NEW SYSTEM
OF
DOMESTIC COOKERY,
FORMED UPON
PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMY,
AND ADAPTED TO THE USE OF
PRIVATE FAMILIES.

As the directions which follow were intended for the conduct of the families of the authoress’s own daughters, and for the arrangement of their table, so as to unite a good figure with proper economy, she has avoided all excessive luxury, such as essence of ham, and that wasteful expenditure of large quantities of meat for gravy, which so greatly contributes to keep up the price, and is no less injurious to those who eat, than to those whose penury bids them abstain. Many receipts are given for things which, being in daily use, the mode of preparing them may be supposed too well known to require a place in a cookery book; yet how rarely do we meet with fine melted butter, good toast and water, or well made coffee! She makes no apology for minuteness in some articles, or for leaving others unnamed, because she writes not for professed cooks. This little work would have been a treasure to herself, when she first set out in life, and she therefore hopes it may be useful to others. In that idea it is given to the public, and as she will receive from it no emolument, so she trusts it will escape without censure.

The mistress of a family should always remember that the welfare and good management of the house depend on the eye of the superior; and consequently that nothing is too trifling for her notice, whereby waste may be avoided; and this attention is of more importance, now that the price of every necessary of life is increased to an enormous degree.

If a lady has never been accustomed, while single, to think of family management, let her not upon that account fear that she cannot attain it; she may consult others who are more experienced, and acquaint herself with the necessary quantities of the several articles of family expenditure in proportion to the number it consists of.

A minute account of the annual income, and the times of payment, should be taken in writing; likewise an estimate of the supposed amount of each iiarticle of expense; and those who are early accustomed to calculations on domestic articles, will acquire so accurate a knowledge of what their establishment requires, as will give them the happy medium between prodigality and parsimony, without acquiring the character of meanness.

Ready money should be paid for all such things as come not into weekly bills; and the best places for purchasing be attended to. In some articles a discount of five per cent. is allowed in London, and other large cities; and those who thus pay are usually best served. Under the idea of buying cheap, many people go to new shops; but it is safest to deal with people of established credit, who do not dispose of bad goods by underselling.

To make people wait for their money injures them greatly, besides that a higher price must be charged: perhaps the irregularity of payment may have much evil influence on the price of various articles, and contribute to the destruction of many families, in gradation downwards.

It is very necessary for a woman to be informed of the prices and goodness of all articles in common use, and of the best times, as well as places, for purchasing them. She should also be acquainted with the comparative prices of provisions, in order that she may be able to substitute those that are most reasonable, when they will answer as well, for others of the same kind, but which are more costly. A false notion of economy leads many to purchase as bargains iiiwhat is not wanted, and sometimes never is used. Were this error avoided, more money would remain for other purposes. Some things are better for keeping, and, being in constant consumption, should be laid in accordingly; such as paper, soap, and candles. Of these more hereafter.

A proper quantity of household articles should be always ready, and more bought in before the others be consumed, to prevent inconvenience, especially in the country.

A bill of parcels and receipts should be required, even if the money be paid at the time of purchase; and, to avoid mistakes, let the goods be compared with these when brought home.

Though it is very disagreeable to suspect any one’s honesty, and perhaps mistakes have been unintentional, yet it is prudent to weigh meat, sugars, &c. when brought in, and compare with the charge. The butcher should be ordered to send the weight with the meat, and the cook to file these checks, to be examined when the weekly bill shall be delivered.

A ticket should be given by the cook for each loaf, which will on return give the number to be paid for.

Thus regularly conducted, the exact state of money affairs will be known with ease; for it is delay of payment that occasions confusion.

Accounts should be regularly kept, and not the smallest articles omitted to be entered; and if balanced every week and month, the income and outgoings will be ascertained with facility, and their proportions to other be duly observed. Some people ivapprove of keeping in separate purses the money for different purposes, as domestic articles, clothes, pocket, education of children, &c.

Whichever way accounts be kept, some certain method should be adopted and strictly adhered to.

Many families have owed their prosperity full as much to the conduct and propriety of female management, as to the knowledge and activity of the father.

Those who are served with brewer’s beer, or any other thing not paid for on delivery, should have a book for entering the date; which will not only prevent overcharges, but at one view give the annual consumption.

It is much to be feared, that for the waste of many of the good things that God has given for our use, not abuse, the mistress and servants of great houses will hereafter be called to a strict account.

Some part of every person’s fortune should be devoted to charity; by which “a pious woman will build up her house before God, while she that is foolish (i. e. lends nothing to the Lord) pulls it down with her hands.” No one can complain of the want of gifts to the poor in this land; but there is a mode of relief which would add greatly to their comfort, and which being prepared from superfluity, and such materials as are often thrown away, the expense would not be felt. In the latter part of this work some hints for preparing the above are given.

vBy good hours, especially early breakfast, a family is more regular, and much time is saved. If orders be given soon in the morning, there will be more time to execute them; and servants, by doing their work with ease, will be more equal to it, and fewer will be necessary.

It is worthy of notice, that the general expense will be reduced, if every thing be kept in its proper place, applied to its proper use, and mended, when the nature of an accident will allow, as soon as broken.

An inventory of furniture, linen, and china, should be kept, and the things examined by it twice a year, or oftener, if there be a change of servants; into each of whose care the articles used by him or her, should be intrusted, with a list, as is done with plate. Tickets of parchment with the family name, numbered, and specifying what bed it belongs to, should be sewed on each feather bed, bolster, pillows, and blankets.

Many well meaning servants are ignorant of the best means of managing, and thereby waste as much as would maintain a small family, besides causing the mistress of the house much chagrin by their irregularity; and many families, from a want of method, have the appearance of chance rather than of regular system. To avoid which the following hints may be useful.

All things likely to be wanted should be in readiness; sugars of different qualities should be kept broken, currants washed, picked and dry in a jar; spice pounded, &c.

viWhere regular noonings or suppers are used (and in every house some preparation is necessary for accidental visitors), care should be taken to have such things in readiness as may be proper for either; a list of several will be subjoined, a change of which will be agreeable, and if properly managed will be attended with no great expense.

Every article should be kept in that place best suited to it, as much waste may thereby be avoided, viz.

Vegetables will keep best on a stone floor if the air be excluded; meat in a cold dry place; sugar and sweetmeats require a dry place; so does salt; candles cold, but not damp; dried meats, hams, &c. the same; all sorts of seeds for puddings, saloop, rice, &c. should be close covered to preserve from insects. Flour should be kept in a cool perfectly dry room, and the bag being tied should be changed upside down and back every week, and well shaken. Soap should be cut with a wire or twine, in pieces that form a long square, when first brought in, and kept out of the air two or three weeks; for if it dry quick, it will crack, and when wet break. Put it on a shelf, leaving a space between, and let it grow hard gradually. Thus, it will save a full third in the consumption. Cheese should be washed and wiped if you wish to preserve it sound, and the shelves be washed; changing the place every three or four weeks; but if it be wanted to ripen, a damp cellar will bring it forward.

Bread is now so heavy an article of expense that all waste should be guarded against, and having it viicut in the room will tend much to prevent it; since the scarcity in 1795 and 1800, that custom has been much adopted. It should not be cut until a day old; earthen pans and covers keep it best.

Rolls, muffins, or any sort of bread, may be made to taste new when two or three days old, by dipping it uncut in water, and baking afresh or toasting.

Eggs may be bought cheapest when the hens first begin to lay in the spring, before they sit; in Lent and at Easter they become dear. They may be preserved fresh by dipping them in boiling water, and instantly taking them out, or by oiling the shell; either of which ways is to prevent the air passing through it. They should be kept on shelves with small holes to receive one in each, and be turned every other day.

Carrots, parsnips, and beet roots, should be kept in sand for winter use, and neither they nor potatoes be cleared from the earth.

Store onions preserve best hung up in a dry cold room.

Straw to lay apples on should be quite dry, to prevent a musty taste.

Large pears should be tied up by the stalk.

Tarragon gives the flavour of French cookery, and in high gravies is a great improvement; but should be added only a short time before serving.

Basil, savory, and knotted marjoram, or London thyme, to be used when herbs are ordered; but with discretion, as they are very pungent.

Celery seeds give the flavour of the plant to soups.

viiiParsley should be cut close to the stalks, and dried on tins in a very cool oven: it preserves its flavour and colour, and is very useful in winter.

Artichoke bottoms which have been slowly dried, should be kept in paper bags; and truffles, morels, lemonpeel, &c. in a dry place ticketed.

In towns, poultry being usually sold ready picked, the feathers, which may occasionally come in in small quantities, are neglected: but orders should be given to put them into a tub free from damp, and as they dry to change them into paper bags, a few in each; they should hang in a dry kitchen to season; fresh ones must not be added to those in part dried, or they will occasion a musty smell, but they should go through the same process. In a few months they will be fit to add to beds, or to make pillows, without the usual mode of drying them in a cool oven, which may be pursued if they are wanted before five or six months.

The best means to preserve blankets from moths is to fold and lay them under the featherbeds that are in use, and they should be shaken occasionally. When soiled, they should be washed, not scoured.

Candles made in cool weather are best; and when their price, and that of soap, which rise and fall together, is likely to be higher, it will be prudent to lay in the stock of both. This information the chandler can always give; they are better for keeping eight or ten months, and will not injure for two years, if properly placed in the cool; and there are few articles that better deserve care in ixbuying, and allowing a due quantity of, according to the size of the family.

The price of starch depends upon that of flour; the best will keep good in a dry warm room for some years; therefore when bread is cheap, it may be bought to advantage, and covered close.

Pickles and sweetmeats should be preserved from air; where the former are much used, small jars of each should be taken from the stock jar, to prevent frequent opening.

Some of the lemons and oranges used for juice should be pared, first to preserve the peel dry; some should be halved, and when squeezed, the pulp cut out, and the outsides dried for grating. If for boiling in any liquid, the first way is best. When these fruits are cheap, a proper quantity should be bought, and prepared as hereafter directed, especially by those who live in the country, where they cannot always be had; and they are perpetually wanted in cookery.

When whites of eggs are used for jelly, or other purposes, contrive to have pudding, custard, &c. to employ the yelks also. Should you not want them for several hours, beat them up with a little water, and put them in a cool place, or they will be hardened and useless. It was a mistake of old, to think that the whites made cakes and puddings heavy; on the contrary, if beaten long and separately, they contribute greatly to give lightness, are an advantage to paste, and make a pretty dish beaten with fruit, to set in cream, &c.

xIf copper utensils be used in the kitchen, the cook should be charged to be very careful not to let the tin be rubbed off; and to have them fresh done when the least defect appears, and never to put by any soup, gravy, &c. in them, or any metal utensil; stone and earthen vessels should be provided for those purposes, as likewise plenty of common dishes, that the table set may not be used to put by cold meat.

Vegetables soon sour, and corrode metals and glazed red ware, by which a strong poison is produced.

Vinegar by its acidity does the same, the glazing being of lead or arsenic.

In hot weather, when it is difficult to preserve milk from becoming sour, and spoiling the cream, it may be kept perfectly sweet by scalding the new milk very gently, without boiling, and setting it by in the earthen dish or pan that it is done in. This method is pursued in Devonshire, and the milk is not skimmed under twenty four hours, and would equally answer in small quantities for coffee, tea, &c.

Cream already skimmed may be kept twenty four hours if scalded without sugar, and by adding to it as much powdered lump sugar as shall make it pretty sweet will be good two days, keeping it in a cool place. Syrup of cream may be preserved as above in the proportion of a pound and quarter of sugar to a pint of perfectly fresh cream, keep it in a cool place two or three hours; then put it in one or two ounce phials, and cork it close. It will xikeep good thus for several weeks, and will be found very useful on voyages.

To cool liquors in hot weather, dip a cloth in cold water, and wrap it round the bottle two or three times, then place it in the sun; renew the process once or twice.

The best way of scalding fruits, or boiling vinegar, is in a stone jar on a hot iron hearth, or by putting the vessel into a saucepan of water, called a waterbath.

The beautiful green given to pickles, formerly was made by the use of bell mettle, brass, or copper, and consequently very injurious to the stomach.

If chocolate, coffee, jelly, gruel, bark, &c. be suffered to boil over, the strength is lost.

Marbles boiled in custard, or any thing likely to burn, will, by shaking them in the saucepan, prevent it.

Gravies or soups, put by, should be daily changed into fresh scalded pans. When there is fear of gravy meat being spoiled before it be wanted, season it well, and lightly fry it, which will preserve it two days longer; but the gravy is best when the juices are fresh. A receipt for gravy that will keep a week is given under the article of Sauces.

The cook should be encouraged to be careful of coals and cinders: for the latter there is a new contrivance to sift, without dispersing the dust of the ashes, by means of a covered tin bucket.

Small coal wetted makes the strongest fire for the back, but must remain untouched until it cake. xiiCinders, lightly wet, give a great degree of heat, and are better than coal for furnaces, ironing stoves, and ovens.

The cook should be charged to take care of jelly bags, tapes for the collared things, &c. which, if not perfectly scalded, and kept dry, give an unpleasant flavour when next used.

Cold water thrown on cast iron, when hot, will cause it to crack.

Hard water spoils the colour of vegetables; a pinch of pearlash, or salt of wormwood, will prevent that effect.

When sirloins of beef, loins of veal or mutton, come in, part of the suet may be cut off for puddings, or to clarify; dripping will baste every thing as well as butter, fowls and game excepted; and for kitchen pies, nothing else should be used.

The fat off a neck or loin of mutton makes a far lighter pudding than suet.

Meat and vegetables that the frost has touched should be soaked in cold water two or three hours before they are used, or more if much iced. When put into hot water or to the fire until thawed, no heat will dress them properly.

Meat should be well examined, when it comes in warm weather; and if flies have touched it, the part must be cut off, and then well washed. In the height of summer, it is a very safe way to let meat that is to be salted lie an hour in the coldest water, rubbing it well there in any part likely to have been flyblown; then wipe it perfectly dry, and have xiiiready salt, and rub it thoroughly into every part, leaving a handful over it besides. Turn it every day, and rub the pickle in, which will make it ready for the table in three or four days; if it is desired to be very much corned, wrap it in a well floured cloth, having rubbed it previously with salt. The latter method will corn fresh beef fit for table the day it comes in; but it must be put into the pot when the water boils.

If the weather permits, meat eats much better for hanging two or three days before it be salted.

The water in which meat has boiled makes an excellent soup for the poor, when vegetables, oatmeal or pease, are added, and should not be cleared from the fat.

Roast beef bones, or shank bones of ham, make fine pease soup, and should be boiled with the pease the day before eaten, that the fat may be removed.

The mistress of the house will find many great advantages in visiting her larder daily, before she orders her bill of fare: she will see what things require dressing, and thereby guard against their being spoiled. Many articles may be re-dressed in a different form from that in which they were first served, and improve the appearance of the table without increasing expense. Many dishes require to be made of dressed meat or fowls. Directions for several are hereafter given.

In every sort of provisions, the best of the kind goes farthest; cutting out most advantageously, xivand affording most nourishment. Round of beef, fillet of veal, and leg of mutton, bear a higher price; but having more solid meat, deserve the preference. It is worth notice, however, that those joints which are inferior may be dressed as palatably, and being cheaper, ought to be bought in turn; and, when weighed with the prime pieces, the price of the latter is reduced.

In loins of meat, the long pipe which runs by the bone should be taken out, being apt to taint; as likewise the kernels of beef. Rumps and aitchbones of beef are often bruised by the blows the drovers give, and that part always taints: avoid purchasing such.

The shank bones of mutton should be saved, and, after soaking and brushing, may be added to give richness to gravies or soups; and they are particularly nourishing for the sick.

The feet of pork make various good dishes, and should be cut off before the legs be cured. Observe the same of the ears.

Calves’ tongues, salted, make a more useful dish than when dressed with the brains, which may be served without.

Some people like neats’ tongues cured with the root, in which case they look much larger; but should the contrary be approved, the root must be cut off close to the gullet, next to the tongue, but without taking away the fat under the tongue. The root must be soaked in salt and water, and extremely well cleaned before it be dressed as hereafter xvdirected: and the tongue laid in salt for a day and night before pickled.

Great attention is requisite in salting meat; and in the country, where great quantities are cured, it is of still more importance. Beef and pork should be well sprinkled, and a few hours after hung to drain, before it be rubbed with the preserving salts; which mode, by cleansing the meat from the blood, tends to keep it from tasting strong. It should be turned daily, and if wanted soon, rubbed. A salting tub, or lead, may be used, and a cover should fit close. Those who use a good deal of salt meat will find it answer well to boil up the pickle, skim, and, when cold, pour it over meat that has been sprinkled and drained. Salt is so greatly increased in price, from the heavy duties, as to require additional care, and the brine ought not to be thrown away, as is the practice of some, after once using.

In some families great loss is sustained by the spoiling of meat. The best mode to keep that which is to be eaten unsalted is, as before directed, to examine it well; wipe it daily, and pound some charcoal, and throw over it. If meat is brought from a distance in warm weather, the butcher should be charged to cover it close, and bring it early in the morning; but even then, if it be kept on the road, while he serves the customers who are nearest to him, it will probably be flyblown. This is most frequent in the country.

Mutton will keep long by washing with vinegar, and peppering the broad end of the leg; if any xvidamp appears, wipe it immediately. If rubbed with salt lightly, it will not eat the worse. Boiled in seawater, is by some much admired.

Game is often brought in when not likely to keep a day, in the cook’s apprehension; yet may be preserved two or three days, if wanted, by the following method:

If birds, (woodcocks and snipes excepted, which must not be drawn) draw them, pick, and take out the crop; wash them in two or three waters, and rub them with a little salt. Have ready a large saucepan of boiling water, and plunge them in one by one; boil each five minutes, moving it, that the water may go through them. When all are finished, hang them by the heads in a cold place; when drained, pepper the inside and necks. When to be roasted, wash to take off the pepper. The most delicate birds, even grouse, may be kept this way, if not putrid. Birds that live by suction, &c. bear being high; it is probable that the heat might cause them to taint more, as a free passage for the scalding water could not be obtained. Hares ought not to be paunched in the field, as they keep longer, and eat much better without. But that is seldom in the cook’s power to guard against. She should take out the liver and heart, and parboil the former to keep for stuffing, wipe the inside every day, quite dry, put a bunch of parsley, or some pepper, or both; thus it will keep long, especially if the seasoning be rubbed early on the inside to prevent any mustiness of taste, which often is communicated to the stuffing by this omission, and want of extreme nicety in washing it in xviiwater and vinegar before it be dressed, while the outside has been preserved fresh by the skin. If old, a hare should be kept as long as possible, except for soup, or jugging; and after soaking, in vinegar, be well larded.

Freshwater fish has often a muddy taste; to take off which, soak it in strong salt and water, or, if of a size to bear it, give it a scald in the same, after extremely good cleaning and washing. The latter for carp or eels.

Turbot will hang three or four days, if lightly rubbed with salt, and be in quite as great perfection as the first day.

Fish may sometimes be bought reasonably by taking more than can be dressed at once; when recourse may be had to pickling, potting, or frying, to keep for stewing a succeeding day.

When thunder or hot weather causes beer to turn sour, half, or a whole teaspoonful of salt of wormwood should be put into a jug, and let the beer be drawn in it as small a time as possible before it be drank.

If the subject of servants be thought ill timed in a book upon family arrangement, it must be by those who do not recollect that the regularity and good management of the heads will be insufficient, if not seconded by those who are to execute orders. It behoves every person to be extremely careful who they take into their employ; to be very minute in investigating the character they receive; and equally cautious to be scrupulously just in giving xviiione to others. Were this attended to, many bad people would be incapacitated from doing mischief, by abusing the trust reposed in them. And it may be fairly asserted, that the robbery, or waste (which is but a milder epithet) of an unfaithful servant, will be laid to the charge of the master or mistress, who, knowing such faults in him, or even having only well grounded suspicions, is led by entreaty or false pity, to slide him into another place. To refuse countenance to the evil, is to encourage the good servant; such as are honest, frugal, and attentive to their duties, should be liberally rewarded: and such discrimination would encourage merit, and inspire servants with a zeal to acquit themselves with fidelity.

On the other side it may be proper to observe, that a retributive justice usually marks persons in that station sooner or later even in this world. Those who are extravagant and idle in their servitude, are ill prepared for the industry and sobriety on which their own future welfare much depends; their faults, and the attendant punishment, come home when they have families of their own, and sometimes much sooner. They will see their wickedness or folly in the conduct of their offspring, whom they must not expect to be better than the examples that are set them.

It was the observation of a sensible woman, that she could always read the fate of her servants when they married from her; those who had been faithful and industrious in her service, continued their xixgood habits in their own families, and became respectable members of the community; those who had been unfaithful servants, never were successful, and not unfrequently were reduced to the parish.

The manner of carving is not only a very essential knowledge in point of doing the honours of the table with grace, but makes a great difference in the family consumption; and, though in large companies, a lady is so much assisted as to make the art of less consequence, yet she should not fail to acquaint herself with an attainment of which she must daily feel the want. Some people haggle meat so as not to be able to help six times from a large tongue, or a piece of beef. It is to be observed that a thin sharp carving knife, and with a very little strength to the management of it, will cut deep thin slices, cause the joint to look neatly, and leave sufficient for a second helping, instead of that disgusting appearance which is sometimes observable. Habit alone can make people carve, or do the honours of a table well; for those who have not had practice, there are very good directions in a little book of Trusler’s.

In the following, and indeed all other receipts, though the quantities may be as accurately set down as possible, yet much must be left to the discretion of the person who uses them. The different taste of people requires more or less of the flavour of spices, garlic, butter, &c. which can never be directed by general rules; and if the cook has not a good taste, and attention to that of her employers, xxnot all the ingredients with which nature or art can furnish her, will give an exquisite relish to her dishes. The proper articles should be at hand, and she must proportion them until the true zest be obtained.

To boil Turbot.

The turbot kettle must be of a proper size, and in the nicest order. Set the fish in cold water to cover it completely: throw a handful of salt and one glass of vinegar into it; let it gradually boil; be very careful that there fall no blacks, but skim it well, and preserve the beauty of the colour.

Serve it garnished with a complete fringe of curled parsley, lemon, and horseradish.

The sauce must be the finest lobster, and anchovy butter, and plain butter, served plentifully in separate tureens.

To stew Lamprey, as at Worcester.

After cleaning the fish carefully, remove the cartilage which runs down the back, and season with a small quantity of cloves, mace, nutmeg, pepper, and pimento. Put it in a small stewpot, with very strong beef gravy, with port and equal quantity of Madeira or sherry wine.

It must be covered; stew till tender; then take out the lamprey and keep it hot, while you boil up the liquor with two or three anchovies chopped, and some flour and butter: strain the gravy through a 2sieve, and add lemon juice and some made mustard. Serve with sippets of bread and horseradish.

Eels, soals, and carp, done the same way, are excellent. When there is spawn, it must be fried and put round.

Note. Cyder instead of white wine will do in common.

Eel Pye.

Cut the eels in lengths of two or three inches: season with pepper and salt, and place in the dish, with some bits of butter and a little water, and cover it with paste.

Spitchcock Eels.

Take a large one, leave the skin on, cut it in pieces of four inches long, open it on the belly side, and clean it nicely: wipe it dry, and then wet it with a beaten egg, and strew it over on both sides with chopped parsley, pepper, salt, a very little sage, and a bit of mace pounded fine, and mixed with the seasoning. Rub the gridiron with a bit of suet, and broil the fish of a fine colour.

Serve with anchovy and butter for sauce.

Fried Eels.

If small, they should be curled round and fried, being first dipped in egg and crumbs of bread.

Boiled Eels.

The small ones are preferable. Do them in a small quantity of water, with a good deal of parsley, which should be served up with them and the liquor.

Serve chopped parsley and butter for sauce.

Very nourishing for the sick.

As above; but to be stewed two hours, and an onion and peppercorns added: salt to taste.

Collared Eels.

Bone a large eel, but do not skin it: mix pepper, salt, mace, pimento, and a clove or two, in the finest powder, and rub over the whole inside: roll it tight, and bind it with a coarse tape. Boil it in salt and water till enough; then add vinegar, and when cold, keep the collar in pickle. Serve it whole, or in slices, garnished with parsley. Chopped sage, parsley, and a little thyme, knotted marjorum, and savory, mixed with the spices, greatly improve the taste.

Perch and Tench.

Put them in cold water, boil them carefully, and serve with melted butter and soy.

Mackerel.

Boiled, and served with butter and fennel.

Broiled, being split and sprinkled with herbs, pepper and salt; or stuffed with the same, crumbs and chopped fennel.

Collared, as eel above.

Potted. Clean, season, and bake them in a pan, with spice, bayleaves, and some butter: when cold, lay them in a potting pot, and cover with butter.

Pickled. Boil them; then boil some of the liquor, a few peppers, bayleaves, and some vinegar: when cold, pour it over them.

Clean and divide, then cut each side in three; or, leaving them undivided, cut each fish in five or six pieces. To six large mackerel, take near an ounce of pepper, two nutmegs, a little mace, four cloves, and a handful of salt, all in finest powder; mix, and, making holes in each bit of fish, thrust the seasoning into them; rub each piece with some of it; then fry them brown in oil; let them stand till cold, then put them into a stone jar, and cover with vinegar: if to keep long, pour oil on the top. This done, they may be preserved for months.

To bake Pike.

Scale it, and open as near the throat as you can; then stuff it with the following: grated bread, herbs, anchovies, oysters, suet, salt, pepper, mace, half a pint of cream, four yelks of eggs; mix all, over the fire, till it thickens, then put it into the fish, sew it up. Butter should be put over in little bits: bake it. Serve sauce of gravy, butter, and anchovy. Note. If, in helping a pike, the back and belly be slit up, and each slice be gently drawn downwards, there will be fewer bones given.

Salmon to boil.

Clean it carefully, boil it gently, and take it out of the water as soon as done; and let the water be warm if the fish be split.

Shrimp or anchovy sauce.

Boil as above, take the fish out and boil the liquor with bayleaves, peppercorns and salt; add vinegar when cold, and pour over the fish.

Salmon to broil.

Cut slices about an inch thick; season, and put them into papers; twist them, and broil gently. Serve in the papers. Anchovy sauce.

Salmon to pot.

Take a large piece, scale and wipe, but do not wash it; salt it very well: let it lie till the salt be melted and drained from it, then season with beaten mace, cloves, and whole peppers. Lay in a few bayleaves, put it close in a pan, and cover it over with butter, and bake it. When well done, drain it from the gravy, put it in the pots to keep; and when cold, cover with clarified butter.

Thus you may do any firm fish.

Salmon to dry.

Cut the fish down, take out the inside and roe. Rub the whole with common salt, after scaling it; let it hang to drain twenty four hours. Pound three or four ounces of saltpetre, according to the size of the fish, two ounces of bay salt, and two ounces of coarse sugar: rub these, when mixed well, into the Salmon, and lay it on a large dish or tray two days, then rub it well with common salt, and in twenty four hours more it will be fit to dry: but you must dry it well after draining. Either hang in a wood chimney, or in a dry place, keeping it open with two small sticks.

Boil them half, pick out the meat, cut into small bits: season with mace, white pepper, nutmeg, and salt: press close into a pot and cover with butter: bake half an hour: put the spawn in. When cold, take the lobster out, and with a little of the butter put it into the pots. Beat the other butter in a mortar with some of the spawn; then mix that coloured butter with as much as will be sufficient to cover the pots, and strain it. Cayenne may be added, if approved.

Another way, as at Wood’s Hotel.

Take out the meat as whole as you can; split the tail and remove the gut; if the inside be not watery, add that. Season with mace, nutmeg, white pepper, salt, and a clove or two, in finest powder. Lay a little fine butter at the bottom of a pan, and the lobster smooth over it, with bayleaves between: cover it with butter and bake it gently. When done, pour the whole on the bottom of a sieve, and with a fork lay the pieces into potting pots, some of each sort with the seasoning about it. When cold, pour clarified butter over, but not hot. It will be good next day; or highly seasoned, and thick covered with butter, will keep some time.

The potted lobster may be used cold, or as a fricassee, with a cream sauce, when it looks very nicely, and eats excellently, especially if there be spawn.

Mackerel, herrings, and trout, are good potted as above.

Pick the lobster, put the berries into a dish that has a lamp, and rub them down with a bit of butter, two spoonfuls of any sort of gravy, one of soy or walnut catsup, a little salt and Cayenne, and a spoonful of port. Stew the lobster cut in bits with the gravy as above. It must be dressed at table, and eaten immediately.

Lobster Pie.

Boil two lobsters, or three small; take out the tails, cut them in two, take out the gut, cut each in four pieces and lay them in a small dish. Put in then the meat of the claws, and that you have picked out of the body; pick off the furry parts from the latter, and take out the lady; then take the spawn, beat it in a mortar, likewise all the shells. Set them on to stew with some water, two or three spoonfuls of vinegar, pepper, salt, and some pounded mace. A large piece of butter, rolled in flour, must be added when the goodness of the shells is obtained. Give a boil or two and pour into the dish strained: strew some crumbs over, and put a paste over all. Bake slowly, but only till the paste be done.

Curry of Lobsters or Prawns.

When taken out of the shells, simmer them as above.

Buttered Lobsters.

Pick the meat out; cut it and warm with a little weak brown gravy, nutmeg, salt, pepper, and butter, with a little flour. If done white, a little white gravy and cream.

Pick the meat out of a crab, clear the shell from the head, then put the former, with a very small bit of nutmeg, salt, pepper, a bit of butter, crumbs of bread, and three spoonfuls of vinegar, into the shell again, and set it before the fire. You may brown it with a salamander.

Dry toast should be served to eat it upon.

To dress Red Herrings.

Choose those that are large and moist; cut them open, and pour some boiling small beer over them, to soak half an hour. Drain them dry, and make them just hot through before the fire; then rub some cold butter over them and serve. Egg sauce, or buttered eggs and mashed potatoes, should be served with them.

Baked Herrings or Sprats.

Wash and drain without wiping them. Season with Jamaica pepper in fine powder, salt, a whole clove or two: lay them in a pan with plenty of black pepper, an onion, and a few bayleaves. Put half vinegar and half small beer, enough to cover them. Put paper over the pan, and bake in a slow oven. If you like, throw saltpetre over them the night before, to make them look red. Gut, but do not open them.

To smoke Herrings.

Clean and lay them in salt, and a little saltpetre one night; then hang them on a stick, through the eyes, on a row. Have ready an old cask, on which put some sawdust, and in the midst of it a 9heater red hot; over the smoke fix the stick, and let them remain twenty four hours.

Fried Herrings.

Serve them of a light brown, and onions sliced and fried.

Broiled Herrings.

Floured first, and done of a good colour. Plain butter for sauce. They are very good potted like mackerel.

Soals.

If boiled, they must be served with great care to look perfectly white, and should be much covered with parsley.

If fried, dip them in egg, and cover them with fine crumbs of bread. Set on a fryingpan that is just large enough, and put into it a large quantity of fresh lard or dripping; boil it, and immediately slip the fish into it. Do them of a fine brown. When enough, take them out carefully, and lay them upon a dish turned under side uppermost, and placed slantingly before the fire to drain off the fat. If you wish them to be particularly nice, lay them on clean cap paper, and let lie some minutes.

Observe, that fish never looks well if not fried in plenty of fat, and that boiling hot, before it be put into it. The dripping may serve again with a little fresh. Take care the fat does not become black. Butter makes every thing black that is fried in it. The soals should just fit the inside of the dish, and a fringe of curled parsley garnish the edge completely, which looks beautifully.

10Soals that have been fried, eat good cold with oil, vinegar, salt, and mustard. Note. Fine oil gives the finest colour, but is expensive.

Stewed Soals, and Carp,

Are to be done like lampreys.

Soals, in the Portuguese way.

Take one large or two lesser; if the former, cut the fish in two; if they are small, they need only be split. The bones being taken out, put the fish into a pan, with a bit of butter and some lemonjuice: give it a fry; then lay the fish on a dish, and spread a forcemeat over each piece, and roll it round, fastening the roll with a few small skewers. Lay the rolls into a small earthen pan; beat an egg and wet them, then strew crumbs over, and put the remainder of the egg, with a little meat gravy, a spoonful of caper liquor, an anchovy chopped fine, and some parsley chopped, into the bottom of the pan; cover it close, and bake, until the fish be done enough, in a slow oven. Then place the rolls in the dish for serving; cover it to keep it hot until the gravy baked be skimmed: if not enough, a little fresh, flavoured as above, must be prepared and added to it.

The stuffing to be made as on the following page.

Stuffing for Soals baked.

Pound cold beef, mutton, or veal, a little, then add some fat bacon, that has been lightly fried, cut small, and some onions, a little garlick or shalot, some parsley, anchovy, pepper, salt, and nutmeg. Pound all fine with a few crumbs, and bind it with two or three yelks of eggs.

11The heads of the fish are to be left on one side of the split part, and kept on the outer side of the roll; and when served, the heads are to be turned towards each other in the dish.

Garnish with fried or dried parsley.

Soal, Cod, or Turbot Pie: another sort of stuffing.

Boil two pounds of eels tender; pick all the flesh clean from the bones; throw the latter into the liquor the eels were boiled in, with a little mace, salt and parsley, and boil till very good, and come to a quarter of a pint, and strain it. In the mean time cut the flesh of the eels fine, likewise some lemonpeel, parsley, and an anchovy: put to them pepper, salt, nutmeg, and some crumbs. Melt four ounces of butter and mix, then lay it in a dish at the bottom: cut the flesh of two or three soals clean from the bones, and fins; lay it on the forcemeat, and pour the eelbroth in. The bones of the soals should be boiled with those of the eels. You may boil them with one or two little eels, and pour it, well seasoned, on the fish, and put no forcemeat.

An excellent way of dressing a large Plaice, especially if there be a roe.

Sprinkle it with salt, and keep it twenty four hours, then wash and wipe it dry: wet it over with eggs; cover with crumbs of bread; make some lard or fine dripping, and two large spoonfuls of vinegar boiling hot, lay the fish in, and fry it a fine colour. Drain it from the fat, and serve with fried 12parsley round, and anchovy sauce. You may dip the fish in vinegar, and not put it in the pan.

To fry Smelts.

They should not be washed more than necessary to clean. Dry in a cloth, then lightly flour, but shake it off. Dip them in plenty of egg, then into bread crumbs grated fine, and plunge them into a good pan of boiling lard. Let them continue gently boiling, and a few minutes will make them a bright yellow brown. Take care not to take off the light roughness of the crumbs, or their beauty will be lost.

Boiled Carp.

Serve in a napkin, and with the sauce directed for it among sauces.

Cod’s head and shoulders,

Will eat much finer, by having a little salt rubbed down the bone, and along the thick part, even if to be eaten the same day.

Tie it up, and put on the fire in cold water which will completely cover it: throw a handful of salt in it. Great care must be taken to serve it without the smallest speck of black or scum. Garnish with a large quantity of double parsley, lemon, horseradish, and the milt, roe, and liver, and smelts fried, if approved. If the latter, be cautious that no water hang about the fish, or the beauty of the smelts will be taken off, as well as their flavour.

Serve with plenty of oyster or shrimp sauce, and anchovy, and butter.

13Some people boil the cod whole; but there is no fish, that is more proper to help, than in a large head and shoulders, the thinner parts being overdone and tasteless before the thick be ready: but the whole fish may be purchased, at times, more reasonably, and the lower half, if sprinkled the least, and hung up, will be in high perfection one or two days: or it may be made salter, and served with egg sauce, potatoes, and parsnips.

Crimp Cod.

Boil, broil, or fry.

Cod sounds boiled.

Soak them in warm water till soft, then scrape and clean; and if to be dressed white, boil them in milk and water, and when tender serve them in a napkin. Egg sauce.

Cod sounds ragout.

Prepare as above, then stew them in white gravy seasoned; cream, butter, and a little bit of flour added before you serve, gently boiling up. A bit of lemonpeel, nutmeg, and the least pounded mace, should give the flavour.

Curry of Cod,

Should be made of sliced cod that has either been crimped, or sprinkled a day to make it firm. Fry it of a fine brown, with onions, and stew it with a good white gravy, a little curry powder, a bit of butter and flour, three or four spoonfuls of rich cream, salt and Cayenne.

Cod or Haddock, sprinkled with salt to give firmness, slice and season with pepper and salt, and place in a dish mixed with oysters. Put the oyster liquor, a little broth, and a bit of flour and butter, boiled together, into the dish cold. Put a paste over; and when it comes from the oven, pour in some warm cream. If you please you may put parsley instead of oysters.

Haddock.

Do the same as cod, and serve with the same sauce; or, stuff with forcemeat as page eleventh. Or broil them with stuffing.

Oysters to stew.

Open them and separate the liquor from them, then wash them from the grit: strain the liquor, and put with the oysters a bit of mace and lemonpeel, and a few white peppers. Simmer them very gently, and put some cream, and a little flour and butter.

Serve with sippets.

Scalloped Oysters.

Put them with crumbs of bread, pepper, salt, nutmeg, and a bit of butter, in scallop shells or saucers, and bake them before the fire, in a Dutch oven.

Oyster Patties or small Pie.

As you open the oysters, separate them from the liquor, which strain; parboil them, after taking off 15the beards. Parboil sweetbreads, and cutting them in slices, lay them and the oysters in layers: season very lightly with salt, pepper, and mace. Then put half a teacup of liquor, and the same of gravy. Bake in a slow oven; and before you serve, put a teacup of cream, a little more oyster liquor and a cup of white gravy, all warmed, but not boiled. If for patties, the oysters should be cut in small dice, gently stewed, and seasoned as above, and put into the paste when ready for table.

Fried Oysters, to garnish boiled fish.

Make a batter of flour, milk, and eggs; season it a very little; dip the oysters in it, and fry them a fine yellow brown. A little nutmeg should be put into the seasoning, and a few crumbs of bread into the flour.

To pickle Oysters.

Wash four dozen of oysters in their own liquor; then strain, and in it simmer them till scalded enough: take them out and cover them. To the liquor put a few peppercorns, a blade of mace, a table spoonful of salt, three of white wine, and four of vinegar: simmer fifteen minutes; and when cold, pour it on the oysters, and keep them in a jar close covered.

Another way.

Open the number you intend to pickle: put them into a saucepan, with their own liquor, for ten minutes; simmer them very gently; then put them into a jar, one by one, that none of the grit may stick to them, and cover them, when cold, with the 16pickle thus made. Boil the liquor with a bit of mace, lemon peel, and black peppers; and to every hundred, put two spoonfuls of the best undistilled vinegar.

They should be kept in small jars, and tied close with bladder, for the air will spoil them.

Stuffing for Pike, Haddock, &c.

Of fat bacon, beefsuet, and fresh butter, equal parts; some parsley, thyme, and savory; a little onion, and a few leaves of scented marjoram, shred finely; an anchovy or two; a little salt and nutmeg, and some pepper.

If you have oysters, three or four may be used instead of anchovies. Mix all with crumbs of bread, and two yelks and whites of eggs, well beaten, and parsley shred fine.

Sprats,

When cleaned, should be fastened in rows by a skewer, run through the heads, and then broiled and served hot and hot.

Sprats baked, as herrings, page 8.

—— fried, as do. page 9.

To dress fresh Sturgeon.

Cut slices, rub egg over, then sprinkle with crumbs of bread, parsley, pepper, salt, and fold in paper, and broil gently.

Sauce; butter, anchovy, and soy.

Thornback, or Skate,

Should be hung one day at least, before it be dressed, and may be served either boiled, or fried in crumbs, being first dipped in egg.

Boiled, and sent up in a napkin; or fried as above.

Maids,

Should be likewise hung one day at least. May be boiled or fried; or if of a tolerable size, the middle may be boiled and the fins fried. They should be dipped in egg, and covered with crumbs.

If the fishmonger does not clean it, fish is seldom very nicely done; but those in great towns wash it beyond what is necessary for cleaning, and by perpetual watering diminish the flavor. When quite clean, if to be boiled, some salt and a little vinegar should be put to the water to give firmness; but cod, whiting and haddock, are far better if a little salted, and kept a day; and if not very hot weather they will be good in two days.

Those who know how to purchase fish, may, by taking more at a time than they want for one day, often get it cheap, and that which will hang by sprinkling, may then be bought to advantage.

The fish must be put into the water while cold, and set to do very gently, or the outside will break before the inner part be done.

The fishplate on which it is done, may be drawn up to see if it be ready; it will leave the bone 18when it is. It should be then immediately taken out of the water, or it will be woolly. The fishplate should be set crossways over the kettle, to keep hot for serving, and a clean cloth should cover the fish to prevent its losing its colour.

Small fish, nicely fried in egg, and crumbs, make a dish of fish far more elegant than served plain. Great attention should be paid to garnishing fish; plenty of horseradish, parsley, and lemon.

When well done, and with very good sauce, fish is more attended to than almost any other dish. The liver and roe should be placed on the dish, so conspicuously that the lady may see them, and help a part to every one. The sound of the cod, its head, and the head of carp are reckoned the prime parts; and it is a part of necessary attention to help, or at least offer some of the best to one’s friends; nor is it any excuse for the mistress’s negligence, that it is the fashion of the present day for those who sit at her right or left hand to help the company, which she must see they do properly.

If salmon is to be dressed, great care is necessary that it be done enough. No vinegar should be boiled with it.

If fish is to be fried or broiled, it must be wrapt in a nice soft cloth, after it is well cleaned and washed. When perfectly dry, wet with an egg, if the former way, and sprinkle the finest crumbs of bread over it; then having a thick bottomed fryingpan on the fire, with a large quantity of lard or dripping boiling hot, plunge the fish into it, and let 19it fry middlingly quick, till the colour be a fine brown yellow, and it be judged ready: if the latter take place first, the cook should draw the pan to the side of the fire, lest the colour be spoiled. She should then carefully take it up, and either place it on a large sieve turned upwards, and to be kept for that purpose only, or on the underside of a dish, to drain; and if wanted very nice, a sheet of cap paper must be put to receive the fish, which should look a beautiful colour, and all the crumbs appear distinct; the fish being free from all grease.

Garnish with a fringe of curled raw parsley, or parsley fried, which must be thus done: when washed and picked, throw it again into clean water; when the lard or dripping boils, throw the parsley into it immediately from the water, and instantly it will be green, and crisp, and must be taken up with a slice. This may be done after the fish is fried.

If fish is to be broiled, it must be seasoned and floured, and put on a gridiron that is very clean; and when hot, it should be rubbed with a bit of suet to prevent the fish from sticking. It must be broiled on a very clear fire, that it may not taste of smoke; and not too near, that it may not be scorched.

An excellent imitation of Sturgeon.

Take a fine large, but not an old turkey; pick it most nicely; singe it, and make it very clean; bone, wash, and dry it; tie it across and across, 20with a bit of mat string, washed clean, as they tie sturgeon. Put into a very nice tin saucepan a quart of water, the same of vinegar, and of white wine, that is not sweet, and a very large handful of salt. Let boil, and skim well, then put in the turkey: when done, take it out and tighten the strings. Let the liquor boil half an hour after, and when cold put it on the turkey. If salt or vinegar be wanting, add when cold. This will keep some months. You eat it with oil and vinegar, or sugar and vinegar. It is more delicate than sturgeon, and makes a pretty variety, if the real is not to be had. Cover it with fennel when brought to table.

Wash all meats before you dress; if for boiling, the colour will be better for soaking; if for roasting, dry it.

Boiling in a well floured cloth, will make meat white.

Particular charge must be given that the pot be well skimmed the moment it boils, otherwise the foulness will be dispersed over the meat. The more soups or broths are skimmed, the better and cleaner they will be.

The boiler and utensils should be kept delicately clean.

21Put the meat in cold water, and flour it well first. If meat be boiled quick it will be hard; but care must be taken that in boiling slow it does not cease, or the meat will be underdone.

If the steam be kept in, the water will not much decrease; therefore when you wish to evaporate, remove the cover of the soup pot.

Vegetables should not be dressed with the meat, except carrots or parsnips with boiled beef.

Weigh the joint, and allow a quarter of an hour to each pound, and about twenty minutes over. If for roasting, it should be put at a good distance from the fire, and brought gradually nearer when the inner part becomes hot, which will prevent its being scorched while yet raw. Meat should be much basted, and when nearly done, floured to make it look frothed.

Veal and mutton should have a little paper put over the fat to preserve it. If not fat enough to allow for basting, a little good dripping answers as well as butter.

The cook should be careful to spit meat so as not to run the spit through the best parts; and she should observe that her spit be well cleaned before, and when she is going to serve, or a black stain appears on the meat. In many joints the spit will pass into the bones, and run along them for some distance, so as not to injure the prime of the meat; and she should have leaden skewers to enable her to balance it; for want of which, ignorant servants often are foiled in the time of serving.

In roasting meat, it is a very good way to put a little salt and water into the dripping pan, and baste 22for a little while with it before it be done with its own fat or dripping. When dry, dust it with flour, and baste as usual.

Time, distance, basting often, and a clear fire, of a proper size for what is required, are the first articles of a good cook’s attention in roasting.

Old meats do not require so much dressing as young: not that they are sooner done, but they can be eaten with the gravy more in.

Be careful in roasting wild fowls to keep a clear brisk fire. Roast them of a light brown, but not till their gravy runs; they loose their fine flavour if too much done. Tame fowls require more roasting: they are a long time before they are hot through, and must be often basted to keep up a froth, and it makes the colour better. Pigs and geese require a brisk fire, and to be turned quick.

Hares and rabbits require time, and care to turn the two ends to the fire, which are less likely to be done enough than the middle part.

Choose mutton by the fineness of its grain, the deep red of the flesh, and bright whiteness of the fat. For roasting, it should hang as long as it will keep, the hind quarter especially, but not so as to taint; for, whatever fashion may authorize, putrid juices ought not to be conveyed into the stomach.

Mutton, for boiling, will not look of a good colour if it has long hung. Small mutton is preferred.

Great care should be taken to preserve by paper the fat of what is roasted.

Preserve the venison dry; wash it with milk and water very clean; dry it with clean cloths, till not the least damp remain. Then dust pounded ginger over every part, which is a good preventive against the fly. By thus managing and watching, it will hang a fortnight. When to be used, wash it with a little lukewarm water, and dry it.

