juice.
Wash the sago. Soak it for 4 hours. Strain off the water. Add to the
strainings enough water or the juice from stewed fruit to make 1-1/2 pints
liquid. Sweeten if necessary, but if the juice from stewed fruit is used
it will probably be sweet enough. This dish is spoiled if made too sweet.
Put the sago and 1-1/2 pints liquid into a saucepan and stew for 20
minutes. Now add the stewed fruit which you deprived of its juice, stir
well, pour into a wet mould, and serve cold. Made with water only, and
flavoured with a very little sugar and lemon peel, it may be served with
stewed fruit.
28. SUMMER PUDDING.
Put a layer of sponge cake at the bottom of a glass dish. Cut up a tinned
pine-apple (get the pine-apple chunks if possible) and fill dish, first
pouring a little of the juice over the cake. Melt a very little agar-agar
in the rest of the juice. (Allow half the 1/4 oz. to a pint of juice.)
Pour over the mixture. Serve when cold.
29. TREACLE PUDDING.
Line a pudding-basin with short crust. Mix together in another basin some
good cane golden syrup, enough bread-crumbs to thicken it, and some grated
lemon rind. Put a layer of this mixture at the bottom of the
pudding-basin, cover with a layer of pastry, follow with a layer of the
mixture, and so on, until the basin is full. Top with a layer of pastry,
tie on a floured pudding-cloth, and boil or steam for 3 hours.
30. TRIFLE, SIMPLE.
Put a layer of sponge cake at the bottom of a glass dish. Better still,
use sections of good home-made jam sandwich. Pour hot boiled custard on to
this until the cake is barely covered. Blanch some sweet almonds, and cut
into strips. Stick these into the top of the cake until it somewhat
resembles the back of a hedgehog! Serve when cold.
X.--CAKES AND BISCUITS.
Cakes need a hot oven for the first half-hour.
If possible, they should not be moved from one shelf to another, but the
oven should be cooled gradually by opening the ventilators or lowering the
gas. A moderate oven is needed to finish the cooking.
All fruit cakes (unless weighing less than 1 lb.) need to be baked from
1-1/2 to 2 hours. The larger the cake the slower should be the baking.
The cake tins should be lined with greased paper.
If a gas oven is used, stand the cake tin on a sand tin (see Cold Water
Bread).
If the cake becomes sufficiently brown on top before it is cooked through,
cover with a greased paper to prevent burning.
To test if done, dip a clean knife into hot water. Thrust it gently down
the centre of cake. If done, the knife will come out clean and bright.
1. CAKE MIXTURE.
1/4 lb. butter, 1/4 lb. castor sugar, 6 ozs. flour, 2 eggs.
Half butter and half nutter gives just as good results and is more
economical.
Beat together the butter and sugar to a cream. Whisk the eggs to a stiff
froth and add. Stir in the flour gently. Mix well. Add a little milk if
mixture is too stiff. This makes a Madeira Cake.
For other varieties, mix with the flour 1 dessertspoon caraway seeds for
Seed Cake; 2 tablespoons desiccated cocoanut for Cocoanut Cake; 6 ozs.
candied cherries chopped in halves for Cherry Cake; 6 ozs. sultanas and
the grated rind of 1 lemon for Sultana Cake; the grated yellow part of 2
lemon rinds for Lemon Cake.
2. SMALL CAKES.
Take 2 small eggs and half quantities of the ingredients given for the
cake mixture. Add the grated rind of half a lemon for flavouring. Grease a
tin for small cakes with 9 depressions. Put a spoonful of the mixture in
each depression. Bake for 20 minutes in a hot oven.
3. COCOANUT BISCUITS.
1/2 lb. desiccated cocoanut, 1/4 lb. sugar, 2 small eggs.
Proceed as for Macaroons, but make the cakes smaller. Bake in a moderate
oven for half an hour.
4. "CORN WINE AND OIL" CAKES.
1 lb. wholemeal flour, 3/4 lb. raisins, 4 tablespoons walnut oil, 1/4 pint
water.
This recipe was especially concocted for non-users of milk and eggs. Stir
the oil well into the flour. Add the washed and stoned raisins (or
seedless raisins, or sultanas). Mix to a dough with the water. Divide
dough into two portions. Roll out, form into rounds, and cut each round
into 6 small scones. Bake in a hot oven for half an hour.
