MINCED OYSTERS.--Take fifty fine large oysters, and mince them raw.
Chop also four or five small pickled cucumbers, and a bunch of
parsley. Grate about two tea-cupfuls of stale bread-crumbs, and beat
up the yolks of four eggs. Mix the whole together in a thick batter,
seasoning it with cayenne and powdered mace; and with a little salt
if the oysters are fresh. Have ready a pound of lard, and melt in the
frying-pan enough of it to fry the oysters well. If the lard is in
too small a quantity they will be flat and tough. When the lard is
boiling hot in the pan, put in about a table-spoonful at a time of the
oyster-mixture, and fry it in the form of small fritters; turning them
so as to brown on both sides. Serve them up hot, and eat them with
small bread rolls.
STEWED BLACK FISH.--Flour a deep dish, and lay in the bottom a piece
of butter rolled in flour. Then sprinkle it with a mixture of parsley,
sweet marjoram, and green onion; all chopped fine. Take your black fish
and rub it inside and outside with a mixture of cayenne, salt, and
powdered cloves and mace. Place skewers across the dish, and lay the
fish upon them. Then pour in a little wine, and sufficient water to
stew the fish. Set the dish in a moderate oven, and let it cook slowly
for an hour.
Shad or rock fish may be dressed in the same manner.
FRIED SMELTS.--These little fish are considered extremely fine. Before
they are cooked, cut off the heads and tails. Sprinkle the smelts with
flour, and have ready in a frying pan over the fire plenty of fresh
lard or butter. When it boils, put in the fish and fry them.
BROILED SWEETBREADS.--Split open and skewer the sweetbreads; season
them with pepper and salt, and with powdered mace. Broil them on a
gridiron till thoroughly done. While they are broiling, prepare some
melted butter seasoned with mace and a little white wine, or mushroom
catchup; and have ready some toast with the crust cut off. Lay the
toast in the bottom of a dish; place the sweetbreads upon it, and pour
over them the drawn butter.
PICKLED EGGS.--Boil twelve eggs quite hard, and lay them in cold water;
having peeled off the shells. Then put them whole into a stone jar,
with a quarter of an ounce of whole mace, and the same quantity of
cloves; a sliced nutmeg; a table-spoonful of whole pepper; a small bit
of ginger; and a peach leaf. Fill up the jar with boiling vinegar;
cover it closely that the eggs may cool slowly. When they are cold, tie
up the jar; covering the cork with leather. After it has stood three
days pour off the pickle, boil it up again, and return it boiling hot
to the eggs and spice. They will be fit for use in a fortnight.
GUMBO SOUP.--Take four pounds of the lean of a fresh round of beef and
cut the meat into small pieces, avoiding carefully all the fat. Season
the meat with a little pepper and salt, and put it on to boil with
three quarts and a pint of water (not more.) Boil it slowly and skim
it well. When no more scum rises, put in half a peck of ochras, peeled
and sliced, and half a peck of tomatas cut in quarters. Boil it slowly
till the ochras and tomatas are entirely dissolved, and the meat all
to rags. Then strain it through a cullender, and send it to table with
slices of dry toast. This soup cannot be made in less than seven or
eight hours. If you dine at two you must put on the meat to boil at six
or seven in the morning. It should be as thick as a jelly.
SHREWSBURY CAKES.--Rub three quarters of a pound of butter into two
pounds of sifted flour, and mix in half a pound of powdered sugar,
and half a pound of currants, washed and dried. Wet it to a stiff
paste with rich milk. Roll it out, and cut it into cakes. Lay them on
buttered baking sheets, and put them into a moderate oven.
RICE FLUMMERY.--To two quarts of milk allow half a pound of ground
rice. Take out one pint of the milk, and mix the rice gradually with
it into a batter; making it quite smooth and free from lumps. Put the
three pints of milk into a skillet, (with a bunch of peach leaves or
a few peach-kernels,) and let it come to a boil. Then while it is
still boiling, stir in by degrees the rice batter, taking care not to
have it lumpy; add sugar, mace, and rose brandy to your taste; or you
may flavour it with the juice of a large lemon. When it has boiled
sufficiently, and is quite thick, strain it, and put it into a mould to
congeal. Make a rich boiled custard, (flavoured in the same manner,)
and send it to table in a pitcher, to eat with the flummery. Both
should be cold. If you mould it in tea-cups, turn it out on a deep
dish, and pour the custard round it.
APPLE BUTTER WITHOUT CIDER--Mix together ten gallons of water, and ten
gallons of the best West India molasses. Put it into a large kettle
over a good fire; let it come to a hard boil, and skim it as long as
any scum continues to rise. Then take out half the liquid, and put
it into a tub. Have ready eight bushels of fine sound apples, pared,
cored and quartered. Throw them gradually into the liquid that is
still boiling on the fire. Let it continue to boil hard, and as it
thickens, add by degrees the other half of the molasses and water,
(that which has been put into the tub.) Stir it frequently to prevent
its scorching, and to make it of equal consistence throughout. Boil it
ten or twelve hours, continuing to stir it. At night take it out of the
kettle, and set it in tubs to cool; covering it carefully. Wash out the
kettle and wipe it very dry.
