a pint of port is used instead, omitting the brandy; and when a cow is not accessible, lukewarm milk poured from a coffee-pot spout, held up as high as possible, will do almost as well.
Forimpromptu Cheesecakes. Take a quarter of a pound of butter, and the same quantity of pounded lump-sugar, two eggs well beaten, and the juice of a lemon, with the grated rind. Beat the butter into a cream, and mix the whole well together. Then put some light puff paste in pattypans, and drop a little of the mixture into each. Another way of making impromptu cheesecakes is with butter, sugar, and sweet almonds, taking of each a quarter of a pound, and adding the yolks of four eggs, with the white of two, and the grated rind of a lemon.
Common Cheesecakesmade with curd take more time to prepare, but are, I think, better; they are made by turning some milk with rennet into curd, as if for making cheese, and then beating three quarters of a pound of the curd, which should be quite dry so as to crumble, with five ounces of butter till the mixture is quite smooth. Two ounces of sweet almonds and five or six bitter ones, pounded in a mortar, and mixed with four ounces of lump-sugar, crushed and sifted, should be added; and the whole should be moistened with the yolks of four, and the whites of two eggs beaten up with three spoonfuls of cream, two of brandy, and a little nutmeg. The pattypans should be rather large, and rubbed with butter before the paste is put into them, and the space left for the curd should be filled quite full. These cheesecakes should be baked about twenty minutes, and they are excellent. As I have said you are to line your pattypans with puff paste, you will probably now ask how it is to be made. There are numerous receipts given in the cookery books, and I really don't know which is the best; but I will tell you how I have seen most excellent paste made when I was a girl, by one of the best plain cooks I ever met with.
ForPuff Paste, the flour was put in a wide earthen pan set before the fire, till it was quite warm, turning it frequently with the hands. A little butter was then rubbed into the flour, andenough warm water was added to make the whole into a very smooth and even paste, every lump in the flour having been carefully crumbled in the process of mixing. The paste was rolled out rather thick, and little bits of butter stuck all over it; flour was then dusted over the butter, and the paste was folded up so as to cover the flour. This was repeated as often as required, and half a pound of butter to a pound of flour was considered to make a very rich crust, a quarter of a pound of butter to a pound of flour being the usual proportion.
ShortorSugar Pastewas made by rubbing two ounces of lump-sugar, crushed by a rolling-pin so as to be very fine, into a pound of dry flour, and adding three ounces of butter, both the butter and the sugar being so mixed as to leave no lumps. The yolks of two eggs were then beaten up well, with some cream, and added to the flour, so as to make it into a paste, and if more moisture was required, milk or cream was used, but no water. This paste only required rolling out once, and it was delicious.
In some of the modern cookery books equal quantities of butter and flour, in addition to the yolks of two eggs, are recommended for rich puff paste; and it is directed that the greater part of the butter should be made into a ball, and the buttermilk having been squeezed out of it, it should be put into the crust and covered with it, like an apple in making an apple-dumpling. Thecrust is then to be floured and rolled out five or six times. I have never tried this paste, and I should think it would be difficult to make. Regular pastrycooks, I am told, use oil, which they mix with the flour without any water; and lard or dripping is often used in large families to save butter. Eggs give a great richness to paste; but when used the whites should be omitted, as they are apt to make the paste hard.
Having thus broken through my determination to give you only receipts for impromptu cookery, I think I must give you a few hints on what may be called National Cookery, or, in other words, that I may teach you how to make the favourite dishes of most of the nations of Europe. I do this principally to amuse you, and to enable you to produce variety in your entertainments, as the greatest enemy you have to dread is monotony; but you may occasionally find it useful to know how to produce the favourite dishes of foreigners, when you have to entertain them.
The Pot au Feuis the popular soup of France, which is found in every house, from the prince to the peasant: it is made by putting a solid piece of beef into cold water, in the proportion of one pound of meat to a quart of water, and letting it simmer in an earthen pot on a hot hearth for six hours, taking off the scum as it rises. A little salt is thrown in after the liquor has begun to simmer, and carrots, cabbage, an onion or two, andany other vegetable that may be in season are put in, after the scum, caused by the addition of the salt, has been taken off. This pottage can never be made properly unless wood is burned in the kitchen, as it requires to be kept constantly simmering, but never boiling rapidly during the whole of the six hours; and this can scarcely be accomplished with a tin kettle or saucepan placed at the side of a coal fire. In France they generally use a piece of the rump for thepot au feu, as they have their meat (which they callbouilli) sent to table, with the best of the vegetables, taken carefully out of the liquor, laid round it. The soup is then strained off and poured quite hot on a slice of bread, either toasted or untoasted, according to taste, which is laid at the bottom of the tureen. Sometimes, instead of using bread, the pottage is served plain; or vermicelli is added in the proportion of from one to two ounces to each quart of soup. The vermicelli is put into a saucepan, and enough of the bouillon to cover it is strained over it, and it is stewed very gently for about half an hour, so as to be ready to add to the soup when it is put into the tureen. In winter, instead of vegetables, rice is frequently put into thepot au feuabout two hours before it is served up; or it is stewed for about an hour in a separate saucepan, and added when the pottage is served up.
Macaroniis the national dish of Italy, and it isprepared by covering it with ten times its volume of boiling water, and letting it remain till it becomes soft. When this is the case, some salt is thrown into the water, and the saucepan is held over the fire for a minute, till the liquid begins to bubble, when cold water is thrown in to stop the ebullition: the macaroni is then drained, and placed in a dish alternately with small bits of butter, pepper, and grated cheese; or, instead of butter, gravy of any kind may be used, or tomato sauce. The Italians use the same kind of soup as the French, but they always serve a dish of grated cheese to eat with it; and sometimes they add parsley chopped very small to the potage before serving it. The cheese used in Italy is either Parmesan or Gruyere, but any strong flavoured, dry cheese will do.
Sauer krautis the national dish of Germany, and it is made from very large close cabbages, which are deprived of their outer leaves so as to leave only the hard white part, or head. The first process of preparing them is to scoop out the interior part of the stalk with an iron instrument or scoop; they are then cut into small shreds by a wooden machine, composed of a flat board or tray, which has a ledge on two sides, to steady a box or frame, into which the cabbages are put. In the middle of the board are four flat pieces ofsteel, similar to the steel part of a spokeshave, placed in an oblique direction, and the near edge of each being a little raised up, with small spaces between each, to let the shreds fall down into a tub placed underneath to receive them. The cabbages are then put into the box before described, which is pushed backwards and forwards, when the cabbages, being cut by the steel, fall in small shreds into the tub placed below. A barrel stands ready to receive them when cut, the sides of which are first washed with vinegar. A man stands on a chair by the barrel, with clean wooden shoes on, whose business it is to salt and prepare them, which is done in the following manner:—The man first takes as much of the cut cabbage as covers about four inches above the bottom; he next strews upon it two handfuls of salt, one handful of unground pepper, and a small quantity of salad oil; he then gets into the barrel, and treads it down with his wooden shoes till it is well mixed and compact. He next takes another layer of cabbage, and puts salt and pepper on it as before, and treads it again, and so goes on till the barrel is filled. A board is then placed on it, and upon the board some very heavy weights are put, and it remains so ten or fifteen days, when it partially ferments, and a great deal of water swims on the surface: it is then put into the cellar for use. The men who prepare sauer kraut areTyrolese, and carry their machine on their backs from house to house.