Venison.

A haunch of buck will take about three hours and three quarters roasting; doe, three hours and a quarter. Put a coarse paste of brown flour and water, and a paper over that, to cover all the fat: baste it well with dripping, and keep it at a distance to get hot at the bone by degrees. When nearly done, remove the covering, and baste it with butter, and froth it up before you serve.

Gravy for it should be put into a boat, and not in the dish (unless there be none in the venison), and made thus: cut off the fat from two or three pounds of a loin of old mutton, and set it in steaks on a gridiron for a few minutes, just to brown one side: put them in a saucepan, with a quart of water: cover quite close for an hour, and gently simmer it; then uncover, and stew till the gravy be reduced to a point. Season with only salt.

Currantjelly sauce must be served in a boat.

Formerly pap sauce was eaten with venison, which, as some still like it, may be necessary to direct. Grate white bread, and boil it with port and water, a large stick of cinnamon; and when quite 24smooth, remove the latter, and add sugar. Claret wine may be used for it.

Make the jelly sauce thus. Beat some currantjelly, and a spoonful or two of port, then set it over the fire till melted. Where jelly runs short, put more wine, and a few lumps of sugar to the jelly, and melt as above.

To make a Pasty of Beef or Mutton, to eat as well as Venison.

Bone a small rump, or a piece of sirloin of beef, or a fat loin of mutton: the former is better than mutton, after hanging several days, if the weather permits. Beat it very well with a rolling pin, then rub ten pounds of meat with four ounces of sugar, and pour over it a glass of port wine, and the same of vinegar. Let it lie five days and nights: wash and wipe the meat very dry, and season it very high with pepper, Jamaica pepper, nutmeg, and salt. Lay in your dish, and to ten pounds put one pound or near of butter, spreading it over the meat. Put a crust round the edges, and cover with a thick one, or it will be overdone before the meat be soaked. It must be done in a slow oven.

Set the bones in a pan in the oven, with no more water than will cover them, and one glass of port wine, a little pepper and salt, that you may have a little rich gravy to add to the pasty when drawn.

Note. Sugar gives a greater shortness, and better flavor to meats than salt, too great a quantity of which hardens; and it is quite as great a preservative.

Roast with paste, as directed above, and the same sauce.

Stewed Shoulder.

Let the meat hang till you judge proper to dress it, then take out the bone: beat the meat with a rolling pin. Lay some slices of mutton fat, that has lain a few hours in a little port wine, among it: sprinkle a little black and Jamaica pepper over it, in finest powder: roll it up tight, and fillet it. Set it in a stewpan that will only just hold it, with some mutton or beef gravy, not strong, half a pint of port, and some pepper and pimento. Simmer, close covered, and as slow as you can, for three or four hours. When quite tender, take off the tape, set the meat on a dish, and strain the gravy over. Serve with currantjelly sauce.

This is the best way to dress this joint, unless it be very fat, and then it should be roasted. The bone should be stewed with it.

To prepare Venison for Pasty.

Take the bones out, then season and beat the meat. Lay it in a stone jar in large pieces: pour upon it some plain drawn beef gravy, but not a strong one: lay the bones on top, then set the jar in a waterbath, that is, a saucepan of water over the fire; simmer three or four hours; then leave it in a cold place till next day. Remove the cake of fat, and lay the meat in handsome pieces on the dish: if not sufficiently seasoned, add more pepper, salt, or pimento, as necessary. Put some of the 26gravy, and keep the remainder for the time of serving. If the venison be thus prepared, it will not require so much time to bake, or such a very thick crust as is usual, and by which the under part is seldom done through.

Venison Pasty.

A shoulder, boned, makes a good pasty; but it must be beaten and seasoned, and the want of fat supplied by that of a fine well hung loin of mutton, steeped twenty four hours in equal parts of rape, vinegar, and port.

The shoulder being sinewy, it will be of advantage to rub it well with sugar for two or three days; and when to be used, wipe it perfectly clean from it, and the wine.

A mistake used to prevail, that venison could not be baked enough; but, as above directed, three or four hours in a slow oven will be sufficient to make it tender, and the flavor will be preserved. Either in shoulder or side, the meat must be cut in pieces, and laid with fat between, that it may be proportioned to each person, without breaking up the pasty to find it. Lay some pepper and salt, at the bottom of the dish, and some butter, then the meat nicely packed, that it may be sufficiently done, but not lie hollow to harden at the edges.

The venison bones should be boiled with some fine old mutton. Of this gravy put half a pint cold into the dish, then lay butter on the venison, and cover, as well as line the sides with a thick crust; 27but do not put one under the meat. Keep the remainder of the gravy till the pasty comes from the oven; put it into the middle by a funnel, quite hot, and shake the dish to mix well. It should be seasoned with pepper and salt.

An imitation of Venison Pasty.

Choose a large well fed loin of mutton; hang it ten days, then bone it, leaving the meat as whole as possible. Cover it with brown sugar a day and night; then lay it in a pickle of half a pint of port wine, and half a pint of rape or common vinegar, twenty four hours more: then shake it well in it to take off the sugar, but do not wash, only wipe it. Season as above, and bake; making a gravy of the bones.

Crust for the pasty, see under the article of crusts.

Hashed Venison,

Should be warmed with its own, or gravy without seasoning, as before, and only warmed through, not boiled. If there be no fat left, cut some slices of mutton fat, set on the fire, with a little port wine and sugar: simmer till dry; then add it to the hash, and it will eat as well as that of the venison.

Beef or Pork, to be salted for eating immediately.

The piece should not weigh more than five or six pounds. Salt it very thoroughly just before you put it in the pot. Take a coarse cloth, flour it well, put the meat in and fold it up close. Put it into a pot of boiling water, and boil it as long as you would any salt beef of the same size, and it will be as salt as if done four or five days.

Choose a piece of thick flank of a fine heifer or ox. Cut into long slices some fat bacon, but quite free from yellow. Let each bit be near an inch thick, and dip them in vinegar, and then in a seasoning ready prepared of salt, black and Jamaica peppers and a clove in finest powder, with parsley, chives, thyme, savory and knotted marjorum, shred as small as possible, and well mixed. With a sharp knife make holes deep enough to let in the larding; then rub the beef over with the seasoning, and bind it up tight with tape. Set it in a well tinned pot over a fire or rather stove. Three or four onions must be fried brown and put to the beef, with two or three carrots, one turnip, and a head or two of celery, and a small quantity of water. Let it simmer gently ten or twelve hours, or till extremely tender, turning the meat twice.

Put the gravy in a pan, remove the fat, keep the beef covered, then put them together, and add a glass of port wine. Remove the tape, and serve with the vegetables: or you may strain them off, and send up fresh, cut in dice for garnish. Onions roasted, and then stewed with the gravy, are a great improvement. A teacup full of vinegar should be stewed with the beef.

Stewed rump of Beef.

Wash it well: season it high with pepper, Cayenne, salt, Jamaica pepper, three cloves, a blade of mace, all in finest powder. Bind it up tight, and lay it in a pot that will just hold it. Fry three large 29onions, sliced, and put to it, with three carrots, two turnips, a shalot, four cloves, a blade of mace, and some celery. Cover the meat with good beef broth, or weak gravy. Simmer as gently as possible for several hours, till quite tender. Clear off the fat, and add to the gravy half a pint of port wine, a glass of vinegar, and a large spoonful of catsup; simmer half an hour, and serve in a deep dish.

Garnish with carrots, turnips, or truffles, and morels, or pickles of different colours cut small, and laid in little heaps separate, chopped parsley, chives, beetroot, &c. If when done the gravy be too much to fill the dish, take only a part to season for serving: the less wafer the better; and to increase the richness, add a few beef bones and shanks of mutton in stewing.

A spoonful or two of made mustard is a great improvement to the gravy.

Rump roasted is excellent; but in the country is generally sold whole with the edgebone, or cut across instead of lengthways, as in London, when there is one piece for boiling, and the rump for stewing or roasting.

Stewed Brisket.

Put the part that has the hard fat into a stew pot, with a small quantity of water; let it boil up, and skim it thoroughly; then add carrots, turnips, onions, celery, and a few peppercorns. Stew till extremely tender; then take out the flat bones, and remove all the fat from the soup. Either serve that and the meat in a tureen, or the former alone, 30and the meat on a dish, garnished with some of the vegetables. The following sauce is much admired, served with the beef. Take half a pint of the soup, and mix with a spoonful of catsup, a glass of port wine, a teaspoonful of made mustard, a little flour, a bit of butter, and salt: boil all together a few minutes, then pour it round the meat. Chop capers, walnuts, red cabbage, pickled cucumbers, and chives or parsley, small, and put in separate heaps over it.

To salt Beef red, which is extremely good to eat fresh from the pickle, or to hang to dry.

Choose a piece of beef with as little bone as you can, the flank is most proper: sprinkle it, and let it drain a day; then rub it with common salt, saltpetre, and bay salt, but of the second a small proportion; and you may add a few grains of cochineal, all in fine powder. Rub the pickle every day into the meat for a week, then only turn it.

It will be excellent in eight days. In sixteen, drain it from the pickle, and let it be smoked at the oven mouth, where heated with wood, or send to the baker’s. A few days will smoke it.

A little of the coarsest sugar may be added to the salt.

It eats well boiled tender with greens or carrots. If to be grated as Dutch, then cut a lean bit: boil it till extremely tender; and while hot put it under a press. When cold, fold it in a sheet of paper, and it will keep in a dry place two or three months.

Salt a bit of brisket, thin part of the flank, or the tops of the ribs, with salt and saltpetre, five days; then boil it gently till extremely tender. Put it under a great weight, or in a cheese press, till perfectly cold.

It eats excellently cold, and for Sandwiches.

Hunter’s Beef.

To a round of beef that weighs twenty five pounds, take three ounces of saltpetre, three ounces of coarsest sugar, an ounce of cloves, one nutmeg, half an ounce of pimento, and three handfuls of common salt, all in the finest powder.

The beef should hang two or three days, then rub the above well into it. Turn and rub it daily for two or three weeks. The bone must be removed at first. When to be dressed, dip it in cold water to take off the loose spice: bind it up tight with tape: put it into a pan, and a teacup of water at bottom: put over the pan a brown crust and paper, and bake it five or six hours. When cold, remove the paste and fillet.

The gravy is very fine, and a little of it adds greatly to the flavor of any hash, soup, &c.

Both gravy and beef will keep some time. The latter should be cut with a very sharp knife, and quite smooth, to prevent waste.

Collared Beef.

Choose the thin end of the flank of fine mellow beef, but not too fat. Lay it in a dish with salt, and saltpetre. Turn and rub it every day for a week, 32and keep it cool. Then take out every bone and gristle; remove the skin of the inside part, and cover it thick with the following seasoning cut small: a large handful of parsley, the same of sage, some thyme, marjorum, pennyroyal, pepper, salt and pimento. Roll the meat up as tight as possible, and bind it; then boil it gently for seven or eight hours. A cloth must be put round before the tape. Put the beef under a good weight while hot, without undoing it; the shape will then be oval. Part of a breast of veal, rolled in with the beef, looks and eats very well.

Beefsteak and Oyster Sauce.

Strain off the liquor from the oysters, and throw them in cold water to take off the grit, while you simmer the former with a bit of mace and lemonpeel; then put the oysters in, stew them a few minutes, and add a little cream if you have it, and some butter, rubbed in a bit of flour; let them boil up once, and have rump steaks, well seasoned and broiled, ready for throwing the oyster sauce over the moment you are to serve.

Staffordshire Beefsteaks.

Beat them a little with a rolling pin: flour and season them; then fry with sliced onion to a fine light brown. Lay the steaks in a stewpan, and pour as much boiling water over as will serve for sauce: stew them very gently half an hour, and add a spoonful of catsup or walnut liquor before you serve.

Cut a fine large steak from a rump that has been well hung; or it will do from any tender part. Beat it, and season with pepper, salt and onion. Lay it in an iron stewpan, that has a cover to fit quite close; set it at the side of a fire, without water. Take care it does not burn, but it must have a strong heat. In two or three hours it will be quite tender, then serve with its own gravy.

Beef Collop.

Cut thin slices of beef from the rump or other tender parts, and divide them in pieces three inches long: beat with the blade of a knife, and flour them. Fry the collops quick in butter two minutes; then lay them in a small stewpan, and cover with a pint of gravy: add a bit of butter rubbed in flour, pepper, salt, the least bit of shalot shred as fine as possible, half a walnut, four small pickled cucumbers, and a teaspoonful of capers cut small. Observe it does not boil; and serve the stew in a very hot covered dish.

Beefsteak Pudding.

Prepare some fine steaks as above: roll them with fat between, and if you approve shred onion, add a very little. Lay a paste of suet in a bason, and put in the rollers of steaks: cover the bason with a paste, and pinch the edges to keep the gravy in. Cover with a cloth tied close, and let the pudding boil slowly, but for a length of time.

Prepare the steaks as above, and when seasoned and rolled with fat in each, put them in a dish, with puff paste round the edges. Put a little water in the dish, and cover it with a good crust.

Baked Beefsteak Pudding.

Make a batter of milk, two eggs, and flour, or which is much better, potatoes boiled and mashed through a colander. Lay a little of it at the bottom of the dish, then put in the steaks prepared as above, and very well seasoned; pour the remainder of the batter over them, and bake it.

Podovies, or Beef Patties.

Shred raredone dressed beef, with a little fat: season with pepper, salt, and a little shalot or onion. Make a plain paste, roll it thin, and cut it in shape like an apple puff; fill it with the mince, pinch the edges, and fry them of a nice brown. The paste should be made with a small quantity of butter, egg, and milk.

Beef Palates.

Simmer them in water several hours, till they will peel; then cut the palates in slices, or leave them whole, as you choose, and stew them in a rich gravy till as tender as possible. Before you serve, season with Cayenne, salt, and catsup. If the gravy was drawn clear, add to the above some butter and flour.

Beef Cakes for side dish of dressed meat.

Pound some beef that is raredone, with a little fat bacon or ham. Season with pepper, salt, and a 35little shalot or garlic: mix them well, and make into small cakes three inches long, and half as wide and thick: fry them a light brown, and serve them in a good thick gravy.

Potted Beef.

Take two pounds of lean beef, rub it with saltpetre, and let it lie one night; then salt with common salt, and cover it with water four days in a small pan. Dry it with a cloth, and season with pepper: lay it into as small a pan as will hold it; cover it with coarse paste, and bake it five hours in a very cool oven. Put no liquor in.

When cold, pick out the strings and fat; beat the meat very fine with a quarter of a pound of fine butter just warm, but not oiled, and as much of the gravy as will make it into a paste. Put it into very small pots, and cover them with melted butter.

Another way.

Take beef that has been dressed, either boiled or roasted: beat it in a mortar with some pepper, salt, a few cloves, grated nutmeg, a little fine butter just warm.

This eats as well, but the colour is not so fine.

Hessian Soup and Ragout.

Clean the root of a tongue very nicely, and half an ox head, with salt and water, and soak them afterwards in plain water; then stew them in five or six quarts of water till tolerably tender. Let the soup stand to be cold: take off the cake of fat, which will make good paste for hot meat pies, or 36serve to baste. Put to the soup a pint of split peas or a quart of whole, twelve carrots, six turnips, six potatoes, six large onions, a bunch of sweet herbs, and two heads of celery. Simmer them without the meat, till the vegetables are done enough to pulp with the peas through a sieve, when the soup will be about the consistence of cream. Season it with pepper, salt, mace, pimento, a clove or two, and a little Cayenne, all in the finest powder. If the peas are bad, the soup may not be thick enough; then boil in it a slice of roll, and put through the colander; or put a little rice flour, mixing it by degrees.

The Ragout.

Cut the nicest part of the head in small thick pieces, the kernels, and part of the fat of the root of the tongue. Rub these with some of the same seasoning, as you put them into a quart of the liquor, kept out for that purpose before the vegetables were added; flour well, and simmer them till nicely tender. Then put a little mushroom and walnut catsup, a little soy, and a glass of port wine, a teaspoonful of made mustard, and boil all up together before served.

If for company, small eggs and forcemeat balls.

This mode furnishes an excellent soup, and a ragout at small expense, and they are uncommon. The other part will warm for the family.

Stewed Oxcheek plain.

Soak and cleanse a fine cheek the day before you would have it eaten. Put it into a stewpot that 37will cover close, with three quarts of water: simmer it, after it has first boiled up and been well skimmed. In two hours put plenty of carrots, leeks, two or three turnips, a bunch of sweet herbs, some whole pepper, and four Jamaica’s. Skim frequently. When the meat is tender, take it out: let the soup go cold: remove the cake of fat, and serve it separate or with the meat.

It should be of a fine brown, which may be done by burnt sugar, or by frying some onions quite brown with flour, and simmering them with it. The latter improves the flavour of all soups and gravies of the brown kind.

If vegetables are not approved in the soup, they may be taken out, and a small roll be toasted, or bread fried and added. Celery is a great addition, and should be always served. Where it is not to be got, the seed gives an equally good flavour, boiled in, and strained off.

To dress an Oxcheek another way.

Soak half a head three hours, and clean it with plenty of water. Take the meat off the bones; put it into a pan with a large onion, a bunch of sweet herbs, some bruised pimento, pepper, and salt.

Lay the bones on the top: pour on two or three quarts of water: cover the pan close with brown paper, or a dish that will fit close. Let it stand eight or ten hours in a slow oven, or simmer it by the side of the fire, or on a hot hearth. When done 38tender, let it go cold, having moved the meat into a clean pan. Take the cake of fat off, and warm the head in pieces in the soup. Put what vegetables you choose.

Marrow Bones.

Cover the top with floured cloth: boil, and serve with dry toast.

To dress the Inside of a cold Sirloin of Beef.

Cut out all the meat, and a little fat, in pieces as thick as your finger, and two inches long. Dredge with flour, and fry in butter, of a nice brown. Drain the butter from the meat, and toss up in a rich gravy, seasoned with pepper, salt, anchovy, and shalot. On no account let it boil. Before you serve, add two spoonfuls of vinegar.

Garnish with crimped parsley.

Fricassee of cold Roast Beef.

Cut the beef into very thin slices: shred a handful of parsley very small: cut an onion in quarters, and put all together into a stewpan, with a piece of butter, and some strong broth. Season with salt and pepper, and simmer very gently a quarter of an hour; then mix into it the yelks of two eggs, a glass of port wine, and a spoonful of vinegar: stir it quick, and, rubbing the dish with shalot, turn the fricassee into it.

To dress Cold Beef that has not been done enough, called Beef Olives.

Cut slices half an inch thick, and four square: lay on them a forcemeat of crumbs of bread, shalot, a little suet or fat, pepper, and salt. Roll them, 39and fasten with a small skewer. Put them into a stewpan, with some gravy made of the beef bones, or the gravy of the meat, and a spoonful or two of water, and stew them till tender. Fresh meat will do.

To dress ditto, called Sanders.

Mince small beef or mutton, onion, pepper, and salt; add a little gravy: put into scallopshells or saucers: make them three parts full; then fill them up with potatoes, mashed with a little cream: put a bit of butter on the top, and brown them in an oven, or before the fire.

To dress ditto, called Cecils.

Mince any kind of meat, crumbs of bread, a good deal of onion, some anchovies, lemonpeel, salt, nutmeg, chopped parsley, and pepper, and a bit of butter warm, and mix these over a fire for a few minutes. When cool enough, make them up into balls of the size and shape of a turkey’s egg, with an egg. Fry them, when sprinkled with fine crumbs, of a yellow brown, and serve with gravy as above.

Minced Beef.

Shred fine the underdone part, with some of the fat. Put into a small stewpan, some onion, or shalot, (a very little will do,) a little water, pepper, and salt: boil till the onion be quite soft; then put some of the gravy of the meat to it, and the mince. Do not let it boil. Having a small hot dish, with sippets of bread ready, pour the mince into it; but first mix a large spoonful of vinegar with it: or if shalot vinegar, there will be no need of the onion, or raw shalot.

Do the same, only the meat is to be in slices; and you may add a spoonful of walnut liquor or catsup.

Observe, that it is owing to boiling hashes or minces, that they are hard. All sorts of stews, or meat dressed second hand, should only be simmered; and the latter only hot through.

To preserve Suet a twelvemonth.

As soon as it comes in, choose the firmest part, and pick free from skin and veins. In a very nice saucepan, set it at some distance from the fire, that it may melt without frying, or it will taste.

When melted, pour it into a pan of cold water. When in a hard cake, wipe it very dry: fold it in fine paper, and then in a linen bag, and keep in a dry, but not hot place. When used, scrape it fine; and it will make a fine crust, either with or without butter.

Round of Beef,

Should be carefully salted, and wet with the pickle for eight or ten days. The bone should be cut out first, and the beef skewered and filleted, to make it quite round. It may be stuffed with parsley, if approved; in which case, the holes to admit it must be made with a sharp pointed knife, and the parsley coarsely cut and stuffed in tight. As soon as it boils, it should be skimmed, and afterwards kept boiling very gently.

To roast Tongue and Udder.

After cleaning the tongue well, salt it with common salt and saltpetre three days; then boil it, and 41likewise a fine young udder, and some fat to it, till tolerably tender; then tie the thick part of one to the thin part of the other, and roast the tongue and udder together.

Serve them with a good gravy, and currantjelly sauce. A few cloves should be stuck in the udder.

This is an excellent dish.

To pickle Tongues for boiling.

Cut off the root, leaving a little of the kernel and fat. Sprinkle some salt, and let it drain from the slime till next day: then, for each tongue, mix a large spoonful of common salt, the same of coarse sugar, and about half as much of saltpetre; rub it well in, and do so every day. In a week add another heaped spoonful of salt. If rubbed every day, a tongue will be ready in a fortnight; but if only turned in the pickle daily, it will keep four or five weeks without being too salt.

If you dry tongues, write the date on a parchment and tie on. Smoke them, or plainly dry them, if you like best.

When to be dressed, boil it extremely tender: allow five hours; and if done sooner, it is easily kept hot. The longer kept after drying, the higher it will be: if hard, it may require soaking three or four hours.

Another way.

Clean as above. For two tongues, one ounce of saltpetre, and one ounce of sal prunella. Rub them well. In two days, having well rubbed them, cover them with common salt. Turn them daily 42for three weeks; then dry, rub in bran, and paper or smoke them. In ten days they will be fit to eat if not dried.

Beef Heart.

Wash with care. Stuff as you do hare, and serve with rich gravy, and currantjelly sauce.

Hash with the same, and port wine.

Tripe.

Tripe may be served in a tureen. Stewed with milk and onion till tender. Melted butter for sauce.

Or, fried in small bits dipped in butter: or stew the thin part, cut in bits, in gravy, and thicken with flour and butter, and add a little catsup: or fricasseed with white sauce.

Bubble and Squeak.

Boil, chop, and fry, with a little butter, pepper, and salt, some cabbage, and lay on it slices of raredone beef, lightly fried.

In both the following receipts, the roots must be taken off the tongue before salted.

Stewed Tongue.

Salt a tongue with saltpetre and common salt for a week, turning it daily. Boil it tender enough to peel. When done, stew it in a moderately strong gravy. Season with soy, mushroom catsup, Cayenne, pounded cloves, and salt if necessary.

Serve with truffles, morels, and mushrooms.

An excellent mode of doing Tongues to eat cold.

Season with common salt and saltpetre, brown sugar, a little bay salt, pepper, cloves, mace, and 43pimento, in finest powder, for fourteen days: then remove the pickle, put it in a small pan, and lay some butter on it; cover with a brown crust, and bake slowly till so tender that a straw would pierce it.

The thin part of tongues, if hung up to become dry, grate as hung beef; and likewise make a fine addition to the flavour of omlets.

Leg of Veal.

Let the fillet be cut large or small, as best suits the number of your company. The bone being taken out, fill the space with a fine stuffing, and let it be skewered quite round, and send the large side uppermost. When half roasted, if not before, put a paper over the fat, and observe to allow a sufficient time, and to put it a good distance from the fire, the meat being very solid. You may pot some of it.

Knuckle.

As few people are fond of boiled veal, it may be well to leave the knuckle small, and to take off some cutlets or collops, before it be dressed; but as the knuckle will keep longer than the fillet, it is best not to cut off the slices till wanted. Break the bones to make it take less room; and, washing it well, put it into a saucepan with three onions, a blade of mace or two, and a few peppercorns; cover with water, and simmer it till thoroughly ready. In the mean time some macaroni should be boiled with it, if approved; or rice, or a little rice flour, to give it a small degree of thickness; but do not put too much. Before it be served, add half a pint of milk and cream, and let it come up with or without the meat.

44Or, fry the knuckle, with sliced onion and butter, to a good brown, and have ready peas, lettuce, onion, a cucumber or two, stewed in a small quantity of water an hour, then add to the veal, and stew till the meat be tender enough to eat, not to be overdone. Throw in pepper, salt, and a bit of shred mint, and serve altogether.

Cutlets Maintenon.

Cut slices about three quarters of an inch thick; beat them with a rolling pin, and wet them on both sides with egg: dip them into a seasoning of bread crumbs, parsley, thyme, knotted marjorum, pepper, salt, and a little nutmeg grated; then put them in papers folded over, and broil them; and have ready in a boat, melted butter, with a little mushroom catsup.

Cutlets another way.

Prepare as above, and fry them. Lay them in a dish, and keep them hot. Dredge a little flour, and put a bit of butter into the pan, brown it; then pour a little boiling water into it, and boil quick. Season with pepper, salt, and catsup, and pour over them.

Another way.

Prepare as before, and dress the cutlets in a Dutch oven. Pour over them melted butter and mushrooms. Or, pepper, salt, and broil, especially neck steaks. They are excellent without herbs.

Collops dressed quick.

Cut them as thin as paper, with a very sharp knife, and in small bits. Throw the skin, and any 45odd bits of the veal into a little water, with a dust of pepper and salt: set them on the fire while you beat the collops, and dip them in a seasoning of herbs, bread, pepper, salt, and a scrape of nutmeg, having first wetted them in egg; then put a bit of butter into a frying pan, and give the collops a very quick fry; for as they are so thin, two minutes will do them on both sides. Put them into a hot dish before the fire, then strain and thicken the gravy. Give a boil in the fryingpan, and pour over the collops. A little catsup is an improvement.

Another way.

Fry them in butter, only seasoned with salt and pepper: then simmer them in gravy, white or brown, with bits of bacon served with them.

If white, add lemonpeel and mace, and some cream.

Veal Collops.

Cut long thin collops: beat them well, and lay on them a bit of thin bacon the same size; and spread forcemeat on that, seasoned high, with the addition of a little garlick, and Cayenne. Roll them up tight, about the size of two fingers, but not more than two or three inches long. Put a very small skewer to fasten each firm. Rub egg over them, and fry of a fine brown, and pour over them a rich brown gravy.

Scollops of cold Veal or Chicken.

Mince the meat extremely small, and set it over the fire, with a scrape of nutmeg, a little pepper and salt, and a little cream, for a few minutes; 46then put it into the scallopshells, and fill them with crumbs of bread; over which put some bits of butter, and brown them before the fire.

Veal or chicken, as above prepared, served in a dish, and lightly covered with crumbs of bread fried (or they may be put on in little heaps), look and eat well.

Scotch Collops.

Cut veal in thin bits, about three inches over, and rather round: beat with a rolling pin: grate a little nutmeg over them: dip in the yelk of an egg, and fry them in a little butter, of a fine brown: pour it from them; and have ready warm, to pour upon them, half a pint of gravy, a little bit of butter rubbed into a little flour, to which put a yelk of an egg, two large spoonfuls of cream, and a bit of salt. Do not boil the sauce, but stir it until of a fine thickness to serve with the collops.

Kidney.

Chop veal kidney, and some of the fat, likewise a little leek or onion, pepper, salt. Roll it up with an egg into balls, and fry them.

Cold fillet makes the finest potted veal; or you may do it as follows:

Season a large slice of the fillet before dressed, with some mace, peppercorns, and two or three cloves, and lay it close into a potting pan that will but just hold it, and fill it up with water, and bake it three hours. Then pound it quite small in a mortar, and add salt to taste. Put a little gravy, 47that was baked, to it in pounding, if to be eaten soon; otherwise only a little butter just melted.

When done, cover it over with butter.

To pot Veal or Chicken with Ham.

Pound some cold veal or white of chicken, seasoned as above, and put layers of it with layers of pounded ham, or rather shred: press each down, and cover over with butter.

Neck of Veal.

Cut off the scrag to boil, and cover it with onion sauce. It should be boiled in milk and water. Parsley and butter may be served with it, instead of the former sauce; or it may be stewed with whole rice, small onions, and peppercorns, with a very little water; or boiled and eaten with bacon and greens.

Best end, roasted, broiled as steaks, or made into pies.

Breast of Veal.

Before roasted, if large, the two ends may be taken off and fried to stew, or the whole may be roasted. Butter should be poured over it.

If any be left, cut the pieces in handsome sizes, and putting them into a stewpan, pour some broth over it; or if you have none, a little water will do. Add a bunch of herbs, a blade or two of mace, some pepper, and an anchovy. Stew till the meat is tender: thicken with butter and flour, and add a little catsup; or the whole breast may be stewed, after cutting off the two ends.

48The sweetbread is to be served up whole in the middle; and if you have a few mushrooms, truffles, and morels, stew them with it, and serve.

Boiled breast of veal, smothered with onion sauce, is an excellent dish, if not old, or too fat.

Rolled Breast of Veal.

Bone it, and take off the thick skin and gristle, and beat the meat with a rolling pin. Season with herbs chopped very fine, mixed with salt, pepper, and mace. Lay some thick slices of fine ham, or roll into it two or three calves’ tongues of a fine red, and boiled first an hour or two and skinned. Bind it up tight in a cloth, and tape it. Set it over the fire to simmer in a small quantity of water until it be quite tender. Some hours will be necessary.

Lay it on the dresser with a board and weight on it till quite cold.

Pigs’ or calves’ feet, boiled and taken from the bones, may be put in or round it. The different colours, laid in layers, look well when cut; and yelks of eggs boiled may be put in, with beet root, grated ham, and chopped parsley.

Shoulder of Veal.

Cut off the knuckle of the shoulder, for a stew or gravy. Roast the other part, with stuffing. You may lard it. Serve with melted butter.

Blade bone, with a good devil of meat left on, eats extremely well with mushroom or oyster sauce; or mushroom catsup in butter.

Clean it very nicely, and soak it in water, that it may look very white. Take out the tongue to salt, and the brains to make a little dish. Boil the head extremely tender; then strew it over with crumbs and chopped parsley, and brown them; or, if preferred, leave one side plain.

Bacon and greens are to be served to eat with it.

The brains must be boiled, and then mixed with melted butter, chopped scalded sage, pepper, and salt.

If any be left of the head, it may be hashed next day, and a few slices of bacon just warmed and put round.

Cold calf’s head eats well.

Hashed Calf’s Head.

When half boiled, cut off the meat in slices, half an inch thick, and two or three inches long. Brown some butter, flour, and sliced onion, and throw in the slices with some good gravy, truffles, and morels. Give it one boil, skim it well, and set it in a moderate heat to simmer till very tender.

Season with pepper, salt, and Cayenne, at first; and ten minutes before serving, throw in some shred parsley, and a very small bit of tarragon, and knotted marjorum, cut as fine as possible. Just before you serve, add the squeeze of a lemon. Forcemeat balls and bits of bacon rolled round.

Mock Turtle.

Bespeak a calf’s head with the skin on: cut in half, and clean it well; then half boil it. Have all 50the meat taken off in square bits, and break the bones of the head: boil them in some veal and beef broth, to add to the richness. Fry some shalot in butter: dredge in flour sufficient to thicken the gravy, which stir into the browning, and give it one or two boils: skim carefully, then put in the head. Put in a pint of Madeira wine, and simmer till the meat be quite tender. About ten minutes before you serve, put in some basil, tarragon, chives, parsley, Cayenne pepper, and salt to your taste; and two spoonfuls of mushroom catsup, and one of soy. Squeeze the juice of a lemon into the tureen, and pour the soup upon it. Forcemeat balls, and small eggs.

A cheaper way.

Prepare half a calf’s head, without the skin, as above. When the meat is cut off, break the bones, and put into a saucepan, with some gravy made of beef and veal bones, and seasoned with fried onions, herbs, mace, and pepper. Have ready two or three ox palates, boiled so tender as to blanch, and cut in small pieces; to which a cowheel, likewise cut in pieces, is a great improvement. Brown some butter, flour, and onion, and pour the gravy to it; then add the meats as above, and stew. Half a pint of sherry wine, an anchovy, two spoonfuls of walnut catsup, the same of mushroom, some chopped herbs as before. Balls, &c.

Forcemeat as for Turtle, at the Bush, Bristol.

A pound of fine fresh suet, one ounce of ready dressed veal or chicken, chopped fine, crumbs of 51bread, a little shalot or onion, salt, white pepper, nutmeg, mace, pennyroyal, parsley, and lemon; thyme finely shred: beat as many fresh eggs, yelks and whites separately, as will make the above ingredients into a moist paste: roll into small balls, and boil them in fresh lard, putting them in just as it boils up. When of a light brown, take them out, and drain them before the fire. If the suet be moist or stale, a great many more eggs will be necessary.

Balls made this way are remarkably light; but being greasy, some people prefer them with less suet and eggs.

Another Forcemeat, for Balls or Patties.

Pound cold veal or chicken: take out the strings: add some fat bacon; and, if you like, the least portion of scraped ham: herbs, as for the preceding: pepper, salt, a little nutmeg, crumbs of bread, a little onion, and two eggs.

Note. When forcemeat is to be eaten cold, as in pies, bacon is far better than suet, and the taste is always higher.

Another Mock Turtle.

Put into a pan a knuckle of veal, two fine cowheels, two onions, a few cloves, peppers, Jamaica peppers, mace, and sweet herbs: cover with water, and then, tying a thick paper over the pan, set it in an oven for three hours. When cold, take off the fat very nicely: cut the meat and feet into bits an inch and half square: remove the bones and coarser parts; then put the other on to warm, with walnut and mushroom catsup, a large spoonful of each, half a pint of sherry or Madeira wine, a little 52mushroom powder, and the jelly of the meat. When hot, if it want any more seasoning, add it, and serve with hard eggs, forcemeat balls, a juice of lemon, and a spoonful of soy.

This is a very easy process, and the dish is excellent.

Another Ditto.

Stew a pound and a half of scrag of mutton, with three pints of water to a quart; then set the broth on, with a calf’s foot and a cowheel: cover the stewpan tight, and simmer till you can cut off the meat from the bones in proper bits. Set it on again, with the broth, a quarter of a pint of Madeira or sherry wine, a large onion, half a teaspoonful of Cayenne pepper, a bit of lemonpeel, two anchovies, some sweet herbs, and eighteen oysters cut in pieces, and then chopped fine, a teaspoonful of salt, a little nutmeg, and the liquor of the oysters: cover tight, and simmer three quarters of an hour. Serve with forcemeat balls, and hard eggs in the tureen.

Note. Cowheels, with veal or head, are a great improvement; and if not too much boiled, have a very fine flavour stewed for turtle; and are more solid than the calf’s feet.

Calf’s Head Pie.

Stew a knuckle of veal till fit for eating, with two onions, a few isinglass shavings, a bunch of herbs, 2 blade of mace, and a few peppercorns, in two quarts or less of water. Keep the broth for the pie. Take off a bit of the meat for the balls, and let the other be eaten; but simmer the bones 53in the broth till it is very good. Half boil the head, and cut it in square bits: put a layer of ham at the bottom, then some head, first fat then lean, with balls and hard eggs cut in half, and so on till the dish be full; but be particularly careful not to place the pieces close, or the pie will be too solid, and there will be no space for the jelly. The meat must be first pretty well seasoned with pepper and salt, and a scrape or two of nutmeg. Put a little water and a little gravy into the dish, and cover it with a tolerably thick crust: bake it in a slow oven; and when done, pour into it as much gravy as it can possibly hold, and do not cut it till perfectly cold: in doing which, observe to use a very sharp knife, and first cut out a large bit, going down to the bottom of the dish; and when done thus, the different colours, and the clear jelly, have a beautiful marbled appearance.

A small pie may be made to eat hot; which, with high seasoning, oysters, mushrooms, truffles, morels, &c. has a very good appearance.

The cold pie will keep some days. Slices make a pretty side dish.

The pickled tongues of former calves’ heads may be cut in, to vary the colour, instead of, or besides ham.

Calf’s Head Fricasseed.

Clean, and half boil half a head. Cut the meat in small bits, and put into a tosser, with a little gravy made of the bones, and some of the water it was boiled in, a bunch of sweet herbs, an onion, 54and a blade of mace. If you have a sweetbread, or young cockerels in the house, use the cockscombs; having first boiled them tender and blanched. Season the gravy with a little pepper, nutmeg, and salt: rub down some flour and butter, and give all a boil together; then remove the herbs and onion, and add a little cup of cream, but do not boil it in. Serve with small bits of bacon rolled round, and balls.

Veal Patties.

Mince some veal, that is not quite done, with a little parsley, lemonpeel, a scrape of nutmeg, and a little salt: add a little cream and gravy just to moisten the meat; and if you have any ham, scrape a little bit and add to it. Do not warm it till the patties are baked; and observe to put a bit of bread into each, to prevent the paste from rising into cake.

Fricandeau.

Cut a large piece out of the prime part of a leg of veal, about nine inches long, and half as broad and thick: beat it with a rolling pin; then lard it very thickly on one side and the edges. Put it in a small stewpan, with three pints of water, a pound of veal cut in small bits, and four or five ounces of lean ham, and an onion: simmer till the meat be tender; then take it out; cover to keep it moist, and boil the gravy till it be a fine brown, and much reduced: then put the larded meat back into the gravy, and pour a little of it over with a spoon. When quite hot, serve the meat and gravy round in the dish, with the following sauce in a boat.

Sorrel Sauce.

Wash a quantity of sorrel, and boil it tender in the smallest quantity of water you can: strain and 55chop it: stew it with a little butter, pepper, and salt; and if you like it high, add a spoonful of gravy.

Be careful to do it in a very well tinned saucepan; or if you have a silver one, or a silver mug, it is far better; as the sorrel is very sour, especially in spring.

Veal Olives.

Cut long thin collops: beat them, and lay on them thin slices of fat bacon, and over a layer of forcemeat seasoned high, with the addition of shred shalot, and Cayenne. Roll them tight, about the size of two fingers, but not more than two or three inches long: fasten them round with a small skewer: rub egg over, and fry them of a light brown.

Serve with brown gravy.

Calf’s Liver.

Sliced: seasoned with pepper and salt, and nicely broiled. Rub a bit of cold butter on it, and serve hot and hot.

Roasted.

Wash and wipe it: then cut a long hole in it, and stuff it with crumbs of bread, chopped anchovy, herbs, a good deal of fat bacon, onion, salt, pepper, a bit of butter, and an egg. Sew the liver up; then lard or wrap it in a veal caul, and roast it.

Serve with a good brown gravy, and currant jelly.

Sweetbreads.

Half boil, and stew in a white gravy. Add cream, flour, butter, nutmeg, salt, and white pepper: or, in brown, seasoned: or, after parboiling, cover with crumbs, herbs, and seasoning, and brown in a Dutch oven. Serve with butter, and mushroom catsup, or gravy.

Cut them about the size of a walnut: wash and dry them; then fry of a fine brown. Pour to them a good gravy, seasoned with salt, pepper, allspice, mushrooms, or the catsup. Strain, and thicken with butter, and a little flour. You may add truffles, and morels, and the mushrooms.

Veal Sausages.

Chop equal quantities of lean veal and fat bacon, a handful of sage, a little salt, pepper, and a few anchovies. Beat all in a mortar; and, when used, roll and fry it, and serve with fried sippets.

Spadbury’s veal and pork sausages, under the article of pork.

To make excellent meat of a Hog’s Head.

Split the head, take out the brains, cut off the ears, and sprinkle it with common salt for a day; then drain. Salt it well with common salt and saltpetre three days; then lay salt and head into water (a small quantity) for two days. Wash it, and boil it till all the bones will come out: remove them, and chop the head as quick as possible; having skinned the tongue, and taken the skin carefully off the head, to put under and over. Season with pepper, salt, a little mace or Jamaicas. Put the skin into a small pan: press the cut head in, and put the other skin over: press it down. When cold, it will turn out and make a kind of brawn. If too fat, you may put a few bits of lean pork to go through the same process. Add salt and vinegar, and boil with some of the liquor for a pickle to keep it.

The moment the pig is killed, put it into cold water for a few minutes; then rub it over with a little rosin, beaten extremely small, and put it into a pail of scalding water half a minute; take it out, lay it on a table, and pull off the hair as quickly as possible. If any part does not come off, put it in again. When perfectly clean, wash it well with warm water, then in two or three cold waters, lest any flavour of the rosin should remain. Take off the four feet at the first joint: make a slit down the belly, and take out the entrails: put the liver, heart, and lights to the feet; wash the pig well in cold water, dry it thoroughly, and fold it in a wet cloth to keep it from the air.

To roast a sucking Pig.

If you can get it when just killed, it is of great advantage. Let it be scalded, which those who sell usually do. Then put some sage, crumbs of bread, salt, and pepper in the belly, and sew it up. Observe to skewer the legs back, or the under part will not crisp.

Lay it to a brisk fire till thoroughly dry; then have ready some butter, in a dry cloth, and rub the pig with it in every part. Dredge as much flour over as will possibly lie, and touch it no more till ready to serve; then scrape off the flour, with the greatest care, with a blunt knife: rub it well with the buttered cloth: take off the head while yet at the fire, and take out the brains, and mix them with the gravy that comes from the pig. Then take it up, and, without withdrawing the spit, cut 58it down the back and belly: lay it in the dish, and chop the sage and bread quickly, as fine as you can, and mix with a large quantity of fine melted butter, which has very little flour. Put the sauce into the dish after the pig has been split down the back, and garnished with the two ears, and the two jaws; the upper part of the head being taken off down to the snout.

In Devon, it is served whole if very small; the head only being cut off.

Pettitoes.

Boil them, and the liver and heart, in a small quantity of water very gently; then cut the meat fine, and simmer it with a little of the water and the feet split, till the latter be quite tender. Thicken with a bit of butter, a little flour, a spoonful of cream, a little salt, and pepper: give a boil up, and pour over a few sippets of bread, and put the feet on the mince.

Porker’s Head roasted.

Choose a fine young head, clean it well, and put bread and sage as for pig: sew it up tight, and put it on a string or hanging jack. Roast it as a pig, and serve with the same sauce.

Pig’s Cheek for boiling.

Cut off the snout, and clean the head: divide it, take out the eyes and the brains, and sprinkling the head with salt, let it drain twenty four hours. Salt it with common salt and saltpetre. Let it lie eight or ten days, if to be dressed without stewing with peas; but less, if to be dressed with peas; and it must be washed first, and then simmered till all is tender.

Scour the head and ears nicely: take off the hair and snout, and take out the eyes and the brain: lay it in water one night; then drain and salt it extremely well with common salt and saltpetre, and let it lie five days. Boil it enough to remove the bones, then lay it on a dresser, turning the thick end of one side of the head towards the thin end of the other, to make the roll of equal size, sprinkle it well with salt and white pepper, and roll it with the ears; and if you approve, put the pig’s feet round the outside when boned; or the thin parts of two cowheels. Bind it in a cloth and with a broad tape, and boil it till quite tender; then put a good weight upon it, and do not remove the covering till cold.

If you choose it to be more like brawn, salt it longer, and let the proportion of saltpetre be greater, putting in some pieces of lean pork, and then cover it with cowheel, to look like the horn.

This may be kept in or out of pickle of salt, and water boiled, with vinegar; and is a very convenient thing to have in the house.

If likely to spoil, slice and fry it with or without butter.

To roast a Leg of Pork.

Choose a small leg of fine young pork, cut a slit in the knuckle with a sharp knife, and fill the space with sage and onion, chopped, and a little pepper and salt. When half done, score the skin in slices, but do not cut deeper than the outer rind.

Apple sauce and potatoes should be served to eat with it.

Salt it eight or ten days; when to be dressed, weigh it; let it lie half an hour in cold water to make it white; allow a quarter of an hour for every pound, and half an hour over from the time it boils up; skim it as soon as it boils, and frequently after. Allow water enough. Save some of it to make pease soup. Some boil in a very nice cloth, floured, which gives a very delicate look.

Serve pease pudding and turnips.

Different ways of dressing Pig’s Feet and Ears.

Clean them carefully, and soak them some hours: boil them tender, then take them out; and with some of the water boil some vinegar and a little salt, and when cold put over them. When to be dressed, dry them, divide the feet in two, and slice the ears; fry and serve them with butter, mustard, and vinegar. They may be done in butter or only floured.

Feet and Ears Fricasseed.

Put no vinegar in the pickle, if to be dressed with cream. Cut the feet and ears into neat bits, and boil them in a little milk; then pour that from them, and simmer in a little veal broth, with a bit of onion, mace and lemonpeel. Before you serve, add a little cream, flour, butter, and salt.

Jelly of Feet and Ears.

Clean and prepare as in the foregoing receipt; then boil in a very small quantity of water until every bone can be taken out; throw in half a handful of chopped sage, the same of parsley, a seasoning 61of pepper, salt, and mace, in fine powder; simmer till the herbs are scalded, then pour the whole into a melon form.

Pork Steaks.

Cut them from a loin or neck, of middling thickness: pepper and broil them, turning often. When nearly done, put the salt necessary, rub a bit of butter over, and serve the moment they are taken off the fire; a few at a time.

To cure Hams. First way.

Hang them a day or two; then sprinkle with a little salt, and drain them another day. Pound an ounce and a half of saltpetre, ditto petresalt, half an ounce of sal prunel, and a pound of the coarsest sugar: mix these well, and rub into each ham every day for four days, and turn it. If a small one, turn it every day for three weeks: if a large one, a week longer; but do not rub after four days. Before you dry it, drain and cover with bran. Smoke it ten days.

Another way. Second way.

