The English Housekeeper/Chapter 20
Practice, which, generally speaking, is every thing in cooking, will not ensure success in making puddings, unless the ingredients be good.
For pudding crust, nothing is so good as veal suet finely shred, though beef suet and beef marrow make light crust. Fresh dripping is also very good. Lard is not so good, for either meat or fruit puddings. Meat puddings (or dumplings, as they are called, in some of the counties in England) are generally liked, and are, either in crust or in batter, an economical dish, when made of the trimmings of beef or mutton, or the coarser parts of meat, which, though very good, would not so well admit of any other species of cooking. The meat should be quite fresh, and a due mixture of fat and lean. A piece of kidney, cut in bits, will enrich the gravy of beef steak or hare pudding. The crust for these puddings should be less rich, and thicker than for fruit puddings. Puddings will not be light unless the flour be fresh, and dried before the fire.
The number of eggs must be regulated by their size, for a small egg is but half a large one. Break them separately into a tea-cup, and put them into the basin one by one; by this means you ascertain their freshness before you mix them together, for if one be the least stale, it will spoil any number with which it may be mixed. Beat them well, the two parts separately, and strain them to the other ingredients.
Butter, whether salt or fresh, should be perfectly sweet; and milk or cream, if only a little upon the turn, will render of no avail all the labour that has been bestowed upon either pudding or custard.
Let all seasoning spices be finely pounded; currants washed, rubbed dry, carefully picked, and laid on a sieve before the fire to plump; almonds must be blanched, namely, covered with hot water, and then peeled.
Puddings of both meat and fruit may be boiled in a mould or bason, but they are lighter in a cloth; but then the crust must be thicker, for if it break, the gravy or juice will be lost. Spread the cloth in a cullender, or bason, flour it, lay in the crust, then the fruit or meat, put on the top, and pinch the edges firmly together, but do not let them be so thick as to form a heavy lump at the bottom, when the pudding is turned out.
Pudding cloths should not be washed with soap, but boiled in wood ashes, rinsed in clear water, dried, and put by in a drawer. When about to use it, dip the cloth in boiling water, squeeze dry, and dredge it with flour. Do not put a pudding in the pot till the water boils fast, and let there be plenty of it; move the pudding from time to time for the first ten minutes; and, as the water diminishes, put in more, boiling hot. The water should boil slowly, and never for a minute cease to boil during the time the pudding is in. When you take it out of the pot, dip the pudding into cold water for an instant, and set it in a bowl or cullender, for two or three minutes; this will cause it to turn more easily out of the cloth.
A pudding in which there is much bread should be tied up loosely, to allow it to swell. A batter pudding tied tight. Batter requires long beating; mix the milk and eggs by degrees into the flour, to avoid making it lumpy; this will be the case sometimes, and then the batter may be strained; but such waste may be avoided, by care in mixing at first. Tie meat puddings up tight.
More care is necessary in baking than in boiling puddings. They should not be scorched in a too hot, nor made sodden, in a too cool oven.
It is an improvement to puddings, custards, and cakes, to flavour them with orange flower, or rose water, or any of the perfumed distilled waters.
Shred ½ lb. suet and rub it into 1¼ lb. flour, sprinkle a little salt, and wet it into a stiff paste with cold water; then beat it a few minutes with a rolling pin. Clarified dripping is not so good, but more economical.
The more tender the steak, the better, of course, the pudding. Cut it into pieces half the size of your hand, season with salt, pepper, and grated nutmeg. Spread a thin crust in a buttered bason, or mould; or a thicker one in a cloth: put the meat in, and a little water, also a wine-glassful of walnut, the same of oyster catsup, or 6 oysters, and a table-spoonful of lemon pickle; cover it with the top crust, fasten the edges firmly, and tie it up tightly. Finely minced onion may be added. A piece of kidney will enrich the gravy. A beef pudding of 2 lbs. of meat ought to boil gently four hours.
Hare, rabbit, and chicken, make good puddings, the same as beef; slices of ham or bacon are an improvement to the two latter. Boil hare pudding as long as beef. Dumplings.—Chop beef small, season well, and put it into dumplings, the same as apple dumplings, and boil one hour.—Sausage meat, or whole sausages, skinned, may be boiled in paste, and are very good.
Chop 6 oz. suet very fine, put it into a basin with 6 oz. flour, 2 oz. bread-crumbs, and a tea-spoonful of salt, stir well together, and pour in, by degrees, enough milk, or milk and water, to make it into a light pudding; put it into a floured cloth, and boil two hours. For dumplings, mix the above stiffer, make it into 6 dumplings, and tie them separately in a cloth; boil them one hour. 1 or 2 eggs are an improvement. 6 oz. of currants to the above quantity, make currant dumplings.
Cut the meat into chops or steaks, put them in a deep dish, season with pepper and salt, and fill up the dish with a batter, made of three eggs, and 4 large table-spoonsful of flour, to a pint of milk; then bake it.—Or: bake the meat whole, and if a large piece, let it be in the oven half an hour before you pour in the batter, or else they will be cooked unequally.
Split and soak 1 or 2 ox kidneys, and season well; line a bason or cloth with a crust, put them in, and boil it two hours and a half; rather less, if in a cloth.
Pound some slices of whiting in a mortar, with ¼ lb. butter; soak slices of 2 French rolls in cold milk, beat them up with pepper and salt, and mix with the fish. Boil this, in a buttered bason, about an hour and a half. Serve melted butter.—Mackerel is made into puddings; for this follow the directions for beef steak pudding.
