which with great propriety is denominated 'the staff of life.' The next
to this is Meat, which though not alike essential, is of great
importance in strengthening and invigorating the human frame. The former
of these constituting the principal food of great numbers, and a part of
the sustenance of all people, it is highly necessary to attend carefully
to the ingredients of which it is composed, and to the manner in which
it is prepared. A person's health must inevitably be injured by bad corn
and flour, and even by what is good, when improperly prepared. The best
flour is often made into bad bread by not suffering it to rise
sufficiently; by not kneading it well, by not baking it enough, and by
keeping it too long. Mixing other substances with the flour also injures
the quality of the bread in a very high degree. These faults have a bad
effect on those who generally eat such bread, but the injury is still
more serious to children and weakly persons. Where the flour is
corrupted, the use of it in every other article of food, will of course
be as unwholesome as in that of bread. The mere exposure to the air will
evaporate and deaden all flour, though the grain may never have passed
through any fermentation or digestion; as in the instance of wheat
flour, the strongest and the best of any other. For this reason, flour
which has been ground five or six weeks, or longer, though it be kept
close in sacks or barrels, will not make so sweet a loaf, nor one so
moist and pleasant, as that which is newly ground. Hence all bread made
in London eats drier and harsher than bread in the country, which is
made within a few days after the grinding of the wheat. All grains
which are ground, ought therefore to be used as soon afterwards as
possible. But this is not the most profitable to the dealers in meal, as
meal newly ground will not part so freely from the bran, nor
consequently yield so much flour, as when it lies a certain time after
the grinding; for this disposes the branny and floury parts to give way
from each other, and thus they separate easier and more completely than
when dressed immediately. The flour also then looks finer, but the bread
made of such meal is not of so good a quality as that made of meal fresh
ground. All sorts of grain kept entire, will remain sound and good for a
long time: but flour will in a comparatively short time, corrupt, and
generate worms. This therefore requires peculiar attention, or much loss
and injury may be sustained. The health of mankind depends in great
measure on the good or bad preparation of food, and on the purity of all
sorts of provisions: and grain being the most essential article of
sustenance, very much depends on the conduct of millers, bakers, and
mealmen. Those who acquit themselves honestly in these vocations are
entitled to a fair profit, and the goodwill of their fellow-men: but
such as betray the confidence reposed in them, by corrupting or
withholding it when needed, are undoubtedly amongst the worst enemies of
mankind. So far as health is concerned, bread made with leaven is
preferable to that made with yeast; the sour quality of leaven is more
agreeable to the ferment of the stomach than yeast; it is also easier of
digestion, and more cleansing. It opens the vessels, and gives a healthy
appetite; and a little use will make it familiar and pleasant to the
eater. This bread however seldom agrees with weak stomachs, especially
such as are liable to acidity and heartburn. One of the best kinds of
bread for sickly people, is made of wheaten flour, the coarse or husky
bran being taken out, but not finely dressed; otherwise it would be dry,
and obstructing to the stomach. The inner skin or branny parts of wheat
contain a moisty quality, which is opening and cleansing, while the fine
floury parts afford more nourishment. Bread therefore of a middling
quality is the wholesomest, and the best. Mixing in much salt is
injurious, from the change it occasions in bread of every description.
Finding no matter liable to putrefaction to work on, it acts upon the
best qualities of the flour, which it alters and corrupts. Hence, when
bread is intended to be kept a considerable time, as biscuits for a long
voyage, no salt is put into it. But bread for common use will admit of a
moderate portion of salt. It may be remarked however, that bread,
notwithstanding it is so excellent with meat, milk, and vegetables, is
not so substantial and nourishing as flour, when prepared in porridges
and other articles. To have good bread, it should not be baked in too
close an oven, but a free passage should be left for the air. The best
way is to make it into thin cakes, and bake them on a stone, which many
in the northern counties use for that purpose, making a wood fire under
it. This sort of bread is sweeter, of a more innocent taste, and far
easier of digestion, than bread baked the common way in ovens. In the
same manner cakes may be made of any kind of grain, such as rye, oats,
or barley, and will be found more wholesome and nourishing, and more
agreeable to nature, than bread made in the usual manner. Oat cakes are
often preferred to those made of wheat flour, as they tend to open the
body, and are rather warmer, to cold and weak stomachs. Barley is not so
nourishing, and requires more preparation to render it digestible, than
the other kinds of grain. Cakes, biscuits, muffins, buns, crumpets, and
small bread, made with eggs, butter, or sugar, seldom agree with
delicate persons. Biscuits made without leaven, yeast, butter, or sugar,
are more difficult of digestion, than bread when it is fermented. Where
bread is fixed to a standard weight and price, bakers are very apt to
mix alum and pearlash with it, for the purpose of hastening its rising,
and of encreasing its weight, by causing it to retain its moisture. If a
piece of bread be soaked in water, and turns the juice of a red cabbage
into a green colour, it is a proof that it contains an alkali or earthy
substance, which is most probably pearlash. It is said that a compound
salt is clandestinely sold in London, under the name of baker's salt,
and is composed of the above ingredients. When there is reason to
suspect that bread is adulterated with alum, it may be detected thus.