Choose a leg of a hog that is fat and well fed: hang as above. To it, if large, put, in fine powder, one pound of bay salt, four ounces saltpetre, one pound of the coarsest sugar, and one handful of common salt, and rub it thoroughly. Lay the rind downwards, and cover the fleshy part with the salts. Baste it as often as you can with the pickle; the more the better. Keep it four weeks in the pickle, turning it daily. Drain and throw bran over it; then hang it in a chimney where wood is burnt, and turn it sometimes for ten days.

Hang the ham and sprinkle with salt as above, then rub it daily with the following in fine powder: half a pound of salt, ditto bay salt, two ounces of saltpetre, and two ounces of black pepper, mixed with a pound and a half of treacle. Turn it twice a day in the pickle, for three weeks. Lay it in a pail of water for one night, wipe it quite dry, and smoke it two or three weeks.

Another way, that gives a high flavour. Fourth way.

When the weather will permit, hang the ham three days: mix an ounce of saltpetre with one quarter of a pound of bay salt, ditto common salt, ditto of coarsest sugar, and a quart of strong beer; boil them together, and pour over immediately on the ham; turn it twice a day in the pickle for three weeks. An ounce of black pepper, ditto of pimento, in finest powder, added to the above, will give still more flavour. Cover with bran when wiped, and smoke from three to four weeks, as you approve; the latter will make it harder, and more of the flavour of Wesphalia. Sew hams in hessings, i.e. coarse wrapper, if to be smoked where there is strong fire.

A method of giving a still higher flavour.

Sprinkle the ham with salt after it has hung two or three days: let drain; make a pickle of a quart of strong beer, half a pound of treacle, an ounce of coriander seeds, two ounces of juniper berries, an ounce of pepper, ditto pimento, an ounce of 63saltpetre, half an ounce of sal prunel, a handful of common salt, and a head of shalot, all pounded or cut fine. Boil these together a few minutes, and pour over the ham: this quantity for one of ten pounds. Rub and turn it every day, for a fortnight; then sew it up in a thin linen bag, and smoke it three weeks. Observe to drain it from the pickle, and rub it in bran previous to drying.

Hogs’ Cheeks to dry.

The snout being cut off, the brains removed, and the head cleft, but not cut apart on the upper side, rub it well with salt. Next day remove the brine, and salt it again; the following day cover the head with half an ounce of saltpetre, two ounces of bay salt, a little common, and four ounces of coarsest sugar. Let the head be often turned. In twelve days smoke for a week like bacon.

To dress Hams.

If long hung, put the ham into water a night, and either dig a hole in the earth, or let it lie on damp stones, sprinkled with water to mellow, two or three days, covering it with a heavy tub, to keep vermin from it. Wash it well, and put it into a boiler with plenty of water. Let it simmer four, five, or six hours, according to the size. When sufficiently done, if before the time of serving, cover it with a clean cloth doubled, and keep the dish hot over boiling water. Remove the skin, and strew raspings over the ham. Garnish with carrot. Preserve the 64skin as whole as possible, to keep over the ham when cold, which will prevent its drying.

The manner of curing Wiltshire Bacon.

Sprinkle each flitch with salt, and let the blood drain off for twenty four hours; then mix one pound and a half of coarse sugar, ditto of bay salt, not quite so much as half a pound of saltpetre, and a pound of common salt, and rub it well on the bacon, turning it every day for a month; then hang it to dry, and afterwards smoke it ten days. The above salts are for the whole hog.

To pickle Pork.

The quantities proportioned to the middlings of a pretty large hog; the hams and shoulders being cut off.

Mix and pound fine four ounces of saltpetre, one pound of coarse sugar, one ounce of sal prunel, and a little common salt. Having sprinkled the pork with salt, and drained it twenty four hours, rub it with the above, and then pack the pieces light in a small deep tub, filling up the spaces with common salt. Place large pebbles on the pork, to prevent its swimming in the pickle which the salt will produce.

Sausages.

Chop fat and lean of pork: season with sage, pepper, and salt; and you may add two or three pimentos. Half fill hog’s guts, that have been soaked and made extremely clean: or the meat may be kept in a very small pan, closely covered; and so rolled and dusted with a very little flour before they are fried.

Season fat and lean pork with some salt, saltpetre, black and Jamaica pepper, all in finest powder, and well rubbed into the meat. The sixth day cut it small, and mix with it some shred shalot, or garlick, as fine as possible. Have ready an ox gut that has been scoured, salted, and soaked well, and fill it with the above stuffing: tie up the ends, and hang it to smoke as you would hams; but first wrap it in a fold or two of old muslin. It must be high dried. Some eat it without boiling, others like it boiled first. The skin should be tied in different places, making each link about eight or nine inches long.

Spadbury’s Oxford Sausages.

Chop a pound and a half of pork, and the same of veal, cleared of skins and sinews. Add three quarters of a pound of beef suet, mince and mix them. Steep the crumbs of a penny loaf in water, and with a little dried sage, pepper, and salt, mix with the meat.

Black Puddings.

The blood must be stirred with salt till cold. Put a quart of it, or rather more, to a quart of old grits, to soak one night; and soak the crumbs of a quartern loaf in rather more than two quarts of new milk, made hot. In the mean time prepare the guts, by washing and scraping with salt and water, and changing the water several times. Chop fine a little winter savory and thyme, a great deal of pennyroyal, pepper, salt, a few cloves, allspice, 66ginger, and nutmeg. Mix these with three pounds of beefsuet, and six eggs well beaten and strained, and then beat the bread, grits, &c. all up with the seasoning. When well mixed, have ready some hogs fat cut in large bits, and as you fill the skins put it in at proper distances. Tie them in links, having only half filled them, and boil them in a large kettle, pricking them as they swell, or they will burst. When boiled, lay them between clean cloths till cold, and hang them up in the kitchen. When to be used, scald them a few minutes in water, wipe and put them in a Dutch oven.

If there are not sufficient skins, put the stuffing in basons, and boil, covered with floured cloths; and slice and fry it when used.

Black Puddings another way.

Soak a quart of bruised grits in two quarts of hot milk, or less, if sufficient to swell them. Chop a good quantity of pennyroyal, some savory and thyme; salt, pepper, and Jamaica pepper, finely powdered. Mix the above with a quart of the blood, prepared as before: then half fill the skins, after they have been cleaned most thoroughly, and put as much of the leaf, i. e. fat of the pig, as shall make it pretty rich. Boil as before directed.

White Hogs’ Puddings.

When the skins have been soaked and cleaned as before directed, rinse and soak them all night in rosewater, and put into them the following filling; mix half a pound of blanched almonds, cut in seven or eight bits, with one pound of grated bread, two 67pounds of marrow or suet, one pound of currents, some beaten cinnamon, cloves, mace, and nutmeg, a quart of cream, yelks of six, and whites of two eggs, a little orange flour water, a little fine Lisbon sugar, some lemon peel, and citron sliced, and half fill the skins. Boil as before directed.

Hogs’ Lard.

Should be carefully melted in a jar, put into a kettle of water, and boiled and run into bladders that have been extremely well cleaned. The smaller they are, the better the lard keeps; as after the air reaches it, it becomes rank. Put in a sprig of rosemary when melted.

This being a most useful article for frying fish, it should be prepared with care. Mixed with butter it makes fine crust.

Pig’s Harslet.

Wash and dry some liver, sweetbreads, and fat and lean bits of pork; beating the latter with a rolling pin to make it tender. Season with pepper, salt, sage, and a little onion, shred fine. Put all when mixed into a cawl, and fasten it up tight with a needle and thread. Roast it on a hanging jack, or by a string. Or serve in slices with parsley for a fry.

Serve with a sauce of port and water, and mustard just boiled up, and put into the dish.

Loins and Necks of Pork, roast.

Shoulders and breasts put into pickle, or salt the former as a leg.

Bone it. Put a forcemeat of chopped sage, a very few crumbs of bread, salt, pepper, and two or three pimentos over the inside: then roll the meat as tight as you can, and roast it slowly, and at a good distance at first.

To make a Pickle for Hams, Tongues, or Beef, if boiled and skimmed between each parcel of them, that will keep for years.

To two gallons of spring water put two pounds of coarse sugar, two pounds of bay, and two and a half pounds of common salt, and half a pound of saltpetre, in a deep earthen glazed pan, that will hold four gallons, and has a cover that will fit close. Keep the beef or hams as long as they will bear, before you put them into the pickle, and sprinkle them with coarse sugar in a pan, from which they must drain. Rub the hams, &c. well with the pickle, and pack them in close, putting as much as the pan will hold, so that the pickle may cover them. The pickle is not to be boiled at first. A small ham may lie fourteen days, a large one three weeks; a tongue twelve days; beef in proportion to its size. They will eat well out of the pickle without drying. When to be dried, let each piece be drained over the pan, and when it will drop no longer, take a clean sponge and dry it thoroughly. Six or eight hours will smoke them; and there should be only a little sawdust and wet straw burnt to smoke them; but if put into a baker’s chimney, sew them in coarse cloth, and hang them a week.

When the hog is divided, if a large one, the chine should be cut out. The bacon will be preserved from being rusty, if the spareribs are left in. Salt the bacon six days; then drain it from the first pickle. Mix as much salt as you judge proper with eight ounces of bay salt, four ounces of saltpetre, and one pound of coarse sugar, to each hog, the hams being first cut off. Rub the salts well in, and turn it every day for a month. Drain, and smoke a few days; or dry without, by hanging in the kitchen, not near the fire.

Mutton. The Haunch.

Keep as long as it can be preserved sweet, by the different modes of keeping. Let it be washed with warm milk and water, or vinegar, if necessary; but soak off the flavour from keeping. Put a coarse paste on strong paper, and fold the haunch in: set it at a great distance from the fire, and allow proportionable time for the paste, which do not remove till about thirty five or forty minutes before serving; then baste it perpetually. You will have brought the haunch nearer to the fire before you take off the paste, and must froth it up as you would venison.

A gravy must be made of a pound and a half of loin of old mutton, simmered in a pint of water to half, and no seasoning but salt. Brown it with a little burnt sugar, and send it up in the dish: but there should be much gravy in the meat; for though long at the fire, the distance and covering will prevent its being done dry.

70Serve with currantjelly sauce.

Legs roasted, and onion or currantjelly sauce: or, boiled, with caper sauce and vegetables.

Necks are particularly useful, as so many dishes may be made of them; but they are not advantageous for the family. The bones should be cut short; which the butchers will not do unless particularly desired.

Note. When there is more fat to a neck or loin of mutton than is agreeable to eat with the lean, it makes an uncommonly good suet pudding, or crust for a meatpie, being cut very fine.

The best end of the neck boiled, and served with turnips: or roasted: or in steaks, in pies, or harrico.

The scrag stewed in broth, or with a small quantity of water, some small onions, a few peppercorns and a little rice, and served together.

Harrico.

Take off some of the fat, and cut the middle or best end of the neck into rather thin steaks. Put the fat into a fryingpan, and, flouring, fry them in it of a fine light brown, but not enough for eating. Put them in a dish while you fry the carrots, turnips, and onions; the former in dice, the latter sliced; but they must only be warmed, not browned, or you need not fry them. Then lay the steaks at the bottom of a stewpan, the vegetables over, and pour as much boiling water on them as will just cover: give one boil, skim well, and then set the pan on the side of the fire to simmer gently till tender: in three or four hours skim, and add pepper, salt, and one spoonful of catsup.

Cut steaks from a loin or neck of mutton: beat them and remove some of the fat. Season with salt, pepper, and a little onion. Put a little water at the bottom of the dish, and a little paste on the edge; then cover with a moderately thick paste. Or raise small pies, and, breaking each bone in two to shorten it, season and cover it over, pinching the edge. When they come out, pour a spoonful of gravy, made of a bit of mutton, into each. The mutton should have hung.

Mutton and Potatoe Pie.

Season the steaks of a loin or neck; lay them in a dish: have ready potatoes mashed very thick, with some milk, and a bit of butter and salt, and cover the meat as with a very thick crust, and to come on the surrounding edge.

Mutton Pudding.

Season as above. Lay one layer of steaks at the bottom of the dish, and pour a batter of potatoes boiled and pressed through a colander, and mixed with milk and an egg, over them: then putting the rest of the steaks, and batter, bake it.

Batter with flour, instead of potatoes, eats well, but requires more egg, and is not so good.

Mutton Sausages.

Take a pound of the rawest part of a leg of mutton that has been either roasted or boiled: chop it extremely small: season with pepper, salt, mace, and nutmeg. Add six ounces of beef suet, some sweet herbs, two anchovies, and a pint of oysters, all chopped very small; a quarter of a pound of 72grated bread, some of the anchovy liquor, and all that came from the oysters; the yelks and whites of two eggs well beaten. Put it all, when well mixed, into a little pot, and use it by rolling it into balls or sausage shape, and fry them. If approved, a little shalot may be added; or garlick, which is a great improvement.

Mutton Steaks

Should be cut from a loin or neck that has hung. If the latter, the bones should not be long. They should be broiled on a clear fire, and seasoned when half done, and frequently turned; when, taking into a very hot dish, rub a bit of butter on each, and serve hot and hot the moment they are done.

They may be covered with forcemeat.

Mutton Collops.

Cut from that part of a well hung loin of mutton which is next the leg, some collops very thin. Take out the sinews. Season them with salt, pepper and mace, and strew over them shred parsley, thyme, and two or three shalots. Fry them in butter till half done. Add half a pint of gravy, a little juice of lemon, and a piece of butter rubbed in flour, and simmer the whole very gently five minutes. They should be served immediately, or they will be hard.

Lamb Steaks.

Fry a beautiful brown. Throw over them, when served, a good quantity of crumbs of bread fried, and crimped parsley: the receipt for doing which of a fine colour, is given under the article of vegetables.

73Mutton and Lamb steaks, seasoned and broiled in buttered papers, either with crumbs and herbs, or without, are a genteel dish, and eat well.

Sauce for them, called sauce Robart, under the list of sauces.

Saddle or Loin of mutton, roasted: the former a fashionable dish.

Shoulder of mutton, roasted, and onion sauce. Bladebone broiled.

Shoulder of Mutton boiled with Oysters.

Hang it some days, then salt it well for two. Bone it, and sprinkle it with pepper, and a bit of mace pounded. Lay some oysters over it, and roll the meat up tight with a fillet. Stew it in a small quantity of water, with an onion, and a few peppercorns, till quite tender.

Have ready a little good gravy, and some oysters stewed in it: thicken with flour and butter, and pour over the mutton when the tape is removed. The stewpan should be kept close covered.

Breast of Mutton.

The superfluous fat being cut off, roast, and serve with stewed cucumbers: or, to eat cold, having covered it with chopped parsley: or half boiled, and then grilled before the fire, being covered with crumbs and herbs, and served with caper sauce: or boned, a good deal of the fat being taken off, and covered with bread, herbs, and seasoning; then rolled, and boiled, and served with chopped walnut, or capers and butter.

Hang the mutton, to be tender. Bone it, and lay a seasoning of pepper, pimento, mace, nutmeg, a few cloves, all in fine powder, over it. Next day prepare a stuffing as for a hare, beat the meat, and cover it with the stuffing, roll it tight, and fillet it. Half bake it in a slow oven: let it grow cold: remove the fat, and put the gravy into a stewpan: flour the meat, and put in likewise; stew till near ready, and add a glass of port wine, some catsup, an anchovy, and a little lemon pickle, half an hour before serving, which do in the gravy, and with jelly sauce. A few fresh mushrooms are a great improvement, but not if to eat like hare, nor add the lemon pickle.

Rumps, kidneys, livers, and hearts, well washed, seasoned, and broiled, and served with cold butter rubbed on them.

Steaks of Mutton, or Lamb and Cucumbers.

Quarter cucumbers, and lay them in a deep dish; sprinkle them with salt, and pour vinegar over. Fry chops of a fine brown, and put them in a stewpan: drain the cucumbers, and put over the steaks: put some sliced onions, pepper, and salt: pour hot water or weak broth on them: stew and skim well.

An excellent Hotch Potch.

Stew pease, lettuce, and onions, in a very little water, with a beef or ham bone. While doing, fry some mutton or lamb steaks, seasoned, of a nice brown. Three quarters of an hour before dinner 75put the steaks into a stewpan, and the vegetables over: stew them, and serve all together in a tureen.

Another Hotch Potch.

Knuckle of veal, and scrag of mutton, stewed with vegetables as above.

Mutton Ham.

Choose a fine grained leg of wether mutton, of twelve or fourteen pounds weight. Let it be cut ham shape, and hang two days: then put into a stewpan half a pound of bay salt, the same of common salt, two ounces of saltpetre, half a pound of coarsest sugar, all in powder: mix and make it quite hot; then rub it well into the ham, let it be turned in the liquor daily. At the end of four days put two ounces more of common salt: in twelve days take it out; dry, and hang it up in the wood smoke a week.

Mutton Cutlets in the Portuguese way.

Cut the chops, and half fry them, with sliced shalot or onion, chopped parsley, and two bayleaves; seasoned with pepper and salt. Then lay a forcemeat on a piece of white paper, put the chop on it, cover with forcemeat, and twist the paper up, leaving a hole for the end of the bones to go through. Broil on a gentle fire. Serve with sauce Robart; or, as the seasoning makes the cutlets high, a little gravy.

Lamb.

Leg boiled in a cloth to look as white as possible: the loin fried in steaks and served round, garnished with dried or fried parsley. Spinach to eat with it. Or dressed separately, or roasted.

That of a house lamb is best, but either, if soaked in cold water, will be white. Boil the head separately till very tender, and have ready the liver and lights cut small. After being three parts boiled, stew them in a little of the water in which they were boiled. Season, and thicken with flour and butter, and serve the mince round the head.

Fore Quarter of Lamb.

Roasted whole, or separately. If left to be cold, chopped parsley should be sprinkled over it.

Lamb’s Fry.

Serve it fried a beautiful colour, and a good deal of dried or fried parsley over it.

Make a stuffing of bread, herbs, salt, pepper, nutmeg, lemonpeel, a few oysters or an anchovy, a bit of butter, some suet, and an egg. Put this in the crop, and fasten up the skin, and boil the turkey in a floured cloth, to make it very white. Have ready a fine oyster sauce, made rich with butter, a little cream, a spoonful of soy, if approved, and pour over the bird. Or, liver and lemon sauce.

Hen birds are best for boiling, and should be young.

Turkey to Roast.

The sinews of the legs should be drawn, whichever way it be dressed. The head should be twisted under the wing; and in drawing, care should be taken not to tear the liver, or let the gall touch it. Put a stuffing of sausage meat; or, if sausages 77are to be served in the dish, a bread stuffing. As this makes a large addition to the size of the bird, observe that the heat of the fire be constantly to that part; for the breast is frequently not enough done. A little strip of paper should be put on the bone to prevent scorching, while the other parts roast. Baste well, and froth it up. Gravy in the dish, and plenty of bread sauce in a sauce tureen.

Pulled Turkey.

Divide the meat of the breast by pulling instead of cutting; then warm it in a spoonful or two of white gravy, a little cream, grated nutmeg, salt, and a little flour and butter: warm, but do not boil it. The leg seasoned, scored, and broiled, put in the dish, with the above round it. Cold chicken does as well.

Turkey Patties.

Mince some of the white parts, and with grated lemon, nutmeg, salt, a very little white pepper, cream, and a very little bit of butter warmed. Fill the patties; they having been first baked with a bit of bread in each, to keep them hollow.

Pheasants and Partridges.

Roast as turkey, and serve with a fine gravy: in which put the smallest bit of garlick, and bread sauce. When cold, they may be made into excellent patties, but their flavour should not be overpowered by lemon.

Potted Partridge.

When nicely cleaned, season with the following, in finest powder: mace, Jamaica pepper, white 78pepper, and salt. Rub every part well; then lay the breasts downwards in a pan, and pack the birds as close as you possibly can. Put a good deal of butter on them; then cover the pan with a coarse flour paste, and a paper over: tie close and bake. When cold, put into pots, and cover with butter.

A very economical way of Potting Birds.

Prepare as before. When baked, and become cold, cut them in proper pieces for helping, and pack them close into a large potting pot, and leave, if possible, no spaces to receive the butter; with which, cover them, and one third part less will be requisite than when done whole.

To clarify Butter for potted things.

Put it in a sauce boat, and set that in a stewpan that has a little water in, over the fire. When melted, observe not to pour the milky parts over the potted things, they will sink to the bottom.

Fowls.

Boiled, with oyster, lemon, parsley, and butter, or liver sauces; or with bacon and greens.

Ditto roasted.

Egg sauce, bread sauce, or garnished with sausages, scalded, and parsley.

A large barndoor fowl well hung, stuffed in the crop with sausage meat, and gravy in the dish, and with bread sauce.

The head should be turned under the wing.

Fowl split down the back, peppered, salted, and broiled. Serve it with mushroom sauce.

Stew the fowl very slowly, in some clear mutton broth, well skimmed, and seasoned with onion, mace, pepper, and salt. About half an hour before it be ready, put in a quarter of a pint of rice, well washed and soaked. Simmer till tender; then strain from the broth, and put the rice on a sieve before the fire. Keep the fowl hot; lay it in the middle of the dish, and the rice round it, without the broth; which will be very nice to eat as such; but the less liquor it is done with the better.

Fricassee of Chickens.

Boil them rather more than half in a small quantity of water: let them cool; then cut them up, and put them to simmer in a little gravy, made of the liquor they were boiled in, and a bit of veal or mutton, onion, mace, lemonpeel, white pepper, and a bunch of sweet herbs. When quite tender, keep them hot while you thicken the sauce thus: strain off, and put it back into the saucepan, with a little salt, a scrape of nutmeg, a bit of flour and butter: give it one boil; and when you are going to serve, beat up the yelk of an egg, add half a pint of cream, and stir them over the fire, but do not let it boil.

It will be equally good without the egg.

Another white Sauce, more easily made.

Take a little of the water that boiled the fowls, (which must be kept hot) and stew with it some cut onion, a bit of parsley, a blade of mace, and a 80bit of lemonpeel. Mix with this a bit of butter, flour, and little thick cream, and adding the chicken, warm it with the sauce.

The above for veal or rabbit; but if either are not sufficiently done before, then the cream and flour should be added just before serving, after the meat is a little stewed.

Davenport Fowls.

Hang young fowls a night: take the livers, hearts, and tenderest parts of the gizzards, shred very small, with half a handful of young clary, an anchovy to each fowl, one onion, and the yelks of four eggs, boiled hard, with pepper, salt, and mace to your taste. Stuff the fowls with this, and sew up the vents and necks quite close, that the water may not get in. Boil them in salt and water till near done; then drain, and put them into a stewpan, with butter enough to brown them. Then serve with fine melted butter, and a spoonful of catsup, of either sort, in the dish.

To pull Chicken.

Take off the skin, and pull the flesh off the bones of a cold fowl, in as large pieces as you can. Dredge with flour, and fry of a nice brown in butter; which drain from it, and simmer in a good gravy, well seasoned, and thickened with a little flour and butter. Add the juice of half a lemon.

Chicken Pie.

Cut up two young fowls: season with white pepper, salt, a little mace, and nutmeg, all in the 81finest powder; likewise a little Cayenne. Put the chicken, slices of ham or gammon, forcemeat, and hard eggs, alternately. If to be in a dish, put a little water; if in a raised crust, none. Against the pie be baked, have ready a gravy of knuckle of veal, with a few shank bones, seasoned with herbs, onion, mace, and pepper. If in a dish, put in as much gravy as will fill it: if in crust, let it go cold; then open the lid, and put in the jelly.

The Forcemeat for Pies of Fowls of any kind.

Pound fine, cold chicken, or veal, a bit of fat bacon, some grated ham, crumbs of bread, a very little bit of onion, parsley, knotted marjorum, and a very small bit of tarragon, chopped fine; a blade of mace, a little nutmeg, white pepper, and salt, in finest powder. When well mixed, add eggs to make into balls.

Chicken Curry.

Cut up the chickens before they are dressed, and fry them in butter, with sliced onions, till of a fine colour: or if you use those that have been dressed, do not fry them: lay the joints, cut in two or three pieces each, into a stewpan, with veal or mutton gravy, a clove or two of garlick, four large spoonfuls of cream, and some Cayenne: rub smooth one or two spoonfuls of curry powder, with a little flour, and a bit of butter, and add twenty minutes before you serve; stewing it on till ready. A little juice of lemon should be squeezed in when serving.

82Slices of rare done veal, rabbit, or turkey, make a good curry.

A dish of rice boiled plain, as hereafter directed, must be always served to eat with curry.

Another Curry, and more quickly made.

Cut up a chicken or young rabbit; if the former, take off the skin, and rub each piece in a large spoonful of flour, mixed with half an ounce of curry powder: slice two or three onions, and fry in butter, of a fine light brown; then add the meat, and fry altogether, until the latter begin to brown; then put into a stewpan, and pour boiling water over to cover. Let it simmer very gently two or three hours until quite tender. If too thick, put more water half an hour before it be served.

Dressed fowl or meat may be done; but the curry will be better made of fresh.

Grouse.

Are to be roasted like fowls; but their heads twisted under the wing, and served with gravy, and bread sauce, or with sauce for wild fowl. See Sauces.

To pot Grouse, or Moor Game.

Pick, singe, and wash them very clean; then rub them inside and out with a high seasoning of salt, pepper, mace, nutmeg, and allspice. Lay them in as small a pot as will hold them: cover them with butter, and bake them in a slow oven. When cold, take off the butter, move the birds from the gravy, dry, and put them into pots that will just fit one or 83two; the former, where there are not many. Melt the former butter with some more, so as to completely cover the birds: but take care not to oil it. Do not let it be too hot.

To roast Widgeon, Duck, Teal, or Moorhen.

The flavour is best preserved without stuffing; but put some pepper, salt, and a bit of butter in the birds. Wild fowl require to be much less done than tame, and to be served of a fine colour.

The basting ordered in the foregoing receipt takes off a fishy taste which wild fowl sometimes have. Send up a very good gravy in the dish; and on cutting the breast, half a lemon squeezed over, with pepper on it, improves the taste.

Or stuff them with crumbs, a little shred onion, sage, pepper, and salt, but not a large quantity, and add a bit of butter. Slice an onion, and put into the dripping pan, with a little salt, and baste the fowls with it till three parts done; then remove that, and baste with butter. They should come up finely frothed, and not be overdone.

An excellent sauce under that article.

Duck to boil.

Choose a fine fat duck, salt it two days, then boil it slowly, and cover it with onion sauce made very white, and the butter melted with milk instead of water.

To roast duck: stuff or not, and serve with gravy.

Duck Pie.

Bone a full grown young duck, and a fine young fowl of a good size. Season them both well with 84mace, pepper, salt and allspice. Put the fowl within the duck, and a calf’s tongue that has been pickled red, and boiled, within the fowl. Make the whole to lie close. The skin of the legs and wings should be drawn inwards, that the body may lie smooth, Put the birds into a raised pie, or small piedish, and cover it with a thickish paste. Bake in a slow oven to eat cold.

The old Staffordshire raised pies were made as above, but a turkey was put over the duck, and a goose over that, forming a very large pie.

Goose to Roast.

After being carefully picked, the plugs of the feathers pulled out, and the hairs singed, let it be well washed, dried, and seasoned with onion, sage, pepper, and salt; fasten it tight at the neck and vent, and roast it.

When half done, let a narrow strip of paper be skewered on the breastbone. Baste it well, and observe to take it up the moment it is done, nicely frothed. When the breast rises, take off the paper, and observe to serve it before it fall, or it will be spoiled, and come to table flattened. Before it is cut up, cut the apron off, and pour in a wineglass of port wine and a teaspoonful of mustard. Cut the breast from one pinion to the other, if for a large party, without leaving meat to the wingbone.

Gravy, and apple sauce.

Bone two green geese, having first removed every plug, and singed them nicely. Wash them clean; season high with salt, mace, pepper, and pimento: put one within the other, and press them close into your piedish; put a good deal of butter over them, and bake with or without a crust: if the latter, a cover that will keep the steam in, must supply the place of a crust. It will keep long.

Giblet Pie.

Stew duck or goose giblets, when nicely cleaned, with onion, black pepper, and a bunch of sweet herbs, till tender. Let them become cold; then put them in the dish with two or three steaks of veal, beef, or mutton, especially if there are not giblets enough to make the sized pie that you wish. A little cup of cream, put in when baked, is a great improvement. Put the liquor in first.

Stewed Giblets.

As above, and add a little butter and flour. Serve with sippets, and cream just scalded in the sauce.

Stewed Pigeons.

Let them be fresh, and carefully cropped, drawn, and washed, then let them soak half an hour: in the mean time cut a hard white cabbage into water in slices as for pickling; drain it, and boil it in milk and water; drain it again, then lay some of it at the bottom of a stewpan; put the birds on it, being well seasoned, and cover them with the remainder; put a little broth into them, and stew till quite tender, before you serve. 86Add some cream, and a little flour and butter; give it one boil, and serve the cabbage round the pigeons.

Another way.

Stew in a good gravy, stuffed or not, and season well. Add a little mushroom catsup, or fresh mushrooms.

To pickle Pigeons.

Bone the pigeons, turn the inside out, and lard it: season with Jamaica pepper pounded very fine, and a little salt: turn the inside outward again, and tie the neck and rump with thread: put them in boiling water, let them boil a minute or two to plump; take them out, and dry with a cloth. The pickle must be made of an equal quantity of wine, and white wine vinegar; white pepper, Jamaica pepper, sliced nutmeg, ginger, and two or three bayleaves boiled. When it boils, put the pigeons into it, and let them boil fifteen minutes, if small; twenty, if large. Then take them out, wipe, and let them cool. When the pickle is cold, take off the fat, and put them in.

They must be kept in a stonejar, tied down with a bladder to exclude the air. You may in some, instead of larding, put a stuffing of hard yelks of eggs, and marrow, in equal quantities, spices, and sweet herbs.

Pigeons in Jelly.

Save some of the liquor in which a knuckle of veal has been boiled, as likewise a calf’s foot, or else 87simmer some isinglass in it, a blade of mace, an onion, a bunch of herbs, some lemonpeel, white pepper, and salt. When the pigeons are nicely cleaned and soaked, put them in a pan, and pour the liquor over them; and let them be baked, and remain in it till cold. When served, put jelly over and round them. Season them as you approve.

Potted Pigeons.

Take fresh ones: clean them carefully: season with pepper and salt: put them close in a small pan, and pour butter over: bake, and when cold take them out. Put into fresh pots, fit to serve to table, two or three in each, and pour butter over, using that which was baked with them as part. Observe, that it is necessary to put a good deal of butter if to be kept.

Note. Butter that has covered potted things is good for basting, and will make very good paste for meatpies. If to be high, add some mace, and a few Jamaica peppers to the seasoning.

Clean as before: season; and, if approved, put some parsley into the birds, and a bit of butter, with pepper and salt. Lay a beefsteak at the bottom of the dish, and hard eggs between each two birds, and a little water. If you have ham in the house, lay a slice on each: it is a great improvement to the flavour.

Observe, when you cut ham for sauce or pies, to turn it, and take from the underside instead of the prime.

Slit them down the back: season, and broil. Serve with mushroom sauce; or melted butter, with a little mushroom catsup.

Roast Pigeons.

Should be stuffed with uncut parsley, seasoned; and served with parsley and butter. Asparagus, or peas, should be dressed to eat with them.

Parsley Pie.

Lay veal or fowl at the bottom of a pie dish, seasoned. Take a colander full of picked parsley, cover the meat with it, and pour some cream into the dish, and a spoonful or two of broth. Cover with crust.

Potatoe Pasty.

Boil, peel, and mash potatoes as fine as possible; then mix pepper, salt, and a little thick cream, or, if you prefer it, butter. Make a paste, and, rolling it out like a large puff, put the potatoe into it, and bake it.

Turnip Pie.

Season mutton chops with pepper and salt: lay them in the bottom of a dish, reserving the ends of the bones to lay over the turnips; which cut and season, and lay over the steaks till the dish be full. Put two or three spoonfuls of water in, and cover with crust. You may add a little onion.

Shrimp Pie. Excellent.

Take a quart of picked shrimps: if very salt, only season with mace, and a clove or two in fine powder; but if not salt, mince two or three anchovies, 89mix with the spice, and season them. Put some butter at the bottom of the dish, and over the shrimps, and a glass of sharp white wine. Put a good light paste over. They do not require long baking.

Cornish Pies.

Scald and blanch some broad beans: cut mushrooms, carrots, turnips, and artichoke bottoms, and with some peas, and a little onion, make the whole into a nice stew, with some good veal gravy. Bake a crust over a dish, with a little lining round the edge, and a cup within to keep it from sinking: open the lid, and put in the fricassee made hot; seasoning to your taste. Shalots, parsley, lettuce, celery, or any sort of vegetables that you like, may be added.

Fish Pie.

Put slices of cod that have been salted a night; pepper, and between each layer put a good quantity of parsley picked from the stalks, and some fresh butter. Pour a little broth, if you have any, or else a little water. Bake the pie; and when to be served, add a quarter of a pint of raw cream warm, with half a teaspoonful of flour. Oysters may be added.

Mackerel will do well; but do not salt it till used.

Soals, with oysters, seasoned with pounded mace, nutmeg, pepper, an anchovy, and some salt, make an excellent pie. Put in the oyster liquor, two or three spoonfuls of broth, and some butter, for gravy. When come from the oven, pour in a cup of thick cream.

When washed, put a good seasoning of spices and salt. Set it over a fire in a stewpan, that will just hold the meat: put a piece of butter, and, covering close, let it simmer in its own steam till it shrink. It must be cool before it be put into the pie. Chicken’s sweetbreads, giblets, pigeon’s meat, almost any thing will make a good pie, if well seasoned, and made tender by stewing. A forcemeat may be put under and over, of cold chicken or veal, fat bacon, shred ham, herbs, bread, and seasoning, bound with an egg or two, or in balls. Or instead of crust, use an earthen pie form.

Hares,

If old, should be larded with bacon, after having hung as long as they will keep, and being first soaked in pepper and vinegar.

If not paunched as soon as killed, hares are more juicy: but as that is usually done in the field, the cook must be careful to wipe it dry every day; the liver being removed, and boiled to keep for the stuffing.

Parsley put into the belly will help keep it fresh.

When to be dressed, the hare must be well soaked; and if the neck and shoulders are bloody, in warm water: then dry it, and put to it a large fine stuffing, made of the liver, an anchovy, some fat bacon, a little suet, herbs, spice, and bread crumbs, with an egg to bind it. Sew it up. Observe that the ears are nicely cleaned and singed. When half roasted, cut the skin off the neck to let 91out the blood, which afterwards fixes there. Baste with milk till three parts done, then with butter: and before served, froth it up with flour. It should be put down early, kept at a great distance at first from the fire, and drawn nearer by degrees.

Send a rich brown gravy in the dish; melted butter in one boat, and currantjelly in another.

To jug an old Hare.

After it is well cleaned and skinned, cut it up and season it with pepper, allspice, salt, pounded, mace, and a little nutmeg: put it into a jar, with an onion, a clove or two, a bunch of sweet herbs, and over all a bit of coarse beef. Tie it down with a bladder and leather quite close, and put the jar into a saucepan of water up to its neck, but no higher. Let the water boil gently five hours. When to be served, pour the gravy into a saucepan, and thicken it with butter and flour; or if become cold, warm the hare with the gravy.

Hare Soup. See Soups.

Hare Pie.

Season the hare after it is cut up. Put eggs, and forcemeat, and either bake in a raised crust or a dish: if in the former, put cold jelly gravy to it; if for the latter, the same hot; but the pie is to be eaten cold. See Jelly Gravy among similar articles.

Potted Hare.

Having seasoned, and baked it with butter over, cover it with brown paper, and let it grow cold. Then take the meat from the bones, beat it in a 92mortar, and add salt, mace, and pepper, if not high enough; a bit of fresh butter melted, and a spoonful of the gravy that came from the hare when baked. Put the meat into small pots, and cover it well with butter warmed. The prime should be baked at the bottom of the pot.

Broiled Hare and hashed.

The flavour of broiled hare is particularly fine. The legs or wings peppered and salted first, and when done, rubbed with cold butter.

The other parts warmed with the gravy and a little stuffing.

Rabbits

May be eaten various ways.

Roasted with stuffing and gravy.

Ditto without stuffing; and with liver, parsley, and butter: seasoned with pepper and salt.

Boiled, and smothered with onion sauce; the butter being melted with milk instead of water.

Fried, and served with dried or fried parsley, and liver sauce as above.

Fricasseed, as directed for chickens.

Made into Pies, as chickens, with forcemeat, &c. are excellent, when young.

To make Rabbit taste much like Hare.

Choose a young full grown one: hang it, with the skin on, two or three days: skin, and lay it unwashed in a seasoning of black and Jamaica peppers, in fine powder, putting some port wine into the dish, and baste it occasionally for forty hours: 93then stuff and roast it as hare, and with the same sauce. Do not wash off the liquor that it lay in.

Potted Rabbit.

Cut up and season three or four after washing them. The seasoning must be mace, pepper, salt, a little Cayenne, and a few pimentos in finest powder. Pack them as close as possible in a small pan, and make the surface smooth. Keep out the carcasses, having taken all the meat off them, and, putting a good deal of butter over the rabbits, bake them gently. Let them remain a day or two, then remove into potting pans; and add some fresh butter to that which already covers them.

Giblet Soup.

Scald and clean three or four sets of goose or duck giblets; then set them on to stew with a scrag of mutton, or a pound of gravy beef, or bone of knuckle of veal, an oxtail, or some shankbones of mutton; three onions, a blade of mace, ten peppercorns, two cloves, a bunch of sweet herbs, and two quarts of water. Simmer till the gizzards are quite tender, which must be cut in three or four parts; then put in a little cream, a spoonful of flour rubbed smooth with it, and a spoonful of mushroom catsup; or two glasses of sherry or Madeira wine instead of cream, and some Cayenne.

Turnip Soup.

Stew down a knuckle of veal: strain, and let the broth stand still next day; take off the fat and 94sediment, and warm it, adding turnips cut in small dice: stew till they are tender: put a bit of pounded mace, white pepper, and salt. Before you serve, rub down half a spoonful of flour, with half a pint of cream, and boil with the soup: pour it on a roll in the tureen; but it should have soaked a little first in the soup, which should be as thick as middling cream.

Old Peas Soup.

Save the water of boiled pork or beef: if too salt, use only a part, and the other of plain water: or put some roast beef bones, or a ham or bacon bone to give a relish; or an anchovy or two. Set these on with some good whole or split peas, the smaller quantity of water at first the better: simmer till the peas will pulp through a colander; then set that, and some more of the liquor, besides what boiled the peas, some carrots, turnips, celery, and onion, or a leak or two, to stew till all be tender. Celery will take less time, and may be put in an hour before dinner. When ready, put fried bread in dice, dried mint rubbed small, pepper, and, if wanted, salt, in the tureen, and pour the soup upon them.

Green Peas Soup.

In shelling, divide the old from the young, and put the former, with a bit of butter, and a little water into a stewpan, and the old parts of lettuce, an onion or two, a little pepper and salt. Simmer till the peas will pulp through a colander; which when 95done, add to it some more water, and that which boiled the peas, the best parts of the lettuce, and the young peas, a handful of spinach cut small, pepper, and salt to taste. Stew till the vegetables are quite tender; and a few minutes before serving, throw in some green mint, cut fine.

Should the soup be too thin, a spoonful of rice flour, rubbed down with a bit of butter, and boiled with it, will give it consistence.

Note. If soup or gravy be too weak, the cover of the saucepan should be taken off, and the steam let out, boiling it very quick.

When there is plenty of vegetables, green peas soup needs no meat: but if approved, a pig’s foot, or a small bit of any sort, may be boiled with the old peas, and removed into the second process till the juices shall be obtained. Observe, three or four ounces of butter, will supply richness to a soup without meat, or make it higher with it.

Gravy Soup.

Wash a leg of beef, break the bone, and set it over the fire with five quarts of water, a large bunch of herbs, two onions, sliced and fried, but not burnt, a blade or two of mace, three cloves, twenty Jamaica peppers, and forty black. Simmer till the soup be as rich as you choose; then strain off the meat, which will be fit for the servants’ table. Next day take off the cake of fat, and that will warm with vegetables; or make a piecrust for the same. Have ready such vegetables as you choose to serve, 96cut in dice, carrot, and turnip, sliced, and simmer till tender. Celery should be stewed in it likewise; and before you serve, boil some vermicelli long enough to be tender, which it will be in fifteen minutes. Add a spoonful of soy, and one of mushroom catsup. Some people do not serve the vegetables, only boil for the flavour. A small roll should be made hot, and kept long enough in the saucepan to swell, and then be sent up in the tureen.

A rich White Soup.

Boil in a small quantity of water a knuckle of Veal, and scrag of mutton, mace, white pepper, two or three onions, and sweet herbs, the day before you want the soup. Next day take off the fat, and put the jelly into a saucepan, with a quarter of a pound of sweet almonds blanched, and beaten to a paste in a mortar with a little water to prevent oiling, and put to it apiece of stale white bread, or crumb of a roll; a bit of cold veal, or white of chicken. Beat these all to a paste with the almond paste, and boil it a few minutes with a pint of raw thick cream, a bit of fresh lemonpeel, and half a blade of mace pounded; then add this thickening to the soup. Let it boil up and strain it into the tureen: if not salt enough, then put it in. If macaroni or vermicelli be served, they should be boiled in the soup, and the thickening be strained after being mixed with a part. A small rasped roll may be put in.

Instead of the cream thickening, as above, ground rice, and a little cream may be used.

Of a small knuckle of veal, two or three pints of soup may be made, with seasoning as before, and both served together, with the addition of a quarter of a pint of good milk.

An excellent Soup.

A scrag or knuckle of veal, slices of undressed gammon, onions, mace, and a small quantity of water, simmered till very strong, and lower it with a good beef broth made the day before, and stewed until the meat is done to rags. Add cream, vermicelli, almonds as before, and a roll.

Carrot Soup.

Put some beef bones, with four quarts of the liquor in which a leg of mutton or beef has been boiled, two large onions, one turnip, pepper and salt, into a saucepan, and stew for three hours. Have ready six large carrots, cut thin after they are scraped; strain the soup on them, and stew till soft enough to pulp through a hair sieve or coarse cloth: then boil the pulp with the soup; which is to be as thick as pea ssoup. Use two wooden spoons to rub the carrots through. Make the soup the day before it is to be used. Add Cayenne.

Onion Soup.

To the water that has boiled a leg or neck of mutton, put carrots, turnips, and, if you have one, a shankbone, and simmer till the juices are obtained. Strain it on six onions previously sliced, and fried a light brown; with which simmer it three hours. Skim it carefully, and serve it. Put into it a little roll or fried bread.

Pare and slice five or six cucumbers, the inside of as many cos lettuces, a sprig or two of mint, two or three onions, some pepper and salt, a pint and half of young peas, and a little parsley. Put these, with half a pound of fresh butter, into a saucepan to stew in their own liquor near a gentle fire half an hour; then pour two quarts of boiling water to the vegetables, and stew them two hours: rub down a little flour into a teacup of water; boil it with the rest fifteen or twenty minutes, and serve it.

Another Vegetable Soup.

Peel and slice six large onions, six potatoes, six carrots, and four turnips: fry them in half a pound of butter: pour on them four quarts of boiling water, and toast a crust of bread as brown and hard as possible, but do not burn it: put that, some celery, sweet herbs, white pepper and salt, to the above: stew gently four hours, strain through a coarse cloth: have ready sliced carrot, celery, and a little turnip, and add to your liking; and stew them tender in the soup. If approved, you may add an anchovy, and a spoonful of catsup.

Spinach Soup.

Shred two handfuls of spinach, a turnip, two onions, a head of celery, two carrots, and a little thyme and parsley. Put all into a stewpot, with, a bit of butter the size of a walnut, and a pint of broth, or the water in which meat has been boiled; stew till the vegetables are quite tender: work them through a coarse cloth or sieve with a spoon; 99then with the pulp of the vegetables, and liquor, a quart of fresh water, pepper and salt, boil all together. Have ready some suet dumplings, the size of a walnut, and before you put the soup into the tureen, put them into it. The suet must not be shred too fine; and take care that it is perfectly fresh.

Scotch Leek Soup.

Put the boiling of a leg of mutton into a stew pot, with a quantity of chopped leeks, and pepper and salt; simmer them an hour, then mix some oatmeal with a little cold water quite smooth, pour it into the soup, and setting it on a slow part of the fire, let it simmer gently; but take care that it does not burn to the bottom.

Hare Soup.

Take an old hare that is good for nothing else than soup, cut in pieces, and put it with a pound and a half of lean beef, two or three shankbones of mutton well cleaned, a slice of lean bacon or ham; an onion, and a bunch of sweet herbs: pour on it two quarts of boiling water: cover the jar, in which you put these, with bladder and paper, and set it in a kettle of water: simmer till the hare is stewed to pieces: strain off the liquor, and give it one boil, with an anchovy cut in pieces, and add a spoonful of soy, and a little Cayenne and salt. A few fine forcemeat balls, fried of a good brown, should be served in the tureen.

Soak a neck of mutton in water for an hour: cut off the scrag, and put into a stewpot with two quarts of water: as soon as it boils, skim it well and simmer it an hour and a half; then take the best end of the mutton, cut it into pieces, two bones in each, and put as many as you think proper, having cut off some of the fat. Skim it the moment the fresh meat boils up, and every quarter of an hour. Have ready four or five carrots, the same of turnips, and three onions, all cut, but not small, and put in time enough to be quite tender; two large spoonfuls of Scotch barley, first wetted with cold water. The meat should stew three hours. Salt to taste, and serve all together. Twenty minutes before serving, put in some chopped parsley.

It is an excellent winter dish.

Soups under the articles of their respective Meats.

Oxcheek Soup. Hessian Soup. Mock turtle, page 49 to 52.

Ox rump Soup.

Two or three rumps of beef, will make it stronger than a much larger proportion of meat without; and form a very nourishing soup.

Make it like gravy soup, and give it what flavour or thickening you like.

Soup A-la-sap.

