Mace; and a quarter of a pound of Sugar and Salt, and strew it on the
flower. Then take the yolks of eight Eggs well beaten, with a spoonful and
half of rose water; Then take a pint of thick Cream, and a pound of Butter;
Melt them together, and when it is so, take three quarters of a pint of
Ale-yest, and mingle the yest and Eggs together. Then take the warm liquor,
and mingle all together; when you have done, take all, and pour it in the
bowl, and so cover the flower over the liquor; then cover the pan with a
Napkin, and when it is risen, take four pounds of Currants, well washed and
dryed, and half a pound of Raisins of the Sun sliced, and let them be well
dryed and hot, and so stir them in. When it is risen, have your oven hot
against the Cake is made; let it stand three quarters of an hour. When it
is half baked, Ice it over with fine Sugar and Rose-water, and the whites
of Eggs, and Musk and Ambergreece.
When you mingle your yest and Eggs together for the Cake, put Musk and
Amber to that.
TO MAKE A PLUMB-CAKE
Take a peck of flower, and put it in half. Then take two quarts of good
Ale-yest, and strain it into half the flower, and some new milk boiled, and
almost cold again; make it into a very light paste, and set it before the
fire to rise; Then take five pound of Butter, and melt it in a skillet,
with a quarter of a pint of Rose-water; when your paste is risen, and your
oven almost hot, which will be by this time, take your paste from the fire,
and break it into small pieces, and take your other part of flower, and
strew it round your paste; Then take the melted Butter, and put it to the
past, and by degrees work the paste and flower together, till you have
mingled all very well. Take six Nutmegs, some Cinnamon and Mace well
beaten, and two pound of Sugar, and strew it into the Paste, as they are a
working it. Take three pounds of Raisins stoned, and twelve pounds of
Currants very well washed and dryed again; one pound of Dates sliced; half
a pound of green Citron dryed and sliced very thin; strew all these into
the paste, till it have received them all; Then let your oven be ready, and
make up your Cake, and set it into the oven; but you must have a great
care, it doth not take cold. Then to Ice it, take a pound and half of
double refined Sugar beaten and searsed; The whites of three Eggs new-laid,
and a little Orange-flower-water, with a little musk and Ambergreece,
beaten and searsed, and put to your sugar; Then strew your Sugar into the
Eggs, and beat it in a stone Mortar with a Woodden Pestel, till it be as
white as snow, which will be by that time the Cake is baked; Then draw it
to the ovens mouth, and drop it on, in what form you will; let it stand a
little again in the oven to harden.
TO MAKE AN EXCELLENT CAKE
To a Peck of fine flower, take six pounds of fresh butter, which must be
tenderly melted, ten pounds of Currants, of Cloves and Mace, half an ounce
of each, an ounce of Cinnamon, half an ounce of Nutmegs, four ounces of
Sugar, one pint of Sack mixed with a quart at least of thick barm of Ale
(as soon as it is settled, to have the thick fall to the bottom, which will
be, when it is about two days old) half a pint of Rose-water; half a
quarter of an ounce of Saffron. Then make your paste, strewing the spices,
finely beaten, upon the flower: Then put the melted butter (but even just
melted) to it; then the barm, and other liquors: and put it into the oven
well heated presently. For the better baking of it, put it in a hoop, and
let it stand in the oven one hour and half. You Ice the Cake with the
whites of two Eggs, a small quantity of Rose-water, and some Sugar.
TO MAKE BISKET
To half a peck of flower, take three spoonfuls of barm, two ounces of
seeds; Aniseeds or Fennel-seeds. Make the paste very stiff, with nothing
but water, and dry it (they must not have so much heat, as to make them
rise, but only dry by degrees; as in an oven after Manchet is taken out, or
a gentle stove) in flat Cakes very well in an oven or stove.
TO MAKE A CARAWAY-CAKE
Take three pound and a half of the finest flower and dry it in an oven; one
pound and a half of sweet butter, and mix it with the flower, until it be
crumbled very small, that none of it be seen; Then take three quarters of a
pint of new Ale-yeast, and half a pint of Sack, and half a pint of new
milk; six spoonfuls of Rose-water, four yolks, and two whites of Eggs; Then
let it lie before the fire half an hour or more. And when you go to make it
up, put in three quarters of a pound of Caraway-Confits, and a pound and
half of biskets. Put it into the oven, and let it stand an hour and half.
