fine half a pound of nice fresh beef suet. Stone a half pound of very
good raisins, or use the sultana or seedless sort. Dredge them well on
all sides with flour to prevent their sinking to the bottom. Grate the
yellow rind of a large fresh lemon, and strain the juice into the saucer
on which you have grated the rind. It will be still better if you use
the rind and juice of an orange as well as of a lemon. Put into a bowl
half a pint of grated bread-crumbs, and a heaped table-spoonful of
flour, and pour on them a half pint of boiling milk. Beat in a shallow
pan four eggs till very thick and light. Mix the suet gradually into the
bread, adding alternately the beaten egg, (a little at a time) the lemon
and orange, and four heaped table-spoonfuls of sugar. Lastly, stir in by
degrees, the raisins, well floured. Put the mixture into a square
pudding-cloth spread out into a deep pan, and dipped in boiling water.
Tie it securely, leaving room to swell. Boil it three hours.
Eat with it a sauce of butter, sugar, and nutmeg, beaten together.
FINE DESSERTS.
THE BEST PUFF-PASTE.--To a pound of the best fresh butter allow a pound
of the finest flour, sifted into a deep pan. Have on a plate some
additional sifted flour for sprinkling and rolling in. Divide the pound
of butter into four equal parts, and three of those parts divide again
into two portions. Mix the first quarter of butter into the mass of
flour, cutting it with a broad-bladed knife. If your hands are naturally
warm, avoid touching the dough with them, as their heat will render it
heavy. Paste, to be very good, should be made on a marble slab. All
well-furnished kitchens or pastry rooms should be provided with
marble-topped tables, and marble mortars. Add gradually to the lump of
dough a _very little cold_ water, barely sufficient to moisten it with
the first quarter of butter, and mix it well with the aid of the broad
knife; but proceed as fast as you can, and do not work with it too long.
Too much water will render it tough, and too much working will make it
heavy. Then sprinkle the marble slab with some of the spare flour, take
the lump of paste from the pan, and roll it out into a sheet. Divide one
of the portions of butter into little bits, and with the knife disperse
them equally all over the sheet of paste. Then sprinkle it again with
flour, fold it up so as to cover the butter, and roll it out again.
Proceed in this manner till you have got in all the butter, rolling
always lightly, and you will soon see the surface of the dough puffing
up in little blisters, a sign that it is becoming light. Besides the
first mixing in the lump, the butter will then be put in with what are
called six turns. When baked, you will see that every turn makes a layer
or sheet. If you choose to multiply them, you may make nine sheets. We
have seen twelve. All this must be done fast and lightly. Then put away
the paste to cool for ten minutes before arranging it in the dishes.
This quantity will make two pies or four tarts. In baking, let the oven
be hot, and keep up a steady heat, so the paste may not fall after it
has first risen. When pale brown, it is done.
SHELLS.--For shells take the best puff paste, and line with it large
deep plates, the size of a soup-plate. They should have broad rims.
Notch the edges of the paste handsomely with a sharp penknife, and be
careful not to plaster on, afterwards, any bits by way of mending or
rectifying an error. When baked, every patch in the border will show
itself plainly. Bake the shells entirely empty, till pale brown all
over. When cool fill them, _quite up the top_, with whatever marmalade
or stewed fruit you have prepared for the purpose. In this way (baking
them empty,) the shells are thoroughly done, and not clammy and heavy at
the bottom, as they always are when filled _before_ baking. The fruit
requires no other cooking, having been done once already. Sift white
sugar over the surface. If for company whip some cream, sweeten it, and
flavor it with lemon, orange, pine-apple, strawberry or vanilla, and
pile it on the surface of the shell before it goes to table.
Small tarts may, in this way, be baked empty, for patty-pans, and filled
with ripe fruit, such as strawberries, raspberries, or grated
pine-apple, made very sweet, and creamed on the top--or you may fill the
shells with any sort of sweetmeats, either preserves or marmalade, or
with mince-meat. Shells may be made thus, and filled with stewed
oysters, or reed-birds, cooked previously, and served up warm; or with
nicely-dressed lobster. You may make lids for them of the same paste
baked by itself on a shallow plate, and when taken off fitting well as a
cover to put on afterwards before sending to table.
BORDERS OF PASTE.--These are made of fine puff-paste cut into handsome
patterns, or wreaths of leaves or flowers. They are laid round the broad
edge of the deep plate that contains a rich pudding, such as lemon,
orange, almond, cocoa-nut, pine-apple, &c.; the dish being full down to
the bottom and up to the top, and having no paste but the border round
the edge. They must be baked in the dish on which they come to table,
and not in tin or iron, as the pudding cannot be transferred. At
handsome tables, a pudding baked with a paste _under_ it (lining the
dish,) is now seen but seldom.
