Part 7
=Boiled Pudding.=—Take a cupful of chopped suet, a cupful of grated bread, and a cupful of washed currants; mix with two tablespoonfuls sugar, a teaspoonful of grated lemon-peel, a salt-spoonful salt, and grated nutmeg; beat up two eggs with half a cupful of milk, and work the mixture to a light paste; wring some small cloths out of boiling water, flour them, and tie in each a small portion of the mixture; plunge them into boiling water, let them boil quickly half an hour, turn them out on a hot dish, dash sugar over them, and serve with a sauce made of sweetened melted butter, with a teaspoonful of grated lemon-peel, nutmeg to taste; a few spoonfuls of brandy will improve it.
=Batter Pudding.=—Beat the yolks and whites of four eggs separately, and mix them with six or eight ounces of flour and a salt-spoonful of salt. Make the batter of the proper consistency by adding a little more than a pint of milk; mix carefully; butter a baking-tin, pour the mixture into it, and bake three-quarters of an hour. Serve with vanilla sauce.
=Vanilla Sauce.=—Put half a pint of milk in a small saucepan over the fire; when scalding hot add the yolks of three eggs, and stir until it is as thick as boiled custard; remove the saucepan from the fire, and when cool add a tablespoonful of Thurber’s double extract of vanilla and the beaten whites of two eggs.
=Chocolate Pudding.=—One quart of milk boiled with one ounce of grated chocolate; sweeten to taste, and flavor with vanilla. Boil thoroughly, and stand aside to cool fifteen minutes; then stir in the yolks of six eggs, well beaten; bake in a pudding-dish until it stiffens like custard. Beat the whites of six eggs, with six tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar, to a stiff froth, and spread over top of pudding; put in oven and brown quickly.
M. G. H.
=Crullers.=—Half a pint of buttermilk, one cupful of butter, two cupfuls sugar, and three eggs; beat up the eggs and add the sugar and milk. Dissolve half a teaspoonful of saleratus in a little hot water; add to the mixture, with a teaspoonful salt, half a nutmeg grated, and half a teaspoonful of fresh ground cinnamon. Work in as much sifted flour as will make a smooth dough; mix thoroughly; dredge the board, rolling-pin, and dough with flour; roll it out and cut it in rings or fingers, and fry in hot fat.
I have recommended buttermilk in the above receipt, knowing its excellent qualities; but the majority of housekeepers consider it utterly useless. The following from the _British Mail_ is appropriate here: “As the butter which is taken from the milk is only the carbonaceous or heat-producing element, there are still left in it all the nourishing properties which make it so valuable as food. As a drink for men at work in the hot sun buttermilk is far preferable to cider, metheglin, switchel, or any preparation of beer whatever, as it is not only cooling and refreshing, but also strength-giving. Of course there are plenty of people, who are constantly dosing themselves with blood-searchers, liver-purifiers, and stomach-invigorators, who would laugh at the mention of buttermilk as a medicine, and yet if they could be once persuaded to try drinking a glass of that fresh beverage every day they would soon find a corrective of their poor appetites and ‘clogged-up’ livers. In a little book of ‘Plain Directions for the Care of the Sick,’ written by an intelligent physician of Philadelphia, who has under his medical supervision several charitable institutions, we find buttermilk mentioned as being very useful, especially in fevers, as an article of diet for the sick.”
=Baking Powder.=—I have endeavored to recommend to my many readers a few articles used in cooking that my long experience as a caterer has taught me are the best. A good baking powder is a very important article to have in every household, but it is difficult to get a powder without the presence of alum.
The Brooklyn Board of Health, on motion of President Crane, the Sanitary Superintendent, was directed to procure samples of the various kinds of baking powders sold in Brooklyn, have them analyzed, and make a report thereon to the Board. Without going in detail into the constitution of baking powders, it will only be necessary to say that they are made with bicarbonate of soda, or carbonate of ammonia, and cream of tartar, chemically known as the bitartrate of potassa. But the lack of skill, resulting in lumps of soda in the product, led manufacturers to ascertain the proper proportion of these salts and to mix them, selling the compound as a baking powder. Some of the manufacturers, on account of the cheapness of alum, have introduced it as an ingredient into baking powder, and the report of the Brooklyn Board concludes as follows: “From a careful examination we are satisfied that the weight of evidence is against the use of alum in baking powders, and that the risks incurred in its use are too great to be incurred for the sake of cheapness alone. The mucous membrane of the stomach and the intestinal canal is a delicate structure, and materials which would produce no effect on the outside skin might irritate and inflame these organs.”