Boil half a pound of grated potatoes, one pound of beef sliced thin, one pint of grey peas, one onion, and three ounces of rice, in six pints of water to 101five; strain it through a colander, then pulp the peas to it, and turn it into a saucepan again, with two heads of celery sliced: stew it tender, adding pepper and salt; and when you serve, fried bread.

Crawfish or Prawn Soup.

Boil six whitings, and a large eel; or the latter, and half a thornback, being well cleaned, with as much water as will cover them. Skim clean, and put in whole pepper, mace, ginger, parsley, an onion, a little thyme, and three cloves. Boil to a mash. Pick fifty crawfish, or a hundred prawns, pound the shells, and a little roll, after having boiled them with a little water, vinegar, salt and herbs. Pour this liquor over the shells in a sieve, then pour the other soup, clear from the sediment; chop a lobster, and add to it, with a quart of good beef gravy. Add the tails of the crawfish or the prawns, and some flour and butter; and season as necessary.

Portable Soup. A very useful thing.

Boil one or two knuckles of veal, one or two shins of beef, and a pound or more of fine juicy beef, in as much water only as will cover them. When the bones are cracked, out of which take the marrow, put any sort of spice you like, and three large onions. When the meat is done to rags, strain it off, and put in a very cold place. When cold, take off the cake of fat (which will make crust for servants’ pies), put the soup into a double bottom tin saucepan, set it on a pretty quick fire, but do not let it burn. It must boil fast, and uncovered, and be stirred constantly for eight hours; 102Put into a pan, and let it stand in a cold place a day; then pour it into a round soup China dish, and set the dish into a stewpan of boiling water on a stove, and let it boil, and be occasionally stirred, till the soup become thick and ropy; then it is enough. Pour it into the little round part at the bottom of cups or basons to form cakes; and when cold, turn them out on flannel to dry, and wrap them in it. Keep them in tin canisters. When to be used, melt in boiling water: and if you wish the flavour of herbs or any thing else, boil it first, and having strained the water, melt the soup in it.

This is very convenient for a bason of soup or gravy in the country, or at sea, where fresh meat is not always at hand.

Slice beef thin: broil a part of it, over a very clear quick fire, just enough to give colour to the gravy, but not to dress it: put that, and the raw into a very nicely tinned stewpan, with two onions, a clove, or two Jamaica and black peppers, and a bunch of sweet herbs: cover it with hot water; give it one boil, and skim it well two or three times: then cover it and simmer till quite strong.

To draw Gravy that will keep a week.

Cut thin lean beef: put it in a fryingpan without any butter: set it on a fire covered, but take care it does not burn: let it stay till all the gravy that comes out of the meat be dried up into it again; then put as much water as will cover the meat, 103and let that stew away. Then put to the meat a small quantity of water, herbs, onions, spice, a bit of lean ham: simmer till it is rich, then keep it in a cool place. Remove the fat only when going to be used.

A rich Gravy.

Cut beef in thin slices, according to the quantity wanted: slice onions thin, and flour both: fry them of a light pale brown, but on no account suffer them to go black: put them into a stewpan, and pouring boiling water on the browning in the fryingpan, boil it up, and pour on the meat. Put to it a bunch of parsley, thyme, savory, and a small bit of knotted marjorum, and the same of tarragon, some mace, Jamaica and black peppers, a clove or two, and a bit of ham or gammon. Simmer till you have all the juices of the meat; and be sure to skim the moment it boils, and frequently after. If for a hare, or stewed fish, anchovy should be added.

The shankbones of mutton are a great improvement to the richness of the gravy; being first well soaked, and scoured clean.

Note. Jelly gravy for cold pies should be brown or white, as the meat or fowl is. It must be drawn without frying, relished, and made quite clean, by running it through a flannel bag. To give it the consistence of jelly, shanks, or knuckle, or feet, should be boiled with the bones.

Jelly to cover cold Fish.

Clean a maid: put it with three quarts of water, an ounce and a half of isinglass, a bit of mace, 104lemonpeel, white peppers, a stick of horseradish, and a little ham or gammon. Stew, till on trying with a spoon you find that it jellies: then strain it off, and add to it the whites of five eggs, a glass of sherry wine, and the juice of a lemon; give it another boil, and pour it through a jellybag till quite transparent.

When cold, lay it over the fish with a spoon.

Cullis, or brown Sauce.

Lay as much lean veal over the bottom of a stewpan as will cover it an inch thick: then cover the veal with thin slices of undressed gammon, two or three onions, two or three bayleaves, some sweet herbs, two blades of mace, and three cloves. Cover the stewpan, and set it over a slow fire. When the juices come out, let the fire be a little quicker. When the meat is of a fine brown, fill the pan with good beef broth, boil and skim it, then simmer an hour: add a little water, mixed with as much flour as will make it properly thick; boil it half an hour, and strain it.

This will keep a week.

Veal Gravy.

Make as directed for the cullis, leaving out the spice, herbs, and flour. It should be drawn very slowly: and if for white dishes, do not let the meat brown.

Bechamel or White Sauce.

Cut lean veal in small slices, and the same quantity of lean bacon or ham: put them in a stewpan, 105with a good piece of butter, an onion, a blade of mace, a few mushroom buttons, a bit of thyme, and a bayleaf. Fry the whole over a very slow fire, but not to brown it: add flour to thicken; then put an equal quantity of good broth, and rich cream. Let it boil half an hour, stirring it all the time: strain it through a soup strainer.

N. B. Soups and gravies are far better by putting the meat at the bottom of the pan, and stewing it, and the herbs, roots, &c. with butter, than by adding the water to the meat at first; and the gravy that is drawn from the meat, should be nearly dried up before the water is put to it. Do not use the sediment of gravies, &c. that have stood to be cold. When onions are strong, boil a turnip with them, if for sauce, which will make them mild.

Sauce for Wild Fowl.

Simmer ten minutes a teacupful of port wine, the same of good meat gravy, a little shalot, a little pepper, salt, a grate of nutmeg, and a bit of mace: put a bit of butter and flour: give one boil, and pour through the birds; which in general are not stuffed as tame, but may be done so, if liked.

Another for the same, or Ducks.

Serve a rich gravy in the dish: cut the breast in slices, but do not take them off; cut a lemon, and put pepper and salt on it; then squeeze it on the breast, and pour a spoonful of gravy over before you help.

106Note. In cutting up any wild fowl, duck, goose, or turkey for a large party, if you cut the slices down from pinion to pinion, without making wings, there will be more prime pieces.

Sauce Robart for Rumps or Steaks.

Put into a saucepan a piece of butter the size of an egg: set it over the fire, and when browning, throw in a handful of sliced onions cut small: fry them brown, but do not let them burn: add half a spoonful of flour, shake the onions in it, give another fry, then put four spoonfuls of gravy, pepper, and salt, and boil gently ten minutes. Skim off the fat: add a teaspoonful of made mustard, a spoonful of vinegar, and half a lemon juice: boil, and pour round the steaks, which should be of a fine yellow brown, and garnished with fried parsley and lemon.

An Excellent Sauce for Carp or boiled Turkey.

Rub half a pound of butter with a teaspoonful of flour; put to it a little water, melt it, and add near a quarter of a pint of thick cream, and half an anchovy chopped fine, unwashed; set it over the fire, and as it boils up, add a large spoonful of real India soy. If that does not give it a fine colour, put a little more. Turn it into the sauce tureen, and put some salt, and half a lemon. Stir it well to prevent curdling.

Sauce for cold Fowl or Partridge.

Rub down in a mortar the yelks of two eggs boiled hard, an anchovy, two dessert spoonfuls of oil, a little shalot, and a teaspoonful of mustard, (all should be pounded before the oil be added) then strain it.

Chop fine mint, parsley, and shalot, and add salt, oil, and vinegar. It may be poured over, or sent in a boat.

Benton Sauce for hot or cold roast Beef.

Grate, or scrape very fine, horseradish, a little made mustard, some pounded white sugar, and four large spoonfuls of vinegar.

Serve in a saucer.

To melt Butter.

On a clean trencher, mix a little flour to a large piece of butter, in the proportion of a teaspoonful to a full quarter of a pound; then put into a saucepan, and pour on it two large spoonfuls of hot water; set it on the fire, and let it boil quick. You should stir it round one way, and serve it as soon as ready.

On the goodness of this depends the look and flavour of every sauce in which it is put.

Lobster Sauce.

Pound the spawn, and two anchovies: pour on two spoonfuls of gravy: strain it into some butter melted as above; then put in the meat of the lobster, give one boil, and add a squeeze of lemon.

Another way.

Leave out the anchovies and gravy, and do as above, with a little salt, and catsup, or not, as you like. Many prefer the flavour of the lobster and salt only.

If not picked at home, pour a little water over to wash, and put them to butter melted thick and smooth: give them one boil, and add the juice of lemon.

Anchovy Sauce.

Chop one or two without washing: put to some flour and butter, and a little drop of water: stir it over the fire till it boil once or twice. When the anchovies are good, they will be dissolved; and the colour will be better than by the usual way.

Fish Sauce without Butter.

Simmer very gently a quarter of a pint of vinegar, half a pint of water (which must not be hard) with an onion, half a handful of horseradish, and the following spices lightly bruised: four cloves, two blades of mace, and half a teaspoonful of black pepper. When the onion is quite tender, chop it small with two anchovies: and set the whole on the fire to boil for a few minutes, with a spoonful of catsup. Mean time, have ready and well beaten the yelks of three fresh eggs: strain; mix in the liquor by degrees with them; and when well mixed, set the saucepan over a gentle fire, keeping a bason in one hand, into which toss the sauce to and fro, shaking the saucepan over the fire, that the eggs may not curdle. Do not boil, only let the sauce be hot enough to give the thickness of melted butter.

Lemon Sauce.

Cut thin slices of lemon into very small dice, and put into melted butter; give one boil, and pour over boiled fowls.

Chop boiled liver of rabbits or fowls, and do as above, with a very little pepper and salt, and some parsley.

A very good Sauce, especially to hide the bad colour of Fowls.

Cut the livers, slices of lemon in dice, scalded parsley, and hard eggs: add salt, and mix with butter: boil up, and pour over the fowls.

Or for roast rabbit.

Egg Sauce.

Boil the eggs hard, and cut them in small pieces: then put them to melted butter.

Buttered Eggs.

Beat four or five eggs, yelk and white together: put a quarter of a pound of butter in a bason and then put that in boiling water; stir it till melted: then pour that butter and the eggs into a saucepan. Keep a bason in your hand: just hold the saucepan in the other over a slow part of the fire, shaking it one way; as it begins to warm, pour it into a bason, and back; then hold it again over the fire, stirring it constantly in the saucepan, and pouring it into the bason, more perfectly to mix the egg and butter, until they shall be hot without boiling.

Serve on toasted bread; or in a bason to eat with salt fish or red herrings.

Onion Sauce.

Peel, and boil onions tender: squeeze the water from them; then chop, and add butter that has 110been melted rich and smooth as before, but with a little good milk instead of water: boil up once, and serve for boiled rabbits, partridges, scrag, or knuckle of veal; or roast mutton.

Oyster Sauce.

Save the liquor in opening, and boil with the beards, a bit of mace, and lemonpeel. Mean time throw the oysters into cold water, and drain it off. Strain the liquor, and put it into a saucepan with them, and as much butter, mixed with a little milk, as will make sauce enough; a little flour being previously rubbed with it.

Set them over the fire, stir all the time; and when the butter has boiled once or twice, take them off, and keep the saucepan near, but not on the fire; for if done too much, the oysters will be hard. Squeeze a little lemonjuice, and serve.

If for company, a little cream is a great improvement. Observe the oysters will thin the sauce, and put butter accordingly.

Bread Sauce.

Boil a large onion, cut in four, with some black peppers, and milk, until the former be quite a pap. Pour the milk strained on grated white stale bread, and cover it. In an hour put it into a saucepan, with a good piece of butter, mixed with a little flour: boil the whole up together, and serve.

Some people like the bread pulped through a colander before the butter be added. A large spoonful of cream improves it.

Boil three eggs hard: beat the yelks fine with the raw yelk of an egg; then make up the paste into small eggs, and throw them into a little boiling water to harden.

Fish Sauce A-la-Craster.

Thicken a quarter of a pound of butter with flour, and brown it; then put to it a pound of the best anchovies, cut small, six blades of pounded mace, ten cloves, forty black and Jamaica peppers, a few small onions, a faggot of sweet herbs; namely, savory, thyme, basil, and knotted marjorum; a little parsley, and sliced horseradish. On these pour half a pint of the best sherry wine, and a pint and a half of strong gravy: simmer all gently for twenty minutes; then strain it through a sieve, and bottle it for use: the way of which, is to boil some of it in the butter, as melting.

A very fine Fish Sauce.

Put into a very nice tin saucepan, a pint of fine port wine, one gill of mountain, half a pint of walnut catsup that is fine, twelve anchovies, and the liquor that belongs to them, one gill of walnut pickle, the rind and juice of a large lemon, four or five shalots, Cayenne to taste, three ounces of scraped horseradish, three blades of mace, and two teaspoonfuls of made mustard: boil gently, till the rawness go off, then put it in small bottles for use.

Cork very close, and seal the top.

Slice a large head of garlick, and put it into a widemouthed bottle, with half an ounce of Cayenne, two teaspoonfuls of real soy, two of walnut catsup, four anchovies chopped, a pint of vinegar, of cochineal enough to give the colour of lavender drops. Let it stand six weeks, then strain off quite clear, and keep in small bottles, sealed up.

Lemon Pickle.

Wipe six lemons: cut each into eight pieces: put on them a pound of salt, six large cloves of garlick, two ounces of horseradish, sliced thin; likewise of cloves, mace, nutmeg, and Cayenne, a quarter of an ounce each, and two ounces of flour of mustard; to these put two quarts of vinegar: boil a quarter of an hour in a well tinned saucepan, or which is better, do it in a strong jar, in a kettle of boiling water, or set the jar on the hot hearth till done. Set the jar by, and stir it daily for six weeks. Keep the jar close covered. Put into small bottles.

Shalot Vinegar.

Split six or eight shalots: put them into a quart bottle: fill it up with vinegar: stop it; and in a month it will be fit for use.

Essence of Anchovies.

Take a dozen of anchovies, chop them, and without the bone, but with some of their own liquor strained: add them to sixteen large spoonfuls of water: boil gently till dissolved, which will be in a few minutes. When cold, strain and bottle it.

Take the largest broad mushrooms, break them into an earthen pan, strew salt over, and stir them now and then for three days. Then let them stand for twelve, till there is a thick scum over. Strain, and boil the liquor with Jamaica and black peppers, mace, ginger, a clove or two, and some mustardseed. When cold, bottle it, and tie a bladder over the cork. In three months boil it again with some fresh spice, and it will then keep a twelvemonth.

Mushroom Catsup, another way.

Take a stewpan full of the large flap mushrooms, that are not wormeaten, and the skins and fringe of those you have picked; throw a handful of salt among them, and set them by a slow fire. They will produce a great deal of liquor, which you must strain; and put to it four ounces of shalots, two cloves of garlick, a good deal of pepper, ginger, mace, cloves, and a few bayleaves. Boil and skim very well. When cold, cork close. In two months boil it up again, with a little fresh spice, and a stick of horseradish, and it will then keep the year; which mushroom catsup rarely does, if not boiled a second time.

Walnut Catsup of the finest sort.

Boil a gallon of the expressed juice of walnuts when they are tender, and skim it well: then put in two pounds of anchovies, bones and liquor, ditto of shalots, one ounce of cloves, ditto of mace, ditto of pepper, and one clove of garlick. Let all simmer till the shalots sink; then put the liquor into 114a pan till cold. Bottle, and divide the spice to each. Cork closely, and tie a bladder over.

It will keep twenty years, and is not good the first. Be very careful to express the juice at home; for it is rarely unadulterated, if bought.

Some people make liquor of the outside shell when the nut is ripe; but neither the flavour nor colour is then so fine.

Cockle Catsup.

Open the cockles: scald them in their own liquor: add a little water when the liquor settles, if you have not enough: strain through a cloth, then season with every savory spice; and if for brown sauce, add port wine, anchovies, and garlick; if for white, omit these, and put a glass of sherry wine, lemonjuice and peel, mace, nutmeg, and white pepper. If for brown, burn a bit of sugar for colouring.

It is better to have cockles enough, than to add water; and they are cheap.

Mushroom Powder.

Wash half a peck of large mushrooms while quite fresh, and free them from grit and dirt with flannel. Scrape out the black part clean, and do not use any that are wormeaten: put them into a stewpan over the fire without water, with two large onions, some cloves, a quarter of an ounce of mace, and two spoonfuls of white pepper, all in powder. Simmer and shake them till all the liquor be dried up, but be careful they do not burn. Lay them on tins or sieves in a slow oven, till they are dry 115enough to beat to powder; then put the powder in small bottles, corked and tied closely, and keep in a dry place.

A teaspoonful will give a very fine flavour to any soup or gravy, or any sauce; and it is to be added just before serving, and one boil given to it after it is put in.

To dry Mushrooms.

Wipe them clean; and of the large take out the brown, and peel off the skin. Lay them on paper to dry in a cool oven, and keep them in paper bags in a dry place. When used, simmer them in the gravy, and they will swell to near their former size. To simmer them in their own liquor till it dry up into them, shaking the pan, then drying on tin plates, is a good way, with spice or not, as above, before made into powder.

Tie down with bladder, and keep in a dry place, or in paper.

Sugar Vinegar.

To every gallon of water, put two pounds of the very coarsest sugar: boil and skim thoroughly; then put one quart of cold water for every gallon of hot. When cool, put into it a toast spread with yeast. Stir it nine days; then barrel, and set it in a place where the sun will lie on it, with a bit of slate on the bunghole.

When sufficiently sour, it may be bottled: or may be used from the cask, with a wooden spigot and faucet.

Boil spring water; and when cold, put to every three quarts, a quart of bruised ripe gooseberries in a large tub. Let them remain sixty hours, stirring often: then strain through a hair bag, and to each gallon of liquor add a pound of the coarsest sugar. Put it into a barrel, and a toast and yeast, cover the bunghole with a bit of slate, &c. as above. The greater quantity of sugar and fruit, the stronger the vinegar.

Wine Vinegar.

After making raisin wine, when the fruit has been strained, lay it on a heap to heat: then to every hundred weight put fifteen gallons of water. Set the cask, and put yeast, &c. as before.

As vinegar is so necessary an article in a family, and one on which so great a profit is made, a barrel or two might always be kept preparing, according to what suited. If the raisins of wine were ready, that kind might be made: if a great plenty of gooseberries made them cheap, that sort; or if neither, then the sugar vinegar, so that the cask may not be left empty, and grow musty.

Kitchen Pepper.

Mix in the finest powder, one ounce of ginger; of cinnamon, black pepper, nutmeg, and Jamaica pepper, half an ounce of each; ten cloves, and six ounces of salt. Keep it in a bottle. It is an agreeable addition to any brown sauces or soups.

Spice in powder, kept in small bottles, close stopped, goes much further than when used whole. It must 117be dried before pounded; and should be done in quantities that may be wanted in three or four months. Nutmeg need not be done; but the others should be kept in separate bottles, with a little label on each.

Browning, to colour and flavour made dishes.

Beat to powder four ounces of doubly refined sugar: put it into a very nice iron fryingpan, with one ounce of fine fresh butter: mix it well over a clear fire, and when it begins to froth, hold it up higher. When of a very fine dark brown, pour in a small quantity of a pint of port wine; and the whole by very slow degrees, stirring all the time. Put to the above half an ounce of Jamaica, and the same of black pepper, six cloves of shalots peeled, three blades of mace bruised, three spoonfuls of mushroom, and the same of walnut catsup, some salt, and the finely pared rind of a lemon. Boil gently fifteen minutes; pour it into a bason till cold; take off the scum, and bottle for use.

To make Sprats taste like Anchovies.

Salt them well, and let the salt drain from them. In twenty four hours wipe them dry, but do not wash them. Mix four ounces of common salt, an ounce of bay salt, an ounce of saltpetre, a quarter of an ounce of sal prunel, and half a teaspoonful of cochineal, all in the finest powder. Sprinkle it among three quarts of the fish, and pack them in two stone jars. Keep in a cold place, fastened down with a bladder.

These are pleasant on bread and butter: but have the best for sauce.

Pour on them beef brine.

To keep Capers.

Add fresh vinegar, that has been scalded, and become cold; and tie them close, to keep out the air.

To make Mustard.

Mix the best Durham flour of mustard by degrees, with boiling water, to a proper thickness, rubbing it perfectly smooth: add a little salt, and keep it in a small jar, close covered; and put only as much into the glass as will be used soon; which should be wiped daily round the edges.

Another way for immediate use.

Mix the mustard with new milk by degrees, to be quite smooth, and add a little raw cream. It is much softer this way, is not bitter, and will keep well.

The patent mustard is by many preferred, and it is perhaps as cheap, being always ready: and if the pots are returned, three pence is allowed for each.

A teaspoonful of sugar to half a pint of mustard, is a great improvement, and softens it.

India.

Lay a pound of white ginger in water one night: then scrape, slice, and lay it in salt in a pan till the other ingredients shall be ready.

Peel, slice, and salt a pound of garlick three days; then put it in the sun to dry. Salt and dry long pepper in the same way.

119Prepare various sorts of vegetables thus:

Quarter small white cabbages: salt three days: squeeze and set them in the sun to dry.

Cauliflowers cut in their branches: take off the green from radishes: cut celery in three inch lengths: ditto French beans whole, likewise the shoots of alder, which will look like bamboo. Apples and cucumbers, choose of the least seedy sort; cut them in slices, or quarters, if not too large. All must be salted, drained, and dried in the sun, except the latter; over which you must pour boiling vinegar, and, in twelve hours, drain them, but no salt must be used.

Put the spice, garlick, a quarter of a pound of mustardseed, and as much vinegar as you think enough for the quantity you are to pickle, into a large stonejar, and one ounce of turmeric to be ready against the vegetables shall be dried. When they are ready, observe the following directions: put some of them into a two quart stonejar, and pour over them one quart of boiling vinegar: next day take out those vegetables, and when drained, put them into a large stock jar, and boiling the vinegar, pour it over some more of the vegetables; let them lie a night, and do as above. Thus proceed till you have cleansed each set from the dust which must inevitably fall on them by being so long in doing: then, to every gallon of vinegar, put two ounces of flour of mustard, mixing, by degrees, with a little of it boiling hot. The whole of the vinegar should have been previously scalded, but 120left to be cool before put to the spice. Stop the jar tight.

This pickle will not be ready for a year; but you may make a small jar for eating in a fortnight, by only giving them one scald in water, after salting and drying as above, but without the preparative vinegar; then pour the vinegar that has the spice and garlick, boiling hot over. If at any time it be found that the vegetables have not swelled properly, boiling the pickle, and pouring it over them hot, will plump them.

English Bamboo, to Pickle.

Cut the large young shoots of alder, which put out in the middle of May, (the middle stalks are most tender) peel off the outward peel, or skin, and lay them in salt and water, very strong, one night. Dry them piece by piece in a cloth. Have in readiness a pickle thus made and boiled. To a quart of vinegar put an ounce of white pepper, an ounce of sliced ginger, a little mace and pimento, and pour boiling on the alder shoots, in a stonejar: stop close, and set by the fire two hours, turning the jar often, to keep scalding hot. If not green when cold, strain, off the liquor, and pour boiling hot again; keeping it hot as before. Or, if you intend to make Indian pickle, the above shoots are a great improvement to it: in which case you need only pour boiling vinegar and mustardseed on them; and keep them till your jar of pickles shall be ready to receive them.

There is a particular sort for this purpose which the gardeners know. Cut a square small piece out of one side, and through that take out the seeds, and mix with them mustard seeds and shred garlick; stuff the melon as full as the space will allow, and replace the square piece. Bind it up with a small new packthread. Boil a good quantity of vinegar, to allow for wasting, with peppers, salt, ginger, and pour boiling hot over the mangoes four successive days; the last, put flour of mustard, and scraped horseradish into the vinegar just as it boils up. Stop close. Observe that there is plenty of vinegar. All pickles are spoiled if not well covered. Mangoes should be done soon after they are gathered.

Pickled Onions.

In the month of September, choose the small white round onions, take off the brown skin; have ready a very nice tin stewpan of boiling water; throw in as many onions as will cover the top. As soon as they look clear on the outside, take them up as quick as possible with a slice, and lay them on a clean cloth, cover them close with another, and scald some more, and so on. Let them lie to be cold, then put them in a jar, or glass widemouth bottle, and pour over them the best white wine vinegar, just hot, but not boiling. When cold, cover them.

Cut them in slices, and sprinkle salt over them: next day drain them for five or six hours, then put them into a jar, and pour boiling vinegar over them, keeping in a warm place. The slices should be thick. Repeat the boiling vinegar, and stop instantly; and so on till green.

Pickled sliced Cucumbers, another way.

Slice large unpared cucumbers, an inch thick; slice onions, and put both into a broad pan: strew a good deal of salt among them. In twenty four hours drain them, and then lay them on a cloth to dry. Put them in small stonejars, and pour in the strongest plain vinegar, boiling hot: stop the jars close. Next day boil it again, and pour over, and thus thrice; the last time add whole white pepper, and a little ginger. Keep close covered.

Young Cucumbers.

Choose nice young gherkins; spread them on dishes; salt them, and let them lie a week: drain them, and, putting them in a jar, pour boiling vinegar over them. Set them near the fire, covered with plenty of vineleaves. If they do not become a tolerable good green, pour the vinegar into another jar, set it over the hot hearth, and when it boils, pour it over them again, covering with fresh leaves; and thus do till they are of as good a colour as you wish: but as it is now known, that the very fine green pickles are made so by using brass or bell metal vessels, which, when vinegar is put into them, become highly poisonous, few people like to eat them.

123Note. Acids dissolve the lead in the tinning of saucepans. Pickles should never be kept in glazed jars, but in stone or glass; and vinegar, or any acids, should be boiled, by putting them in jars of stone, over a hot hearth, or in a kettle of water.

To Pickle Walnuts.

When they will bear a pin to go into them, put on them a brine of salt and water boiled, and strong enough to bear an egg, being quite cold first. It must be well skimmed while boiling. Let them soak twelve days, then drain them, and pour over them in the jar a pickle of the best white wine vinegar, with a good quantity of pepper, pimento, ginger, mace, cloves, mustardseed, and horseradish; all boiled together, but cold. To every hundred of walnuts, put six spoonfuls of mustardseed, and two or three heads of garlick, or shalot; but the latter is least strong.

Thus done, they will be good for several years, if kept close covered. The air will soften them. They will not be fit to eat under six months.

The pickle will serve as good catsup, when the walnuts are used.

Nasturtions, for Capers.

Keep them a few days after they are gathered; then pour boiling vinegar over them, and when cold, cover.

They will not be fit to eat for some months; but are then finely flavoured, and by many preferred to capers.

Buttons must be rubbed with a bit of flannel and salt; and from the larger, take out the red inside, for when they are black they will not do, being too old. Throw a little salt over, and put them into a stewpan, with some mace, and pepper. As the liquor comes out, shake them well, and keep them over a gentle fire till all of it be dried into them again; then put as much vinegar into the pan as will cover them; give it one warm, and turn all into a glass or stonejar. They will keep two years, and are delicious.

Red Cabbage.

Slice it into a colander, and sprinkle each layer with salt; let it drain two days, then put it into a jar, and pour boiling vinegar enough to cover, and put a few slices of red beet root. Observe to choose the purple red cabbage. Those who like the flavour of spice, will boil it with the vinegar. Cauliflower, cut in branches, and thrown in after being salted, will look of a beautiful red.

Put a quart of pease, a lettuce, an onion, both sliced, a bit of butter, pepper, salt, and no more water than hangs round the lettuce from washing. Stew them two hours very gently. When to be served, beat up an egg, and stir into them, or a bit of flour and butter.

125Some think a teaspoonful of white powdered sugar is an improvement. Gravy may be added; but there will be less of the flavour of the peas. Chop a bit of mint, and stew in them.

To stew Cucumbers.

Slice them thick, or halve, and divide them in two lengths: strew some salt and pepper, and slice onions; add a little broth, or a bit of butter. Simmer very slowly; and, before serving, if no butter was in before, put some, and a little flour; or if it was in, only a little flour, unless it wants richness.

Another way.

Slice the onions, and cut the cucumbers large; flour and fry them in some butter: then pour on some good broth or gravy, and stew till enough. Skim off the fat.

Stewed Onions.

Peel six large onions: fry them gently of a fine brown, but do not blacken; then put them in a small stewpan, with a little weak gravy, pepper, and salt: cover and stew two hours gently. They should be lightly floured at first.

Roast Onions.

Should be done with all the skins on. They eat well alone, with salt only, and cold butter; or with roast potatoes, or with beetroots.

Stewed Celery.

Wash, and strip off the outer leaves of six heads; halve, or leave them whole according to their size; 126cut them in four inch lengths. Put them in a stewpan with a cup of broth, or weak white gravy. Stew till tender; then add two spoonfuls of cream, and a little flour and butter, seasoned with pepper, salt, and nutmeg, and simmer all together.

Cauliflower in white Sauce.

Half boil, then cut into handsome pieces, and lay into a stewpan, with a little broth, a bit of mace, a little salt, and a dust of white pepper. Simmer half an hour; then put a little cream, butter, and flour; shake and simmer a few minutes, and serve.

Spinach

Should be very carefully picked and washed; then boil, and squeeze it dry. Put it in a pan with a bit of butter, salt, and pepper; stew it, and serve.

French way.

Clean as before; then put it into a stewpan without water, a spoonful of gravy, and a lump of butter, salt, and pepper, and simmer till ready. If too moist, squeeze the gravy from it.

Stewed Red Cabbage.

Slice a small, or half a large red cabbage: wash it, and put into a saucepan, with pepper and salt, no water but what hangs about the former, and a piece of butter. Stew till quite tender; then when going to serve, put to it half a cup of vinegar, and stir it over the fire.

Serve for cold meat, or with sausages on it.

Choose large buttons, or small flaps, before the fringe be turned black: pick each one separately, and observe there is not a bad one; rub the former, with a flannel and salt, skin the latter, and take out the fringe. Throw them into a stewpan, with a little salt, a piece of butter, and a few peppers; set them on a slack part of the fire, and shake them sometime. When tender, add two large spoonfuls of cream, and a dust of flour.

Stewed Sorrel for Fricandeau, and roast Meat.

Wash the sorrel, and put it in a silver vessel, or stonejar, and no more water than hangs to the leaves. Simmer in the slowest way you can; and when done enough, put a bit of butter, and beat it well.

Stewed Carrots.

Half boil, then nicely scrape, and slice them into a stewpan. Put to them half a teacup of any weak broth, some pepper, and salt, and half a cup of cream; simmer to be very tender, but not broke. Before serving, rub the least flour with a bit of butter, and warm up with it. If approved, chopped parsley may be added ten minutes before served.

Stewed old Peas.

Steep them in water all night, if not fine boilers, otherwise only half an hour; put them with water enough just to cover them, and a good bit of butter, or a piece of beef or pork. Stew in the most gentle way till the peas are soft, and the meat is tender. 128If not salt meat, add salt, and a little pepper, and serve round the meat.

Chop three anchovies, a shalot, and some parsley small; put them in a bowl with two tablespoonfuls of vinegar, one of oil, a little mustard, and salt. When well mixed, add by degrees some cold roast or boiled meat in the very thinnest slices; put in a few at a time, they being small, not exceeding two or three inches long; shake them in the seasoning, and then put more; cover the bowl close; and let the sallad be prepared three hours before it be eaten.

Garnish with parsley, and a few slices of the fat.

Lobster Sallad.

Make a sallad, and put some of the red part of the lobster to it, cut; which forms a pretty contrast to the white and green of the vegetables.

Do not put much oil, as shellfish take off the acidity of vinegar.

Serve in a dish, not a bowl.

To boil Potatoes.

Set them on a fire, unpared, in cold water; let them half boil, then throw some salt in, and a pint of cold water, and let them boil again till near done. Pour off the water, and put a clean cloth over them, and then the saucepan cover, and set them by the fire to steam till ready. Many use steamers.

Parboil, then slice and broil them; or parboil, and set them whole on the gridiron over a very slow fire; and when thoroughly done, send up with their skins on. The latter is done in many Irish families.

To roast Potatoes.

Half boil, take off the thin peel, and roast them of a beautiful brown.

To fry Potatoes.

Slice raw potatoes after the skin is removed, and fry either in butter, or thin batter.

To mash Potatoes.

Boil, peel, and break to paste the potatoes; then, to two pounds, add a quarter of a pint of milk, and a little salt, with two or three ounces of butter, and stir all well over the fire. Serve thus, or brown the top, when placed on the dish in a form, with a salamander; or in scollops.

To mash Parsnips.

Boil tender; scrape them; then mash into a stewpan, with a little cream, a good piece of butter, pepper, and salt.

To keep Green Peas.

Shell, and put them into a kettle of water when it boils: give them two or three warms only, and pour them into a colander. When the water drains off, turn them on a dresser covered with cloth; pour them on another cloth to dry perfectly: then bottle them in widemouth bottles, leaving only 130room to pour clarified mutton suet upon them an inch thick, and for the cork; rosin it down, and keep in a cellar, or in the earth, as ordered for gooseberries. Boil them, with a bit of butter, a spoonful of sugar, and a bit of mint, till tender, when to be used.

Another way, as practised in the Emperor of Russia’s Kitchen.

Shell, scald, and dry as above. Put them on tins or earthen dishes in a cool oven to harden, once or twice. Keep them in paper bags hung up in the kitchen. When to be used, let them lie an hour in water; then set them on with cold water, and a bit of butter, and boil till ready. Put a sprig of dried mint to boil with them.

To preserve French Beans, to eat in the Winter.

Pick them young, and throw into a little wooden keg a layer three inches deep; then sprinkle with salt: put another layer of beans, and do the same as high as you think proper, alternately with salt; but do not be too liberal of the latter: lay a plate, or cover of wood that will go into the keg, and put on it a heavy stone. A pickle will rise from the beans and salt. If too salt, the soaking and boiling will not be sufficient to make them pleasant to the taste. When to be eaten, cut, soak, and boil as when fresh.

Potatoes should be kept in the earth that adheres to them when dug; and preserved from frost.

Carrots, parsnips, and turnips the same, and put in layers of dry sand.

131Small close cabbages laid on a stone floor before the frost sets in, will blanch and be very fine, after many weeks’ keeping.

To boil Vegetables Green.

Be sure the water boils when you put them in; when in, make them boil very fast. Do not cover, but watch them; and if the water has not slackened, you may be assured they are done when they are beginning to sink; take them out immediately, or the colour will change.

Boil eggs hard, cut them in half, take out the yelks, set the whites on a dish, and fill with the following several ingredients; or put a saucer upside down on a plate, and place them in quarters round: in either case as a salmagundi. Chopped veal, yelk of egg, beetroot, anchovy, apple, onion, ham, and parsley. A very small bit of the white of the egg must be cut off, to make it stand on the dish as a cup.

Orange Butter.

Boil six eggs hard: beat the yelks in a mortar with fine sugar, orange flower water, four ounces of butter, and two ounces of almonds beaten to a paste. When all is mixed, rub it through a colander on a dish.

Roll butter in different forms; either like a pine, having made it in the shape of a cone, and marking it with a teaspoon; or rolling in a crimping form, or working it through a colander. Serve with 132scraped beef or anchovies, garnished with a wreath of curled parsley.

Rusks buttered, and anchovies split and rolled.

Grated hung beef on rusks buttered.

Grated cheese on ditto, or in a plate.

Radishes placed round a plate, and butter in the middle.

French beans boiled of a beautiful green, and served with a cream sauce.

Jerusalem artichokes or cauliflowers in ditto.

Broccoli boiled, served on toast, to eat with poached eggs.

Stewed vegetables.

Eggs poached on toast or spinach.

Eggs buttered on toast.

Custards in cups or glasses, with toast in long sippets.

Cold meat in slices on a dish, or as Sandwiches.

Ham. Tongue. Collared things. Hunter’s beef.

Oysters cold, scalloped, stewed, or pickled.

Potted meat, birds, fish, or cheese.

Pickled or baked fish.

Common cake. Baked or stewed fruits.

Pies of meat, fowl, or fruit.

Potatoes roasted, boiled, scalloped, mashed, &c.

Collared beef, veal, or pig’s head.

Lobsters. Crabs. Prawns.

Sweetbreads. Small birds.

Crumbs of bread, chopped parsley, fat bacon, (if it has been dressed it is the better,) suet, a bit of 133fresh butter, a little anchovy liquor, an egg, a bit of onion, a very little knotted marjorum, a little pepper, salt, and nutmeg.

This is a much admired mixture; but, according to the purpose it is for, any addition may be made to the flavour. Cold ham or gammon, different herbs, anchovies, oysters, Cayenne.

Note. To the above should have been added cold veal or chicken, which is a great improvement. Some like lemon, and lemon thyme is a good substitute. Tarragon gives a French flavour, but a very small proportion is sufficient.

Mince a bit of cold veal, and six oysters; mix with a few crumbs of bread, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and a very small bit of lemonpeel; add the liquor of the oysters: warm all in a tosser, but do not boil. Let it go cold. Have ready a good puff paste, roll thin, and cut it in round or square bits. Put some of the above between two of them; twist the edges to keep in the gravy, and fry them of a fine brown.

This is a very good thing; and baked, is a fashionable dish.

Oyster Patties.

Put a fine puff paste into small pattypans, and a bit of bread in each; and against they are baked, have ready the following to fill with, taking out the bread. Take off the beards of the oysters; cut the other parts in small bits; put them in a small tosser, with a grate of nutmeg, the least white pepper, and salt, a morsel of lemonpeel, cut so small that 134you can scarcely see it, a little cream, and a little of the oyster liquor. Simmer for a few minutes before you fill.

Lobster Patties.

Make with the same seasoning, a little cream, and the smallest bit of butter.

Beef and veal patties, as likewise turkey and chicken, are under the several articles in the foregoing pages.

Sweet Patties.

Chop the meat of a boiled calf’s foot, of which you use the liquor for jelly, two apples, one ounce of orange and lemonpeel candied, and some fresh peel and juice: mix with them half a nutmeg grated, the yelk of an egg, a spoonful of brandy, and four ounces of currants washed and dried.

Bake in small pattypans.

Patties resembling Mincepies.

Chop the kidney and fat of cold veal, apple, orange and lemonpeel candied, and fresh currants, a little wine, two or three cloves, a little brandy, and a bit of sugar. Bake in puff paste as before.

Mincepie.

Of scraped beef free from skin and strings, weigh two pounds; four pounds of suet picked and chopped; then add six pounds of currants, nicely cleaned and perfectly dry, three pounds of chopped apples, the peel and juice of two lemons, a pint of sweet wine, a nutmeg, a quarter of an ounce of cloves, ditto mace, ditto pimento, in finest powder; 135press the whole into a deep pan when well mixed, and keep it covered in a dry cool place.

Half the quantity is enough, unless for a very large family.

Have citron, orange, and lemonpeel ready, and put some of each in the pies when made.

Mincepies, without Meat.

Of the best apples six pounds, pared, cored, and minced; of fresh suet, and raisins stoned, each three pounds, likewise minced: to these add of mace and cinnamon a quarter of an ounce each, and eight cloves, in finest powder, three pounds of the finest powder sugar, three quarters of an ounce of salt, the rinds of four and juice of two lemons, half a pint of port wine, and the same of brandy. Mix well, and put into a deep pan.

Have ready washed and dried four pounds of currants, and add as you make the pies, with candied fruit.

Lemon Mincepies.

Squeeze a large lemon: boil the outside till tender enough to beat to a mash: add to it three large apples chopped, four ounces of suet, half a pound of currants, and four ounces of sugar. Put the juice of the lemon and candied fruit, as for other pies. Make a short crust, and fill the patty pans as usual.

Egg Mincepies.

Boil six eggs hard, and shred them small: shred double the quantity of suet; then put currants 136washed and picked, one pound or more, if the eggs were large; the peel of one lemon shred very fine, half the juice, six spoonfuls of sweet wine, mace, nutmeg, sugar, a very little salt, orange, lemon, and citron candied. Make a light paste for them.

Savory Rice.

Wash and pick some rice: stew it very gently in a small quantity of veal, or rich mutton broth, with an onion, a blade of mace, pepper, and salt. When swelled, but not boiled to mash, dry it on the shallow end of a sieve before the fire, and either serve it dry, or put it in the middle of a dish, and pour the gravy round, having heated it.

Buttered Rice.

Prepare some rice as above: drain, and put it with some new milk, enough just to swell it, over the fire. When tender, pour off the milk, and add a bit of butter, a little sugar, and pounded cinnamon. Shake it, that it do not burn, and serve.

Rice boiled to eat with Curry or roast Meats.

Prepare as above; then put it into a large quantity of water, boil it quick, throw in a little salt, and observe the very moment when it is swelled large, but not too much softened; then drain off the water, and pour the rice on the shallow end of a sieve: set it before a fire, and let it stay until it separates and dries. Serve it without sauce of any kind.

Omlet.

Make a batter of eggs and milk, and a very little flour; put to it chopped parsley, onions, or chives 137(the latter is best); or a very small quantity of shalot, a little pepper, salt, and a scrape or two of nutmeg. Make some very nice dripping: boil in a small fryingpan, and pour the above batter into it. When one side is of a fine yellow brown, turn and do the other. Some scraped lean ham, put in at first, is a very pleasant addition. Three eggs will make a pretty sized omlet; but many cooks will use eight or ten.

If the taste be approved, a little tarragon gives a fine flavour. A good deal of parsley should be used.

Ramakins.

Scrape a quarter of a pound of Cheshire, and ditto of Gloucester cheese, ditto of good fresh butter; then beat all in a mortar with the yelks of four eggs, and the inside of a small French roll boiled in cream till soft. Mix the paste then with the whites of the eggs previously beaten, and put into small paper pans made rather long than square, and bake in a Dutch oven till of a fine brown. They should be eaten quite hot.

Bacon Fraise.

Cut streaked bacon in thin slices an inch long; make a batter of milk, well beaten eggs, and flour; put a little lard or dripping into the pan, and when hot pour the batter in, and cover it with a dish. When fit to turn, put in the bacon, and turn it very carefully, that the bacon does not touch the pan.

Weigh an equal quantity of butter with as much fine flour as you judge necessary; mix a little of the former with the latter, and wet it with as little water as will make 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 touch it no more than can be avoided. The butter may be added at twice; and to those who are not accustomed to make paste, it may be better to do so.

A quicker oven than for short crust.

A less rich Paste.

Weigh a pound of flour, and a quarter of a pound of butter; rub them together, and mix 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, and fold it three or four times.

Rub extremely fine, in one pound of dried flour, six ounces of butter, and a spoonful of white sugar. Work up the whole into a stiff paste, with as little hot water as possible.

German Puffs another way.

Boil two ounces of fresh butter in half a pint of cream; stir until cold; then beat two eggs, strain them into the cream, and mix that by degrees into two table spoonfuls of flour: butter teacups, and into each put three spoonfuls of the batter; bake them half an hour, and serve the moment they are to be eaten, turned out of the cups, with sauce of melted butter, sugar, and the juice of a lemon.

Make two ounces of white sugar, pounded and sifted, quite dry; then mix it with a pound of flour well dried; rub into it three ounces of butter so fine as not to be seen: into some cream put the yelks of two eggs beaten, and mix the above into a smooth paste; roll it thin, and bake in a moderate oven.

Another.

Mix with a pound of fine flour, dried, an ounce of sugar pounded and sifted; then crumble three ounces of butter in it, till it looks all like flour, and with a gill of boiling cream, work it up to a fine paste.

Light Paste for Tarts and Cheesecakes.

Beat the white of an egg to a strong froth; then mix it with as much water as will make three quarters of a pound of fine flour into a very stiff paste: roll it very thin, then lay the third part of half a pound of butter upon it in little bits: dredge it with some flour, left out at first, and roll it up tight. Roll it out again, and put the same proportion of butter; and so proceed till all be worked up.

A very fine Crust for Orange Cheesecakes or Sweetmeats, when to be particularly nice.

Dry a pound of the finest flour, and mix with it three ounces of refined sugar; then work half a pound of butter with your hand till it comes to a froth. Put the flour into it by degrees; and work into it, well beaten, and strained, the yelks of three and whites of two eggs. If too limber, put some 140flour and sugar to make fit to roll. Line your pattypans and fill. A little above fifteen minutes will bake them. Against they come out, have ready some refined sugar, beat up with the white of an egg, as thick as you can: ice them all over: set them in the oven to harden, and serve cold. Use fresh butter.

Salt butter will make a very fine flaky crust; but if for mincepies, or any sweet thing, should be washed.

Raised Crust for Custards or Fruit.

Put four ounces of butter into a saucepan with water; and when it boils, pour it into as much flour as you choose, knead and beat it till smooth: cover it as on the other side. Raise it; and if for custard, put a paper within to keep out the sides till half done, then fill with a cold mixture of milk, egg, sugar, and a little peachwater, lemonpeel, or nutmeg. By cold is meant that the egg is not to be warmed, but the milk should be warmed by itself; not to spoil the crust.

Raised Crust for Meatpies or Fowls, &c.

Boil water with a little fine lard, and an equal quantity of fresh dripping, or of butter, but not much of either. While hot, mix this with as much flour as you will want, making the paste as stiff as you can to be smooth, which you will make it by good kneading, and beating with the rolling pin. When quite smooth, put it in a lump into a cloth, or under a pan to soak, till near cold.

141Those who have not a good hand at raising crust, may do thus: roll the paste of a proper thickness, and cut out the top and bottom of the pie, then a long piece for the sides. Cement the bottom to the sides with egg, bringing the former rather further out, and pinching both together; put egg between the edges of the paste to make it adhere at the sides. Fill your pie, and put on the cover, and pinch it and the side crust together. The same mode of uniting the paste is to be observed, if the sides are pressed into a tin form, in which the paste must be baked, after it shall be filled and covered; but in the latter case the tin should be buttered, and carefully taken off when done enough; and as the form usually makes the sides of a lighter colour than is proper, the paste should be put into the oven again for a quarter of an hour. With a feather put egg over at first.

