Begin at the neck; then go round to the shoulders and wings, and carefully separate the flesh from the bone, sc.r.a.ping it down as you proceed. Next loosen the flesh from the breast, and back, and body; and then from the thighs. It requires care and patience to do it nicely, and to avoid tearing or breaking the skin. The knife should always penetrate quite to the bone; sc.r.a.ping loose the flesh rather than cutting it. When all the flesh has been completely loosened, take the turkey by the neck, give it a pull, and the whole skeleton will come out entire from the flesh, as easily as you draw your hand out of a glove. The flesh will then fall down, a flat and shapeless ma.s.s. With a small needle and thread, carefully sew up any holes that have accidentally been torn in the skin.
Have ready a large quant.i.ty of stuffing, made as follows:--Take three sixpenny loaves of stale bread; grate the crumb; and put the crusts in water to soak. When quite soft, break them up small into the pan of grated bread-crumbs, and mix in a pound of fresh b.u.t.ter, cut into little pieces. Take two large bunches of sweet-marjoram; the same of sweet-basil; and one bunch of parsley. Mince the parsley very fine, and rub to a powder the leaves of the marjoram and basil. You should have two large, heaping table-spoonfuls of each. Chop, also, two very small onions or shalots, and mix them with the herbs. Pound to powder a quarter of an ounce of mace; a quarter of an ounce of cloves; and two large nutmegs. Mix the spices together, and add a tea-spoonful of salt and a tea-spoonful of ground black pepper. Then mix the herbs, spice, &c., thoroughly into the bread-crumbs; and add, by degrees, four beaten eggs to bind the whole together.
Take up a handful of this filling; squeeze it hard, and proceed to stuff the turkey with it,--beginning at the wings; next do the body; and then the thighs. Stuff it very hard, and as you proceed, form the turkey into its natural shape, by filling out, properly, the wings, breast, body, &c. When all the stuffing is in, sew up the body, and skewer the turkey into the usual shape in which they are trussed; so that, if skilfully done, it will look almost as if it had not been boned. Tie it round with tape, and bake it three hours or more; basting it occasionally with fresh b.u.t.ter. Make a gravy of the giblets, chopped, and stewed slowly in a little water. When done, add to it the gravy that is in the dish about the turkey, (having first skimmed off the fat,) and enrich it with a gla.s.s of white wine, and two beaten yolks of eggs, stirred in just before you take it from the fire.
If the turkey is to be eaten cold at the supper-table, drop table-spoonfuls of currant or cranberry jelly all over it at small distances, and in the dish round it.
A very handsome way of serving it up cold is, after making a sufficiency of nice clear calves"-foot jelly, (seasoned, as usual, with wine, lemon, cinnamon, &c.,) to lay the turkey in the dish in which it is to go to table, and setting it under the jelly-bag, let the jelly drip upon it, so as to form a transparent coating all over it; smoothing the jelly evenly with the back of a spoon, as it congeals on the turkey. Apple jelly may be subst.i.tuted.
Large fowls may be boned and stuffed in the above manner: also a young roasting pig.
PUDDINGS, ETC.
COLUMBIAN PUDDING.--Tie up closely in a bit of very thin white muslin, a vanilla bean cut into pieces; and a broken-up stick of cinnamon. Put this bag with its contents into half a pint of rich milk, and boil it a long time till very highly flavoured. Then take out the bag; set the milk near the fire to keep warm in the pan in which it was boiled, covering it closely. Slice thin a pound of almond sponge-cake, and lay it in a deep dish. Pour over it a quart of rich cream, with which you must mix the vanilla-flavoured milk, and leave the cake to dissolve in it. Blanch, in scalding water, two ounces of sh.e.l.led bitter almonds or peach-kernels; and pound them (one at a time) to a smooth paste in a marble mortar; pouring on each a few drops of rose-water or peach-water to prevent their oiling. When the almonds are done, set them away in a cold place till wanted. Beat eight eggs till very light and thick; and having stirred together, hard, the dissolved cake and the cream, add them, gradually, to the mixture in turn with the almond, and half a pound of powdered loaf sugar, a little at a time of each. b.u.t.ter a deep dish, and put in the mixture. Set the pudding into a brisk oven and bake it well. Have ready a star nicely cut out of a large piece of candied citron, a number of small stars all of equal size, as many as there are states in the Union: and a sufficiency of rays or long strips also cut out of citron. The rays should be wide at the bottom and run to a point at the top. As soon as the pudding comes out of the oven, while it is smoking, arrange these decorations. Put the large star in the centre, then the rays so that they will diverge from it, widening off towards the edge of the pudding. Near the edge place the small stars in a circle.
