Part 33

Boil mealy potatoes in their skins, according to the plan laid down (_par_. 1104) skin and mash them with a little milk, pepper and salt: this will make a good pudding to bake under roast meat. With the addition of a bit of butter, an egg, milk, pepper, and salt, it makes an excellent batter for a meat pudding baked.

Grease a baking dish; put a layer of potatoes, then a layer of meat cut in bits, and seasoned with pepper, salt, a little allspice, either with or withouf chopped onions; a little gravy of roast meat is a great improvement: then put another layer of potatoes, then meat, and cover with potatoes. Put a buttered paper over the top, to prevent it from being burnt, and bake it from an hour to an hour and a half.

1284. Almond Pudding.

A large cupful of finely-minced beef suet, a teacupful of milk, four ounces of bread-crumbs, four ounces of well-cleaned currants, two ounces of almonds, half a pound of stoned raisins, three well-beaten eggs, and the whites of another two; sugar, nutmeg, and cinnamon, and a small glass of rum. Butter a shape, and place part of the raisins neatly in rows. Blanch the almonds; reserve the half of them to be placed in rows between the raisins just before serving. Mix all the remaining ingredients well together, put into the shape, and boil three hours.

1285. Sauce for Almond Pudding.

One teaspoonful of milk, and two yolks of eggs well beaten, and some sugar; place on the fire and stir till it _just comes to the boil_: then let it cool. When lukewarm, stir into it a glass of sherry or currant wine, and serve in a sauce tureen. This sauce is a great improvement to raisin pudding.

1286. Peas Pudding.

Dry a pint or quart of split peas thoroughly before the fire; then tie them up loosely in a cloth, put them into warm water, boil them a couple of hours, or more, until quite tender; take them up, beat them well in a dish with a little salt, the yolk of an egg, and a bit of butter. Make it quite smooth, tie it up again in a cloth, and boil it an hour longer. This is highly nourishing.

[LET TRUTH BE OUR GUIDE.]

1287. Apple Dumplings.

Paste the same as for apple pudding, divide into as many pieces as dumplings are required; peel and core the apples; roll out your paste large enough; put in the apples; close the dumplings, tie each in a cloth very tightly. Boil them one hour; when you take them up, dip them quickly in cold water, and put them in a cup while you untie them; they will turn out without breaking.

1288. Rice Dumplings.

Pick and wash a pound of rice, and boil it gently in two quarts of water till it becomes dry--keeping the pot well covered, and not stirring it. Then take it off the fire, and spread it out to cool on the bottom of an inverted sieve, loosening the grains lightly with a fork, that all the moisture may evaporate. Pare a dozen pippins, or some large juicy apples, and scoop out the core; then fill up the cavity with marmalade, or with lemon and sugar. Cover every apple all over with a thick coating of the boiled rice. Tie up each in a separate cloth, and put them into a pot of cold water. They will require about an hour and a quarter after they begin to boil, perhaps longer.

1289. Boiled Custard.

Boil half a pint of new milk, with a piece of lemon peel, two peach leaves, half a stick of cassia, a few whole allspice, from four to six ounces of white sugar. Cream may be used instead of milk; beat the yolks and white of four eggs, strain the milk through coarse muslin, or a hair sieve; then mix the eggs and milk very gradually together, and stir it well from the bottom, on the fire, till it thickens.

1290. Baked Custard.

Boil in a pint of milk a few coriander seeds, a little cinnamon and lemon peel; sweeten with four ounces of loaf sugar, mix with it a pint of cold milk; beat eight eggs for ten minutes; add the other ingredients; pour it from one pan into another six or eight times, strain through a sieve; let it stand; skim the froth from the top, pour it into earthen cups, and bake immediately in a hot oven till they are of a good colour; ten minutes will be sufficient.

1291. French Batter.

Two ounces of butter cut into bits, pour on it less than a quarter of a pint of water boiling; when dissolved, add three-quarters of a pint of water cold, so that it shall not be quite milk warm; mix by degrees smoothly with twelve ounces of fine dry flour and a small pinch of salt, if the batter be for fruit fritters, but with more if for meat or vegetables. Before used, stir into it the whites of two eggs beaten to solid froth; previously to this, add a little water if too thick. This is excellent for frying vegetables, and for fruit fritters.

1292. A Black Man's Recipe to Dress Rice.

Wash him well, much wash in cold water, the rice flour make him stick. Water boil all ready very fast. Throw him in, rice can't burn, water shake him too much. Boil quarter of an hour or little more; rub one rice in thumb and finger, if all rub away him quite done. Put rice in cullender, hot water run away; pour cup of cold water on him, put back rice in saucepan, keep him covered near the fire, then rice all ready. Eat him up!

