Part 20

To half a peck of fine flower, take a pound and half of Butter, in this manner. Put your Butter with at least three quarts of cold water (it imports not how much or how little the water is) into a little kettle to melt, and boil gently: as soon as it is melted, scum off the Butter with a ladle, pouring it by ladlefuls (one a little after another, as you knead it with the flower) to some of the flower (which you take not all at once, that you may the better discern, how much Liquor is needful) and work it very well into Paste. When all your butter is kneaded, with as much of the flower, as serves to make paste of a fitting consistence, take of the water that the Butter was melted in, so much as to make the rest of the flower into Paste of due consistence; then joyn it to the Paste made with Butter, and work them both very well together, of this make your covers and coffins thin. If you are to make more paste for more Tarts or Pyes, the water that hath already served, will serve again better then fresh.

To make Goose-pyes, and such of thick crust, you must put at least two pound of Butter to half a peck of flower. Put no more Salt to your Past, then what is in the Butter, which must be the best new Butter that is sold in the Market.

TO MAKE A CAKE

Take eight wine quarts of flower; one pound of loaf Sugar beaten and searsed; one ounce of Mace, beat it very fine: then take thirty Eggs, fifteen whites, beat them well; then put to them a quart of new Ale-yest; beat them very well together, and strain them into your flower; then take a pint of Rose-water, wherein six grains of Ambergreece and Musk have been over night. Then take a pint and half of Cream or something more, and set it on the fire, and put into it four pounds and three quarters of Butter; And when it is all melted, take it off the fire and stir it about, until it be pretty cool; And pour all into your flower, and stir it up quick with your hands, like a lith pudding; Then dust a little flower over it, and let it stand covered with a Flannel, or other woollen cloth, a quarter of an hour before the fire, that it may rise; Then have ready twelve pounds of Currants very well washed and pick'd, that there may be neither stalks, nor broken Currants in them. Then let your Currants be very well dryed before the fire, and put warm into your Cake; then mingle them well together with your hands; then get a tin hoop that will contain that quantity, and butter it well, and put it upon two sheets of paper well buttered; so pour in your Cake, and so set it into the oven, being quick that it may be well soaked, but not to burn. It must bake above an hour and a quarter; near an hour and half. Take then a pound and half of double refined Sugar purely beaten and searsed; put into the whites of five Eggs; two or 3 spoonfuls of rose-water; keep it a beating all the time, that the Cake is a baking which will be two hours; Then draw your Cake out of the oven, and pick the dry Currants from the top of it, and so spread all that you have beaten over it, very smooth, and set it a little into the oven, that it may dry.

ANOTHER CAKE

Take three pounds and an half of flower; one penny worth of Cloves and Mace; and a quarter of a pound of Sugar and Salt, and strew it on the flower. Then take the yolks of eight Eggs well beaten, with a spoonful and half of rose water; Then take a pint of thick Cream, and a pound of Butter; Melt them together, and when it is so, take three quarters of a pint of Ale-yest, and mingle the yest and Eggs together. Then take the warm liquor, and mingle all together; when you have done, take all, and pour it in the bowl, and so cover the flower over the liquor; then cover the pan with a Napkin, and when it is risen, take four pounds of Currants, well washed and dryed, and half a pound of Raisins of the Sun sliced, and let them be well dryed and hot, and so stir them in. When it is risen, have your oven hot against the Cake is made; let it stand three quarters of an hour. When it is half baked, Ice it over with fine Sugar and Rose-water, and the whites of Eggs, and Musk and Ambergreece.

When you mingle your yest and Eggs together for the Cake, put Musk and Amber to that.

TO MAKE A PLUMB-CAKE

Take a peck of flower, and put it in half. Then take two quarts of good Ale-yest, and strain it into half the flower, and some new milk boiled, and almost cold again; make it into a very light paste, and set it before the fire to rise; Then take five pound of Butter, and melt it in a skillet, with a quarter of a pint of Rose-water; when your paste is risen, and your oven almost hot, which will be by this time, take your paste from the fire, and break it into small pieces, and take your other part of flower, and strew it round your paste; Then take the melted Butter, and put it to the past, and by degrees work the paste and flower together, till you have mingled all very well. Take six Nutmegs, some Cinnamon and Mace well beaten, and two pound of Sugar, and strew it into the Paste, as they are a working it. Take three pounds of Raisins stoned, and twelve pounds of Currants very well washed and dryed again; one pound of Dates sliced; half a pound of green Citron dryed and sliced very thin; strew all these into the paste, till it have received them all; Then let your oven be ready, and make up your Cake, and set it into the oven; but you must have a great care, it doth not take cold. Then to Ice it, take a pound and half of double refined Sugar beaten and searsed; The whites of three Eggs new-laid, and a little Orange-flower-water, with a little musk and Ambergreece, beaten and searsed, and put to your sugar; Then strew your Sugar into the Eggs, and beat it in a stone Mortar with a Woodden Pestel, till it be as white as snow, which will be by that time the Cake is baked; Then draw it to the ovens mouth, and drop it on, in what form you will; let it stand a little again in the oven to harden.