Preserved citron-melon will be still better for this purpose than the dry candied citron.
This is a very fine pudding; suitable for a dinner party, or a Fourth of July dinner.
A MARIETTA PUDDING.--Take a teacup-full of loaf-sugar broken up. On some of the largest lumps rub off the yellow rind of a large lemon. Then put all the sugar into a pint of rich cream; when the sugar is melted, set it over the fire, and when it comes to a boil, pour it hot over half a pound of fresh savoy biscuits or lady-fingers, (maccaroons will be still better,) laid in a deep dish. Cover the dish, and when the cakes are quite dissolved, stir the cream well among them. Beat eight eggs very light; and when the mixture is quite cold, stir the beaten eggs gradually into it. Add, by degrees, four peels of candied citron, cut into slips, and dredged with flour to prevent their sinking to the bottom. Put the mixture into a deep dish, and bake it. When done, sift sugar over the top. It may be eaten warm or cold. Send to table with it a sauce, made of fresh b.u.t.ter and white sugar, beaten together till very light, and flavoured with the juice of the lemon, whose rind was rubbed on the lumps of sugar, and also with some grated nutmeg.
Instead of citron you may put into this pudding a pound of Zante currants, (picked, washed, dried, and floured,) stirred gradually in at the last.
AN ORLEANS PUDDING.--Half fill a deep dish with almond sponge-cake sliced thin, or with sliced lady-cake. Grate the yellow rind of a lemon, and mix it among the cake; adding also the juice of the lemon, and sufficient white wine to moisten the cake, so that after standing awhile it can be easily mashed. For wine you may subst.i.tute brandy; or wine and brandy mixed. Beat six eggs very light, and stir them gradually into a pint of cream or rich milk; adding four table-spoonfuls of powdered white sugar, and half a nutmeg grated. Mix the eggs, &c., by degrees, with the dissolved cake; stirring it very hard. The dish should be full. Set it into the oven, and bake it brown. When cold, have ready a meringue, made of beaten white of egg thickened with powdered loaf-sugar, and flavoured with lemon-juice or rose-water. Spread this evenly over the top of the pudding, putting one layer of the meringue over another till it is very thick. Then set it for a few minutes into the oven to brown slightly on the top.
Any very nice baked pudding will be improved by covering the surface with a meringue.
HANOVER PUDDING.--Cut up half a pound of fresh b.u.t.ter in half a pint of milk. Set them over the fire till the b.u.t.ter is soft enough to mix thoroughly with the milk. Then take it off, and let it stand till lukewarm. Have ready four well-beaten eggs. Stir them hard into the b.u.t.ter and milk. Then add very gradually a pound of sifted flour. Last stir in two large table-spoonfuls of strong fresh yeast. Beat the whole very hard. Cover the pan, and let it stand near the fire for three hours or till the mixture is quite light. Have ready half a pound of Zante currants, picked, washed, and dried; or half a pound of fine raisins, seeded and cut in half. Dredge the fruit thickly with flour to prevent its sinking. Then mix it, gradually, into the pudding with two large table-spoonfuls of sugar, and a tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon; and a salt-spoon of sal-eratus, or small tea-spoonful of bi-carbonate of soda, dissolved in a very little lukewarm water. Stir the whole very hard.
Transfer it to a deep tin pan, well-b.u.t.tered, and bake it thoroughly.
Before it goes to table, turn it out on a dish, and serve it up warm with any sort of nice sweet sauce.