Cut about a pound of bread into an earthen vessel, pour upon it a quart
of boiling water, and let it stand till cold. Strain the liquor off
gently through a piece of fine linen, boil it down to about a wine glass
full, and set it by to cool. If there be a mixture of alum, it will form
itself into crystals. The observance of the following rules may be
considered as essential to the making of good bread. The corn must be
sound and clean, and newly ground, and not contaminated with any
extraneous mixtures. To make it easy of digestion it should be leavened,
and moderately seasoned with salt. Let it rise for several hours, and be
well wrought and kneaded with the hands. It must be well baked, but
neither over nor under-done. If baked too little, the bread will be
heavy, clammy, and unwholesome: if too much, its strength and goodness
will be consumed. In general, bread should not be eaten hot; it is then
more viscid, and harder of digestion. Bread is in its best state the
first and second day after it is baked. Economical bread, or bread of an
inferior quality, depraved by other mixtures, has frequently been
recommended to poor people in times of scarcity; but except where
absolute necessity exists, this is a kind of policy that cannot be too
severely condemned. The labouring classes, whose dependence is almost
entirely upon bread, ought to be provided with what is of the purest and
most nutricious quality, and at a reasonable price. They might then live
upon their labour, and in health and activity would feel that labour
itself was sweet. If potatoes, rice, or any other ingredients are to be
mixed with the bread, to lower its nutricious qualities, let it not be
offered to the labourer; but if economy of this kind be required, let it
be exercised by those whose eyes are standing out with fatness, and to
whom a sparer diet might be beneficial.--MEAT in general, as well as all
other kinds of food, is nourishing or otherwise, according to its
quality, and the manner in which it is prepared. There are peculiar
constitutions, or particular diseases and periods of life, when animal
food is highly detrimental; and others again, when it is essentially
necessary; but it is the general use of it, and not these exceptions,
that will be the subject of the following observations. As a part of our
habitual diet, the main points to be attended to are, the kinds of
animal food, and the modes of dressing it, which are most to be
recommended. A choice of meat is desirable, but if the animals subject
to this choice be neither sound nor healthy, it is of little consequence
which kind is preferred, for they, are alike unwholesome. It is proper
therefore to avoid the flesh of all such as are fatted in confinement,
or upon pernicious substances, which can never make wholesome food. Oil
cakes and rank vegetables, with want of air and exercise, will produce
such sort of meat as will shew immediately from its appearance, that it
must be unwholesome. Animals may eat rancid fulsome food, and grow fat
upon it, and yet the meat they produce may be highly offensive. Hunger
and custom will induce the eating of revolting substances, both in the
brute and human species; and growing fat is by no means a certain sign
of health. On the contrary, it is frequently the symptom of a gross
habit, and a tendency to disease. The distinct effects of various kinds
of food upon animals, are very obvious in the instance of milch cows.
Grass, hay, straw, grains, turnips, and oil cakes, produce milk of such
different qualities as must be at once distinguished; and the preference
to that where cows are fed upon grass or hay, and next to them straw,
appears very decided. The inference would be fair, that it must be the
same with respect to flesh, even if it were less obvious than it is. It
is an unwise economy, in the management of cows, that withholds from
them a sufficient quantity of the best and most nourishing food. If duly
appreciated, the quality of milk is even of superior importance to that
of flesh, from its general excellence and utility as an article of food.
