Part 19

Pare them, put them into a Pipkin, with so much Red or Claret Wine and water, _ana_, as will near reach to the top of the Pears. Stew or boil gently, till they grow tender, which may be in two hours. After a while, put in some sticks of Cinnamon bruised and a few Cloves. When they are almost done, put in Sugar enough to season them well and their Syrup, which you pour out upon them in a deep Plate.

TO STEW APPLES

Pare them and cut them into slices. Stew them with Wine and Water as the Pears, and season them in like manner with Spice. Towards the end sweeten them with Sugar, breaking the Apples into Pap by stirring them. When you are ready to take them off, put in good store of fresh-butter, and incorporate it well with them, by stirring them together. You stew these between two dishes. The quickest Apples are the best.

PORTUGUEZ EGGS

The way that the Countess de Penalva makes the Portuguez Eggs for the Queen, is this. Take the yolks (clean picked from the whites and germ) of twelve new-laid Eggs. Beat them exceedingly with a little (scarce a spoonful) of Orange-flower-water. When they are exceeding liquid, clear, and uniformly a thin Liquor, put to them one pound of pure double refined Sugar (if it be not so pure, it must be clarified before) and stew them in your dish or bason over a very gentle fire, stirring them continually, whiles they are over it, so that the whole may become one uniform substance, of the consistence of an Electuary (beware they grow not too hard; for without much caution and attention, that will happen on a sudden) which then you may eat presently, or put into pots to keep. You may dissolve Ambergreece (if you will, ground first very much with Sugar) in Orange-flower or Rose-water, before hand, and put it (warm and dissolved) to the Eggs, when you set them to stew. If you clarifie your Sugar, do it with one of these waters, and whites of Eggs. The flavor of these sweet-waters goeth almost all away with boiling. Therefore half a spoonful put into the composition, when you take it from the fire, seasoneth it more then ten times as much, put in at the first.

TO BOIL EGGS

A certain and infallible method to boil new-laid Eggs to sup up, and yet that they have the white turned to milk, is thus: Break a very little hole, at the bigger end of the shell, and put it into the water, whiles it boileth. Let it remain boiling, whiles your Pulse beateth two hundred stroaks. Then take it out immediately, and you will find it of an exact temper: others put Eggs into boyling water just as you take it from the fire, and let them remain there, till the water be so cooled, that you may just put in your hand, and take out the Eggs.

Others put the Eggs into cold water, which they set upon the fire, and as soon as the water begins to boil, the Eggs are enough.

TO MAKE CLEAR GELLY OF BRAN

Take two pound of the broadest open Bran of the best Wheat, and put it to infuse in a Gallon of Water, during two or three days, that the water may soak into the pure flower, that sticks to the bran. Then boil it three or four walms, and presently take it from the fire, and strain it through some fine strainer. A milky substance will come out, which let stand to settle about half a day. Pour off the clear water, that swimmeth over the starch or flomery, that is in the bottom (which is very good for Pap, &c.) and boil it up to a gelly, as you do Harts-horn gelly or the like, and season it to your taste.

TO BAKE VENISON

Boil the bones (well broken) and remaining flesh of the Venison, from whence the meat of the Pasty is cut, in the Liquor, wherein Capons and Veal, or Mutton have been boiled, so to make very strong broth of them. The bones must be broken, that you may have the Marrow of them in the Liquor; and they must stew a long time (covering the pot close:) that you may make the broth as strong as you can; and if you put some gravy of Mutton or Veal to it, it will be the better. When the Pasty is half baked, pour some of this broth into it, by the hole at the top; and the rest of it, when it is quite baked, and wanteth but standing in the oven to soak. Or put it all in at once, when the Pasty is sufficiently baked, and afterwards let it remain in the oven a good while soaking.

You may bake the bones (broken) with the broth and gravy, or for want thereof, with only water in an earthen pot close stopped, till you have all the substance in the Liquor; which you may pour into the Pasty an hour before it is baked enough.

If you are in a Park, you may soak the Venison a night in the blood of the Deer; and cover the flesh with it, clotted together when you put it in paste. Mutton blood also upon Venison, is very good. You may season your blood a little with Pepper and Salt.

TO BAKE VENISON TO KEEP

After you have boned it, and cut away all the sinews, then season it with Pepper and Salt pretty high, and divide a Stag into four pots; then put about a pound of Butter upon the top of each pot, and cover it with Rye-past pretty thick. Your oven must be so hot, that after a whole night it maybe baked very tender, which is a great help to the keeping of it. And when you draw it, drain all the Liquor from it, and turn your pot upon a pie plate, with the bottom upwards, and so let it stand, until it is cold; Then wipe your pot, that no gravy remain therein, and then put your Venison into the same pot again; then have your Butter very well clarified, that there be no dross remaining; Then fill up your pot about two Inches above the meat with Butter, or else it will mould. And so the next day binde it up very close, with a piece of sheeps Leather so that no air can get in. After which you may keep it as long as you please.