TO MAKE AN EXCELLENT CAKE

To a Peck of fine flower, take six pounds of fresh butter, which must be tenderly melted, ten pounds of Currants, of Cloves and Mace, half an ounce of each, an ounce of Cinnamon, half an ounce of Nutmegs, four ounces of Sugar, one pint of Sack mixed with a quart at least of thick barm of Ale (as soon as it is settled, to have the thick fall to the bottom, which will be, when it is about two days old) half a pint of Rose-water; half a quarter of an ounce of Saffron. Then make your paste, strewing the spices, finely beaten, upon the flower: Then put the melted butter (but even just melted) to it; then the barm, and other liquors: and put it into the oven well heated presently. For the better baking of it, put it in a hoop, and let it stand in the oven one hour and half. You Ice the Cake with the whites of two Eggs, a small quantity of Rose-water, and some Sugar.

TO MAKE BISKET

To half a peck of flower, take three spoonfuls of barm, two ounces of seeds; Aniseeds or Fennel-seeds. Make the paste very stiff, with nothing but water, and dry it (they must not have so much heat, as to make them rise, but only dry by degrees; as in an oven after Manchet is taken out, or a gentle stove) in flat Cakes very well in an oven or stove.

TO MAKE A CARAWAY-CAKE

Take three pound and a half of the finest flower and dry it in an oven; one pound and a half of sweet butter, and mix it with the flower, until it be crumbled very small, that none of it be seen; Then take three quarters of a pint of new Ale-yeast, and half a pint of Sack, and half a pint of new milk; six spoonfuls of Rose-water, four yolks, and two whites of Eggs; Then let it lie before the fire half an hour or more. And when you go to make it up, put in three quarters of a pound of Caraway-Confits, and a pound and half of biskets. Put it into the oven, and let it stand an hour and half.

ANOTHER VERY GOOD CAKE

Take four quarts of fine flower, two pound and half of butter, three quarters of a pound of Sugar, four Nutmegs; a little Mace; a pound of Almonds finely beaten, half a pint of Sack, a pint of good Ale-yest, a pint of boiled Cream, twelve yolks, and four whites of Eggs; four pound of Currants. When you have wrought all these into a very fine past, let it be kept warm before the fire half an hour, before you set it into the oven. If you please, you may put into it, two pound of Raisins of the Sun stoned and quartered. Let your oven be of a temperate heat, and let your Cake stand therein two hours and a half, before you Ice it; and afterwards only to harden the Ice. The Ice for this Cake is made thus: Take the whites of three new laid Eggs, and three quarters of a pound of fine Sugar finely beaten; beat it well together with the whites of the Eggs, and Ice the Cake. If you please you may add a little Musk or Ambergreece.

EXCELLENT SMALL CAKES

Take three pound of very fine flower well dryed by the fire, and put to it a pound and half of loaf Sugar sifted in a very fine sieve and dryed; Three pounds of Currants well washed and dryed in a cloth and set by the fire; When your flower is well mixed with the Sugar and Currants, you must put in it a pound and half of unmelted butter, ten spoonfuls of Cream, with the yolks of three new-laid Eggs beat with it, one Nutmeg; and if you please, three spoonfuls of Sack. When you have wrought your paste well, you must put it in a cloth, and set it in a dish before the fire, till it be through warm. Then make them up in little Cakes, and prick them full of holes; you must bake them in a quick oven unclosed. Afterwards Ice them over with Sugar. The Cakes should be about the bigness of a hand-breadth and thin: of the cise of the Sugar Cakes sold at Barnet.

