Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches Part 43

Let fresh hot ones be sent in as they are wanted; they chill and become heavy immediately.

Begin to fry the fritters as soon as the batter is mixed, as it will fall by setting. Near a pound and a half of lard will be required for the above quant.i.ty of fritters.

APPLE FRITTERS.

Pave, core, and parboil (in a very little water) some large juicy pippins. When half done, take them out, drain them, and mince them very fine. Make a batter according to the preceding receipt; adding some lemon juice and grated lemon-peel. Stir into the batter a sufficient quant.i.ty of the minced apple to make it very thick. Then fry the fritters in hot lard as before directed. Eat them with nutmeg and sugar.

PLAIN PANCAKES.

Sift half a pound or a pint of flour. Beat seven eggs very light, and stir them gradually into a quart of rich milk. Then add by degrees the flour, so as to make a thin batter. Mix it very smooth, pressing out all the lumps with the back of a spoon. Set the frying-pan over the fire, and when it is hot, grease it with a spoonful of lard. Then put in a ladle full of the batter, and fry it of a light brown, turning it with care to prevent its breaking.

Make each pancake large enough to cover the bottom of a dessert plate; greasing the pan every time. Send them to table hot, accompanied by powdered sugar and nutmeg mixed in a small gla.s.s bowl. Have wine with them also.

SWEETMEAT PANCAKES.

Take a large red beet-root that has been boiled tender; cut it up and pound it in a mortar till you have sufficient juice for colouring the pancakes. Then make a batter as in the preceding receipt, and stir into it at the last enough of the beet juice to give it a fine pink colour. Or instead of the beet juice, you may use a little cochineal dissolved in a very small quant.i.ty of brandy. Fry the pancakes in a pan greased with lard or fresh b.u.t.ter; and as fast as they are done, spread thickly over them raspberry jam or any sort of marmalade. Then roll them up nicely, and trim off the ends. Lay them, side by side, on a large dish, and strew powdered sugar over them. Send them to table hot, and eat them with sweetened cream.

PLAIN CUSTARDS.

Tie together six or eight peach leaves, and boil them in a quart of milk with a large stick of cinnamon broken up. If you cannot procure peach leaves, subst.i.tute a handful of peach-kernels or bitter almonds, or a vanilla bean split in pieces. When it has boiled hard, strain the milk and set it away to cool. Beat very light eight eggs, and stir them by degrees into the milk when it is quite cold, (if warm, the eggs will curdle it, and cause whey at the bottom,) and add gradually a quarter of a pound of sugar.

Fill your cups with it; set them in a Dutch-oven, and pour round them boiling water sufficient to reach nearly to the tops of the cups. Put hot coals under the oven and on the lid, (which must be previously heated by standing it up before a hot fire,) and bake the custards about twenty minutes. Send them to table cold, with nutmeg grated over each. Or you may bake the whole in one large dish.

SOFT CUSTARDS.

Are made in the above manner, except that to a quart of milk you must have twelve yolks of eggs, and no whites. You may devote to this purpose the yolks that are left when you have used the whites for cocoa-nut or almond puddings, or for lady cake or maccaroons.

BOILED CUSTARDS.

Beat eight eggs very light, omitting the whites of four. Mix them gradually with a quart of cold milk and a quarter of a pound of sugar. Put the mixture into a sauce-pan with a bunch of peach leaves, or a handful of broken up peach-kernels or bitter almonds; the yellow peel of a. lemon, and a handful of broken cinnamon; or you may boil in it a vanilla bean. Set it on hot coals, and simmer it slowly, stirring it all the time. As soon as it comes to a boil, take it immediately off the fire, or it will curdle and be lumpy. Then strain it; add eight or ten drops of oil of lemon, and put it into gla.s.s cups. You may lay in the bottom of each cup a maccaroon soaked in wine. Grate nutmeg over the top, and send it to table cold. Eat it with tarts or sweetmeats.

RICE CUSTARD.

Boil some rice in milk till it is quite dry; then put it into small tea-cups, (pressing it down hard,) and when it is cold and has taken the shape of the cups, turn it out into a deep dish, and pour a boiled custard round it. Lay on the top of each lump of rice a piece of preserved quince or peach, or a piece of fruit jelly. In boiling the rice, you may mix with, it raisins or currants; if so, omit the sweetmeats on the top.

Another way of boiling custard is to put the mixture into a pitches, set it in a vessel of boiling water, place it on hot coals or in a stove, and let it boil slowly, stirring it all the time.

s...o...b..LL CUSTARD.

Make a boiled custard as in the preceding receipts; and when it is done and quite cold, put it into a deep gla.s.s dish. Beat to a stiff froth the four whites of eggs that have been omitted in the custard, adding eight or ten drops of oil of lemon. Drop the froth in b.a.l.l.s on the top of the dish of custard, heaping and forming them with a spoon into a regular size and shape. Do not let them touch each other. You may lay a fresh, rose leaf on the top of every one.

APPLE CUSTARD.

Pare, core, and quarter a dozen large juicy pippins. Strew among them the yellow peel of a large lemon pared very thin; and stew them till tender, in a very small portion of water. When done, mash them smooth with the back of a spoon; (you must have a pint and a half of the stewed apple;) mix a quarter of a pound of sugar with them, and set them away till cold. Beat six eggs very light, and stir them gradually into a quart of rich milk, alternately with the stewed apple. Put the mixture into cups, or into a deep dish, and bake it about twenty minutes. Send it to table cold, with nutmeg grated over the top.

LEMON CUSTARD.