5. CURRANT SANDWICH.
8 ozs. butter, 1 lb. flour, 1/4 lb. cane sugar, currants.
Mix flour and sugar, and rub in the butter. Mix with water to plastic
dough. Divide dough into two cakes, 1 inch in thickness. Cover one evenly
with currants, lay the other on top, and roll out to the thickness of
one-third of an inch. Cut into sections, and bake in a hot oven for about
30 minutes.
6. APPLE SANDWICH.
Make a short crust (see recipe). Well grease some shallow jam sandwich
tins. Roll out the paste very thin and line with it the tins. Peel, core,
and finely chop some good, juicy apples. Spread well all over the paste.
Sprinkle with castor sugar and grated lemon rind. Cover with another layer
of thin paste. Bake for about 20 minutes in a hot oven. When done, take
carefully out of the tin to cool. Cut into wedges, sprinkle with castor
sugar, and pile on a plate.
7. FANCY BISCUITS.
8 ozs. flour, 4 ozs. butter, or 3 ozs. butter and 1 egg, 4 ozs. cane
sugar, flavouring.
Flavouring may consist of lemon rind, desiccated cocoanut, cooked
currants, carraway seed, mace, ginger, etc. Beat the butter and sugar to a
cream, add flavouring and flour. Mix with the beaten egg, if used; it not,
treat like the Lemon Short Cake. Roll out, cut into shapes, and bake about
10 minutes.
8. GINGER NUTS.
1/2 lb. nutter, 1/2 lb. sugar, 1 pint molasses or golden syrup, 1/2 oz.
ground cloves and all-spice mixed, 2 tablespoons cinnamon, flour to form
dough.
Beat the nutter and sugar together; add the molasses, spice, etc., and
just enough flour to form a plastic dough. Knead well, roll out, cut into
small biscuits, and bake on oiled or floured tins in a very moderate oven.
9. JAM SANDWICH.
Mix ingredients and prepare 2 jam sandwich tins as for Sponge Cake (see
recipe). Pour mixture in tins and bake for about 10 minutes in a hot oven.
Take out, spread one round with warmed jam, place the other on top, and
cut when cold.
10. LEMON SHORT CAKE.
1 lb. flour, 7 ozs. nutter, 1/4 lb. sugar, rind of 1 lemon.
Mix together nutter and sugar, add grated lemon rind, work in flour, and
knead well. Press into sheets about 1/2 in. thick. Prick all over. Bake in
a moderate oven for about 20 minutes.
An easy way of baking for the inexpert cook who may find it difficult to
avoid breaking the sheets, is to well grease a shallow jam-sandwich tin,
sprinkle it well with castor sugar, as for sponge cakes, and press the
short cake into it, well smoothing the top with a knife, and, lastly,
pricking it.
II. MACAROONS. 5 ozs. sweet almonds, 5 ozs. castor sugar, 2 eggs.
Blanch the almonds and flake them in a nut mill. Whisk the eggs to a stiff
froth adding the sugar a teaspoonful at a time. Add the almonds, and stir
lightly. Drop the mixture, a dessertspoon at a time, on to well-oiled
paper, or, better still, rice-paper. Shape with a knife into small cakes
and put the half of a blanched almond into the centre of each. Bake in a
moderate oven.
12. SPONGE CAKE.
Take the weight of two eggs in castor sugar and flour.
For a richer cake take the weight of two eggs in sugar and the weight of
one only in flour.
Well grease the cake-tin, and sprinkle with castor sugar until thoroughly
covered, and shake out any that remains loose.
Well whisk the eggs with a coiled wire beater. They must be quite stiff
when done. Add the sugar, a teaspoon at a time, while whisking. Or
separate the yolks and whites, beating the yolks and sugar together and
whisking the whites on a plate with a knife before adding to the yolks.
Lastly, dredge in the flour. Stir lightly, but do not beat, or the eggs
will go down. Pour mixture into tin, and bake about one hour in a moderate
oven.
13. SULTANA SCONES.
1 oz. cane sugar, 3 ozs. nutter, 1 lb. flour, 1/4 lb. sultanas, a short
1/2 pint water.