ANOTHER VERY GOOD CAKE
Take four quarts of fine flower, two pound and half of butter, three
quarters of a pound of Sugar, four Nutmegs; a little Mace; a pound of
Almonds finely beaten, half a pint of Sack, a pint of good Ale-yest, a pint
of boiled Cream, twelve yolks, and four whites of Eggs; four pound of
Currants. When you have wrought all these into a very fine past, let it be
kept warm before the fire half an hour, before you set it into the oven. If
you please, you may put into it, two pound of Raisins of the Sun stoned and
quartered. Let your oven be of a temperate heat, and let your Cake stand
therein two hours and a half, before you Ice it; and afterwards only to
harden the Ice. The Ice for this Cake is made thus: Take the whites of
three new laid Eggs, and three quarters of a pound of fine Sugar finely
beaten; beat it well together with the whites of the Eggs, and Ice the
Cake. If you please you may add a little Musk or Ambergreece.
EXCELLENT SMALL CAKES
Take three pound of very fine flower well dryed by the fire, and put to it
a pound and half of loaf Sugar sifted in a very fine sieve and dryed; Three
pounds of Currants well washed and dryed in a cloth and set by the fire;
When your flower is well mixed with the Sugar and Currants, you must put in
it a pound and half of unmelted butter, ten spoonfuls of Cream, with the
yolks of three new-laid Eggs beat with it, one Nutmeg; and if you please,
three spoonfuls of Sack. When you have wrought your paste well, you must
put it in a cloth, and set it in a dish before the fire, till it be through
warm. Then make them up in little Cakes, and prick them full of holes; you
must bake them in a quick oven unclosed. Afterwards Ice them over with
Sugar. The Cakes should be about the bigness of a hand-breadth and thin: of
the cise of the Sugar Cakes sold at Barnet.
MY LORD OF DENBIGH'S ALMOND MARCH-PANE
Blanch Nut-Kernels from the Husks in the best manner you can. Then pun them
with a due proportion of Sugar, and a little Orange-flower, or Rose-water.
When it is in a fitting uniform paste, make it into round Cakes, about the
bigness of your hand, or a little larger, and about a finger thick; and lay
every one upon a fine paper cut fit to it; which lay upon a table. You must
have a pan like a tourtiere, made to contain coals on the top, that is
flat, with edges round about to hold in the coals, which set over the
Cakes, with fire upon it. Let this remain upon the Cakes, till you
conceive, it hath dryed them sufficiently for once; which may be within a
quarter of an hour; but you take it off two or three times in that time, to
see you scorch not the outside, but only dry it a little. Then remove it to
others, that lye by them; and pull the Papers from the first, and turn them
upon new Papers. When the others are dryed enough, remove the pan back to
the first, to dry their other side: which being enough, remove it back to
the second, that by this time are turned, and laid upon new Papers. Repeat
this turning the Cakes, and changing the Pan, till they are sufficiently
dry: which you must not do all at once, least you scorch them: and though
the outside be dry, the inside must be very moist and tender. Then you must
Ice them thus: Make a thick pap with Orange flower or Rose-water, and
purest white Sugar: a little of the whites of Eggs, not above half a
spoonful of that Oyl of Eggs, to a Porrenger full of thick Pap, beaten
exceeding well with it, and a little juyce of Limons. Lay this smooth upon
the Cakes with a Knife, and smoothen it with a feather. Then set the pan
over them to dry them. Which being if there be any unevenness, or cracks or
discolouring, lay on a little more of that Mortar, and dry it as before.
Repeat this, till it be as clear, and smooth, and white, as you would have
it. Then turn the other sides, and do the like to them. You must take care,
not to scorch them: for then they would look yellow or red, and they must
be pure, white and smooth like Silver between polished and matte, or like a
looking Glass. This Coat preserves the substance of the Cakes within, the
longer moist. You may beat dissolved Amber, or Essence of Cinnamon, with
them.
