over night. In the morning add a piece of butter half as large as an
egg, a teacup of sugar, a little salt, cinnamon, or nutmeg. Bake very
slowly two hours and a half in a stove or brick oven. After it has
become hot enough to melt the butter, but not to brown the top, stir
it (without moving the dish if you can) from the bottom. If raisins
are to be used, put them in now. They add much to the richness of the
pudding. It is a very good pudding for so plain a kind, and is very
little trouble. For a Sunday dinner, where a cooking stove is used, it
is very convenient, as it employs but a few minutes to prepare it in
the morning.
=Sago.=
Wash six table-spoonfuls of pearl sago and put it to soak in a large
pint of warm water. Pare six good-sized, mellow, sour apples, and
remove the cores with a tap-borer. Wash them, butter a deep pudding
dish, and lay them in, with the open end up. Measure a teacup of sugar,
fill the holes with it, and then grate half a nutmeg over the apples.
Dissolve a little salt and the rest of the sugar, in the water with the
sago; pour two thirds of the mixture over the apples, and set the dish
in the oven or stove. After one hour take it out, pour the remainder
of the sago and water into the dish, and press the apples down gently
without breaking them. See that none of the sago lies above the water.
Return the dish to the oven and bake it another hour. It is to be eaten
with sugar and milk, or cream, and is a very delicate and healthful
pudding.
=Salem.=
Three coffee-cups of flour, one of milk, one of chopped raisins, one of
suet or salt pork chopped very fine, two thirds of a cup of molasses,
a small teaspoonful of powdered cloves, half a nutmeg, a teaspoonful
of saleratus, and if suet is used instead of pork, a little salt. Warm
the molasses and dissolve the saleratus in it, mix the suet, flour, and
raisins, then put all the ingredients together. Boil or steam it four
hours. Make a melted sauce.
=Suet.=
A pint of suet chopped very fine, a pint of chopped apples, two gills
of milk, a gill of molasses, a large teaspoonful of salt, and flour
enough to make it rather stiff. Boil it four hours. This, and the last
before it, should be boiled in a close tin pail or pudding pan, in a
kettle of water.
Such a pudding as this is too hearty to be eaten after meat, and is
substantial enough to constitute a dinner.
DUMPLINGS, FLUMMERIES, AND OTHER INEXPENSIVE ARTICLES FOR DESSERT.
=Apple Dumplings (boiled).=
The best and most healthful crust for them is made like cream tartar
biscuit, or with potatoes, according to the directions under the head
of _Pastry_. It is better to make one or two large dumplings, than many
small ones; because in drawing up the crust, there must necessarily be
folds which, when boiled, are thick; and thus, in small dumplings, the
proportion of crust to apple, is too great. Make a large crust and let
the middle be nearly a third of an inch thick; but roll the edges thin,
for the reason above mentioned. Wring a thick, square cloth in water,
sprinkle it with flour, and lay it into a deep dish; lay the crust into
it, and fill it with sliced apples; put the crust together and draw up
the cloth around it. Tie it tight with a strong twine or tape, allowing
no room for it to swell, and be sure to draw the string so close that
the water cannot soak in. Boil a dumpling holding three pints of cut
apple, two hours. When taken out of the pot, plunge it for a moment
into cold water, then untie it and turn it out into a dish. Eat with
cold sauce, or butter and sugar. Molasses and butter boiled together
make a very good sauce for apple dumplings. The process of boiling
molasses takes away, in some degree, its strong taste; and improves it
for this purpose, and for making gingerbread. All boiled dumplings and
puddings should be put into boiling water. Some persons prefer to boil
dumplings in a buttered bowl, with a cloth tied close over it. This is
a very good way.
=Steamed.=
Fill a tin pudding pan or pail three quarters with sour, sliced
apples, lay upon the top a plain crust about an inch thick. A piece
of light bread dough, with a little butter rolled into it, or a crust
made like cream of tartar biscuit, is better than pie crust for this
purpose. See that there is room for the dough to swell. Shut the lid
close, and set it on the top of the stove or range, an hour and a half
before dinner time. If the apple juice boils over, move the pan to a
cooler part of the stove. Make a sauce, or use instead, butter and
sugar.
=Baked.=
Pare large, fair apples, and take out the cores, lay each one into
a piece of plain pie crust, just large enough to cover it. Fill the
centre of the apple with brown sugar, and add a little cinnamon, or
small strips of fresh orange peel. Close the crust over the apple, and
lay them, with the smooth side up, into a deep, buttered dish, in which
they can be set on the table. Bake them in a stove an hour and a half.