1293. Yellow Rice.

Take one pound of rice, wash it clean, and put it into a saucepan which will hold three quarts; add to it half a pound of currants picked and washed, one quarter of an ounce of the best turmeric powder, previously dissolved in a cupful of water, and a stick of cinnamon; pour over them two quarts of cold water, place the saucepan uncovered on a moderate fire, and allow it to boil till the rice is dry, then stir in a quarter of a pound of sugar, and two ounces of butter: cover up, and place the pan near the fire for a few minutes, then mix it well and dish up. This is a favourite dish with the Japanese, and will be found excellent as a vegetable with roast meat, poultry, &c. It also forms a capital pudding, which may be improved by the addition of raisins, and a few blanched almonds.

[THE FALL OF THE LEAF IS A WHISPER TO THE LIVING.]

1294. Boiled Rice for Curry.

Put the rice on in _cold_ water, and let it come to a boil for a minute or so: strain it quite dry, and lay it on the hob in a stewpan without a cover to let the steam evaporate, then shake it into the dish while very hot. A squeeze of lemon juice after it boils will make it separate better.

1295. Lemon Rice.

Boil sufficient rice in milk, with white sugar to taste, till it is soft; put it into a pint basin or an earthenware blanc-mange mould, and leave it till cold. Peel a lemon very thick, cut the peel into shreds about half or three-quarters of an inch in length, put them into a little water, boil them up, and throw the water away, lest it should be bitter, then pour about a teacupful of fresh water upon them; squeeze and strain the juice of the lemon, add it with white sugar to the water and shreds, and let it stew gently at the fire for two hours. (When cold it will be a syrup.) Having turned out the jellied rice into a cutglass dish, or one of common delf, pour the syrup gradually over the rice, taking care the little shreds of the peel are equally distributed over the whole.

1296. Remains of Cold Sweet Dishes.

1297. Ripe Pudding.

Over the cold rice pudding pour a custard, and add a few lumps of jelly or preserved fruit. Remember to remove the baked coating of the pudding before the custard is poured over it.

1298. Apple Tart.

Cut into triangular pieces the remains of a cold apple tart: arrange the pieces around the sides of a glass or china bowl, and leave space in the centre for a custard to be poured in.

1299. Plum Pudding.

Cut into thin round slices cold plum pudding, and fry them in butter. Fry also Spanish fritters, and place them high in the centre of the dish, and the fried pudding all round the heaped-up frittera. Powder all with lump sugar, and serve them with wine sauce in a tureen.

1300. Fritters.

Make them of any of the batters directed for pancakes, by dropping a small quantity into the pan; or make the plainer sort, and dip pared apples, sliced and cored, into the batter, and fry them in plenty of hot lard. Currants, or sliced lemon as thin as paper, make an agreeable change. Fritters for company should be served on a folded napkin in the dish. Any sort of sweetmeat, or ripe fruit, may be made into fritters.

1301. Oyster Fritters.

Make a batter of flour, milk, and eggs; season with a very little nutmeg. Beard the oysters, and put as many as you think proper in each fritter.

1302. Potato Fritters.

Boil two large potatoes, bruise them fine, beat four yolks and three whites of eggs, and add to the above one large spoonful of cream, another of sweet wine, a squeeze of lemon, and a little nutmeg. Beat this batter well half an hour. It will be extremely light. Put a good quantity of fine lard into a stewpan, and drop a spoonful at a time of the batter into it. Fry the fritters; and serve as a sauce, a glass of white wine, the juice of a lemon, one dessert-spoonful of peach-leaf or almond water, and some white sugar, warmed together; not to be served in a dish.

1303. Apple Fritters.

Peel and core some fine pippins, and cut into slices. Soak them in wine, sugar, and nutmeg, for a few hours. Make a batter of four eggs to a tablespoonful of rose water, a tablespoonful of wine, and a tablespoonful of milk, thickened with enough flour, stirred in by degrees; mix two or three hours before wanted. Heat some butter in a frying-pan; dip each slice of apple separately in the batter, and fry brown; sift pounded sugar, and grate a nutmeg over them.

[THE HOPE IS SURE WHICH HAS ITS FOUNDATION IN VIRTUE.]

1304. Pancakes.

Make a light batter of eggs, flour, and milk; a little salt, nutmeg, and ginger may be added; fry in a small pan, in hot dripping or lard. Sugar and lemon should be served to eat with them. Or, when eggs are scarce, make the batter with small beer, ginger, and so forth; or water, with flour, and a very little milk, will serve, but not so well as eggs and all milk.

1305. Cream Pancakes.

Mix two eggs, well beaten, with a pint of cream, two ounces of sifted sugar, six of flour, a little nutmeg, cinnamon, and mace. Fry the pancakes thin, with a bit of butter.