In the annexed sketch (fig. 6.),ais the cutting-tray,bthe box into which the cabbages are put,cthe scoop, anddthe tub into which the shreds fall.
wood engravingFig. 6.Cabbage-cutter for Sauer kraut.
Fig. 6.Cabbage-cutter for Sauer kraut.
The Beet-root soup called Barszez or Barchis the national dish of Poland. It is made by putting the siftings of rye into a barrel, and filling it with warm water in the proportion of three quarts of siftings to four or five gallons of water. The barrel is set in a warm closet heated to about 70°, and soon begins to ferment. In twelve hours it is ready for use. The liquor is then strained off, and set near the fire, with any meat or poultry that may be required. When the meat is sufficiently stewed it is taken out of the soup, which,after it has been well skimmed and strained, is mixed with a pint of cream in which four table-spoonfuls of flour have been beaten up, and into which a red beet-root has been grated. The soup is then set on the fire for a minute, and when quite hot it is served up. The meat is served on a separate dish, and it is garnished with another beet-root cut in slices, and dried mushrooms which have been previously boiled in a separate saucepan. Another much superior kind of barch, (which may be called abeet purée,) is made by boiling several roots of beet, taking care not to break the skin, so that they may preserve their bright red. When quite soft they are taken out of the water, peeled, and rubbed through a sieve. Half a pound of flour is mixed with a quart of thick sour cream, and added to five or six pounds' weight of pulp, and this is thinned with stock from any kind of meat previously boiled and strained. The whole is then suffered to simmer till the raw taste of the flour is gone off, and it is then served quite hot. It should be of the colour and consistency of raspberry cream, and, when properly made, it is delicious. Both these receipts were given to me by an English lady now residing in Poland, so that you may rely upon them as being genuine; and the following receipts for Spanish dishes were procured for me by a friend from a gentleman who is a native of Spain.
The Olla Podridais decidedly the national dish of Spain, and, prepared according to the receipt I am going to give you, it is really excellent. It is composed of the following ingredients:—a fowl, pieces of beef, mutton, veal, and bacon; half a Spanish sausage, and some garvanzos (Spanish peas). The garvanzos should be soaked all night in, warm water and a little salt. Next morning the whole of the above are to be slowly boiled together for three hours or more; add some onion, one or two cloves, salt, carrot, garlic, and open cabbages. Pour the soup uponvery thin piecesof bread, not toasted. After the soup, the vegetables, bacon, and sausage are served on one dish, and the fowl and meat on another. Sometimes vermicelli or rice is put into the soup instead of the thin pieces of bread; but the bread appears to be most generally used.
To make a Puchero, put from two to six pounds of beef into a stew-pan, adding a quart of water for every pound of meat. Place the saucepan on a moderate fire, which should be gradually increased in force so that the scum may be carefully removed, which should be done as it rises to the surface until no more of it appears. The saucepan is then to be left on a fire, kept uniformly moderate, for the space of four hours. When it has boiled two hours, put into it three carrots of moderatesize, two turnips, four leeks, and a parsnep, each cut in half, a handful of parsley, more or less, a roasted onion pierced with two or three cloves, and a good proportion of salt. Warm water must be occasionally added, according as the soup evaporates. The above, with the addition of a whole fowl, or even the half of a chicken only, the giblets of a turkey, or a bone of roast lamb, makes an excellent dish in the class of plain cooking. There should be put in this dish some garvanzos soaked in warm water the previous night, and put into the saucepan as soon as the soup begins to get warm. A piece of ham or bacon, or a piece of the Spanish sausage, should be put in at the same time as the vegetables.
A Scotch haggis.Take the large stomach of a sheep. After being nicely cleaned, put it to soak in cold water for a night. Boil the pluck of a sheep till it becomes very tender; mince it small, together with a large portion of suet, and season with white pepper, salt, and a little onion shred small; add a quart of the liquor in which the pluck was boiled, and as much oatmeal, previously browned before the fire, as will make the mixture as thick as batter. The ingredients are then put into the stomach, which must be firmly sewed, to keep out the water; and, after boiling for three hours, it is served up in a deep dish.Though the pluck is here mentioned generally, we must observe that neither the liver, nor what is called the cat's-piece or spleen, is to be used. When the haggis comes to table a portion of the skin where it is sewed is taken up with a fork, and a hole is made by cutting the skin all round it. If the haggis has been properly made the gravy will spurt out to a great height the moment the skin is pierced.
Scotch barley brothis considered best when made with a sheep's head, the wool from which has been singed off with a red-hot iron. This operation requires great care, as every particle of the wool should be removed, and yet no impression should be made on the skin. When singed the head should be soaked in water all night. In the morning it is scraped and washed, and then it is split open, and the brains taken out. Some persons rub the brains over the skin of the head to remove the blackness; but others do not like either the broth or the head unless both are black. When properly prepared it is put into a kettle with some turnips and carrots cut small, some onions, and some salt; and a gallon of water should be added, in which a teacupful of Scotch or pearl barley has been boiled slowly for half an hour. The whole should then be boiled very gently for two or three hours, or longer, in a close kettle.When served the soup should not be strained, but only the head should be taken out and served on a separate dish, and the broth should be sent to table with the barley and vegetables in it. The meat on the head should be quite tender and thoroughly done. If the taste of the head be disliked, the soup may be made by adding to the stewed barley, the vegetables, and three pounds of the lean end of a neck of mutton, instead of the head. A pint of green peas may also be added, if in season.
A Scotch hotch-potch.Take equal quantities of fresh beef and mutton, a pound and a half of each to three pints of water; chop them finely, and let them simmer gently in a stew-pan. When the meat is tender, season with salt and pepper, and add a peck of green peas, three or four or more carrots, two cauliflowers, a few onions, and any other vegetable that may be in season, cutting them small, and dredging them with flour. The whole should stew gradually till the vegetables are tender, when it should be served without straining. In the winter, when other vegetables are scarce, potatoes may be substituted for some of them; but carrots should always be most abundant.
For an Irish stew.Take four pounds of potatoes, and a pound and a half of meat, with a few onions, and one carrot, which will make a good stew for six or seven persons. The meat must becut into small pieces; if it is half mutton it will be all the better; add about three pints of water. When the greater portion of the potatoes are in pulp, it will be done. Season it with salt and pepper.
The English national dishesare, I suppose, roast beef and plum pudding. I need not tell you how to roast your beef, but I may give you a receipt for a pudding under it, as I think puddings of that kind are peculiar to England.
For an excellent Yorkshire pudding,take six eggs, six heaped table-spoonfuls of flour, and one tea-spoonful of salt. Beat the eggs well, strain them, and mix them with the flour, and then add gradually about a pint of milk, so as to make the whole into a rather thin batter. Warm the pan, and rub it with dripping or butter before the batter is poured into it, and let the batter be about an inch thick. When the pudding is browned on one side cut it into quarters, or eight pieces, and turn them to brown the other. In some places the pudding is made very thin, and not turned; and sometimes currants are added. A plainer pudding may be made with half a pound of flour, a tea-spoonful of salt, three eggs, and a pint of milk.
