Part 37

Batter should never-stick to the knife when it is sent to the table; it will do this both when less than sufficient number of eggs is mixed with it and when it is not cooked enough; about four eggs to the half pound of flour will make it firm enough to cut smoothly.

When baked or boiled puddings are sufficiently solid, turn them out of the dish they were baked in, bottom uppermost and strew over them finely sifted sugar.

When pastry or baked puddings are not done through, and yet the outside is sufficiently brown, cover them over with a piece of white paper until thoroughly cooked; this prevents them from getting burnt.

TO CLEAN CURRANTS.

Put them in a sieve or colander and sprinkle them thickly with flour; rub them well until they are separated, and the flour, grit and fine stems have passed through the strainer. Place the strainer and currants in a pan of water and wash thoroughly; then lift the strainer and currants together, and change the water until it is clear. Dry the currants between clean towels. It hardens them to dry in an oven.

TO CHOP SUET.

Break or cut in small pieces, sprinkle with sifted flour, and chop in a cold place to keep it from becoming sticky and soft.

TO STONE RAISINS.

Put them in a dish and pour _boiling_ water over them; cover and let them remain in it ten minutes; it will soften so that by rubbing each raisin between the thumb and finger, the seeds will come out clean; then they are ready for cutting or chopping if required.

APPLE DUMPLINGS.

Make a rich biscuit dough, the same as soda or baking-powder biscuit, only adding a little more shortening. Take a piece of dough out on the molding-board, roll out almost as thin as pie crust; then cut into square pieces large enough to cover an apple. Put into the middle of each piece two apple halves that have been pared and cored; sprinkle on a spoonful of sugar and a pinch of ground cinnamon, turn the ends of the dough over the apple and lap them tight. Lay the dumplings in a dripping-pan buttered, the smooth side upward. When the pans are filled, put a small piece of butter on top of each, sprinkle over a large handful of sugar, turn in a cupful of boiling water, then place in a moderate oven for three-quarters of an hour. Baste with the liquor once while baking. Serve with pudding-sauce or cream and sugar.

BOILED APPLE DUMPLINGS.

The same recipe as the above, with the exception that they are put into a small coarse cloth well floured after being dipped in hot water. Each cloth to be tied securely, but leaving room enough for the dumpling to swell. Put them in a pot of boiling water and boil three-quarters of an hour. Serve with sweet sauce. Peaches and other fruits used in the same manner.

BOILED RICE DUMPLINGS, CUSTARD SAUCE.

Boil half a pound of rice, drain and mash it moderately fine. Add to it two ounces of butter, three ounces of sugar, half a saltspoonful of mixed ground spice, salt and the yolks of two eggs. Moisten a trifle with a tablespoonful or two of cream. With floured hands shape the mixture into balls, and tie them in floured pudding cloths. Steam or boil forty minutes and send to table with a custard sauce made as follows:--

Mix together four ounces of sugar and two ounces of butter (slightly warmed). Beat together the yolks of two eggs and a gill of cream; mix and pour the sauce in a double saucepan; set this in a pan of hot water and whisk thoroughly three minutes. Set the saucepan in cold water and whisk until the sauce is cooled.

SUET DUMPLINGS. No. 1.

One pint bowl of fine bread crumbs, one-half cupful of beef suet chopped fine, the whites and yolks of four eggs beaten separately and very light, one teaspoonful of cream of tartar sifted into half a cupful of flour, half a teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a little water, and a teaspoonful of salt. Wet it all together with milk enough to make a stiff paste. Flour your hands and make into balls. Tie up in separate cloths that have been wrung out in hot water and floured inside; leave room, when tying, for them to swell. Drop them into _boiling_ water and boil about three-quarters of an hour. Serve _hot_, with wine sauce, or syrup and butter.

SUET DUMPLINGS. No. 2.

One cupful of suet chopped fine, one cupful of grated English muffins or bread, one cupful of flour, half a teaspoonful of baking powder, half a cupful of sugar, two eggs, one pint of milk, a large pinch of salt. Sift together powder and flour, add the beaten eggs, grated muffins, sugar, suet and milk; form into smooth batter, which drop by tablespoonfuls into a pint of boiling milk, three or four at a time; when done, dish and pour over the milk they were boiled in. A Danish dish; very good.