TURKISH RICE PUDDING.--Pick and wash half a pound of rice. Prepare also half a pound of Zante currants, which must be carefully picked clean, washed through two waters, drained well, and then spread out to dry on a flat dish before the fire. Put the rice into a sauce-pan, with a quart of rich milk. Having dredged the currants with flour, stir them a few at a time into the rice and milk. Then add four ounces of broken up loaf-sugar, on which you have rubbed off the yellow rind of a large ripe lemon or orange, and squeezed the juice. Stir in two ounces of fresh b.u.t.ter divided into bits. When the rice is well swollen and quite soft, take it from the fire, and mix with it gradually eight well-beaten yolks of eggs. Transfer it to a deep china dish, and put it into an oven for half an hour. Then sift powdered sugar thickly over the top, and brown it by holding above it a red-hot shovel or salamander. Serve it up warm.
This pudding may be made with ground rice, or rice flour.
CREAM COCOA-NUT PUDDING.--Take two cocoa-nuts of large size. Break them up, and pare off the brown skin from the pieces. Then grate them very fine. Stir together a quarter of a pound of the best fresh b.u.t.ter, and a quarter of a pound of finely-powdered loaf-sugar, till perfectly light.
Beat six eggs till very thick and smooth: afterwards mix them, gradually, with a pint of rich cream. Add this mixture, by degrees, to the beaten b.u.t.ter and sugar, in turn with the grated cocoa-nut; a little at a time of each, stirring very well as you proceed. Then give the whole a hard stirring. Put the mixture into a deep white dish and bake it well. Send it to table _cold_, with loaf-sugar sifted over the top.
You may season the mixture by stirring in, at the last, a tea-spoonful of mixed nutmeg and cinnamon finely powdered. And you may add a table-spoonful of rose-brandy.
This pudding may be baked in puff-paste in two deep plates, with a broad border of paste round the edge, handsomely notched. Or it may be done without any paste _beneath_ the mixture; but merely a paste border round the edge of the dish, which last is the better way. Paste at the bottom of these soft pudding-mixtures is usually tough and clammy, from the almost impossibility of getting it thoroughly done; and therefore it is best omitted, as is now generally the case. If there is no paste under it, the pudding should be baked in the dish in which it is to go to table. Unless the oven is so hot as to burn the pudding, no dish will be injured by baking. No pie or pudding should be sent to table in any thing inferior to white-ware.
PINE-APPLE PUDDING.--Take half a pound of grated pine-apple; half a pound of powdered white sugar, and a quarter of a pound of fresh b.u.t.ter.
Put the sugar into a deep pan, cut up the b.u.t.ter among it, and stir them together till very light. Then add, by degrees, the grated pine-apple.
Grate a small two-penny sponge-cake, and mix it with a large tea-cup of rich cream, and grate into it a small nutmeg, or half a large one. Add this to the pine-apple mixture in the pan. Beat six eggs very light, and stir them in gradually a little at a time. Stir the whole very hard, after all the ingredients are put together. b.u.t.ter a deep dish, put in the mixture, and bake it well.
If your dish has a broad rim, lay round the edge a border of puff-paste, cut into leaves resembling a wreath.
AN ALMOND RICE PUDDING.--Blanch, in boiling water, three ounces of sh.e.l.led bitter almonds, afterwards throwing them into cold water. Pound them, one at a time, in a mortar, till they become a smooth paste; adding frequently, as you pound them, a few drops of rose-water, to make them white and light, and to prevent their oiling. Take a quart of rich, unskimmed milk, and stir into it, gradually, three large, heaping table-spoonfuls of ground rice flour, alternately with the pounded almonds, and four heaping table-spoonfuls of powdered loaf-sugar. Set the mixture over the fire, and boil and stir it till very thick. Then put it into a deep dish, and set it away to cool. When cold, have ready the whites of two eggs beaten to a stiff froth, and thickened with powdered sugar, that has been melted in rose-water. Cover with this the surface of the pudding. Set it in an oven just long enough to be slightly coloured of a light brown. Send it to table cold.
BOILED ALMOND PUDDING.--Blanch, in boiling water, a quarter of a pound of sh.e.l.led sweet almonds, and two ounces of sh.e.l.led bitter almonds.
