Chapter IV: Part 4

Pare, core, and cut into thin rings two good-sized apples. This should not be done before they are wanted as they would quickly turn brown if left standing. Have ready in a pastry bowl about a teacupful of flour mixed with milk, smooth but very slack. Put about a quarter of a pound of fresh tub lard in a frying pan and melt it over the fire till hot, but guard against burning. Dip each slice of apple into the mixed flour and then drop it into the hot lard. The fire should be hot enough to allow these to cook with the top of the stove on. Turn over each fritter once, and after three minutes dish them with a slice into a dish with a strainer underneath. Dust over with a little powdered sugar and serve. If they have to be kept hot till wanted, take care that the dish is not covered or the oven door shut, as in that case they will lose their crispness.

_172. Boiled Custard_

Mix with milk two tablespoonfuls of flour till perfectly smooth. Add three beaten eggs, whites and yolks together, and about a pint of milk with sugar to taste. Turn into a stone jar, and place the jar in a saucepan three parts full of boiling water. Stir the mixture always one way, till it thickens. Serve in custard cups.

_173. Tapioca or Sago Pudding_

Put the tapioca or sago about an inch thick at the bottom of the pie-dish. Pour boiling milk on to it to about half a dishful and leave it to soak for about half an hour. When cold add a beaten egg, sugar to taste, and fill up the dish with cold milk. Put a little grated nutmeg over the top and bake for two hours in a slow oven.

_174. Compote of Fresh Fruit_

Put six large pears, cut into quarters, into boiling syrup made of half a pint of water and two breakfast-cupfuls of white sugar. Let the pears stew for about twenty minutes and then put in six apples, cut in eight pieces each, taking care not to core them before cutting but after. Stew gently for another twenty minutes. Add three bananas cut in rings just before dishing the compote. Serve cold in a glass dish.

_175. Rice Pudding_

Cover the bottom of a pie-dish with rice about an inch thick, and add sugar to taste. Beat an egg in a cup and add it to the rice, mixing it all together. Fill the dish with cold milk and add a little grated nutmeg or several small pieces of lemon peel if preferred. Cook in a slow oven for not less than two and a half hours.

_176. Stewed Prunes_

Put half a pound of prunes into a large pudding basin with cold water and rub them gently with the fingers till thoroughly cleansed. Leave them in the water for about ten minutes. Then turn the prunes with half a teacup of powdered sugar into a saucepan and just cover them with hot water. Cook from thirty to forty minutes. The juice should be perfectly clear when cooked and the prunes whole.

_177. Christmas Pudding_

Take one and a half pounds of finely chopped beef suet, one quartern of best pastry white (_not_ self-raising) flour, three pounds of stoned raisins, two pounds of sultanas and two pounds of currants carefully washed and picked, one and a half pounds of the best mixed peel, ten well-beaten eggs, and four pounds of brown sugar. Stir all these ingredients together with a pint of ale and half a bottle of brandy. Stir fairly slack. This should make six very large puddings. Fill as many buttered pudding basins as required, taking care that each basin is full. Tie a wet cloth over each, and boil for twelve hours. Pour a little neat brandy over the top of each and these puddings will then keep for six months. Always boil again for four hours to make hot.

_178. Coffee Cream_

Let a half pint of freshly made coffee cool thoroughly. Mix three tablespoonfuls of flour in milk till quite smooth. Turn three eggs well beaten together into the milk and flour. Add the cold coffee and half a pint of milk, sugar to taste. Cook as for custard.

_179. Plums or Damsons for a Tart or as Stewed Fruit_

Carefully look over one pound of plums or damsons, removing any unsound ones. Put them into an earthenware saucepan with a teacupful of cold water and two teacupfuls of sugar to the plums or three teacupfuls to the damsons. Stew for one hour the damsons, or forty minutes the plums.