Dr. Mott, the Government Chemist, in his review of the subject, makes special mention of having analyzed the Royal Baking Powder and found it composed of pure and wholesome materials. He also advises the public to avoid purchasing baking powders as sold loose or in bulk, as he has found by analyses of many samples that the worst adulterations are practised in this form. And I may cheerfully add that our first-class hotels use only the best of everything, not only in baking powders but in every article that enters their storerooms, and that Royal Baking Powder is the only baking powder they allow used in their bakeries, it being free from alum and other unwholesome ingredients.
=Roly-Poly Pudding.=—One quart of flour, one-half pound of suet chopped fine; rub in a little salt with flour, wet with water, and then roll it out and spread any kind of fruit over it. Roll up, put in cloth, and boil one hour.
M. G. H.
=Roly-Poly Lemon Pudding.=—Take the pulp from three lemons; remove the pith and add to it an equal weight of sugar; boil twenty minutes; then set the mixture to cool. Chop up seven ounces of suet, and mix it with one pound of flour, a salt-spoonful of salt, and water enough to make a paste; roll it out nearly an inch in thickness; spread the lemon mixture upon it, and roll it into a long pudding; pinch the ends together, tie it in a floured cloth, put it into boiling water, and boil constantly for two hours. Serve with wine-sauce.
=Marlborough Pudding.=—Grate apples enough to make eight ounces; add to this eight ounces of fine white sugar which has been well rubbed on the rind of a large lemon, six well-beaten eggs, three tablespoonfuls of cream, the strained juice of three lemons, eight ounces of butter; add quantity at pleasure of orange-flower water, and the grated peel of an orange and a lemon; line the pie-dish with rich puff paste, put in the mixture, and let it bake in a quick oven.
=Macaroni Pudding.=—Butter a pie-dish, and cover the bottom with two and one-half ounces uncooked macaroni; pour over it one quart of cold milk, add two tablespoonfuls of sugar, stir in two well-beaten eggs, and flavor with one teaspoonful of vanilla (double extract) or any flavoring desired. Put bits of butter over top, dust a little grated nutmeg over top, and bake slowly two hours and a half.
=Steamed Arrowroot Pudding.=—Mix two tablespoonfuls of Beatty’s Bermuda arrowroot with one cupful of milk; flavor one pint and a half of milk with any desired flavoring, put it on the fire, and when it boils pour it upon the arrowroot; stir well, and when it is cool add three well-beaten eggs, one tablespoonful each of sugar and brandy; put it into a well-buttered mould, cover, and steam it one hour and a half; then turn it out on a dish, and arrange some preserves or jam neatly around it, and serve.
=Almond Pudding.=—Blanch and pound, with a little water, three ounces of sweet and four ounces of bitter almonds; add one pint of milk, three tablespoonfuls of sugar, a little grated nutmeg, one tablespoonful of flour mixed smoothly in a little cold milk, one tablespoonful of grated bread, two eggs well beaten, and the whites of two eggs whisked to a froth; pour the mixture into a buttered mould, cover, and boil quickly three-quarters of an hour; let it stand a few minutes before turning out of mould. Serve with vanilla sauce.
=Bachelor’s Pudding.=—Beat up three eggs, flavor with essence of lemon and grated nutmeg, and add them to four ounces each of finely-minced apples, currants, grated bread-crumbs, and two ounces of sugar; mix thoroughly and boil in a buttered mould nearly three hours. Serve with following sauce.
=Wine-Sauce.=—Boil the thin rind of half a lemon in one wineglassful of water till the flavor is extracted; then take it out and thicken the sauce by stirring into it one salt-spoonful of rice, flour, or arrowroot which has been mixed in water or milk, a walnut of butter; boil a moment, then add half a tumblerful of good wine; let the sauce get quite hot without boiling, sweeten a little, and serve with the pudding.
