MISCELLANEOUS RECEIPTS.
MINCED OYSTERS.
Take fifty fine large oysters, and mince them raw. Chop also four or five small pickled cuc.u.mbers, and a bunch of parsley. Grate about two tea-cupfuls of stale bread-crumbs, and beat up the yolks of four eggs. Mix the whole together in a thick batter, seasoning it with cayenne and powdered mace; and with a little salt if the oysters are fresh. Have ready a pound of lard, and melt in the frying-pan enough of it to fry the oysters well. If the lard is in too small a quant.i.ty they will be flat and tough. When the lard is boiling hot in the pan, put in about a table-spoonful at a time of the oyster-mixture, and fry it in the form of small fritters; turning them so as to brown on both sides. Serve them up hot, and eat them with small bread rolls.
STEWED BLACK FISH.
Flour a deep dish, and lay in the bottom a piece of b.u.t.ter rolled in flour. Then sprinkle it with a mixture of parsley, sweet marjoram, and green onion; all chopped fine. Take your black fish and rub it inside and outside with a mixture of cayenne, salt, and powdered cloves and mace. Place skewers across the dish, and lay the fish upon them. Then pour in a little wine, and sufficient water to stew the fish. Set the dish in a moderate oven, and let it cook slowly for an hour.
Shad or rock fish may be dressed in the same manner.
FRIED SMELTS.
These little fish are considered extremely fine. Before they are cooked, cut off the heads and tails. Sprinkle the smelts with flour, and have ready in a frying pan over the fire plenty of fresh lard or b.u.t.ter. When it boils, put in the fish and fry them.
BROILED SWEET-BREADS.
Split open and skewer the sweet-breads; season them with pepper and salt, and with powdered mace. Broil them on a gridiron till thoroughly done. While they are broiling, prepare some melted b.u.t.ter seasoned with mace and a little white wine, or mushroom catchup; and have ready some toast with the crust cut off. Lay the toast in the bottom of a dish; place the sweet-breads upon it, and pour over them the drawn b.u.t.ter.
PICKLED EGGS.
Boil twelve eggs quite hard, and lay them in cold water; having peeled off the sh.e.l.ls. Then put them whole into a stone jar, with a quarter of an ounce of whole mace, and the same quant.i.ty of cloves; a sliced nutmeg; a table-spoonful of whole pepper; a small bit of ginger; and a peach leaf. Fill up the jar with boiling vinegar; cover it closely that the eggs may cool slowly. When they are cold, tie up the jar; covering the cork with leather. After it has stood three days pour off the pickle, boil it up again, and return it boiling hot to the eggs and spice. They will be fit for use in a fortnight.
GUMBO SOUP.
Take four pounds of the lean of a fresh round of beef and cut the meat into small pieces, avoiding carefully all the fat. Season the meat with a little pepper and salt, and put it on to boil with three quarts and a pint of water (not more.) Boil it slowly and skim it well. When no more sc.u.m rises, put in half a peck of ochras, peeled and sliced, and half a peck of tomatas cut in quarters. Boil it slowly till the ochras and tomatas are entirely dissolved, and the meat all to rags. Then strain it through a cullender, and send it to table with slices of dry toast. This soup cannot be made in less than seven or eight hours. If you dine at two, you must put on the meat to boil at six or seven in the morning. It should be as thick as a jelly.
SHREWSBURY CAKES.
Rub three quarters of a pound of b.u.t.ter into two pounds of sifted flour, and mix in half a pound of powdered sugar, and half a pound of currants, washed and dried. Wet it to a stiff paste with rich milk. Roll it out, and cut it into cakes. Lay them on b.u.t.tered baking sheets, and put them into a moderate oven.
RICE FLUMMERY.
To two quarts of milk allow half a pound of ground rice. Take out one pint of the milk, and mix the rice gradually with it into a batter; making it quite smooth and free from lumps. Put the three pints of milk into a skillet, (with a bunch of peach leaves or a few peach-kernels.) and let it come to a boil. Then while it is still boiling, stir in by degrees the rice batter, taking care not to have it lumpy; add sugar, mace, and rose brandy to your taste; or you may flavour it with a small tea-spoonful of oil of lemon.
When it has boiled sufficiently, and is quite thick, strain it, and put it into a mould to congeal. Make a rich boiled custard, (flavoured in the same manner,) and send it to table in a pitcher to eat with the flummery. Both should be cold. If you mould it in tea-cups, turn it out on a deep dish, and pour the custard round it.
APPLE b.u.t.tER WITHOUT CIDER.
To ten gallons of water add six gallons of the best mola.s.ses, mixing them well together. Put it into a large kettle over a good fire; let it come to a hard boil, and skim it as long as any sc.u.m continues to rise. Then take out half the liquid, and put it into a tub. Have ready eight bushels of fine sound apples, pared, cored and quartered. Throw them gradually into the liquid that is still boiling on the fire. Let it continue to boil hard, and as it thickens, add by degrees the other half of the mola.s.ses and water, (that which has been put into the tub.) Stir it frequently to prevent its scorching, and to make it of equal consistence throughout. Boil it ten or twelve hours, continuing to stir it. At night take it out of the kettle, and set it in tubs to cool; covering it carefully. Wash out the kettle and wipe it very dry.