Crust for Venison Pastry.

To a quarter of a peck of fine flour use two pounds and a half of butter, and four eggs: mix into paste with warm water, and work it smooth and to a good consistence. Put a paste round the inside, but not to the bottom of the dish, and let the cover be pretty thick, to bear the long continuance in the oven.

Rice Pastry.

Boil a quarter of a pound of ground rice in the smallest quantity of water: strain from it all the moisture as well as you can. Beat it in a mortar, with half an ounce of butter, and one egg well beaten, and it will make an excellent paste for tarts, &c.

Pound boiled potatoes very fine; and add, while warm, a sufficiency of butter to make the mash hold together. Or you may mix with it an egg; then before it gets cold, flour the board pretty well to prevent it from sticking, and roll it to the thickness wanted.

If it is become quite cold before it be put on the dish, it will be apt to crack.

Almond Puddings.

Beat half a pound of sweet and a few bitter almonds, with a spoonful of water; then mix four ounces of butter, four eggs, two spoonfuls of cream warm with the butter, one of brandy, a little nutmeg and sugar to taste. Butter some cups, half fill, and bake the puddings.

Serve with butter, wine, and sugar.

Sago Pudding.

Boil a pint and a half of new milk with four spoonfuls of sago, nicely washed and picked, lemonpeel, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Sweeten to taste; then mix four eggs, put a paste round the dish, and bake slowly.

Bread and Butter Pudding.

Slice bread, spread with butter, and lay it in a dish with currants between each layer, and sliced citron, orange or lemon, if to be very nice. Pour over an unboiled custard of milk, two or three eggs, a few pimentos, and a very little ratafia, two hours at least before it is to be baked; and lade it over and over to soak the bread.

143A paste round the edge makes all puddings look better, but is not necessary.

Orange Pudding.

Grate the rind of a Seville orange; put to it six ounces of fresh butter, six or eight ounces of lump sugar pounded: beat them all in a marble mortar, and add as you do it the whole of eight eggs well beaten and strained: scrape a raw apple, and mix with the rest; put a paste at the bottom and sides of the dish, and, over the orange mixture, put crossbars of paste. Half an hour will bake it.

Another Orange Pudding.

Mix of the orange paste hereafter directed two full spoons, with six eggs, four of sugar, four ounces of butter warm, and put into a shallow dish, with a paste lining. Bake twenty minutes.

Another.

Rather more than two table spoonfuls of the orange paste, mixed with six eggs, four ounces of sugar, and four ounces of butter, melted, will make a good sized pudding, with a paste at the bottom of the dish. Bake twenty minutes.

An excellent Lemon Pudding.

Beat the yelks of four eggs; add four ounces of white sugar, the rind of a lemon being rubbed with some lumps of it to take the essence: then peel, and beat it in a mortar with the juice of a large lemon, and mix all with four or five ounces of butter warmed. Put a crust into a shallow dish; nick the edges, and put the above into it. When served, turn the pudding out of the dish.

Put a pound of butter into a saucepan, with three quarters of a pound of loaf sugar, finely powdered; melt the butter and mix well with it: then add the yelks of fifteen eggs well beaten, and as much fresh candied orange, as will add colour and flavour to it, being first beaten to a fine paste. Line the dish with paste for turning out; and when filled with the above, lay a crust over, as you would a pie, and bake it in a slow oven.

It is as good cold as hot.

Baked Apple Pudding.

Pare and quarter four large apples; boil them tender, with the rind of a lemon, in so little water that when done, none may remain: beat them quite fine in a mortar: add the crumbs of a small roll, four ounces of butter melted, the yelks of five and whites of three eggs, juice of half a lemon, and sugar to taste. Beat all together, and lay it in a dish with paste to turn out.

Oatmeal Pudding.

Pour a quart of boiling milk over a pint of the best fine oatmeal; let it soak all night. Next day beat two eggs, and mix a little salt: butter a bason that will just hold it: cover it tight with a floured cloth, and boil it an hour and a half. Eat it with cold butter and salt.

When cold, slice and toast it, and eat it as oatcake buttered.

Dutch Pudding or Souster.

Melt one pound of butter in half a pint of milk; mix it into two pounds of flour, eight eggs, four 145spoonfuls of yeast: add one pound of currants, a quarter of a pound of sugar beaten and sifted.

This is a very good pudding hot; and equally so as a cake when cold. If for the latter, carraways may be used instead of currants. An hour will bake it in a quick oven.

A Dutch Rice Pudding.

Soak four ounces of rice in warm water half an hour: drain the latter from it, and throw it into a stewpan, with half a pint of milk, half a stick of cinnamon, and simmer till tender. When cold, add four whole eggs well beaten, two ounces of butter melted in a teacupful of cream; and put three ounces of sugar, a quarter of a nutmeg, and a good piece of lemonpeel.

Put a light puff paste into a mould or dish, or grated tops and bottoms, and bake in a quick oven.

Light, or German Puddings.

Melt three ounces of butter in a pint of cream; let it stand till nearly cold, then mix two ounces of fine flour, and two ounces of sugar, four yelks and two whites of eggs, and a little rose or orange flower water. Bake in little cups, buttered, half an hour. They should be served the moment they are done, and only when going to be eaten, or they will not be light.

Turn out of the cups, and serve with white wine and sugar.

Little Bread Puddings.

Steep the crumbs of a penny loaf in about a pint of warm milk: when soaked, beat six eggs, whites 146and yelks, and mix with the bread, and two ounces of butter warmed, sugar, orange flower water, a spoonful of brandy, a little nutmeg, and a teacupful of cream. Beat all well, and bake in teacups buttered. If currants are chosen, a quarter of a pound is sufficient; if not, they are good without; or you may put orange or lemon candy. Serve with pudding sauce.

Puddings in haste.

Shred suet, and put with grated bread, a few currants, the yelks of four eggs, and the whites of two, some grated lemonpeel, and ginger. Mix, and make into little balls about the size and shape of an egg, with a little flour.

Have ready a skellet of boiling water, and throw them in. Twenty minutes will boil them; but they will rise to the top when done.

Pudding sauce.

New College Puddings.

Grate the crumbs of a twopenny loaf, shred suet eight ounces, and mix with eight ounces of currants, one of citron mixed fine, one of orange, a handful of sugar, half a nutmeg, three eggs beaten, yelk and white separately. Mix, and make into the size and shape of a goose egg. Put half a pound of butter into a fryingpan; and when melted, and quite hot, stew them gently in it over a stove. Turn them two or three times till of a fine light brown. Mix a glass of brandy with the batter.

Serve with pudding sauce.

Of grated bread two ounces, currants, and shred suet four ounces each, two large spoonfuls of flour, a great deal of grated lemonpeel, a bit of sugar, and a little pimento in fine powder. Mix with two eggs and a little milk into five dumplings, and fry of a fine yellow brown.

Serve with sweet sauce.

Brown Bread Pudding.

Half a pound of stale brown bread grated, ditto of currants, ditto of shred suet, sugar, and nutmeg. Mix with four eggs, a spoonful of brandy, and two spoonfuls of cream. Boil, in a cloth or bason that exactly holds it, three or four hours.

Boiled Bread Pudding.

Grate with bread, pour boiling milk over it, and cover close. When soaked an hour or two, beat it fine, and mix with it two or three eggs well beaten.

Put it into a bason that will just hold it; tie a floured cloth over it, and put it into boiling water. Send it up with melted butter poured over.

It may be eaten with salt or sugar.

Another, and richer Bread Pudding.

On half a pint of crumbs of bread, pour half a pint of scalding milk; cover for an hour. Beat up four eggs, and, when strained, add to the bread, with a teaspoonful of flour, an ounce of butter, two ounces of sugar, half a pound of currants, an ounce of almonds beaten with orange flour water, half an 148ounce of orange, ditto lemon, ditto citron. Butter a bason that will exactly hold it; flour the cloth, and tie tight over, and boil one hour.

Batter Pudding.

Rub three spoonfuls of fine flour extremely smooth by degrees into a pint of milk; simmer till it thickens; stir in two ounces of butter; set it to cool; then add the yelks of three eggs. Flour a cloth that has been wet, or butter a bason, and put the batter into it; tie it tight, and plunge it into boiling water, the bottom upwards. Boil it an hour and a half, and serve with plain butter. If approved, a little ginger, nutmeg, and lemonpeel may be added, and sweet sauce.

Batter 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 in a slow oven.

Some like a loin of mutton baked in batter, being first cleared of most of the fat.

Rice small Puddings.

Wash two large spoonfuls of rice, and simmer it with half a pint of milk till thick. Then put with it the size of an egg of butter, and near half a pint of thick cream, and give it one boil. When cool, mix four yelks and two whites of eggs well beaten; sweeten to taste, and add nutmeg, lemonpeel grated fine, and a little cinnamon powdered.

149Butter little cups, and fill three parts full, putting at bottom some orange or citron. Bake three quarters of an hour in a slowish oven. Serve the moment before to be eaten, with sweet sauce in the dish, or a boat.

Plain Rice Pudding.

Wash and pick some rice; throw among it some pimento finely pounded, but not much; tie the rice in a cloth, and leave plenty of room for it to swell. Boil it in a quantity of water for an hour or two. When done, eat it with butter and sugar, or milk. Put lemonpeel if you please.

It is very good without spice, and eaten with salt and butter.

Rice Pudding with Fruit.

Swell the rice with a very little milk over the fire; then mix fruit of any kind with it, (currants; gooseberries scalded; pared and quartered apples; raisins, or blackcurrants;) with one egg into the rice, to bind it. Boil it well, and serve with sugar.

Baked Rice Pudding.

Swell rice as above; then add some more milk, an egg, sugar allspice and lemonpeel. Bake in a deep dish.

Another, for the Family.

Put into a very deep pan half a pound of rice, washed and picked, two ounces of butter, four ounces of sugar, a few allspice pounded, and two quarts of milk. Less butter will do, or some suet. Bake in a slow oven.

150Note. Eggs in rice pudding, if made of whole rice, causes the milk to turn to whey, if not boiled first, and then mixed cool.

A George Pudding.

Boil very tender a handful of whole rice in a small quantity of milk, with a large piece of lemonpeel. Let it drain; then mix with it a dozen of good sized apples, boiled to pulp, and as dry as possible. Add a glass of white wine, the yelks of five eggs, and two ounces of orange and citron cut thin; make it pretty sweet. Line a mould or bason with a very good paste: beat the five whites of the eggs to a very strong froth, and mix with the other ingredients: fill the mould, and bake it of a fine brown colour. Serve it with the bottom upward, with the following sauce: two glasses of wine, a spoonful of sugar, the yelk of two eggs, and a bit of butter as large as a walnut: simmer without boiling, and pour to and from the saucepan, till of a proper thickness, and put in the dish.

Rice Piecrust.

Clean, and put some rice, with an onion and a little water and milk, or milk only, into a saucepan, and simmer till it swell. Put seasoned chops into a dish, and cover it with the rice.

Rabbits fricasseed, and covered thus, are very good.

Potatoe Pudding with Meat.

Boil them till fit to mash: rub through a colander and make into a thick batter, with milk and 151two eggs. Lay some seasoned steaks in a dish, then some batter; and over the last layer pour the remainder of the batter. Bake a fine brown.

Steak, or Kidney Pudding.

If kidney, split, and soak it, and season that or the meat. Make a paste of suet, flour, and milk: roll it, and line a bason with some: put the kidney or steaks in, cover with paste, and pinch round the edge. Cover with a cloth, and boil a considerable time.

Suet Puddings.

Shred a pound of suet; mix with a pound and a quarter of flour, three eggs beaten separately, a little salt, and as little milk as will make it. Boil five hours. It eats well next day, cut in slices and broiled.

Suet Dumplings.

Make as above, and drop into boiling water, or into the boiling of beef; or you may boil in a cloth.

Apple, Currant, or Damson Dumplings or Pudding.

Make as above, and loin a bason with the paste tolerably thin: fill with the fruit, and cover it: tie a cloth over tight, and boil till the fruit shall be done enough.

Snowball.

Swell rice in milk; strain it off, and having pared and cored apples, put the rice round them, tying each up in a cloth. Put a bit of lemonpeel, a clove, or cinnamon in each, and boil them well.

Mix of suet, flour, currants, and raisins stoned and a little cut, a pound each, the rind of lemon, shred as fine as possible, six Jamaica peppers in fine powder, four eggs, a glass of brandy, a little salt, and as little milk as will make it of a proper consistence. Boil it in a floured cloth, or a melon mould, eight or nine hours. Serve with sweet sauce. Add sometimes a spoonful of peachwater.

This pudding will keep, after it is boiled, six months, if kept tied up in the same cloth, and hung up, folded in a sheet of cap paper to preserve it from dust, being first cold. When to be used, it must boil a full hour.

Common Plumb Pudding.

The same proportions of flour and suet, and half the quantity of fruit, with spice, lemon, a glass of wine, or not, and one egg and milk, will make an excellent pudding, if long boiled.

Custard Pudding.

Mix by degrees a pint of good milk with a large spoonful of flour, the yelks of five eggs, some orange flower water, and a little pounded cinnamon. Butter a bason that will exactly hold it: pour the batter in, and tie a floured cloth over it. Put it in boiling water, and turn it about a few minutes to prevent the egg going to one side. Half an hour will boil it.

Put currant jelly on it, and serve with sweet sauce.

A Rich Rice Pudding.

Boil half a pound of rice in water, with a little bit of salt, till quite tender: drain it dry. Mix it 153with the yelks and whites of four eggs, a quarter of a pint of cream, with two ounces of fresh butter melted in the latter, four ounces of beefsuet, or marrow, or veal suet taken from a fillet of veal, finely shred, three quarters of a pound of currants, two spoonfuls of brandy, one of peachwater, or ratafia, nutmeg, and grated lemonpeel. When well mixed, put a paste round the edge, and fill the dish. Slices of candid orange, lemon, and citron, if approved. Bake in a moderate oven.

Millet Pudding.

Wash three spoonfuls of the seed; put it into the dish, with a crust round the edges: pour over it as much new milk as shall nearly fill the dish, two ounces of butter warmed with it, sugar, shred lemon, and a little scrape of ginger and nutmeg. As you put it in the oven, stir in two eggs beaten; and a spoonful of shred suet.

An excellent plain Potatoe Pudding.

Take eight ounces of boiled potatoes, two ounces of butter, the yelks and whites of two eggs, a quarter of a pint of cream, one spoonful of white wine, a morsel of salt, the juice and rind of a lemon. Beat all to a froth: sugar to taste. A crust or not, as you like. Bake it. If wanted richer, put three ounces more butter, sweatmeats and almonds, and another egg.

Carrot Pudding.

Beat a large carrot tender: bruise it well, and mix with it a tablespoonful of biscuit beaten to 154powder or four Naples biscuit, four yelks and two whites of eggs, a pint of scalded cream, some rose, or orange flower water, a little ratafia, nutmeg, and sugar. If you have no scalded cream, raw will do, if very thick. Put a little rim of paste round the dish, and bake it. Put orange, lemon or citron, cut in good sized bits.

An excellent Apricot Pudding.

Halve twelve large apricots: give them a scald till they are soft. Mean time pour on the grated crumbs of a penny loaf, a pint of boiling cream; when half cold, four ounces of sugar, the yelks of four beaten eggs, and a glass of white wine. Pound the apricots in a mortar, with some or all of the kernels; mix then the fruit and other ingredients together: put a paste round the dish, and bake the pudding half an hour.

Baked Gooseberry Pudding.

Stew gooseberries in a jar over a hot hearth, or in a saucepan of water, till they will pulp. Take a pint of the juice pressed through a sieve, and beat it with three yelks and whites of eggs, beaten and strained, and one ounce and a half of butter: sweeten it well, and put a crust round the dish. A few crumbs of roll should be mixed with the above to give a little consistence, or four ounces of Naples biscuit.

A Green Bean Pudding.

Boil and blanch old beans, beat them in a mortar with very little pepper and salt, some cream, and the yelk of an egg. A little spinach juice will give 155a finer colour, but it is as good without. Boil it in a bason that will just hold it, for an hour and pour parsley and butter over.

Serve bacon to eat with it.

Baked Almond Pudding.

Beat fine four ounces of almonds, four or five bitter ditto, with a little wine, yelks of six eggs, peel of two lemons grated, six ounces of butter, near a quart of cream, juice of one lemon. When well mixed, bake it half an hour, with a paste round the dish.

Shelford Pudding.

Mix three quarters of a pound of currants, or raisins, one pound of suet, one pound of flour, six eggs, a little good milk, some lemonpeel, and a little salt. Boil it in a melon shape six hours.

Brandy Pudding.

Line a mould with jar raisins stoned, or dried cherries, then with thin slices of French roll; next to which put ratafias, or macaroons, then the fruit, roll, and cakes in succession, until the mould be full; sprinkling in at times two glasses of brandy. Beat four eggs, yelks and whites: put to them a pint of milk or cream, lightly sweetened, with half a nutmeg, and the rind of half a lemon finely grated. Let the liquid sink into the solid part; then flour a cloth, tie it tight over, and boil one hour; keep the mould the right side up. Serve with pudding sauce.

Buttermilk Pudding.

Warm three quarts of new milk, and turn it with a quart of buttermilk: when ready, drain the curd 156through a sieve: when dry, pound it in a marble mortar, with near half a pound of sugar, a lemon boiled tender, the crumbs of a roll grated, a nutmeg grated, six bitter almonds, four ounces of warm butter, a teacupful of good cream, the yelks of five, and whites of three eggs, a glass of sweet wine, and one of brandy.

When well incorporated, bake in small cups or bowls well buttered. If the bottom be not brown, use a salamander: but serve as quick as possible, and with pudding sauce.

Curd Puddings, or Puffs.

Turn two quarts of milk to curd; press the whey from it; rub it through a sieve, and mix four ounces of butter, the crumbs of a penny loaf, two spoonfuls of cream, half a nutmeg, a small quantity of sugar, and two spoonfuls of white wine. Butter little cups, or small pattypans, and fill them three parts. Orange flower water is an improvement. Bake them with care.

Serve with sweet sauce in a boat.

Boiled Curd Pudding.

Rub the curd of two gallons of milk, when drained, through a sieve. Mix it with six eggs, a little cream, two spoonfuls of orange flower water, half a nutmeg, of flour and crumbs of bread each three spoonfuls, currants and raisins half a pound of each. Boil an hour in a thick well floured cloth.

Pound eight ounces of almonds, and a few bitter, with a spoonful of water and mix with four ounces of butter warmed, four yelks and two whites of eggs, sugar to taste, two spoonfuls of cream, and one of brandy; mix well, and bake in little cups buttered. Serve with pudding sauce.

Excellent light Puffs.

Mix two spoonfuls of flour, a little grated lemonpeel, some nutmeg, half a spoonful of brandy, a little loaf sugar, and one egg: then fry it enough, but not brown; beat it in a mortar with five eggs, whites and yelks; put a quantity of lard in a fryingpan, and when quite hot, drop a dessert spoonful of batter at a time: turn as they brown. They will be large. Serve immediately. Sweet sauce.

Pippin Pudding.

Coddle six pippins in vineleaves covered with water, but very gently, that the inside be done without breaking the skins. When soft, take off the skins, and with a teaspoon take the pulp from the core. Press it through a colander; add to it two spoonfuls of orange flower water, three eggs beaten, a pint of scalded cream, sugar and nutmeg to taste. Lay a thin puff paste at the bottom and sides of the dish: shred some very thin lemonpeel as fine as possible, and put into the dish; as likewise some orange and citron in small slices.

Mix five spoonfuls of flour, with a quart of milk, and three eggs well beaten. Butter the pan. When brown by baking under the meat, turn the other side upwards, and brown that. It should be made in a square pan, and cut into pieces to come to table. Set it over a chafing dish at first, and stir it some minutes.

A quick made Pudding.

Flour and suet half a pound each, four eggs, a quarter of a pint of new milk, a little mace and nutmeg, a quarter of a pound of raisins, ditto of currants: mix well, and boil three quarters of an hour with the cover of the pot on, or it will require longer.

Yeast or Suffolk Dumplings.

Make a very light dough with yeast, as for bread, but with milk instead of water, and put salt. Let it rise an hour before the fire.

Twenty minutes before you are to serve, have ready a large stewpan of boiling water. Make the dough into balls, the size of a middling apple, throw them in, and boil twenty minutes. If you doubt when done enough, stick a clean fork into one, and if it come out clear, it is done.

The way to eat them is to tear them apart on the top with two forks, for they become heavy by their own steam. Eat immediately with meat, sugar, butter or salt.

Boil a large spoonful heaped of either in a pint of new milk, with lemonpeel and cinnamon. When cold add sugar, nutmeg, and two eggs, well beaten. Bake with a crust round the dish.

Observations on making Puddings.

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 dipped in boiling water, squeezed dry, and floured, when to be used.

If bread, it should be tied loose; if batter, 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 separately.

The pans and basons must be always buttered.

A pan of cold water should be ready, and the pudding dipt in as soon as it comes out of the pot, and then it will not adhere to the cloth.

Lemon Custards.

Beat the yelks of eight eggs till they are as white as milk; then put to them a pint of boiling water, the rinds of two lemons grated, and the juice sweetened 160to your taste. Stir it on the fire till thick enough, then add a large glass of rich wine, and half a glass of brandy; give the whole one scald, and put it in cups, to be eaten cold.

Lent Potatoes.

Beat three or four ounces of almonds, and three or four bitter, when blanched, putting a little orange flower water to prevent oiling: add eight ounces of butter, four eggs well beaten and strained, half a glass of raisin wine, and sugar to your taste. Beat all well till quite smooth, and grate in three Savoy biscuit. Make balls of the above, with a little flour, the size of a chestnut; throw them into a stewpan of boiling lard, and boil them of a beautiful yellow brown. Drain them on a sieve.

Serve sweet sauce in a boat, to eat with them.

Rice Flummery.

Boil with a pint of new milk, a bit of lemonpeel, and cinnamon: mix with a little cold milk, as much rice flour as will make the whole of a good consistence: sweeten, and add a spoonful of peachwater, or a bitter almond beaten. Boil it, observing it does not burn. Pour it into a shape or pint bason, taking out the spice. When cold, turn the flummery into a dish, and serve with cream, milk, or custard round; or put a teaspoonful of cream into half a pint of new milk, a glass of raisin wine, a little sugar, and a squeeze of lemon.

Curds and Cream.

Turn to curd three or four pints of milk with runnet; break it, and let the whey run out, then 161put it into a bason; and when to be served, but it on a dish with some cream, or fine milk, either plain or sweetened.

Another way.

To four quarts of new milk warmed, put from a pint to a quart of buttermilk strained, according to its sourness; keep the pan covered until the curd be of a firmness to cut three or four times across with a saucer, as the whey leaves it: put it into a shape, and fill up until it is solid enough to take the form. Serve with cream plain, or mixed with sugar, wine, and lemon.

London Syllabub.

Put a pint of port or white wine into a bowl, nutmeg grated, and a good deal of sugar, then milk into it near two quarts of milk, frothed up. If the wine be not rather sharp, it will require more for this quantity of milk.

In Devonshire, clouted cream is put on the top, and pounded cinnamon and sugar.

Staffordshire Syllabub.

Put a pint of cyder, and a glass of brandy, sugar, and nutmeg into a bowl, and milk into it; or pour warm milk from a large teapot some height into it.

Devonshire Junket.

Put warm milk into a bowl; turn it with runnet; then put some scalded cream, sugar and cinnamon on the top, without breaking the curd.

In a large China bowl put a pint of port, and a pint of sherry, or other white wine; sugar to taste. Milk the bowl full. In twenty minutes cover it pretty high with clouted cream; grate over it nutmeg: put pounded cinnamon and nonpareil comfits.

Sack Cream.

Boil a pint of raw cream, the yelk of an egg well beaten, two or three spoonfuls of white wine, sugar, and lemonpeel; stir it over a gentle fire till it be as thick as rich cream; put it in a dish, and serve it cold, garnished with rusks or sippets of toasted bread.

A Froth to set on Cream, Custard, or Trifle, which looks and eats well.

Sweeten half a pound of the pulp of damsons, or any other sort of scalded fruit: put to it the whites of four eggs beaten, and beat the pulp with them, until it will stand as high as you choose; and being put on the cream, &c. with a spoon, it will take any form. It should be rough to imitate a rock.

Floating Island.

Mix three half pints of thin cream with a quarter of a pint of raisin wine, a little lemonjuice, orange flower water, and sugar; put into a dish for the middle of the table, and put on the cream a froth like the above, which may be made of raspberry or currantjelly.

Another way.

Scald a codlin before it is ripe, or any sharp apple, and pulpit through a sieve. Beat the whites of two 163eggs with sugar, and a spoonful of orange flower water; mix in by degrees the pulp, and beat all together until you have a large quantity of froth. Serve it on a raspberry cream; or you may colour the froth with beetroot, raspberry, or currantjelly, and set it on a white cream, having given it the flavour of lemon, sugar, and wine as above; or, put the froth on a custard.

Everlasting, or Solid Syllabubs.

Mix a quart of thick raw cream, one pound of refined sugar, a pint of white, and half a pint of sweet wine in a deep pan: put to it the grated peel and the juice of three lemons. Beat, or whisk it one way half an hour, then put it into glasses.

It will keep good, in a cool place, ten days.

Yellow Lemon Cream, without Cream.

Pare four lemons very thin into twelve large spoonfuls of water, and squeeze the juice on seven ounces of finely pounded sugar: beat the yelks of nine eggs well; add the peels and juice beaten together for some time; then strain it through a flannel into silver or very nice blocktin saucepan; set it over a gentle fire, and stir it one way till pretty thick, and scalding hot, but not boiling, or it will curdle. Pour it into jelly glasses. A few lumps of sugar should be rubbed hard on the lemons before they are pared, or after, as the peel will be so thin as not to take all the essence, and the sugar will attract it, and give better colour and flavour.

Is made the same as the above; only put the whites of the eggs instead of the yelks, whisking it extremely well to froth.

Lemon Cream.

Take a pint of thick cream, and put to it the yelks of two eggs well beaten, four ounces of fine sugar, and the thin rind of a lemon: boil it up, then stir it till almost cold. Put the juice of a lemon in a dish or bowl, and pour the cream upon it, stirring it till quite cold.

An excellent Cream.

Whip up three quarters of a pint of very rich cream to a strong froth, with some finely scraped lemonpeel, a squeeze of the juice, half a glass of sweet wine, and sugar to make it pleasant but not too sweet. Lay it on a sieve or in a form, and next day put it on a dish, and ornament it with very light puff paste biscuit, made in tin shapes the length of a finger, and about two thick, over which sugar may be strewed, or a light glaze with isinglass. Or you may use macaroons.

Blancmange or Blamange.

Boil two ounces of isinglass in three half pints of water half an hour; strain it to a pint and half of cream; sweeten it, and add some peachwater, or a few bitter almonds; let it boil once up, and put it into what forms you please. If not to be very stiff, a little less isinglass will do. Observe to let the blamange settle before you turn it into the forms, 165or the blacks will remain at the bottom of them, and be on the top of the blamange when taken out of the moulds.

Dutch Flummery.

Boil two ounces of isinglass in three half pints of water very gently half an hour: add a pint of white wine, the juice of three and the thin rind of one lemon, and rub a few lumps of sugar on another lemon to obtain the essence; and with them add as much more sugar as shall make it sweet enough. Having beaten the yelks of seven eggs, give them and the above, when mixed, one scald; stir all the time, and pour it into a bason. Stir it till half cold, then let it settle, and put it into a melon shape.

Calf’s Feet Jelly.

Boil two feet in five pints of water till the feet are broken, and the water half wasted: strain it, and, when cold, take off the fat, and remove the jelly from the sediment; then put it into a saucepan, with sugar, raisin wine, lemonjuice to your taste, and some lemonpeel. When the flavour is rich, put to it the whites of five eggs well beaten, and their shells are broken. Set the saucepan on the fire, but do not stir the jelly after it begins to warm. Let it boil twenty minutes after it rises to a head, then pour it through a flannel jellybag; first dipping the bag in hot water to prevent waste, and squeezing it quite dry. Run the jelly through and through until clear; then put it into glasses or forms.

166Observe, that the feet for all jellies should be only scalded to take off the hair; not bought boiled, which is the usual way; but the following mode will greatly facilitate the clearing of jelly: when the mixture has boiled twenty minutes, throw in a teacupful of cold water; let it boil five minutes longer; then take the saucepan off the fire, cover it close, and keep it half an hour: after which, it will be so clear as to need only once running through the bag, and much waste will be saved.

Observe, feet for all jellies are boiled so long by the people who sell them, that the nutritious juices are lessened; they should be only scalded to take off the hair. The liquor will require greater care in removing the fat; but the jelly will be far stronger, and, of course, allow more water.

Another sort.

Boil four quarts of water with three calf’s feet that have been only scalded, till half wasted: take the jelly from the fat and sediment: mix with it the juice of a Seville orange, and twelve lemons, the peels of three, the whites and shells of twelve eggs; brown sugar to taste, near a pint of raisin wine, one ounce of coriander seed, a quarter of an ounce of allspice, a bit of cinnamon, and six cloves, all bruised, after having previously mixed them cold. The jelly should boil fifteen minutes without stirring; then clear it through a flannel bag. While running take a little jelly, and mix with a teacupful of water in which a bit of beetroot has been boiled, and run it through the bag when all 167the rest is run out; and this is to garnish the other jelly, being cooled on a plate; but this is matter of choice.

Orange jelly.

Grate the rind of two Seville and two China oranges, and two lemons; squeeze the juice of three of each, and strain, and add the juice to a quarter of a pound of lump sugar, and a quarter of a pint of water, and boil till it almost candies. Have ready a quart of isinglassjelly made with two ounces, put to it the syrup, and boil it once up; strain off the jelly, and let it stand to settle as above before it be put into the mould.

Hartshornjelly.

Simmer eight ounces of hartshorn shavings with two quarts of water to one; strain it, and boil it with the rinds of four China oranges and two lemons pared thin; when cool, add the juice of both, half a pound of sugar, and the whites of six eggs beaten to a froth; let the jelly have three or four boils without stirring, and strain it through a jellybag.

Imperial Cream.

Boil a quart of cream with the thin rind of a lemon, then stir it till nearly cold; have ready in a dish or bowl that you are to serve in, the juice of three lemons strained with as much sugar as will sweeten the cream; which pours into the dish from a large teapot, holding it high, and moving it about 168to mix with the juice. It should be made at least six hours before it be served.

A Cream.

Boil half a pint of cream, and half a pint of milk, with two bayleaves, a bit of lemonpeel, a few almonds beaten to paste, with a drop of water, a little sugar, orange flower water, and a teaspoonful of flour, having been rubbed down with a little cold milk, and mixed with the above. When cold, put a little lemonjuice to the cream, and serve it in cups or lemonade glasses.

Cheap, and excellent Custards.

Boil three pints of new milk, with a bit of lemonpeel, a bit of cinnamon, two or three bayleaves, and sweeten it. Meanwhile, rub down smooth a large spoonful of rice flour into a cup of cold milk, and mix with it two yelks of egg well beaten. Take a bason of the boiling milk, and mix with the cold, and then pour that to the boiling; stirring it one way, till it begins to thicken, and is just going to boil up; then pour it into a pan, stir it some time, add a large spoonful of peachwater, two teaspoonfuls of brandy, or a little ratafia.

Richer Custard.

Boil a pint of milk with lemonpeel and cinnamon; mix a pint of cream, and the yelks of five eggs well beaten. When the milk tastes of the seasoning, sweeten it enough for the whole, pour it into the cream, stirring well, then give the 169custard a simmer till of proper thickness. Do not let it boil. Stir the whole time one way: season as above.

Almond Cream.

Beat four ounces of sweet almonds, and a few bitter, in a mortar, with a teaspoonful of water to prevent oiling, both having been blanched. Put the paste to a quart of cream, and add the juice of three lemons sweetened; beat it up with a whisk to a froth, which takes off on the shallow part of a sieve. Fill glasses with some of the liquor and the froth.

Brandy Cream.

Boil two dozen of almonds blanched, and pounded bitter almonds in a little milk. When cold, add it to the yelks of five eggs beaten well in a little cream; sweeten, and put to it two glasses of best brandy; and when well mixed, pour to it a quart of thin cream. Set it over the fire, but do not let it boil. Stir one way till it thickens, then pour into cups, or low glasses. When cold it will be ready. A ratafia drop may be put in each, if you choose it. If you wish it to keep, scald the cream previously.

Snow Cream.

Put to a quart of cream the whites of three eggs well beaten, four spoonfuls of sweet wine, sugar to your taste, and a bit of lemonpeel: whip it to a froth, remove the peel, and serve in a dish.

A pretty Supper dish.

Boil a teacupful of rice, having first washed it in milk, till tender: strain off the milk; lay the 170rice in little heaps on a dish; strew over them some finely powdered sugar and cinnamon, and put warm wine and a little butter into the dish.

Wine Roll.

Soak a penny French roll in raisin wine till it will hold no more: put it in the dish, and pour round it a custard, or cream, sugar, and lemonjuice. Just before it is served, sprinkle over it some nonpareil comfits; or stick a few blanched and slit almonds into it.

Sponge biscuit may be used instead of the roll.

An excellent Trifle.

Lay macaroons and ratafia drops over the bottom of your dish, and pour in as much raisin wine as they will suck up; which, when they have done, pour on them cold rich custard, made with more eggs than directed in the foregoing pages, and some rice flour. It must stand two or three inches thick. On that put a layer of raspberry jam, and cover the whole with a very high whip made the day before, of rich cream, the whites of two well beaten eggs, sugar, lemonpeel, and raisin wine. If made the day before used, it has quite a different taste, and is solid and far better.

Burnt Cream.

Boil a pint of cream with a stick of cinnamon, and some lemonpeel; take it off the fire, and pour it very slowly into the yelks of four eggs, stirring till half cold: sweeten, and take out the spice, &c. Pour it into the dish; when cold, strew white 171pounded sugar over, and brown it with a salamander.

Rice and Sago Milks

Are made by washing the seeds nicely, and over a slow fire simmering with milk till sufficiently done. The former sort requires lemon, spice and sugar; the latter is fine without anything to flavour it.

Lemon Honeycomb.

Sweeten the juice of a lemon to your taste, and put it in the dish that you serve it in. Mix the white of an egg that is beaten with a pint of rich cream, and a little sugar; whisk it, and as the froth rises put it on the lemonjuice.

Do it the day before it is to be used.

Coffee Cream. Much admired.

Boil a calf’s foot in water till it wastes to a pint of jelly: clear it of sediment and fat. Make a teacup of very strong coffee; clear it with a bit of isinglass to be perfectly bright; pour it to the jelly, and add a pint of very good cream, and as much fine Lisbon sugar as is pleasant. Give one boil up, and pour into the dish. It should jelly, but not be stiff. Observe that your coffee be fresh.

Orange Fool.

Mix the juice of three Seville oranges, three eggs well beaten, a pint of cream, a little nutmeg and cinnamon, and sweeten to your taste. Set the whole over a slow fire, and stir it till it becomes as thick as good melted butter, but it must not be boiled; then pour it into a dish for eating cold.

Put the fruit into a stonejar and some good Lisbon sugar with them: set the jar on a stove, or in a saucepan of water over the fire; if the former, a large spoonful of water should be added to the fruit. When it is done enough to pulp, press it through a colander: have ready a sufficient quantity of new milk, and a teacup of raw cream boiled together; or an egg instead of the latter, and left to be cold; then sweeten it pretty well with fine Lisbon sugar, and mix the pulp by degrees, with it.

Apple Fool.

Stew apples as directed for gooseberries, and then peel and pulp them. Prepare the milk, &c. and mix as before.

Raspberry Cream.

Mash the fruit gently, and let them drain; then sprinkle a little sugar over, and that will produce more juice; then put the juice to some cream, and sweeten it. After which, if you choose to lower it with some milk, it will not curdle; which it would, if put to the milk before the cream; but it is best made of raspberry jelly, instead of jam, when the fresh fruit cannot be obtained.

Flummery.

Put three large handfuls of very small white oatmeal to steep a day and night in cold water; then pour it off clear, and add as much more water, and let it stand the same time. Strain it through a fine hair sieve, and boil it till it be as thick as hasty pudding; 173stirring it well all the time. When first strained, put to it one large spoonful of white sugar, and two of orange flower water. Put it into shallow dishes; and serve to eat with wine, cyder, milk, or cream and sugar. It is very good.

To butter Oranges.

Grate off a little of the outside rind of four Seville oranges, and cut a round hole, at the blunt the end opposite the stalk, large enough to take out the pulp, seeds, and juice; then pick the seeds and skin from the pulp. Rub the oranges with a little salt, and lay them in water for a short time. You are to save the bits cut out. Set the fruit on to boil in fresh water till they are tender, shifting the water to take out the bitterness. In the mean time, make a thin syrup with fine sugar, and put the oranges into it, and boil them up, turning them round, that each part may partake of the syrup, as there need not be enough to cover them, and let them remain in it hot till they are to be served. About half an hour before you want them, put some sugar to the pulp, and set over the fire; mix it well, and let it boil; then add a spoonful of white wine for every orange. Give it a boil, and then put in a bit of fresh butter, and stir it over the fire to thicken. Fill the oranges with it, and serve them with some of the syrup in the dish. Put the bits on the top.

Buttered Orange Juice.

Mix the juice of seven Seville oranges with four spoonfuls of rose water, and add the whole to the 174yelks of eight and whites of four eggs, well beaten. Then strain the liquor to half a pound of sugar pounded; stir it over a gentle fire, and when it begins to thicken, put about the size of a small walnut of butter: keep it over the fire a few minutes longer, then pour it into a flat dish, and serve it to eat cold.

If you have no silver saucepan, do it in a Chinabason in a saucepan of boiling water, the top of which will just receive the bason.

Stewed Pears.

Pare and halve, or quarter, large pears, according to their size: throw them into water, as the skin is taken off before they are divided, to prevent their turning black. Pack them round a blocktin stewpan, and sprinkle as much sugar over as will make them pretty sweet: add lemonpeel, a clove or two, and some allspice cracked. Just cover them with water, and put some of the red liquor which will be directed hereafter; cover them close, and stew three or four hours. When tender, take them out, and pour the liquor over them.

Baked Pears.

These need not be of a fine sort; but some taste better than others, and often those that are least fit to eat raw. Wipe, but do not pare, and lay them on tin plates, and bake them in a slow oven. When baked enough to bear it, flatten them with a silver spoon. When done through, put them on a dish.

Apples in the same way are excellent, and serve for desserts.

Put them in a cool oven six or seven times, and flatten them by degrees, and gently, when soft enough to bear it. If the oven be too hot they will waste; and at first it should be very cool.

The Biffin, the Minshul crab, or any tart apples, are the sort for drying.

Black Caps.

Halve and core some fine large apples: put them in a shallow pan: strew white sugar over, and bake them. Boil a glass of wine, the same of water, and sweeten it for sauce.

Stewed Golden Pippins.

Scoop out the core; pare them very thin; and as you do it, throw them in water. For every pound of fruit make half a pound of single refined sugar into syrup, with a pint of water. When skimmed, put the pippins in, and stew till clear; then grate lemon over, and serve in the syrup. Be careful not to let them break.

They are an elegant and good dish for a corner or dessert.

Red Apples in Jelly.

Pare and core some well shaped apples; pippins, or golden rennets, if you have them, but others will do: throw them into water as you do them. Put them in a preserving pan, and with as little water as will only half cover them, let them coddle; and when the lower side is done, turn them. Observe that they do not lie too close when first put in. Mix 176some pounded cochineal with the water, and boil with the fruit. When sufficiently done, take them out on the dish they are to be served in, the stalk downwards. Take the water, and make a rich jelly of it with loaf sugar, boiling the thin rind and juice of a lemon. When coming to a jelly, let it grow cold, and put it on and among the apples, and cut the peel of the lemon in narrow strips, and put across the eye of the apple.

Observe that the colour be fine from the first, or the fruit will not afterward gain it.

Apple jelly, to serve to table.

Prepare twenty golden pippins: boil them in a pint and a half of water from the spring, till quite tender; then strain the liquor through a colander. To every pint put a pound of fine sugar; add grated orange or lemon, then boil to a jelly.

Another.

Prepare apples as before, by boiling and straining: have ready half an ounce of isinglass, boiled in half a pint of water to a jelly: put this to the apple water, and apple as strained through a coarse sieve: add sugar, a little lemonjuice, and peel. Boil all together, and put into a dish. Take out the peel.

To prepare Apples for Puffs.

Pare and core apples; cover them with water, but put them as close as possible, that they may take but little: add a little pounded cinnamon and a clove; to every dozen apples two spoonfuls of rosewater, and a little lemonpeel finely shred. Sweeten and cool before you make it into puffs.

Pare thin two Seville or China oranges; boil the peel tender, and shred it fine. Pare and core twenty apples; put them in a stewpan, and as little water as possible; when half done, add half a pound of sugar, the orangepeel and juice: boil till pretty thick. When cold, put it in a shallow dish, or pattypans lined with paste, to turn out, and be eaten cold.

Apple Marmalade.

Scald apples till they will pulp from the core; then take an equal weight of sugar in large lumps, just dip them in water, and boiling it till it can be well skimmed, and is a thick syrup; put to it the pulp, and simmer it on a quick fire a quarter of an hour.

Keep it in small pots, covered with paper dipped in brandy.

Codlins to scald.

Wrap each in a vine leaf, and pack them close in a nice saucepan; and, when full, pour as much water as will cover them. Set it over a gentle fire, and let them simmer slowly till done enough to take the thin skin off when cold. Place them in a dish, with or without milk, cream, or custard; if the latter, there should be no ratafia. Dust fine sugar over the apples.

Different ways of dressing Cranberries.

For pies and puddings, with a good deal of sugar.

Stewed in a jar, with the same; which way they eat well with bread, and are very wholesome.

178Thus done, pressed and strained, the juice makes a fine drink for people in fevers.

Cranberry jelly.

Make a very strong isinglassjelly. When cold, mix it with a double quantity of cranberry juice pressed as above: sweeten and boil it up; then strain it into a shape.

The sugar must be good loaf, or the jelly will not be clear.

Cranberry and Rice jelly.

Boil and press the fruit: strain the juice; and by degrees mix into it as much ground rice as will, when boiled, thicken to a jelly. Boil it gently, stirring it, and sweeten to your taste. Put it into a bason or form, and serve to eat as the before directed jelly, with milk or cream.

Prune Tart.

Give prunes a scald: take out the stones and break them: put the kernels into a little cranberry juice, with the prunes and sugar; simmer, and when cold, make a tart of the sweetmeat.

To fill preserved Oranges. Corner dish.

For five, take a pound of Naples biscuit, some blanched almonds, the yelks of four eggs beaten, sugar to your taste, four ounces of butter warmed: grate the biscuit, and mix with the above, and some orange flower water. Fill preserved oranges, and bake in a very slow oven. If you like them frosted, sift sugar over them as soon as filled; otherwise wipe them. Custard to fill will do 179as well; if so, you need not bake the oranges, but put in cold.

Orange Tart.

Squeeze, pulp, and boil two Seville oranges tender: weigh them, and double of sugar; beat both together to a paste, and then add the juice and pulp of the fruit, and the size of a walnut of fresh butter, and beat all together. Choose a very shallow dish, line it with a light puff crust, and lay the paste of orange in it. You may ice it. See Paste.

Codlin Tart.

Scald the fruit, as directed under that article; when ready, take off the thin skin, and lay them whole in a dish, put a little of the water that the apples were boiled in at bottom, and strew them over with lump sugar or fine Lisbon; when cold, put a paste round the edges, and over.

You may wet it with white of egg, and strew sugar over, which looks well: or, cut the lid in quarters, without touching the paste on the edge of the dish; and either put the broad end downwards, and make the point stand up, or remove the lid altogether. Pour a good custard over it; when cold, sift sugar over it.

Or line the bottom of a shallow dish with paste, lay the apples in it, put sugar over, and lay little twists of paste over in bars.

Cherry Pie

Should have a mixture of other fruit; such as currants or raspberries, or both.

Cut the stalks in lengths of four or five inches, and take off the thin skin. If you have a hot hearth, lay them in a dish, and put over a thin syrup of sugar and water: cover with another dish, and let it simmer very slowly an hour; or do them in a blocktin saucepan. When cold, make into a tart, as codlin.

Currant and Raspberry.

Make as a pie; or for a tart; line the dish, put sugar and fruit, lay bars across, and bake.

Applepie.

Pare and core the fruit, having wiped the outside; which, with the cores, boil with a little water till it tastes well. Strain, and put a little sugar, and a bit of bruised cinnamon, and simmer again. In the mean time place the apples in a dish, a paste being put round the edge; when one layer is in, sprinkle half the sugar, and shred lemonpeel, and squeeze some juice, or a glass of cyder; if the apples have lost their spirit, put in the rest of the apples, sugar, and the liquor that you have boiled. Cover with paste. You may add some butter when cut, if eaten hot: or put quince marmalade, orange paste, or cloves to flavour.

Puffs of any sort of Fruit

May be made, but it should be prepared first with sugar. Apples will do, as before directed; or, as follows, eat best: the crust must be thick, if used raw. Pare and slice apple; sprinkle sugar, 181and some chopped lemon: or stew in a small stonejar. When cold, make it into puffs of thin crust.

A Tansey.

Beat seven eggs, yelks and whites separately: add a pint of cream, near the same of spinach juice, and a little tansey juice gained by pounding in a stone mortar; a quarter of a pound of Naples biscuit, sugar to taste, a glass of white wine, and some nutmeg. Set all in a saucepan, just to thicken, over the fire; then put into a dish, lined with paste to turn out, and bake it.

Pancakes of Rice.

Boil half a pound of rice to a jelly in a small quantity of water: when cold, mix it with a pint of cream, eight eggs, a bit of salt, and nutmeg. Stir in eight ounces of butter just warmed, and add as much flour as will make the batter thick enough. Fry in as little lard or dripping as possible.