MY LORD OF DENBIGH'S ALMOND MARCH-PANE

Blanch Nut-Kernels from the Husks in the best manner you can. Then pun them with a due proportion of Sugar, and a little Orange-flower, or Rose-water. When it is in a fitting uniform paste, make it into round Cakes, about the bigness of your hand, or a little larger, and about a finger thick; and lay every one upon a fine paper cut fit to it; which lay upon a table. You must have a pan like a tourtiere, made to contain coals on the top, that is flat, with edges round about to hold in the coals, which set over the Cakes, with fire upon it. Let this remain upon the Cakes, till you conceive, it hath dryed them sufficiently for once; which may be within a quarter of an hour; but you take it off two or three times in that time, to see you scorch not the outside, but only dry it a little. Then remove it to others, that lye by them; and pull the Papers from the first, and turn them upon new Papers. When the others are dryed enough, remove the pan back to the first, to dry their other side: which being enough, remove it back to the second, that by this time are turned, and laid upon new Papers. Repeat this turning the Cakes, and changing the Pan, till they are sufficiently dry: which you must not do all at once, least you scorch them: and though the outside be dry, the inside must be very moist and tender. Then you must Ice them thus: Make a thick pap with Orange flower or Rose-water, and purest white Sugar: a little of the whites of Eggs, not above half a spoonful of that Oyl of Eggs, to a Porrenger full of thick Pap, beaten exceeding well with it, and a little juyce of Limons. Lay this smooth upon the Cakes with a Knife, and smoothen it with a feather. Then set the pan over them to dry them. Which being if there be any unevenness, or cracks or discolouring, lay on a little more of that Mortar, and dry it as before. Repeat this, till it be as clear, and smooth, and white, as you would have it. Then turn the other sides, and do the like to them. You must take care, not to scorch them: for then they would look yellow or red, and they must be pure, white and smooth like Silver between polished and matte, or like a looking Glass. This Coat preserves the substance of the Cakes within, the longer moist. You may beat dissolved Amber, or Essence of Cinnamon, with them.

TO MAKE SLIPP COAT CHEESE

According to the bigness of your moulds proportion your stroakings for your Cheese-curds. To six quarts of stroakings, take a pint of Springwater: if the weather be hot, then let the water be cold, and before you put it into the stroakings, let them stand a while to cool after they are milked, and then put in the water with a little Salt first stirred in it: and having stirred it well together, let it stand a little while, and then put in about two good spoonfuls of Runnet, stir it well together, and cover it with a fair linnen-cloth, and when it is become hard like a thick jelly, with a skimming-dish lay it gently into the moulds, and as it sinks down into the moulds, fill it still up again, till all be in, which will require some three or four hours time. Then lay a clean fine cloth into another mould of the same cise, and turn it into it, and then turn the skirts of the cloth over it, and lay upon that a thin board, and upon that as much weight, as with the board may make two pound or thereabouts. And about an hour after, lay another clean cloth into the other mould, and turn the Cheese into that; then lay upon the board so much, as will make it six or seven pound weight; and thus continue turning of it till night: then take away the weight, and lay it no more on it; then take a very small quantity of Salt finely beaten, and sprinkle the Cheese all over with it as lightly as can be imagined. Next morning turn it into another dry cloth, and let it lye out of the mould upon a plain board, and change it as often as it wets the cloth, which must be three or four times a day: when it is so dry, that it wets the cloth no more, lay it upon a bed of green-rushes, and lay a row upon it; but be sure to pick the bents clean off, and lay them even all one way: if you cannot get good rushes, take nettles or grass. If the weather is cold, cover them with a linnen and woollen cloth; in case you cannot get stroakings, take five quarts of new Milk, and one of Cream. If the weather be cold, heat the water that you put to the stroakings. Turn the Cheese every day, and put to it fresh of whatsoever you keep it in. They are usually ripe in ten days.