Instead of wreaths, you may make a puff-paste border by laying a thick
evenly cut band of paste round the flat rim of the dish, and notching
it, forming with a penknife small squares about an inch wide, and
turning one square up and one square down alternately, _cheveux de
frize_ fashion. Or you may make the squares near two inches wide and
turn over one corner sharp, leaving the other flat. This looks pretty
when baked, if the paste is _very puff_.
LEMON PUDDING.--To make two puddings take two fine large ripe lemons,
and rub them under your hand on a table. Grate off the thin yellow rind
upon a large lump of loaf sugar. Cut the lemon, and squeeze the juice
into a saucer through a strainer, to avoid the seeds. Put half a pound
of powdered white sugar into a deep earthen pan, (including the sugar on
which you have rubbed the lemons) and cut up in it half a pound of the
best fresh butter, adding the juice. Stir them to a light cream with a
wooden spaddle, which is shorter than a mush-stick, and flattened at one
end; that end rather thin, and rather broad. Beat in a shallow pan,
(with hickory rods) six eggs, till very thick and smooth, and stir them
gradually into the mixture. Have ready some of the best puff-paste, made
in the proportion of a pint or half a pound of very nice fresh butter to
a pint or half a pound of sifted flour. Take china or white-ware dishes
with broad rims. Butter the rim, and lay round it neatly a border of the
paste. _Put no paste inside the dish beneath the mixture._ Fill each
dish to the top with the pudding mixture, and set it immediately into
the oven. It will bake in about half an hour When done, and browned on
the surface, set it to cool, and send it to table in the dish it was
baked in.
Fine puddings are now made without an under crust, but merely a handsome
border of puff-paste laid round the edge, and helped with the pudding.
Sift sugar over the surface. This quantity will make one large pudding,
or two small ones.
To almost all puddings the flavor of lemon or orange is an improvement.
A genuine _baked_ lemon pudding, (such as was introduced by the justly
celebrated Mrs. Goodfellow,) and is well known at Philadelphia dinner
parties, must have _no flour_ or bread whatever. The mixture only of
butter, sugar, and eggs, (with the proper flavoring) and when baked it
cuts down smooth and shining, like a nice custard. Made this way, they
are among the most delicious of puddings; but, of course, are not
intended for children or invalids. We have already given numerous
receipts for _plain_ family desserts. In this _chapter_ the receipts are
"for company." The author was _really_ a pupil of Mrs. Goodfellow's, and
for double the usual term, and while there took notes of every thing
that was made, it being the desire of the liberal and honest
instructress that her scholars _should learn in reality_.
ALMOND PUDDING.--Blanch in hot water a quarter of a pound of shelled
sweet and two ounces of bitter almonds, and as you blanch them throw
them into a bowl of cold water. When all are thus peeled, take them out
singly, wipe them dry in a clean napkin, and lay them on a plate. Pound
them one at a time in a marble mortar till they become a smooth paste,
adding frequently a few drops of rose-water to make them light and
preserve their whiteness, mixing the bitter almonds with the sweet. As
you pound them, take out the paste and lay it in a saucer with a
tea-spoon. Without the rose-water they will become oily and
dark-colored. Without a few bitter almonds the others will be insipid.
The almonds may be thus prepared a day before they are wanted for use.
Cut up a large quarter of a pound of fresh butter in a large quarter of
a pound of powdered sugar, and stir them together with a spaddle till
very light and creamy. Add a large wine-glass of mixed wine and brandy,
and half a grated nutmeg. Beat, till they stand alone, the whites only
of six eggs, and stir them gradually into the butter and sugar, in turn
with the pounded almonds. Stir the whole very hard at the last. Put the
mixture into a deep dish with a broad rim, and fill it up to the top,
laying a border of puff-paste all round the rim. Serve up the pudding
cool, having sifted sugar over it.
_Boiled Almond Pudding_--Is made as above; only with whole eggs, both
yolks and whites beaten together. Boil it in a _bain-marie_ or in a
thick square cloth, in a pot of boiling water. When done, turn it out
and send it to table warm. Eat it with sugar, wet with rose-water.
_Orange Pudding_--Is made exactly like lemon pudding; the ingredients
in the same proportion, and baked without an under crust, having a
border of puff-paste all round the edge, and sent to table in the dish
it was baked in. These fine-baked puddings should have no addition
whatever of bread-crumbs or flour. They should cut down smooth and
glassy.