Mix the flour and sugar; rub in the nutter; add sultanas; make it into a
dough with the water; roll out about 1/2 in. thick; form into scones; bake
in a moderate oven.
14. SUSSEX CAKE.
1 lb. flour, 6 ozs. nutter, 1/4 lb. sultanas, 1/4 lb. castor sugar, grated
lemon rind.
This cake is included especially for the non-users of milk and eggs. Of
course it does not turn out quite like the orthodox cake; some people
might even call it "puddeny," but it is not by any means unlike the
substantial household cake if the directions are minutely followed and the
baking well done. But if any attempt is made to make it rich, disaster
follows, and it becomes as heavy as the proverbial lead. Made as follows,
however, I am told it is quite common in some country places:--Beat the
nutter and sugar to a cream. Upon the amount of air incorporated during
this beating depends the lightness of the cake. Beat the flour into the
creamed nutter. Now add enough water to make cake of a consistency to not
quite drop off the spoon. Put the mixture into a greased hot qr. qtn. tin.
Put in a very hot oven until nicely brown. This will take from 20 minutes
to half an hour. Cover top with greased paper, and allow oven to get
slightly cooler. The baking will take from 1-1/2 to 2 hours.
XI.--JAM, MARMALADE, &c.
Jam simply consists of fresh fruit boiled with a half to two-thirds its
weight of white cane sugar until the mixture jellies.
Nearly every housekeeper has her own recipe for jam. One that I know of
uses a whole pound of sugar to a pound of fruit and boils it for nearly
two hours. The result is a very stiff, sweet jam, much more like shop jam
than home-made jam. Its only recommendation is that it will keep for an
unlimited time. Some recipes include water. But unless distilled water can
be procured, it is better not to dilute the fruit. The only advantage
gained is an increase of bulk. The jam may be made just as liquid by using
rather less sugar in proportion to the fruit. A delicious jam is made by
allowing 1/2 lb. sugar to every pound of fruit and cooking for half an
hour from the time it first begins to boil. But unless this is poured
immediately into clean, hot, dry jars, and tied down very tightly with
parchment covers, it will not keep. Nevertheless, too much sugar spoils
the flavour of the fruit, and too long boiling spoils the quality of the
sugar. A copper or thick enamelled iron pan is needed.
The best recipe for ordinary use allows 3/4 lb. sugar to each pound fruit.
Put the fruit in the pan with a little of the sugar, and when this boils,
add the rest. Boil rather quickly for an hour. Keep well skimmed. Pour
into hot, dry jars, and cover.
1. FRUIT NUT FILLING.
For small, open tarts, the following mixture is a good substitute for the
lemon curd that goes to make cheese cakes. Peel, core and quarter some
juicy apples. Put in a double saucepan (or covered jar) with some strips
of lemon peel (yellow part only) and cane sugar to taste. Cook slowly to a
pulp and, when cold, remove the lemon rind. Grate finely, or mill some
Brazil nuts. Mix apple pulp and ground nut together in such proportions as
to make a mixture of the consistency of stiff jam. Fill tarts with mixture
and sprinkle top with ground nut. It must be used the same day as made.
2. JAM WITHOUT SUGAR.
To every pound of fresh fruit allow 1/2 lb. dates. Wash the fruit, put it
in the preserving pan, and heat slowly, stirring well to draw out the
juice. Wash and stone the dates. Add to the fruit, and simmer very gently
for 45 minutes. Put immediately into clean, hot, dry jars, and tie on
parchment covers at once.
3. LEMON CURD.
1 lb. lump sugar, 3 lemons (the rinds of 2 grated), yolks of 6 eggs, 1/4
lb. butter.
Put the butter into a clean saucepan; melt, but do not let it boil. Add
the sugar, and stir until it is dissolved. Then add the beaten yolks, and,
lastly, the grated lemon rind and juice. Stir over a slow fire until the
mixture looks like honey and becomes thick. Put into jars, cover, and tie
down as for jam.
4. MARMALADE.
To 1 large Seville orange (if small, count 3 as 2) allow 3/4 lb. cane
sugar and 3/4 pint water. Wash and brush oranges, remove pips, cut peel
into fine shreds (better still, put through a mincer). Put all to soak in
the water for 24 hours. Boil until rinds are soft. Stand another 24 hours.
Add the sugar, and boil until marmalade jellies. If preferred, half sweet
and half Seville oranges may be used.