Throw them into a pan of cold water, as you blanch them. Afterwards pound them, one at a time, in a mortar; adding to them, as you proceed, the beaten whites of two or three eggs, a little at a time. They must be pounded till they become a smooth paste; mixing together the sweet and the bitter almonds, and removing them, as you go on, from the mortar to a plate. Then set them in a cool place. Boil slowly a quart of cream, or rich, unskimmed milk, with half a dozen blades of mace, whole; and half a nutmeg, powdered. It may simmer half an hour, and when it comes to a boil, take it off, remove the mace, and set the milk to cool. Beat eight eggs very light, (omitting the whites of three,) and then add to them a heaped table-spoonful of flour. Stir the beaten eggs and the pounded almonds, alternately, into the pan of milk, (after it has become quite cold,) add a table-spoonful of orange-flower or rose-water, and stir the whole very hard. Have ready, over the fire, a pot of boiling water. Dip into it a thick pudding-cloth, shake it out, spread it open in a large empty pan, dredge it well with flour, and pour the pudding-mixture into it. Tie it very closely, leaving sufficient s.p.a.ce for the pudding to swell, and plug the tying-place with a small lump of flour-and-water dough. Lay an old plate in the bottom of the pot of boiling water. Put in the pudding, and turn it over in a quarter of an hour. Boil it very fast for an hour, or more, after it has commenced boiling; replenishing the pot from a kettle of _boiling_ water. When the pudding is done, dip it a moment into cold water; then turn it out on a dish. Send it to table immediately, with a sauce of sweetened cream, flavoured with rose or orange-flower water.
BISCUIT PUDDINGS.--Grate some stale milk-biscuits, till you have six heaping table-spoonfuls of fine crumbs. Then sift them through a coa.r.s.e sieve. Beat six eggs very light, and stir them into a pint of cream, or rich, unskimmed milk, alternately with the biscuit crumbs, a little of each at a time. Beat the mixture very hard, and then b.u.t.ter some large breakfast-cups, such as hold near half a pint. Nearly fill them with the batter. Set them immediately into a brisk oven, and bake them half an hour, or more. This quant.i.ty will make five puddings. Serve them up hot in the cups, and eat them with wine-sauce, or with sauce of b.u.t.ter and sugar, stirred to a cream, and flavoured with nutmeg and lemon.
MARMALADE PUDDINGS.--Make the above mixture, and, when they are baked, turn the puddings out of the cups, make a slit or opening in the side of each, and fill up the inside or cavity of each pudding with any sort of nice marmalade or jam; taking care to fill them well. Then close the slit with your fingers. They may be eaten warm or cold, and require no other sauce than sweetened cream.
AN EXCELLENT CORN-MEAL PUDDING.--Boil a quart of rich milk, and pour it scalding hot into a large pan. Stir in, gradually, a quart of sifted Indian meal, and a quarter of a pound of fresh b.u.t.ter; adding the grated yellow rind of a lemon or orange. Squeeze the juice upon a quarter of a pound of brown sugar, and stir that in also. Add a large tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon. Have ready a pound of raisins, seeded, and cut in half, and dredged thickly with wheat flour, to prevent their sinking.
Beat six eggs very light, and stir them gradually into the mixture.
Lastly, stir in the raisins, a few at a time, and stir the whole very hard. Have ready a large pot of boiling water; dip into it a square pudding-cloth, shake it out, and dredge it with flour. Spread out the cloth in a deep, empty pan, and pour into it the pudding-mixture. Tie it firmly, leaving room for the pudding to swell. Put it into the pot of hot water, and boil it four hours, or five; turning it several times, while boiling; and replenishing the water, as it boils away, with water kept hot, for the purpose, in a kettle. When done, take out the pudding from the pot; dip it, for a minute into cold water, before you untie the cloth; then turn it out into a dish, and send it to table. It should not be taken out of the pot till a minute or two before it is wanted.
Eat it with wine-sauce; or with b.u.t.ter, white sugar nutmeg, and lemon or orange-juice, beaten together to a light cream.
What is left, may be tied again in a cloth, and boiled for an hour, next day.
Instead of b.u.t.ter, you may use a quarter of a pound of beef-suet, minced as fine as possible.