_Boiled Lemon or Orange Pudding_--Make the foregoing mixture either with
two lemons or two oranges, adding to the other ingredients a half pint
finely-crumbled sponge cake. Boil the mixture either in a _bain-marie_
or a thick pudding cloth, and serve it up warm. For sauce, have ready
butter and sugar beaten to a cream, and flavored well with lemon or
orange, and grated nutmeg.
COCOA-NUT PUDDING.--Break up a ripe cocoa-nut. Having peeled off the
brown skin, wash all the pieces of nut in cold water, and wipe them dry
on a clean napkin. Then grate the cocoa-nut _very fine_ into a pan, till
you have a quart. In a deep pan cut up a quarter of a pound of fresh
butter, and add a very light quarter of a pound of powdered white sugar.
Stir together (with a spaddle,) the butter and sugar till they are very
light and creamy, and add a grated nutmeg. Beat, (till they stand alone)
the _whites only_ of six eggs; the yolks may be reserved for soft
custards. Stir the beaten white of egg gradually into the pan of butter
and sugar, alternately with the grated cocoa-nut, a little at a time of
each, and a glass of mixed brandy and white wine. Stir the whole very
hard. Fill with it a broad-edged deep white dish, and lay a puff-paste
border all round the rim. Bake it light brown, and when cool sift white
sugar over it, serving it up in the dish it was baked in.
_Boiled Cocoa-nut Pudding._--For this make the above mixture, and boil
it in a mould, or in a _bain-marie_, with the water in the outside
kettle. Eat it either warm or cold.
SWEET POTATO PUDDING.--Wash, boil, and peel some fine sweet potatos.
Mash them, and rub them through a coarse sieve--this will make them
loose and light. If merely _mashed_ the pudding will clod and be heavy.
In a deep pan stir to a cream a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, and
a quarter of a pound of powdered sugar; adding a grated nutmeg, a
tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon, a half glass of white wine, and a
half glass of brandy. Beat in a shallow pan three eggs, till very thick
and smooth, and stir them into the mixture of butter and sugar,
alternately with the sweet potato. At the last mix all thoroughly with a
very hard stirring. Put the mixture into a deep dish, and lay a border
of puff-paste all round the rim. Set the pudding immediately into a
rather brisk oven, and when cool sift white sugar over it. For two of
these puddings _double_ the quantities of all the ingredients.
_White Potato Pudding_--Is made exactly as above. Chestnut pudding
also--the large Spanish chestnuts, boiled, peeled, and mashed.
_Fine Pumpkin Pudding_--Also, allowing to the above ingredients a half
pint of stewed pumpkins, squeezed dry and rubbed through a sieve.
_Cashaw Pudding._--A similar pudding may be made of stewed cashaw, or
winter squash.
PINE-APPLE TART.--Take a fine large ripe pine-apple. Remove the leaves,
and quarter it without paring, standing up each quarter in a deep plate,
and grating it down till you come to the rind. Strew plenty of powdered
sugar over the grated fruit. Cover it, and let it rest for an hour. Then
put it into a porcelain kettle, and steam it in its own syrup till
perfectly soft. Have ready some empty shells of puff-paste, baked either
in patty-pans or in soup plates. When they are cool, fill them full with
the grated pine-apple; add more sugar, and lay round the rim a border of
puff-paste.
QUINCE PIES.--Wash well, pare, and core some fine ripe quinces, having
cut out all the blemishes. Put the cores and parings into a small
sauce-pan, and stew them in a little water, till all broken to pieces.
Then strain and save the quince water. Having quartered the quinces, or
sliced them in round slices, transfer them to a porcelain stew-pan, and
pour over the quinces water extracted from boiling the cores and
parings. Let them cook in this till quite soft all through. Make them
very sweet with powdered sugar, and fill with them two deep soup plates
that have been baked empty, with a puff paste border round the rims.
Fill them up to the top, (they are already cooked) and sift sugar over
them--or, you may pile on the surface of each some ice-cream. You may
cook the quinces whole, and lay one on each tart.
FINE APPLE PIES--May be made in the same manner, flavored with the
grated yellow rind and juice of a lemon. The apples should be fine juicy
pippins. If done whole, lay one on each patty-pan tart, and stick into
the core hole a slip of the yellow rind of lemon, pared so thin as to be
nearly transparent.