5. VEGETABLE MARROW JAM.
Peel the marrow, remove seeds, and cut into dice. To each pound of marrow
allow 1 lb. cane sugar; to every 3 lbs. of marrow allow the juice and
grated yellow part of rind of 1 lemon and 1/2 a level teaspoon ground
ginger. Put the marrow into the preserving pan, sprinkle well with some of
the sugar, and stand for 12 hours. Add the rest of the sugar, and boil
slowly for 2 hours. Add the lemon juice, rind, and ginger at the end of
1-1/2 hours.
XII.--SALADS, BEVERAGES, &c.
1. SALAD.
Lettuce, tomatoes, mustard and cress, cucumber, olive or walnut oil, lemon
juice.
Wash the green stuff and finely shred it. Peel the cucumber, skin the
tomatoes (if ripe, the skins will come away easily) and cut into thin
slices. Place in the bowl in alternate layers. Let the top layer be
lettuce with a few slices of tomato for garnishing. Slices of hard-boiled
egg may be added if desired.
For the salad dressing, to every tablespoonful of oil allow 1 of lemon
juice. Drip the oil slowly into the lemon juice, beating with a fork all
the time. Pour over the salad.
2. SALAD.
Beetroot, mustard and cress, olive or walnut oil, lemon juice, cold
vegetables.
Chop the cold vegetables. French beans and potatoes make the nicest salad.
To every 2 cups of vegetables allow 1 cup of chopped beetroot. Mix well
together, and pour over salad dressing as for No. 1. A level teaspoonful
of pepper is added to a gill of the dressing by those who do not object to
its use.
3. FRUIT SALAD.
Take sweet, ripe oranges, apples, bananas, and grapes. Peel the oranges,
quarter them, and remove skin and pips. Peel and core the apples and cut
into thin slices. Wash and dry the grapes, and remove from stalks. Skin
and slice the bananas.
Put the prepared fruit into a glass dish in alternate layers. Squeeze the
juice from 2 sweet oranges and pour over the salad.
Any other fresh fruit in season may be used for this salad. Castor sugar
may be sprinkled over if desired, and cream used in place of the juice.
Grated nuts are also a welcome addition.
4. LEMON CORDIAL.
12 lemons, 1 lb. lump sugar.
Put the sugar into a clean saucepan. Grate off the yellow part of the
rinds of 6 lemons and sprinkle over the sugar. Now moisten the sugar with
as much water as it will absorb. Boil gently to a clear syrup. Add the
juice from the lemons, stir well, and pour into clean, hot, dry bottles.
Cork tightly and cover with sealing-wax or a little plaster-of-Paris mixed
with water and laid on quickly. Add any quantity preferred to cold or hot
water to prepare beverage, or use neat as sauce for puddings.
5. LIME CORDIAL. The same as for Lemon, but use 13 limes.
6. ORANGE CORDIAL.
The same as for Lemon, but use 3/4 lb. sugar.
A detailed list of Fruit and Herb Teas will be found in the companion
volume to this, "Food Remedies."
7. WALLACE CHEESE.
1 qt. milk, 6 tablespoons lemon juice.
Strain the lemon juice and pour it into the boiling milk. Lay a piece of
fine, well-scalded muslin over a colander. Pour the curdled milk into
this. When it has drained draw the edges of the muslin together and
squeeze and press the cheese. Leave it in the muslin in the colander, with
a weight on it for 12 hours. It will then be ready to serve.
This cheese is almost tasteless, and many people prefer it so. But if the
flavour of lemon is liked, use more lemon juice. The whey squeezed from
the cheese is a wholesome drink when quite fresh.
XIII.--EXTRA RECIPES.
1. BARLEY WATER.
1 dessert spoon Robinson's "Patent" Barley, 1/2 a lemon, 3 lumps cane
sugar.
Rub the lumps of sugar on the lemon until they are bright yellow in colour
and quite wet. (It is the fragrant juice contained in the yellow surface
of the lemon rind that gives the delicious lemon flavour without acidity.)
Mix the barley to a thin paste with a little cold water. This is poured
into a pint of boiling water, well stirred until it comes to the boil
again and then left to boil for five minutes, after which it is done. Add
the sugar and lemon juice.
