carrots, 2 ounces butter; stew gently till soft; then add 4 quarts seasoned gravy soup, made of roast beef bones, stew 4 or 5 hours, and skim.
Rice Soup.—Boil scrag end of neck veal in 4 quarts water, with 1 lb. lean ham, skim well and season, after boiling down one-half strain it, add 1 lb. rice which boil till tender.
Soup for Invalids.—Cut small 1 lb. mutton or beef, stew gently in 2 quarts water, skim well, when reduced to a pint add salt, and take tea cup full at a time.
PUDDINGS.
Apple Pudding.—Put in a deep pan or dish a layer of apples, pared and cut up, then a layer of bread crumbs, then apples again and bread alternately until the dish is full, adding sugar, and interspersing with pieces of butter, and seasoning with spice. Bake about an hour. Good with cream or without.
Rice Pudding.—6 ounces rice boiled in 1 quart milk till tender, stirring it often, add tea-cup sugar, half cup butter, 3 eggs well beat, season and stir till quite smooth. Bake in buttered dish about an hour. Add an egg more and 1 pint milk, if you wish it like custard.
Boil the above if preferred, adding fruit to suit taste, and serve with butter and sugar.
Sweet Potatoe.—Boil and mash them smooth, to 2 cups full add 1 cup sugar, 1 of butter, 5 eggs, 1 nutmeg, lemon rind, and bake with under crust.
Plain Bread Pudding.—Pour quart boiling milk on 4 oz. bread crumbs, cover till cold, then add 3 beat eggs, tea-cup sugar, lemon peel, cinnamon, bake in buttered dish, and serve with sweet sauce.
Custard Pudding.—1 table-spoon flour, 1 pint cream or new milk, 3 eggs, rose water, ounce butter, loaf sugar and nutmeg, and bake in buttered dish half an hour.
Damson Pudding.—Make a batter of 3 eggs, pint milk, 4 large spoons flour, 4 do. sugar, stone a pint of damsons, mix in batter, and boil hour and half.
Plum Pudding.—Chop half pound suet, stone half pound raisins, wash half pound currants, 4 ounces each of bread and flour, 4 eggs well beat, a little cinnamon, mace and nutmeg, spoonful salt, 4 ounces sugar, an ounce each of citron and candied lemon. Beat egg and spices well together, then add milk and other ingredients by degrees, flour a fine linen cloth, pour in the batter, and in tieing allow room to swell. Boil in six quarts water 6 or 7 hours, filling up with hot water as it boils away. Mix an hour or two before cooking.
BREAD.
Bread making is an art, the importance of which is too frequently overlooked or underrated. Heavy, sour, hard bread should never be tolerated, because good bread is more palatable, more healthy, and it should be borne in mind, is really much less expensive. There is great saving in baking bread at home, and this saving is greatest when flour is cheapest.
Good flour and good yeast are requisites, but the goodness of the bread depends much on the kneading: the more the dough is turned and pressed and worked the lighter and better the bread will be.
Proportions.—2 gallons flour, half pint strong fresh yeast, if home-made add more.
The Process.—Make a hole in the flour, in which pour the yeast mixed with half a pint warm water. Stir in the flour round the edge of this liquid with a spoon to form a thin batter. After stirring it well for two minutes, sprinkle a handful of flour over the top of this batter, lay a warm cloth over it, and set it to rise in a warm place. When it rises so as to crack on the top add four spoonfuls fine salt, and begin to form the mass into dough, pouring as much soft, lukewarm water as is necessary to make the flour mix with the batter. When the flour and batter are thoroughly mixed, knead and work the whole till it is light and stiff. Roll into a lump, sprinkle dry flour over it, cover and put in a warm place when in half an hour. It will rise enough for baking.
The quality depends much on the time of putting the dough in the oven. Dough readily runs into three stages of fermentation. It should be put in the oven during the first or saccharine, when if sufficiently baked it will be sweet and wholesome. It afterwards becomes sour and heavy. If put in too soon, it will be light and as tasteless as saw dust.
Good bread is marked by fine pores and a sort of net work of uniform appearance.
Keep bread wrapped in a coarse towel, and where it will not dry up, or in a tight box.
If sour, from being mixed over night, melt a tea-spoon of pearl ash in a little milk-warm water, sprinkle it over the dough, and in half an hour knead it again.
Frozen dough is spoiled.
Indian is a good addition to wheat, and requires more water, or make mush of it and then mix in.
The bitterness of yeast may be remedied by pulling in a little charcoal and then straining it.
Rye and Indian Bread.—Mix 2 quarts of each with 3 pints boiling milk, table-spoon salt, and stir well. Let it stand till lukewarm, then stir in half pint good yeast. Knead to a stiff dough and put to rise near the fire. When the top is cracked over, make into two loaves and bake moderate two and half hours.
Common Yeast.—Boil large handful hops in two quarts water 20 minutes. Strain and pour the liquid into 3 pints flour. Stir in half pint strong yeast. Its strength is increased by 5 tea-spoons brown sugar or 5 large spoons molasses. Cork the bottles loose till next day, and then tight.
If turning sour put tea-spoon pearl ash in each bottle.
Another.—Boil, peel and mash mealy potatoes, which reduce with water or ale thin as common yeast. To every pound add 2 ounces coarse sugar, and when just warm stir in two spoons of yeast. Keep warm till fermentation is over and in 24 hours fit for use. Let sponge eight hours before baking.
CAKES,
Should be used sparingly.
In making cakes dry the flour before a fire, sift and weigh it. Wash and dry currants, stone raisins, pound sugar, roll it fine and sift. Dry spices first, then pound and sift. Pour hot water over almonds to remove the skin, then throw them in cold water. Pare lemon and orange peel, and then pound with a little sugar. Wash butter in cold water. The yolk and white of eggs should be separated and beaten the last thing.
Sponge Cake.—1 lb. pulverized loaf sugar, 9 eggs, 12 ounces flour. Beat eggs half an hour, then beat eggs and sugar together to a foam. Stir in the flour lightly, add a little nutmeg and cinnamon. Bake half an hour in tins buttered and filled only half full. If a single cake, bake an hour. A hot oven, but not so hot as to scorch.
Another.—1 lb. flour, three quarters pound pulverized loaf sugar, 7 eggs, grated peel and juice of a lemon, a table-spoon rose water. Beat all an hour, butter a tin, line it with paper also buttered, sift sugar over top, and bake an hour.
Seed Cake.—1 lb. flour, 12 oz. fine sugar well beat with 7 eggs, 1 oz. pounded caraway seeds, two large spoons sour cream and tea-spoon pearl ash. Bake if one cake an hour, in small tins 15 minutes.
Macaroons.—Beat the white of 8 eggs to froth, add 2 lbs. fine loaf sugar, 1 lb. blanched almonds pounded to paste, with rose water. Beat all to thick paste. Place drops on a buttered tin far enough apart to spread. Bake 10 minutes in a moderate oven.
Rice batter Cakes.—Boil rice soft and thin it with quart milk, add 3 eggs, salt, and sweeten or not as preferred. Bake same as buckwheat cakes or in tins.
Rice Cake.—Beat 8 yolks and 4 whites of eggs, add 6 oz. pounded sugar, and lemon peel grated. Stir in