PRESERVE DUMPLINGS.

Preserved peaches, plums, quinces, cherries or any other sweetmeat; make a light crust, and roll a small piece of moderate thickness and fill with the fruit in quantity to make the size of a peach dumpling; tie each one in a dumpling cloth, well floured inside, drop them into hot water and boil half an hour; when done, remove the cloth, send to table hot and eat with cream.

OXFORD DUMPLINGS.

Beat until quite light one tablespoonful of sugar and the yolks of three eggs, add half a cupful of finely chopped suet, half a cupful of English currants, one cupful of sifted flour, in which there has been sifted a heaping teaspoonful of baking powder, a little nutmeg, one teaspoonful of salt and, lastly, the beaten whites of the eggs; flour your hands and make it into balls the size of an egg; boil in separate cloth one hour or more. Serve with wine sauce.

LEMON DUMPLINGS.

Mix together a pint of grated bread crumbs, half a cupful of chopped suet, half a cupful of moist sugar, a little salt and a small tablespoonful of flour, adding the grated rind of a lemon. Moisten it all with the whites and yolks of two eggs _well_ beaten and the juice of the lemon, strained. Stir it all well together and put the mixture into small cups well buttered; tie them down with a cloth dipped in flour and boil three-quarters of an hour. Turn them out on a dish, strew sifted sugar over them and serve with wine sauce.

BOILED APPLE PUFFETS.

Three eggs, one pint of milk, a little salt, sufficient flour to thicken as waffle batter, one and one-half teaspoonfuls of baking powder. Fill teacups alternately with a layer of batter and then of apples chopped fine. Steam one hour. Serve hot with flavored cream and sugar. You can substitute any fresh fruit or jams your taste prefers.

COMMON BATTER.

For boiled puddings, fritters, etc., is made with one cupful of milk, a pinch of salt, two eggs, one tablespoonful of melted butter, one cupful of flour and a small teaspoonful of baking powder. Sift the flour, powder and salt together, add the melted butter, the eggs well beaten and the milk; mix into a very smooth batter, a little thicker than for griddle-cakes.

ALMOND PUDDING.

Turn boiling water on to three-fourths of a pound of sweet almonds, let it remain until the skin comes off easily; rub with a dry cloth; when dry, pound fine with one large spoonful of rose-water; beat six eggs to a stiff froth with three spoonfuls of fine white sugar; mix with one quart of milk, three spoonfuls of pounded crackers, four ounces of melted butter, and the same of citron cut into bits; add almonds, stir altogether and bake in a small pudding-dish with a lining and rim of pastry. This pudding is best when cold. It will bake in half an hour in a quick oven.

APPLE PUDDING, BAKED.

Stir two tablespoonfuls of butter and half a cupful of sugar to a cream; stir into this the yolks of four eggs, well beaten, the juice and grated rind of one lemon and half a dozen sound, green tart grated. Now stir in the four beaten whites of the eggs, season with cinnamon or nutmeg; bake. To be served cold with cream.

BOILED APPLE PUDDING.

Take three eggs, three apples, a quarter of a pound of bread crumbs, one lemon, three ounces of sugar, three ounces of currants, half a wine-glassful of wine, nutmeg, butter and sugar for sauce. Pare, core and mince the apples and mix with the bread crumbs, nutmeg, grated sugar, currants; the juice of the lemon and half the rind grated. Beat the eggs well, moisten the mixture with these and beat all together, adding the wine last; put the pudding in a buttered mold, tie it down with a cloth; boil one hour and a half and serve with sweet sauce.

BIRDS' NEST PUDDING.

Core and peel eight apples, put in a dish, fill the places from which the cores have been taken with sugar and a little grated nutmeg; cover and bake. Beat the yolks of four eggs light, add two teacupfuls of flour, with three even teaspoonfuls of baking powder sifted with it, one pint of milk with a teaspoonful of salt; then add the whites of the eggs well beaten, pour over the apples and bake one hour in a moderate oven. Serve with sauce.

BREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING. No. 1.

Butter the sides and bottom of a deep pudding-dish, then butter thin slices of bread, sprinkle thickly with sugar, a little cinnamon, chopped apple, or any fruit you prefer between each slice, until your dish is full. Beat up two eggs, add a tablespoonful of sifted flour; stir with the three cupfuls of milk and a little salt; pour over this the bread, let it stand one hour and then bake slowly, with a cover on, three-quarters of an hour; then take the cover off and brown. Serve with wine and lemon sauce.

Pie-plant, cut up in small pieces with plenty of sugar, is fine made in this manner.

BREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING. No. 2.

Place a layer of stale bread, rolled fine, in the bottom of a pudding-dish, then a layer of any kind of fruit; sprinkle on a little sugar, then another layer of bread crumbs and of fruit; and so on until the dish is full, the top layer being crumbs. Make a custard as for pies, add a pint of milk and mix. Pour it over the top of the pudding and bake until the fruit is cooked.

Stale cake, crumbed fine, in place of bread, is an improvement.

COLD BERRY PUDDING.

Take rather stale bread--baker's bread or light home-made--cut in thin slices and spread with butter. Add a very little water and a little sugar to one quart or more of huckleberries and blackberries, or the former alone. Stew a few minutes until juicy; put a layer of buttered bread in your buttered pudding-dish, then a layer of stewed berries while hot and so on until full; lastly, a covering of stewed berries. It may be improved with a rather soft frosting over the top. To be eaten cold with thick cream and sugar.

APPLE TAPIOCA PUDDING.

Put one teacupful of tapioca and one teaspoonful of salt into one pint and a half of water, and let it stand several hours where it will be quite warm, but not cook; peel six tart apples, take out the cores, fill them with sugar, in which is grated a little nutmeg and lemon peel, and put them in a pudding-dish; over these pour the tapioca, first mixing with it one teaspoonful of melted butter and a cupful of cold milk, and half a cupful of sugar; bake one hour; eat with sauce.

When fresh fruits are in season, this pudding is exceedingly nice, with damsons, plums, red currants, gooseberries or apples; when made with these, the pudding must be thickly sprinkled over with sifted sugar.

Canned or fresh peaches may be used in place of apples in the same manner, moistening the tapioca with the juice of the canned peaches in place of the cold milk. Very nice when quite cool to serve with sugar and cream.

APPLE AND BROWN-BREAD PUDDING.

Take a pint of brown bread crumbs, a pint bowl of chopped apples, mix; add two-thirds of a cupful of finely-chopped suet, a cupful of raisins, one egg, a tablespoonful of flour, half a teaspoonful of salt. Mix with half a pint of milk, and boil in buttered molds about two hours. Serve with sauce flavored with lemon.

APPLE-PUFF PUDDING.

Put half a pound of flour into a basin, sprinkle in a little salt, stir in gradually a pint of milk; when quite smooth add three eggs; butter a pie-dish, pour in the batter; take three-quarters of a pound of apples, seed and cut in slices, and put in the batter; place bits of butter over the top; bake three-quarters of an hour; when done, sprinkle sugar over the top and serve hot.

PLAIN BREAD PUDDING, BAKED.

Break up about a pint of stale bread after cutting off the crust, pour over it a quart of boiling milk; add to this a piece of butter the size of a small egg; cover the dish tight and let it stand until cool; then with a spoon mash it until fine, adding a teaspoonful of cinnamon and one of nutmeg grated, half a cupful of sugar and one-quarter of a teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a little hot water. Beat up four eggs very light and add last. Turn all into a well-buttered pudding-dish and bake three-quarters of an hour. Serve it warm with hard sauce.

This recipe may be steamed or boiled; very nice either way.

SUPERIOR BREAD PUDDINGS.

