MULLED WINE.
Boil a little spice, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves, in water, till the flavor is gained, then add wine, as much as may be approved, sugar and nutmeg; a strip or two of orange rind cut thin will be found a great improvement.
TO MAKE PUNCH.
To make one quart, provide two fine fresh lemons, and rub off the outer peel upon a few lumps of sugar; put the sugar into a bowl with four ounces of powdered sugar, upon which press the juice of the lemons, and pour over one pint and a half of very hot water that _has not boiled_, then add a quarter of a pint of rum, and the same quant.i.ty of brandy; stir well together and strain it, and let it stand a few minutes before it is drank.
Whiskey punch is made after the same method; the juice and thin peel of a Seville orange add variety of flavor to punch, particularly of whiskey punch.
MILK PUNCH.
Put into a quart of new milk the thinly pared rind of a lemon, and four ounces of lump sugar; let it boil slowly, remove the peel, and stir in the yolks of two eggs, previously mixed with a little cold milk; add by degrees a tea-cup full of rum, the same of brandy; mill the punch to a fine froth, and serve immediately in quite warm gla.s.ses. The punch must not be allowed to boil after the eggs have been added.
A FRENCH PLUM PIE.
Stew one pound of fine dried French plums until tender, in water, rather more than enough to cover, with one gla.s.s of port wine, and four ounces of white sugar, which must however not be added until the plums are quite tender, then pour them with the liquor into a pie-dish, and cover with a rich puff paste, and bake.
ROASTED CHESTNUTS FOR DESSERTS.
Chestnuts are so frequently sent to table uneatable, that we will give the French receipt for them. They should be first boiled for five minutes, and then finish them in a pan over the fire; they will after the boiling require exactly fifteen minutes roasting; the skin must be slightly cut before they are cooked.
TO ROAST PARTRIDGES AND PHEASANTS.
They may be either _pique_ or not; partridges require roasting rather more than half an hour, pheasants three-quarters, if small, otherwise an hour; they are served with bread sauce.
Partridges may be stewed as pigeons.
TO ROAST VENISON.
Wipe the venison dry, sprinkle with salt, and cover with writing paper rubbed with clarified fat; cover this with a thick paste made of flour and water, round which, tie with packthread white kitchen paper, so as to prevent the paste coming off; set the venison before a strong fire, and baste it directly and continue until it is nearly done, then remove the paper, paste, &c.; draw the venison nearer the fire, dredge it with flour, and continue basting; it should only take a light brown, and should be rather under than over-done; a large haunch requires from three to four hours roasting, a small one not above three. Serve with the knuckle, garnished with a fringe of white paper, and with gravy and red currant jelly, either cold or melted, in port wine, and served hot.
A VENISON PASTY.
Having baked or boiled two hours in broth, with a little seasoning, any part selected, cut the meat in pieces, season with cayenne pepper, salt, pounded mace, and a little allspice, place it into a deep dish; lay over thin slices of mutton fat, and pour a little strong beef gravy flavored with port wine into the dish; cover with a thick puff paste, and bake.
SALMON PIE.
Cut two pounds of fine fresh salmon in slices about three quarters of an inch thick, and set them aside on a dish, clean and sc.r.a.pe five or six anchovies and halve them, then chop a small pottle of mushrooms, a handful of fresh parsley, a couple of shalots, and a little green thyme. Put these together into a saucepan, with three ounces of b.u.t.ter, a little pepper, salt, nutmeg, and tarragon; add the juice of a lemon, and half a pint of good brown gravy, and let the whole simmer, gently stirring it all the time; also slice six eggs boiled hard, then line a pie-dish with good short paste, and fill it with alternate layers of the slices of salmon, hard eggs, and fillets of anchovies, spreading between each layer the herb sauce, then cover the dish with the paste, and bake in a moderately heated oven.
CHICKEN PUDDING.
