Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches Part 62

Mix a tea-cup full of powdered white sugar with a quart of rich milk, and cut up in the milk two ounces of b.u.t.ter, adding a salt-spoonful of salt. Put this mixture into a covered pan or skillet, and set it on coals till it is scalding hot. Then take it off, and scald with it as much yellow Indian meal (previously sifted) as will make it of the consistence of thick boiled mush. Beat the whole very hard for a quarter of an hour, and then set it away to cool.

While it is cooling, beat three eggs very light, and stir them gradually into the mixture when it is about as warm as new milk.

Add a tea-cup full of good strong yeast, and beat the whole another quarter of an hour--for much of the goodness of this cake depends on its being long and well beaten. Then have ready a turban mould or earthen pan with a pipe in the centre, (to diffuse the heat through the middle of the cake.) The pan must be very well b.u.t.tered, as Indian meal is apt to stick. Put in the mixture, cover it, and set it in a warm place to rise. It should be light in about four hours. Then bake it two hours in a moderate oven.

When done, turn it oat with the broad surface downwards, and send it to table hot and whole. Cut it into slices, and eat it with b.u.t.ter.

This will be found an excellent cake. If wanted for breakfast, mix it, and set it to rise the night before. If properly made, standing all night will not injure it. Like all Indian cakes, (of which this is one of the best,) it should be eaten warm.

It will be much improved by adding to the mixture, a salt-spoon of pearl-ash, or sal-aratus, dissolved in a little water.

PLAIN CIDER CAKE.

Sift into a large pan a pound and a half of flour, and rub into it half a pound of b.u.t.ter. Mix in three-quarters of a pound of powdered white sugar and melt a small tea-spoonful of sal-aratus or pearl-ash in a pint of the best cider. Pour the cider into the other ingredients while it is foaming, and stir the whole very hard. Have ready a b.u.t.tered square pan, put in the mixture, and set It immediately in a rather brisk oven. Bake it an hour or more, according to its thickness. This is a tea cake, and should be eaten fresh. Cut it into squares, split and b.u.t.ter them.

TENNESSEE m.u.f.fINS.

Sift three pints of yellow Indian meal, and put one-half into a pan and scald it. Then set it away to get cold. Beat six: eggs, whites and yolks separately. The yolks must be beaten till they become very thick and smooth, and the whites till they are a stiff froth, that stands alone. When the scalded meal is cold, mix it into a batter with the beaten yolk of egg, the remainder of the meal, a salt-spoonful of salt, and, if necessary, a little water.

The batter must be quite thick. At the last, stir in, lightly and slowly, the beaten white of egg. Grease your m.u.f.fin rings, and set them in an oven of the proper heat; put in the batter immediately, as standing will injure it.

Send them to table hot; pull them open, and eat them with b.u.t.ter.

HOE CAKE.

Beat the whites of three eggs to a stiff froth, and sift into a pan a quart of wheat flour, adding a salt-spoon of salt. Make a hole in the middle, and mix in the white of egg so as to form a thick batter, and then add two table-spoonfuls of the best fresh yeast. Cover it, and let it stand all night. In the morning, take a hoe-iron (such as are made purposely for cakes) and prop it before the fire till, it is well heated. Then flour a tea-saucer, and filling it with batter, shake it about, and clap it to the hoe, (which must be previously greased,) and the batter will adhere, till it is baked. Repeat this with each cake. Keep them hot, and eat them with b.u.t.ter.

MILK TOAST.

Boil a pint of rich milk, and then take it off, and stir into it a quarter of a pound of fresh b.u.t.ter, mixed with a small table-spoonful of flour. Then let it again come to a boil. Have ready two deep plates with half a dozen slices of toast in each. Pour the milk over them hot, and keep them covered till they go to table. Milk toast is generally eaten at breakfast.

POTATO YEAST.

Pare half a dozen middle-sized potatoes, and boil them in a quart of soft water, mixed with a handful of hops, till quite soft. Then mash the potatoes smooth, not leaving in a single lump. Mix with them a handful of wheat flour. Set a sieve over the pan in which you have the flour and mashed potatoes, and strain into them the hop-water in which they were boiled. Then stir the mixture very hard, and afterwards pa.s.s it through a cullender to clear it of lumps. Let it stand till it is nearly cold. Then stir in four table-spoonfuls of strong yeast, and let it stand to ferment. When the foam has sunk down in the middle, (which will not be for several hours,) it is done working. Then put it into a stone jug and cork it. Set it in a cool place.

This yeast will be found extremely good for raising home-made bread.

Yeast when it becomes sour may be made fit to use by stirring into it a little sal-aratus, or pearl-ash, allowing a small tea-spoonful to a pint of yeast. This will remove the acidity, and improve the bread in lightness. The pearl-ash must be previously melted in a little lukewarm water.

CREAM CHEESE.

The cheese so called (of which numbers are brought to Philadelphia market) is not in reality made of cream, but of milk warm from the cow, and therefore unskimmed.

Having strained into a tub a bucket of new milk, turn it in the usual way with rennet water. When it has completely come, take a clean linen cloth and press it down upon the firm curd, so as to make the whey rise up over it. As the whey rises, dip it off with a saucer or a skimming dish. Then carefully put the curd (as whole as possible) into a cheese hoop, or mould, which for this purpose should be about half a foot deep, and as large round as a dinner plate--first spreading a clean wet cloth under the curd, and folding it (the cloth) over the top. Lay a large brick on it, or something of equivalent weight, and let the whey drain gradually out through the holes at the bottom of the mould. It must not be pressed hard, as when finished a cream cheese should be only about the consistence of firm b.u.t.ter. The curd will sink gradually in the mould till the whole ma.s.s will be about two or three inches thick. Let it remain in the mould six hours, by which time the whey should cease to exude from it. Otherwise, it must be left in somewhat longer.