One and one-half cupfuls of white sugar, two cupfuls of fine, dry bread crumbs, five eggs, one tablespoonful of butter, vanilla, rose-water or lemon flavoring, one quart of fresh rich milk and half a cupful of jelly or jam. Rub the butter into a cupful of sugar; beat the yolks very light, and stir these together to a cream. The bread crumbs soaked in milk come next, then the flavoring. Bake in a buttered pudding-dish--a large one and but two-thirds full--until the custard is "set." Draw to the mouth of the oven, spread over with jam or other nice fruit conserve. Cover this with a meringue made of the whipped whites and half a cupful of sugar. Shut the oven and bake until the meringue begins to color. Eat cold with cream. In strawberry season, substitute a pint of fresh fruit for preserves. It is then delicious. Serve with any warm sauce.

BOILED BREAD PUDDING.

To one quart of bread crumbs soaked soft in a cup of hot milk, add one cupful of molasses, one cupful of fruit or chopped raisins, one teaspoonful each of spices, one tablespoonful of butter, a teaspoonful of salt, one teaspoonful of soda, about a cupful of flour sifted; boil or steam three hours. Serve with sweet sauce.

ALMOND PUDDING. No. 1.

Put two quarts of milk into a double boiler; stir into it two heaping tablespoonfuls of sifted flour that has been stirred to a cream, with a little of the milk. When it boils, care should be taken that it does not burn; when cooked, take from the fire and let it cool. Take the skins off from two pounds of sweet almonds, pound them fine, stir them into the milk; add a teaspoonful of salt, a cupful of sugar, flavoring and six well-beaten eggs, the yolks and whites beaten separately. Put bits of butter over the top. Bake one hour. A gill of brandy or wine improves it.

ALMOND PUDDING. No. 2.

Steep four ounces of crumbs of bread, sliced, in one and one-half pints of cream, or grate the bread; then beat half a pound of blanched almonds very fine till they become a paste, with two teaspoonfuls of orange-flower water; beat up the yolks of eight eggs and the whites of four; mix all well together; put in a quarter of a pound of loaf sugar and stir in three or four ounces of melted butter; put it over the fire, stirring it until it is thick; lay a sheet of paper at the bottom of a dish and pour in the ingredients; bake half an hour. Use the remaining four whites of eggs for a meringue for the top.

BATTER PUDDING, BAKED.

Four eggs, the yolks and whites beaten separately, one pint of milk, one teaspoonful of salt, one teaspoonful of baking powder, two cupfuls of sifted flour. Put the whites of the eggs in last. Bake in an earthen dish that can be set on the table. Bake forty-five minutes; serve with rich sauce.

BOILED BATTER PUDDING.

Sift together a pint of flour and a teaspoonful of baking powder into a deep dish, sprinkle in a little salt, adding also a tablespoonful of melted butter. Stir into this gradually a pint of milk; when quite smooth, add four eggs, yolks and whites beaten separately. Now add enough more flour to make a _very stiff_ batter. If liked, any kind of fruit may be stirred into this; a pint of berries or sliced fruit. Boil two hours. Serve with cream and sugar, wine sauce, or any sweet sauce.

CUSTARD PUDDING. No. 1.

Take five tablespoonfuls out of a quart of cream or rich milk and mix them with two large spoonfuls of fine flour. Set the rest of the milk to boil, flavoring it with bitter almonds broken up. When it has boiled hard, take it off, strain it and stir it in the cold milk and flour. Set it away to cool and beat well eight yolks and four whites of eggs; add them to the milk and stir in, at the last, a glass of brandy or white wine, a teaspoonful of powdered nutmeg and half a cupful of sugar. Butter a large bowl or mold; pour in the mixture; tie a cloth tightly over it; put it into a pot of boiling water and boil it two hours, replenishing the pot with hot water from a tea-kettle. When the pudding is done, let it get cool before you turn it out. Eat it with butter and sugar stirred together to a cream and flavored with lemon juice or orange.

CUSTARD PUDDING. No. 2.

Pour one quart of milk in a deep pan and let the pan stand in a kettle of boiling water, while you beat to a cream eight eggs and six tablespoonfuls of fine sugar and a teaspoon of flour; then stir the eggs and sugar into the milk and continue stirring until it begins to thicken; then remove the pan from the boiling water, scrape down the sides, stir to the bottom until it begins to cool, add a tablespoonful of peach-water, or any other flavor you may prefer, pour into little cups and, when cold, serve.