Common Pancakes.

Make a light batter of eggs, flour, and milk. Fry in a small pan, in hot dripping or lard. Salt, or nutmeg and ginger may be added.

Sugar and lemons should be served to eat with them. Or, when eggs are scarce, make the batter with flour, and small beer, ginger, &c. Or clean snow, with flour, and a very little milk, will serve as well as eggs.

Irish Pancakes.

Beat eight yelks and four whites of eggs: strain them into a pint of cream; put a grated nutmeg and sugar to your taste. Set three ounces of fresh 182butter on the fire, stir it, and as it warms, pour it to the cream, which should be warm when the eggs are put to it; then mix smooth almost half a pint of flour. Fry the pancakes very thin, the first with a bit of butter, but not the others. Serve several, one on another.

Fine Pancakes, fried without Butter, or Lard.

Beat six fresh eggs extremely well; mix, when strained, with a pint of cream, four ounces of sugar, a glass of wine, half a nutmeg grated, and as much flour as will make it almost as thick as ordinary pancake batter, but not quite. Heat the fryingpan tolerably hot, wipe it with a clean cloth; then pour in the batter, to make thin pancakes.

Bockings.

Mix three ounces of buckwheat flour, with a teacupful of warm milk, and a spoonful of yeast; let it rise before the fire about an hour; then mix four eggs, well beaten, and as much milk as will make the batter the usual thickness for pancakes, and fry them as they are done.

A Fraise.

Cut streaked bacon in thin slices an inch long: make a batter of a pint of milk, three eggs, and a large spoonful of flour; add salt and pepper: put a piece of fresh dripping in the pan, and, when hot, pour half the batter, and on it strew the bacon, then the remainder of the batter. Let it do gently; and be careful, in turning, that the bacon do not come to the pan.

Fritters.

Make them of any of the batters directed for pancakes by dropping a small quantity into the pan. 183Or make the plainer sort, and put pared apple, sliced and cored, into the batter, and fry some of it with each slice. Currants, or sliced lemon as thin as paper, make an agreeable change.

Spanish Fritters.

Cut the crumb of a French roll into lengths, as thick as your finger, in what shape you will. Soak in some cream, nutmeg, sugar, pounded cinnamon, and an egg. When well soaked, fry of a nice brown, and serve with butter, wine, and sugar sauce.

Potatoe Fritters.

Boil two large potatoes, and scrape them fine: beat four yelks and three whites of eggs, and add to the above, with one large spoonful of cream, another of sweet wine, a squeeze of lemon, and a little nutmeg. Beat this batter half an hour at least. It will be extremely light. Put a good quantity of fine lard in a stewpan, and drop a spoonful of the batter at a time into it: fry them; and serve as a sauce, a glass of white wine, the juice of a lemon, one dessert spoonful of peachleaf, or almond water, and some white sugar warmed together: not to be served in the dish.

Cheesecakes.

Strain the whey from the curd of two quarts of milk. When rather dry, crumble it through a coarse sieve, and mix with six ounces of fresh butter, one ounce of pounded blanched almonds, a little orange flower water, half a glass of raisin wine, a 184grated biscuit, four ounces of currants, some nutmeg, and cinnamon, in fine powder, and beat all the above with three eggs, and half a pint of cream, till quite light; then fill the pattypans three parts full.

A plainer sort.

Turn three quarts of milk to curd: break it, and drain the whey. When dry, break it in a pan, with two ounces of butter, till perfectly smooth: put to it a pint and a half of thin cream or good milk, and add sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and three ounces of currants.

Cheesecakes, another way.

Mix the curd of three quarts of milk, a pound of currants, twelve ounces of Lisbon sugar, a quarter of an ounce each of cinnamon and nutmeg, the peel of two lemons chopped so fine that it becomes a paste, the yelks of eight and whites of six eggs, a pint of scalded cream, and a glass of brandy. Put a light thin puff paste in the pattypans, and three parts fill them.

Lemon Cheesecakes.

Mix four ounces of sifted lump sugar, and four ounces of butter, and gently melt it; then add the yelks of two and the white of one egg, the rind of three lemons shred fine, and the juice of one and a half; one Savoy biscuit, some blanched almonds pounded, and three spoonfuls of brandy. Mix well, and put in paste made as follows: eight ounces of flour, six ounces of butter; two thirds of which mix with the flour first; then wet it with six spoonfuls of water, and roll the remainder in.

Boil two large lemons, or three small ones; and, after squeezing, pound them well together, in a mortar, with four ounces of loaf sugar, the yelks of six eggs, and eight ounces of fresh butter. Fill the pattypans half full.

Orange cheesecakes are done the same way, only you must boil the peel in two or three waters to take out the bitterness.

Orange Cheesecakes.

When you have blanched half a pound of almonds, beat them very fine, with orange flower water, and half a pound of fine sugar beaten and sifted, a pound of butter that has been melted carefully without oiling, and which must be nearly cold before you use it; then beat the yelks of ten and whites of four eggs: pound two candied oranges, and a fresh one with the bitterness boiled out, in a mortar, till as tender as marmalade, without any lumps; and beat the whole together, and put into pattypans.

For the crust, turn to page 139.

Potatoe Cheesecakes.

Boil six ounces of potatoes, and four ounces of lemonpeel: beat the latter in a marble mortar, with four ounces of sugar; then add the potatoes, beaten, and four ounces of butter melted in a little cream. When well mixed, let it stand to grow cold. Put crust in pattypans, and rather more than half fill them. Bake in a quick oven half an 186hour; sifting some double refined sugar on them when going to the oven. This quantity will make a dozen.

Almond Cheesecakes.

Blanch and pound four ounces of almonds, and a few bitter, with a spoonful of water; then add four ounces of sugar pounded, a spoonful of cream, and the whites of two eggs well beaten. Mix all as quick as possible; put into very small pattypans, and bake in a pretty warm oven under twenty minutes.

Oranges or Lemons, for Puddings, &c.

When you squeeze the fruits, throw the outside in water without the pulp. Let them remain in the same a fortnight, adding no more. Boil them therein till tender; strain it from them, and when they are tolerably dry, throw them into any old jar of candy, you may have remaining from old sweetmeats; or if you have none, boil a small quantity of syrup of common loaf sugar and water, and put over them. In a week or ten days boil them gently in it till they look clear, and that they may be covered with it in the jar. You may cut each half of the fruit in two, and they will occupy small space.

To preserve Gooseberries.

Before they become too large, let them be gathered; and take care not to cut them in taking off the stalks and buds. Fill wide mouthed bottles; put the corks loosely in, and set the bottles up to 187the neck in water in a boiler. When the fruit looks scalded, take them out; and when perfectly cold, cork close, and rosin the top. Dig a trench in a part of the garden least used, sufficiently deep for all the bottles to stand, and the earth be thrown over, to cover them a foot and a half. When a frost comes on, a little fresh litter from the stable will prevent the ground from hardening, so that the fruit cannot be dug up. Or, scald as above; when cold, fill the bottles with cold water; cork them, and keep them in a damp, or dry place: they will not be spoiled.

Another way.

In the size and preparation as above. When done, have boiling water ready, either in a boiler or large kettle, and into it put as much rock alum as will, when dissolved, harden the water, which you will taste by a little roughness: if there be too much it will spoil the fruit. Put as many gooseberries into a large sieve as will lie at the bottom without covering one another. Hold the sieve in the water till the fruit begins to look scalded on the outside: then turn them gently out of the sieve on a cloth on the dresser: cover them with another cloth, and put some more to be scalded; and so on till all shall be finished. Observe not to put one quantity on another, or they will become too soft. The next day pick out any bad or broken ones, bottle the rest, and fill up the bottles with the alum water in which they were scalded: which must be 188kept in the bottles; for if left in the kettle, or in a glazed pan, it will spoil. Stop them close.

Note. The water must boil all the time the process is carrying on. Gooseberries, done this way, make as fine tarts as fresh off the trees.

Another way.

In dry weather pick the gooseberries that are full grown, but not ripe: top and tail them, and put into open mouthed bottles. Gently cork them with new velvet corks; put them in the oven when the bread is drawn, and let them stand till shrunk a quarter part: take them out of the oven, and immediately beat the corks in tight: cut off the tops, and rosin down close. Set them in a dry place; and if well secured from air they will keep the year round.

If gathered in the damp, or the gooseberries’ skins are the least cut in taking off the stalks and buds, they will mould.

Currants and damsons may be done the same.

To keep Currants.

The bottles being perfectly clean and dry, let the currants be cut from the large stalks with the smallest bit of stalk to each, that, the fruit not being wounded, no moisture may be among them. It is necessary to gather them when the weather is quite dry; and if the servant can be depended upon, it is best to cut them under the trees, and let them drop gently into the bottles.

189Stop up the bottles with cork and rosin, and put them into the trench in the garden with the neck downwards. Sticks should be placed opposite to where each sort of fruit begins.

Note. The directions for gooseberries in case of frost.

Cherries and damsons keep in the same way.

Currants may be scalded, and kept with or without sugar, as directed for gooseberries.

To keep Codlins for several months.

Gather codlins at Midsummer of a middling size: put them into an earthen pan: pour boiling water over them, and cover the pan with cabbage-leaves. Keep them by the fire till they would peel, but do not peel them; then pour the water off till both are quite cold. Place the codlins then in a stonejar with a smallish mouth, and pour on them the water that scalded them. Cover the pot with bladder wetted, and tied very close, and then over it coarse paper tied again.

It is best to keep them in small jars, such as will be used at once when opened.

To keep Damsons for winter Pies.

Put them in small stonejars, or wide mouthed bottles: set them up to their necks in a boiler of cold water, and lighting a fire under, scald them. Next day, when perfectly cold, fill up with spring water. Cover them.

Another way.

Boil one third as much sugar as fruit with it, over a slow fire, till the juice adheres to the fruit, and 190forms a jam. Keep it in small jars in a dry place. If too sweet, mix with it some of the fruit that is done without sugar.

Another way.

Choose steep pots if you can get them, which are of equal size top and bottom (they should hold eight or nine pounds): put the fruit in about a quarter up, then strew in a quarter of the sugar, then another quantity of fruit, and so till all of both are in. The proportion of sugar is to be three pounds to nine pounds of fruit. Set the jars in the oven, and bake the fruit quite through. When cold, put a piece of clean scraped stick into the middle of the jar, and let the upper part stand above the top; then pour melted mutton suet over the top, full half an inch thick, having previously covered the fruit with white paper. Keep the jars in a cold dry place, and use the suet as a cover, which you will draw up by the stick; minding to leave a little forked branch to it to prevent its slipping out.

Observations on Sweetmeats.

Sweetmeats should be kept in a very dry place. Unless they have a very small proportion of sugar, a warm one does not hurt; but when not properly boiled, that is, long enough, but not quick, heat makes them ferment, and damp causes them to grow mouldy. They should be looked at two or three times in the first two months, that they may be gently boiled again, if not likely to keep.

191It is necessary to observe, that sugar being boiled more or less, constitutes the chief art of the confectioner; and those who are not practised in this knowledge, and only preserve in a plain way for family use, are not aware that, in two or three minutes, a syrup over the fire will pass from one gradation to another, called, by the confectioners, degrees of boiling, of which there are six, and those subdivided. But I am not versed in the minutia; and only make the observation to guard against under boiling, which prevents sweetmeats from keeping; and quick boiling and long, which brings them to candy.

Attention, without much practice, will enable a person to do any of the following sorts of sweetmeats, &c. and they are as much as is wanted in a private family; and the higher articles of preserved fruits may be bought at less expense than made.

A pan should be kept for the purpose of preserving, of double blocktin. A bow handle opposite the straight one, for safety, will do very well; and, if put by nicely cleaned, in a dry place, when done with, will last for several years. Those of copper or brass are improper, as the tinning wears out by the scraping of the sweetmeat ladle. There is a new sort of iron, with a strong tinning, which promises to wear long. Sieves and spoons should be kept likewise for sweet things.

To clarify Sugar.

Break as much as required in large lumps, and put a pound to half a pint of water, in a bowl, and it will dissolve better than when broken small. Set 192it over the fire, and the well whipt white of an egg: let it boil up, and, when ready to run over, pour a little cold water in it to give it a check; but when it rises a second time, take it off the fire, and set it by in the pan for a quarter of an hour: during which time the foulness will sink to the bottom, and leave a black scum on the top; which take off gently with a skimmer, and pour the syrup into a vessel very quickly from the sediment.

To dry Cherries, with Sugar.

Stone six pounds of Kentish; put them into a preservingpan, with two pounds of loaf sugar pounded and strewed among them: simmer till they begin to shrivel, then strain them from the juice; lay them on a hot hearth, or in an oven, when either are cool enough to dry without baking them.

The same syrup will do another six pounds of fruit.

To dry Cherries without Sugar.

Stone and set them over the fire in the preservingpan: let them simmer in their own liquor, and shake them in the pan. Put them by in China common dishes. Next day give them another scald, and put them, when cold, on sieves to dry, in an oven of at tempered heat as above. Twice heating, an hour each time, will do them.

Put them in a box, with a paper between each layer.

Divide two pounds of apricots when just ripe, and take out and break the stones. Put the kernels without their skins to the fruit: add to it three pounds of green gage plums, and two pounds and a half of lump sugar. Simmer until the fruit be a clear jam. The sugar should be broken in large pieces, and just dipped in water, and added to the fruit over a slow fire. Observe that it does not boil, and skim it well. If the sugar be clarified it will make the jam better.

Put it into small pots; in which, all sweetmeats keep best.

Currantjelly, red or black.

Strip the fruit, and in a stonejar stew them in a saucepan of water, or by boiling it on the hot hearth; strain off the liquor, and to every pint weigh a pound of loaf sugar. Put the latter in large lumps into it, in a stone or China vessel, till nearly dissolved; then put it in a preservingpan. Simmer and skim as necessary. When it will jelly on plate, put it in small jars or glasses.

Raspberry Jam.

Weigh equal quantities of fruit and sugar. Put the former into a preservingpan; boil and break it; stir constantly, and let it boil very quickly. When most of the juice is wasted, add the sugar, and simmer to a fine jam.

194This way the jam is greatly superior in colour and flavour to that which is made by putting the sugar in at first.

Raspberry Jam another way.

Put the fruit in a jar into a kettle of water, or on a hot hearth, till the juice will run from it; then take away a quarter of a pint from every pound of fruit. Boil and bruise it half an hour, then put in the weight of the fruit in sugar, and, adding the same quantity of currantjuice, boil it to a strong jelly.

The raspberry juice will serve to put into brandy; or may be boiled, with its weight in sugar, for making the jelly for raspberry ice or cream.

Raspberry jelly, for Ices or Creams.

Do the fruit as directed for currantjelly, and use in the same proportion of sugar and liquor.

Raspberry Cakes.

Pick out any bad raspberries that are among the fruit: weigh and boil what quantity you please; and when mashed, and the liquor is wasted, put to it sugar the weight of the fruit you first put into the pan. Mix it well off the fire, until perfectly dissolved; then put it on China plates, and dry it in the sun. As soon as the top part dries, cut with the cover of a cannister into small cakes, turn them on fresh plates, and, when dry, put them in boxes with layers of paper.

Apricot Cheese.

Weigh an equal quantity of pared fruit and sugar: wet the latter a very little, and let it boil 195quickly, or the colour will be spoiled: blanch the kernels, and add to it. Twenty or thirty minutes will boil it. Put it in small pots or cups half filled.

Apricots or Peaches in Brandy.

Wipe, weigh, and pick the fruit, and have ready a quarter of the weight of fine sugar in fine powder. Put the fruit into an icepot that shuts very close: throw the sugar over it, and then cover the fruit with brandy. Between the top and cover of the pot, put a piece of double cap paper. Set the pot into a saucepan of water till the brandy be as hot as you can possibly bear to put your finger in, but must not boil. Put the fruit into a jar, and pour the brandy on it. When cold, put a bladder over, and tie it down tight.

Cherries in Brandy.

Weigh the finest morellas, having cut off half the stalk: prick them with a new needle, and drop them into a jar or widemouthed bottle. Pound three quarters the weight of sugar or white candy: strew over, fill up with brandy, and tie a bladder over.

To prepare Oranges to put into Orange Puddings.

Put twelve Seville oranges in water, and change them three days. Boil them in the least water till tender: scoop out the pulp, and pick out the kernels; then, in a marble mortar, beat the oranges, then the pulp separately; and, after, both together. To every pound put a pound and a half of sugar, pounded and sifted, and beat to a paste. Keep it 196in small gallipots, and cover with white paper dipped in brandy.

To dry Apricots in half.

Pare thin and halve four pounds of apricots, weighing them after: put them in a dish, and strew among them three pounds of sugar in the finest powder. When it melts, set the fruit over a stove to do very gently. As each piece becomes tender, take it out and put it into a China bowl. When all are done, and the boiling heat a little abated, pour the syrup over them. In a day or two remove the syrup, leaving only a little in each half. In a day or two more turn them; and so continue daily till quite dry, in the sun or a warm place. Keep in boxes with layers of paper.

To preserve Apricots in Jelly.

Pare the fruit very thin, and stone it. Weigh an equal quantity of sugar in fine powder and strew over it. Next day boil very gently till they are clear: move them into a bowl, and pour the liquor over. The following day pour the liquor to a quart of codlin liquor, made by boiling and straining, and a pound of fine sugar: let it boil quickly till it will jelly: put the fruit into it, and give one boil; and having skimmed well, put into small pots.

Applejelly for the above, or any sort of Sweetmeats.

Let apples be pared, quartered, and cored: put them into a stewpan with as much water as will cover them: boil as fast as possible. When the 197fruit is all in a mash, add a quart of water: boil half an hour more, and run through a jellybag.

If in summer, codlins are best: in September, golden rennets or winter pippins.

To preserve green Apricots.

Lay vine or apricot leaves at the bottom of your pan, then fruit, and so alternately till full, the upper layer being thick with leaves; then fill with spring water, and cover down, that no steam may come out. Set the pan at a distance from the fire, that in four or five hours they may be only soft, but not cracked. Make a thin syrup of some of the water, and drain the fruit. When both are cold, put the fruit into the pan and the syrup to it; put the pan at a proper distance on the fire till the apricots green, but on no account boil or crack: remove them very carefully into a pan with the syrup for two or three days, then pour off as much of it as will be necessary, and boil with more sugar to make a rich syrup, and put a little sliced ginger into it. When cold, and the thin syrup has all been drained from the fruit, pour the thick over it.

To preserve Strawberries whole.

Get the finest scarlets before they are too ripe, with their stalks kept on; lay them separately on a China dish; beat and sift twice their weight of doubly refined sugar over them; then bruise a few ripe strawberries, with their weight of doubly refined sugar, in a China bason, cover it close, and set it in a saucepan of boiling water which will just hold it till the juice comes out and becomes thick; 198strain it through muslin into a sweetmeat pan, boil it up and skim it. When cold, put in the strawberries, set them over a stove till milk warm, then take the pan off till they are cold, set them on again, and let them become rather hotter, and so for several times till they become clear, but the hottest degree must not come to a boil. When cold, put them into glasses, and pour the syrup over.

Another way.

Take equal weight of the fruit and doubly refined sugar, lay the former in a large dish, and sprinkle half the sugar in fine powder over; give a gentle shake to the dish, that the sugar may touch the under side of the fruit. Next day make a thin syrup with the remainder of the sugar, and instead of water, allow one pint of red currant juice to every three pounds of strawberries; in this simmer them until sufficiently jellied. Choose the largest scarlets, or others, when not dead ripe.

Cherry Jam.

To twelve pounds of Kentish or Duke cherries, when ripe, weigh one pound of sugar; break the stones of part and blanch them; then put them to the fruits and sugar, and boil all gently till the jam come clear from the pan. Pour it into China plates to come up dry to table. Keep in boxes with white paper between.

Orange Marmalade.

Rasp the oranges, cut out the pulp, then boil the rinds very tender, and beat fine in a marble mortar. 199Boil three pounds of loaf sugar in a pint of water, skim it, and add a pound of the rind; boil fast till the syrup is very thick, but stir it carefully; then put a pint of the pulp and juice, the seeds having been removed, and a pint of apple liquor; boil all gently until well jellied, which it will be in about half an hour. Put it into small pots.

Lemon marmalade do in the same way.

Quince Marmalade.

Pare and quarter quinces, weigh an equal quantity of sugar; to four pounds of the latter put a quart of water, boil, and skim, and keep ready against four pounds of quinces are tolerably tender by the following mode: lay them into a stonejar, with a teacup of water at the bottom, and pack them with a little sugar strewed between; cover the jar close, and set it on a stove or cool oven, and let them soften till the colour become red, then pour the fruit, syrup, and a quart of quince juice into a preserving pan, and boil all together till the marmalade be completed, breaking the lumps of fruit with the preserving ladle.

This fruit is so hard, that if it be not done as above, it requires a great deal of time.

N. B. Stewing quinces in a jar, and then squeezing them through a cheesecloth, is the best method of obtaining the juice to add as above.

To dry Cherries; the best way.

To every five pounds of cherries stoned, weigh one of sugar doubly refined. Put the fruit into the preservingpan with very little water, both made 200scalding hot; take the fruit immediately out and dry them, put them into the pan again, strewing the sugar between each layer of cherries; let it stand to melt, then set the pan on the fire, and make it scalding hot as before; take it off, and repeat this thrice with the sugar. Drain them from the syrup, and lay them singly to dry on dishes, in the sun or on a stove. When dry, put them into a sieve, dip it into a pan of cold water, and draw it instantly out again, and pour them on a fine soft cloth; dry them, and set them once more in the hot sun, or on a stove. Keep them in a box, with layers of white paper, in a dry place.

This way is the best to give plumpness to the fruit, as well as colour and flavour.

Observe. When any sweetmeats are directed to be dried in the sun or in a stove, it will be best in private families, where there is not a regular stove for the purpose, to place them in the sun on flag stones, which reflect the heat, and place a garden glass over them to keep insects off: or if put in an oven, to take care not to let it be too warm, and watch that they do properly and slowly.

Gooseberry Jam, for Tarts.

Put twelve pounds of the red hairy gooseberries, when ripe and gathered in dry weather, into a preservingpan with a pint of currantjuice, drawn as for jelly; let them boil pretty quick, and beat them with the spoon; when they begin to break, put to them six pounds of pure white Lisbon sugar, and simmer to a jam. It requires long boiling, 201or will not keep; but is an excellent and reasonable thing for tarts or puffs. Look at it in two or three days, and if the syrup and fruit separate, the whole must be boiled longer. Be careful it does not burn to the bottom.

Another.

Gather your gooseberries (the clear white or green sort) when ripe; top and tail, and weigh them: a pound to three quarters of a pound of fine sugar, and half a pint of water; boil and skim the sugar and water, then put the fruit and boil gently till clear; then break and put into small pots.

White Gooseberry Jam.

Gather the finest white gooseberries, or green if you choose, when just ripe; top and tail them. To each pound put three quarters of a pound of fine sugar, and half a pint of water. Boil and clarify the sugar in the water as directed under that article, then add the fruit; simmer gently till clear, then break it, and in a few minutes put the jam into small pots.

Barberries for Tartlets.

Pick barberries, that have no stones, from the stalks, and to every pound weigh three quarters of a pound of lump sugar. Put the fruit into a stonejar, and either set it on a hot hearth or in a saucepan of water, and let them simmer very slowly till soft; put them and the sugar into a preservingpan, and boil them gently fifteen minutes.

Use no metal but silver.

The black tops must be cut off, then roast the fruit before the fire, till soft enough to pulp with a silver spoon through a sieve into a China bason; then set the bason on a saucepan of water, the top of which will just fit it, or on a hot hearth, and stir it till it grows thick. When cold, put to every pint one pound and a half of sugar, the finest doubly refined, pounded and sifted through a lawn sieve, which must be covered with fine linen, to prevent its wasting while sifting. Beat the sugar and juice together three hours and a half if a large quantity, but two and a half for less: then drop it on sheets of white thick paper, the size of the drops sold in the shops.

Some fruit is not so sour, and then less sugar is necessary. To know if there be enough, mix till well incorporated, and then drop: if it runs, there is not enough sugar, and if it is too much it will be rough. A dry room will suffice to dry them. No metal must touch the juice but the point of a knife, just to take the drop off the end of the wooden spoon, and then as little as possible.

Ginger Drops, a good Stomachic.

Beat two ounces of fresh candied orange in a mortar, with a little sugar, to a paste; then mix one ounce of powder of white ginger with one pound of loaf sugar. Wet the sugar with a little water, and boil altogether to candy, and drop it on paper the size of mint drops.

Pound and sift four ounces of doubly refined sugar, beat it with the whites of two eggs till perfectly smooth; then add sixty drops of oil of peppermint, beat it well, and drop on white paper, and dry at a distance from the fire.

Lemon Drops.

Grate three large lemons, with a large piece of doubly refined sugar; then scrape the sugar into a plate, add half a teaspoonful of flour, mix well, and beat it into a light paste with the white of an egg. Drop it upon white paper, and put them into a moderate oven on a tinplate.

A beautiful Red, to stain Jellies, Ices or Cakes.

Boil fifteen grains of cochineal in the finest powder, with a drachm and a half of cream of tartar, in half a pint of water, very slowly, half an hour. Add in boiling a bit of alum the size of a pea. Or use beetroot sliced, and some liquor poured over.

For white, use almonds, finely powdered, with a little drop of water; or use cream.

For yellow, yelks of eggs, or a bit of saffron steeped in the liquor and squeezed.

For green, pound spinach leaves or beet leaves, express the juice, and boil in a teacupful in a saucepan of water, to take off the rawness.

Damson Cheese.

Bake or boil the fruit in a stonejar, in a saucepan of water, or on a hot hearth. Pour off some of the juice, and to every two pounds of fruit, weigh half a pound of sugar. Set the fruit over a fire in 204the pan, let it boil quickly till it begins to look dry; take out the stones and add the sugar, stir it well in, and simmer two hours slowly, then boil it quickly half an hour, till the sides of the pan candy; pour the jam then into potting pans or dishes, about an inch thick, so that it may cut firm. If the skins be disliked, then the juice is not to be taken out; but after the first process, the fruit is to be pulped through a very coarse sieve with the juice, and managed as above. The stones are to be cracked, or some of them, and the kernels boiled in the jam. All the juice may be left in and boiled to evaporate, but do not add the sugar until it has done so. The above looks well in shapes.

Biscuit of Fruit.

To the pulp of any scalded fruit, put equal weight of sugar sifted, beat it for two hours, then put it into little white paper forms: dry in a cool oven, turn the next day, and in two or three days box them.

Magnum Bonum Plums. Excellent as a Sweetmeat, or in Tarts, though very bad to eat raw.

Prick them with a needle, to prevent bursting, simmer them very gently in a thin syrup; put them in a China bowl, and when cold pour it over. Let them lie three days; then make a syrup of three pounds of sugar to five of fruit, with no more water than hangs to large lumps of the sugar dipped quickly, and instantly brought out. Boil the plums in this fresh syrup, after draining the first from them. Do them very gently till they are clear, and the syrup adheres to them. Put them one by one into small pots, and pour the liquor over. 205Those you may like to dry, keep a little of the syrup for, longer in the pan, and boil it quickly, then give the fruit one more warm: drain, and put them to dry on plates, in a cool oven. These plums are apt to ferment, if not boiled in two syrups; the former will sweeten pies, but will have too much acid to keep. You may reserve part of it, and add a little sugar, to do those that are to dry, for they will not require to be so sweet, as if kept wet, and will eat very nicely if only boiled as much as those. Do not break them. One parcel may be done after another, and save much sugar.

To preserve Grapes in Brandy.

Put some close bunches, when ripe, but not over ready, into a jar: strew over them half their weight in white sugarcandy pounded: prick each grape once with a needle; fill up with brandy, and tie close. They look beautifully in a dessert.

Gooseberry Hops.

Of the largest green walnut kind, take and cut the bud end in four quarters, leaving the stalk end whole: pick out the seeds, and with a strong needle and thread, fasten five or six together, by running the thread through the bottoms, till they are of the size of a hop. Lay vineleaves at the bottom of a tin preservingpan: cover them with the hops, then a layer of leaves, and so on; lay a good many on the top, then fill the pan with water. Stop it so close down that no steam can get out: set it by a slow fire till scalding hot; then take it off till cold, and do so till on opening while cold, the gooseberries 206are of a good green. Then drain them on sieves, and make a thin syrup of a pound of sugar, to a pint of water, boil, and skim it well; when half cold, put in the fruit, next day give it one boil; do this thrice. If the hops are to be dried, which way they eat best, and look well, they may be set to dry in a week: but if to be kept wet, make a syrup in the above proportions, adding a slice of ginger in boiling; when skimmed and clear, give the gooseberries one boil, and when cold, pour it over them. If the first syrup be found too sour, a little sugar may be added and boiled in it, before the hops that are for drying, have their last boil.

The extra syrup will serve for pies, or go towards other sweetmeats.

A Carmel Cover for Sweetmeats.

Dissolve eight ounces of double refined sugar in three or four spoonfuls of water, and three or four drops of lemonjuice; then put it into a copper untinned skellet; when it boils to be thick, dip the handle of a spoon in it, and put that into a pintbason of water, squeeze the sugar from the spoon into it, and so on till you have all the sugar. Take a bit out of the water, and if it snaps, and is brittle when cold, it is done enough; but only let it be three parts cold, when pour the water from the sugar, and having a copper form oiled well, run the sugar on it, in the manner of a maze, and when cold you may put it on the dish it is to cover; but if on trial the sugar is not brittle, pour off the water, and return it into the skellet and boil it again. 207It should look thick like treacle, but of a bright light gold colour.

It is a most elegant cover.

Transparent Marmalade.

Cut the palest Seville oranges in quarters, take the pulp out, and put it in a bason, pick out the seeds and skins. Let the outsides soak in water with a little salt all night, then boil them in a good quantity of spring water till tender; drain and cut them in very thin slices, and put them to the pulp; and to every pound, a pound and a half of double refined sugar beaten fine; boil them together twenty minutes, but be careful not to break the slices. If not quite clear, simmer five or six minutes longer. It must be stirred all the time very gently.

When cold, put it into glasses.

To preserve Oranges or Lemons in Jelly.

Cut a hole in the stalk part, the size of a shilling, and with a blunt small knife scrape out the pulp quite clear without cutting the rind. Tie each separately in muslin, and lay them in spring water two days, changing twice a day; in the last boil them tender on a slow fire. Observe that there is enough at first to allow for wasting, as they must be covered to the last. To every pound of orange, weigh two pounds of double refined sugar, and one pint of water; boil the two latter together with the juice of the orange to a syrup, and clarify it, skim well, and let it stand to be cold; then boil the fruit 208in the syrup half an hour; if not clear, do this daily till they are done.

Pare and core some green pippins, and boil in water till it tastes strong of them; do not break them, only gently press them with the back of a spoon. Strain the water through a jellybag till quite clear; then to every pint put a pound of double refined sugar, the peel and juice of a lemon, and boil to a strong syrup. Drain off the syrup from the fruit, and turning the whole upwards in the jar, pour the applejelly over it. The bits cut out must go through the same process with the fruit. Cover with brandy paper.

Orange Chips.

Cut oranges in halves, squeeze the juice through a sieve; soak the peel in water, next day boil in the same till tender, drain them, and slice the peels, put them to the juice, weigh as much sugar, and put all together into a broad earthen dish, and put over the fire at a moderate distance, often stirring till the chips candy; then set them in a cool room to dry. They will not be so under three weeks.

Orange Cakes.

Cut Seville oranges in pieces, take out the seeds and skins, save the juice, and add to the meat of the fruit, after having beaten it quite fine in a mortar, in the proportion of a pound to a pound and a half of loaf sugar finely beaten first. When the paste is finely mixed, make it into small cakes, and dry them on China plates in a hot room, and turn them daily. Do not let them be too dry.

209They are excellent for gouty stomachs, or for travellers.

The peels of China oranges, soaked a night, then drained and boiled up in a syrup till enough to be tender, answer for common puddings extremely well, and are of no value; whereas Seville are usually dear, and sometimes cannot be had.

To preserve Morella Cherries.

Gather them when full ripe, and perfectly dry, take off the stalks, and prick them with a new needle to prevent bursting. Weigh to every pound, one and a half of sugar, beat part, and strew over them; let them lie all night; dissolve the rest in half a pint of currantjuice, set it over the fire, and put in the cherries, and sugar that hangs about them, give them a scald, then put them in a China bowl; next day give them another scald, then take them carefully out, boil the syrup till it is thick, and pour it on them; look at it in a day or two, and if too thin, boil it more, but gently.

To keep Lemonjuice.

Buy the fruit when cheap, keep it in a cool place until the colour becomes very yellow: cut the peel off some, and roll them under your hand to make them part with the juice more readily; others you may leave unpared for grating, when the pulp shall be taken out and dried. Squeeze the juice into a China bason, then strain it through some linen which will not permit the least pulp to pass. Have ready some half and quarter ounce phials perfectly dry: fill them with the juice so near to 210the top as only to admit half a teaspoonful of sweet oil into each; or a little more, if for larger bottles. Cork the bottles, and set them upright in a cool place.

When you want lemonjuice, open such a sized bottle as you shall use in two or three days, wind some clean cotton round a skewer, and dipping it in, the oil will be attracted; and when all shall be removed, the juice will be as fine as when first bottled.

The peels hang up till dry, then keep them from the dust.

Rub some fine sugar on lemon, or orange, to give the colour and flavour; then squeeze the juice of either on its respective peel: add water and sugar, to make a fine sherbet, and strain it before it be put into the icepot. If orange, the greater proportion should be of the China juice, and only a little of Seville, and a small bit of the peel grated by the sugar.

Currant, or Raspberry water Ice.

The juice of these, or any other sort of fruit, being gained by squeezing, sweetened and mixed with water, will be ready for icing.

Ice Creams.

Mix the juice of the fruits with as much sugar as will be wanted, before you add cream, which should be of a middling richness. Under the article of FRUITS is given a mode of preparing juice for ice.

Grate as fine as possible stale brown bread, soak a small proportion in cream two or three hours, sweeten and ice it.

To make the Ice.

Get a few pounds of ice, break it almost to powder, throw a large handful and a half of salt among it. You must prepare it in a part of the house where as little of the warm air comes as you can possibly contrive. The ice and salt being in a bucket, put your cream into an ice pot, and cover it; immerse it in the ice, and draw that round the pot, so as to touch every possible part. In a few minutes put a spatula or spoon in, and stir it well, removing the parts that ice round the edges to the centre. If the icecream or water be in a form, shut the bottom close, and move the whole in the ice, as you cannot use a spoon to that without danger of waste.

Note. When any fluid tends towards cold, the moving it quickly accelerates the cold; and likewise, when any fluid is tending to heat, stirring it will facilitate its boiling.

Icing for Tarts.

Beat the yelk of an egg and some melted butter well together, wash the tarts with a feather, and sift sugar over as you put them in the oven. Or beat white of egg: wash the paste, and sift white sugar.

For a large one, beat and sift eight ounces of fine sugar, put into a mortar with four spoonfuls of rose water, and the whites of two eggs beaten and strained, whisk it well, and when the cake is almost cold, dip a feather in the icing, and cover the cake well; set it in the oven to harden, but do not let it stay to discolour. Put the cake in a dry place.

Observations on making and baking Cakes.

Currants should be very nicely washed, dried in a cloth, and then set before the fire. If damp they will make cakes or puddings heavy. Before they are added, a dust of dry flour should be thrown among them, and a shake given to them, which causes the thing that they are put to, to be lighter.

Eggs should be very long beaten, whites and yelks apart, and always strained.

Sugar should be rubbed to a powder on a clean board, and sifted through a very fine hair or lawn sieve.

Lemonpeel should be pared very thin, and with a little sugar beaten in a marble mortar to a paste, and then mixed with a little wine, or cream, so as to divide easily among the other ingredients.

After all the articles are put into the pan, they should be thoroughly and long beaten, as the lightness of the cake depends much on their being well incorporated.

Whether black or white plumcakes, they require less butter and eggs for having yeast, and eat equally 213light and rich. If the leaven be only of flour, milk and water, and yeast, it becomes more tough, and is less easily divided, and if the butter be first put with those ingredients, and the dough afterwards set to rise by the fire.

The heat of the oven is of great importance for cakes, especially those that are large. If not pretty quick, the batter will not rise. Should you fear its catching by being two quick, put some paper over the cake to prevent its being burnt. If not long enough lighted to have a body of heat, or it is become slack, the cake will be heavy. To know when it is soaked, take a broad bladed knife that is very bright, and plunge into the very centre, draw it instantly out, and if the least stickiness adheres, put the cake immediately in, and shut up the oven.

If the heat was sufficient to raise, but not to soak, I have with great success had fresh fuel quickly put in, and kept the cakes hot till the oven was fit to finish the soaking, and they turned out extremely well. But those who are employed, ought to be particularly careful that no mistakes occur from negligence when large cakes are to be baked.

Plumcake.

Mix thoroughly a quarter of a peck of fine flour, well dried with a pound of dry and sifted loaf sugar, three pounds of currants washed, and very dry, half a pound of raisins stoned and chopped, a quarter of an ounce of mace and cloves, twenty Jamaica peppers, a grated nutmeg, the peel of a lemon cut 214as fine as possible, and half a pound of almonds blanched, and beaten with orange flour water. Melt two pounds of butter in a pint and a quarter of cream, but not hot, put to it a pint of sweet wine, a glass of brandy, the whites and yelks of twelve eggs beaten apart, and half a pint of good yeast. Strain this liquid by degrees into the dry ingredients, beating them together a full hour, then butter the hoop, or pan, and bake it. As you put the batter into the hoop, or pan, throw in plenty of citron, lemon, and orange candy.

If you ice the cake, take half a pound of double refined sugar sifted, and put a little with the white of an egg, beat it well, and by degrees pour in the remainder. It must be whisked near an hour, with the addition of a little orange flour water, but mind not to put much. When the cake is done, pour the icing over, and return it to the oven for fifteen minutes; but if the oven be warm, keep it near the mouth, and the door open; lest the colour be spoiled.

Another Plumcake.

Flour dried, and currants washed and picked, four pounds, sugar pounded and sifted one pound and a half, six orange, lemon, and citron peels, cut in slices; mix these.

Beat ten eggs, yelks and whites separately; then melt a pound and a half of butter in a pint of cream; when lukewarm put it to half a pint of ale yeast, near half a pint of sweet wine, and the eggs; 215then strain the liquid to the dry ingredients, beat them well, and add of cloves, mace, cinnamon and nutmeg, half an ounce each. Butter the pan, and put it into a quick oven. Three hours will bake it.

A very fine Cake.

Wash two pounds and a half of fresh butter in water first, and then in rosewater; beat the butter to a cream: beat twenty eggs, yelk and whites separately, half an hour each. Have ready two pounds and a half of the finest flour, well dried, and kept hot, likewise a pound and a half of sugar pounded and sifted, one ounce of spice in finest powder, three pounds of currants nicely cleaned and dry, half a pound of almonds blanched, and three quarters of a pound of sweetmeats cut not too thin. Let all be kept by the fire, mix all the dry ingredients; pour the eggs strained to the butter; mix half a pint of sweet wine with a large glass of brandy, pour it to the butter and eggs, mix well, then have all the dry things put in by degrees; beat them very thoroughly; you can hardly do it too much. Having half a pound of stoned jar raisins chopped as fine as possible, mix them carefully, so that there shall be no lumps. Beat the ingredients together a full hour at least. Have a hoop well buttered, or if you have none, a tin, or copper cakepan; take a white paper, doubled and buttered, and put in the pan round the edge, if the cake batter fill it more than three parts, for space should be allowed for rising. Bake in a quick oven. It will require three hours.

Rub two pounds of dry fine flour, with one of butter, washed in plain and rosewater, mix it with three spoonfuls of yeast in a little warm milk and water. Set it to rise an hour and a half before the fire, then beat into it two pounds of currants, one pound of sugar sifted, four ounces of almonds, six ounces of stoned raisins, chopped fine, half a nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, and a few cloves, the peel of a lemon chopped as fine as possible, a glass of wine, ditto of brandy, twelve yelks and whites of eggs beat separately, and long; orange, citron, and lemon. Beat exceedingly well, and butter the pan. A quick oven.

A very good Common Cake.

Rub eight ounces of butter into two pounds of dried flour, mix it with three spoonfuls of yeast that is not bitter, to a paste. Let it rise an hour and a half; then mix in the yelks and whites of six eggs beaten apart; one pound of sugar, some milk to make it a proper thickness, (about a pint will be sufficient,) a glass of sweet wine, the rind of a lemon, and a teaspoonful of ginger. Add either a pound and a half of currants, or some carraways, and beat well.

A cheap Seed Cake.

Mix a quarter of a peck of flour with half a pound of sugar, a quarter of an ounce of allspice, and a little ginger; melt three quarters of a pound of butter with half a pint of milk; when just warm, put to it a quarter of a pint of yeast, and work up 217to a good dough. Let it stand before the fire a few minutes before it goes to the oven; add seeds, or currants, and bake an hour and a half.

Another.

Mix a pound and a half of flour, and a pound of common lump sugar, eight eggs beaten separately, an ounce of seeds, two spoonfuls of yeast, and the same of milk and water.

Note. Milk alone causes cake and bread soon to dry.

Common Bread Cake.

Take the quantity of a quartern loaf from the dough when making white bread, and knead well into it two ounces of butter, two of Lisbon sugar, and eight of currants. Warm the butter in a teacupful of good milk.

By the addition of an ounce of butter, or sugar, or an egg or two, you may make the cake better. A teacupful of raw cream improves it much. It is best to bake it in a pan, rather than as a loaf, the outside being less hard.

A good Pound Cake.

Beat a pound of butter to a cream, and mix with it the whites and yelks of eight eggs beaten apart. Have ready warm by the fire, a pound of flour, and the same of sifted sugar, mix them and a few cloves, a little nutmeg and cinnamon in fine powder together; then by degrees work the dry ingredients into the butter and eggs. When well beaten, add 218a glass of wine, and some carraways. It must be beaten a full hour. Butter a pan, and bake it a full hour in a quick oven.

The above proportions, leaving out four ounces of the butter, and the same of sugar, make a less luscious cake.

Queen Cakes.

Mix a pound of dried flour, the same of sifted sugar, and of washed clean currants. Wash a pound of butter in rosewater, beat it well, then mix with it eight eggs, yelks and whites beaten separately, and put in the dry ingredients by degrees; beat the whole an hour; butter little tins, teacups, or saucers, and bake the batter in, filling only half. Sift a little fine sugar over just as you put into the oven.

Queen Cakes, another way.

Beat eight ounces of butter, and mix with two well beaten eggs, strained; mix eight ounces of dried flour, and the same of lump sugar, and the grated rind of a lemon, then add the whole together, and beat full half an hour with a silver spoon. Butter small pattypans, half fill, and bake twenty minutes in a quick oven.

A Common Cake.

Mix three quarters of a pound of flour with half a pound of butter, four ounces of sugar, four eggs, half an ounce of carraways, and a glass of raisin wine. Beat it well, and bake it in a quick oven. Fine Lisbon sugar will do.

Sift one pound of sugar, some pounded cinnamon, and a nutmeg grated, into three pounds of flour, the finest sort; add a little rosewater to three eggs, well beaten, and mix these with the flour, &c. then pour into it as much butter melted as will make it a good thickness to roll out.

Mould it well, and roll thin, and cut it into such shapes as you like.

Little white Cakes.

Dry half a pound of flour, rub into it a very little pounded sugar, one ounce of butter, one egg, a few carraways, and as much milk and water as to make a paste; roll it thin, and cut it with the top of a cannister or glass. Bake fifteen minutes on tin plates.

Tea Cakes.

Rub fine four ounces of butter into eight ounces of flour; mix eight ounces of currants, and six of fine Lisbon sugar, two yelks and one white of eggs, and a spoonful of brandy. Roll the paste the thickness of an Oliver biscuit, and cut with a wineglass. You may beat the other white, and wash over them; and either dust sugar, or not, as you like.

Little short Cakes.

Rub into a pound of dried flour four ounces of butter, four ounces of white powder sugar, one egg, and a spoonful or two of thin cream to make into a 220paste. When mixed, put currants into one half, and carraways into the rest. Cut them as before, and bake on tins.

Very good common Plum Cakes.

Mix five ounces of butter in three pounds of dry flour, and five ounces of fine Lisbon sugar; add six ounces of currants, washed and dried, and some pimento finely powdered. Put three spoonfuls of yeast into a Winchester pint of new milk warmed, and mix into a light dough with the above. Make it into twelve cakes, and bake on a floured tin half an hour.

Benton Tea Cakes.

Mix a paste of flour, a little bit of butter, and milk; roll as thin as possible, and bake on a back-stone over the fire, or on a hot hearth.

Another sort, as Biscuit.

Rub into a pound of flour six ounces of butter, and three large spoonfuls of yeast, and make into a paste, with a sufficient quantity of new milk; make into biscuit, and prick them with a clean fork.

Another sort.

Melt six or seven ounces of butter with a sufficiency of new milk warmed to make seven pounds of flour into a stiff paste: roll thin, and make into biscuit.

Hard Biscuit.

Warm two ounces of butter in as much skimmed milk as will make a pound of flour into a very 221stiff paste, beat it with a rolling pin, and work it very smooth. Roll it thin, and cut it into round biscuit; prick them full of holes with a fork. About six minutes will bake them.

Flat Cakes, that will keep long in the house good.

Mix two pounds of flour, one pound of sugar, and one ounce of carraways, with four or five eggs, and a few spoonfuls of water to make a stiff paste; roll it thin, and cut into any shape. Bake on tins lightly floured. While baking, boil a pound of sugar in a pint of water to a thin syrup; while both are hot, dip each cake into it, and put them on tins into the oven to dry for a short time; and when the oven is cooler still, return them there again, and let them stay four or five hours.

Plain and very crisp Biscuit.

Make a pound of flour, the yelk of an egg, and some milk, into a very stiff paste; beat it well, and knead till quite smooth; roll very thin, and cut into biscuit. Bake them in a slow oven till quite dry and crisp.