If, after an hour, you find that the syrup begins to harden in the
bottom of the dish, put in half a gill of hot water. Make a cold, or
melted sauce as you choose.
=Blackberry (baked or steamed).=
Put a small cup of berries and two teaspoonfuls of sugar into a crust
large enough to contain them. To close the crust well, dip your fingers
in water and then in flour, and thus paste the folds together. Lay
as many dumplings as you wish to have into a deep patty-pan, because
blackberries are a very juicy fruit. Bake them an hour and a quarter in
a moderate heat. Make a cold sauce for them.
To steam them, put the fruit and crust into a tin pudding pan, exactly
like steamed apple dumpling.
=Roley Poley.=
Make a potato crust, or a paste of light bread, with butter rolled
in, or one of cream tartar biscuit, as you prefer; roll it narrow and
long, about a third of an inch thick; spread it with raspberry jam or
apple sauce; take care that this does not come too near the edge of the
crust; roll it up and close the ends and side as tight as possible, to
keep the sauce from coming out and the water from soaking it. Sew it up
in a cloth, and boil it an hour and a half or two hours, according to
its size. Make a sauce.
[The quart measure used in the following articles, and throughout this
book, is the beer quart, except where a _small_ quart is specified. In
cooking such dishes as those which immediately follow, the milk should
always, as in making custards, be boiled in a pail set into a kettle
of hot water. They are much more delicate than when it is boiled in a
saucepan; and then there is no danger of its being burned.]
=Potato Starch Flummery.=
To one quart of boiled milk, put four beaten eggs and four spoonfuls of
potato starch, wet in a little milk. Add the starch and a little salt
first; then the eggs, and boil the whole a minute more. Take it up in a
mould and eat it with sauce. Boil a few peach leaves in the milk if you
like the flavor.
=Ground Rice.=
Measure a quart of milk, and then take out two cupfuls. Set the
remainder into a kettle of hot water; then wet a teacupful of ground
rice, and a teaspoonful of salt, with the reserved cold milk. When that
which is in the kettle boils, add the ground rice mixture gradually,
and continue to stir it, until it is well scalded, else it will be
lumpy, or lie compactly at the bottom. Let it remain in the kettle
eight or ten minutes, and stir it now and then. Just before you take
it up, stir in a large table-spoonful of dry ground rice, and as soon
as that is well mixed take the pail from the water-kettle, and put the
mixture into a bowl, or blanc-mange mould, wet in cold water. If it is
of the right consistency, it will turn out in good shape in fifteen
or twenty minutes. To be eaten like blanc-mange with sugar and milk
or cream. It is nice cold, and if it is made for the next day, a half
a spoonful less of dry rice will be enough. It should be only stiff
enough to retain the shape. For this and all similar milk preparations,
peach leaves are better than any spice. Boil in the milk three or four
fresh leaves from the tree. Remember to take them out before you stir
in the rice. If you put in too many, they will give a strong flavor to
the article. Experience will teach how many to use.
=Farina.=
Set a pail containing a quart of milk into a kettle of boiling water.
Put in a few pieces of stick-cinnamon. When the milk boils, take
out the cinnamon and add a teaspoonful of salt, and stir in, very
gradually, four table-spoonfuls of dry farina; beat out the lumps, and
stir it often during the first ten minutes, then leave it to boil half
an hour or more, remembering to stir it repeatedly during that time.
Put it in a mould till the next day. Serve it as blanc-mange.
Made thin, like gruel, it is excellent food for young children.
=Tapioca.=
Soak a cup of tapioca in a pint of cold water over night; then boil it
in a pint of milk with a little salt. Add any essence you choose. It is
very good without. Serve it warm, and use sugar and cream.
=Sago Apple.=
Wash a table-spoonful and a half of pearl sago, and put it into a
teacup of cold water to soak. Pare and slice very thin two fair sour
apples, and boil them very soft in a teacup of water; then add the sago
and water with half a teaspoonful of salt, and stir it every minute or
two. Boil it till the sago and apple are perfectly mixed, then add a
large spoonful of white sugar, and boil it a minute more. Set it off
and add lemon (the essence or juice as you prefer). Put it in a mould,
and serve it like blanc-mange.
This is a very good article for an invalid, leaving out the essence.
The same preparation of sago, and two or three table-spoonfuls of
currant jelly dissolved in it instead of the apple, is very pretty, and
good.
SWEET DISHES.
[In making blanc-mange, custards, ice-creams, &c., do not boil the milk
in a sauce-pan, but set it, in a tin pail, into a kettle of boiling
water. The milk does not rise, when boiled thus, as it does in a
sauce-pan, but when the top is covered with foam, it boils enough.