If milk was plentiful and good, the want of meat would in many instances
not be felt, and in others, the consumption of it might be lessened with
great advantage. To confine cows with a view to increase their supply of
milk, is as injurious to the quality of it, as the confinement of
animals is in other instances. The over feeding them also with a similar
view, is an injurious practice. Cleanliness too is no less essential to
keeping them in a wholesome state, than to animals intended to be
slaughtered. It is no uncommon effect of confining and cramming
animals, that they become diseased in the liver, besides acquiring a
general tendency to putridity in their juices and muscular substances,
from want of air and exercise, excess of feeding and bad food, and the
dirt in which they live. A brute, no more than a human being, can digest
above a certain quantity of food, to convert it into actual nourishment;
and good chyle can only be produced from wholesome food, cleanliness,
air, and exercise. To be well fleshed rather than fat, is the desirable
state of animals destined for slaughter. There will always be with this
a sufficient proportion of fat; and labouring by artificial means to
produce more, is only encreasing that part of animal substance, which
from its gross indigestible nature is not proper for human diet, unless
in a very limited degree. Venison, which in its domestic state is never
fatted like other animals; game, and every wild animal proper for food;
possess superior qualities to the tame, from the total contrast in their
habits, more than from the food they eat. They have an extensive range
in the open air, take much exercise, and choose their own sustenance,
the good effects of which are very evident in a short delicate texture
of flesh found only in them. Their juices and flavour are more pure, and
their fat is far more delicious than that of home-bred animals. The
superiority of Welch mutton and Scotch beef is owing to a similar cause,
and is still more in point than the former, as a contrast between
animals of the same species under different management. The preferences
just mentioned are not a mere matter of taste, which might readily be
dispensed with, but are founded on more important considerations. A
short delicate texture renders the meat more digestible, in a very high
degree, than the coarse, heavy, stringy kind of substance produced by
the misapplied art of man. A pure animal juice too, is something more
than a luxury; for if what we use as food is not pure, neither can our
blood nor our juices be so. If we would but be content with
unadulterated luxuries, we have them at our command; and provided they
are not indulged to excess, are of decided advantage to our health.
Supposing all animal flesh to be good of its kind, there is still
abundant room for selection and choice. Mutton, beef, venison, game,
wild rabbits, fowls, turkies, and various small birds, are preferable to
lamb, veal, pork, young pigs, ducks, geese, and tame rabbits. Beef and
mutton are much easier of digestion and more nutricious than veal and
lamb, especially if not slaughtered before they come to proper maturity.
Nothing arrives at perfection under a stated period of growth, and till
this is attained it will afford only inferior nutriment. If the flesh of
mutton and lamb, beef and veal, are compared, they will be found of a
different texture, and the two young meats of a more stringy indivisible
nature than the others, which makes them harder of digestion. Neither
are their juices so nourishing when digested; as any one at all in the
habit of observing what is passing within and about them will readily
perceive from their own experience. Lamb and veal leave a craving nausea
in the stomach, not perceived after taking other kinds of animal food.
Veal broth soon turns sour by standing, owing to the sugar of milk
contained in the blood of a calf; and the same change takes place in a
weak stomach. Persons in the habit of drinking strong liquors with their
meals, cannot competently judge of such an effect; as these liquors
harden all kinds of animal food, and therefore little distinction can be
perceived amongst them. Pork and young pigs are liable to the same
objections as lamb and veal, but in a greater degree; they are fat and
luscious, but afford no nutriment. Ducks and geese are of a coarse oily
nature, and only fit for very strong stomachs. Tame rabbits are of a
closer heavier texture than wild ones, and hence of inferior quality.
Pigeons are of a hot nature, and should therefore be used sparingly.
Fowls and turkies are of a mild proper nature for food, but the
fattening them in confinement is equally prejudicial, as to other
animals already mentioned. If left at large, well fed with good barley,
and with clean water to drink, they will be little inferior to game.