=Bird’s-Nest Pudding.=—Make the foundation of nest of blanc-mange or corn-starch; grate the rinds of three lemons, and arrange around the blanc-mange to represent straw; extract the contents of four eggs through a small hole and fill the egg-shells with hot blanc-mange or corn-starch; when cold break off the shells and lay the moulded eggs in nest. Serve with jam or preserves.
=Harlan’s Pudding.=—Take three ounces each of butter, sugar, and flour; whisk two eggs thoroughly, and gradually mix with them the loaf-sugar, which must be rubbed well on the rind of a lemon before it is pounded; then add the flour and the butter partially melted, a salt-spoonful of salt, and a little grated nutmeg. Butter insides of several cups; put a little jam at the bottom of each, and fill them nearly full with the mixture; bake half an hour; turn them out and serve with wine-sauce.
=Cocoanut Pudding.=—Beat two eggs with one cupful of new milk; add one-quarter of a pound of grated cocoanut; mix with it three tablespoonfuls each of grated bread and powdered sugar, two ounces of melted butter, five ounces of raisins, and one teaspoonful of grated lemon-peel; beat the whole well together; pour the mixture into a buttered dish, and bake in a slow oven; then turn it out, dust sugar over it, and serve. This pudding may be either boiled or baked.
=Citron Pudding.=—Sift two tablespoonfuls of flour and mix with the beaten yolks of six eggs; add gradually one pint of sweet cream, a quarter of a pound of citron cut in small strips, and two tablespoonfuls of sugar; mix thoroughly, pour the batter into buttered tins, and bake twenty-five minutes. Serve with wine or vanilla sauce.
=Eve’s Pudding.=—Beat six ounces of butter to a cream; add six ounces of sifted flour and six of sugar; separate the yolks from the whites of four eggs; beat them till they are light, then add the beaten yolks and afterwards the whites to the batter; mix, and add half a dozen pounded almonds and the grated rind of one lemon. Fill small tins about half full; set them before the fire for a few minutes, and when they have risen place them in the oven and bake for half an hour. Serve with a sweet fruit sauce.
=Sliced Apple Pudding.=—Mix two tablespoonfuls of arrowroot with one pint of cream; add two tablespoonfuls of sugar; put in stew-pan and place over fire until it boils. Slice thinly apples enough to fill a large-sized dish, laying them in a dish with alternate layers of apples and sugar and small walnuts of butter; pour on a tumblerful of jam as next layer, and over all pour mixture of arrowroot. Bake in moderate oven twenty-five minutes.
=Astor House Pudding.=—Mix one tablespoonful of flour with two of milk; pour over it one cupful of boiling milk flavored with one teaspoonful extract of vanilla; add one tablespoonful of sugar, a walnut of butter, and the yolk of an egg, beaten. Line the edge of pudding-dish with a rich puff paste, and fill the dish two-thirds full with slices of sponge-cake over which a good jam has been spread; pour the custard over them and bake in a moderate oven; when done take out. Beat up the whites of two eggs with nearly one cupful of powdered sugar; spread the méringue over the pudding, and sprinkle a little sugar over it; return it to the oven a few minutes until the méringue is fawn-colored, and serve in dish with clean, white napkin neatly bound around the sides.
A good wine-sauce may be served with it if desired.
=Manhattan Pudding.=—Dissolve a walnut of saleratus in one tablespoonful of hot water; mix one cupful of milk, three well-beaten eggs, two tablespoonfuls of flour (mixed with cold milk), one pinch of salt, and four ounces of chopped citron; add saleratus, and mix all thoroughly; pour the mixture into a buttered mould, tie mould in a floured cloth, boil one hour and a half, turn out, and serve with a fruit sauce.
=Manioca Pudding.=—Three tablespoonfuls of manioca, one quart of milk, a little salt, one tablespoonful of butter, and two well-beaten eggs; sugar, spice, or flavoring to the taste. Mix manioca in half the milk cold, and, with the butter, stir on the fire until it thickens or boils; pour it quickly into a dish, stir in the sugar and the remaining milk, and when quite cool add the eggs, spice, and wine or other flavoring. This pudding may be varied by omitting the eggs and substituting currants, chopped raisins or candied lemon, orange or citron sliced. Bake half an hour in a moderate oven.