For a Plum pudding,take suet, flour, currants, and stoned raisins, one pound each, the grated rind of a lemon, four eggs, a wine-glassful of brandy, and as much milk as is required to makeit of a proper consistence. It should be boiled eight or nine hours in either a cloth or a mould, and served with wine sauce.
Sir Joseph Brookes's Plum pudding."Take the crumb of a twopenny loaf, six ounces of suet, two apples grated, three ounces of sugar, the rind of a lemon grated, a little candied orange, half a pound of currants, two table-spoonfuls of flour, the yolks of four eggs, half a nutmeg, a little ginger, and three table-spoonfuls of brandy. Mix all well together, and boil two hours. Eight ounces of apple or gooseberry pulp, with five ounces of sugar, may be substituted for the suet."
Mr. Sopwith's Victoria pudding."Take half a pound of flour, half a pound of currants, a quarter of a pound of suet shred very fine, a quarter of a pound of moist sugar, half a pound of mashed potatoes, a quarter of a pound of carrots boiled and beaten smooth, and one ounce of lemon-peel. Mix all well together the night before the pudding is wanted, and boil it four hours." Another similar pudding is made as follows:—"Take of flour, suet chopped fine, currants, raisins, and grated carrot, half a pound of each; mix the ingredients well together, without any liquid, and boil five hours. A little grated lemon-peel may be added, and the pudding should be served with sweet sauce poured over it."
I shall now give you a few miscellaneous receipts of various kinds, which I know to be good.
A Charlotte de pommesis a French apple pudding, made by lining a mould or dish with thin slices of stale bread that have been dipped in clarified butter. The middle is then filled with apples, stewed as if for sauce; and a piece of bread being laid on the top, the charlotte is baked with fire above and below.
A French Apple puddingis made by baking or stewing some apples with sugar till they become a sort of marmalade. A custard is then made of half a pound of sweet almonds, blanched and pounded smooth, with an ounce of bitter ones, half a pint of cream, the yolks of two eggs, and the white of one, and poured over the apples, which should then be baked in a slow oven. As this is what is called a French apple pudding in England, it may amuse you to give you now what is called an English apple pudding in France; it is as follows:—Take twelve moderate-sized apples, pare and core them, and then put them into a saucepan with four or five table-spoonfuls of water. Stew them till they are soft, and then mix them with half a pound of powdered lump sugar, the juice of three lemons, and the grated rind of two, and the yolks of eight eggs well beaten. Mix all well together; cover a dish with a light puff paste, and pour the mixtureinto it. Put it into the oven, and bake it half an hour.
A Parsnep puddingis made by boiling two parsneps, draining the water from them, mashing them, and adding grated bread, the yolks of two eggs, sugar and spice to the taste, and a little cream; the whole, when mixed, is poured into a light puff paste, and baked.
Mr. Sopwith's Almond pudding.Take five or six bitter almonds, blanched, and pound them in a mortar, with seven or eight pieces of lump sugar. Then beat up the yolks of two, and the whites of three eggs, and add them to the almonds and sugar, with two spoonfuls of cream made lukewarm. Pour the whole into a mould or basin well buttered, and steam it for twenty minutes.
To make aCabinet pudding. Butter a pudding basin, and line the inside with a layer of raisins that have been previously stoned. Then cut some thin bread and butter, taking off the crust, and fill the basin with it. In another basin beat up three eggs, and add to them a pint of milk, with sugar and spice; mix all well together, and pour the whole into the first basin upon the bread and butter. Let it stand half an hour, and then tie a floured cloth over it in the usual manner, taking care that the basin is quite full. This is a most delicious pudding; and when turned out ofthe basin it has a singular appearance, the outside being quite covered with raisins.
ForLemon cream. Take a quart of lemonade made very sweet, strain it, and put it in a saucepan on the fire. Add the yolks of eight eggs beaten, and stir it always one way till it is of a proper thickness. Serve it in custard-glasses, or in a cream-dish. To make the lemonade, dissolve five ounces of sugar in two pints of boiling water, having previously, with part of the sugar, rubbed the yellow rind off a lemon; then add the juice of three lemons. Some persons put the lemon and sugar into a jug, and pour the boiling water upon them.
Rice flummery, which is a very nice side dish, is made by mixing a quarter of a pound of ground rice with a little cold milk, and then adding a pint of hot milk which has been boiled with a stick of cinnamon and a bit of lemon-peel; add sugar to the taste, and, if required, a few drops of essence of almonds. Boil it up, stirring it carefully, and then pour it into a mould.
Dutch flummeryis made by boiling two ounces of isinglass in three half-pints of water very gently for half an hour. Strain the liquor, and add a few lumps of sugar which have been rubbed on the rind of two lemons, and the juice of three lemons strained; then beat the yolks of seveneggs, and add them gradually. Put the whole over the fire, and stir it carefully, all one way, till it boils, and then pour it into a mould, or put it first into a basin to settle before putting it into the mould. The whites of the eggs beaten up to a froth will look very pretty over preserves; or they may be coloured with some kind of preserve, to form a dish.
The following is a receipt to makeRice cream, which was sent to me by a friend, and is said to be most excellent. Take a quarter of a pound of ground rice, one quart of cream, the peel of a lemon, and a small piece of butter. Put all into a stewpan, and place it over the fire, stirring it carefully till it boils, when it should be of about the same thickness as bread sauce. After boiling two minutes, add a spoonful of prepared isinglass, and turn it out, as you would any other cream. Send it to table with a little raspberry or currant syrup.
Blancmangemay be made quickly by boiling, or rather simmering, two ounces of isinglass in three pints of milk till it is dissolved, which will be in about half an hour. Then strain it into a pint and a half of cream; sweeten it, and add a little peach-water, to give the flavour of almonds. Let it boil up once, and then stand a few minutes to settle before it is put into the moulds. Use tin moulds, and set them in cold pump-waterchanging the water when it becomes warm, and the blancmange will very soon be quite firm.
I will now give you a few miscellaneous receipts, and then I think you will have had enough; for I know, as far as my own experience goes, I have always felt perplexed, when I have taken up a cookery book, by the great number of receipts which I found in it, and all of which appeared to me so excellent that I knew not which to choose. I have, naturally enough, supposed you to have the same feeling; and thus, in what I have written, I have endeavoured as much as possible to save you the trouble of selection, by giving you only such dishes as I either know to be good myself, or which have been given to me by friends I can fully rely upon. But I am forgetting your receipts; they are as follow:—
To makePotato flourorstarch, to serve also instead of arrow-root. Peel and wash the potatoes, cutting out all the specks; then grate or rasp them into a pan of water; stir it up well, and let it remain for about ten hours, or till all the flour is settled down. Then pour off the water with the fibrous parts of the potatoes, and put some fresh water to the flour, which, as it settles very hard, must be well stirred and strained into another pan, where let it remain till it is again settled down, and so do till the water is quite clear, which will be in four or five times mixing in fresh water;once straining is sufficient. When clear enough, break the flour up into a dish, and dry it gently before the fire; it takes a good while, as it must be thoroughly dried and broken into a fine powder. It may then be put away for use, and keeps a long time. Very small potatoes answer the purpose as well as large; and, when persons grow them, it uses up those that are too small for boiling. Ten ounces and a half of starch have been produced from very small potatoes, which weighed only seven pounds and a half before peeling them. When this flour is made on a large scale, the potatoes may be washed, and then ground in a cider-mill without paring.