Barley is preferable to barley meal, as retaining all the natural
qualities of the grain in greater perfection than when ground; and as
these birds are provided with grinders in the gizzard, the concocting
their own food is more nourishing and wholesome for them. These, like
other animals, should be suffered to attain their full growth, in order
to have them in the best state for nutriment. Some parts of birds, and
other animals, are hard and viscid, as the head, neck, feet, and tail;
the parts about the wings, back, and breast of birds, are in general the
most tender, and of the finest flavour. In four-footed animals, the
upper part of the leg and shoulder, the back, breast, and long bones of
the neck, are generally superior to the rest. The heart and other
viscera are nutricious, but hard of digestion, and improper for weak
stomachs. The larger an animal is of its kind, the flesh of it will be
stronger, and more difficult to digest; the juices also will be more
rank than those of smaller ones of the same species, supposing them to
have arrived at the same maturity. Animals which abound with fat and
oily substances are harder to digest, than those of a drier and more
fleshy nature; and to persons who use but little exercise, or have weak
stomachs, this kind of food is very improper. Its tendency is to weaken
the tone and force of the stomach, the fat and oil being enclosed in
little bladders, which are with difficulty broken and separated. Hence
fat meat is not so digestible as that of well fed animals, which do not
abound with fat. The flesh of very old animals is unwholesome, being
hard, dry, sinewy, innutricious, and difficult to digest. Those which
are the longest in coming to maturity have the coarsest juices, such as
oxen, cows, and boars. These are less tender and digestible than sheep,
venison, hares, rabbits, poultry, game, and other birds. In almost all
cases, the strong and pungent in flavour are harder to digest than those
of a milder nature. The flesh of birds is lighter, drier, and easier of
digestion, than that of four-footed animals. A difference also arises
from the place of pasturage, from food and exercise. Animals living in
high places, refreshed with wholesome winds, and cherished with the warm
beams of the sun, where there are no marshes, lakes, or standing waters,
are preferable to those living in pools, as ducks and geese, and other
kinds of fowl.--FISH is less nourishing than flesh, because it is gross,
phlegmatic, cold, and full of watery superfluities: but under certain
restrictions, it may be safely used as a part of our general diet. It is
unsuitable to cold phlegmatic constitutions, but very well adapted to
such as are hot and choleric. The white kinds of fish, which contain
neither fat nor oil, are preferable to the rest; such as whitings,
turbot, soles, skate, haddock, flounders, smelts, trout, and graylings.
These are easier of digestion than salmon, mackarel, eels, lampreys,
herrings, or sprats, and therefore more wholesome. Shell-fish, such as
oysters, muscles, cockles, crabs, and lobsters, are very far from being
easy of digestion, and are particularly improper for invalids, though
too commonly imagined to be suitable in such cases. In general it may be
observed, that those kinds of fish which are well grown, nourish better
than the young and immature. Sea-fish are wholesomer than fresh-water
fish: they are of a hotter nature, not so moist, and more approaching to
flesh meat. Of all sea and river fish, those are the best which live in
rocky places. Next to these, in gravelly or sandy places, in sweet,
clear, running water, where there is nothing offensive. Those which live
in pools, muddy lakes, marshes, or stagnant water, are bad. Whether sea
or river fish, those are the best which are not too large, whose flesh
is not hard and dry, but crisp and tender; which taste and smell well,
and have many fins and scales. All fresh fish should be eaten hot, and
less in quantity than fresh meat. Fish should not be eaten very often,
and never after great labour and exercise, nor after eating other solid
food. Fish and milk are not proper to be eaten at the same meal, nor
should eggs be used with fish, except with salt fish, and that should be
well soaked in water before it is dressed. It may be eaten with carrots
or parsnips, instead of egg sauce. If salt fish be eaten too often, or
without this precaution, it produces gross humours and bad juices in the
body; occasions thirst, hoarseness, sharpness in the blood, and other
unfavourable symptoms. It is therefore a kind of food which should be
used very sparingly, and given only to persons of a strong constitution.
All kinds of salted and dried fish are innutricious and unwholesome, and
their injurious effects are often visible in the habits of seafaring
people. Even prawns and shrimps, if eaten too freely, are known to
produce surfeits, which end in St. Anthony's fire.--If proper attention
be paid to health, every kind of sustenance intended for the use of man,
must be provided in its SEASON; for to every thing there is both time
and season, which the wisdom and goodness of providence have pointed
out. Every production is the most pure in quality, and of course the
most wholesome, when nature has perfected her work, and prepared it for
human sustenance. To anticipate her seasons, or to prolong them, is a
misapplication of labour, and a perversion of the bounties of providence
into secret poisons, to indulge the wanton cravings of a depraved
appetite. The properties of animal food in general seem not to restrict
the use of it to any particular season, but rather to admit its common
use at all times. The only period in which it is less seasonable than at
any other, appears to be in hot weather, when animal substances of all
kinds are very liable to taint. The profuse supply of vegetables too in
the warmer months, seems to lessen the occasion for animal food.
Attention should be paid however at all times to the proper season for
using the different kinds of animal food, and to the various
circumstances that may contribute to its being more or less wholesome.