TO MAKE SLIPP COAT CHEESE
According to the bigness of your moulds proportion your stroakings for your
Cheese-curds. To six quarts of stroakings, take a pint of Springwater: if
the weather be hot, then let the water be cold, and before you put it into
the stroakings, let them stand a while to cool after they are milked, and
then put in the water with a little Salt first stirred in it: and having
stirred it well together, let it stand a little while, and then put in
about two good spoonfuls of Runnet, stir it well together, and cover it
with a fair linnen-cloth, and when it is become hard like a thick jelly,
with a skimming-dish lay it gently into the moulds, and as it sinks down
into the moulds, fill it still up again, till all be in, which will require
some three or four hours time. Then lay a clean fine cloth into another
mould of the same cise, and turn it into it, and then turn the skirts of
the cloth over it, and lay upon that a thin board, and upon that as much
weight, as with the board may make two pound or thereabouts. And about an
hour after, lay another clean cloth into the other mould, and turn the
Cheese into that; then lay upon the board so much, as will make it six or
seven pound weight; and thus continue turning of it till night: then take
away the weight, and lay it no more on it; then take a very small quantity
of Salt finely beaten, and sprinkle the Cheese all over with it as lightly
as can be imagined. Next morning turn it into another dry cloth, and let it
lye out of the mould upon a plain board, and change it as often as it wets
the cloth, which must be three or four times a day: when it is so dry, that
it wets the cloth no more, lay it upon a bed of green-rushes, and lay a row
upon it; but be sure to pick the bents clean off, and lay them even all one
way: if you cannot get good rushes, take nettles or grass. If the weather
is cold, cover them with a linnen and woollen cloth; in case you cannot get
stroakings, take five quarts of new Milk, and one of Cream. If the weather
be cold, heat the water that you put to the stroakings. Turn the Cheese
every day, and put to it fresh of whatsoever you keep it in. They are
usually ripe in ten days.
TO MAKE SLIPP-COAT-CHEESE
Master Phillips his Method and proportions in making slippe-coat Cheese,
are these. Take six wine quarts of stroakings, and two quarts of Cream;
mingle these well together, and let them stand in a bowl, till they are
cold. Then power upon them three pints of boiling fair water, and mingle
them well together; then let them stand, till they are almost cold, colder
then milk-warm. Then put to it a moderate quantity of Runnet, made with
fair water (not whey, or any other thing then water; this is an important
point), and let it stand till it come. Have a care not to break the Curds,
nor ever to touch them with your hands, but only with your skimming dish.
In due time lade the Curds with the dish, into a thin fine Napkin, held up
by two persons, that the whey may run from them through the bunt of the
Napkin, which you rowl gently about, that the Curds may dry without
breaking. When the whey is well drained out, put the Curds as whole as you
can into the Cheese-fat, upon a napkin, in the fat. Change the Napkin, and
turn the Cheese every quarter of an hour, and less, for ten, twelve or
fourteen times; that is, still as soon as you perceive the Napkin wet with
the whay running from the Curds. Then press it with a half pound weight for
two or three hours. Then add half a pound more for as long time, then
another half pound for as long, and lastly another half pound, which is two
pounds in all; which weight must never be exceeded. The next day, (when
about twenty four hours are past in all) salt your Cheese moderately with
white Salt, and then turn it but three or four times a day, and keep it in
a cotton cloth, which will make it mellow and sweet, not rank, and will
preserve the coat smooth. It may be ready to eat in about twelve days. Some
lay it to ripen in dock-leaves, and it is not amiss; but that in rain they
will be wet, which moulds the Cheese. Others in flat fit boxes of wood,
turning them, as is said, three or four times a day. But a cotton cloth is
best. This quantity is for a round large Cheese, of about the bigness of a
sale ten peny Cheese, a good fingers-breadth thick. Long broad grass
ripeneth them well, and sucketh out the moisture. Rushes are good also.
They are hot, but dry not the moisture so well.
My Lady of Middlesex makes excellent slipp-coat Cheese of good morning
milk, putting Cream to it. A quart of Cream is the proportion she useth to
as much milk, as both together make a large round Cheese of the bigness of
an ordinary Tart-plate, or Cheese-plate; as big as an ordinary soft cheese,
that the Market-women sell for ten pence. Thus for want of stroakings at
London, you may take one part of Cream to five or six of morning milk, and
for the rest proceed as with stroakings; and these will prove as good.
SLIPP-COAT CHEESE
Take three quarts of the last of the stroakings of as many Cows as you
have; keep it covered, that it may continue warm; put to it a skimming
dishful of Spring-water; then put in two spoonfuls of Runnet, so let it
stand until it be hard come: when it is hard come, set your fat on the
bottome of a hair-sieve, take it up by degrees, but break it not; when you
have laid it all in the fat, take a fine cloth, and lay it over the Cheese,
and work it in about the sides, with the back of a Knife; then lay a board
on it, for half an hour: after half an hour, set on the board an half pound
stone, so let it stand two hours; then turn it on that board, and let the
cloth be both under and over it, then pour it into the fat again; Then lay
a pound and half weight on it; Two hours after turn it again on a dry
cloth, and salt it, then set on it two pound weight, and let it stand until
the next morning. Then turn it out of the Cheese-fat, on a dry board, and
so keep it with turning on dry boards three days. In case it run abroad,
you must set it up with wedges; when it begins to stiffen, lay green grass
or rushes upon it: when it is stiff enough, let rushes be laid both under
and over it. If this Cheese be rightly made, and the weather good to dry
it, it will be ready in eight days: but in case it doth not dry well, you
must lay it on linnen-cloth, and woollen upon it, to hasten the ripening of
it.