To pickle Lemons.Grate off the rind, then lay them in salt for six days; boil vinegar with a little turmeric, and pour over them boiling; let them stand till next day; then boil in best vinegar, mace, shallots, anchovy, Cayenne pods, and cloves; boil the lemons and liquor together two minutes, and cover them close up. In a few days they will be fit for use, and are much admired with fish, cutlets, or cold meat.
Mixture for India Pickle.One gallon of vinegar, a quarter of a pound of garlic, half a pound of salt, a quarter of a pound of ginger, two ounces of white mustard seed, and two teaspoonfuls of Cayenne pepper; mix all well together. Any vegetables, such as small onions, cauliflowers, Frenchbeans, radish pods, and gherkins, may be laid in salt three days, dried, and put into the above mixture, and it is an excellent pickle for general use.
Cucumber Vinegar.Pare and slice fifteen large cucumbers, and three or four onions, a few shallots, and a clove or two of garlic. Then put a layer of slices of cucumber in a deep jar, and strew over it some pepper and salt, and a little Cayenne pepper; then a layer of onions and shallots, with pepper and salt as before; repeating alternate layers of cucumbers and onions till the jar is about half full, when three pints of vinegar is to be poured on the whole. After standing four days the vinegar is strained off, and is ready for use. It is a great improvement to cold meat.
Excellent Walnut catsup.Take walnuts of the size fit for pickling; cut and pound them in a marble mortar to obtain the juice. To a pint of this juice put a pound of anchovies. Boil till the anchovies are dissolved, and then strain through a piece of muslin. Then boil again, and add a quarter of an ounce of mace, half a quarter of an ounce of cloves, some whole white pepper, and seven or eight shallots, a few cloves of garlic, and a pint of white wine vinegar. Boil all together till the shallots become tender; then strain, and, when cold, bottle for use.
Tomato saucemay be made by putting ripetomatoes into an earthen jar, and setting it in an oven from which the bread has been just drawn. When the tomatoes have become soft, the skins should be taken out, and the pulp should be mixed with vinegar, a few cloves of garlic pounded, Cayenne pepper, powdered ginger, and salt, to the taste. Another way is to stew a gallon of ripe tomatoes with a pound of salt till they are reduced to a pulp; then rub them through a sieve, and add half a drachm of cochineal, and Cayenne pepper, mace, allspice, and ginger to the taste. Let the whole boil gently for twenty minutes, and when cold put into wide-mouthed bottles for use. By adding a little brandy to each bottle, this sauce will keep several years. Tomatoes are also very good, boiled gently in salt and water.
For Tomato sauce(the Spanish way). Cut six tomatoes in half, and, having pressed out their juice, put to them a sufficient quantity of gravy, a quarter of a head of garlic, a little parsley, and a few drops of vinegar. All this must be boiled together for a short time and passed through a sieve. This sauce is a great improvement to mutton chops, ham, boiled beef, or beef steaks.
The Spanish mode of keeping Tomatoes.Boil some sugar, in the proportion of an ounce to each tomato, until it becomes candied. Add a tenth part of onions; and when they begin to colour putin the tomatoes, with salt, pepper, cloves, and nutmeg in suitable quantities. Boil the whole on a very quick fire, and, when of sufficient thickness, strain it through a hair-sieve. Place it on the fire again immediately, and, when it becomes solid, put it into jelly-pots. These must be covered with two plies of paper, and kept apart from the light. The onions may be omitted from the above; in which case it can be used as a sauce for a variety of dishes.
Sirop de Cerises.Prepare some ripe cherries by pulling out their stalks, crush them, and leave them to ferment for twenty-four hours. Press the cherries, and strain their juice through a sieve. The liquid should be quite clear, and to every seventeen ounces of juice add two pounds of lump sugar. Put the liquid into a stewpan on the fire, and let it boil once, then take off the scum, and when the liquor is nearly cold bottle it. All other syrups of fruit are made in the same manner.
I think you will now be as much tired of reading receipts for cookery as I am of writing them, and therefore I will only add two receipts for makingPork pies, the first of which is the mode practised in my native county, Warwickshire.
Half a pound of lard is put into a saucepan containing a quart of water. The saucepan is set on the fire, and stirred till the water boils. The boiling lard and water is then poured slowlyinto as much flour as will suffice to make it into a smooth and very stiff paste, and mixed with a wooden spoon, after which it must be beaten with a rolling-pin. When the ingredients are thoroughly incorporated, the paste is put into an earthen pan, covered with a linen cloth, and placed near the fire, where it is left for about half an hour. The meat is now prepared by being separated from every particle of bone, skin, and gristle, and cut into pieces about the size of dice. Care is taken to keep the fat and lean separate; but both are well seasoned with pepper and salt. A piece of the paste large enough to form one pie is then broken off the mass, and the rest is again covered up, as it cannot be worked if it is too cold, though it will not stand if it is too warm. If it breaks and crumbles, instead of being plastic, it is too cold; and if it is too soft, and falls when raised, it is either too warm or too rich. When it is of just the right heat to bear being moulded, and yet to retain whatever shape may be given to it, the piece of paste is worked with the hands on a pasteboard, into the form of a high-peaked hat, with a broad brim; and then the peak of the hat being turned downwards on the board, one of the hands is put inside the hat, and the other used to raise and smooth the sides, till the pie is gradually worked into a proper shape. The meat is then put into the crust in layers, two of lean toone of fat, and pressed as closely as possible, in order that the pie may cut firm when cold. When the pie is quite full, the lid is put on, and wet round the edge to make it adhere to the top of the walls, on which it is laid, the two being pinched together, in order to unite them more thoroughly.
In Leicestershire, and some parts of Staffordshire, a layer of raisins is often put below the meat, and, in Northamptonshire, pork pies or pasties are made with the same kind of crust as I have described, but, instead of being raised, it is rolled out, and then cut into pieces of a proper size for the top and bottom, with a long piece of the necessary width for the sides. The bottom is cemented to the walls with egg, the two parts which are to adhere being pinched together; and the crust is filled with well-seasoned meat, put in layers of fat and lean as before; the lid is then put on, and, after it has been made to adhere to the walls, it is washed over with a feather dipped in white of egg.
These pies are frequently baked in a tin, which is made so as only to support the walls, and is fastened on one side with a kind of skewer, which may be drawn out, so as to allow the tin to be removed without breaking the crust. As, however, the sides sometimes look too pale, when the pie is baked in a tin, the pie may be put intothe oven again for a few minutes after the tin is removed, in order that the walls may be properly browned.
All pork pies should be baked slowly, on account of the solid nature of the meat; and a hole is generally made in the middle of the lid to let out the steam. No water should be put into the pie when it is made; but, when it is baked, a little gravy made from the bones of the pork may be poured in through the hole in the lid. Pork pies are never cut till they are cold. Those persons who dislike lard may use butter instead of it for the crust; but it is not quite so good.