In making ice cream, it is an improvement to churn the cream until it
becomes frothy, before adding the other ingredients.]
=Apple Island.=
Stew apple enough to make a quart, strain it through a sieve, sweeten
it with fine white sugar, and flavor it with lemon or rose. Beat the
whites of six eggs to a hard froth, and stir into the apple slowly; but
do not do this till just before it is to be served. The apples should
be stewed with as little water as possible. Put it into a glass dish.
Serve a nice boiled custard, made of the yolks of the eggs, to eat with
it.
=Apple Snow.=
Put twelve large apples, without paring, into cold water enough to
stew them. Boil them slowly; when they are very soft strain them
through a sieve; beat the whites of twelve eggs to a stiff froth, then
add to them half a pound of fine white sugar, and when these are well
mixed, add the apple, and beat all together, until white as snow. Then
lay it in the centre of a deep dish, heap it high as you can, and pour
around it a nice boiled custard made of a quart of milk, and eight of
the yolks of the eggs.
=Floating Island.=
Put the juice of two lemons, the whites of two eggs, three spoonfuls of
currant jelly, and a gill and a half of fine sugar together and beat
to a stiff froth; then put it into the middle of the dish, dress it
with sweetmeats, and just before it is served, pour into the dish cream
enough to float it.
=Arrow-root Blanc-mange.=
To three large spoonfuls of pure Jamaica arrow-root, a quart of milk,
a large spoonful of fine sugar, a spoonful of rose-water, and a little
salt. Reserve a gill of milk to wet the arrow-root, and boil the rest.
When it boils up, stir in the arrow-root, and boil it up again a minute
or two; add the sugar, salt, and rose-water, and put it into the mould.
=Isinglass Blanc-mange.=
Wash an ounce and a half of calf's-foot isinglass, and put it into a
quart of milk over night. In the morning add three peach leaves, and
boil it, slowly, twenty minutes or half an hour. Strain it into a dish
upon a small teacupful of fine sugar. If it is to be served soon, add
two or three beaten eggs while it is hot. Put it into the mould and
set in a cool place. In hot weather this should be made over night if
wanted at dinner the next day, as it hardens slowly.
=Calf's Foot Blanc-mange.=
Put four calf's feet into four quarts of water; boil it away to one
quart, strain it, and set it aside. When cool, remove all the fat, and
in cutting the jelly out of the pan, take care to avoid the sediment.
Put to it a quart of new milk, and sweeten it with fine sugar. If you
season it with cinnamon or lemon peel, put it in before boiling; if
with rose or peach-water, afterwards; or, if you choose, boil peach
leaves in it. Boil it ten minutes, strain it through a fine sieve into
a pitcher, and stir it till nearly cold. Then put it into moulds.
=Gelatine Blanc-mange.=
Allow a quart of milk. Take a quarter of a paper of English gelatine,
and put it into a gill of the milk to soften. In a quarter of an hour,
set the remainder of the milk in a tin pail into a kettle of hot water,
with a few sticks of cinnamon in it. When the milk boils (or foams up)
add a small teaspoon of salt, and stir in the cold milk and gelatine.
Stir it steadily a few minutes, till the particles of gelatine are
dissolved, then put it into moulds. If lemon or some other essence is
preferred to the cinnamon, add it after the pail is taken out of the
hot water. A beaten egg is an improvement.
=Moss Blanc-mange.=
In making this blanc-mange as little moss should be used as will
suffice to harden the milk. If the moss is old, more is necessary than
if it is fresh. Allow half a teacupful for a quart of milk. Wash it,
and put it in soak over night; in the morning, tie it up in a piece
of muslin, and boil it in the milk, with sticks of cinnamon, the rind
of a lemon, or peach leaves. Boil it gently twenty minutes or half an
hour. Then put in half a salt-spoonful of salt, strain it upon a large
spoonful of crushed sugar, and put it into a mould immediately, as it
soon begins to harden. Eat it with sugar and milk or cream.
=Charlotte Russe.=
Make a boiled custard of a pint of milk and four eggs; season it with
vanilla, or any essence you prefer; make it very sweet, and set it away
to cool. Put a half an ounce of isinglass or English gelatine into a
gill of milk where it will become warm. When the gelatine is dissolved,
pour it into a pint of rich cream, and whip it to complete froth. When
the custard is cold, stir it gently into the whip. Line a mould that
holds a quart with thin slices of sponge cake, or with sponge fingers,
pour the mixture into it, and set it in a cold place.