TO MAKE A SCALDED CHEESE
Take six gallons of new milk: put to it two quarts of the evening Cream;
then put to it good runnet for winter Cheese; let it stand, till it be even
well, then sink it as long as you can get any whey out: then put it into
your fat, and set it in the press, and let it stand half an hour: in this
time turn it once. When you take it out of the Press, set on the fire two
gallons of the same whey; then put your Cheese in a big bowl, break the
Curd as small with your hands as you do your Cheese-cakes: when your whey
is scalding hot, take off the scum: lay your strainer over the Curd, and
put in your whey: take a slice, and stir up your Curd, that it may scald
all alike: put in as much whey as will cover it well: if you find that
cold, put it out, and put in more to it that is hot. Stir it as before:
then cover it with a linnen and woollen cloth: then set some new whey on
the fire, put in your Cheese-fat and suter and cloth. After three quarters
of an hour, take up the Curd, and put it into the Cheese fat, as fast, as
two can work it in: then put it into the hot cloth, and set it into the
Press. Have a care to look to it, and after a while turn it, and so keep it
in the press with turning, till the next day: then take it forth and Salt
it.
THE CREAM-COURDS
Strain your Whey, and set it on the fire: make a clear and gentle fire
under the kettle: as they rise, put in whey, so continuing, till they are
ready to skim. Then take your skimmer, and put them on the bottom of a
hair-sieve: so let them drain till they are cold. Then take them off, and
put them into a bason, and beat them with three or four spoonfuls of Cream
and Sugar.
SAVOURY TOSTED OR MELTED CHEESE
Cut pieces of quick, fat, rich, well tasted cheese, (as the best of Brye,
Cheshire, &c. or sharp thick Cream-Cheese) into a dish of thick beaten
melted Butter, that hath served for Sparages or the like, or pease, or
other boiled Sallet, or ragout of meat, or gravy of Mutton: and, if you
will, Chop some of the Asparages among it, or slices of Gambon of Bacon, or
fresh-collops, or Onions, or Sibboulets, or Anchovis, and set all this to
melt upon a Chafing-dish of Coals, and stir all well together, to
Incorporate them; and when all is of an equal consistence, strew some gross
White-Pepper on it, and eat it with tosts or crusts of White-bread. You may
scorch it at the top with a hot Fire-Shovel.
TO FEED CHICKEN
First give them for two days paste made of Barley Meal and Milk with
Clyster Sugar to scowre them. Then feed them with nothing but hashed
Raisins of the Sun. The less drink they have, the better it is: for it
washeth away their fat; but that little they have, let it be broken Beer;
Milk were as good or better; but then you must be careful to have it
always sweet in their trough, and no sowerness there to turn the Milk.
They will be prodigiously fat in about twelve days: And you must kill them,
when they are at their height: Else they will soon fall back, and grow fat
no more.
Others make their Paste of Barley meal with Milk and a little course Sugar,
and mingle with it a little (about an eight part) of powder of green Glass
beaten exceeding small. Give this only for two days to cleanse their
stomacks. Then feed them with paste of Barley-meal, made sometimes with
Milk and Sugar, and sometimes with the fat skimmed off from the pot, giving
them drink as above.
Others make a pretty stiff paste for them with Barley-meal (a little of the
coursest bran sifted from it) and the fat scummed off from the boiling pot,
be it of Beef (even salted) or Mutton, &c. Lay this before them for their
food for four days. Then give them still the same, but mingled with a
little powder of Glass for 4 or five days more. In which time they will be
extremely fat and good. For their drink, give them the droppings of good
Ale or good Beer. When you eat them, you will find some of the powder of
glass in their stomacks, i.e. gizzards.
TO FEED POULTRY
My Lady Fanshaws way of feeding Capons, Pullets, Hens, Chickens or Turkies,
is thus. Have Coops, wherein every fowl is a part, and not room to turn in,
and means to cleanse daily the ordure behind them, and two troughs; for
before that, one may be scalding and drying the day the other is used, and
before every fowl one partition for meat, another for drink. All their
Meat is this: Boil Barley in water, till it be tender, keep some so, and
another parcel of it boil with Milk, and another with strong Ale. Let them
be boiled as wheat that is creed. Use them different days for variety, to
get the fowl appetite. Lay it in their trough, with some Brown-Sugar
mingled with it. In the partition for Liquor, let them have water or strong
Ale to drink. They will be very drunk and sleep; then eat again. Let a
Candle stand all night over the Coop, and then they will eat much of the
night. With this course they will be prodigiously fat in a fortnight. Be
sure to keep them very sweet. This maketh the taste pure.