I will now proceed to say a few words on the other servants' offices. TheLarderin a country house is generally a square or oblong room near the kitchen, and sometimes sunk a step below it. It should be kept as cool as possible, and should be contrived to be on the north side of the house. Where practicable, there should be two windows, or rather openings in the walls, opposite each other, filled in with wire network instead of glass, to allow a free current of air through the room, and yet to exclude flies and other insects. The floor should be of brick, and furnished with a drain, so that it may be frequently washed with plenty of water, without much trouble. The walls should be whitewashed, and there should be fixed in them at intervals strong iron hooks or holdfasts, for the purpose of suspending uncooked meat. Other hooks should be fixed in the ceiling, for hung beef, tongues, hams, &c. When the larder is dry, theremay be also bacon racks fixed to the ceiling; but, if the situation should be damp, these will be better in the kitchen. In some places a circular rack is hung in the centre with hooks round it for game; but in very large establishments there is a separate larder for game, as the smell, when it is high, gives an unpleasant flavour to the fresh meat kept near it. In the centre of the larder there should be a strong wooden table or chopping-block for cutting the meat upon; and close under the walls there is frequently a raised settlice or dais of brick, about two feet high, which serves to support earthen, slate, or wooden troughs for salting meat. In one of the deepest of these should be a kind of pickle or brine, in which anything that is to be salted for keeping may be put; and the other more shallow troughs may be employed for slightly salting meat that is soon to be used.
The pickle for the large brine trough is made by mixing four gallons of water with a pound or a pound and a half of coarse sugar, four ounces of saltpetre, and six pounds of common or bay salt. This mixture should be boiled in a large kettle, and the scum taken off as it rises. When no more scum appears, the vessel should be taken from the fire, and the liquid suffered to stand till it is cold. Another pickle is made by adding to four gallons of water, fourteen pounds of common salt, eight pounds of bay salt, half a pound of saltpetre, andtwo ounces of sal prunella. Boil the whole together for half an hour, and take off the scum; when cold it is fit for use. The first kind is best for hung beef and tongues; and the latter for salt beef and pickled pork.
When the pickle is ready, the meat to be salted should be examined, and carefully wiped dry with a coarse cloth, any flyblows or bruised parts being removed. If tongues are to be salted, the roots should be cut off, and laid aside for soups; and then the tongues should be scraped and rubbed dry before putting them into the pickling-trough. The skin of the pork should be scraped and cleaned, and the fleshy part should be carefully examined, and wiped dry, any mass that there may be of congealed blood being removed. All the meat that is to be cured being properly prepared, it should be laid in the pickling-trough and the brine poured over it; and, if there are several pieces of meat, care should be taken to lay them so that the brine may touch every part, and completely cover the whole. Meat which has been preserved in the first pickle for ten weeks or more, if cooked without being hung up to dry, will be perfectly tender, and will eat as well as meat that has been only freshly and slightly salted.
It is said that meat may be kept in this pickle for twelve months, provided the pickle be boiled and skimmed about once in two months, and thatduring the boiling, two ounces of sugar, and half a pound of salt be added. In general, the articles which have been salted, after remaining about a fortnight or three weeks in the pickle, are taken out and hung up to dry. Some persons lay them to drain, and then hang them up without any other preparation; but others advise them to be wiped quite dry and put in paper bags before they are hung up. Whenever fresh articles are put into the pickle, every thing should be taken out of the trough, and the brine boiled up, the scum being taken off and fresh salt and sugar added, as before directed. Sometimes meat is merely salted when it is to be used in a few days; in which case the meat is put into a smaller trough or pan, and only salt is used in the proportion of a quarter of a pound of salt to every two pounds of meat. The salt should be well rubbed in, and the meat turned every day.
The following general observations as to curing meat will probably be of more use than multiplying receipts. What is called bay salt (that is, salt made by evaporating sea-water) gives a finer flavour than common salt, but rather more should be used, to produce the same degree of saltness. Sugar makes meat tender, and gives mellowness and richness, but the quantity used should never be more than one quarter of the quantity of salt, or it will make the meat taste insipid. Saltpetregives a fine red colour, but it is apt to make the meat hard; and, whenever it is used, there should be at least an equal quantity of sugar to counteract its hardening tendency. The usual proportion is, a quarter of an ounce of saltpetre to a pound of salt; or, if used with sugar, one ounce of saltpetre to three pounds of sugar. Meat should never be salted in very hot weather, unless it is wanted for use in a few days; and it should never be put in pickle at that season. If any meat in the slightest degree tainted be put into the pickling-trough, the brine will be spoiled, and should be thrown away. When it is absolutely necessary, in very hot weather, to salt meat to keep, it is said that a tea-spoonful of muriatic acid and of nitric acid (spirits of salt and aquafortis), in equal parts, should be added to every pound of salt. It is also said that a dessert-spoonful of pyroligneous acid added to every pound of salt will give a fine smoky flavour, without any of the trouble attendant on smoking dried meat; but this last must be used with great care, as too much would spoil the meat.
AsHamsrequire to be salted with more care than any other kind of meat, I have given below two or three particular receipts for curing them, all of which I know to be excellent. The first is very useful in the country, as the hams cured by it may be cooked without steeping.
For a ham twenty-four pounds in weight, take two ounces of saltpetre, half a pound of common salt, one pound of bay salt, and one ounce of black pepper. Mix these together, and rub them well into the ham: then let it stand three days, and at the expiration of that time pour one pound of treacle over it, and let it remain twenty-four hours; after that time, let it be turned every day for a month, and each time rub the liquor well into it. After this, steep the ham in cold water for twelve hours, then dry it well and hang it up. It will not require any further steeping when it is to be boiled; and it should be boiled slowly, say at the rate of about three hours for a ham of the weight of ten pounds. This receipt was given me by Mr. Beaton, and it is impossible for any hams to be better than those cured in this way.
The following is the way of curing hams to give them the Westphalian flavour. For two large hams, take one pound and a quarter of common salt, two ounces and a half of saltpetre, three pounds of bay salt, one pound and a half of brown sugar, and one quart of old beer; boil them all together, and pour the mixture over the hams boiling hot. Turn them and rub them well every day for sixteen days; then smoke them with short horse-litter, and hang them up to dry.
The following is another mode of giving hamsthe Westphalian flavour, and it is said to be excellent. For two hams weighing thirty pounds, take one pound of common salt, half a pound of bay salt, three ounces of saltpetre, and one ounce and a half of black pepper, the latter ground, and finely sifted. Mix all these well together, and rub the hams with the mixture for four days, turning them every day, and having first washed them well with vinegar. On the fifth day, pour over the hams two pounds of treacle, and rub them well with two ounces of juniper berries bruised. Let them remain in this pickle six weeks, turning and rubbing them daily; then take them out of the pickle, and lay them in spring water for four-and-twenty hours; then wipe them dry and send them to a chimney where wood is burnt. When thoroughly smoked, take them down and put them in a chest with wood ashes. I may here observe that, when hams are cured in any ordinary way, it is said that the Westphalian flavour may be given to them by rubbing over them three table-spoonfuls of a mixture of tar and spirits of wine, when they are just taken out of the pickle.
