The large carnation cherries are the best for this purpose. They should be quite ripe. p.r.i.c.k every one in several places with a needle, and leave on the stalks cut short. To each pound of cherries allow a pound and a quarter of the best loaf-sugar.
Spread them on large dishes, and strew over them a thick layer of the sugar powdered fine; about a quarter of a pound of sugar to each pound of cherries. Or you may put them into a large tureen, and disperse the sugar among them, cover them, and let them set all night. In the morning get some ripe red currants; pick them, from the stalks, and squeeze them through a linen cloth till you have just sufficient juice to moisten the remaining sugar, which you must have ready in a preserving kettle. When the sugar has melted in the currant juice, put it over the fire, and when it has been well boiled and skimmed, put in the cherries and simmer them half an hour, or till they are so clear that you can see the stones through them. Then take them up one at a time, and spread them out to cool. Taste one, and if the sugar does not seem, to have sufficiently penetrated it, return them to the syrup and boil them a little longer, but do not allow them to break. If you are willing to take the trouble, you may put them out to cool three or four times while simmering. This will make them more transparent, and prevent them from bursting.
CHERRY JELLY.
Take fine juicy red cherries, and stone them. Save half the stones, crack them, and extract the kernels. Put the cherries and the kernels into a preserving kettle over a slow fire, and let them boil gently in their juice for half an hour. Then transfer them to a jelly-bag, and squeeze out the juice. Measure it, and to each pint allow a pound of fine loaf-sugar. Dissolve the sugar in the juice, and then boil and skim it for twenty or thirty minutes.
Put it up in tumblers covered with tissue paper.
CHERRY JAM.
To each pound of cherries allow three quarters of a pound of the best brown sugar. Stone them, and as you do so throw the sugar gradually into the pan with them. Cover them and let them set all night. Next day, boil them slowly till the cherries and sugar form a thick smooth ma.s.s. Put it up in queen"s-ware jars.
TO DRY CHERRIES.
Choose the finest and largest red cherries for this purpose. Store them, and spread them on large dishes in the sun, till they become quite dry, taking them in as soon as the sun is off, or if the sky becomes cloudy. Put them up in stone jars, strewing among them some of the best brown sugar.
The common practice of drying cherries with the stones in, (to save trouble,) renders them so inconvenient to eat, that they are of little use, when done in that manner.
With the stones extracted, dried cherries will be found very good for common pies.
BARBERRY JELLY.
Take ripe barberries, and having stripped them from the stalks, mash them, and boil them in their juice for a quarter of an hour.
Then squeeze them through a bag: allow to each pint of juice, a pound of loaf-sugar; and having melted the sugar in the juice, boil them together twenty or twenty-five minutes, skimming carefully. Put it up in tumblers with tissue paper.
FROSTED FRUIT.
Take large ripe cherries, plums, apricots, or grapes, and cut off half the stalk. Have ready in one dish some beaten white of egg, and in another some fine loaf-sugar, powdered and sifted. Dip the fruit first into the white of egg, and then roll it one by one in the powdered sugar. Lay a sheet of white paper on the bottom of a reversed sieve, set it on a stove or in some other warm place, and spread the fruit on the paper till the icing is hardened.
PEACH LEATHER.
To six pounds of ripe peaches, (pared and quartered,) allow three pounds of the best brown sugar. Mix them together, and put them, into a preserving kettle, with barely water enough to keep them from burning. Pound and mash them a while with a wooden beetle.
Then boil and skim them for three hours or more, stirring them nearly all the time. When done, spread them thinly on large dishes, and set them in the sun for three or four days; Finish the drying by loosening the peach leather on the dishes, and setting them in the oven after the bread is taken out, letting them remain till the oven is cold. Roll up the peach leather and put it away in a box.
Apple leather may be made in the same manner.
RHUBARB JAM.
Peel the rhubarb stalks and cut them into small square pieces.
Then weigh them, and to each pound allow three quarters of a pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Put the sugar and the rhubarb into a large, deep, white pan, in alternate layers, the top layer to be of sugar--cover it, and let it stand all night. In the morning, put it into a preserving kettle, and boil it slowly till the whole is dissolved into a thick ma.s.s, stirring it frequently, and skimming it before every stirring. Put it warm into gla.s.s jars, and tie it up with brandy paper.
PASTRY, PUDDINGS, ETC
THE BEST PLAIN PASTE.
All paste should be made in a very cool place, as heat renders it heavy. It is far more difficult to get it light in summer than in winter. A marble slab is much better to roll it on than a paste-board.
It will be improved in lightness by washing the b.u.t.ter in very cold water, and squeezing and pressing out all the salt, as salt is injurious to paste. In New York and in the Eastern states, it is customary, in the dairies, to put more salt in what is called fresh b.u.t.ter, than in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. This b.u.t.ter, therefore, should always undergo the process of washing and squeezing before it is used for pastry or cakes. None but the very best b.u.t.ter should be taken for those purposes; as any unpleasant taste is always increased by baking.
Potted b.u.t.ter never makes good paste. As pastry is by no means an article of absolute necessity, it is better not to have it at all, than to make it badly, and of inferior ingredients; few things being more unwholesome than hard, heavy dough. The flour for paste should always be superfine.