1306. Rice Pancakes.

Boil half a pound of ground rice to a jelly in a pint of water or milk, and keep it well stirred from the bottom to prevent its being burnt; if too thick add a little more milk; take it off the fire; stir in six or eight ounces of butter, a pint of cream, six or eight eggs well beaten, a pinch of salt, sugar, and nutmeg, with as much flour as will make the batter thick enough. Fry with lard or dripping.

1307. Scones.

Flour, two pounds; bicarbonate of soda, quarter of an ounce; salt, quarter of an ounce; sour buttermilk, one pint, more or less. Mix to the consistence of light dough, roll out about half an inch thick, and cut them out to any shape you please, and bake on a _griddle_ over a clear fire about ten or fifteen minutes; turning them to brown on both sides--or they may be done on a hot plate, or ironing stove. A griddle is a thin plate of cast iron about twelve or fourteen inches in diameter, with a handle attached, to hang it up by.--These scones are excellent for tea, and may be eaten either cold or hot, buttered, or with cheese.

1308. Friar's Omelette.

Boil a dozen apples, as for sauce; stir in a quarter of a pound of butter, and the same of white sugar; when cold, add four eggs, well beaten; put it into a baking dish thickly strewed over with crumbs of bread, so as to stick to the bottom and sides; then put in the apple mixture; strew crumbs of bread over the top; when baked, turn it out and grate loaf sugar over it.

1309. Ordinary Omelette.

Take four eggs, beat the yolks and whites together with a tablespoonful of milk, and a little salt and pepper; put two ounces of butter into a frying-pan to boil, and let it remain until it begins to brown; pour the batter into it, and let it remain quiet for a minute; turn up the edges of the omelette gently from the bottom of the pan with a fork; shake it, to keep it from burning at the bottom, and fry it till of a bright brown. It will not take more than five minutes frying.

1310. Miss Acton's Observations on Omelettes, Pancakes, Fritters, &c.

"There is no difficulty in making good omelettes, pancakes, or fritters; and, as they may be expeditiously prepared and served, they are often a very convenient resource when, on short notice, an addition is required to a dinner. The eggs for all of them should be well and lightly whisked; the lard for frying batter should be extremely pure in flavour, and quite hot when the fritters are dropped in; the batter itself should be smooth as cream, and it should be briskly beaten the instant before it is used. All fried pastes should be perfectly drained from the fat before they are served, and sent to table promptly when they are ready.

"Eggs may be dressed in a multiplicity of ways, but are seldom more relished in any form than in a well-made and expeditiously served omelette. This may be plain, or seasoned with minced herbs and a very little shalot, when the last is liked, and is then called _Omelettes aux fines herbes_; or it may be mixed with minced ham or grated cheese: in any case it should be light, thick, full-tasted, and _fried only on one side_; if turned in the pan, as it frequently is in England, it will at once be flattened and rendered tough. Should the slight rawness, which is sometimes found in the middle of the inside when the omelette is made in the French way, be objected to, a heated shovel, or a salamander, may be held over it for an instant, before it is folded on the dish.

"The pan for frying it should be quite small; for if it be composed of four or five eggs only, and then put into a large one, it will necessarily spread over it and be thin, which would render it more like a pancake than an omelette; the only partial remedy for this, when a pan of proper size cannot be had, is to raise the handle of it high, and to keep the opposite side close down to the fire, which will confine the eggs into a smaller space. No gravy should be poured into the dish with it, and, indeed, if properly made, it will require none. Lard is preferable to butter for frying batter, as it renders it lighter; but it must not be used for omelettes. Filled with preserves of any kind, it is called a sweet omelette."

1311. Baked Pears.

Take twelve large baking pears; pare and cut them into halves, leaving on about half an inch of the stem. Take out the core with the point of a knife, and place the pears thus prepared close together in a block tin saucepan, the inside of which is quite bright, and whose cover fits quite close. Put to them the rind of a lemon cut thin, with half its juice, a small stick of cinnamon, and twenty grains of allspice; cover them with spring water, and allow one pound of loaf sugar to a pint and a half of water: cover up close, and bake for six hours in a very slow oven;--they will be quite tender, and of a good colour. Prepared cochineal is generally used for colouring the pears; but if the above is strictly attended to, it will be found to answer best.

1312. Apples served with Custard.

Pare and core apples; cut them in pieces; bake or stew them with as little water as possible; when they have become pulpy, sweeten and put them in a pie-dish, and, when cold, pour over them an unboiled custard, and put back into the oven till the custard is fixed. A Dutch oven will do. Equally good hot or cold.