Little Plumcakes, to keep long.

Dry one pound of flour, and mix with six ounces of finely pounded sugar, beat six ounces of butter to a cream, and add to three eggs, well beaten, half a pound of currants washed, and nicely dried, and the flour and sugar; beat all for some time, then dredge flour on tin plates, and drop the batter on them the size of a walnut. If properly mixed, it will be a stiff paste. Bake in a brisk oven.

Beat seven eggs well, and mix with half a pint of new milk, in which has been melted four ounces of butter; add to it a quarter of a pint of yeast, and three ounces of sugar, and put them, by degrees, into as much flour as will make a very light paste, rather like a batter, and let it rise before the fire half an hour; then add some more flour to make it a little stiffer, but not stiff. Work it well and divide it into small loaves or cakes, about five or six inches wide and flatten them. When baked and cold, slice them the thickness of rusks, and put them in the oven to brown a little.

Note. The cakes, when first baked, eat deliciously buttered for tea; or with carraways to eat cold.

A Biscuit Cake.

One pound of flour, five eggs well beaten and strained, eight ounces of sugar, a little rose or orange flower water; beat the whole thoroughly, and bake one hour.

Cracknuts.

Mix eight ounces of flour, and eight ounces of sugar; melt four ounces of butter in two spoonfuls of raisin wine; then with four eggs beaten and strained, make into a paste; add carraways, roll out as thin as paper, cut with the top of a glass, wash with the white of an egg, and dust sugar over.

Dry three pounds of fine flour, and rub into it one pound of sugar sifted, one pound of butter, and one ounce of carraway seed. Make into a paste with three quarters of a pint of boiling new milk, roll very thin, and cut into the size you choose; punch full of holes, and bake on tin plates in a cool oven.

Cracknels.

Mix with a quart of flour half a nutmeg grated, the yelks of four eggs beaten with four spoonfuls of rosewater, into a stiff paste, with cold water; then roll in a pound of butter, and make them into a cracknel shape; put them into a kettle of boiling water, and boil them till they swim, then take out, and put them into cold water; when hardened, lay them out to dry, and bake them on tin plates.

Rice Cake.

Mix ten ounces of ground rice, three ounces of flour, eight ounces of pounded sugar; then sift by degrees into eight yelks and six whites of eggs, and the peel of a lemon shred so fine that it is quite mashed. Mix the whole well in a tin stewpan over a very slow fire with a whisk, then put it immediately into the oven in the same, and bake forty minutes.

Another Rice Cake.

Beat twelve yelks and six whites of eggs with the peels of two lemons grated. Mix one pound of flour of rice, eight ounces of flour, and one pound of sugar pounded and sifted; then beat it well with 224the eggs by degrees, for an hour, with a wooden spoon. Butter a pan well; and put it in at the oven mouth.

A gentle oven will bake it in an hour and a half.

Sponge Cake.

Weigh ten eggs, and their weight in very fine sugar, and that of six in flour; beat the yelks with the flour, and the whites alone to a very stiff froth; then by degrees mix the whites and the flour with the other ingredients, and beat them well half an hour. Bake in a quick oven an hour.

Another, without Butter.

Dry one pound of flour, and one and a quarter of sugar; beat seven eggs, yelks and whites apart; grate a lemon, and with a spoonful of brandy, beat the whole together with your hand for an hour. Bake in a buttered pan, in a quick oven.

Sweetmeats may be added, if approved.

Macaroons.

Blanch four ounces of almonds, and pound with four spoonfuls of orange flower water; whisk the white of four eggs to a froth, then mix it, and a pound of sugar, sifted, with the almonds to a paste; and laying a sheet of wafer paper on a tin, put it on in different little cakes the shape of macaroons.

Wafers.

Dry the flour well which you intend to use, mix a little pounded sugar and finely pounded mace with it, then make it into a thick batter with cream; butter the wafer irons, let them be hot, 225put a teaspoonful of the batter into them, so bake them carefully, and roll them off the iron with a stick.

Tunbridge Cakes.

Rub six ounces of butter quite fine into a pound of flour, then mix six ounces of sugar, beat and strain two eggs, and make with the above into a paste. Roll it very thin, and cut with the top of a glass; prick them with a fork, and cover with carraways, or wash with the white of an egg, and dust a little white sugar over.

Gingerbread.

Mix with two pounds of flour half a pound of treacle, three quarters of an ounce of carraways, one ounce of ginger finely sifted, and ten ounces of butter.

Roll the paste into what form you please, and bake on tins.

If you like sweetmeats, add orange candied; it may be added in small bits.

Another sort.

To three quarters of a pound of treacle beat one egg strained; mix four ounces of brown sugar, half an ounce of ginger sifted, of cloves, mace, allspice, and nutmeg, a quarter of an ounce, beaten as fine as possible; coriander and carraway seeds, each a quarter of an ounce; melt one pound of butter, and mix with the above; and add as much flour as will knead into a pretty stiff paste; then roll it out, and cut into cakes.

226Bake on tin plates in a quick oven. A little time will bake them.

Of some, drops may be made.

To make a good Gingerbread, without Butter.

Mix two pounds of treacle, of orange, lemon, citron, and candied ginger, each four ounces, all thinly sliced, one ounce of coriander seeds, one ounce of carraways, and one ounce of beaten ginger, in as much flour as will make a soft paste; lay it in cakes on tin plates, and bake it in a quick oven. Keep it dry in a covered earthen vessel, and it will be good for some months.

Note. If cake or biscuit be kept in paper or a drawer, the taste will be disagreeable. A pan and cover, or tureen, will preserve them long and moist. Or, if to be crisp, laying them before the fire will make them so.

A good plain Bun, that may be eaten with or without toasting and Butter.

Rub four ounces of butter into two pounds of flour, four ounces of sugar, a nutmeg, or not, as you like, a few Jamaica peppers, a dessert spoonful of carraways; put a spoonful or two of cream into a cup of yeast, and as much good milk as will make the above into a light paste. Set it to rise by a fire till the oven be ready. They will quickly bake on tins.

Richer Buns.

Mix one pound and a half of dried flour, with half a pound of sugar; melt a pound and two 227ounces of butter in a little warm water; add six spoonfuls of rosewater, and knead the above into a light dough, with half a pint of yeast; then mix five ounces of carraway comfits in, and put some on them.

Muffins.

Mix two pounds of flour with two eggs, two ounces of butter melted in a pint of milk, and four or five spoonfuls of yeast; beat it thoroughly, and set it to rise two or three hours. Bake on a hot hearth in flat cakes. When done on one side turn them.

Note. Muffins, rolls, or bread, if stale, may be made to taste new, by dipping in cold water, and toasting or heating in an oven, or Dutch oven, till the outside be crimp.

French Rolls.

Rub an ounce of butter into a pound of flour, mix one egg beaten, a little yeast that is not bitter, and as much milk as will make a dough of a middling stiffness. Beat it well, but do not knead; let it rise, and bake on tins.

Brentford Rolls.

Mix with two pounds of flour a little salt, two ounces of sifted sugar, four ounces of butter, and two eggs beaten with two spoonfuls of yeast, and about a pint of milk. Knead the dough well, and set it to rise before the fire. Make twelve rolls, butter tin plates, and set them before the fire to rise till they become a proper size; then bake half an hour.

Warm one ounce of butter in half a pint of milk, put to it a spoonful and half of yeast of small beer, and a little salt. Put two pounds of flour into a pan, and mix in the above. Let it rise an hour; knead it well; and make into seven rolls, and bake in a quick oven.

If made in cakes three inches thick, sliced and buttered, they resemble Sally Lumm’s as made at Bath.

The foregoing receipt, with the addition of a little saffron, boiled in half a teacupful of milk, makes remarkably good

Potatoe Butter.

Boil three pounds of potatoes, bruise and work them with two ounces of butter, and as much milk as will make them pass through a colander. Take half or three quarters of a pint of yeast, and half a pint of warm water, mix with the potatoes, then pour the whole upon five pounds of flour, and add some salt. Knead it well; if not of a proper consistence, put a little more milk and water warm. Let it stand before the fire an hour to rise. Work it well, and make into rolls. Bake about half an hour in an oven not quite so hot as for bread.

They eat well toasted and buttered.

Yorkshire Cake.

Take two pounds of flour, and mix with it four ounces of butter melted in a pint of good milk, three spoonfuls of yeast, and two eggs; beat all well together, and let it rise; then knead it, and 229make into cakes; let them rise on tins before you bake, which do in a slow oven.

Another sort is made as above, leaving out the butter.

The first sort is shorter; the last lighter.

With a quarter of a peck of fine flour mix the yelks of three and whites of two eggs, beaten and strained, a little salt, half a pint of good yeast that is not bitter, and as much milk, made a little warm, as will work into a thin light dough. Stir it about, but do not knead it. Have ready three quart wooden dishes, divide the dough among them, set to rise, then turn them out into the oven, which must be quick. Rasp when done.

Thicken two quarts of water, with fine flour about three spoonfuls; boil half an hour, sweeten with near half a pound of brown sugar; when near cold, put into it four spoonfuls of fresh yeast in a jug, shake it well together, and let stand one day to ferment near the fire, without being covered. There will be a thin liquor on the top, which must be poured off, shake the remainder, and cork it up for use. Take always four spoonfuls of the old to ferment the next quantity, keeping it always in succession.

An half peck loaf will require about a gill.

Another way.

Boil one pound of potatoes to a mash, when half cold add a cupful of yeast, and mix it well. It 230will be ready for use in two or three hours, and keeps well.

Use a double quantity of this to what you do of beer yeast.

To take off the bitter of yeast, put bran into a sieve, and pour it through.

To preserve Yeast.

When you have plenty of yeast begin to save it in the following manner; whisk it until it becomes thin, then get a large wooden dish, wash it very nicely, and when quite dry, lay a layer of yeast over the inside with a soft brush; let it dry, then put another layer in the same manner, and so do until you have a sufficient quantity, observing that each coat dry thoroughly before another be added. It may be put on two or three inches thick, and will keep several months; when to be used cut a piece out; stir it in warm water.

If to be used for brewing, keep it by dipping large handfuls of birch tied together; and when dry, repeat the dipping once. You may thus do as many as you please; but take care that no dust comes to them, or the vessel in which it has been prepared as before. When the wort be set to work, throw into it one of these bunches, and it will do as well as with fresh yeast; but if mixed with a small quantity first, and then added to the whole, it will work sooner.

Cut and pound four ounces of Cheshire cheese, one ounce and a half of fine butter, a teaspoonful 231of white pounded sugar, a little bit of mace, and a glass of white wine. Press it down in a deep pot.

To roast Cheese, to come up after dinner.

Grate three ounces of fat Cheshire cheese, mix it with the yelks of two eggs, four ounces of grated bread, and four ounces of butter, beat the whole well in a mortar, with a teaspoonful of mustard, and a little salt and pepper. Toast some bread, lay the paste as above thick upon it, put it into a Dutch oven, covered with a dish till hot through, remove the dish, and let the cheese brown a little. Serve as hot as possible.

Set a stewpan of water on the fire; when boiling, slip an egg, previously broken into a cup, into the water; when the white looks done enough, slide an egg slice under the egg, and lay it on toast and butter, or spinach. As soon as enough are done, serve hot.

The servants of each country are generally acquainted with the best mode of managing the butter and cheese of that country; but the following hints may not be unacceptable to give information to the Mistress.

The greatest possible attention must be paid to cleanliness. All the utensils must be daily scalded 232and brushed, washed in plenty of cold water, dried with clean cloths, and turned up in the air.

The dairy should be kept perfectly clean and cool.

In milking, if the cows be not left perfectly dry, the quantity will be decreased. The quantity depends on the goodness of different cows, on the pasture, and on the length of time from calving. A middling cow gives a pound of butter a day for five or six weeks, and sometimes longer. When the milk decreases, a change even to a worse pasture will effect an alteration; and where water is within reach of the animals, it is of great consequence to the milk.

The chief of the cows should come in the end of March, or the beginning of April, and one the end of September; then the family will be supplied with milk in the winter.

When a calf is to be reared, it should be taken from the cow in a week at furthest, or it will cause great trouble in rearing, because it will be difficult to make it take milk in a pan. The calf should be taken from the cow in the morning, and kept without food till next morning, when being hungry it will take it without much trouble. Skimmed milk made as warm as new, is to be given twice a day in such quantities as it shall require and if milk run short, a fine smooth gruel mixed with it will do very well. This is to be continued till the calf be taken out to grass, which at first will be only by day, then milk must be given when housed in the evening.

In winter the milk stands twenty four hours before scalded; in the summer twelve. The milkpan is to be put on a hot hearth, if you have one, or if not, into a brass kettle of water, of a size to receive the pan. It must remain on the fire till quite hot, but on no account boil, or there will be a skin, instead of cream, upon the milk. You will know when done enough by the undulations on the surface, and looking quite thick. The time required to scald cream depends on the size of the pan and the heat of the fire; the slower the better. Remove the pan into the dairy when done, and skim it next day.

Of cream thus prepared, the butter is usually made in Devonshire, &c.

Buttermilk.

If made of sweet cream, is a delicious and most wholesome food. Those who can relish sour buttermilk, find it still more light; and it is reckoned more beneficial in some cases.

To cure Mawskins for Rennet.

Cut the calf’s stomach open, rub it well with salt, let it hang to drain two days, then salt it well, and let it lie in that pickle a month or more; then take it out, drain, and flour it, stretch it out with a stick, and let it hang up to dry.

A piece of this is to be soaked, and kept ready to turn the milk in cheesemaking time.

Some lands make cheese of a better quality than the butter produced on them is.

234When the soil is poor, the cheese will want fat; to remedy which, after pressing the whey from the curd, crumble it quite small, and work into it a pound of fine fresh butter; then press, &c. as usual.

Cream Cheese.

Put five quarts of strippings, that is, the last of the milk, into a pan, with two spoonfuls of rennet. When the curd is come, strike it down two or three times with the skimming dish just to break it. Let it stand two hours, then spread a cheesecloth on a sieve, put the curd on it, and let the whey drain; break the curd a little with your hand, and put it into a vat with a two pound weight upon it. Let it stand twelve hours, take it out, and bind a fillet round. Turn every day till dry, from one board to another; cover them with nettles, or clean dockleaves, and put between two pewter plates to ripen. If the weather be warm, it will be ready in three weeks.

Another.

Have ready a kettle of boiling water, put five quarts of new milk into a pan, and five pints of cold water, and five of hot; when of a proper heat, put in as much rennet as will bring it in twenty minutes, likewise a bit of sugar. When come, strike the skimmer three or four times down, and leave it on the curd. In an hour or two lade it into the vat without touching it; put a two pound weight on it when the whey has run from it, and the vat is full.

Put as much salt to three pints of raw cream as shall season it; stir it well, and pour it into a sieve in which you have folded a cheesecloth three or four times, and laid at the bottom. When it hardens, cover it with nettles on a pewter plate.

Rush Cream Cheese.

To a quart of fresh cream, put a pint of new milk warm enough to make the cream a proper warmth, a bit of sugar and a little rennet.

Set near the fire till the curd comes, fill a vat made in the form of a brick, of wheat straw or rushes sewed together. Have ready a square of straw, or rushes sewed flat to rest the vat on, and another to cover it; the vat being open at top and bottom. Next day take it out, and change it as above to ripen. A half pound weight will be sufficient to put on it.

Another way.

Take a pint of very thick sour cream from the top of the pan for gathering for butter, lay a napkin on two plates, and pour half into each, let them stand twelve hours, then put them on a fresh wet napkin in one plate, and cover with the same; this do every twelve hours until you find the cheese begins to look dry, then ripen it with nut leaves; it will be ready in ten days.

Fresh nettles, or two pewter plates, will ripen cream cheese very well.

Pour forty two gallons of water hot, but not quite boiling, on four bushels of malt, cover, and let it stand three hours. In the mean time infuse a pound and a half of hops in a little hot water, or two pounds if the ale is to be kept five or six months, and put water and hops into the tub, and run the wort upon them, and boil them together three hours. Strain off the hops, and keep for the small beer. Let the wort stand in a high tub till cool enough to receive the yeast, of which put two quarts of ale, or if you cannot get it, of small beer yeast. Mix it thoroughly and often. When the wort has done working, the second or third day, the yeast will sink rather than rise in the middle, remove it then, and turn the ale as it works out, pour a quart in at a time, and gently, to prevent the fermentation from continuing too long, which weakens the liquor. Put a bit of paper over the bunghole two or three days before stopping up.

Strong Beer, or Ale.

Twelve bushels of malt to the hogshead for beer, eight for ale; for either pour the whole quantity of water hot, but not boiling, on at once, and let it infuse three hours close covered; mash it in the first half hour, and let it stand the remainder of the time. Run it on the hops previously infused in water; for strong beer three quarters of a pound to a bushel, if for ale, half a pound. Boil them with the wort two hours from the time it begins to boil. Cool a pailful to add three quarts of yeast to, which 237will prepare it for putting to the rest when ready next day; but if possible, put together the same night. Turn as usual. Cover the bunghole with paper when the beer has done working; and when it is to be stopped have ready a pound and a half of hops, dried before the fire, put them into the bunghole, and fasten it up.

Let it stand twelve months in casks, and twelve in bottles before it be drank. It will keep, and be very fine, eight or ten years. It should be brewed the beginning of March.

Great care must be taken that bottles are perfectly prepared, and that the corks are of the best sort.

The ale will be ready in three or four months; and if the vent peg be never removed, it will have spirit and strength to the very last. Allow two gallons of water at first for waste.

After the beer or ale is run from the grains, pour a hogshead and a half for the twelve bushels, and a hogshead of water if eight were brewed; mash, and let stand, and then boil, &c. Use some of the hops for this table beer that were boiled for the strong beer.

Excellent Table Beer.

On three bushels of malt pour of hot water the third of the quantity you are to use, which is to be thirty nine gallons. Cover it warm half an hour, then mash, and let it stand two hours and a half more, then set it to drain. When dry, add half the remaining water, mash, and let it stand half an 238hour, run that into another tub, and pour the rest of the water on the malt, stir it well, and cover it, letting it infuse a full hour. Run that off, and mix all together. A pound and a quarter of hops should be infused in water, as in the former receipt, and be put into the tub for the first running.

Boil the hops with the wort an hour from the time it first boils. Strain off, and cool. If the whole be not cool enough that day to add to the yeast, a pail or two of wort may be prepared, and a quart of yeast put to it over night. Before tunning, all the wort should be added together, and thoroughly mixed with the lade pail. When the wort ceases to work, put a bit of paper on the bunghole for three days, when it may be safely fastened close. In three or four weeks the beer will be fit for drinking.

Note. Servants should be directed to put a cork into every barrel as soon as the cock is taken out, the air causing casks to become musty.

To refine Beer, Ale, Wine, or Cider.

Put two ounces of isinglass shavings to soak in a quart of the liquor that you want to clear, beat it with a whisk every day till dissolved. Draw off a third part of the cask, and mix the above with it; likewise a quarter of an ounce of pearlashes, one ounce of salt of tartar calcined, and one ounce of burnt alum powdered. Stir it well, then return the liquor into the cask, and stir it with a clean stick. Stop it up, and in a few days it will be fine.

Orgeat.

Boil a quart of new milk with a stick of cinnamon, sweeten to your taste, and let grow cold; then pour it by degrees to three ounces of almonds, and twenty bitter, that have been blanched and beaten to a paste, with a little water to prevent oiling; boil all together, and stir till cold, then add half a glass of brandy.

Another way.

Blanch and pound three quarters of a pound of almonds, and thirty bitter, with a spoonful of water. Stir in by degrees two pints of water, and three of milk, and strain the whole through a cloth. Dissolve half a pound of fine sugar in a pint of water, boil and skim it well; mix it with the other, as likewise two spoonfuls of orange flower water, and a teacupful of the best brandy.

Lemonade. To be made a day before wanted.

Pare two dozen of tolerably sized lemons as thin as possible, put eighteen of the rinds into three quarts of hot, not boiling water, and cover it over for three or four hours. Rub some fine sugar on the lemons to attract the essence, and put it into a China bowl, into which squeeze the juice of the lemons: to it add one pound and a half of fine sugar, then put the water to the above, and three quarts of milk made boiling hot; mix, and pour through a jellybag till perfectly clear.

Pare a number of lemons according to the quantity you are likely to want; on the peels pour hot water, but more juice will be necessary than you need use the peels of. While infusing, boil sugar and water to a good syrup with the white of an egg whipt up. When it boils, pour a little cold water into it; set it on again, and when it boils up take the pan off, and set it to settle. If there is any skum, take it off, and pour it clear from the sediment to the water the peels were infused in, and the lemonjuice; stir and taste it, and add as much more water as shall be necessary to make a very rich lemonade. Wet a jellybag, and squeeze it dry, then strain the liquor, which is uncommonly fine.

Raspberry vinegar.

Put a pound of fine fruit into a China bowl, and pour upon it a quart of the best white wine vinegar; next day strain the liquor on a pound of fresh raspberries; and the following day do the same, but do not squeeze the fruit, only drain the liquor as dry as you can from it. The last time pass it through a canvass previously wet with vinegar to prevent waste. Put it into a stonejar, with a pound of sugar to every pint of juice, broken into large lumps; stir it when melted, then put the jar into a saucepan of water, or on a hot hearth, let it simmer, and skim it. When cold, bottle it.

This is one of the most useful preparations that can be kept in a house, not only as affording the 241most refreshing beverage, but being of singular efficacy in complaints of the chest. A large spoonful or two in a tumbler of water.

N. B. Use no glazed or metal vessel for it.

Note. The fruit, with equal quantity of sugar, makes excellent raspberry cakes without boiling.

Raspberry wine.

To every quart of well picked raspberries put a quart of water; bruise, and let them stand two days; strain off the liquor, and to every gallon put three pounds of lump sugar; when dissolved put the liquor in a barrel, and when fine, which will be in about two months, bottle it, and to each bottle put a spoonful of brandy, or a glass of wine.

Raspberry, or Currant wine.

To every three pints of fruit, carefully cleared from mouldy or bad, put one quart of water; bruise the former. In twenty four hours strain the liquor, and put to every quart a pound of sugar, a good middling quality of Lisbon. If for white currants, use lump sugar. It is best to put the fruit, &c. in a large pan, and when in three or four days the skum rises, take that off before the liquor be put into the barrel.

Those who make from their own gardens may not have a sufficiency to fill the barrel at once. The wine will not be hurt if made in the pan, in the above proportions, and added as the fruit ripens, and can be gathered in dry weather. Keep an account of what is put in each time.

Put two ounces of cream of tartar, and the juice and paring of two lemons into a stonejar; pour on them seven quarts of boiling water, stir and cover close. When cold, sweeten with loaf sugar, and straining it, bottle and cork it tight.

This is a very pleasant liquor, and very wholesome; but from the latter consideration was at one time drank in such quantities, as to become injurious. Add, in bottling, half a pint of rum to the whole quantity.

Excellent Gingerwine.

Put into a very nice boiler ten gallons of water, twelve pounds and a half of lump sugar, with the whites of six or eight eggs well beaten and strained; mix all well while cold; when the liquor boils, skim it well; put in half a pound of common white ginger bruised, boil it twenty minutes. Have ready the very thin rinds of ten lemons, and pour the liquor on them; when cool, turn it with two spoonfuls of yeast; put a quart of the liquor to two ounces of isinglass shavings, while warm, whisk it well three or four times, and pour all together into the barrel. Next day stop it up; in three weeks bottle, and in three months it will be a delicious and refreshing liquor; and though very cool, perfectly safe.

Another for Gingerwine.

Boil nine quarts of water with six pounds of lump sugar, the rinds of two or three lemons very thinly pared, with two ounces of bruised white ginger 243half an hour; skim. Put three quarters of a pound of raisins into the cask; when the liquor is lukewarm, tun it with the juice of two lemons strained, and a spoonful and a half of yeast. Stir it daily, then put in half a pint of brandy, and half an ounce of isinglass shavings; stop it up, and bottle it six or seven weeks. Do not put the lemonpeel in the barrel.

Alderwine.

To every quart of berries put two quarts of water, boil half an hour, run the liquor, and break the fruit through a hair sieve; then to every quart of juice, put three quarters of a pound of Lisbon sugar, not the very coarsest, but coarse. Boil the whole a quarter of an hour with some Jamaica peppers, ginger, and a few cloves. Pour it into a tub, and when of a proper warmth into the barrel, with toast and yeast to work, which there is more difficulty to make it do than most other liquors. When it ceases to hiss, put a quart of brandy to eight gallons, and stop up. Bottle in the spring or at Christmas.

White Alderwine; very much like Frontiniac.

Boil eighteen pounds of white powder sugar, with six gallons of water, and two whites of eggs well beaten; then skim it, and put in a quarter of a peck of alder flowers from the tree that bears white berries; do not keep them on the fire. When near cold, stir it, and put in six spoonfuls of lemonjuice, four or five of yeast, and beat well into the liquor; stir it every day; put six pounds of the 244best raisins, stoned, into the cask, and tun the wine. Stop it close, and bottle in six months.

When well kept, this wine will pass for Frontiniac.

Clary Wine.

Boil fifteen gallons of water, with forty five pounds of sugar, skim it, when cool put a little to a quarter of a pint of yeast, and so by degrees add a little more. In an hour pour the small quantity to the large, pour the liquor on clary flowers, picked in the dry; the quantity for the above is twelve quarts. Those who gather from their own garden may not have sufficient to put in at once, and may add as they can get them, keeping account of each quart. When it ceases to hiss, and the flowers are all in, stop it up for four months. Rack it off, empty the barrel of the dregs, and adding a gallon of the best brandy, stop it up, and let it stand six or eight weeks then bottle it.

A rich and pleasant Wine.

Take new cyder from the press, mix it with as much honey as will support an egg, boil gently fifteen minutes, but not in an iron, brass, or copper pot. Skim it well; when cool, let it be tunned, but do not quite fill. In March following bottle it, and it will be fit to drink in six weeks; will be less sweet if kept longer in the cask. You will have a rich and strong wine, and it will keep well. This will serve for any culinary purposes which sack, or sweet wine, are directed for.

Duhamel says, honey is a fine ingredient to assist, and render palatable, new crabbed austere cider.

Put two hundred weight of Malaga raisins into a cask, and pour upon them a hogshead of good sound cider that is not rough. Stir it well two or three days; stop it, and let it stand six months; then rack into a cask that it will fill, and put in a gallon of the best brandy.

If raisinwine be much used, it would answer well to keep a cask always for it, and bottle off one year’s wine just in time to make the next, which, allowing the six months of infusion, would make the wine to be eighteen months old. In cider countries this way is very economical; and even if not thought strong enough, the addition of another quarter of a hundred of raisins would be sufficient, and the wine would still be very cheap.

When the raisins are pressed through a horsehair bag, they will either produce a very good spirit by distillation, and must be sent to a chymist who will do it (but if for that purpose, they must be very little pressed); or they will make excellent vinegar, on which article see page 116.

The stalks should be picked off for the above, and may be thrown into any cask of vinegar that is making; being very acid.

Raisinwine, without Cider.

On four hundred weight of Malagas pour one hogshead of spring water, stir well daily for fourteen days, then squeeze the raisins in a horsehair 246bag in a press, and tun the liquor; when it ceases to hiss, stop it close. In six months rack it off into another cask, or into a tub, and after clearing out the sediment, return it into the same, but do not wash it; add a gallon of the best brandy, stop it close, and in six months bottle it.

Take care of the pressed fruit, for the uses of which refer to the preceding receipt.

Ratafia.

Blanch two ounces of peach and apricot kernels, bruise and put them into a bottle, and fill nearly up with brandy. Dissolve half a pound of white sugarcandy in a cup of cold water, and add to the brandy after it has stood a month on the kernels, and they are strained off; then filter through paper, and bottle for use.

Raspberry brandy.

Pick fine dry fruit, put into a stonejar, and the jar into a kettle of water, or on a hot hearth, till the juice will run; strain, and to every pint add half a pound of sugar, give one boil, and skim it; when cold, put equal quantities of juice and brandy, shake well, and bottle. Some people prefer it stronger of the brandy.

Verder, or Milkpunch.

Pare six oranges, and six lemons as thin as you can, grate them after with sugar to get the flavour. Steep the peels in a bottle of rum or brandy stopped close twenty four hours. Squeeze the fruit on a 247pound and a half of sugar, add to it four quarts of water, and one of new milk boiling hot; stir the rum into the above, and run it through a jellybag till perfectly clear. Bottle, and cork close immediately.

Norfolkpunch.

Pare six lemons and three Seville oranges very thin, squeeze the juice into a large teapot, put to it two quarts of brandy, one of white wine, and one of milk, and one pound and a quarter of sugar. Let it be mixed, and then covered for twenty four hours, strain through a jellybag till clear; then bottle it.

Orange, or Lemon syrup; a most useful thing to keep in the house, to take with water, in colds or fevers.

Squeeze the juice of very good fruit, and boil when strained, a pint to a pound of sugar, over a very gentle fire; skim it well; when clear, pour it into a China bowl, and in twenty four hours bottle it for use.

White Currant shrub.

Strip the fruit, and prepare in a jar as for jelly; strain the juice, of which put two quarts to one gallon of rum, and two pounds of lump sugar; strain through a jellybag.

The following pages will contain Cookery for the sick; it being of more consequence to support those whose bad appetites will not allow them to take the necessary nourishment, than to stimulate those that are in health.

248It may not be unnecessary to advise that a choice be made of the things most likely to agree with the patient; that a change be provided; that some one at least be always ready; that not too much of those be made at once, which are not likely to keep, as invalids require variety; and let them succeed each other in a different form and flavour.

A great Restorative.

Bake two calf’s feet in three pints of water, and new milk, in a jar close covered, three hours and a half. When cold remove the fat.

Give a large teacupful the last and first thing. Whatever flavour is approved, give it by baking in it lemonpeel, cinnamon, or mace. Add sugar.

Another.

Simmer six sheep’s trotters, two blades of mace, a little cinnamon, lemonpeel, a few hartshorn shavings, and a little isinglass, in two quarts of water to one; when cold take off the fat, and give near half a pint twice a day; warming with it a little new milk.

Another.

Boil one ounce of isinglass shavings, forty Jamaica peppers, and a bit of brown crust of bread, in a quart of water to a pint, and strain it.

This makes a pleasant jelly to keep in the house; of which a large spoonful may be taken in wine and water, milk, tea, soup, or any way.

Another most pleasant Draught.

Boil a quarter of an ounce of isinglass shavings with a pint of new milk to half, add a 249bit of sugar, and, for change, a bitter almond. Give this at night, not too warm.

Blamange, Dutch Flummery, and Jellies, as directed pages 164 and 165, or less rich according to judgment.

A very nourishing Veal broth.

Put the knuckle of a leg or shoulder of veal, with very little meat to it, an old fowl, and four shankbones of mutton extremely well soaked and brushed, three blades of mace, ten peppercorns, an onion, and a large bit of bread, and three quarts of water, into a stewpot that covers close, and simmer in the slowest manner after it has boiled up, and been skimmed; or, bake it; strain and take off the fat. Salt as wanted.

A clear Broth that will keep long.

Put the mouse round of beef, a knucklebone of veal, and a few shanks of mutton into a deep pan, and cover close with a dish or coarse crust; bake till the beef is done enough for eating, with only as much water as will cover. When cold, cover it close in a cool place. When to be used, give what flavour may be approved.

Dr. Ratcluff’s restorative Porkjelly.

Take a leg of well fed pork, just as cut up, beat it, and break the bone. Set it over a gentle fire, with three gallons of water, and simmer to one. Let half an ounce of mace, and the same of nutmegs, stew in it. Strain through a line sieve. When cold, take off the fat. Give a chocolate cup 250the first and last thing, and at noon, putting salt to taste.

Beef tea.

Cut a pound of fleshy beef in thin slices, simmer with a quart of water twenty minutes, after it has once boiled, and been skimmed. Season, if approved; but it has generally only salt.

Broth of Beef, Mutton, and Veal.

Put two pounds of lean beef, two pounds of scrag of mutton, sweet herbs, and ten peppercorns, into a nice tin saucepan, with five quarts of water; simmer to three quarts; and clear from the fat when cold.

Note. That soup and broth made of different meats are more supporting, as well as better flavoured.

Chicken panada.

Boil it till about three parts ready in a quart of water, take off the skin, cut the white meat off when cold, and put into a marble mortar; pound it to a paste with a little of the water it was boiled in, season with a little salt, a grate of nutmeg, and the least bit of lemonpeel. Boil gently for a few minutes to the consistency you like; it should be such as you can drink, though tolerably thick.

This conveys great nourishment in small compass.

Chicken broth.

Put the body and legs of the fowl that the panada was made of, taking off the skin and rump, into the 251water it was boiled in, with one blade of mace, one slice of onion, and ten white peppercorns. Simmer till the broth be of a pleasant flavour. If not water enough, add a little. Beat a quarter of an ounce of sweet almonds, with a teaspoonful of water, fine, boil it in the broth, strain, and when cold, remove the fat.

Shank jelly.

Soak twelve shanks of mutton four hours, then brush and scour them very clean. Lay them in a saucepan with three blades of mace, an onion, twenty Jamaica, and thirty or forty black peppers, a bunch of sweet herbs, and a crust of bread made very brown by toasting. Pour three quarts of water to them, and set them on a hot hearth close covered; let them simmer as gently as possible for five hours, then strain it off, and put it in a cold place.

This may have the addition of a pound of beef, if approved, for flavour.

Eel broth.

Clean half a pound of small eels, and set them on with three pints of water, some parsley, one slice of onion, a few peppercorns; let them simmer till the eels are broken, and the broth good. Add salt.

The above should make three half pints of broth.

Tench broth.

Make as above. They are both very nutritious, and light of digestion.

Take a bone or two of a neck or loin of mutton, take off the fat and skin, set it on the fire in a small tin saucepan that has a cover, with three quarters of a pint of water, the meat being first beaten, and cut in thin bits; put a bit of thyme and parsley, and, if approved, a slice of onion. Let it boil very quick, skim it nicely; take off the cover, if likely to be too weak; else cover it. Half an hour is sufficient for the whole process.

Calf’s feet Broth.

Boil two feet in three quarts of water to half; strain and set it by. When to be used, take off the fat, put a large teacupful of the jelly into a saucepan, with half a glass of sweet wine, a little sugar and nutmeg, and heat it up till it be ready to boil, then take a little of it, and beat by degrees to the yelk of an egg, and adding a bit of butter, the size of a nutmeg, stir it altogether, but do not let it boil. Grate a bit of fresh lemonpeel into it.

Another.

Boil two calf’s feet, two ounces of veal, and two of beef, the bottom of a penny loaf, two or three blades of mace, half a nutmeg sliced, and a little salt, in three quarts of water, to three pints; strain, and take off the fat.

Panada; made in five minutes.

Set a little water on the fire with a glass of white wine, some sugar, and a scrape of nutmeg and lemonpeel; meanwhile grate some crumbs of bread. 253The moment the mixture boils up, keeping it still on the fire, put the crumbs in, and let it boil as fast as it can. When of a proper thickness just to drink, take it off.

Another.

As above, but instead of a glass of wine, put in a spoonful, a teaspoonful of rum, and a bit of butter; sugar as above.

This is a most pleasant mess.

Another.

Put to the water a bit of lemonpeel, mix the crumbs in, and when nearly boiled enough, put some lemon or orange syrup.

Observe to boil all the ingredients; for if any be added after, the panada will break, and not jelly.

Barleywater.

Boil an ounce of pearlbarley a few minutes to cleanse, then put on it a quart of water, simmer an hour; when half done, put into it a bit of fresh lemonpeel, and one bit of sugar. If likely to be too thick, you may put another quarter of a pint of water.

Common Barleywater.

Wash a handful of common barley, then simmer it gently in three pints of water with a bit of lemonpeel.

This is less apt to nauseate than pearlbarley; but the former is a very pleasant drink.

A very agreeable Drink.

Into a tumbler of fresh cold water pour a table spoonful of capillaire; and the same of good vinegar.

Put two slices of lemon thinly pared into a teapot, and a little bit of the peel, and a bit of sugar, or a large spoonful of capillaire; pour in a pint of boiling water, and stop close.

Apple water.

Cut two large apples in slices, and pour a quart of boiling water on them; or on roasted apples.

Tamarinds, currants fresh or in jelly, or scalded currants, or cranberries, make excellent drinks; with a little sugar or not, as may be agreeable.

Raspberry Vinegarwater. See page 240.

This is one of the most delightful drinks that can be made.

Toast and Water.

Toast slowly a thin piece of bread till extremely brown and hard, but not the least black, then plunge it into a jug of cold water, and cover it over an hour before used.

Orangeade, or Lemonade.

Squeeze the juice; pour boiling water on a little of the peel, and cover close. Boil water and sugar to a thin syrup, and skim it. When all are cold, mix the juice, the infusion, and the syrup, with as much more water as will make a rich sherbet; strain through a jellybag. Or, squeeze the juice, and strain it, and add water and capillaire.

Orgeat.

Beat two ounces of almonds with a teaspoonful of orange flower water, and a bitter almond or two; 255then pour a quart of milk and water to the paste. Sweeten with sugar, or capillaire.

Another orgeat for company, page 239.

Milkporridge.

Make a fine gruel of half grits, long boiled; strain off; either add cold milk, or warm with milk as may be approved. Serve with toast.

French Milkporridge.

Stir some oatmeal and water together, let it stand to be clear, and pour off the latter: pour fresh upon it, stir it well, let it stand till next day; strain through a fine sieve, and boil the water, adding milk while doing. The proportion of water must be small.

This is much ordered, with toast, for the breakfast of weak persons abroad.

Caudle.

Make a fine smooth gruel of half grits; strain it when boiled well, stir it at times till cold. When to be used, add sugar, wine, and lemonpeel, with nutmeg. Some like a spoonful of brandy besides the wine.

Another Caudle.

Boil up half a pint of fine gruel, with a bit of butter the size of a large nutmeg, a large spoonful of brandy, the same of white wine, one of capillaire, a bit of lemonpeel and nutmeg.

Rice Caudle.

When the water boils, pour it into some grated rice mixed with a little cold water; when of a 256proper consistence add sugar, lemonpeel and cinnamon, and a glass of brandy to a quart. Boil all smooth.

Cold Caudle.

Boil a quart of spring water; when cold, add the yelk of an egg, the juice of a small lemon, six spoonfuls of sweet wine, sugar to your taste; and syrup of lemons one ounce.

A refreshing drink in a Fever.

Put a little tea sage, two sprigs of balm, and a little woodsorrel into a stone jug, having first washed and dried them; peel thin a small lemon, and clear from the white; slice it, and put a bit of the peel in, then pour in three points of boiling water, sweeten, and cover it close.

Another Drink.

Wash extremely well an ounce of pearlbarley; shift it twice, then put to it three pints of water, an ounce of sweet almonds beaten fine, and a bit of lemonpeel. Boil till you have a smooth liquor, then put in a little syrup of lemons and capillaire.

Another Drink.

Boil three pints of water with an ounce and a half of tamarinds, three ounces of currants, and two ounces of stoned raisins, till near a third be consumed. Strain it.

A most pleasant Drink.

Put a teacupful of cranberries into a cup of water, and mash them. In the mean time boil two quarters 257and a pint of water with one large spoonful of oatmeal, and a very large bit of lemonpeel: then add the cranberries, and as much fine Lisbon sugar as shall leave a smart flavour of the fruit; and a quarter of a pint of sherry or less, as may be proper; boil all for half an hour, and strain off.

Whey.

That of cheese is a very wholesome drink, especially when the cows are in fresh herbage.

White Wine whey.

Put half a pint of new milk on the fire; the moment it boils up, pour in as much sound raisin wine as will completely turn it, and it looks clear; let it boil up, then set the saucepan aside till the curd subsides, and do not stir it. Pour the whey off, and add to it half a pint of boiling water, and a bit of white sugar. Thus you will have a whey perfectly cleared of milky particles, and as weak as you choose to make it.

Vinegar and Lemon wheys.

Pour into boiling milk as above, and when clear, dilute with boiling water, and put a bit or two of sugar.

Eggwine.

Beat an egg, mix with it a spoonful of cold water; set on the fire a glass of white wine, half a glass of water and sugar, and nutmeg. When it boils, pour a little of it to the egg by degrees, till the whole be in, stirring it well; then return the whole into the saucepan, put it on a gentle fire, stir it 258one way for not more than a minute; for if it boil, or the egg be stale, it will curdle. Serve with toast.

Eggwine may be made as above, without warming the egg, and it is then lighter on the stomach, though not so pleasant to the taste.

An egg broken into a cup of tea, or beaten and mixed with a bason of milk, makes a breakfast more supporting than tea.

An egg divided, and the yelk and white beaten separately, then mixed with a glass of wine, will afford two very wholesome draughts, and prove lighter than when taken together.

Eggs very little boiled or poached, taken in small quantity, convey much nourishment.

The following is a particularly soft and fine draught, to be taken the first and last thing, by those who are weak, and have a cough.

Beat a fresh laid egg, and mix it with a quarter of a pint of new milk warmed, a large spoonful of capillaire, the same of rosewater, and a little nutmeg scraped. Do not warm after the egg is put in.

Chocolate.

Those who use much of this article, will find the following mode of preparing both useful and economical.

Cut a cake of chocolate in very small bits; put a pint of water into the pot, and, when it boils, put in the above; mill it off the fire until quite melted, then on a gentle fire till it boil; pour it into a bason, 259and it will keep in a cool place eight or ten days, or more. When wanted put a spoonful or two into milk, boil it with sugar, and mill it well.

This, if not made thick, is a very good breakfast or supper.

To make Coffee.

Put two ounces of fresh ground coffee of the best quality into a coffeepot, and pour eight coffee cups of boiling water on it; let it boil six minutes, pour out a cupful two or three times, and return it again; then put two or three isinglass chips into it, and pour one large spoonful of boiling water on it; boil it five minutes more, and set the pot by the fire to keep hot for ten minutes, and you will have coffee, of a beautiful clearness.

Fine cream should always be served with coffee, and either pounded sugarcandy or fine Lisbon sugar.

If for foreigners, or those who like it extremely strong, make only eight dishes from three ounces. If not fresh roasted, lay it before a fire until perfectly hot and dry; or you may put the smallest bit of fresh butter into a preserving pan of a small size, and, when hot throw the coffee in it, and toss it about until it be freshened.

Coffee Milk.

Boil a dessert spoonful of ground coffee, in nearly a pint of milk, a quarter of an hour; then put into it a shaving or two of isinglass, and clear it. Let it boil a few minutes, and set it on the side of the fire to grow fine.

260This is a very fine breakfast. It should be sweetened with real Lisbon sugar of a good quality.

Ground Rice Milk.

Boil one spoonful of ground rice, rubbed down smooth, with three half pints of milk, a bit of cinnamon, lemonpeel, and nutmeg. Sweeten when nearly done.

Tapioca jelly.

Choose the largest sort, pour cold water on to wash it two or three times, then soak it in fresh water five or six hours, and simmer it in the same until it become quite clear; then put lemonjuice, wine, and sugar. The peel should have been boiled in it. It thickens very much.

Sago.

To prevent the earthy taste, soak it in cold water an hour; pour that off, and wash it well; then add more, and simmer gently till the berries are clear, with lemonpeel and spice, if approved. Add wine and sugar, and boil all up together.

Sago Milk.

Cleanse as above, and boil it slowly and wholly with new milk. It swells so much that a small quantity will be sufficient for a quart, and when done it will be diminished to about a pint. It requires no sugar, or flavouring.

Arrowroot jelly.

Of this beware of having the wrong sort; for it has been counterfeited with bad effect.

261Mix a large spoonful of the powder with, a teacup of cold water, by degrees, and quite smooth. Put rather more than a pint of water over the fire, with some white sugar, scraped nutmeg, and a spoonful and a half of brandy, or two. The moment it boils, pour the powder and water in, stirring it well; and when it boils up it is done.

This is a very useful thing in a house; and in the above mode a sick person may be supplied with a fine supporting meal in a few minutes.

This and the following are particularly good in bowel complaints.

A Flour Caudle.

Into five large spoonfuls of the purest water, rub smooth one dessertspoonful of fine flour. Set over the fire five spoonfuls of new milk, and put two bits of sugar into it; the moment it boils, pour into it, the flour and water, and stir it over a slow fire twenty minutes.

A Rice Caudle.

Soak some Carolina rice in water an hour, strain it, and put two spoonfuls of the rice into a pint and a quarter of milk; simmer till it will pulp through a sieve, then put the pulp and milk into the saucepan, with a bruised clove and a bit of white sugar. Simmer ten minutes; if too thick, add a spoonful or two of milk, and serve with thin toast.

Gloucester jelly.

Take rice, sago, pearlbarley, hartshorn shavings and eringoroot, each an ounce; simmer with 262two pints of water to one, and strain it. When cold it will be a jelly; of which give, dissolved in wine, milk, or broth, in change with other nourishment.

Mulled wine.

Boil some spice in a little water till the flavour is gained, then add an equal quantity of port, some sugar and nutmeg; boil together, and serve with toast.

Asses’ Milk

Far surpasses any imitation of it that can be made. It should be milked into a glass that is kept warm by being in a bason of hot water.

The fixed air that it contains gives some people a pain in the stomach.

At first a teaspoonful of rum may be taken with it, but should only be put in the moment it is to be swallowed.

Artificial Asses’ Milk.

Boil together a quart of water, a quart of new milk, an ounce of white sugarcandy, half an ounce of eringoroot, and half an ounce of conserve of roses, till half be wasted.

This is astringent; therefore proportion the doses to the effect.

Another.

Mix two spoonfuls of boiling water, two of milk, and an egg well beaten; sweeten with pounded white sugarcandy.

This may be taken twice or thrice a day.

Boil two ounces of hartshorn shavings, two ounces of pearlbarley, two ounces of candied eringoroot, and one dozen of snails that have been bruised, in two quarts of water to one. Mix with an equal quantity of new milk, when taken, twice a day.

Buttermilk, with Bread or without.

It is most wholesome when sour, as being less likely to be heavy, but most agreeable when made of sweet cream.