The following is a mode of makingMutton hams, which some persons are very fond of, though they are too strong for delicate stomachs. Cut a hind quarter of mutton like a ham, and rub it with one ounce of saltpetre, one pound of sugar,and one pound of salt. Lay it in a pan, with the skin downwards for a fortnight, then roll it in bran, and hang it up to dry.
In some places there is no regular larder, but the uncooked meat is kept in a hangingSafein the open air, which is drawn up and down by a pulley. Cooked meat is either kept in a similar safe, in a fixed safe, in a separate room called a dry larder, or on a table in the centre of the common or wet larder; but, in the latter case, every dish should be covered with a wire-cloth cover to keep off the flies. In many places the salting-room is apart from the larder, and this is a great improvement.
TheDairyshould have thick walls, and a brick or stone floor, so contrived that it may be washed with abundance of water every day, and yet have all the water run off by means of a waste-pipe or drain. There should be a kind of shelf of stone or slate round it, about four feet from the ground, and a table of similar materials in the centre, for the convenience of holding the vessels containing the milk and cream; and the window, if there is but one, should look towards the north, and be filled in with wire-cloth, so as to admit the air and yet exclude the flies and other insects. Besides this wirework, the window should also have either a sash frame with ground glass to open inside, or outside shutters, to exclude the sun invery hot weather, and the cold in winter. A thermometer should be kept in every dairy, and the heat should never be allowed to rise above 55°, or to fall below 50°. There should always be a scullery attached to the dairy containing a fireplace and boiler, as the vessels in which milk is kept require to be frequently washed with scalding-hot water to keep the milk sweet, and to prevent the butter and cream from acquiring an unpleasant taste.
Though I do not imagine your knowledge of a dairy to be very great, I suppose you are aware that the milk is drawn from the cow into a can or wooden pail, and brought into the dairy, where it is strained, and then put into shallow vessels or milk-pans, in which it is left for several hours in order that the cream may rise. Cows are generally milked twice a day; the morning's milk being skimmed in the afternoon, when the afternoon's milk is put into pans, or set up as the dairy-maids call it, and the afternoon's milk being skimmed in the morning. The cream, after what is wanted for the table has been taken out, is put into a large wide-mouthed jar or stein, and saved for butter. Cheese is generally made of new milk, which is put at once into the cheese-tub without setting it up in pans. The cheese-tub and cheese-press, the churn and all the apparatus for making butter, generally stand in the dairyscullery, where the operations of cheese and butter making are carried on.
Various kinds of vessels have been recommended for milk, and they have been made of lead, zinc, slate, and other materials. China are the best; but the old-fashioned wooden or earthenware pans appear to be the most general favourites; the only objections being, that wooden pans require a great deal of care to keep them clean, and that the leaden glaze of the earthenware pans is apt to be affected by the acid of the milk, if it should be kept till it becomes sour. No good dairy-maid, however, would ever keep milk in her pans till it became acid: and, if by any chance wooden vessels became tainted by having had in them sour or otherwise spoiled milk, they should be soaked in water in which a large piece of soda has been dissolved; and, if this does not sweeten them, they must be boiled in soda and water, and then immersed in pure cold water for a day or two.
Milk when drawn from the cow is warm, and it should be set up in the dairy before it is quite cold, or theCreamwill not rise properly. Cream for butter may stand twelve hours on the milk, but the cream that rises in two or three hours after the milk is set is considered the richest. In many places the milk is skimmed twice, the second time twelve hours after the first; but the second skimming is considered very inferior to the first.In Devonshire, the dairy-maids set the milk-pans on a hot hearth, in order to raise the rich cream peculiar to that county.
In Scotland,Butteris made by churning the whole of the milk, which is put into the churn as it comes from the cow, and kept there till it is slightly sour before it is churned; but this makes the operation of churning very laborious, and the butter has always a sour taste. In England, butter is made only from the cream, which is not put into the churn till wanted for churning, but is kept previously from three days to a week in a deep earthen vessel, and is stirred every day when fresh cream is put in.
Churns are of two kinds, viz. the plunge-churn, the motion of which is up and down; and the barrel-churn, which turns round, and is considered much the best. Churning is generally performed in the open air in summer, and in the dairy scullery near the fire in winter. If kept too cold, the butter will not "come;" and, if too hot, the butter will be soft, and will soon become rancid.
When the butter has come, as the dairy-maids call it, it is gathered together with the hand or a net, and put into a kind of shallow tub; the buttermilk is then emptied out of the churn, which should be left to drain for half an hour or thereabouts, and be afterwards well washed withscalding water and a little salt. The butter in the mean time is kneaded and worked with the hand, or with two small and very smooth pieces of wood, to get all the buttermilk out of it; and in England water is generally poured over it to assist in this operation, though in Scotland it is said that water spoils the butter. When all the buttermilk is worked out, the butter is slightly salted, and then made up into rolls or lumps with the two pieces of wood. In the South of England, as soon as the butter is made, it is put into water; but in the North it is laid in a dry cool place, and covered over.
When butter is intended for salting, it is not made into rolls, but the salt is worked into it as soon as the buttermilk has been removed. The following composition is recommended as a very good one for salting butter for home use. Take two parts of salt, one part of lump sugar, and one part of saltpetre. Beat them well together, and add one ounce of this composition to every sixteen ounces of butter.
When cows are fed on turnips, an unpleasant taste is given both to the milk and butter; but it may generally be removed in the following manner. Pour a quart of boiling water on two ounces of saltpetre, and, when it is thoroughly dissolved and cold, bottle it for use. If two table-spoonfuls of this mixture be put to every four gallons of milk,as soon as it is brought into the dairy and strained, it is said to take off the unpleasant taste; or a lump of saltpetre about the size of a walnut may be put into the cream-pot and well stirred twice a day, when the fresh cream is added. In winter, butter is sometimes so pale as to look almost like lard, but it may be coloured by a little arnatto, which is sold for that purpose in the grocers' shops; or the juice of carrot scraped and strained through muslin, or that of the flowers of the marigold, may be used. In either case the colouring matter is mixed with the cream before churning.
Cheeseis made by coagulating milk with rennet, and then separating the whey or watery part from the curd, which, when salted, pressed, and dried, becomes cheese. Rennet is the stomach of a calf washed, cleaned, and salted thoroughly inside and out, being left in an earthen jar, with a thick coating of salt on it, for three or four days. It is then taken out of the pickle and hung up to dry, and in many places it is kept in this state till wanted; but in others, after it has become dry, it is resalted and placed again in the jar, which has a bladder or a piece of thick paper pierced with pinholes tied over it, the rennet being kept twelve months in this state before it is used. In London, calves' stomachs and those of lambs, prepared for rennet, are kept in large casks and sold in the oilmen's shops. In whatever way the rennet hasbeen pickled and preserved, it is always soaked in brine made of salt and water or salt and whey, before it is used, and a bunch of sweet herbs is generally put into the brine in which the rennet is soaked, in order to give an agreeable flavour to the cheese. The whole, however, must be strained off clear before it is put to the milk.