Line a basin with a good beef-suet paste, and fill it with chicken, prepared in the following way: cut up a small chicken, lightly fry the pieces, then place them in a stew-pan, with thin slices of _chorissa_, or, if at hand, slices of smoked veal, add enough good beef gravy to cover them; season with mushroom essence or powder, pepper, salt, and a very small quant.i.ty of nutmeg, and mace; simmer gently for a quarter of an hour, and fill the pudding; pour over part of the gravy and keep the rest to be poured over the pudding when served in the dish. The pudding, when filled, must be covered closely with the paste, the ends of which should be wetted with a paste brush to make it adhere closely.
A FINE BEEFSTEAK PIE.
Cut two pounds of beef steaks into large collops, fry them quickly over a brisk fire, then place them in a dish in two or three layers, strewing between each, salt, pepper, and mushroom powder; pour over a pint of strong broth, and a couple of table-spoonsful of Harvey-sauce; cover with a good beef suet paste, and bake for a couple of hours.
The most delicate manner of preparing suet for pastry is to clarify it, and use it as b.u.t.ter; this will be found a very superior method for meat pastry.
AN EASY RECEIPT FOR A CHARLOTTE RUSSE.
Trim straitly about six ounces of savoy biscuits, so that they may fit closely to each other; line the bottom and sides of a plain mould with them, then fill it with a fine cream made in the following manner: put into a stewpan three ounces of ratafias, six of sugar, the grated rind of half an orange, the same quant.i.ty of the rind of a lemon, a small piece of cinnamon, a wine-gla.s.s full of good maraschino, or fine noyeau, one pint of cream, and the well beaten yolks of six eggs; stir this mixture for a few minutes over a stove fire, and then strain it, and add half a pint more cream, whipped, and one ounce of dissolved isingla.s.s. Mix the whole well together, and set it in a basin imbedded in rough ice; when it has remained a short time in the ice fill the mould with it, and then place the mould in ice, or in a cool place, till ready to serve.
ANOTHER EXCELLENT RECEIPT FOR A FRUIT CHARLOTTE.
Line a jelly mould with fine picked strawberries, which must first be just dipped into some liquid jelly, to make them adhere closely, then fill the mould with some strawberry cream, prepared as follows: take a pottle of scarlet strawberries, mix them with half a pound of white sugar, rub this through a sieve, and add to it a pint of whipped cream, and one ounce and a half of dissolved isingla.s.s; pour it into the mould, which must be immersed in ice until ready to serve, and then carefully turned out on the dish, and garnished according to fancy.
ICED PUDDING.
Parboil three quarters of a pound of Jordan almonds, and one quarter of bitter almonds, remove the skins and beat them up to a paste, with three quarters of a pound of white pounded sugar, add to this six yolks of beaten eggs, and one quart of boiled cream, stir the whole for a few minutes over a stove fire, strain it, and pour it into a freezing pot, used for making ices; it should be worked with a sc.r.a.per, as it becomes set by freezing; when frozen sufficiently firm, fill a mould with it, cover it with the lid, and let it remain immersed in rough ice until the time for serving.
ITALIAN SALAD.
Cut up the white parts of a cold fowl, and mix it with mustard and cress, and a lettuce chopped finely, and pour over a fine salad mixture, composed of equal quant.i.ties of vinegar and the finest salad oil, salt, mustard, and the yolks of hard boiled eggs, and the yolk of one raw egg, mixed smoothly together; a little tarragon vinegar is then added, and the mixture is poured over the salad; the whites of the eggs are mixed, and serve to garnish the dish, arranged in small heaps alternately with heaps of grated smoked beef; two or three hard boiled eggs are cut up with the chicken in small pieces and mixed with the salad; this is a delicate and refreshing _entree_; the appearance of this salad may be varied by piling the fowl in the centre of the dish, then pour over the salad mixture, and make a wall of any dressed salad, laying the whites of the eggs (after the yolks have been removed for the mixture), cut in rings on the top like a chain.