TO MAKE SLIPP-COAT-CHEESE

Master Phillips his Method and proportions in making slippe-coat Cheese, are these. Take six wine quarts of stroakings, and two quarts of Cream; mingle these well together, and let them stand in a bowl, till they are cold. Then power upon them three pints of boiling fair water, and mingle them well together; then let them stand, till they are almost cold, colder then milk-warm. Then put to it a moderate quantity of Runnet, made with fair water (not whey, or any other thing then water; this is an important point), and let it stand till it come. Have a care not to break the Curds, nor ever to touch them with your hands, but only with your skimming dish. In due time lade the Curds with the dish, into a thin fine Napkin, held up by two persons, that the whey may run from them through the bunt of the Napkin, which you rowl gently about, that the Curds may dry without breaking. When the whey is well drained out, put the Curds as whole as you can into the Cheese-fat, upon a napkin, in the fat. Change the Napkin, and turn the Cheese every quarter of an hour, and less, for ten, twelve or fourteen times; that is, still as soon as you perceive the Napkin wet with the whay running from the Curds. Then press it with a half pound weight for two or three hours. Then add half a pound more for as long time, then another half pound for as long, and lastly another half pound, which is two pounds in all; which weight must never be exceeded. The next day, (when about twenty four hours are past in all) salt your Cheese moderately with white Salt, and then turn it but three or four times a day, and keep it in a cotton cloth, which will make it mellow and sweet, not rank, and will preserve the coat smooth. It may be ready to eat in about twelve days. Some lay it to ripen in dock-leaves, and it is not amiss; but that in rain they will be wet, which moulds the Cheese. Others in flat fit boxes of wood, turning them, as is said, three or four times a day. But a cotton cloth is best. This quantity is for a round large Cheese, of about the bigness of a sale ten peny Cheese, a good fingers-breadth thick. Long broad grass ripeneth them well, and sucketh out the moisture. Rushes are good also. They are hot, but dry not the moisture so well.

My Lady of Middlesex makes excellent slipp-coat Cheese of good morning milk, putting Cream to it. A quart of Cream is the proportion she useth to as much milk, as both together make a large round Cheese of the bigness of an ordinary Tart-plate, or Cheese-plate; as big as an ordinary soft cheese, that the Market-women sell for ten pence. Thus for want of stroakings at London, you may take one part of Cream to five or six of morning milk, and for the rest proceed as with stroakings; and these will prove as good.

SLIPP-COAT CHEESE

Take three quarts of the last of the stroakings of as many Cows as you have; keep it covered, that it may continue warm; put to it a skimming dishful of Spring-water; then put in two spoonfuls of Runnet, so let it stand until it be hard come: when it is hard come, set your fat on the bottome of a hair-sieve, take it up by degrees, but break it not; when you have laid it all in the fat, take a fine cloth, and lay it over the Cheese, and work it in about the sides, with the back of a Knife; then lay a board on it, for half an hour: after half an hour, set on the board an half pound stone, so let it stand two hours; then turn it on that board, and let the cloth be both under and over it, then pour it into the fat again; Then lay a pound and half weight on it; Two hours after turn it again on a dry cloth, and salt it, then set on it two pound weight, and let it stand until the next morning. Then turn it out of the Cheese-fat, on a dry board, and so keep it with turning on dry boards three days. In case it run abroad, you must set it up with wedges; when it begins to stiffen, lay green grass or rushes upon it: when it is stiff enough, let rushes be laid both under and over it. If this Cheese be rightly made, and the weather good to dry it, it will be ready in eight days: but in case it doth not dry well, you must lay it on linnen-cloth, and woollen upon it, to hasten the ripening of it.

TO MAKE A SCALDED CHEESE

Take six gallons of new milk: put to it two quarts of the evening Cream; then put to it good runnet for winter Cheese; let it stand, till it be even well, then sink it as long as you can get any whey out: then put it into your fat, and set it in the press, and let it stand half an hour: in this time turn it once. When you take it out of the Press, set on the fire two gallons of the same whey; then put your Cheese in a big bowl, break the Curd as small with your hands as you do your Cheese-cakes: when your whey is scalding hot, take off the scum: lay your strainer over the Curd, and put in your whey: take a slice, and stir up your Curd, that it may scald all alike: put in as much whey as will cover it well: if you find that cold, put it out, and put in more to it that is hot. Stir it as before: then cover it with a linnen and woollen cloth: then set some new whey on the fire, put in your Cheese-fat and suter and cloth. After three quarters of an hour, take up the Curd, and put it into the Cheese fat, as fast, as two can work it in: then put it into the hot cloth, and set it into the Press. Have a care to look to it, and after a while turn it, and so keep it in the press with turning, till the next day: then take it forth and Salt it.

THE CREAM-COURDS

Strain your Whey, and set it on the fire: make a clear and gentle fire under the kettle: as they rise, put in whey, so continuing, till they are ready to skim. Then take your skimmer, and put them on the bottom of a hair-sieve: so let them drain till they are cold. Then take them off, and put them into a bason, and beat them with three or four spoonfuls of Cream and Sugar.

SAVOURY TOSTED OR MELTED CHEESE