2. BOILED HOMINY.
Take one part of Hominy and 2-1/2 parts of water. Have the water boiling;
add the hominy and boil for fifteen minutes; keep stirring to keep from
burning.
3. BROWN GRAVY.
1 dessert-spoon butter, 1 dessert-spoon white flour, hot water.
Melt the butter in a small iron saucepan or frying pan and sprinkle into
it the flour. Keep stirring gently with a wooden spoon until the flour is
a rich dark brown, but not burnt, or the flavour will be spoilt. Then add
very gently, stirring well all the time, rather less than half-a-pint of
hot water. Stir until the mixture boils, when it should be a smooth brown
gravy to which any flavouring may be added. Strained tomato pulp is a nice
addition, but a teaspoonful of lemon juice will suffice.
4. BUTTERED RICE AND PEAS.
1 cup unpolished rice, 3 cups water, 2 cups fresh-shelled peas, 1
tablespoon finely chopped parsley, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, butter size of
walnut.
Put the rice on in the water and bring gradually to the boil. Boil hard
for five minutes, stirring once or twice. Draw it to side of stove, where
it is comparatively cool, or, if a gas stove is used, put the saucepan on
an asbestos mat and turn the gas as low as possible. The water should now
gradually steam away, leaving the rice dry and well cooked.
Steam the peas in a separate pan. If young, about 20 minutes should be
sufficient; they are spoiled by over-cooking.
Add the cooked peas to the cooked rice, with the butter, parsley, and
lemon juice. Stir over the fire until the mixture is thoroughly hot.
Serve with or without tomato sauce and new potatoes.
5. CONVALESCENTS' SOUP.
1 small head celery, 1 large onion, 1 carrot, 1 turnip, 3 tablespoons
coarsely chopped parsley, P.R. Barley malt meal, Mapleton's or P.R. almond
or pine-kernel cream, 3 pints boiling water.
Well wash the vegetables and slice them, and add them with the parsley to
the boiling water. (The water should be distilled, if possible, and the
cooking done in a large earthenware jar or casserole. See notes _re_
casseroles in Chap. IV.) Simmer gently for 2 hours, or until quite soft.
Then strain through a hair sieve. Do not rub the vegetables through the
sieve to make a purée, simply strain and press all the juices out. The
vegetable juices are all wanted, but not the fibre. To each pint of this
vegetable broth allow 1 heaped tablespoon barley malt meal, 1 tablespoon
nut cream, and 1/2 lb. tomatoes. Mix the meal to a thin paste with some of
the cooled broth (from the pint). Put the rest of the pint in a saucepan
or casserole and bring to the boil. Add the meal and boil for 10 minutes.
Break up the tomatoes and cook slowly to a pulp (without water). Rub
through a sieve. (The skin and pips are not to be forced through.) Add
this pulp to the soup. Lastly mix the nut-cream to a thin cream by
dripping slowly a little water or cool broth into it, stirring hard with a
teaspoon all the time. Add this to the soup, re-heat, but do _not_ boil,
serve.
This soup is rather irksome to make, but is intensely nourishing and easy
of digestion. The pine-kernel cream is the more digestible of the two
creams. Care should be taken not to _cook_ these nut creams. If the soup
is for an invalid care should also be taken that, while getting all the
valuable vegetable juices, no skin or pips, etc., are included. The
vegetable broth may be prepared a day in advance, but it will not keep for
three days except in very cold weather. (When it is desired to keep soup
it should be brought to the boil with the lid of the stockpot or casserole
on, and put away without the lid being removed or the contents stirred.)
6. FINE OATMEAL BISCUITS.
2 ozs. flour, 3-1/2 ozs. Robinson's "Patent" Groats, 2 ozs. castor sugar,
2 ozs. butter, 2 eggs.
Cream the butter and sugar, add the eggs, then the flour and groats, which
should be mixed together. Roll out thin and cut out with a cutter. Bake in
a moderate oven until a light colour.
7. FINE OATMEAL GRUEL.
1 heaped tablespoon Robinson's "Patent" Groats, 1 pint milk or water.
Mix the groats with a wineglassful of cold water, gradually added, into a
smooth paste, pour this into a stew-pan containing nearly a pint of
boiling water or milk, stir the gruel on the fire (while it boils) for ten
minutes.