PEACH INDIAN PUDDING.--Wash a pint, or more, of dried peaches; then drain them well; spread them on a large dish, and set them in the sun, or near the fire, till all the water that remains about them is entirely exhaled. Boil a quart of rich milk; mix it, while hot, with a pint of West India mola.s.ses, and then set it away to cool. Chop, very fine, a quarter of a pound of beef-suet, (veal-suet will do,) and stir it gradually into the milk, a little at a time. Beat six eggs very light, and stir them, by degrees, into the mixture, in turn with as much yellow Indian meal (sifted) as will make a moderately thick batter. Having dredged the peaches thickly with wheat flour, to prevent their sinking, add them, one at a time, to the mixture, stirring it well; and, lastly, stir in a table-spoonful of ground ginger, or a tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon. Dip a thick, square pudding-cloth into boiling water, then shake it out, spread it open in a large pan, dredge it with flour, and pour in the pudding-mixture. Tie it fast; leaving room for it to swell; and plaster the tying-place with a bit of dough, made of flour and water. Put the pudding into a large pot of boiling water, with an old plate laid at the bottom, and boil it from four to five or six hours, filling up the pot, as it boils away, with hot water from a tea-kettle, and turning the pudding frequently. When done, dip it in cold water, lay it in a pan, and turn it out of the cloth. Eat it with b.u.t.ter and sugar, beaten to a cream, and seasoned with powdered nutmeg.
If there is not time to boil the pudding several hours, on the day you want it for dinner, prepare it the day before; boil it then all the afternoon, and boil it again the following day. Indian puddings can scarcely be boiled too long. They will be the better, indeed, for eight hours" boiling.
A FINE INDIAN PUDDING.--Take a pound of raisins, and cut them in half, having first removed the seeds. Then spread them on a large dish, and dredge them thickly with fine wheat flour, turning them about, that both sides may be well floured. Boil a quart of rich milk, and when it has come to a boil, take it off the fire, and set it to cool. Transfer the half of this milk (one pint) to another pan, and, while it is still warm, stir into it a quarter of a pound of b.u.t.ter, cut into bits; a quarter of a pound of brown sugar, (or else a half pint of West India mola.s.ses,) mixed with the grated yellow rind of a large lemon or orange, and also the juice. Add a large tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon and nutmeg, mixed, and a gla.s.s of brandy. Beat eight eggs very light; and, when it is quite cold, stir the eggs, gradually, into the other pint of milk. Then mix the ingredients of both pans together; adding eight large table-spoonfuls of Indian meal, or enough to make a thick batter.
Lastly, mix in the floured raisins, a few at a time, stirring the whole very hard. Have ready, over the fire, a large pot of boiling water. Dip a square pudding-cloth into it; shake it out; spread it open over the inside of an empty pan, and dredge it with flour; pour the batter into it, and tie it firmly; leaving room for the pudding to swell. Plaster a small lump of flour-and-water dough upon the crevice of the tying-place, to a.s.sist in keeping out the water, which, if it gets in, will render the pudding heavy. Put it into the pot of hot water, and boil it steadily for four, five, or six hours, turning it frequently in the water. It can scarcely be boiled too long. Keep at the fire a kettle of _hot_ water, to replenish the pudding-pot, as it boils away. Do not take up the pudding, till immediately before it is to go to table. Dip it into cold water, and then turn it out of the cloth upon a dish. Eat it with wine-sauce, or with b.u.t.ter, sugar, and nutmeg. If enough of the pudding is left, it may, next day, be tied in a cloth, and re-boiled for an hour.
RASPBERRY PUDDING.--Fill a deep dish with a quart of ripe raspberries, well mixed with four or five large table-spoonfuls of powdered sugar. As you put in the raspberries mash them slightly with the back of a spoon.
Beat six eggs as light as possible, and mix them with a pint of cream or rich unskimmed milk, and four more spoonfuls of sugar, adding some grated nutmeg. Pour this over the raspberries. Set the dish immediately into a moderate oven, and bake the pudding about half an hour. When done, set the dish on ice, or where it will become quite cold before it goes to table.
A similar pudding may be made with ripe currants, picked from the stalks; or with ripe cherries stoned.
A pine-apple pudding made in this way is excellent. There must be as much pine-apple as will measure a quart, after it is pared, sliced, and grated fine. Sweeten it well with loaf-sugar.