_180. Jam Tarts_

A breakfast-cupful and a half of self-raising flour, three ounces of fresh butter, a well-beaten egg, and a little salt. Mix these ingredients with milk into a stiff paste. Roll it very thin and have ready a plate greased with hot butter and when cool lay a thin layer of pastry on the plate, rub a little milk round the rim and spread the jam over it not too thick. Cut some pastry in thin strips and lay across like the spokes of a wheel. Bake in a quick oven for twenty minutes. Be careful the jam is not too juicy.

_181. Stewed Rhubarb_

Remove the leaves and cut the other end of the rhubarb crosswise and skin it. Cut it into pieces of about two inches long. Put it into a saucepan (either earthenware or enamelled) and allow a small teacupful of sugar to each three or four sticks of rhubarb. Add half a teacupful of water, put over a brisk fire for forty minutes, when the rhubarb should attain a rich red colour. This can be used either as stewed rhubarb or put into a pie.

_182. Stewed Gooseberries_

Carefully pick a quart of gooseberries, discarding the unsound ones. Put them into an earthenware saucepan with a teacupful of cold water and three teacupfuls of sugar. Boil for about an hour, stirring now and then to prevent them from burning. Serve either as stewed fruit or for a pie.

_183. Macaroons_

Take half a pound of almonds peeled and dried in the oven, half a pound of powdered sugar, three or four whites of eggs, one grated lemon. Pound the almonds, moistening them from time to time with the beaten whites of eggs. When they are reduced to a fine paste add the lemon and sugar; work all perfectly together. Form the macaroons by putting small pieces the size of a walnut upon a buttered baking tin. Cook in a moderate oven till they have taken a beautiful brown tint. Let them cool before taking them off the tin. Pass a thin-bladed knife under them to remove them from the tin.

_184. Swiss Roll_

A good sponge powder is the very best and most reliable of all cake mixtures. Directions for use will be found on every packet and the only thing that to my mind improves it is the addition of a tablespoonful of cream after the beaten eggs are mixed to the cake-powder. Nothing could be easier than the following, and I have never had a failure: Break two eggs into a large pudding basin, beat well with a fork, then stir the cake-powder into the eggs quite smoothly. Add the cream. Have ready the buttered tin, pour the mixture into it. Place in a quick oven and bake for about ten minutes. Turn on to a sheet of clean white paper which has been lightly dusted with a little powdered sugar. One packet of cake mixture and two eggs will make either one nice-sized Swiss Roll or a complete sponge sandwich.

It will often be much easier to make a successful cake or light pastry if the butter and lard are reduced to a cream before being added to the other ingredients. Put your proportion of butter and lard (half of each) into your pastry basin. Stir with the _hand_, one way only, till it has become the consistency of a thick cream. Mix the rest of the ingredients for your cake into it and moisten either with milk or water. Cakes mixed by hand are much more satisfactory than those mixed with a spoon. One is also much more sure of success if the mixture is kept very stiff.

_185. Simple Recipe for a Chocolate Cake_

Take a quarter of a pound best white flour, a quarter of a pound butter, the same of sifted fine white sugar, two ounces of grated chocolate, and two eggs. Stir the butter in a pastry bowl with the hand, one way as directed, till the butter is reduced to a smooth cream. When this is done add the sugar (still stirring the one way). Have the two eggs well beaten in a cup, stir them into the sugar and flour, lastly the chocolate powder. Pour the mixture into a well-buttered cake tin and bake in a moderate oven for an hour.

_186. Plain Christmas Cake_

Take one pound flour (household, not self-raising), half a pound of currants which have been carefully washed and dried (this is best done in a cullender under the tap and rubbed dry on a clean white cloth), half a pound of butter, half a pound of sugar, two ounces of candied lemon peel cut into thin strips, two teaspoonfuls of baking-powder, three eggs well beaten, whites and yolks together, and half a pint of milk, sour will do.

Place the flour in the pastry bowl, thoroughly mix the baking-powder into it, rub in the butter, add the sugar and currants and peel, stir in the eggs, and mix all together with the milk. Butter your cake tin and line it with a buttered sheet of white cooking paper, bake in a steady but gentle oven for one and a half hours.