A MERINGUE PUDDING.--Rub off upon a large lump of _sugar_ the yellow
rind of two fine ripe lemons, and mix it with a pound of powdered loaf
sugar, adding the juice. Whip, to a stiff froth, the _whites only_ of
eight eggs; and then, gradually, beat in the sugar and lemon, adding a
heaped table-spoonful of the finest flour. Spread part of the mixture
thickly over the bottom of a deep dish, the rim of which has been
bordered with a handsome wreath of puff-paste, and baked. Lay upon it a
thick layer of stiff currant or strawberry jelly. Then fill up the
dish, and set it, a few minutes in a rather cool oven to brown slightly.
This pudding is for dinner company. If you use oranges, omit half the
grated peel.
You may flavor the meringue with vanilla. Split, and break up a small
vanilla bean, and boil it in a _very little_ cream till all the vanilla
flavor is extracted, the cream tasting of it strongly. Then strain it
well, and mix the vanilla cream with the white of egg. Or, a little
_home-made_ extract of vanilla will be still better. This is obtained by
splitting and breaking up some vanilla beans, and steeping them for a
week or two in a bottle of _absolute_ alcohol; then straining the
liquid, transferring it to a clean bottle, and keeping it closely
corked. Very little of what is called "Extract of Vanilla" is good, and
it is more expensive than to make it yourself. Also, what is generally
sold for essence of lemon is very inferior to real lemon juice.
JELLY OR MARMALADE PUDDING.--Divide the paste equally and line two
puff-paste shells. Bake them empty; and while baking, beat till very
light and thick, the yolks of six eggs. Mix the beaten egg with a
liberal portion of any nice kind of fruit, jelly or marmalade, and boil
it ten minutes in a sauce-pan, stirring it well. Take it up and set it
away to cool. When cold, fill with it the baked shells. Fill them up to
the top with the mixture, and before they go to table sift powdered
white sugar over the surface of the puddings.
CHEESE PUDDING.--Take a quarter of a pound of excellent cheese; rich,
but not strong or old. Cut it in small bits, and then beat it (a little
at a time) in a marble mortar. Add a quarter of a pound of the best
fresh butter. Cut it up, and pound it in the mortar with the cheese,
till perfectly smooth and well mixed. Beat five eggs till very thick and
smooth. Mix them, gradually, with the cheese and butter. Put the mixture
into a deep dish with a rim. Have ready some puff-paste, and lay a broad
border of it all round the edge, ornamenting it handsomely. Set it
immediately into a moderate oven, and bake it till the paste is browned,
and has risen very high all round the edge of the dish. Sift white sugar
over it before it goes to table.
It is intended that the cheese taste shall predominate. But, if
preferred, you may make the mixture very sweet by adding powdered sugar;
it may be seasoned with nutmeg and mace. Either way is good.
It may be baked in small patty-pans, lined at the bottom and sides with
puff-paste. Remove them from the tins as soon as they come out of the
oven, and place them on a large dish.
This pudding is very nice made of rich fresh cream cheese; the rind, of
course, being pared off. Cream cheese pudding will require sugar and
spice--that is, a heaped tea-spoonful of powdered nutmeg, mace, and
cinnamon, all mixed; two ounces of fresh butter, and six eggs.
FLORENDINES.--These are made of any sort of fruit, stewed in its own
juice or in sweetmeat syrup, but when practicable, without any water. A
pint of this fruit is mixed with half a pint of fresh butter, and half a
pint of powdered sugar stirred together to a light cream, and then mixed
with three well-beaten eggs, and the fruit stirred in alternately with
the beaten butter and sugar. Have ready baked shells of puff-paste,
ready to be filled with the mixture. The fruit may be apples, quinces,
peaches, gooseberries, currants, raspberries. Cranberries, gooseberries,
and currants, require additional sugar, as they are naturally very sour.
If you use plums or cherries for any sort of cooking, stone them first.
PEACH PIES.--Take a sufficient number of fine juicy freestone peaches.
Clingstones are very hard and insipid when raw, and still more tasteless
when cooked. Peel the peaches and quarter them, having removed the
stones. Stew them in their own juice, and while hot make them very sweet
with white sugar. When you put them to stew, place among them a bunch of
fresh green peach leaves, to be removed when the peaches are done. Or,
cook with them some peach kernels, blanched in hot water, to be picked
out when the stewing is finished. Peach leaves or kernels communicate a
flavor which to most persons is pleasant. Have ready some puff-paste
shells; baked, and beginning to cool. Fill them to the top with the
stewed peaches, and pile on them some whipped cream sweetened, and
flavored with noyau or rose-water.