Master Adrian May put's up His Venison in pots, to keep long, thus: Immediately as soon as He hath killed it, he seasoneth and baketh it as soon as He can, so that the flesh may never be cold. And this maketh that the fat runneth in among the lean, and is like calvered Salmon, and eats much more mellow and tender. But before the Deer be killed, he ought to be hunted and chafed as much as may be. Then seasoned and put in the oven before it be cold. Be sure to pour out all the gravy, that settleth to the bottom, under the flesh after the baking, before you put the Butter to it, that is to lie very thick upon the meat, to keep it all the year.

ABOUT MAKING OF BRAWN

It must be a very large oven, that so it may contract the stronger heat, and keep it the longer. It must be at least eight hours heating with wood, that it be as hot as is possible. If the Brawn be young, it will suffice eight hours or a little more in the oven. But if old, it must be ten or eleven. Put but two Collars into each pot, for bigger are unwieldy. Into every pot, put twelve corns of whole Pepper, four Cloves, a great Onion peeled and quartered, and two bay-leaves, before you put them into the oven. Before they are set in, you do not fill them with water to the top, least any should spill in sliding them in; but fill them up by a bowl fastned to a long Pole. No water must be put in, after the oven is closed (nor the oven ever be opened, till after all is throughly baked) and therefore you must put in enough at first to serve to the last; you must rowl your Collars as close as may be, that no air may be left in the folds of them: and sow them up in exceeding strong cloth, which a strong man must pull as hard as He can in the sowing. Their cloths must not be pulled off, till the Collars have been three or four days out of the oven, least you pull off part of the Brawn with them. You may put the same proportion of Pepper, Cloves, &c. into the Souce drink as you did in the baking them; which at either time (especially at first) give them a fine taste. The Souce-drink is made of six shillings Beer, and Thames or River-water, of each an equal quantity, well boiled with Salt. When boiled and cold, put in to it two or three quarts of skimmed Milk, only to colour it; and so change it once in three Weeks. Tender Brawn sliced thin, and laid Sallet-wise in a dish as the sliced Capon, and seasoned with Pepper, Salt and Vinegar and Oyl, with a little Limon, is a very good Sallet.

SALLET OF COLD CAPON ROSTED

It is a good Sallet, to slice a cold Capon thin; mingle with it some Sibbolds, Lettice, Rocket and Tarragon sliced small. Season all with Pepper, Salt, Vinegar and Oyl, and sliced Limon. A little Origanum doth well with it.

MUTTON BAKED LIKE VENISON, SOAKING EITHER IN THEIR BLOOD

Take a large fat loin of Mutton (or two) boned after the manner of Venison. Season it well to your taste with Pepper and Salt. Then lay it to steep all night in enough of the sheep's blood, to cover it over, and soak well into it. Then lay it into the past, with all the clotted thick blood, under it, upon it, and hanging about it. You may season the blood with Pepper and Salt, before you lay the meat in it. But though you do not, it will not be amiss, so as the meat be seasoned high enough. Then bake it as you do an ordinary Pasty; and you may put gravy of Mutton or strong broth into it. You may do it in a dish with past; as My Lady of Newport doth Her Venison. This way of steeping in blood before you bake it, is very good also for Venison.

TO MAKE AN EXCELLENT HARE-PYE

Hash the flesh of as many Hares, as you please, very small. Then beat them strongly in a Mortar into a Paste, which season duly with Pepper and Salt. Lard it throughly all over with great Lardons of Lard well rowled in Pepper and Salt. Put this into a straight earthen pot, to lye close in it. If you like Onions, you may put one or two quartered into the bottom of the Pot. Put store of Sweet-butter upon the meat, and upon that, some strong red Claret-wine. Cover the pot with a double strong brown paper, tyed close about the mouth of it. Set it to bake with houshold-bread (or in an oven, as a Venison pasty) for eight or ten hours. Then take out the pot, and thence the meat, and pour away all the Liquor, which let settle. Then take all the congealed Butter, and clarifie it well. Put your meat again into the pot, and put upon it your clarified Butter, and as much more as is necessary. And I believe the putting of Claret-wine to it now is better, and to omit it before. Bake it again, but a less while. Pour out all the Liquor, when it is baked, and clarifie the Butter again, and pour it upon the meat, and so let it cool; The Butter must be at least two or three fingers breadth over the meat.