When you take out the cheese, rub it all over with a little lard, and sprinkle it slightly with fine salt. Set it in a dry dark place, and in four or five days it will be fit for use. When once cut, it should (if the weather is warm) be eaten immediately; but if uncut, it will keep a week in a cold place, provided it is turned three or four times a day. Send it to table whole on a large plate, and cut it when there into wedge-shaped pieces as you would a pie. It is usually eaten at tea or supper, and is by most persons considered a delicacy.

ALMOND BREAD.

Blanch, and pound in a mortar, half a pound of sh.e.l.led sweet almonds till they are a smooth paste, adding rose-water as you pound them. They should be done the day before they are wanted.

Prepare a pound of loaf-sugar finely powdered, a tea-spoonful of mixed spice, (mace, nutmeg, and cinnamon,) and three-quarters of a pound of sifted flour. Take fourteen eggs, and separate the whites from the yolks. Leave out seven of the whites, and beat the other seven to a stiff froth. Beat the yolks till very thick and smooth, and then beat the sugar gradually into them, adding the spice.

Next stir in the white of egg, then the flour, and lastly the almonds. You may add twelve drops of essence of lemon.

Put the mixture into a square tin pan, (well b.u.t.tered,) or into a copper or tin turban-mould, and set it immediately in a brisk oven. Ice it when cool. It is best if eaten fresh. You may add a few bitter almonds to the sweet ones.

CUSTARD CAKES.

Mix together a pound of sifted flour and a quarter of a pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Divide into four a pound of fresh b.u.t.ter; mix one-fourth of it with the flour, and make it into a dough. Then roll it out, and put in the three remaining divisions of the b.u.t.ter at three more rollings. Set the paste in a cool place till the custard is ready. For the custard, beat very light the yolk only of eight eggs, and then stir them gradually into a pint of rich cream, adding three ounces of powdered white sugar, a grated nutmeg, and ratafia, peach-water, or essence of lemon, to your taste. Put the mixture into a deep dish; set it in an iron baking pan or a Dutch oven half full of boiling water, and bake it a quarter of an hour. Then put it to cool.

In the mean time roll out the paste into a thin sheet; cut it into little round cakes about the size of a dollar, and bake them on flat tins. When they are done, spread some of the cakes thickly with the custard, and lay others on the top of them, making them fit closely in the manner of lids.

You may bake the paste in patty-pans like sh.e.l.ls, and put in the custard after they come out of the oven. If the custard is baked in the paste, it will be clammy and heavy at the bottom.

They are sometimes called cream cakes or cream tarts.

HONEY GINGER CAKE.

Rub together a pound of sifted flour and three-quarters of a pound of fresh b.u.t.ter. Mix in, a tea-cup of fine brown sugar, two large table-spoonfuls of strong ginger, and (If you like them) two table-spoonfuls of carraway seeds. Having beaten five eggs, add them to the mixture alternately with a pint of strained honey; stirring in towards the last a small tea-spoonful of pearl-ash, that has been melted in a very little water.

Having beaten or stirred the mixture long enough to make it perfectly light, transfer it to a square iron or block-tin pan, (which must be well b.u.t.tered,) put it into a moderate oven, and bake it an hour or more, in proportion to its thickness.

When cool, cut it into squares. It is best if eaten fresh, but it will keep very well a week.

ROCK CAKE.

Blanch three-quarters of a pound of sh.e.l.led sweet almonds, and bruise them fine in a mortar, but not to a smooth paste as for maccaroons. Add, as you pound them, a little rose-water. Beat to a stiff froth the whites of four eggs, and then beat in gradually a pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Add a few drops of oil of lemon.

Then mix in the pounded almonds. Flour your hands, and make the mixture into little cones or pointed cakes. Spread sheets of damp, thin, white paper on b.u.t.tered sheets of tin, and put the rock cakes on it, rather far apart. Sprinkle each with powdered loaf-sugar.

Bake them of a pale brown, in a brisk oven. They will be done in a few minutes.

When cold, take them off the papers.

FROZEN CUSTARD.

Slice a vanilla bean, and boil it slowly in half a pint of milk/till all the strength is extracted and the milk highly flavoured with the vanilla. Then strain its and set it aside. Mix a quart of cream and a pint of milk, or, if you cannot procure cream, take three pints of rich milk, and put them into a skillet or sauce-pan. Set it on hot coals, and boil it. When it has come to a boil, mix a table-spoonful of flour in three table-spoonfuls of milk, and stir it info the boiling liquid. Afterwards add two eggs, (which have been beaten up with two table-spoonfuls of milk,) pouring them slowly into the mixture. Take care to stir it all the time it is boiling. Five minutes after, stir in gradually half a pound of powdered loaf-sugar, and then the decoction of vanilla. Having stirred it hard a few moments, take it off the fire, and set it to cool. When quite cold, put it into a mould and freeze it, as you would ice-cream, for which it frequently pa.s.ses.

You may flavour it with a tea-spoonful of strong oil of lemon, stirred in just before you take it from the fire, or with a quarter of a pound of sh.e.l.led bitter almonds, blanched, pounded in a mortar with a little water, and then boiled in half a pint of milk, till the flavour Is extracted.

CHERRY CORDIAL.

Take a bushel of fine ripe cherries, either red or black, or mixed; stone them, put them into a clean wooden vessel, and mash them with a mallet or beetle. Then boil them about five minutes, and strain the juice. To each quart of juice allow a quart of water, a pound of sugar, and a quart of brandy. Boil in the water (before you mix it with the juice) two ounces of cloves, and four ounces of cinnamon; then strain out the spice. Put the mixture into a stone jug, or a demijohn, and cork it tightly. Bottle it in two or three months.