You may bake paste in deep dishes or in soup plates. For sh.e.l.ls that are to be baked empty, and afterwards filled with stewed fruit or sweetmeats, deep plates of block tin with broad edges are best. If you use patty-pans, the more flat they are the better.
Paste always rises higher and is more perfectly light and flaky, when unconfined at the sides while baking. That it may be easily taken out, the dishes or tins should be well b.u.t.tered.
To make a nice plain paste,--sift three pints of superfine flour, by rubbing it through a sieve into a deep pan. Divide a pound of fresh b.u.t.ter into four quarters. Cut up one quarter into the flour, and rub it fine with your hands. Mix in, gradually, as much cold water as will make a tolerably stiff dough, and then knead it slightly. Use as little water as possible or the paste will be tough. Sprinkle a little flour on your paste-board, lay the lump of dough upon it, and knead it a very short time. Flour it, and roll it out into a very thin sheet, always rolling from you. Flour your rolling-pin to prevent its sticking. Take a second quarter of the b.u.t.ter, and with your thumb, spread it all over the sheet of paste. If your hand is warm, use a knife instead of your thumb; for if the b.u.t.ter oils, the paste will be heavy. When you have put on the layer of b.u.t.ter, sprinkle it with a very little flour, and with your hands roll up the paste as you would a sheet of paper.
Then flatten it with a rolling-pin, and roll it out a second time into a thin sheet. Cover it with another layer of b.u.t.ter, as before, and again roll it up into a scroll. Flatten it again, put on the last layer of b.u.t.ter, flour it slightly, and again roll up the sheet. Then cut the scroll into as many pieces as you want sheets for your dishes or patty-pans. Roll out each piece almost an inch thick. Flour your dishes, lay the paste lightly on them, notch the edges, and bake it a light brown. The oven must be moderate. If it is too hot, the paste will bake before it has risen sufficiently. If too cold, it will scarcely rise at all, and will be white and clammy. When you begin to make paste in this manner, do not quit it till it is ready for the oven. It must always be baked in a close oven where no air can reach it.
The best rolling-pins, are those that are straight, and as thick at the ends as in the middle. They should be held by the handles, and the longer the handles the more convenient. The common rolling-pins that decrease in size towards the ends, are much less effective, and more tedious, as they can roll so little at a time; the extremities not pressing on the dough at all.
All, pastry is best when fresh. After the first day it loses much of its lightness, and is therefore more unwholesome.
COMMON PIE CRUST.
Sift two quarts of superfine flour into a pan. Divide one pound of fresh b.u.t.ter into two equal parts, and cut up one half in the flour, rubbing it fine. Mix it with a very little cold water, and make it into a round lump. Knead it a little. Then flour your paste-board, and roll the dough out into a large thin sheet.
Spread it all over with the remainder of the b.u.t.ter. Flour it, fold it up, and roll it out again. Then fold it again, or roll it into a scroll. Cut it into as many pieces as you want sheets of paste, and roll each not quite an inch thick. b.u.t.ter your pie-dish.
This paste will do for family use, when covered pies are wanted.
Also for apple dumplings, pot-pies, &c.; though all boiled paste is best when made of suet instead of b.u.t.ter. Short cakes may be made of this, cut out with the edge of a tumbler. It should always be eaten fresh.
SUET PASTE.
Having removed the skirt and stringy fibres from a pound of beef suet, chop it as fine as possible. Sift two quarts of flour into a deep pan, and rub into it one half of the suet. Make, it into a round lump of dough, with cold water, and then knead it a little.
Lay the dough on your paste-board, roll it out very thin, and cover it with the remaining half of the suet. Flour it, roll it out thin again, and then roll it into a scroll. Cut it into as many pieces as you want sheets of paste, and roll them out half an inch thick.
Suet paste should always be boiled. It is good for plain puddings that are made of apples, gooseberries, blackberries or other fruit; and for dumplings. If you use it for pot-pie, roll it the last time rather thicker than if wanted for any other purpose. If properly made, it will be light and flaky, and the suet imperceptible. If the suet is minced very fine, and thoroughly incorporated with the flour, not the slightest lump will appear when the paste comes to table.
The suet must not be melted before it is used; but merely minced as fine as possible and mixed cold with the flour.
If for dumplings to eat with boiled mutton, the dough must be rolled out thick, and cut out of the size you want them, with a tin, or with the edge of a cup or tumbler.
DRIPPING PASTE.
To a pound of fresh beef-dripping, that has been nicely clarified, allow two pounds and a quarter of flour. Put the flour into a large pan, and mix the dripping with it, rubbing it into the flour with your hands till it is thoroughly incorporated. Then make it into a stiff dough with a little cold water, and roll it out twice. This may be used for common meat pies.
LARD PASTE.
Lard for paste should never be used without an equal quant.i.ty of b.u.t.ter. Take half a pound of nice lard, and half a pound of fresh b.u.t.ter; rub them together into two pounds and a quarter of flour, and mix it with a little cold water to a stiff dough. Roll it out twice. Use it for common pies. Lard should always be kept in tin.