TO BAKE BEEF

Bone it, and beat it exceeding well on all sides, with a roling pin, upon a table. Then season it with Pepper and Salt, (rubbing them in very well) and some Parsley, and a few Sweet herbs (Penny-royal, Winter-savoury, Sweet-marjoram, Limon Thyme, Red-sage, which yet to some seems to have a Physical taste) an Onion if you will. Squeese it into the pot as close as you can. Put Butter upon it, and Claret-wine, and covered all as above. Bake it in a strong oven eight or ten hours. Take it out of the oven, and the meat out of the pot, which make clean, from all settlings; and squeese all the juyce from it (even by a gentle press.) Then put it in again hard pressed into the pot. Clarifie the Butter, that you poured with the Liquor from the meat out of the pot; and pour it again with more flesh, to have enough to cover it two or three fingers thick.

TO BAKE PIDGEONS, (WHICH ARE THUS EXCELLENT, AND WILL KEEP A QUARTER OF A YEAR) OR TEALS, OR WILD-DUCKS

Season them duly with Pepper and Salt; then lay them in the pot, and put store of Butter, and some Claret-wine to them. Cover and bake as above: but a less while according to the tenderness of the meat. In due time take out your pot, and your birds out of it, which press not, but only wipe off the Liquor. Pour it out all. Clarifie the Butter; put in the birds again, and the clarified butter, and as much more as needs (all melted) upon them, and let it cool. You may put a few Bay-leaves upon any of these baked meats, between the meat and the Butter.

GREEN-GEESE-PYE

An excellent cold Pye is thus made. Take two fat Green-geese; bone them, and lay them in paste one upon the other, seasoning them well with Pepper and Salt, and some little Nutmeg, both above and below and between the two Geese. When it is well-baked and out of the oven, pour in melted Butter at a hole made in the top. The crust is much better than of a Stubble-goose.

TO BOIL BEEF OR VENISON TENDER AND SAVOURY

The way to have Beef tenderest, short and best boiled, as my Lord of Saint Alban's useth it, is thus. Take a rump or brisket of beef; keep it without salt as long as you may, without danger to have it smell ill. For so it groweth mellow and tender, which it would not do, if it were presently salted. When it is sufficiently mortified, rub it well with Salt; let it lie so but a day and a night, or at most two nights and a day. Then boil it in no more water then is necessary. Boil it pretty smartly at first, but afterwards but a simpring or stewing boiling, which must continue seven or eight hours. Sometimes he boileth it half over night, and the rest next morning. If you should not have time to Salt it, you may supply that want thus; When the Beef is through boiled, you may put so much Salt into the pot as to make the broth like brine, and then boil it gently an hour longer; or take out the Beef, and put it into a deep dish, and put to it some of his broth made brine, and cover it with another dish, and stew it so an hour. A hanch of Venison may be done the same way.

TO BAKE WILDE-DUCKS OR TEALS

Season your Duck and Teal with Pepper and Salt, both within and without, so much as you think may season them; then crack their bones with a roling pin; then put them into an earthen pot close, and cover them with Butter, and bake them in an oven as hot as for bread, and let them stand three or four hours; when you take them out of the oven, pour out all the Liquor from them, then melt so much Butter as will cover them; when you have melted your Butter, let it stand a while, until all the dross be settled to the bottom, and put in the clear Butter, which must cover the Fowl.

TO SEASON HUMBLE-PYES: AND TO ROST WILDE-DUCKS

Bake Humble-Pyes without chapping them small in a Pye, seasoned with Pepper and Salt, adding a pretty deal of Parsley, a little sweet-marjoram and Savoury, and a very little Thyme.

Rost wilde Ducks putting into their Bellies some Sage and a little Onion (both well shreded) wrought into a lump with butter, adding a little Pepper and Salt. And let their sauce be a little gravy of Mutton, to enlarge the seasoned gravy, that comes from the Ducks when they are cut up.

TO SOUCE TURKEYS

Take a good fat Turkey or two; dress them clean, and bone them; then tye them up in the manner of Sturgeon with some thing clean washed. Take your kettle, and put into it a pottle of good White-wine, a quart of Water, and a quart of Vinegar; make it boil, and season it with Salt pretty well. Then put in your Turkeys, and let them boil till they be very tender. When they are enough boiled, take them out, and taste the Liquor; if it be not sharp enough, put more Vinegar, and let it boil a little; then put it into an earthen pot, that will hold both Turkeys. When it is cold enough, and the Turkeys through-cold, put them into the Liquor in the Pot, and be sure they be quite covered with the Liquor; Let them lye in it three weeks or a month; Then serve it to the table, with Fennel on it, and eat it with elder Vinegar.