_CAKES._
=English Christmas Cake.=—Sift five pounds of flour; mix with it one tablespoonful of salt, one pound and a half of butter, and half a pint of fresh brewer’s yeast or five teaspoonfuls of baking powder; if yeast is used allow dough to rise before adding other ingredients; mix in three pounds of washed currants, one pound and a half of “A” sugar, a whole nutmeg grated, one-quarter of a pound of chopped candied lemon-peel, one wineglassful of brandy, and four well-beaten eggs; butter the tins and line them with buttered paper; bake in a moderate oven for two hours. The quantity of brandy recommended will serve to keep these cakes fresh for an indefinite time.
=Apple Snow.=—Reduce half a dozen apples to a pulp; press them through a sieve; add half a cupful powdered sugar and a teaspoonful of extract of lemon; take the whites of six eggs, whip them for several minutes, and sprinkle two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar over them; beat the apple pulp to a froth, and add the beaten egg; whip the mixture until it looks like stiff snow; then pile it high in rough portions on a glass dish, garnish with small spoonfuls of currant-jelly, and stick a sprig of green on top.
=Almond Cake.=—Blanch and pound in a mortar thoroughly eight ounces of sweet and one of bitter almonds; add a few drops of rosewater or white of egg every few minutes to prevent oiling; add six tablespoonfuls of sifted sugar and eight beaten eggs; sift in six tablespoonfuls of flour and work it thoroughly with the mixture, gradually add a quarter of a pound of creamed butter; beat the mixture constantly while preparing the cake, or it will be heavy; pour the mixture into a buttered tin (place a buttered paper between the tin and the cake), allowing room for it to rise, and bake in a quick oven. Should the oven prove too hot for it, and the cake be in danger of burning, cover it with paper for a few minutes.
=Almond Sponge-Cake.=—Take half a pound of loaf-sugar, rub the rind of lemon on a few of the lumps, and crush the whole to a powder; separate the whites from the yolks of five eggs, beat the yolks, and add the sugar gradually; then beat the whites to a stiff froth; add it to the dish, and sift in flour enough to make a batter; add a tablespoonful of essence of almonds; butter and paper a tin, pour in the mixture until the tin is two-thirds full, and bake one hour in a moderate oven. The bottom of the tin may be studded with small pieces of almonds.
=Zephyr Cakes.=—Excellent tea-cakes. Wash the salt out of nearly a quarter of a pound of butter; add to it a quarter of a pound of powdered sugar and three well-beaten eggs, a teaspoonful of rosewater, and sifted flour enough to make a thin batter; stir it with a wooden spoon till the batter is perfectly smooth and so light that it will break when it falls against the sides of the mixing-bowl; fill well-buttered muffin-moulds (small) nearly half full with the mixture, and bake in a quick oven; serve hot with newly-made butter.
=Columbia Cake.=—Beat three-quarters of a pound of butter to a cream; add gradually a pound of sugar, four well-beaten eggs, a cupful of milk, half a grated nutmeg, a salt-spoonful cinnamon, a wineglassful of brandy, nearly two pounds of flour, and half a pound of washed currants; beat these ingredients together twenty minutes. Dissolve a teaspoonful of saleratus in a few spoonfuls of hot water, and stir it into the mixture; butter the pan and line it with buttered paper, pour in the cake, and bake in a moderate oven.
=Knickerbocker Cakes.=—Beat half a pound of fresh butter to a cream; add half a pound of powdered sugar, three-quarters of a pound of sifted flour, a tablespoonful of orange-flower water and one of brandy, and four ounces of washed currants; add five well-beaten eggs, and beat the mixture until very light. Line some shallow cake-tins with buttered paper, pour in the mixture until they are half full, and bake in a quick oven.
=Cocoanut Cake.=—One and a half cups of sugar, half a cup each of butter and milk, one cup of cocoanut grated fine, two cups flour, three teaspoonfuls of baking powder. Bake in pans with dry cocoanut sprinkled over the top (three cakes).
M. G. H.
=Olive Gingerbread.=—Five and one-half cups of flour, two cups of molasses, one cup of sour cream, half a cup of butter, and two teaspoonfuls each of soda and ginger. M. G. H.