Dr. Boerhaave’s sweet Buttermilk.

Take the milk from the cow into a small churn, of about six shillings price; in about ten minutes begin churning, and continue till the flakes of butter swim about pretty thick, and the milk is discharged of all the greasy particles, and appears thin and blue. Strain it through a sieve, and drink it as frequently as possible.

It should form the whole of the patient’s drink, and the food should be biscuit and rusks, in every way and sort; ripe and dried fruits of various kinds, when a decline is apprehended.

Baked and dried fruits, raisins in particular, make excellent suppers for invalids, with biscuit or common cake.

When the Stomach will not receive Meat.

On an extreme hot plate put two or three sippets of bread, and pour over them some gravy from beef, mutton, or veal, if there is no butter in the dish. Sprinkle a little salt over.

264This is much lighter than meat, and conveys a great deal of nourishment in a small form.

Toast hard and dry a thin bit of bread, soak it in water, or port wine and water, take it out and sift a little sugar, and, if you like it, nutmeg.

Or pour boiling water over a captain’s biscuit, broken in pieces, and steam it down in a bason; when soft, add a little strong souchong tea, cream, and sugar, or wine, sugar, and nutmeg; or a teacupful of weak rum, or brandy and water, with sugar, just to give taste.

Saloop.

Boil a little water, with wine, lemonpeel, and sugar, together; then mix with a small quantity of the powder, previously rubbed smooth, with a little cold water; stir it all together, and boil it a few minutes.

I promised a few hints, to enable every family to assist the poor of their neighborhood at a very trivial expense; and these may be varied or amended at the discretion of the mistress.

Where cows are kept, a jug of skimmed milk is a valuable present.

When the oven is hot, a large pudding may be baked, and given to a sick or young family; and thus made, the trouble is little: into a deep coarse pan put half a pound of rice, four ounces of coarse sugar or treacle, two quarts of milk, and two ounces 265of dripping, set it cold into the oven. It will take a good while, but be an excellent solid food.

A very good meal may be bestowed in a thing called Brewis, which is thus made: cut a very thick upper crust of bread and put it into the pot where salt beef is boiling and near ready; it will attract some of the fat, and, when swelled out, will be no unpalatable dish to those who rarely taste meat.

A baked Soup.

Put a pound of any kind of meat cut in slices; two onions, two carrots, ditto; two ounces of rice, a pint of split peas, or whole ones if previously soaked, pepper and salt, into an earthen jug or pan, and pour one gallon of water. Cover it very close, and bake it with the bread.

The cook should be charged to save the boiling of every piece of meat, ham, tongue, &c. however salt: as it is easy to use only a part of that, and the rest of fresh water, and by the addition of more vegetables, the bones of the meat used in the family, the pieces of meat that come from table on the plates, and rice, Scotch barley or oatmeal, there will be some gallons of nutritious soup two or three times a week. The bits of meat should be only warmed in the soup, and remain whole; the bones, &c. boiled till they yield their nourishment. If the things are ready to put in the boiler as soon as the meat be served, it will save lighting fire and second cooking.

Turnips, carrots, leeks, potatoes, or any sort of vegetable that is at hand, should be used.

266Should the soup be poor of meat, the long boiling of the bones and different vegetables, will afford better nourishment than the laborious poor can obtain; especially as they are rarely tolerable cooks, and have not fuel to do justice to what they buy. But in every family there is some superfluity; and if it be prepared with cleanliness and care, the benefit will be very great to the receiver, and the satisfaction no less to the giver.

I found, in the time of scarcity, ten or fifteen gallons of soup, could be dealt out weekly, at an expense not worth mentioning, though the vegetables were bought. If in the villages about London, abounding with opulent families, the quantity of ten gallons were made in ten gentlemen’s houses, there would be a hundred gallons of wholesome agreeable food given weekly for the supply of forty poor families, at the rate of two gallons and a half each.

What a relief to the labouring husband, instead of bread and cheese, to have a warm comfortable meal! To the sick, aged, and infant branches, how important an advantage.

It very rarely happens, that servants object to seconding the kindness of their superiors to the poor; but should the cook in any family think the adoption of this plan too troublesome, a gratuity at the end of the winter might repay her, if the love of her fellow creatures failed of doing it, a hundred fold. Did she readily enter into it, she would never wash away as useless the pease or grits of 267which soup or gruel had been made; broken potatoes, the green heads of celery, the necks and feet of fowls, and particularly the shanks of mutton, and various other articles, which in preparing dinner for the family are thrown aside.

Fish affords great nourishment, and that not by the part eaten only, but the bones, heads, and fins, which contain an isinglass. When the fish is served, let the cook put by some of the water, and stew in it the above, as likewise add the gravy that is in the dish, until she obtains all the goodness. If to be eaten by itself, when it makes a delightful broth, she should add a very small bit of onion, some pepper, and a little rice flour rubbed down smooth with it.

But strained it makes a delicious improvement to the meat soup, particularly for the sick; and when such are to be supplied, the milder parts of the spare bones and meat should be made for them, with little, if any of the liquor of the salt meats.

The fat should not be taken off the broth or soup, as the poor like it, and are nourished by it.

The following is an excellent Soup for the weakly.

Put two cowheels and a breast of mutton into a large pan, with four ounces of rice, one onion, twenty Jamaica peppers, and twenty black, a turnip, a carrot, and four gallons of water. Cover with brown paper, and bake.

Sago.

Put a teacupful of sago into a quart of water, and a bit of lemonpeel; when thickened, grate some 268ginger, and add half a pint of raisinwine, brown sugar, and two spoonfuls of Geneva. Boil all up together.

It is a most supporting thing for those whom disease has left very feeble.

Caudle for the Sick and Lying in.

Set three quarts of water on the fire, mix smooth as much oatmeal as will thicken the whole with a pint of cold water; when boiling, pour the latter in, and twenty Jamaica peppers in fine powder; boil to a good middling thickness, then add sugar, half a pint of well fermented table beer, and a glass of gin. Boil all.

This mess twice, and once or twice of broth, will be of incalculable service.

There is not a better occasion for charitable commiseration than when a person is sick. A bit of meat or pudding sent unexpectedly has often been the means of recalling long lost appetite.

Nor are the indigent alone the grateful receivers; for in the highest houses a real good sick-cook is rarely met with; and many who possess all the goods of fortune, have attributed the first return of health to some kitchen physic.

To give to boards a beautiful appearance.

After washing them very nicely clean with soda and warm water, and a brush, wash them with a very large sponge and clean water. Both times observe to leave no spot untouched, and clean straight up and down not crossing from board to board; then dry with clean cloths, rubbing hard up and down in the same way.

The floors should not be often wetted, but very thoroughly when done; and once a week dry rubbed with hot sand, and a heavy brush, the right way of the boards.

The sides of stairs or passages on which are carpets, or floorcloth, should be washed with sponge instead of linen or flannel, and the edges will not be soiled. Different sponges should be kept for the two above uses; and those and the brushes should be well washed when done with, and kept in dry places.

Floorcloths.

Should be chosen that are painted on a fine cloth, that is well covered with the colour, and the flowers on which do not rise much above the ground, as they wear out first. The durability of the cloth will depend much on these two particulars, but more especially on the time it has been painted, and the goodness of the colours. If they have not been allowed sufficient space for becoming thoroughly hardened, a very little use will injure them; and as they are very expensive articles, care in preserving them is necessary. It answers to keep 270them some time before they are used, either hung up in a dry barn where they will have air, or laid down in a spare room. When taken up for the winter, they should be rolled round a carpet roller, and observe not to crack the paint by turning the edges in too close.

Old carpets answer extremely well, painted and seasoned some months before laid down. If for passages, the width must be directed when they are sent to the manufactory, as they cut before painting.

To clean Floorcloths.

Sweep, then wipe them with a flannel; and when all dust and spots are removed, rub with a waxed flannel, and then with a dry plain one; but use little wax, and rub only enough with the latter to give a little smoothness, or it may endanger falling.

Washing now and then with milk after the above sweeping, and dry rubbing them, give as beautiful a look, and they are less slippery.

To take the black off the bright bars of polished Stoves in a few minutes.

Rub them well with some of the following mixture on a bit of broadcloth; when the dirt is removed, wipe them clean, and polish with glass, not sandpaper.

The mixture.

Boil slowly one pound of soft soap in two quarts of water to one. Of this jelly take three or four spoonfuls, and mix to a consistence with emery, No 3.

Boil about a quarter of a pound of the best black lead, with a pint of small beer, and a bit of soap the size of a walnut. When that is melted, dip a painter’s brush, and wet the grate, having first brushed off all the soot and dust; then take a hard brush, and rub it till of a beautiful brightness.

Another way to clean Castiron, and black Hearths.

Mix black lead and whites of eggs beaten well together; dip a painter’s brush, and wet all over, then rub it bright with a hard brush.

To preserve Irons from rust.

Melt fresh mutton suet, smear over the iron with it, while hot; then dust it well with unslacked lime pounded, and tied up in a muslin. Irons so prepared will keep many months. Use no oil for them at any time, except sallad oil; there being water in all other.

Fireirons should be kept wrapt in baize, in a dry place, when not used.

To clean tin covers, and patent pewter Porterpots.

Get the finest whiting, which is only sold in large cakes, the small being mixed with sand, mix a little of it powdered, with the least drop of sweet oil, and rub well, and wipe clean; then dust some dry whiting in a muslin bag over, and rub bright with dry leather. The last is to prevent rust, which the cook must be careful to guard against by wiping dry, and putting by the fire when they come from the parlour; for if but once hung up without, the steam will rust the inside.

Cover the steel with sweet oil well rubbed on it, and in forty eight hours use unslacked lime finely powdered, and rub until all the rust disappears.

To clean stone Stairs and Halls.

Boil a pound of pipe makers clay with a quart of water, a quart of small beer, and put in a bit of stone blue. Wash with this mixture, and when dry, rub the stones with flannel and a brush.

To clear Paperhangings.

First blow off the dust with the bellows. Divide a white loaf of two days old into eight parts. Take the crust into your hand, and beginning at the top of the paper, wipe it downwards in the lightest manner with the crumb. Do not cross or go upwards. The dirt of the paper and the crumbs will fall together. Observe, you must not wipe above half a yard at a stroke, and after doing all the upper, part, go round again, beginning a little above where you left off. If you do not do it extremely lightly, you will make the dirt adhere to the paper.

It will look like new if properly done.

To clean Paint.

Never use a cloth, but take off the dust with a little longhaired brush, after blowing off the loose parts with the bellows. With care, paint will look well for a length of time. When soiled, dip a sponge or a bit of flannel into soda and water, wash it off quickly, and dry immediately, or the strength of the soda will eat off the colour.

273When wainscot requires scouring, it should be done from the top downwards, and the suds be prevented from running on the unclean part as much as possible, or marks will be made which will appear after the whole be finished. One person should dry with old linen as fast as the other has scoured off the dirt and washed the soda off.

To clean Lookingglasses.

Remove the fly stains, and other soil, by a damp rag; then polish with woollen cloth and powder-blue.

To preserve Gilding, and clean it.

It is not possible to prevent flies from staining the gilding without covering it; before which, blow off the light dust, and pass a feather or clean brush over it; then with strips of paper cover the frames of your glasses, and do not remove it till the flies are gone.

Linen takes off the gilding, and deadens its brightness; it should therefore never be used for wiping it.

Some means should be used to destroy the flies, as they injure furniture of every kind, and the paper likewise. Bottles hung about with sugar and vinegar, or beer, will attract them; or fly water put into the bottom of a saucer.

To clean Plate.

Boil an ounce of prepared hartshorn powder in a quart of water. While on the fire, put into it as much plate as the vessel will hold; let it boil a little, then take it out, drain it over the saucepan, 274and dry it before the fire. Put in more, and serve the same, till you have done. Then put into the water some clean linen rags till all be soaked up. When dry, they will serve to clean the plate, and are the very best things to clean the brass locks and fingerplates of doors. When the plate is quite dry, it must be rubbed bright with leather.

This is a very nice mode.

Note. In many plate powders there is a mixture of quicksilver, which is very injurious; and, among other disadvantages, it makes silver so brittle, that from a fall it will break.

To give a fine Colour to Mahogany.

Let the tables be washed perfectly clean with vinegar, having first taken out any ink stains there may be with spirits of salt; but it must be used with the greatest care, and only touch the part affected, and be instantly washed off. Use the following liquid: into a pint of cold drawn linseed oil, put four penny worth of alconet root, and two penny worth of rose pink, in an earthen vessel; let it remain all night, then stirring well, rub some of it all over the tables with a linen rag; when it has lain some time, rub it bright with linen cloths.

Eating tables should be covered with mat, oilcloth, or baize, to prevent staining, and be instantly rubbed when the dishes are taken off, while still warm.

To dust Carpets and Floors.

Sprinkle tea leaves on them, then sweep carefully. The former should not be swept frequently with a whisk brush, as it wears them fast; but once a 275week, and the other times with the leaves and a hair brush.

To clean Carpets.

Take up the carpet, let it be well beaten, then laid down, and brushed on both sides with a hand brush. Turn it the right side upwards, and scour it with oxgall, and soap and water, very clean, and dry it with linen cloths.

To take Stains out of Marble.

Mix unslacked lime, in finest powder, with the stronger soap lye, pretty thick; and instantly, with a painter’s brush, lay it on the whole of the marble. In two months time wash it off perfectly clean; then have ready a fine thick lather of soft soap, boiled in soft water; dip a brush in it, and scour the marble with powder, not as common cleaning. This will, by very good rubbing, give a beautiful polish. Clear off the soap, and finish with a smooth hard brush till the end be effected.

To clean Calico Furniture, when taken down for the Summer.

Shake off the loose dust, then lightly brush with a small longhaired furniture brush; after which wipe it closely with clean flannels, and rub it with dry bread.

If properly done, the curtains will look nearly as well as at first.

Fold in large parcels, and put carefully by.

While the furniture remains up, it should be preserved from the sun and air as much as possible, 276which injure delicate colours; and the dust may be blown off with bellows.

To preserve Furs and Woollen from Moth.

Let the former be occasionally combed while in use, and the latter be brushed and shaken. When not wanted, dry them first, let them be cool, then mix among them bitter apples from the apothecary’s, in small muslin bags, sewing them in several folds of linen, carefully turned in at the edges.

• A.
• Alder wine, 243
  • white, very much like Frontiniac, 243
• Ale, to brew, 236
  • , very fine Welsh, 236
  • to refine, 238
• Almond cheesecakes, 186
  • cream, 169
  • puddings, 142
    • , baked, 155
    • , small, 157
• Amber pudding, a very fine one, 144
• Anchovies, to keep them when the liquor dries, 118
  • sauce, 108
  • essence of 112
  • to make sprats taste like, 117
• Apples, to prepare them for puffs, 176
  • dried, 175
  • dumplings, or pudding, 151
  • fool, 172
  • jelly to serve to table, 176
    • , another, 176
• Apple jelly, for preserved apricots, or any sort of sweetmeats, 196
  • pie, 180
  • pudding, baked, 144
  • water, 254
  • to scald codlins, 177
  • to keep codlins for
  • several months, 189
  • stewed goldenpippins, 175
  • red in jelly, 175
• Apricots, in brandy, 195
  • to dry in half, 196
  • green, to preserve, 197
  • to preserve in jelly, 196
  • apple jelly for this purpose, 196
  • cheese, 194
  • pudding, an excellent one, 154
• Arrowroot jelly, 260
• Asses milk, 262
  • , artificial, 262
  • , another, 262
  • , another, 263
• B.
• 278Bacon, excellent, 69
  • the manner of curing Wiltshire, 64
  • fraise, 137
• Bamboo, (English) to pickle, 120
• Barberries, for tartlets, 201
  • drops, 202
• Barleywater, 253
  • , common, 253
• Bean Pudding, green, 154
• Bechamel, 104
• Beef, stewed rump of, 28
  • , stewed brisket, 29
  • , to salt red, which
  • is extremely good to eat fresh from the pickle, or to hang to dry, 30
  • , pressed, 31
  • , hunter’s, 31
  • , to dress the inside of a cold sirloin, 38
  • , fricassee of cold roast, 38
  • , to dress cold that has not been done enough, called beef olives, 38
  • , to dress, called Sanders, 39
  • , to dress, called Cecils, 39
  • , to salt for eating immediately, 27
  • alamode, 28
  • , broth, 250
  • , collared, 31
• Beef, collop, 33
  • hashed, 40
  • heart, 42
  • minced, 39
  • olives, 38
  • palates, 34
  • cakes for sidedish of dressed meat, 34
  • potted, 35
  • , another way, 35
  • patties, or Podovies, 34
  • , Benton sauce for hot or cold roast, 107
  • round of, 40
  • , sauce Robart for rumps, 106
  • , a pickle for that will keep for years, 68
  • , tea, 250
• Beefsteaks and oyster sauce, 32
  • , sauce Robart for, 106
  • pie, 34
  • pudding, 33
  • pudding, baked, 34
  • , Staffordshire, 32
  • , Italian, 33
• Beer, to refine, 238
  • (strong) to brew, 236
  • (table) excellent, 237
• Benton sauce, for hot or cold roast beef, 107
  • tea cakes, 220
• Birds, a very economical way of potting, 78
• Biscuit cake, 222
  • , hard, 220
• 279Biscuit, plain, and very crisp, 221
  • , of fruit, 204
• Black caps, 175
  • puddings, 65
  • another way, 66
• Blancmange, or Blamange, 164
• Boards, to give them a beautiful appearance, 269
• Bockings, 182
• Boiling meat, observations on, 20, 21
• Brandy cream, 169
  • pudding, 155
• Bread cake, common, 217
  • pudding, boiled, 147
    • , another and richer, 147
  • puddings, little, 145
  • and butter pudding, 142
  • sauce, 110
  • brown pudding, 147
  • ice, 211
  • French, 229
• Brentford rolls, 227
• Brewery, Home, 236 to 247
• Broth, A quickmade, 252
  • , a clear one, that will keep long, 249
  • Others are under different names; as Chicken broth, &c.
• Brown bread pudding, 147
  • ice, 211
• Browning, to colour and flavour made dishes, 117
• Bubble and Squeak, 42
• Bun, a good plain one, 226
  • , richer ones, 226
• Burnt cream, 170
• Butter, to clarify for potted things, 78
  • , to melt, 107
  • , pudding, 148
    • with meat, 148
  • , orange, 131
• Buttermilk, 233
  • , with bread or without, 263
  • , Dr. Boerhaave’s sweet, 263
  • , pudding, 155
• C.
• Cabbage, (red) to pickle, 124
  • , to stew, 126
• Cakes, 212 to 229
  • , observations on making and baking them, 212
  • , a very fine one, 215
  • , an excellent and less expensive one, 216
  • , a very good common one, 216
  • , a common one, 218
  • , little white, 219
  • , little short, 219
  • , flat that will keep long in the house good, 221
  • 280Many other cakes are under their different first names; as Plum cake, Teacakes, &c.
• Cakes, colours for staining &c., 203
  • , icing for, 212
• Calf’s feet broth, 252
  • , another, 252
  • jelly, 165
    • , another sort, 166
  • head, to boil, 49
    • , hashed, 49
    • , mock turtle, 49
  • , a cheaper way, 50
    • , forcemeat as for turtle, at the Bush, Bristol, 50
    • , another forcemeat, for balls or patties, 51
    • , pie, 52
    • , fricasseed, 53
  • liver, broiled, 55
    • , roasted, 55
• Calico furniture, to clean when taken down for the summer, 275
• Camp vinegar, 112
• Capers, to keep, 118
• Carmel cover for sweetmeats, 206
• Carp, boiled, 12
  • , stewed, 10
  • , an excellent sauce for, 106
• Carpets, to dust, 274
  • , to clean, 275
• Carrots, to stew, 127
  • , pudding, 153
  • , soup, 97
• Castiron, to clean stoves of, 271
  • , another way, 271
• Catsup, mushroom, 113
  • , another way, 113
  • , walnut of the finest sort, 113
  • , cockle, 114
• Caudle, 255
  • , another, 255
  • , rice, 255
  • , cold, 256
  • , a flour, 261
  • , rice, 261
  • , to give away to poor families, 268
• Cauliflower, in white sauce, 126
• Caveach, 4
• Cecils, 39
• Celery, to stew, 19
• Cheese, to pot, 230
  • , to roast, to come up after dinner, 231
  • , Cheese is also under different names; as Cream cheese, Apricot cheese, &c.
• Cheesecakes, 183
  • , a plainer sort, 184
  • , another way, 184
  • 281, lemon, 184
  • , another, 185
  • orange, 185
  • , a very fine crust for them, when to be particularly nice, 139
  • , potatoe, 185
  • , almond, 186
  • , light paste for, 139
• Cherries, in brandy, 195
  • , to dry
  • with sugar, 192
  • without sugar, 192
  • , to dry them the best way, 199
  • , jam, 190
  • , pie, 179
  • , (morella) to preserve, 209
• Chickens, to pull, 80
  • broth, 250
  • curry, 81
  • , another, more quickly made, 82
  • , fricassee of, 79
  • panada, 250
  • pie, 80
• Chocolate, to prepare, 258
• Clary wine, 244
• Cod, crimp, 13
  • head and shoulders, 12
  • pie, 11
  • ragout, 13
  • sounds boiled, 13
• Cod, curry of, 13
• Codlins, to keep for several months, 189
  • , to scald, 177
  • tart, 179
• Coffee, to make, 259
  • cream, much admired, 171
  • milk, 259
• Collops, mutton, 72
  • , veal, dressed, quick, 44
  • , another way, 45
  • , veal, 45
  • of cold veal or chicken, 45
  • Scotch, 46
• Cornish pies, 89
• Cough, draught for, 258
• Crab, hot, 8
• Cracknuts, 222
• Cracknels, 223
• Cranberries, different ways of dressing, 177
  • jelly, 178
  • and rice jelly, 178
• Crawfish, soup, 101
• Cream, to scald, 233
  • , imperial, 167
  • , a, 168
  • , Others are under the names of the different principal articles they are made of; as Almond cream, &c.
  • 282, a froth to sit on, which looks and eats well, 162
  • , ice, 210
  • Cheese, 234
  • , another, 234
  • , another sort, 235
  • , rush cheese, 235
  • , another way, 235
• Crust, excellent short, 139
  • , another, 189
  • , a very fine one for orange cheesecakes or sweetmeats, when to be particularly nice, 139
  • , rice piecrust, 150
  • , raised crust for custards, of fruit, 140
  • , for meat pies, or fowls, &c., 140
  • , for venison pasty, 141
  • , rice pasty, 141
  • , See also the article Paste.
• Cucumbers, to stew, 125
  • , another way, 125
  • and onions sliced, to pickle, 122
  • , another way, 122
  • , young, 122
• Cullis, or brown sauce, 104
• Curds and cream, 160
• Curd, another way, 161
  • puddings or puffs, 156
  • pudding boiled, 156
• Currants, to keep, 188
  • dumplings, or pudding, 151
  • and raspberry tart, 180
  • jelly, red or black, 193
  • , white, shrub, 247
  • water ice, 210
  • wine, 241
• Curry, rice boiled to eat with, 136
• Custards, cheap and excellent ones, 168
  • , richer, 168
  • Others are under the names of the different principal articles they are made of; as Lemon custards, &c.
  • , a froth to set on, which looks and eats well, 162
  • pudding, 152
• Cutlets, Maintenon, 44
  • , another way, 44
  • , another way, 44
• Cider, to refine, 238
• D.
• Dairy, 231 to 235
• Damsons, to keep for winter pies, 189
  • another way, 189
• 283Damsons, another, 190
  • cheese, 203
  • dumplings, or pudding, 151
• Davenport fowls, 80
• Devonshire junket, 161
• Drink, a very agreeable one for the sick, 253
  • a refreshing one in a fever, 256
  • another, 256
  • another, 256
  • , a most pleasant, 256
  • , draught for a cough, 258
• Duck, to boil, 83
  • to roast, 83
  • sauce for, 105
  • pie, 83
• Dutch pudding, or Souster, 144
  • rice pudding, 145
• E.
• Eel, boiled, 2
  • broth, 3, 251
  • collared, 3
  • fried, 2
  • pie, 2
  • spitchcock, 2
• Eggs, buttered, 109
  • to poach, 231
  • sauce, 109
  • wine, 257
  • little, for pies or turtles, 111
• Essence, of anchovies, 211
• F.
• Fish, 1 to 20
  • observations on dressing, 17
  • jelly to cover cold ones, 104
  • sauce without butter, 108
  • sauce à-la-craster, 111
    • a very fine one, 111
• Floating island, 162
  • another way, 162
• Floorcloths, directions respecting them, 269
  • to clean them, 270
• Floors, to dust, 274
• Flummery, 172
  • Dutch, 156
  • rice, 160
• Forcemeat for patties, balls, or stuffing, 132
  • Other forcemeat is under the name of dishes.
• Fowls, boiled, 78
  • boiled with rice, 79
  • observations on roasting them, 22
  • roasted, 78
  • Davenport, 80
  • sauce for cold, 106
  • vingaret for cold, 107
  • sauce for wild, 105
    • , another, 105
• 284Fowls, a very good sauce to hide the bad colour of, 109
  • forcemeat for pies of any kind, 81
  • fricassee of chickens, 79
  • another white sauce, more easily made, 71
  • collops of cold chicken, 45
  • to pot chicken with ham, 47
• Fraise, 182
• French beans, to preserve to eat in the winter, 130
  • bread, 229
  • rolls, 227
• Fricandeau, 54, 127
• Fritters, 182
  • Spanish, 183
  • potatoe, 183
• Froth, to set on cream, custard, or trifle, which looks and eats well, 162
• Fruits to keep, 186 to 211
• Furs, to preserve from moth, 276
• G.
• George pudding, 153
• German, 145
• Giblet pye, 85
  • soup, 93
  • stewed, 85
• Gilding, to preserve and clean, 273
• Ginger drops, a good stomachic, 202
  • wine, excellent, 242
  • another, 242
• Gingerbread, 225
  • another sort, 225
  • to make good without butter, 226
• Gloucester jelly, 261
• Goldenpippins, stewed, 175
• Goose, to roast, 84
  • green pie, 85
• Gooseberries, to preserve, 186
  • another way, 187
  • another, 188
  • fool, 172
  • hops, 205
  • jam, for tarts, 200
  • another, 201
  • white, 201
  • pudding, baked, 154
  • vinegar, 116
• Grapes, to preserve in brandy, 205
• Grates, to clean the backs of, 271
• Gravy, clear, 102
  • to draw that will keep a week, 102
  • a rich one, 103
  • veal, 104
  • soup, 95
• 285Green, to stain jellies, ices, or cakes, 203
• Grouse, 82
  • to pot them, 82
• H.
• Haddock, 14
  • stuffing for, 16
• Hams, to cure, 61
  • another way, 61
  • another way, 62
  • another way, that gives a higher flavour, 62
  • a method of giving a still higher flavour, 62
  • a pickle for them that will keep for years, 68
  • to dress, 63
• Hares, 22
  • to prepare and dress, 90
  • to jug an old one, 91
  • broiled and hashed, 92
  • pie, 91
  • potted, 91
  • soup, 91, 99
• Harrico, 70
• Harslet, 67
• Hartshorn jelly, 167
• Heart, beef, 42
• Hearths, (the inner) to clean, 271
  • another way, 271
• Herrings, baked, 8
  • broiled, 9
  • fried, 9
  • to smoke, 8
  • (red) to dress, 8
• Hessian soup and ragout, 35
  • the ragout, 36
• Hog’s cheeks, to dry, 63
  • head, to make excellent meat of, 56
  • lard, 67
  • puddings, white, 66
• Hotch potch, an excellent one, 74
  • another, 75
• Hunter’s beef, 81
  • pudding, 152
• I.
• Icing, for tarts, 211
  • for cakes, 212
• Ice waters, 210
  • currant or raspberry, 210
  • brown bread, 211
  • to make the, 211
  • creams, 210
  • colours for staining them, 203
• Imperial, 242
  • cream, 167
• India pickle, 118
• Irons, to preserve them from rust, 271
• J.
• Jelly to cover cold fish, 103
• 286Other Jellies are under the names of the different principal articles they are made of; as Calf’s feet jelly, &c.
  • colours for staining, &c., 203
• Junket, Devonshire, 161
• K.
• Kidney, veal, 46
  • pudding, 151
• Kitchen pepper, 116
• L.
• Lamb, fore quarter, 76
  • fry, 76
  • head and hinge, 76
  • leg and loin, 75
  • steaks, 72
  • steaks and cucumbers, 74
• Lamprey, to stew, as at Worcester, 1
• Lard, 67
• Leek soup, Scotch, 99
• Lemons, to keep for puddings, &c., 186
  • to preserve in jelly, 207
  • cheesecakes, 184
  • another, 185
  • cream, yellow without cream, 163
  • white ditto, 164
  • custards, 159
  • drops, 203
    • honeycomb, 171
  • juice, to keep, 209
  • pickle, 112
• Lemon, pudding, an excellent one, 143
  • sauce, 108
  • syrup, 247
  • water, 254
• Lemonade, 254
  • to be made a day before wanted, 239
  • another way, 240
• Lent potatoes, 160
• Light, or German puddings, 145
• Liver sauce, 109
• Lobsters, buttered, 7
  • curry of them, 7
  • patties, 134
  • pie, 7
  • to pot them, 6
    • another way, as at Wood’s hotel, 6
  • sallad, 128
  • sauce, 107
    • another way, 107
  • stewed, as a very high relish, 7
• Lookingglasses, to clean, 273
• M.
• Macaroons, 224
• Mackerel, boiled, 3
  • broiled, 3
  • collared, 3
  • potted, 3
  • pickled, 3
  • pickled, called caveach, 4
• Magnum bonum plums, 204
• Mahogany, to give a fine colour to, 274
• 287Maids, 17
• Marble, to take stains out of, 275
• Marmalade, apple, 177
  • orange, 198
  • quince, 199
  • transparent, 207
  • Marrow bones, 38
• Mawskins, to cure, for rennet, 233
• Meats, 20 to 76
  • observations on dressing, 20
  • (roast) rice boiled to eat with, 136
• Melon mangoes, 121
• Milkporridge, for the sick, 255
  • French, 255
• Milkpunch, 246
• Millet pudding, 153
• Mincepie, 134
  • without meat, 135
    • lemon, 135
    • egg, 135
    • patties resembling, 134
• Mock turtle, 49
  • a cheaper way, 50
  • forcemeat as for turtle, at the Bush, Bristol, 50
  • another forcemeat for balls or patties, 51
  • another, 51
  • another, 52
• Moor game, to pot, 82
• Moor hen to roast, 83
• Morella cherries, to preserve, 209
• Muffins, 227
• Mulled wine, 262
• Mushrooms, to dry, 115
  • an excellent way to pickle, to preserve the flavour, 124
  • to stew, 127
  • powder, 114
• Mustard, to make, 118
  • another way for immediate use, 118
• Mutton, to choose, 22
• Mutton, breast, 73
  • broth, 250
    • Scotch, 100
  • collops, 70
  • cutlets in the Portuguese way, 75
  • ham, 75
  • harrico, 70
  • haunch, 69
  • , an excellent hotch potch, 74
    • another, 75
  • legs, 69
  • , rolled loin, 74
  • necks, 69
  • pie, 71
  • and potatoe pie, 71
  • pudding, 71
  • sausages, 71
  • shoulder, boiled with oysters, 73
  • steaks, 72
• 288Mutton, steaks of, or lamb and cucumbers, 74
• N.
• Nasturtions, to pickle for capers, 123
• New college puddings, 146
• Norfolk punch, 247
• O.
• Oatmeal pudding, 144
• Omlet, 136
• Onions, pickled, 121
  • , to roast, 125
  • sauce, 109
  • , sliced with cucumbers, 122
  • , another way, 122
  • soup, 97
  • , to stew, 125
• Orangeade, 254
• Orange butter, 131
  • cakes, 208
  • cheesecakes, 185
  • chips, 208
  • fool, 171
  • jelly, 167
  • juice, buttered, 173
  • pudding, 143
    • another, 143
    • another, 143
  • syrup, 247
  • tart, 179
• Oranges, to butter, 173
  • to keep, for puddings, &c., 186
  • , to prepare to put into puddings, 195
  • preserved, to fill; a corner dish, 178
• Oranges, to preserve in jelly, 207
• Orgeat, 254
  • to make, 239
    • , another way, 239
• Oxcheek stewed, plain, 36
  • to dress it another way, 37
  • rump soup, 100
• Oxford dumplings, 147
• Oysters, fried, to garnish boiled fish, 15
  • , to pickle, 15
    • another way, 15
  • , scalloped, 14
  • , to stew, 14
  • patties, or small pie, 14
  • , patties, 133
  • , sauce, 110
  • , sauce to beef steaks, 32
• P.
• Paint, to clean, 272
• Panada, made in five minutes, 252
  • another, 253
  • another, 253
  • chicken, 250
• Pancakes, common, 181
  • fine ones, fried without butter or lard, 182
  • Irish, 181
  • of rice, 181
• Paperhangings, to clean, 272
• Parsley pie, 88
• Parsnips, to mash, 129
• 289Partridges, to roast, 77
  • , potted, 77
  • , a very economical way, 78
  • , sauce for them cold, 106
• Pastes, light, for tarts and cheesecakes, 139
  • , potatoe, 141
  • See also the article Crust.
• Pastry, 132 to 142
• Pasty, venison, 25, 26
  • , an imitation of, 27
  • , of beef or mutton to eat as well as venison, 24
• Patties, sweet, 134
  • , resembling mincepies, 134
  • , fried, 133
  • , Others are under the names of the articles they are made of.
  • , forcemeat for, 132
• Peaches in brandy, 195
• Pears, stewed, 174
  • , baked, 174
  • , dried, 175
• Peas (old) soup, 94
  • , to stew, 127
  • (green), to keep, 129
    • another way, as practised in the emperor of Russia’s kitchen, 130
• Peas, to stew, 124
  • , soup, 94
• Pepper, kitchen, 116
• Peppermint drops, 203
• Perch and tench, 3
• Pettitoes, 58
• Pewter (patent) porterpots, to clean, 271
• Pheasants, to roast, 77
• Pickles, 118 to 124
  • , that will keep for years, for hams, tongues, or beef, 68
  • , are under the names of the articles pickled.
• Pies, 88 to 90
  • , are under the names of the principal articles they are made of; as Apple pie, &c.
• Pig’s cheek for boiling, 58
  • collared head, 59
  • feet and ears, different ways of dressing, 60
  • fricassee, 60
  • harslet, 67
  • jelly of feet and ears, 60
• Pigeons broiled, 88
  • in jelly, 86
  • to pickle, 86
  • pie, 87
  • potted, 87
  • roast, 88
  • stewed, 85
    • , another way, 86
• 290Pike, baked, 4
  • , stuffing for, 16
• Pippin pudding, 157
  • tarts, 177
  • , stewed golden, 175
• Plaice, an excellent way of dressing a large one, 11
• Plate, to clean, 273
• Plumcake, 213
  • another, 214
  • very good common ones, 220
  • little ones, to keep long, 221
• Plum pudding, common, 152
• Podovies, or beef patties, 34
• Poor persons, hints respecting their relief, 264 to 268
• Pork, to roast a leg, 59
  • to boil a leg, 60
  • to pickle, 64
  • to salt for eating immediately, 27
  • jelly, Dr. Ratcluff’s restorative, 249
  • steaks, 61
  • loins and necks, roast, 67
  • rolled neck, 68
• Porker’s head, roasted, 58
• Portable soup, a very useful thing, 101
• Potatoes, to boil, 128
  • to broil, 129
  • to roast, 129
  • to fry, 129
  • to mash, 129
  • cheesecakes, 185
  • Lent, 160
  • pastry, 142
  • pasty, 88
  • pudding with meat, 150
  • pudding, an excellent plain one, 153
  • rolls, 228
• Potting birds, a very economical way of, 78
  • to clarify butter for potted things, 78
• Poultry, 76 to 88
• Pound cake, good, 217
• Prawns, curry of, 7
  • soup, 101
• Prune tart, 178
• Puddings, 142 to 159
  • observations on making them, 159
  • a quick made one, 158
  • in haste, 146
  • a cheap and not troublesome one, to give away to poor sick or young families, 264
  • , Others are under the names of the principal articles they are made of, or their first names; as Bread pudding, Light pudding, &c.
• 291Puff paste, rich, 138
  • less rich, 138
  • German, another way, 138
  • , to prepare apples for, 176
  • , of any sorts of fruit, 180
  • , excellent light ones, 157
  • , curd, 156
• Punch, milk, 246
  • Norfolk, 247
• Q.
• Queen cakes, 218
  • , another way, 218
• Quickmade pudding, 158
• R.
• Rabbits, 22
  • , various ways, 92
  • , to make them taste much like a hare, 92
  • potted, 93
  • (roast) a very good sauce for them, 109
• Raised crust for custards or fruit, 140
  • , for meatpies or fowls, &c., 140
  • pies, to prepare meat or fowls for them, 90
• Raisinwine, with cider, 245
  • , without cider, 245
• Ramakins, 137
• Raspberry brandy, 246
  • cakes, 194
  • cream, 172
  • jam, 193
    • , another way, 194
  • jelly, for ices or creams, 194
  • vinegar, 240
  • vinegarwater, 254
  • water ice, 210
  • wine, 241
    • , another way, 241
  • and currant tart, 180
• Ratafia, 246
• Red, a beautiful one, to stain jellies, ices, or cakes, 203
  • herrings, to dress, 8
• Rennet, to cure mawskins, for, 233
• Restorative, a great one, 248
  • another, 248
  • another, 248
  • another most pleasant draught, 248
• Rhubarb tart, 180
• Rice, savory, 136
  • boiled to eat with curry or roast meat, 130
  • buttered, 136
  • cake, 223
    • , another, 223
  • caudle, 261
• 292Rice caudle, for the sick, 225
  • flummery, 160
  • milk, 171
  • , ground rice milk, 260
  • piecrust, 150
  • pasty crust, 141
  • pudding, baked, 149
    • , another, for the family, 149
    • Dutch, 145
    • with fruit, 149
    • , plain, 149
    • , rich, 152
    • small, 148
    • ground, 159
• Roasting meat, observations on, 21
  • fowls, 22
  • hares and rabbits, 22
• Rolls, excellent ones, 228
  • , Brentford, 227
  • , French, 227
  • , potatoe, 228
• Rusks, 222
• Russian seed pudding, 159
• S.
• Sack cream, 162
• Saffron cakes, 228
• Sago, to prepare, 260
  • to prepare to give away to poor families, 267
  • milk, 171, 260
  • pudding, 142
• Sallad, French, 128
  • , lobster, 128
• Salmon, to boil, 4
  • , no vinegar to be boiled with it, 18
  • to pickle, 5
  • to broil, 5
  • to pot, 5
  • to dry, 5
• Saloop, 264
• Sanders, 39
• Sauces, 104 to 111
  • robart, for rumps or steaks, 106
  • a very good sauce especially to hide the bad colour of fowls, 109
  • Other sauces are under the names of different dishes, or of the principal articles the sauces are made of.
• Sausages, mutton, 71
  • , pork, 64
  • , Spadbury’s Oxford, 65
  • , veal, 56
  • , an excellent sausage to eat cold, 65
• Scotch collops, 46
• Seed cake, a cheap one, 216
  • , another, 217
• Servants, useful directions to give to them, 269 to 276
• Shalot vinegar, 112
• Shank jelly, 251
• 293Shelford pudding, 155
• Shrewsbury cakes, 219
• Shrimp pie excellent, 88
  • sauce, 108
• Shrub, white currant, 247
• Sick persons, cookery for, 247 to 264
• Skate, 16
  • crimp, 17
• Smelts, to fry, 12
• Snow balls, 151
  • cream, 169
• Soals, boiled, 9
  • fried, 9
  • stewed, 10
  • in the Portuguese way, 10
  • stuffing for soals baked, 10
  • pie, another sort of stuffing, 11
• Sorrel, to stew, for fricandeau and roast meat, 127
  • sauce, 54
• Soups, 93 to 102
  • à-la-sap, 100
  • , a rich white one, 96
  • , a plainer white one, 97
  • , an excellent soup, 97
  • , a baked one, to give away to poor families, 265
  • , for the weakly, for the same purpose, 267
  • , Other soups are under the names of the principal articles they are made of.
• Souster, 144
• Spadbury’s Oxford sausages, 65
• Spinach, to stew, 126
  • French way, 126
  • soup, 98
• Sprats, 16
  • , baked, 8
  • , to make them taste like anchovies, 117
• Spongecake, 224
  • another, without butter, 224
• Steak pudding, 151
• Steel, to take rust out of, 272
• Stews, 124 to 127
• Stone stairs and halls, to clean, 272
• Stoves, to take the black off the bright bars in a few minutes, 270
  • to clean the back of the grate, the inner hearth, and the front of cast iron stoves, 271
    • another way, 271
• Strawberries, to preserve them whole, 197
  • another way, 198
• Stuffing for pike, haddock, &c., 16
  • for soals baked
    • another sort, 11
• 294Stuffing, forcemeat for, 132
• Sturgeon, to dress fresh, 16
  • an excellent imitation of sturgeon, 19
• Sucking pig, to scald, 57
  • , to roast, 57
• Suet, to preserve it a twelve month, 40
  • pudding, 151
  • dumplings, 151
• Suffolk dumplings, 158
• Sugar, to clarify, 191
• Supper, small dishes for, 131, 132
  • , a pretty sweet supper dish, 169
• Sweet dishes, 159 to 186
• Sweetbreads, 55
  • , ragout, 56
• Sweetmeats, observations on, 190
  • , a very fine crust for them, when to be particularly nice, 139
  • , a carmel cover for sweetmeats, 206
  • , excellent sweetmeats for tarts, when fruit is plentiful, 193
• Syllabub, London, 161
  • , Staffordshire, 161
  • , a very fine Somersetshire one, 162
  • , everlasting or solid, 163
• T.
• Table Beer, excellent, to brew, 237
• Tansey, 181
• Tapioca jelly, 260
• Tarts, icing for them, 211
  • Tarts are under the names of the principal articles they are made of; as Codlin tarts, &c.
• Teacakes, 219
  • , Benton, 220
  • , another sort, as biscuit, 220
  • , another sort, 220
• Teal, to roast, 83
• Tench, 3
  • broth, 251
• Thornback, 16
• Tin covers, to clean, 271
• Toast and water, for the sick, 254
• Tongues, to pickle for boiling, 41
  • another way, 41
  • , a pickle for them, that will keep for years, 68
  • , an excellent mode of doing them to eat cold, 42
  • , stewed, 42
  • , and udder, to roast, 40
• 295Trifle, an excellent one, 170
  • , a froth to set on, which looks and eats well, 162
• Tripe, 42
• Tunbridge cakes, 225
• Turbot, to boil, 1
  • pie, 11
• Turkey, to boil, 70
  • an excellent sauce for it boiled, 106
  • to roast, 76
  • pulled, 77
  • patties, 77
• Turnip pie, 88
  • soup, 93
• Turtles, little eggs for them, 111
• U.
• Udder and tongue, to roast, 40
• V.
• Veal, breast of, 47
  • rolled breast, 48
  • broth, 259
  • very nourishing, 249
  • collops, 45
  • collops of cold, 45
  • fricandeau, 54
  • gravy, 104
  • knuckle, 43
  • leg, 43
  • neck, 47
  • olives, 55
  • patties, 54
  • , potted, at bottom, 46
  • , to pot, with ham, 47
  • sausages, 56
  • shoulder, 48
• Vegetables, 128 to 131
  • , to boil them green, 131
  • soup, 98
    • , another, 98
• Venison, to keep, 23
  • , to dress, 23
  • hashed, 27
  • haunch, neck, &c., 25
  • , stewed shoulder, 25
  • , to prepare for pasty, 25
  • pasty, 26
    • , crust for, 141
  • , an imitation of venison pasty, 27
  • to make a pasty of beef or mutton, to eat as well as venison, 24
• Verder, or milk punch, 246
• Vinegar, camp, 112
  • gooseberry, 116
  • raspberry, 240
  • shalot, 112
  • sugar, 115
  • wine, 116
• Vingaret, for cold fowl or meat, 107
• W.
• Wafers, 224
• Walnuts, to pickle, 123
• Water cakes, 223
• Whey, 257
• 296Whey, white wine for the sick, 257
  • vinegar and lemon, 257
• White, to stain jellies, ices, or cakes, 203
  • , hogs puddings, 66
  • sauce, 104
• Widgeon, to roast, 83
• Wine, to refine, 238
  • roll, 170
  • , mulled, 262
  • a rich and pleasant, 244
  • Several sorts of made wine are under the different names; as Currant wine, &c.
• Y.
• Yeast, to make, 229
  • another way, 229
  • , to preserve, 230
  • or Suffolk dumplings, 158
• Yellow, to stain jellies, ices or cakes, 203
• Yorkshire cake, 228
  • pudding, 158

The rapid sale of the thirteen former Editions of this Dictionary, has induced the Editor to comply with the desires of the public, in preparing another impression for the press. To copy the best examples is not only the necessary resource of the writers of the present age, but it exhibits, at the same time, a proof of their modesty and discernment. This remark extends to authors in almost every department of science and morals: but it is peculiarly applicable to the Editor of a Dictionary. If a word has been once explained with accuracy, and its various meanings discriminated with critical acumen, nothing remains for a succeeding writer, but to collect and arrange the labours of his predecessors, in a manner which coincides with his own particular plan. Such is the use which has been made in the present work of the laborious and celebrated compilation of Dr. Johnson, which is the most perfect model in its kind. And if this task has been performed with only common industry and care, it will follow that this small volume contains in substance the quintessence of lexicography, and is adapted for every purpose as a book of reference. It has also this superior advantage, that the more obsolete excrescences of Johnson, and other eminent lexicographers, are here exchanged for many additional scientific and literary terms not current in their time. In fact, no pains have been spared to render this work as complete as its limits would admit.

An epitome of the Heathen Mythology follows the Dictionary, more copious and correct than has hitherto appeared in any similar production; and the Chronology annexed exhibits the general outlines of ancient and modern history.