They are made of hog's blood. Salt, strain, and boil it very slowly, or it will curdle, with a little milk or broth, pepper, salt, and minced onion; stir in, by degrees, some dried oatmeal and sliced suet; add what savoury herbs you like, fill the skins, and boil them. Some put in whole rice or grits (parboiled), in place of oatmeal.
Mix ½ lb. almonds blanched and cut in pieces, with 1 lb. grated bread, 2 lbs. beef or mutton suet, 1 lb. currants, some cinnamon and mace, a pint of cream, the yolks of 5 and whites of 2 eggs, some Lisbon sugar, lemon peel, and citron sliced, and a little orange-flower water. Fill the skins rather more than half, and boil in milk and water.
Make a paste in the proportion of 4 oz. suet, or 2 oz. butter, lard, or dripping, to 8 oz. flour, and a little salt. Some use an egg or two, others cold water only, but it should be a stiff paste. Line a mould, bason, or cloth, with this paste, rolled smooth, put in the apples, pared, cored, and sliced; sweeten with brown sugar, and flavour with cloves, cinnamon, or lemon peel, as you like. Some persons put in 3 or 4 cloves, or a small piece of cinnamon, also lemon peel.
The same as the last, and is delicious. Let the crust be delicate, and use white powdered sugar.
Roll out a paste as directed for apple pudding, spread jam or any other preserve you like on it, roll it over, tie it in a cloth, and boil it.—A very nice mixture to spread over paste in place of preserves, is composed of apples, currants, and a very little of mace, cinnamon, and sugar. Another Jam Pudding: line a bason with a thin paste, spread a layer of preserve at the bottom, then a thin paste to cover it, then a layer of preserve, and so on, till the bason is filled, cover with paste, pinch it round the edges, and boil it.
Peel large apples, divide them, take out the cores, then close them again, first putting 1 clove in each. Roll out thin paste, cut it into as many pieces as you have apples, and fold each one neatly up; close the paste safely. Tie up each dumpling separately, very tight, and boil them an hour. When you take them up, dip each one into cold water, stand it in a bason two or three minutes, and it will turn more easily out of the cloth.
Green currants, ripe currants, and raspberries, gooseberries, cherries, damsons, and all the various sorts of plums, are made into puddings, the same as apple pudding.
For this national compound there are many receipts, and rich plum puddings are all very much alike, but the following receipts are very good:—To 6 oz. finely shred beef suet, add 2 oz. flour, 4 oz. stoned raisins, 4 oz. well picked and plumped currants, pounded allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar to taste, and a tea-spoonsful of salt; mix these ingredients well, and wet them with 3 eggs well beaten, and as much milk as is required to mix it into a rather stiff pudding. You may add a wine-glassful of brandy, or 2 of sweet white wine; indeed, brandy is rarely omitted; some prefer the flavour of orange flower or rose-water. This pudding may be made richer by the addition of 1 oz. candied lemon peel, and ½ oz. citron. It should boil at least four hours.—Or: ½ lb. of slices of stale bread, pour ½ pint of boiling milk over, and cover close for fifteen or twenty minutes; beat this up with ½ lb. suet, ½ lb. raisins, and the same of currants, all chopped fine; add 2 table-spoonsful of flour, 3 eggs, a little salt, and as much milk as is required. This may be either boiled or baked.—Or: to ¾ lb. currants, ¾ lb. raisins, and ½ lb. suet, add ½ lb. bread-crumbs, 6 eggs, a wine-glassful of brandy, ½ a tea-cupful of fine sugar, ½ a nutmeg grated, and as much candied orange or lemon peel as you like: mix well, and boil three hours. No other liquid is required.
To 1 lb. suet add 1 lb. flour, 1 lb. raisins, 1 lb. currants (chopped fine), 4 oz. bread-crumbs, 2 table-spoonsful sugar, 1 of grated lemon peel, a blade of mace, ½ a nutmeg, a tea-spoonful of ginger, and 6 eggs well beaten. Mix well and boil five hours.
Pour a quart of boiling milk over a large breakfast-cupful of stale crumbs, and cover a plate over. Shred ½ lb. fresh marrow, mix with it 2 oz. raisins, 2 oz. currants, and beat them up with the soaked bread; sweeten to your taste, add a tea-spoonful of cinnamon powder, and a very little nutmeg. Lay a puff paste round the edge of a shallow pudding dish, and pour the pudding in. Bake from twenty-five minutes to half an hour. You may add lemon peel, a wine-glassful of brandy, some almonds blanched and slit; also candied citron and lemon peel.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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, or bake 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 Pudding is 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 Fruit is 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.
This is batter, the same as the last receipt, baked, and eaten 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 of buttermilk, 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.
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. Currants or raisins are an improvement.
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.
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.
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.
Rub 2 dessert-spoonsful of arrow root quite smooth in a little cold milk, pour upon it by degrees, stirring all the time, 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.
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 as soujie, semolina, and golden polenta, which may be dressed in the same way.
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.
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.
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 call hommony is made of the cracked corn: and if so, it must be something of the same kind as our peas-pudding, but not boiled in a cloth.
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 slices thick and brown them on a gridiron.
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 puddings are 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 peel and 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.
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.
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.
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.
Line a mould, first with raisins stoned, or with dried cherries, 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 be turned 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.
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 slices of 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.
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 called Amber 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.
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.
(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.
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.
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.
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 little lard may be rubbed into the flour.
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.
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.
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.
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 orange peel.—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.
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.
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.