The killing of animals by the easiest means, and not previously abusing
them by over-driving, or in any other way, materially affects their
fitness for food, and ought therefore to be carefully attended to. The
high flavour, or taint in meat, which so many English palates prefer, is
in fact the commencement of putrefaction; and of course meat in this
state is very improper for food, particularly for persons with any
tendency to putrid disorders. At a time when bad fevers prevail, food of
this description ought to be generally avoided, as it disposes the blood
and juices to receive infection. With respect to grain, its adaptedness
to keep the whole year round, evidently denotes that it was intended for
constant use. But the recurrence of an annual supply seems to be the
voice of nature, forbidding its being kept in ordinary cases to a longer
period, especially as new corn is generally preferred to the old. All
other vegetables, including fruits, seem designed only for a transient
season. Roots, and a few late fruits, have indeed the property of
keeping for some months, and may thus provide a store for the winter,
when fresh vegetables are less plentiful. Other kinds will not keep
without undergoing a culinary process, by which they are rendered less
wholesome, however palatable they may be considered. Provisions of
almost every description may be preserved from putrefaction by being
partially dressed and then closely stopped down, as has been fully
demonstrated by Messrs. Donkin and Gamble of Bermondsey, who by means of
air-tight canisters are in the habit of preparing all kinds of meat,
which will keep perfectly sweet and fresh for a considerable length of
time in any climate, and are incomparably better than those preserved in
the ordinary way by salting or drying. But however applicable these
preserves may be to the purposes of a long voyage, or a foreign
expedition, where no fresh supplies can be obtained, they are by no
means to be recommended to private families, who enjoy the superior
advantages of going to market for fresh provisions. Time, which devours
all things, cannot fail to impair, though not immediately, the flavour
and other properties of whatever is preserved, in defiance of every
precaution against its influence. The appearance and flavour of such
articles may not be revolting to us, but if compared with the same
things when fresh and well dressed, their inferiority is sufficiently
obvious. Pickled salmon is a familiar instance of this kind. It is very
generally relished, and often preferred to fresh salmon; yet if brought
into comparison, the substance of the one is heavy, that of the other
light and elastic. The flavour of the pickled salmon is sophisticated
and deadened, if not vapid; that of the other is natural, fresh, and
delicate, the pure volatile spirit not being destroyed by improper
cookery, or long keeping. Instances of violent surfeits often occur from
eating pickled salmon, soused mackarel, and other rich preserves, not
from their being in a state of decay, but from the unwholesomeness of
their preparation. People acquire tastes indeed, that reconcile them to
any thing; that even make them fond of corrupted flavours, such as
decayed cheese, tainted meat, and other things of a similar description.
Our taste therefore is very likely to betray us into error; and to guard
against it, it is necessary to be able to distinguish between what is
really wholesome and what is otherwise, for this is rather a matter of
judgment than of taste.--A few brief remarks may very properly be added
on the important article of MILK, which forms, or ought to form, an
essential part of the food of every family, in one shape or another. As
far as regards the general properties of milk, it is in season at all
times; and by judicious management it might always be supplied in
sufficient quantities to become a plentiful source of human sustenance.
It is of the best quality however, five or six months after a cow has
calved. When she becomes with calf again, her milk will of course fall
off, both in quantity and in quality. The impatient greediness of
cow-keepers would have calves and milk at the same time, and on this
account they seldom allow their dairies a fair interval for keeping up
a successive supply of the best milk. To keep cows in the healthiest
condition, and their milk consequently in the purest state, they should
not be confined in houses, nor in yards, but suffered to go at large in
the open fields. They should also be well fed with wholesome provender,
and have access to good water. If kept quite clean, by occasionally
rubbing them down, and washing their bag, and legs and feet, their
health would be promoted, and of course the nutricious quality of the
milk. If the comfort and welfare of society were consulted, the higher
classes would not slight their dairies for studs of horses, kept more
for ostentation than for use. In reference to the same subject, the
breaking up of small farms is deeply to be regretted, not only as
ruinous to a numerous class of deserving persons, but as depriving the
markets and the neighbourhoods of those articles of necessity which
their industry produced. It was an object to a small farmer to make the
most of his dairy and poultry yard, which to an occupier on a larger
scale is regarded as a matter of indifference. The consequence is, there
is neither so plentiful a supply of these things, nor are they so good
in quality as formerly. The wife of a small farmer attended to her own
business, her poultry was brought up at the barn door, and killed when
it was sweet and wholesome, while the produce of her dairy redounded to