Take four large ripe lemons, and roll them under your hand on the table to increase the juice. Then squeeze them into a bowl, and mix with the juice a very small tea-cup full of cold water. Use none of the peel. Add gradually sufficient sugar to make it very sweet. Beat twelve eggs till quite light, and then stir the lemon juice gradually into them, beating very hard at the last. Put the mixture into cups, and bake it ten minutes. When done, grate nutmeg over the top of each, and set them among ice, or in a very cold place.

These custards being made without milk, can be prepared at a short notice; they will be found very fine.

Orange custards may be made in the same manner.

GOOSEBERRY CUSTARD.

Top and tail two quarts of green gooseberries. Stew them in a very little water; stirring and mas.h.i.+ng them frequently. When they have stewed till entirely to pieces, take them out, and with a wooden spoon press the pulp through a cullender. Stir in (while the pulp is hot) a table-spoonful of b.u.t.ter, and sufficient sugar to make it very sweet. Beat six eggs very light. Simmer the gooseberry pulp over a gentle fire, and gradually stir the beaten eggs into it. When it comes to a boil, take it off immediately, stir it very hard, and set it out to cool. Serve it up cold in gla.s.ses or custard cups, grating some nutmeg; over each.

ALMOND CUSTARD.

Scald and blanch half a pound of sh.e.l.led sweet almonds, and three ounces of sh.e.l.led bitter almonds; throwing them as you do them into a large bowl of cold water. Then pound them one at a time in a mortar; pouring in frequently a little rose water to prevent their oiling, and becoming dark-coloured and heavy. Melt a quarter of a pound of loaf-sugar in a quart of cream or rich milk, and stir in by degrees the pounded almonds. Beat ten eggs very light, and stir them gradually into the mixture; adding a powdered nutmeg, and a tea-spoonful of powdered mace and cinnamon mixed.

Then put the whole into a pitcher, and place it in a kettle or pan of boiling water, the water coming up to the lower part of the neck of the pitcher. Set it over hot coals, and let it boil (stirring it all the time) till it is quite thick, but not till it curdles. Then take the pitcher out of the water; pour the custard into a large bowl, and stir it till it cools. Put it into gla.s.s cups, and send it to table cold. Sweeten some cream or white of egg. Beat it to stiff froth, and pile it on the top of the custards.

BOILED COCOA-NUT CUSTARD.

To a pound of grated cocoa-nut allow a pint of unskimmed milk, and six ounces of white sugar. Beat very light the yolks of six eggs.

Stir them gradually into the milk, alternately with the cocoa-nut and sugar. Put the mixture into a pitcher; set it in a vessel of boiling water; place it on hot coals, and simmer it till it is very smooth and thick; stirring it all the time. As soon as it comes to a hard boil, take it off the fire; pour it into a large bowl, and set it out to cool. When cold, put it into gla.s.s cups.

Beat to a stiff froth the white of egg that was left, and pile it on the custards.

BAKED COCOA-NUT CUSTARD.

Grate as much cocoa-nut as will weigh a pound. Mix half a pound of powdered white sugar with the milk of the cocoa-nut, or with a pint of cream; adding two table-spoonfuls of rose water. Then stir in gradually a pint of rich milk. Beat to a stiff froth the whites of eight eggs, and stir them into the milk and sugar, a little at a time, alternately with the grated cocoa-nut; add a tea-spoonful of powdered nutmeg and cinnamon. Then put the mixture into cups, and bake them twenty minutes in a Dutch oven half filled with boiling water. When cold, grate loaf-sugar over them.

CHOCOLATE CUSTARD.

Sc.r.a.pe fine a quarter of a pound of the best chocolate, and pour on it a tea-cup of boiling water. Cover it, and let it stand by the fire till it has dissolved, stirring it twice. Beat eight eggs very light, omitting the whites of two. Stir them by degrees into a quart of cream or rich milk, alternately with the melted chocolate, and three table-spoonfuls of powdered white sugar. Pat the mixture into cups, and bake it about ten minutes. Send them to table cold, with sweetened cream, or white of egg beaten to a stiff froth, and heaped on the top of each custard.

MACCAROON CUSTARDS.

These must he made in china custard cups. Put a maccaroon in the bottom of each cup, and pour on it a table-spoonful of white wine.

Mix together a pint of cream, and a pint of milk; and boil them with a large stick of cinnamon broken up, and a small bunch of peach leaves or a handful of broken bitter almonds. Then strain the milk; stir in a quarter of a pound of white sugar, and set it away to cool. Beat very light eight eggs, (omitting the whites of four,) and stir them gradually into the cream and milk when quite cold. Fill your cups with the mixture, (leaving the maccaroons at the bottom,) and set them in a Dutch oven or iron baking pan, which must be half full of boiling water. Heat the oven-lid first, by standing it up before a hot fire; then put it on, spreading coals over the top. Place sufficient coals under the oven, and bake the custards about ten minutes. When cold, heap beaten white of egg on the top of each. These custards are very fine.

SYLLABUB, OR WHIPT CREAM.

Pare off very thin the yellow rind of four large lemons, And lay it in the bottom of a deep dish. Squeeze the juice of the lemons into a large bowl containing a pint of white wine, and sweeten it with half a pound of powdered loaf-sugar Then, by degrees, mix in a quart of cream. Pour the whole into the dish in which you have laid the lemon-peel, and let the mixture stand untouched for three hours. Then beat it with rods to a stiff froth, (first taking out the lemon-peel,) and having put into each of your gla.s.ses a table-spoonful or more of fruit jelly, heap the syllabub upon it so as to stand up high at the top. This syllabub, if it can be kept in a cold place, may be made the day before you want to use it.