You may do a Capon or two put together in the same manner: but first larding it with great Lardons rowled in Pepper and Salt. A shorter time lying in the pickle will serve.

AN EXCELLENT MEAT OF GOOSE OR TURKEY

Take a fat Goose, and Powder it with Salt eight or ten days; Then boil it tender, and put it into pickle, like Sturgeon-pickle. You may do the like with a very fat Turkey; but the best pickle of that is, the Italian Marinating, boiling Mace, Nutmeg, &c. in it. You may boil Garlick in the belly of the fouls, if you like it, or in the pickle.

TO PICKLE AN OLD FAT GOOSE

Cut it down the back, and take out all the bones; Lard it very well with green Bacon, and season it well with three quarters of an Ounce of Pepper; half an Ounce of Ginger; a quarter of an Ounce of Cloves, and Salt as you judge proportionable; a pint of white wine and some Butter. Put three or four Bay-leaves under the meat, and bake it with Brown-bread in an earthen pot close covered, and the edges of the cover closed with Paste. Let it stand three or four days in the pickle; then eat it cold with Vinegar.

ABOUT ORDERING BACON FOR GAMBONS, AND TO KEEP

At Franckfort they use the following cautions about the Bacon they salt for Gambons or sides to keep. The best is of male Hogs of two year old, that have been gelt, when they were young. They kill them in the wane of the Moon, from a day or two after the full, till the last quarter. They fetch off their hair with warm-water, not by burning (which melteth the fat, and maketh it apt to grow resty), and after it hath lain in the open air a full day, they salt it with dry Salt, rubbing it in well: Then lay what quantity you will in a tub for seven or eight days (in which time the Salt dissolveth to water); then take it out, and wipe it dry, and hang it in a room, where they keep fire, either on a hearth, or that smoak cometh out of a stove into the room (as most of those rooms do smoak) but hang them not in the Chimney, that the hot smoak striketh upon them; but if you have a very large Chimney, hang them pretty high and aside, that the smoak may not come full upon them. After a while, (when they are dry) take them thence, and hang them from the smoak in a dry warm room. When the weather groweth warm as in May, there will drop from them a kinde of melted oyly grease, and they will heat, and grow resty, if not remedied. Take them down then, and lay them in a cold dry place, with hay all about them, that one may not touch another. Change the Hay every thirty, or twenty, or fifteen days, till September, when the weather groweth cool; then hang them up again in the free air, in a dry Chamber. If you make the shoulders into Gambons, you must have a care to cut away a little piece of flesh within, called in Dutch the Mause; for if that remain in it, the Bacon will grow resty.

TO MAKE A TANSEY

Take Spinage, Sorrel, Tansey, Wheat, a quart of Cream; bread (the quantity of a two peny loaf) twenty Eggs, and half the whites, one Nutmeg, half a pound of Sugar, and the juyce of a couple of Limons. Spinage is the chief herb to have the juyce; Wheat also is very good, when it is young and tender. You must not take much Sorrel, for fear of turning the Cream; but less Tansey, so little that it may not taste distinctly in the composition. The juyce of Limons is put in at the end of all. You may lay thin slices of Limon upon the Tansey made, and Sugar upon them.

ANOTHER WAY

Beat twelve Eggs (six whites put away) by themselves exceeding well (two or three hours), sometimes putting in a spoonful of Cream to keep them from oyling; Then mingle them well with a quart of Cream; to which put about half a pint of juyce of Spinage (as much as will make the Cream green) or of green wheat, and four spoonfuls of juyce or Tansey, one Nutmeg scraped into thin slices, and half a pound of Sugar; All things exceeding well Incorporated together; Fry this with fresh butter, no more then to glase the Pan over, and keep the Tansey from sticking to the Pan.

TO MAKE CHEESE-CAKES

Take twelve quarts of Milk warm from the Cow, turn it with a good spoonful of Runnet. Break it well, and put it into a large strainer, in which rowl it up and down, that all the Whey may run out into a little tub; when all that will is run out, wring out more. Then break the curds well; then wring it again, and more whey will come. Thus break and wring till no more come. Then work the Curds exceedingly with your hand in a tray, till they become a short uniform Paste. Then put to it the yolks of eight new laid Eggs, and two whites, and a pound of butter. Work all this long together.

In the long working (at the several times) consisteth the making them good. Then season them to your taste with Sugar finely beaten; and put in some Cloves and Mace in subtile powder. Then lay them thick in Coffins of fine Paste, and bake them.

SHORT AND CRISP CRUST FOR TARTS AND PYES