=Chocolate Cake.=—_Outside_: Half a cup of butter, two cups of sugar, one cup of cold water, three cups of flour, four eggs, whites and yolks beaten separately, and three teaspoonfuls of baking powder. _Inside_: Five tablespoonfuls of grated chocolate with enough cream or milk to wet it, one cupful of brown sugar, and one egg well beaten. Let it come to a boil, and then flavor with vanilla. Cake is made in layers like jelly cake.
M. G. H.
=Chocolate Macaroons.=—Put three ounces of plain chocolate in a pan, and melt on a slow fire; then work it to a thick paste with one pound of powdered sugar and the whites of three eggs; roll the mixture down to the thickness of about one-quarter of an inch; cut it in small, round pieces with a paste-cutter, either plain or scalloped; butter a pan slightly, and dust it with flour and sugar in equal quantities; place in it the pieces of paste or mixture, and bake in a hot but not quick oven.
=Whortleberry Cake.=—One quart of flour, one cupful of sugar, one pint of berries, a little salt, and three teaspoonfuls of baking powder. Mix stiff with milk like biscuit.
M. G. H.
=Whortleberry Cake, No. 2.=—One cupful of sugar, two eggs, one and a half cupfuls of milk with half a teaspoonful of soda dissolved in it; butter size of an egg, one quart of berries, one teaspoonful of cream-tartar, and flour enough to make a stiff batter. Bake in muffin-rings or tins.
=Cocoanut Pound Cake.=—Beat half a pound of butter to a cream; add gradually a pound of sifted flour, one pound of powdered sugar, two teaspoonfuls of baking powder, a pinch of salt, a teaspoonful of grated lemon-peel, quarter of a pound of prepared cocoanut, four well-beaten eggs, and a cupful of milk; mix thoroughly; butter the tins, and line them with buttered paper; pour the mixture in to the depth of an inch and a half, and bake in a good oven. When baked take out, spread icing over them, and return the cake to the oven a moment to dry the icing.
=Icing.=—One cupful white sugar, enough water to dissolve it; set on the stove and let it boil until it will “hair”; beat the white of one egg to a stiff froth, pour the heated sugar on the egg, and stir briskly until cool enough to stay on the cake. The icing should not be applied until the cake is nearly or quite cold. This will frost the tops of two common-sized cakes.
=Cream Cake.=—Sift half a pound of flour into three ounces of creamed butter; add an even teaspoonful of baking powder, two tablespoonfuls powdered sugar, a pinch of salt, half a teaspoonful of grated lemon-peel, a cupful of cream that has turned a little, and beaten egg. Mix the batter, pour it into a buttered and papered tin, and bake in a moderate oven.
=Windsor Cake.=—Beat the yolks and whites of six eggs separately. Have ready the crumbs of three Vienna rolls soaked in milk, and squeeze dry; mix the crumbs with four ounces of melted butter, add the beaten yolks and two ounces crushed sugar, with a teaspoonful of grated lemon-peel; work the mixture, and add gradually two ounces each of raisins, almond paste, and candied orange-peel. Next add the frothed whites of eggs; butter and paper a shallow tin, and bake in a moderate oven. When done sprinkle powdered sugar over it. If preferred, chopped almonds may be sprinkled over the bottom of the cake-tin before adding the cake.
=Ginger Cup Cake.=—Mix two cupfuls of powdered sugar with two cupfuls of warmed butter; add three well-beaten eggs, a cupful of molasses, four heaping cupfuls of flour, a tablespoonful of fresh ground ginger, and a tablespoonful of dissolved saleratus; mix thoroughly, and pour into buttered moulds or patty pans. Bake in moderate oven.
=Macaroons.=—Blanch and pound six ounces of sweet almonds; add one pound of powdered sugar, the beaten whites of six eggs, two ounces of rice flour, and one tablespoonful of brandy; mix all well together, and drop the mixture in small quantities through a cornucopia on a sheet of confectionery paper, leaving a small distance between each, and bake in a moderate oven. It is best to bake one little cake at first, and if it is at all heavy add a little more beaten white of egg. A strip of blanched almond in the middle of each will be an improvement. They should be baked a fawn color.