_187. Madeira Cake_

Take a quarter of a pound of household flour, one teaspoonful of baking-powder, three ounces of butter, three ounces of fine white sugar, and two eggs. Cream the butter, add first the sugar, then the flour with the baking-powder, lastly the well-beaten eggs and half a teacupful of milk. Care should be taken that the mixture is not mixed too slack. Pour the mixture into a buttered cake tin and bake in a gentle oven from thirty to forty minutes.

_188. Glengarry Cake_

Half a pound of best household white flour, two teaspoonfuls of baking-powder, five ounces of butter, five ounces of powdered sugar, a quarter of a pound of sultanas carefully washed and stalked. Reduce the butter to cream in the bowl, add the sugar, flour, and baking-powder, then the sultanas, mix well with the two beaten eggs, adding a little milk if required. Place in a well-buttered cake tin, and bake in a steady oven one and a half hours.

_Note._ Carraway seeds can be used instead of sultanas if a seed cake is required and a little sliced candied peel always put on the top of the cake if desired.

_189. Surrey Cake_

Take three eggs, their weight in flour, powdered sugar, and butter, half a teaspoonful of essence of vanilla or almonds.

Reduce the butter to cream in the bowl, add the flour and sugar, keep stirring and beating the mixture without ceasing till it is quite smooth, add the eggs well beaten. Butter and paper a cake tin, which should never be more than half full of the cake. Bake in a steady oven from three-quarters of an hour to an hour.

_190. Gâteau de Milan_

Take half a pound of flour, a quarter of a pound of butter, quarter of a pound of sugar, one whole egg, one yolk, a little salt, a grated rind of lemon, and a teaspoonful of rum. Place the flour on a pastry board; form it into a hillock with a hole in the centre; put into this the butter, sugar, and eggs, lemon rind, beaten egg, and rum. Mix with the hand with butter and sugar, then the flour and eggs and make all into a ball. Roll it out to the thickness of little more than a quarter of an inch, form into little cakes with a cake cutter; arrange them on a baking-sheet of paper lightly buttered, brush them over lightly with the yolk of the egg; bake in a steady oven for about fifteen to twenty minutes. These cakes will keep well for some days if kept in a closed tin.

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_Note._ It is a golden rule worth remembering that all biscuits or rusks (also cakes) will keep perfectly crisp if kept in a closed tin. Cakes, of course, should not be placed under any cover till quite cold.

The same cake mixture as for Gâteau de Milan may be treated in the following manner to make quite a different cake.

Instead of cutting the mixture into small cakes, make two rounds only of the same size and thickness. Place them on a buttered baking tin, but do not allow them to touch. From one of these pieces cut a round out of the centre with a small cake cutter. Bake them in a steady oven till they are a beautiful light brown colour; let them get cold. Upon the piece that is not cut in the centre spread a layer of smooth jam, place the other piece over it, trim the edges to have both exactly the same size; on this border spread some more jam, then sprinkle with a little sugar, not finely powdered but in grains. Arrange on a dish and fill the hole in the centre with a little fruit jelly.

_191. Tea Cakes_

Take half a pound of flour, six ounces of butter, two yolks of eggs, one whole egg, one and a half ounces of sugar, a quarter of a pint of cream, and a little salt. Make the paste the same as for the Gâteau de Milan, let it rest from ten to fifteen minutes. Roll out the paste about an inch thick. Form into little cakes with a pastry cutter about two inches round, brush lightly with the yolk of an egg and bake in a good oven from twenty-five to thirty minutes.

THE END

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY
WOODS AND SONS, LTD., LONDON, N.1

Transcriber’s Notes

In a few cases, obvious omissions or errors in punctuation were corrected.

The recipe for roast lamb is not numbered in the original.

The recipe numbering in the original skips 91-99.

Page 110: “be to prepared” changed to “to be prepared”