=Calf's-foot Jelly.=
Scald four calf's feet only enough to take off the hair, (more will
extract the juices). Clean them nicely. When this is done, put them
into five quarts of water and boil them until the water is half wasted;
strain and set it away till the next day, then take off the fat and
remove the jelly, being careful not to disturb the sediment; put the
jelly into a sauce-pan with sugar, wine, and lemon juice and rind to
your taste. Beat the whites and shells of five eggs, stir them in, and
set it on the coals, but do not stir it after it begins to warm. Boil
it twenty minutes, then add one teacupful of cold water and boil five
minutes longer; set off the saucepan, and let it stand covered close
half an hour. It will thus become so clear that it will need to run
through the jelly bag but once.
=Another (made of English Gelatine).=
To one of the papers of gelatine containing an ounce and a half, put
a pint of cold water; after fifteen minutes, add a quart of boiling
water, and stir till the gelatine is dissolved. Then add a coffee-cup
of sugar, the juice of a lemon, and the grated rind, or any other spice
or essence you prefer, and just boil it up a minute. If the jelly is
for an invalid, and wine is a part of the appropriate regimen, omit
the lemon and spices, and add two gills of wine, after it is boiled.
The gelatine is so pure, that the jelly need not be passed through a
jelly-bag. This will keep several weeks in winter, and is convenient
for persons who are in the habit of providing little delicacies for the
sick.
=Almond Custards.=
Blanch and beat in a marble mortar, with two spoonfuls of rose-water,
a quarter of a pound of almonds; beat the yolks of four eggs with two
table-spoonfuls of sugar, mix the almonds with the eggs and sugar, and
then add the whole to a pint of cream, set into a kettle of hot water
in a pail. Stir it steadily till it boils. Serve in little cups.
=Boiled Custards.=
Put a quart of milk into a tin pail or a pitcher that holds two quarts;
set it into a kettle of hot water. Tin is better than earthen, because
it heats so much quicker. Put in a few sticks of cinnamon, or three
peach leaves. When the milk foams up as if nearly boiling, stir in six
eggs which have been beaten, with two spoonfuls of white sugar; stir
it every instant, until it appears to thicken a little. Then take out
the pail, and pour the custard immediately into a cold pitcher, because
the heat of the pail will cook the part of the custard that touches it,
too much, so that it will curdle. This is a very easy way of making
custards, and none can be better. But in order to have them good, you
must attend to nothing else until they are finished. You may make them
as rich as you choose. A pint of milk, a pint of cream, and eight eggs
will make them rich enough for any epicure. So, on the other hand, they
are very good with three or four eggs only to a quart of milk, and no
cream.
=Another (good, and very simple).=
Boil a quart of milk in the way directed in the preceding receipt,
excepting one gill; beat three or four eggs with three spoonfuls of
fine sugar; wet three teaspoonfuls of arrow-root in the reserved gill
of milk, then mix the beaten eggs and arrow-root together, and add
a little salt. When the milk in the pail boils, stir them in, and
continue to stir a minute or two, till the custard thickens. Then
take the pail to the table and pour the custard into china cups (as
glass will crack), or else into a cold pitcher. Use what seasoning
you please. The old fashion of using cinnamon is economical and very
good. Boil some pieces of cinnamon a few minutes only, in two or three
spoonfuls of water. Put some of this into the custard, and put what is
left into a vial for another time.
The Sandwich Island arrow-root is as good as the Bermuda for such
purposes, and costs a third less.
=Another (still more economical).=
Put a quart of milk, excepting two gills, to boil in a kettle of water;
with the reserved milk mix three large spoonfuls of flour till it is
entirely smooth; add a little salt, and when the milk boils stir it
in. Let the mixture remain in the boiling kettle half an hour, or if
most convenient, still longer, while you attend to other things; but
remember to stir it often. Beat one or two eggs with two or three
spoonfuls of sugar, and stir in. Then take the pail to the table, and
when the custard has stood a few minutes to cool, add any essence you
prefer.
=Baked Custards.=
Boil the milk with a stick of cinnamon in it, then set it off from the
fire, and while it cools a very little, beat (for a quart of milk) five
or six eggs, with three large spoonfuls of fine sugar; then stir the
milk and eggs together, and pour into custard-cups, or into a single
dish that is large enough. If you bake in a brick oven, it is a good
way to set custard, in cups, into it, after the bread and other things
have been baked. They will become hard in a few hours, and be very
delicate. If you bake in a stove, or range oven, it is best to use a
dish, and bake it in a very moderate heat, else it will turn, in part,
to whey.
DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING ICES.