her credit, and afforded ample satisfaction to her customers.--The most
judicious choice of food however will avail but little, if the manner of
preparing it is not equally judicious. The principal error in cooking
lies in overdoing what is intended for the table; the qualities of the
meat are then so entirely changed, that it ceases to be nourishing, and
becomes hard of digestion. It is literally put into the stomach only to
be pressed out of it again by some unnatural exertion, which at last
throws the oppressive load into the rest of the system, from whence it
will not pass off without leaving some injury behind it. This,
frequently repeated, ends at last in acute or chronic diseases, no less
certainly than constant friction upon a stone will at length wear it
away, though it may be a long time before any impression upon it is
perceived. Similar effects arise from drinking, but generally with a
more rapid progress, from the extension and collapse of the vessels
being more sudden and violent. Plain cookery, in the exact medium
between under and over doing, is the point to be attained to render our
food salutary. The mixture of a great variety of ingredients should be
avoided, for if good in themselves separately, they are often rendered
indigestible by being compounded one with another. As we must eat every
day, there is opportunity enough for all things in turn, without
attempting any unwholesome composition. Much seasoning with spices,
contributes to make animal food indigestible. They are much safer when
used just before serving up the dish, or by adding them at the time of
eating it. Beef and pork long salted, and hams, bacon, tongues, and hung
beef, are very indigestible, and particularly improper for weak
stomachs, though they will often crave them. Boiled meat is generally
preferable to roast meat, for nourishment and digestion. Boiling
extracts more of the rank strong juices, and renders it lighter and more
diluted. Roasting leaves it fuller of gravy, but it adds to the rigidity
of the fibres. The flesh of young animals is best roasted. Fried and
broiled meats are difficult to be digested, though they are very
nourishing: weak stomachs had better avoid them. Meat pies and puddings
cannot be recommended, but strong stomachs may sustain but little
inconvenience from them. It is a confined mode of cookery, and the meat
therefore is not at all purified of its grossness. When meat pies and
puddings are used, they should be moderately seasoned. Baking meat,
instead of roasting it, is a worse manner of dressing it, from the
closeness of the oven, and the great variety of things often baking at
the same time. Stewing is not a good way of dressing meat, unless it is
done very carefully. If it is stewed till all the juices are drawn from
the meat, the latter becomes quite unfit for food: and if the stewpan be
kept close covered, there are the same objections to it as meat pies and
puddings. Hashing is a very bad mode of cooking. It is doing over again
what has already been done enough, and makes the meat vapid and hard.
What would have been good nourishment in the cold meat, is thus totally
lost, as the juices, which are all drawn into the gravy, are spoiled by
this second cookery, which exposes them too long to the fire.
PRUNE PUDDING. Mix four spoonfuls of flour in a quart of milk; add six
eggs, two tea-spoonfuls of powdered ginger, a little salt, and a pound
of prunes. Tie it in a cloth, and boil it an hour.
PRUNE TART. Scald some prunes, take out the stones and break them. Put
the kernels into a little cranberry juice, with the prunes and sugar;
simmer them together, and when cold, make a tart of the sweetmeat.
PRUNING. In pruning wall fruit, care should be taken to cut off all
fresh shoots that will not readily bind to the wall; for if any be
twisted or bruised in the binding, they will in time decay, and the sap
will issue from the place. Vines should not be cut too close to please
the eye, as by that means they have sometimes been rendered barren of
fruit. Two knots should generally be left on new shoots, which will
produce two bunches of grapes, and which are to be cut off at the next
pruning. New branches are to be left every year, and some of the old
ones must be removed, which will increase the quantity of fruit.
PUDDINGS. The only puddings which can with propriety be recommended, as
really wholesome diet, are those of the simplest kind, such as are
seldom met with except in families in the middle ranks of life. The poor
unfortunately cannot get them, and the rich prefer those of a more
complex kind, of which the best that can be hoped is, that they will not
do much harm. The principal ingredients of common puddings are so mild
and salutary, that unless they are over-cooked, or too many of them
mixed together, such puddings are generally wholesome. To make them of
the best and most nutricious quality, the materials should all be fresh
and good of their kind; such as, flour newly ground, new milk, fresh
laid eggs, and fresh suet. Millet, sago, tapioca, whole rice, will all
keep a considerable time, if put into a dry place. When rice, millet, or
sago, are wanted to be used ground, they had better be ground at home
for the sake of having them fresh, and the certainty of having them
pure. Such a mill as is used for grinding coffee, will grind them
extremely well. The whites of eggs should never be used in puddings for
children, or persons of weak stomachs, or for those who are any way
indisposed, on account of their being indigestible. Omitting them
altogether would indeed be attended with no disadvantage. The yolk of an
egg alone answers the same purpose, as when the white is used with it.
