The Cook's Oracle; and Housekeeper's Manual Part 87

_Suet Pudding or Dumplings._--(No. 114.)

Chop six ounces of suet very fine: put it in a basin with six ounces of flour, two ounces of bread-crumbs, and a tea-spoonful of salt; stir it all well together: beat two eggs on a plate, add to them six table-spoonfuls of milk, put it by degrees into the basin, and stir it all well together; divide it into six dumplings, and tie them separate, previously dredging the cloth lightly with flour. Boil them one hour.

This is very good the next day fried in a little b.u.t.ter. The above will make a good pudding, boiled in an earthenware mould, with the addition of one more egg, a little more milk, and two ounces of suet. Boil it two hours.

N.B. The most economical way of making suet dumplings, is to boil them without a cloth in a pot with beef or mutton; no eggs are then wanted, and the dumplings are quite as light without: roll them in flour before you put them into the pot; add six ounces of currants, washed and picked, and you have currant pudding: or divided into six parts, currant dumplings; a little sugar will improve them.

_Cottage Potato Pudding or Cake._--(No. 115.)

Peel, boil, and mash, a couple of pounds of potatoes: beat them up into a smooth batter, with about three quarters of a pint of milk, two ounces of moist sugar, and two or three beaten eggs. Bake it about three quarters of an hour. Three ounces of currants or raisins may be added.

Leave out the milk, and add three ounces of b.u.t.ter,--it will make a very nice cake.

FOOTNOTES:

[392-*] An old gentlewoman, who lived almost entirely on puddings, told us, it was a long time before she could get them made uniformly good, till she made the following rule:--"If the pudding was good, she let the cook have the remainder of it; if it was not, she gave it to her lapdog;" but as soon as this resolution was known, poor little Bow-wow seldom got the sweet treat after.

OBSERVATIONS ON PICKLES.

We are not fond of pickles: these sponges of vinegar are often very indigestible, especially in the crisp state in which they are most admired. The Indian fas.h.i.+on of pounding pickles is an excellent one: we recommend those who have any regard for their stomach, yet still wish to indulge their tongue, instead of eating pickles, which are really merely vehicles for taking a certain portion of vinegar and spice, &c.

to use the flavoured vinegars; such as burnet (No. 399), horseradish (No. 399*), tarragon (No. 396), mint (No. 397), cress (Nos. 397*, 401, 403, 405*, 453, 457), &c.; by combinations of these, a relish may easily be composed, exactly in harmony with the palate of the eater.

The pickle made to preserve cuc.u.mbers, &c. is generally so strongly impregnated with garlic, mustard, and spice, &c. that the original flavour of the vegetables is quite overpowered; and if the eater shuts his eyes, his lingual nerves will be puzzled to inform him whether he is munching an onion or a cuc.u.mber, &c., and nothing can be more absurd, than to pickle plums, peaches, apricots, currants, grapes, &c.

The strongest vinegar must be used for pickling: it must not be boiled or the strength of the vinegar and spices will be evaporated. By parboiling the pickles in brine, they will be ready in much less time than they are when done in the usual manner, of soaking them in cold salt and water for six or eight days. When taken out of the hot brine, let them get cold and quite dry before you put them into the pickle.

To a.s.sist the preservation of pickles, a portion of salt is added; and for the same purpose, and to give flavour, long pepper, black pepper, allspice, ginger, cloves, mace, garlic, eschalots, mustard, horseradish, and capsic.u.m.

The following is the best method of preparing the pickle, as cheap as any, and requires less care than any other way.

Bruise in a mortar four ounces of the above spices; put them into a stone jar with a quart of the strongest vinegar, stop the jar closely with a bung, cover that with a bladder soaked with pickle, set it on a trivet by the side of the fire for three days, well shaking it up at least three times in the day; the pickle should be at least three inches above the pickles. The jar being well closed, and the infusion being made with a mild heat, there is no loss by evaporation.

To enable the articles pickled more easily and speedily to imbibe the flavour of the pickle they are immersed in, previously to pouring it on them, run a larding-pin through them in several places.

The spices, &c. commonly used, are those mentioned in the receipt for pickling walnuts; which is also an excellent savoury sauce for cold meats.

The flavour may be varied _ad infinitum_ by adding celery, cress-seed, or curry powder (No. 455), or by taking for the liquor any of the flavoured vinegars, &c. we have enumerated above, and see the receipts between Nos. 395 and 421.

Pickles should be kept in a dry place, in unglazed earthenware, or gla.s.s jars, which are preferable, as you can, without opening them, observe whether they want filling up: they must be very carefully stopped with well-fitted bungs, and tied over as closely as possible with a bladder wetted with the pickle; and if to be preserved a long time, after that is dry, it must be dipped in bottle-cement; see page 127.

When the pickles are all used, boil up the liquor with a little fresh spice.

To walnut liquor may be added a few anchovies and eschalots: let it stand till it is quite clear, and bottle it: thus you may furnish your table with an excellent savoury keeping sauce for hashes, made dishes, fish, &c. at very small cost; see No. 439.

Jars should not be more than three parts filled with the articles pickled, which should be covered with pickle at least two inches above their surface; the liquor wastes, and all of the articles pickled, that are not covered, are soon spoiled.

When they have been done about a week, open the jars, and fill them up with pickle.

Tie a wooden spoon, full of holes, round each jar to take them out with.

If you wish to have gherkins, &c. very green, this may be easily accomplished by keeping them in vinegar, sufficiently hot, till they become so.

If you wish cauliflowers, onions, &c. to be white, use distilled vinegar for them.

To entirely prevent the mischief arising from the action of the acid upon the metallic utensils usually employed to prepare pickles, the whole of the process is directed to be performed in unglazed stone jars.

N.B. The maxim of "open your mouth, and shut your eyes," cannot be better applied than to pickles; and the only direction we have to record for the improvement of their complexion, is the joke of Dr. Goldsmith, "If their colour does not please you, send 'em to Hammersmith, that's the way to Turnham Green."

Commencing the list with walnuts, I must take this opportunity of impressing the necessity of being strictly particular in watching the due season; for of all the variety of articles in this department to furnish the well-regulated store-room, nothing is so precarious, for frequently after the first week that walnuts come in season, they become hard and sh.e.l.led, particularly if the season is a very hot one; therefore let the prudent housekeeper consider it indispensably necessary they should be purchased as soon as they first appear at market; should they cost a trifle more, that is nothing compared to the disappointment of finding, six months hence, when you go to your pickle-jar, expecting a fine relish for your chops, &c. to find the nuts incased in a sh.e.l.l, which defies both teeth and steel.

Nasturtiums are to be had by the middle of July.

Garlic, from Midsummer to Michaelmas.

Eschalots, ditto.

Onions, the various kinds for pickling, are to be had, by the middle of July, and for a month after.

Gherkins are to be had by the middle of July, and for a month after.

Cuc.u.mbers are to be had by the middle of July, and for a month after.

Melons and mangoes are to be had by the middle of July, and for a month after.

Capsic.u.ms, green, red, and yellow, the end of July, and following month.

Chilies, the end of July, and following month. See Nos. 404 and 405*, and No. 406.

Love apples, or tomatas, end of July, and throughout August. See No.

443.

Cauliflower, for pickling, July and August.

Artichokes, for pickling, July and August.

Jerusalem artichokes, for pickling, July and August, and for three months after.

Radish pods, for pickling, July.

French beans, for pickling, July.

Mushrooms, for pickling and catchup, September. See No. 439.

Red cabbage, August.