CUSTARD PUDDINGS.

The recipe for COMMON CUSTARD, with the addition of chocolate grated, banana, or pineapple or cocoanut, makes successfully those different kinds of puddings.

APPLE CUSTARD PUDDINGS.

Put a quart of pared and quartered apples into a stewpan, with half a cupful of water and cook them until they are soft. Remove from the fire and add half a cupful of sugar, two tablespoonfuls of butter and the grated rind and the juice of a lemon. Have ready mixed two cupfuls of grated bread crumbs and two tablespoonfuls of flour; add this also to the apple mixture, after which stir in two well-beaten eggs. Turn all into a well-buttered pudding-dish and bake forty-five minutes in a moderate oven. Serve with sugar and cream or hard sweet sauce.

CREAM PUDDING.

Beat the yolks and whites of six eggs well and stir them into one pint of flour, one pint of milk, a little salt and a bit of soda dissolved in a little water, the grated rind of a lemon and three spoonfuls of sugar; just before baking stir in one pint of cream and bake in a buttered dish. Eat with cream.

CREAM MERINGUE PUDDING.

Stir to a cream half a cupful of sugar with the white of one egg and the yolks of four. Add one quart of milk and mix thoroughly. Put four tablespoonfuls of flour and a teaspoonful of salt into another dish, and pour half a cupful of the milk and egg mixture upon them, and beat very smooth, gradually adding the rest of the milk and egg mixture. Turn this all into a double boiler surrounded by boiling water; stir this until smooth and thick like cream, or about fifteen minutes; then add vanilla or other extract. Rub all through a strainer into a well-buttered pudding-dish. Now beat the remaining three whites of eggs to a stiff froth, and gradually add three tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar, and spread roughly over the pudding. Cook for twenty minutes in a _moderate_ oven. Serve cold.

CORNSTARCH PUDDING.

Reserve half a cupful of milk from a quart and put the remainder on the stove in a double boiler. Mix four large tablespoonfuls of cornstarch and a teaspoonful of salt with the half cupful of milk; then stir the mixture into the boiling milk and beat well for two minutes. Cover the boiler and cook the pudding for twelve minutes; then pour it into a pudding-dish and set in a cool place for half an hour. When the time for serving comes, make a sauce in this manner: Beat the whites of two eggs to a stiff, dry froth, and beat into this two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar. As soon as the sugar has been well mixed with the whites, add half of a large tumbler of currant jelly, or any other bright jelly, or any kind of preserved fruit may be used. If you prefer, serve sugar and cream with the pudding instead of a sauce.

COLD FRUIT PUDDING.

Throw into a pint of new milk the thin rind of a lemon, heat it slowly by the side of the fire and keep at the boiling point until strongly flavored. Sprinkle in a small pinch of salt and three-quarters of an ounce of the finest isinglass or gelatine. When dissolved, strain through muslin into a clean saucepan with five ounces of powdered sugar and half a pint of rich cream. Give the whole one boil, stir it briskly and add by degrees the well-beaten yolks of five eggs. Next thicken the mixture as a custard over a slow fire, taking care not to keep it over the fire a moment longer than necessary; pour it into a basin and flavor with orange-flower water or vanilla. Stir until nearly cold, then add two ounces of citron cut in thin strips and two ounces of candied cherries. Pour into a buttered mold. For sauce use any kind of fruit syrup.

CUBAN PUDDING.

Crumble a pound of sponge cakes, an equal quantity, or less if preferred, of cocoanut, grated in a basin. Pour over two pints of rich cream previously sweetened with a quarter of a pound of loaf sugar and brought to the boiling point. Cover the basin and when the cream is soaked up stir in it eight well-beaten eggs. Butter a mold, arrange four or five ounces of preserved ginger around it, pour in the pudding carefully and tie it down with a cloth. Steam or boil slowly for an hour and a half; serve with the syrup from the ginger, which should be warmed and poured over the pudding.

CRACKER PUDDING.