Have ready some fruit sweetened to your taste. If cranberries, gooseberries, dried peaches, or damsons, they should be stewed, and made very sweet. If apples, they should be stewed in a very little water, drained, and seasoned with nutmeg, rosewater and lemon. If currants, raspberries, or blackberries, they should be mashed with sugar, and put into the pudding raw.
Spread the fruit very thick, all over the sheet of paste, (which must not be rolled out too thin.) When it is covered all over with the fruit, roll it up, and close the dough at both ends, and down the last side. Tie the pudding in a cloth and boil it.
Eat it with sugar. It must not be taken out of the pot till just before it is brought to table.
FRITTERS.
Seven eggs.
Half a pint of milk.
A salt-spoonful of salt.
Sufficient flour to make a thick batter.
Beat the eggs well and stir them gradually into the milk. Add the salt, and stir in flour enough to make a thick batter.
Fry them in lard, and serve them up hot.
Eat them with wine and sugar.
They are improved by stirring in a table-spoonful of yeast.
These are excellent with the addition of cold stewed apple, stirred into the mixtures in which case use less flour.
FINE CUSTARDS.
A quart of milk or cream.
The yoke only, of sixteen eggs.
Six ounces of powdered white sugar.
A large handful of peach-leaves or half an ounce of peach kernels or bitter almonds, broken in pieces.
A table-spoonful of rose-water.
A nutmeg.
Boil in the milk the cinnamon, and the peach-leaves, or peach-kernels. When it has boiled, set it away to get cold. As soon as it is cold, strain it through a sieve, to clear it from the cinnamon, peach-leaves, &c. and stir into it gradually, the sugar, spice, and rose-water.
Beat the yolks of sixteen eggs very light, and stir them by degrees into the milk, which must be quite cold or the eggs will make it curdle. Put the custards into cups, and set them in a baking pan, half filled with water. When baked, grate some nutmeg over each and ice them. Make the icing of the whites of eight eggs, a large tea-spoonful of powdered loaf sugar, and six drops of essence of lemon, beaten all together till it stands alone.
Pile up some of the icing on the top of each custard, heaping it high. Put a spot of red nonpareils on the middle of the pile of icing.
If the weather be damp, or the eggs not new-laid, more than eight whites will be required for the icing.
PLAIN CUSTARDS.
A quart of rich milk.
Eight eggs.
A quarter of a pound of powdered sugar.
A handful of peach-leaves, or half an ounce of peach-kernels, broken in pieces.
A nutmeg.
Boil the peach-leaves or kernels in the milk, and set it away to cool. When cold, strain out the leaves or kernels, and stir in the sugar. Beat the eggs very light, and stir them gradually into the milk when it is quite cold. Bake it in cups, or in a large white dish.
When cool, grate nutmeg over the top.
RICE CUSTARDS.
Half a pound of rice.
Half a pound of raisins or currants.
Eight yolks of eggs or six whole eggs.
Six ounces of powdered sugar.
A quart of rich milk.
A handful of peach-leaves, or half an ounce of peach-kernels, broken in pieces.
Half an ounce of cinnamon, broken in pieces.
Boil the rice with the raisins or currants, which must first be floured. Butter some cups or a mould, and when the rice is quite soft, drain it, and put it into them. Set it away to get cold.
Beat the eggs well. Boil the milk with the cinnamon and peach-leaves, or kernels. As soon as it has come to a boil, take it off and strain it through a sieve. Then set it again on the fire, stir into it alternately, the egg and sugar, taking it off frequently and stirring it hard, lest it become a curd. Take care not to boil it too long, or it will be lumpy and lose its flavour.
When done, set it away to cool. Turn out the rice from the cups or mould, into a deep dish. Pour some of the boiled custard over it, and send up the remainder of the custard in a sauce-boat.
You may, if you choose, ornament the lumps of rice, (after the custard is poured round them) by making a stiff froth of white of egg (beaten till it stands alone) and a few drops of essence of lemon, with a very little powdered loaf-sugar. Heap the froth on the top of each lump of rice.
COLD CUSTARDS.
A quart of new milk, and a half a pint of cream, mixed.
A quarter of a pound of powdered white sugar.
A large glass of white wine, in which an inch of washed rennet has been soaked.
A nutmeg.
Mix together the milk, cream, and sugar. Stir the wine into it, and pour the mixture into your custard-cups. Set them in a warm place near the fire, till they become a firm curd. Then set them on ice, or in a very cold place. Grate nutmeg over them.
CURDS AND WHEY.
Take a small piece of rennet about two inches square. Wash it very clean in cold water, to get all the salt off, and wipe it dry. Put it in a tea-cup, and pour on it just enough of lukewarm water to cover it. Let it set all night, or, for several hours. Then take out the rennet, and stir the water in which it was soaked, into a quart of milk, which should be in a broad dish.
Set the milk in a warm place, till it becomes a firm curd. As soon as the curd is completely made, set it in a cool place, or on ice (if in summer) for two or three hours before you want to use it.
Eat it with wine, sugar, and nutmeg.
The whey, drained from the curd, is an excellent drink for invalids.
A TRIFLE.
A quart of cream.
A quarter of a pound of loaf sugar, powdered.
Half a pint of white wine and Half a gill of brandy mixed.