Whenever cheese is to be made, the milk must be warmed to about 90° of Fahrenheit, or the rennet will not act. As soon as the curd has set, it is separated from the whey in several different ways, and on the manner in which this is done the kind of cheese produced will principally depend. When aStilton, or any other kind of rich buttery cheese, is to be made, a very strong brine is prepared of salt and cold water, in which is steeped a bundle of sweet herbs, consisting of thyme, hyssop, marjoram, and savory, with a branch of sweet-briar, and a few peppercorns. This is suffered to remain three or four days, after which it is strained off, and the rennet having been put into it and soaked four or five days, is then ready for use. When all is prepared, the morning's new milk, together with the cream from the last night's milking, is put into a narrow, but deep, circular pan, and the liquid rennet put to it.
As soon as the curd is formed, it is very carefully removed from the pan, without breaking it,if possible, and laid on a deep circular sieve, where it is slightly pressed, in order that the whey may drain from it. It is then put into the cheese-vat, which should be ten inches and a half deep, and eight inches and a quarter over, with a moveable hoop of wood on the top, over which a piece of flat board is generally laid. As soon as the cheese has acquired a sufficient consistency, it is removed from the vat and firmly bound round with a clean cloth, which is changed every day, and the cheese bound tighter and tighter, till at last it becomes sufficiently firm to stand alone. Every time the cloth is changed, the cheese is wiped at the top and bottom and turned, so that each end may be equally level. When it has become sufficiently firm to support itself without the cloth, the cheese is removed to the cheese-room; but it still requires to be turned twice a day, and brushed, for about three months.
Single and double Gloucester cheesesare made very differently from Stilton, though the rennet is prepared for both in nearly the same manner, except that some allspice and a little saltpetre are generally added to the brine. In some places the brine is made of whey, in which enough salt is put to make it float an egg; but it is said that cheeses made in this manner are very apt to heave.
The bestsingle Gloucestercheese for toasting is what is called a one-meal cheese; that is to say,it is made entirely of new milk taken fresh from the cow. An inferior kind is called a two-meal cheese, and it is made with the evening's milk after it has been skimmed in the morning, mixed with the morning's new milk. The milk is then warmed, and coloured with a little arnatto, care being taken, however, that none of the solid part of the drug goes into the milk; the usual practice, indeed, is to dip the arnatto in a little milk, and then to rub it on a flat stone or plate. The colouring matter thus produced is washed off into a basinful of milk, which is then allowed to stand and settle, so as to deposit its sediment before it is poured into the cheese-tub. The rennet is then added, and the whole is kept moderately warm (the milk should never sink below 80°) till the curd is come, which is generally in about an hour. The curd is then broken up with a flat piece of wood called a cheese-knife, and the whey is strained from it; the fragments of curd being frequently moved about, to allow the whey to escape from them. Some boiling water is then mixed with a little of the cold whey, and poured quite hot upon the curd, so as to cover it, the curd being stirred briskly about, and afterwards left for half an hour to sink. The liquor is then drained off, and the curd taken up by the hands and carefully squeezed as it is put into the cheese-vat, which is not only filled, but has as muchpiled on the top as it will hold. When this is done, the curd in and on the vat is turned into a cheese-cloth, and the vat is washed with whey. The cloth, with the curd in it, is next placed in the vat, and the ends of the cloth are turned over the top of the curd, and tucked into the vat round the edges. It is then put into the cheese-press, where it remains about three hours, after which it is taken out and the cloth changed, before it is again put into the vat and into the press. In this state it remains three or four hours longer. It is then taken out of the vat and out of the cloth, and rubbed well with salt all over, taking care that the salt touches every part, after which it is put into the vat without a cloth, and replaced in the press. The next morning it is taken out of the press and again salted and turned, and the same operation is repeated in the evening. After this it is suffered to remain five or six days in the press, being taken out every morning and turned, but not salted. It is then removed to the cheese-room, where it is turned every day for ten or twelve days, and frequently scraped and rubbed. In some places, when the cheese is thoroughly dry, the outer rind is painted with a mixture of Spanish brown and Indian pink, rubbed in with the hand. The whey from this cheese produces a great deal of butter; and, indeed, it is generally set up for cream as soon as it comes from the curd.
Thedouble Gloucester cheeseis always made with one meal's milk warm from the cow, and the dairy-maids generally put a lemon, stuck with cloves, into the brine in which they steep their rennet. The cheese-making then proceeds in the same manner as for the single Gloucester, except that, when about half the curd has been put into the vat, an ounce of salt is sprinkled over it before the rest of the curd is put in. The remainder of the operation is the same as for the single Gloucester; the principal difference being in the thickness of the cheese, which, of course, is occasioned by the greater depth of the vat in which the curd is put.
In many parts of Gloucestershire, what is calledSage cheeseis made. For this a couple of handfuls of sage leaves and a handful of parsley are generally put into a portion of the evening's milk, and suffered to remain all night. In the morning the milk is warmed, and, after being strained from the leaves, it is turned to curd with the rennet in the usual way. In the mean time a portion of the morning's milk, into which no colouring matter is put, is turned to curd by rennet; and the curds of both kinds are kept separate through the processes of draining and scalding, till they are ready to be put into the vat, when they are mixed according to the fancy of the dairy-maid. Sometimes the green curd ispressed into a tin or wooden mould, so as to form a dolphin or some other fanciful figure; in which case it is taken carefully out of the mould, and put into the vat without breaking it, and the white curd is crumbled between the fingers and pressed carefully and firmly round it. In other cases the sage and parsley leaves are only bruised, and the juice which is pressed from them is mingled with a portion of the morning's milk; or one portion of the milk is coloured red with the juice of boiled beet-root, another green with the juice from spinach leaves flavoured with sage, and another yellow with the bruised petals of the marigold. Portions of milk are coloured with these different substances and coagulated separately, the curd being varied when putting into the vat, according to the fancy of the dairy-maid. In other cases the whole of the milk is coloured and flavoured with sage.
Cheshire cheesesare generally very large, most of those made in spring being one hundredweight each. The rennet for a Cheshire cheese is not considered fit for use till it is three years old. It is soaked in warm water the night before it is wanted, and in the morning the liquor is considered ready without any further preparation. The evening's milk is set up for cream in the usual way, and in the morning the cream is taken off and put into a brass bowl made hot by rinsingit with boiling water. A third part of the skimmed milk is then put into another brass bowl, warmed in the same manner; and the two are put into the cheese-tub, and mixed with the morning's milk warm from the cow. The whole is coloured with the juice of scraped carrots, or of the bruised flowers of the marigold. The liquor from the rennet is then added, and, being well stirred in, the tub is closely covered and kept in a warm temperature till the coagulation is complete, which is generally in little more than half an hour.
As soon as the curd is well set, it is divided and turned over with a bowl to separate it from the whey; after which it is broken into small pieces by the hand, and suffered to settle down, while the whey, which swims at the top, is poured off. The curd is pressed on one side of the tub with a loose board, and the whey that runs from it is again poured off. The curd is then drawn into the centre of the tub, and formed into a heap, and the board is laid on the top and heavy weights placed on it, generally amounting to a hundred pounds. This presses the curd into a solid mass, and squeezes out an additional quantity of whey.