To prove this, let two cups of batter pudding be made, one with the yolk
of an egg only, the other with the yolk and white together, and the
result will be, that the pudding with the yolk only is quite as light,
if not lighter, than the one with the whole egg. In other instances
also, of several kinds of puddings, where the whites of eggs have been
totally omitted, without at all encreasing the number of eggs, the
result has been the same. There is a species of economy practised by
good housewives, of making compositions on purpose to use up the whites
of eggs which have been left out of any preparation made with eggs. But
this is a false economy; for surely it is far better to reject as food
what is known to be injurious, and to find other uses for it, than to
make the human stomach the receptacle for offal. Economy would be much
more judiciously exerted in retrenching superfluities, than exercised in
this manner. Two or three good dishes of their kind, and well cooked,
are infinitely preferable to a whole course of indigestible
compositions. A soup might as well be made of cabbage stalks and pea
shells, as any preparation of food with whites of eggs, when there is no
doubt of their being positively prejudicial. As cabbage stalks then go
to the dunghill, and pea shells to the pigs, so let whites of eggs go to
the book-binder, or find some other destination. There are also various
kinds of fruit that require to be used with great caution. Currants,
raisins, prunes, French plums, figs, and all kinds of preserves, are
prepared either by the heat of the sun, or by cookery to the full extent
that they will bear, and beyond which any application of heat gives them
a tendency to putridity. They are therefore certainly prejudicial to
weak stomachs when used in puddings, and cannot be good for any; though
strong stomachs may not perceive an immediate ill effect from them.
Eaten without any farther preparation, and especially with bread, these
things may be used in moderation. For the reasons just given, spices
are better not put into puddings, they are already in a sufficiently
high state of preparation. The warm climates in which they grow, brings
them to a state of far greater maturity than the general productions of
our northern latitude. When they are used, it is better to add them
ground, at the time of eating what is to be seasoned, or put in the last
thing before serving up the dish. These are also better ground at home,
both to have them fresh, and free from adulteration. Almonds used in
puddings are liable to the same objection. The danger of using laurel
leaves in cooking, cannot be too frequently repeated. Bay leaves, bitter
almonds, and fruit kernels, if not equally dangerous, are pernicious
enough to make it very advisable not to use them. Fresh fruits often
become more unwholesome from being cooked in puddings and tarts, yet
will in many cases agree then with stomachs that cannot take them raw;
but unripe fruits are not good, either dressed or in any other
state.--To prepare puddings in the best manner, they should boil briskly
over a clear fire, with the pot lid partly if not entirely off, as the
access of fresh air makes every thing dress sweeter. As butter is
generally an expensive article, dripping, nicely prepared, may on many
occasions be used as a substitute. It will answer the purpose of rubbing
basins with, quite as well as butter, and never gives any unpleasant
flavour to the pudding. It is also very proper to dredge a basin with
flour, after it is rubbed with butter or dripping. Economy in eggs is
both rational and useful, as puddings with a moderate number of eggs are
more wholesome, than when used extravagantly or with profusion. Pudding
cloths, and every utensil in making puddings, should be quite clean, or
the food cannot be wholesome. The outside of a boiled pudding often
tastes disagreeably, which arises from the cloth not being nicely
washed, and kept in a dry place. It should be dipt in boiling water,
squeezed dry, and floured, when to be used. A bread pudding should be
loosely tied, and a batter pudding tight over. The water should boil
quick when the pudding is put in, and it should be moved about for a
minute, lest the ingredients should not mix. Batter pudding should be
strained through a coarse sieve, when all is mixed: in others, the eggs
should be strained separately. Pans and basins in which puddings are to
be boiled, should always be buttered, or rubbed with clean dripping. A
pan of cold water should be prepared, and the pudding dipped in as soon
as it comes out of the pot, to prevent its adhering to the cloth. Good
puddings may be made without eggs; but they must have as little milk as
is sufficient to mix the batter, and must boil three or four hours. A
few spoonfuls of fresh small beer, or one of yeast, will answer instead
of eggs. Snow is also an excellent substitute for eggs, either in
puddings or pancakes. Two large spoonfuls will supply the place of one
egg, and the article it is used in will be equally good. This is a
useful piece of information, especially as snow often falls when eggs
are scarce and dear. Fresh small beer, or bottled malt liquors, will
likewise serve instead of eggs. The yolks and whites beaten long and
separately, make the article they are put into much lighter.
PUDDING CAKES. Put four yolks and two whites of eggs to a pint of milk;
mix with it half a pint of bread crumbs grated fine, half a nutmeg, six
ounces of currants washed and dried, a quarter of a pound of beef suet
chopped small, a little salt, and flour sufficient to make it of a
moderate thickness. Fry these cakes in lard, of about the usual size of
a fritter.