8. MACARONI CHEESE.
1/4 lb. macaroni, 1-1/2 ozs. cheese, 1/2 pint milk, 1 teaspoon flour,
butter, pepper.
The curled macaroni is the best among the ordinary kinds. Better still,
however, is the macaroni made with fine wholemeal flour which is stocked
by some food-reform stores. Parmesan cheese is nicest for this dish. Stale
cheese spoils it.
Wash the macaroni. Put it into fast-boiling water and keep boiling until
_very_ tender. Drain off the water and replace it with the 1/2 pint of
milk. Bring to the boil and stir in the flour mixed to a thin paste with
cold milk or water. Simmer for 5 minutes. Grate the cheese finely.
Butter a shallow pie-dish. Put the thickened milk and macaroni in
alternate layers with the grated cheese. Dust each layer with pepper, if
liked. Top with grated cheese. Put some small pieces of butter on top of
the grated cheese. Put in a very hot oven until nicely browned.
9. MANHU HEALTH CAKE.
1/4 lb. butter, 1/2 lb. castor sugar, 1/2 lb. Manhu flour, 1 oz. rice
flour, 6 ozs. crystallised ginger, 4 eggs.
Cream butter and sugar, adding eggs, two at once, not beaten. Beat each
time after adding eggs, add rice flour, ginger, and lastly flour. Bake in
moderate oven.
10. MANHU HOMINY PUDDING.
1-1/2 teacupfuls of boiled Hominy (see below), 1 pint or less of sweet
milk, 1/2 teacupful of sugar, 2 eggs (well beaten), 1 teacupful of
raisins, spice to taste.
Mix together and bake twenty minutes in a moderately hot oven. Serve hot
with cream and sugar or sauce.
11. PARKIN.
2 ozs. butter, 2 ozs. moist sugar, 6 ozs. best treacle, 1/2 lb. medium
oatmeal, 1/4 lb. flour, 1/2 oz. powdered ginger, grated rind of 1 lemon.
Some people prefer the addition of carraway seeds to lemon rind. If these
are used a level teaspoonful will be sufficient for the quantities given
above. The old-fashioned black treacle is almost obsolete now, and is
replaced commercially by golden syrup, many brands of which are very pale
and of little flavour. To make successful Parkin a good brand of pure cane
syrup is needed. I always use "Glebe." This is generally only stocked by a
few "high-class " grocers or large stores, but it is worth the trouble of
getting. Some Food Reform Stores stock molasses, and this was probably
used for the original Parkin. It is strongly flavoured and blacker than
black treacle, but its taste is not unpleasant. For the sugar, a good
brown moist cane sugar, like Barbados, is best. Put the treacle and butter
(or nutter) into a jar and put into a warm oven until the butter is
dissolved. Then stir in the sugar. Mix together the oatmeal, flour, ginger
and seeds or lemon rind. Pour the treacle, etc., into this, and mix to a
paste. Roll out lightly on a well-floured board to a 1/4 inch thickness.
Bake in a well-greased flat tin for about 50 minutes, in a rather slow
oven. To test if done, dip a skewer into boiling water, wipe, and thrust
into the Parkin; if it comes out clean the latter is done. Cut into
squares, take out of tin, and allow to cool.
12. PROTOSE CUTLETS.
1 lb. minced Protose, 1 lb. plain boiled rice, 1 small grated onion, 1/2
teaspoon sage.
Mix the ingredients with a little milk; shape into cutlets, using uncooked
macaroni for the bone, and bake in a moderate oven about 45 minutes.
13. PROTOSE SALAD.
1 breakfast-cupful Protose cubes, 1/3 breakfast cup minced celery, 1
hard-boiled egg, 3 small radishes, juice of 2 lemons.
Cut Protose into cubes, chop the hard-boiled egg, slice the radishes. Add
to the minced celery. Pour over these ingredients the lemon juice and
allow the mixture to stand for one hour. Serve upon fresh crisp lettuce.
14. RISOTTO.
3/4 lb. rice, 1/2 lb. cheese, 4 large onions.
Slice and fry the onions in a stew-pan in a little fat; when brown, add
1-1/2 pints water and the rice. Let it cook about an hour, and then add
the grated cheese.
This dish may be varied with tomatoes when in season.
15. ROYAL NUT ROAST.