ANOTHER WAY OF FEEDING CHICKEN
Take Barley meal, and with droppings of small Ale, (or Ale it self) make it
into a consistence of batter for Pan-cakes. Let this be all their food.
Which put into the troughs before them, renewing it thrice a day, morning,
noon and evening; making their troughs very clean every time, and keeping
their Coops always very clean and sweet. This is to serve them for drink as
well as meat, and no other drink be given them. Feed them thus six days;
the seventh give them nothing in their troughs but powder of brick searced,
which scowreth and cleanseth them much, and makes their flesh exceeding
white. The next day fall to their former food for six days more, and the
seventh again to powder of Brick. Then again to barley Meal and Ale. Thus
they will be exceeding fat in fifteen days, and purely white and sweet.
TO FATTEN YOUNG CHICKENS IN A WONDERFULL DEGREE
Boil Rice in Milk till it be very tender and Pulpy, as when you make Milk
Potage. It must be thick, almost so thick, that a spoon may stand an-end in
it. Sweeten this very well with ordinary Sugar. Put this into their troughs
where they feed, that they may be always eating of it. It must be made
fresh every day. Their drink must be onely Milk, in another little trough
by their meat-trough. Let a candle (fitly disposed) stand by them all
night; for seeing their meat, they will eat all night long. You put the
Chicken up, as soon as they can feed of themselves; which will be within a
day or two after they are hatched, and in twelve days, or a fortnight, they
will be prodigiously fat; but after they have come to their height, they
will presently fall back. Therefore they must be eaten as soon as they are
come to their height. Their Pen or Coop must be contrived so, that the Hen
(who must be with them, to sit over them) may not go at liberty to eat away
their meat, but be kept to her own diet, in a part of the Coop that she
cannot get out of. But the Chicken must have liberty to go from her to
other parts of the Coop, where they may eat their own meat, and come in
again to the Hen, to be warmed by her, at their pleasure. You must be
careful to keep their Coop very clean.
TO FEED CHICKEN
Fatten your Chicken the first week with Oatmeal scalded in Milk; the second
with Rice and Sugar in Milk. In a fortnight they will be prodigiously fat.
It is good to give them sometimes a little Gravel, or powder of Glass, to
cleanse their maws, and give them appetite.
If you put a little bran with their meat, it will keep their maws clean,
and give them appetite.
ANOTHER EXCELLENT WAY TO FATTEN CHICKEN
Boil white bread in Milk, as though you were to eat it; but make it thick
of the bread, which is sliced into it in thin slices, not so thick as if it
were to make a pudding; but so, that when the bread is eaten out, there may
some liquid milk remain for the Chicken to drink; or that at first you may
take up some liquid Milk in a spoon, if you industriously avoid the bread:
sweeten very well this potage with good Kitchin Sugar of six pence a pound;
so put it into the trough before them. Put there but a little at a time,
(two or three spoonfuls) that you may not clog them, and feed them five
times a day, between their wakening in the morning, and their roosting at
night. Give them no other drink; the Milk that remaineth after they have
eaten the bread, is sufficient; neither give them Gravel, or ought else.
Keep their Coops very clean, as also their troughs, cleansing them very
well every morning. To half a dozen very little Chickens, little bigger
then black-birds, an ordinary porenger full every day may serve. And in
eight days they will be prodigiously fat, one peny loaf, and less then two
quarts of Milk and about half a pound of Sugar will serve little ones the
whole time. Bigger Chickens will require more, and two or three days longer
time. When any of them are at their height of fat, you must eat them; for
if they live longer, they will fall back, and grow lean. Be sure to make
their potage very sweet.
AN EXCELLENT WAY TO CRAM CHICKEN
Stone a pound of Raisins of the Sun, and beat them in a Mortar to Pulp;
pour a quart of Milk upon them, and let them soak so all night. Next
morning stir them well together, and put to them so much Crums of Grated
stale white bread as to bring it to a soft paste, work all well together,
and lay it in the trough before the Chicken (which must not be above six in
a pen, and keep it very clean) and let a candle be by them all night. The
delight of this meat will make them eat continually; and they will be so
fat (when they are but of the bigness of a Black-bird) that they will not
be able to stand, but lie down upon their bellies to eat.
TO FEED PARTRIDGES THAT YOU HAVE TAKEN WILDE