PUDDING KETCHUP. Steep an ounce of thin-pared lemon peel, and half an
ounce of mace, in half a pint of brandy, or a pint of sherry, for
fourteen days. Then strain it, and add a quarter of a pint of
capillaire. This will keep for years, and being mixed with melted
butter, it is a delicious relish to puddings and sweet dishes.
PUDDING WITH MEAT. Make a batter with flour, milk, and eggs. Pour a
little into the bottom of a pudding-dish; then put seasoned meat of any
kind into it, and a little shred onion. Pour the remainder of the batter
over, and bake it in a slow oven. A loin of mutton baked in batter,
being first cleared of most of the fat, makes a good dish.
PUFFS. They should be made of light puff crust, rolled out and cut into
shapes according to the fancy. Then bake them, and lay some sweetmeat in
the middle. Or roll out the crust, cut it into pieces of any shape, lay
sweetmeats over one half, and turn the other half of the crust over;
press them together round the edge, and bake them.
PUFF CRUST. Take a pound and a half of flour, put it upon a pie board
with a little salt, and mix in gradually just water sufficient to make
it into a paste, taking care that it be neither too thin nor too stiff.
Mould it lightly together, and let it lie for two hours before it is
finished. Roll out the paste, put a pound of butter into the middle of
it, fold the two ends of the paste over it, and roll it out; then fold
it together, and roll it out again. Repeat this six times in the winter,
and five in the summer. It should be rolled rather less than half an
inch in thickness, dusting a little flour lightly over and under it, to
prevent its sticking to the rolling-pin. When finished, roll it out for
use as occasion requires. This makes a very nice and delicate
crust.--Another. To a pound and a half of flour, allow a pound of
butter, and three quarters of an ounce of salt. Put the flour on a
clean pie board, make a hole in the middle, and put in the salt with the
butter cut into small pieces. Pour in the water carefully, as it is of
great importance that the crust should not be made too thin; there
should only be water enough just to make it hold well together, and to
roll it out smooth. Work the butter and water up well together with the
hand, and then by degrees mix in the flour. When the flour is all mixed
in, mould the paste till it is quite smooth and free from lumps, and
then let it lie two hours before it be used. This is a very nice crust
for putting round the dish for baked puddings, tarts, or pies.
PUFF PASTE. Puffs may be made of any sort of fruit, but it should be
prepared first with sugar. To make a rich paste, weigh an equal quantity
of butter with as much fine flour as is necessary. Mix a little of the
former with the latter, and wet it with as little water as will make it
into a stiff paste. Roll it out, and put all the butter over it in
slices; turn in the ends, and roll it thin. Do this twice, and tough it
no more than can be avoided. The butter may be added at two different
times; and to those who are not accustomed to make paste, it may be
better to do so. The oven must be rather quicker than for a short
crust.--A less rich paste may be made of a pound of flour, and a quarter
of a pound of butter, rubbed together. Mix it into a paste with a little
water, and an egg well beaten; of the former as little as will suffice,
or the paste will be tough. Roll it out, and fold it three or four
times. Or rub extremely fine, six ounces of butter in one pound of dried
flour, with a spoonful of white sugar. Work up the whole into a stiff
paste, with as little hot water as possible.
PUITS D' AMOUR. Cut a fine rich puff paste rolled thin, with tin shapes
made on purpose, one size less than another, in a pyramidal form, and
lay them so. Then bake in a moderate form, that the paste may be done
sufficiently, but very pale. Lay different coloured sweetmeats on the
edges.
PULLED CHICKENS. Take off the skin, and pull the flesh off the bones of
a cold fowl, in large pieces. Dredge it with flour, and fry it of a nice
brown in butter. Drain the butter from it, simmer the flesh in a good
well-seasoned gravy, thickened with a little butter and flour, adding
the juice of half a lemon.--Another way. Cut off the legs, and the whole
back, of an underdone chicken. Pull all the white part into little
flakes free from skin, toss it up with a little cream thickened with a
piece of butter rolled in flour, half a blade of powdered mace, some
white pepper, salt, and the squeeze of a lemon. Cut off the neck end of
the chicken, broil the back and sidesmen in one piece, and the two legs
seasoned. Put the hash in the middle of the dish, with the back on it,
and the two legs at the end.
PULLED TURKEY. Divide the meat of the breast by pulling instead of
cutting. Then warm in a spoonful or two of white gravy, and a little
cream, grated nutmeg, salt, and a little flour and butter, but do not
let it boil. The leg should be seasoned, scored, and broiled, and put
into the dish with the above round it. Cold chicken may be treated in
the same manner.