1313. Apples in Syrup.

Pare and core some hard apples, and throw them into a basin of water. When all are done, clarify as much loaf sugar as will cover them; put the apples in along with the juice and rind of a lemon, and let them simmer till they are quite clear; care must be taken not to break them; place them on the dish they are to appear upon at table, and pour the syrup over. These are for immediate use.

1314. Apricots Stewed in Syrup.

Wipe the down from young apricots, and stew them as gently as possible in a syrup made of four ounces of sugar to half a pint of water, boiled the usual time.

1315. Mother Eve's Pudding.

If you want a good pudding, to teach you I'm willing: Take two pennyworth of eggs, when twelve for a shilling; And of the same fruit that Eve had once chosen, Well pared and well chopped, at least half a dozen; Six ounces of bread (let your maid eat the crust), The crumbs must be grated as small as the dust; Six ounces of currants from the stones you must sort, Lest they break out your teeth, and spoil all your sport; Six ounces of sugar won't make it too sweet; Some salt and some nutmeg will make it complete; Three hours let it boil, without hurry or flutter, And then serve it up, without sugar or butter.

1316. Accidents.

_Always send for a surgeon immediately an accident occurs, but treat as directed until he arrives_.

[AN EVIL CONSCIENCE IS THE GREATEST PLAGUE.]

1317. In both Scalds and Burns.

In both scalds and burns, the following facts cannot be too firmly impressed on the mind of the reader, that in either of these accidents the _first, best_, and _often the only remedies required_, are sheets of wadding, fine wool, or carded cotton, and in default of these, violet powder, flour, magnesia, or chalk. The object for which these several articles are employed is the same in each instance; namely, to exclude the air from the injured part; for if the air can be effectually shut out from the raw surface, and care is taken not to expose the tender part till the new cuticle is formed, the cure may be safely left to nature.

The moment a person is called to a case of scald or burn, he should cover the part with a sheet, or a portion of a sheet, of wadding, taking care not to break any blister that may have formed, or stay to remove any burnt clothes that may adhere to the surface, but as quickly as possible envelope every part of the injury from all access of the air, laying one or two more pieces of wadding on the first, so as effectually to guard the burn or scald from the irritation of the atmosphere; and if the article used is wool or cotton, the same precaution, of adding more material where the surface is thinly covered, must be adopted; a light bandage finally securing all in their places.

Any of the popular remedies recommended below may be employed when neither wool, cotton, nor wadding are to be procured, it being always remembered that that article which will best exclude the air from a burn or scald is the best, quickest, and least painful mode of treatment. And in this respect nothing has surpassed cotton loose or attached to paper as in wadding.

1318. If the Skin is much Injured.

If the skin is much injured in burns, spread some linen pretty thickly with chalk ointment, and lay over the part, and give the patient some brandy and water if much exhausted; then send for a medical man. If not much injured, and very painful, use the same ointment, or apply carded cotton dipped in lime water and linseed oil. If you please, you may lay cloths dipped in ether over the parts, or cold lotions. Treat scalds in the same manner, or cover with scraped raw potato; but the chalk ointment is the best. In the absence of all these, cover the injured part with treacle, and dust over it plenty of flour.

1319. Body in Flames.

Lay the person down on the floor of the room, and throw the tablecloth, rug, or other large cloth over him, and roll him on the floor.

1320. Dirt in the Eye.

Place your forefinger upon the cheek-bone, having the patient before you; then slightly bend the finger, this will draw down the lower lid of the eye, and you will probably be able to remove the dirt; but if this will not enable you to get at it, repeat this operation while you have a netting-needle or bodkin placed over the eyelid; this will turn it inside out, and enable you to remove the sand, or eyelash, &c., with the corner of a fine silk handkerchief. As soon as the substance is removed, bathe the eye with cold water, and exclude the light for a day. If the inflammation is severe, let the patient take a purgative, and use a refrigerant lotion.

1321. Lime in the Eye.

Syringe it well with warm vinegar and water in the proportion of one ounce of vinegar to eight ounces of water; take a purgative, and exclude light.

1322. Iron or Steel Spiculæ in the Eye.

These occur while turning iron or steel in a lathe, and are best remedied by doubling back the upper or lower eyelid, according to the situation of the substance, and with the flat edge of a silver probe, taking up the metallic particle, using a lotion made by dissolving six grains of sugar of lead, and the same of white vitriol, in six ounces of water, and bathing the eye three times a day till the inflammation subsides. Another plan is--Drop a solution of sulphate of copper (from one to three grains of the salt to one ounce of water) into the eye, or keep the eye open in a wineglassful of the solution. Take a purgative, bathe with cold lotion, and exclude light to keep down inflammation.

[SLEEP FALLS SWEETLY UPON THE VIRTUOUS.]

1323. Dislocated Thumb.