Next morning boil the apple butter six or eight hours longer; it should
boil eighteen hours altogether. Then an hour before you take it finally
out, stir in a pound of mixed spice cloves, mace, cinnamon, and nutmeg,
all finely powdered. When entirely done, put up the apple butter in
stone or earthen jars. It will keep a year or more.
It can, of course, be made in a smaller quantity than that given in
the above receipt; and also at any time in the winter; fresh cider not
being an ingredient, as in the most usual way of making apple butter.
AN APPLE POT PIE.--Make a paste, allowing a pound of butter, or of
chopped suet to two pounds and a quarter of flour. Have ready a
sufficient quantity of fine juicy acid apples, pared, cored, and
sliced. Mix with them brown sugar enough to sweeten them, a few cloves,
and some slips of lemon-peel. Butter the sides of an iron pot, and line
them with paste. Then put in the apples, interspersing them with thin
squares of paste, and add a very little water. Cover the whole with
a thick lid of paste, cutting a slit in the centre for the water to
bubble up, and let it boil two hours. When done, serve it up on a large
dish, and eat it with butter and sugar.
PUDDING CATCHUP.--Mix together half a pint of noyau; a pint of sherry
or other white wine; the yellow peel of four lemons, pared thin; and
half an ounce of mace. Put the whole into a large bottle, and let it
stand for two or three weeks. Then strain it, and add half a pint of
capillaire or strong sugar syrup; or of Curaçoa. Bottle it, and it will
keep two or three years. It may be used for various sweet dishes, but
chiefly for pudding-sauce mixed with melted butter.
CURAÇOA.--Grate as much fresh orange-peel as will make two ounces when
done; the peel of fresh shaddock will be still better. Mix it with a
pint of orange juice. Put it into a quart of the strongest and clearest
rectified spirit; shake it, let it infuse for a fortnight, and strain
it. Then make a syrup by dissolving a pound of the best loaf-sugar in
a pint of cold water, adding to it the beaten white of an egg, and
boiling and skimming it till the scum ceases to rise. Mix the syrup
with the strained liquor. Let it stand till next day, and then filter
it through white blotting paper fastened to the bottom of a sieve.
Curaçoa is a great improvement to punch; also a table-spoonful of it in
a tumbler of water makes a very refreshing summer drink.
PATENT YEAST.--Boil half a pound of fresh hops in four quarts of
water, till the liquid is reduced to two quarts. Strain it, and mix
in sufficient wheat flour to make a thin batter; adding half a pint of
strong fresh yeast, (brewer's yeast, if it can be procured.) When it is
done fermenting, pour it into a pan, and stir in sufficient Indian meal
to make a moderately stiff dough. Cover it, and set it in a warm place
to rise. When it has become very light, roll it out into a thick sheet,
and cut it into little cakes. Spread them out on a dish, and let them
dry gradually in a cool place where there is no sun. Turn them five or
six times a day while drying; and when they are quite dry, put them
into paper bags, and keep them in a jar or box closely covered, in a
place that is not in the least damp.
When you want the yeast for use, dissolve in a little warm water one or
more of the cakes, (in proportion to the quantity of bread you intend
making,) and when it is quite dissolved, stir it hard, thicken it with
a little flour, cover it, and place it near the fire to rise before you
use it. Then mix it with the flour in the usual manner of preparing
bread.
This is a very convenient way of preserving yeast through the summer,
or of conveying it to a distance.
TO DRY HERBS.--By drying herbs with artificial heat as quickly as
possible, you preserve their scent and flavour much better than when
they are dried slowly by exposing them to the sun and air; a process
by which a large portion of their strength evaporates. All sorts of
herbs are in the greatest perfection just before they begin to flower.
Gather them on a dry day, and place them in an oven, which must not be
hot enough to discolour, scorch, or burn them. When they are quite dry,
take them out, and replace them with others. Pick the leaves from the
stems, (which may be thrown away,) and put them into bottles or jars;
cork them tightly, and keep them in a dry place. Those that are used
in cookery should be kept in a kitchen closet.
PEACH KERNELS.--When peaches are in season, have in a convenient place
an old basket or something of the sort, in which all the peach stones
can be saved; they are too useful to be thrown away. Then have them
carefully cracked, so as to extract the kernels whole if possible.
Spread them out on a dish for one day. Then put them into a box or jar,
and keep them to use as bitter almonds; for which they are an excellent
substitute in flavouring custards, creams and cakes. Plum stones are
worth saving in the same manner.
LEMON-PEEL.--Never throw away the rind of a lemon. Keep a wide-mouthed
bottle half full of brandy, and put into it (cut in pieces) all the
lemon-rind that you do not immediately want. As the white part of the
rind is of no use, it will be best to pare off the yellow very thin,
and put that alone into the brandy, which will thus imbibe a very fine
lemon flavour, and may be used for many nice purposes.
TO KEEP TOMATAS.--Take fine ripe tomatas, and wipe them dry, taking
care not to break the skin. Put them into a stone jar with cold
vinegar, adding a small thin muslin bag filled with mace, whole cloves,
and whole peppers. Then cork the jar tightly with a cork that has been
dipped in melted rosin, and put it away in a dry place. Tomatas pickled
in this manner keep perfectly well and retain their colour. For this
purpose use the small round button tomatas.
Morella cherries may be pickled thus, in cold vinegar.