Next morning boil the apple b.u.t.ter six or eight hours longer; it should boil eighteen hours altogether. Half an hour before you take it finally out, stir in a pound of mixed spice; cloves, allspice, cinnamon, and nutmeg, all finely powdered. When entirely done, put up the apple b.u.t.ter in stone or earthen jars. It will keep a year or more.
It can, of course, be made in a smaller quant.i.ty than that given in the above receipt; and also at any time in the winter; fresh cider not being an ingredient, as in the most usual way of making apple b.u.t.ter.
AN APPLE POT PIE.
Make a paste, allowing a pound of b.u.t.ter, or of chopped suet to two pounds and a quarter of flour. Have ready a sufficient quant.i.ty of fine juicy acid apples, pared, cored, and sliced. Mix with them brown sugar enough to sweeten them, a few cloves, and some slips of lemon-peel. b.u.t.ter the inside of an iron pot, and line it with some of the paste. Then put in the apples, interspersing them with thin squares of paste, and add a very little water. Cover the whole with a thick lid of the dough, which must be carefully closed round the edges. Pour on water enough to fill the pot, and let it boil two hours. When done, serve it up on a large dish, and eat it with b.u.t.ter and sugar.
PUDDING CATCHUP.
Mix together half a pint of noyau; a pint of sherry or other white wine; the yellow peel of four lemons, pared thin; and half an ounce of mace. Put the whole into a large bottle, and let it stand for two or three weeks. Then strain it, and add half a pint of capillaire or strong sugar syrup; or of Curacoa. Bottle it, and it will keep two or three years. It may be used for various sweet dishes, but chiefly for pudding-sauce mixed with melted b.u.t.ter.
CURAcOA.
Pound as much dried orange-peel as will make six ounces when done; the peel of fresh shaddock will be still better; or you may subst.i.tute six drachms of the oil of orange-peel. Put it into a quart of the strongest and clearest rectified spirit; shake it, let it infuse for a fortnight, and strain it. Then make a syrup by dissolving a pound of the best loaf-sugar in a pint of cold water, adding to it the beaten white of an egg, and boiling and skimming it till the sc.u.m ceases to rise. Mix the syrup with the strained liquor. Let it stand till next day, and then filter it through white blotting paper fastened to the bottom of a sieve. Curacoa is a great improvement to punch; also a table-spoonful of it in a tumbler of water makes a very refreshing summer drink.
PATENT YEAST.
Boil half a pound of fresh hops in four quarts of water, till the liquid is reduced to two quarts Strain it, and mix in sufficient wheat flour to make a thin batter; adding half a pint of strong fresh yeast, (brewer"s yeast, if it can be procured.) When it is done fermenting, pour it into a pan, and stir in sufficient Indian meal to make a moderately stiff dough. Cover it, and set it in a warm place to rise. When it has become very light, roll it out into a thick sheet, and cut it into little cakes. Spread them out on a dish, and let them dry gradually in a cool place where there is no sun. Turn them five or six times a day while drying; and when they are quite dry, put them into paper bags, and keep them in a jar or box closely covered, in a place that is not in the least damp.
When you want the yeast for use, dissolve in a little warm water one or more of the cakes, (in proportion to the quant.i.ty of bread you intend making,) and when it is quite dissolved, stir it hard, thicken it with a little flour, cover it, and place it near the fire to rise before you use it. Then mix it with the flour in the usual manner of preparing bread.
This is a very convenient way of preserving yeast through the summer, or of conveying it to a distance.
TO DRY HERBS.
By drying herbs with artificial heat as quickly as possible, you preserve their scent and flavour much better than when they are dried slowly by exposing them to the sun and air; a process by which a large portion of their strength evaporates. All sorts of herbs are in the greatest perfection just before they begin to flower. Gather them on a dry day, and place them in an oven, which must not be hot enough to discolour, scorch, or burn them. When they are quite dry, take them out, and replace them with others.
Pick the leaves from, the stems, (which may be thrown away,) and put them into bottles or jars; cork them tightly, and keep them in a dry place. Those that are used in cookery should be kept in a kitchen closet.
PEACH KERNELS.
When peaches are in season, have in a convenient place an old basket or something of the sort, in which all the peach stones can be saved; they are too useful to be thrown away. Then have them carefully cracked, so as to extract the kernels whole if possible.
Spread them out on a dish for one day. Then, put them into a box or jar, and keep them to use as bitter almonds; for which they are an excellent subst.i.tute in flavouring custards, creams and cakes.
Plum stones are worth saving in the same manner.
LEMON-PEEL.
Never throw away the rind of a lemon; Keep a wide-mouthed bottle half full of brandy, and put into it (cut in pieces) all the lemon-rind that you do not immediately want. As the white part of the rind is of no use, it will be best to pare off the yellow very thin, and put that alone into the brandy, which will thus imbibe a very fine lemon flavour, and may be used for many nice purposes.