The mass of curd is then cut into slices, and boards and weights put upon each slice. This is repeated several times, till not a drop more whey will run from the curd; after which it is removedto a dry tub, and crumbled with the fingers as small as possible. It is then well salted, and put into a cheese-vat made warm by being scalded with boiling water, and heaped up as high as it will go, the additional curd being kept in its place by a movable tin hoop. A flat board is then laid across the top to press down the curd, which generally rises to a point in the centre of the vat, and the heavy weights are again put on it. At the same time wooden skewers are run into the cheese, in order that every particle of whey may be drawn out of it.
After standing some time, the cheese is taken out of the vat, and laid on a large cheese-cloth, and the curd again broken from the top down the centre, and more salt mixed with it; after which it is pressed into the vat by the hand as before, and weights are again put upon it, while skewers are run through holes purposely left in the vat, into the sides of the cheese, as before. Another vat having been scalded by being rinsed with boiling water, the cheese is wrapped in a cloth and put into it; the ends of the cloth being folded over the cheese as tightly as possible, and tucked inside the vat, where they are kept down by a tin hoop called a binder, which is forced in between the cheese and the upper part of the vat. The cheese is then put into the press under a pressure of about a ton weight, and a number of thin ironskewers are passed through the holes in the vat into the sides of the cheese. After four hours it is turned, and the skewers removed to fresh places, when the cheese is put into the press for another four hours; after which, the process is repeated. It is then put into the press, and left there all night; the following morning it is again turned, and put into the press without the skewers. It remains in the press for four or five days, being regularly turned every morning and evening; and it is taken from the press into the cheese-room, where it is salted on the outside, and tightly bound with a linen cloth. It is kept in this state and turned twice a day for a week; after which it is put on the shelves to dry for a fortnight or three weeks, during which period it must be turned and wiped every day. Lastly, it is then laid on straw, and kept rather warm, lest the rind should crack; and, when the rind begins to feel hard, its surface is rubbed over with butter, and the cheese is ready for the market. It is rather singular that, notwithstanding the pains taken to drain every drop of whey from the Cheshire cheese, its whey yields no butter, and is seldom made any use of except for feeding pigs.
Cheddar cheeseis made like Cheshire, except that when the cheese is broken down to be resalted, before it is put in the cheese-press, the curd is crumbled, and four or five pounds of freshbutter are mixed with it. The cheese is then put in a cloth into the vat, and placed under the great press, where it remains only about a quarter of an hour, before it is turned and put into a clean cloth: this process is repeated three or four times; after which the cheese is wrapped in a very fine cloth, and has three or four other cloths wrapped round it. It is then put into the press, and remains there for forty-eight hours; after which it is taken from the press, washed in whey, and then laid on a shelf upon a clean cloth to dry. It is afterwards laid on a shelf without any cloth, and turned every day till it begins to ripen.
TheWiltshire cheesesare of four kinds: the thin, the thick, the loaf cheese, and the pine-apple, or net, cheese. The first two kinds are made nearly the same as the Gloucester cheeses; for which, indeed, they are frequently sold in the London markets. The principal difference in the manufacture consists in the curd, before it is scalded, being cut into dice of about an inch square each, and a thick layer of salt being thrown over them, which is said to harden the surface of the curd, and to prevent its buttery particles being washed away by the hot water. The curd is also put into the vat while it is as hot as the dairy-maid can handle it; and salt is strewed in between every layer. In all other respects, the manufacture of the cheese is exactly the same as inGloucestershire till it is ready to be carried to the cheese-room, where it is either laid upon elder leaves or the shelves are washed over with their juice, in order to prevent the devastations of mites. The loaf cheeses are made the same as the others; but their vats are from ten inches to a foot in diameter, and six inches deep; and, when the curd is put into the vat, it is in four layers, with alternate thin layers of salt. These are what are generally sold in London as Wiltshire cheeses. The curd for the pine-apple cheese is prepared in the same way as the others; but, instead of being put into a vat and then into the cheese-press, it is put into a net with no other pressure than from the hand of the dairy-maid; who, however, prides herself on getting as much into the net as it can possibly hold. The net is then hung up in the cheese-room, and requires no further care.
I shall now give you only one more receipt for making keeping-cheeses, and that shall be for the far-famedParmesan. This celebrated cheese is made with skim-milk. The night's milking is skimmed in the morning, and the morning's milk is skimmed about two o'clock in the afternoon: the two are then mixed together and put into a large copper kettle, suspended over a fire by a crane. The milk is stirred till it has reached 125° of Fahrenheit. The kettle is now turned from the fire, between which and it a woodenscreen is placed; and, when the bubbling of the milk has subsided, a piece of rennet, tied in a linen rag, is put into the milk, and squeezed several times in different places. The rennet is then taken out, and the milk well stirred; after which it is left till the curd has formed, which is generally in about three quarters of an hour. As soon as this is the case the kettle is again turned on the fire, and the mass of curd is heated to 150°, being well stirred and divided while it is heating. A fourth part of the whey is now taken out of the kettle, and the curd is heated to 180°, stirring it rapidly all the time; and a few pinches of powdered saffron are thrown in, which not only colour it, but give that peculiar flavour always perceptible in Parmesan cheese. The cheese-maker (for as Parmesan cheese is always made by a man, I must not say the dairy-maid) then takes a small quantity of the curd in his hand, and squeezes it; when, if he finds it adhere together, the kettle is instantly turned off the fire, the wooden screen is again interposed, and the curd is left to settle. The whey which rises is immediately poured off, and two or three pailfuls of cold water are thrown over the curd. The cheese-maker immediately plunges his arms into the kettle, and, gathering the curd to one side, contrives to slip the whole mass into a large cloth, which is raised as rapidly as possible, and transferredto a mould without a bottom. This is an operation which requires both strength and skill; for the cheese hardens so rapidly, that it requires the greatest exertions to get it into the mould without spoiling its shape. By its own power of contraction it presses out every drop of whey. An iron plate, with a slight weight on it, is laid on the top to keep it flat; but, by the time it is cold, it is become so hard as to require no further pressure. It is then taken out of the mould, and a thick layer of salt put on its upper surface. The next day the cheese is turned, and the under surface salted in the same manner. In this way the cheese is turned and salted every day for thirty or forty days, till the salt will no longer dissolve. The rind of the cheese is then scraped, and, after a little colouring matter has been rubbed over it, it is covered with linseed oil.
I will now say a few words onCream cheeses, and then, I think, you will have had quite enough of this subject.
AYork cream cheeseis made by taking a quart of new milk warm from the cow, into which is sometimes put half a pint of cream, and adding to it two spoonfuls of the water in which a piece of rennet has been steeped all night. The milk is then set before the fire till the curd is formed, when it should be taken up without breaking, if possible, and put into a frame made of oak wood,seven inches long within, four inches wide, and three inches and a half deep. This frame being open at the top and bottom, it must be placed upon rushes to permit the whey to run out; to encourage which, a board must be put within the frame to support a weight to press down the curd, between which and the curd some rushes must be put. After standing two days, the rushes must be renewed, when the cheese should be taken from the vat and turned as often as necessary. This will make an excellent cream cheese without the cream; and, indeed, the York cheeses sold in the shops are always made of milk only, without any cream. The rushes should be sewed together with thread.