Mix equal quantities of coarse salt and ice chopped small; set the
freezer containing the cream into a firkin, and put in the ice and
salt; let it come up well around the freezer. Turn and shake the
freezer steadily at first, and nearly all the time until the cream is
entirely frozen. Scrape the cream down often from the sides with a
knife. When the ice and salt melt, do not pour off any of it, unless
there is danger of its getting into the freezer; it takes half an hour
to freeze a quart of cream; and sometimes longer. A tin pail which will
hold twice the measure of the cream, answers a good purpose, if you do
not own a freezer. In winter, use snow instead of ice.
Several nice receipts for ice-creams will be given under this head, but
a common custard, made of rich milk, two or three eggs, and a little
arrow-root, and seasoned with lemon or vanilla, makes an excellent
ice-cream.
=A rich Ice-cream.=
Squeeze a dozen lemons, and strain the juice upon as much fine sugar
as it will absorb; pour three quarts of cream into it very slowly,
stirring very fast all the time.
=Another.=
A quart of new milk, a quart of cream, a pint of sugar, three eggs,
a large spoonful of arrow-root or ground rice, a piece of cinnamon.
Boil the milk with the cinnamon in it; when it boils up, stir in the
arrow-root or ground rice, wet with a little milk; set it off the fire,
stir in the cream, the sugar and eggs. The eggs should be beaten a good
deal, and then beaten several minutes in the cream before being put
into the boiled milk; add vanilla or lemon as you prefer.
=Another (simple, but very good).=
Heat a quart of milk quite hot, but do not let it boil; add the yolks
of four eggs, beaten, with a large coffee-cup of fine sugar, and flavor
with lemon or vanilla.
FRUIT ICES.
=Apricot.=
Pare, stone, and scald twelve ripe apricots; then bruise them in a
marble mortar. Then stir half a pound of fine sugar into a pint of
cream; add the apricots and strain through a hair sieve. Freeze and put
it into moulds.
Peaches would be a good substitute for the apricots, using, if they
are large, nine, instead of twelve.
=Strawberry or Raspberry.=
Bruise a pint of raspberries, or strawberries, with two large spoonfuls
of fine sugar; add a quart of cream, and strain through a sieve, and
freeze it. If you have no cream, boil a spoonful of arrow-root in a
quart of milk, and, if you like, beat up one egg and stir into it.
=Currant.=
Take a gill of fresh currant juice, make it very sweet, and stir in
half a pint of cream and freeze it. In the winter, or when fresh
currants are not to be had, beat a teaspoonful and a half of currant
jelly with the juice of one lemon, sweetened, and put to it half a pint
of cream.
=Lemon.=
Having squeezed your lemons, add sugar enough to the juice to make
it quite sweet, and about a third as much water as to make lemonade;
strain it, and then freeze it.
=Imperial Cream.=
Boil a quart of cream with the thin rind of a lemon; then stir it till
nearly cold; have ready, in the dish in which it is to be served, the
juice of three lemons, strained, with as much sugar as will sweeten the
cream; pour the cream into the dish, from a teapot or pitcher, holding
it high and moving it about so as to mix thoroughly with the juice.
It should be made six hours before being served. Eat with sweetmeats,
apple island, or apple-pie.
=Snow Cream.=
To a quart of cream add the whites of three eggs, cut to a stiff froth,
four spoonfuls of sweet wine, sugar to your taste, and a little essence
of lemon, or the grated rind; whip it to a froth, and serve in a glass
dish.
If you have not a whisk such as is made expressly to whip cream, it
can be easily, though not as quickly done, with a spoon. After the
materials are mixed, beat them, not over and over like the yolks of
eggs, but back and forth, keeping the spoon below the surface; and
as fast as the froth forms, take it off and lay it into the dish, or
glasses, for the table. It will not return to the liquid state. If it
were to stand several days it would become crisped in the form in which
it was left.
=Wine Custard.=
Beat the yolks of three eggs with two spoonfuls of crushed sugar, and
cut the whites to a stiff froth; put them into the dish which is to
go to the table, and add a quart of milk, and a few drops of peach
or rose-water, and when these are well mixed, stir in a spoonful and
a half of rennet wine. In cold weather, the milk should be warmed a
little; in warm weather it is not necessary. It should be immediately
set where it will not be disturbed. It will harden soon, perhaps in
five minutes. This depends somewhat on the strength of the rennet, and
the measure of wine necessary to harden a quart of milk will depend on
this. Sometimes a spoonful will prove enough. There is no way to judge
but by trying, as in using rennet for making cheese. The strength of
this article varies exceedingly.
It is a very good, and more economical way to warm the milk a little,
sweeten it, and add nothing but the rennet wine, and grate nutmeg over
the top. Soda biscuit or butter crackers are good with wine custard.
=Stained Froth.=