A FRUIT CHARLOTTE.--Have ready a large fresh almond sponge cake, or lady
cake. Cut a round or circular piece to fit the bottom of a great glass
bowl. Also, about twelve or fourteen oblong slices, to stand up all
round to line the sides. Have ready two quarts or more of ripe
strawberries or raspberries. Mash the fruit to a jam, and having made it
very sweet with white sugar, spread it thickly over the pieces of cake.
Lay the circular piece of cake in the bottom of the bowl and stand up
the others all round the sides, all close to each other or wrapping over
a little. Proceed to fill the bowl with the fruit; and when half way up,
put on another layer of sliced cake spread with fruit. Then fill up with
fruit to the top. Have ready a quart of whipped cream flavored with
vanilla or bitter almonds. Heap it high on the bowl, and set it in a
cool place till it goes to table. This is a very fine article for a nice
dessert, and can be prepared at a short notice, and without going down
stairs, as it requires no cooking.
For the whipped cream, you may pile the bowl with any sort of white
ice-cream ready made, and if there is no fresh fruit in season,
substitute marmalade or fruit jelly.
If you have no large bowl you may serve up this charlotte in glass or
china saucers, laying in the bottom of each a circular slice of cake
spread over with ripe fruit or marmalade. Fill up with the same, and
finish with whipped cream, or ice-cream heaped on the top.
VANILLA CUSTARDS.--Split a vanilla bean, break it into small bits, and
boil it in a half pint of milk, till all the flavor of the vanilla is
extracted. Strain it through a very fine strainer, cover it, and set it
aside. Boil a quart of rich milk, and when it comes to a boil set it
away to cool. Beat eight eggs till very thick and smooth, (and when the
milk is cold) add that which is flavored with vanilla, and stir it in
gradually with a quarter of a pound of powdered white sugar. Divide the
mixture in custard cups, (filling them to the top) and set them into an
iron bake-pan filled with boiling water, reaching nearly to the the rim
of the cups. Put them into a moderate oven, and bake them a pale brown.
When cool, grate nutmeg, or lay a maccaroon on the top over each. Never
send custards warm to table. If well made, and baked not too much, there
will be no whey at the bottom of the cups, and the custards will be
smooth and firm all through, and have no spongy holes in them.
To make soft custards, omit the whites of all the eggs, and have a
double quantity of yolks. The whites may be used for almond or cocoa-nut
pudding, for lady cake, for meringue or icing, and for kisses or
maccaroons.
_Orange Custards._--Prepare four large ripe oranges, by rolling them
under your hand on a table to increase the juice. Use none of the peel
for these custards, but reserve it for something else. Beat in a shallow
pan twelve eggs till thick and smooth. Mix the orange juice with a
wineglass of cold water, and stir it gradually into the beaten egg, with
a small tumblerful of powdered sugar. There is no milk in these
custards. Divide them into custard cups, and beat them ten minutes. When
cold, grate nutmeg over them.
_Lemon Custard_--Is made in the above manner, with the juice of four
large lemons, (omitting the rind) a small wineglass of cold water,
twelve beaten eggs, and a quarter of a pound of powdered sugar. Any of
these fine custards may be boiled in a _bain-marie_, with water in the
outside kettle, and there is no way better. When boiled and cool, grate
in some nutmeg, and serve up the custard in a glass or china pitcher,
with saucers of the same to eat it from, or divide it in small glass
cups with handles to them.
Lemon or orange custards are very fine. They are made without milk.
_Chocolate Custard._--Make some strong chocolate, allowing a quarter of
a pound of the best, (which is Baker's prepared cocoa) to a quart of
rich milk; first mixing the milk and scraped chocolate to a smooth
paste. Boil them together a quarter of an hour. While warm, stir in two
or three table-spoonfuls of loaf sugar. Then set it away to cool. Have
ready eight well-beaten eggs, and stir them gradually into the
chocolate. Bake the mixture in cups, and serve them up with a chocolate
maccaroon laid on the top of each.
_Almond and Maccaroon Custard._--Boil in half a pint of rich milk a
handful of _bitter_ almonds, blanched and broken up. When highly
flavored, strain that milk and set it aside. Boil a quart of milk by
itself, and when cold stir in, gradually, eight well beaten eggs, adding
the flavored milk, and half a pint of powdered sugar. Stir the whole
very hard at the last. Bake it in cups, and when done and cold, lay on
the top of each a maccaroon with four others placed around it; five
maccaroons to each custard. Or, if the maccaroons are made in the house,
let every one be large enough to cover the top of the custard like a
lid.