The difficulties I encountered when I first entered on the duties of a
House-keeping life, from the want of books sufficiently clear and concise,
to impart knowledge to a Tyro, compelled me to study the subject, and by
actual experiment, to reduce every thing, in the culinary line, to
proper weights and measures. This I found not only to diminish
the necessary attention and labour,
but to also be economical; for, when the ingredients
employed, were given in just proportions, the article made, was equally good.
The government of a family, bears a Liliputian resemblance to the government of a nation. The contents of the Treasury must be known,
and great care taken to keep
the expenditures from being equal to the receipts.
A regular system must be introduced
Prepare your brine in the middle of October,
after the following manner: Get a thirty gallon cask, take out one head,
drive in the bung and put some pitch on it,
to prevent leaking. See that the cask is quite tight and clean.
Put into it one pound of salt-petre, powdered, fifteen quarts of salt,
and fifteen gallons of cold water;
stir it frequently, until dissolved,
throw over the cask a thick cloth, to keep out the dust: look
at it often and take
off the scum. These proportions have been accurately ascertained—fifteen
gallons of cold water will exactly hold, in solution, fifteen quarts of good
clean Liverpool salt, and one pound of salt-petre : this brine will be strong
enough to bear up an egg: if more salt be added, it
Be sure that your beef is newly killed—rub each piece very well with good
Liverpool salt—a vast deal depends upon rubbing the salt into every
part—it is unnecessary to put salt-petre on it; sprinkle a good deal of
salt on the bottom of the tub. When the beef is well salted,
lay it in the tub, and be sure you put the fleshy side downward.—Put a great deal of salt on your beef after it is packed in the tub; this protects it from
animals who might eat, if they could smell, it, and does not waste
the salt, for the beef can only dissolve a certain portion. You
The best pieces for this purpose are the thin briskets, or that part of the
plate which is farthest from the shoulder of the animal, the round
and rib pieces, that are commonly used for roasting. These should not be cut
with long ribs, and the back-bones must be sawed off as close as possible,
that the pieces may lay flat in the dish. About the middle of February, select
your beef from an animal, well fatted with corn, and which, when killed,
Few persons are aware of the injury they sustain, by eating the flesh of
diseased animals. None but the Jewish butchers, who are paid
exclusively for it, attend to this important circumstance. The best rule
for judging that I have been able to discover, is the colour of the fat.
When the fat of beef is a high shade of yellow, I reject it.
If the fat of veal, mutton, lamb, or pork, have the slightest tinge
of yellow, I avoid it as diseased. The same rule holds good when
applied to poultry.
Hogs are in the highest perfection, from two and a half to four years
old, and make
The generally received opinion that salt-petre hardens meat, is entirely
erroneous:—it tends greatly to prevent putrefaction, but it will not make
it hard; neither will laying in brine for five or six weeks in cold weather,
have that effect, but remaining in salt too long, will certainly
draw off the juices, and harden it. Bacon should be boiled in a large
quantity of water, and a ham is not done sufficiently, till the bone on the
under part comes off with ease. New bacon requires much longer boiling than
that which is old.
Let all the pieces you intend to souse, remain
covered with cold water twelve hours; then wash them out, wipe off
the blood, and put them again in fresh water; soak them in
this manner, changing the water frequently, and keeping it in a cool
place, till the blood is drawn away; scrape and clean
each piece perfectly nice, mix some meal with water, add
salt to it, and boil your souse gently, until you can run a straw into the
skin with ease. Do not put too much in the pot for it
will boil to pieces and spoil the appearance. The best way is, to boil
the feet in one pot, the ears and noses in another, and the heads in a third;
these should be boiled till you can take all the bones out; let
them get cold, season the insides with pepper, salt, and a little nutmeg;
make a tight roll, sew it up close in a cloth, and press it lightly.
Mix some more meal and cold water, just enough to look white;
add salt, and one fourth of vinegar; put your souse in different pots, and keep
it well covered with this mixture, and closely stopped.
It will be necessary to renew this liquor, every two or three
weeks. Let your
etcetera,
but this destroys the colour:—good souse will always be white.
The best method for preserving herrings, and which may be followed
with ease, for a small family, is to take the brine left of your winter
stock for beef, to the fishing place, and when the seine is hauled,
to pick out the largest herrings, having roes, and throw them alive into the
brine; let them remain twenty-four hours, take them out and lay them on
sloping planks, that the brine may drain off; have a tight barrel,
put some coarse allum salt in the bottom, then put in a layer of herrings—take
care not to bruise them; sprinkle over it allum salt and some salt-petre, then
fish salt and salt-petre, till the barrel is full; keep a board over it.
Should they not make brine enough to cover them in a few weeks, you must add
some, for they will be
Take a piece of thin brisket or plate, cut out the ribs nicely,
rub it on both sides well with two large spoonfuls of pounded salt-petre;
pour it on a gill of molasses and a
In roasting butcher's meat, be careful not to run the spit through the nice
parts: let the piece lie in water one hour, then wash it out,
wipe it perfectly dry, and put it on the spit.
Set it before a clear, steady, fire; sprinkle some salt on it,
and when it becomes hot, baste it for a time with salt and water; then
put a good spoonful of nice lard into the dripping-pan, and when melted,
continue to baste with it. When your meat, of whatever kind,
Fish, and all other articles for frying, after being nicely prepared,
should be laid on a board and dredged with flour or meal mixed
with salt: when it becomes dry on one side, turn it, and dredge the other.
For broiling, have very clear coals, sprinkle a little salt and pepper over
the pieces, and when done, dish them, and pour over some melted butter
and chopped parsley—this is for broiled veal,
There should always be a supply of brown flour kept in readiness to thicken
brown gravies,
must have gravy with these meats, let it be made in
any way they like, and served in a boat. No meat can be well roasted,
except on a spit turned by a jack, and before a steady clear fire—other
methods are no better than baking. Many cooks are in the habit
of half-boiling the meats to plump them as they turn it, before they are
spitted, but it destroys their fine flavour. Whatever
is to be boiled, must be put into cold water with a little salt, which will
cook them regularly. When they are put in boiling water, the outer side
is done too much before the inside gets heated. Nice lard is much better than
butter for basting roasted meats, or for frying. To choose butcher's meat,
you must see that the fat is not yellow, and that the lean parts are
of a fine close grain, a lively colour, and will feel tender when pinched.
Poultry should be well covered with white fat; if the bottom of the
breast bone be gristly, it is young, but if it be a hard bone
it is an old one. Fish are judged by the liveliness of their eyes, and bright
red of their gills. If the weather should become close and damp,
while there is a large supply
ordered, will have a double relish.
Profusion is not elegance—a dinner justly calculated for the company,
and consisting for the greater part of small articles, correctly
prepared, and neatly served up, will make a much more pleasing appearance to the
sight, and give far greater gratification to the appetite, than a table
loaded with food, and from the multiplicity of dishes, unavoidably
neglected in the preparation, and served up cold.
Take the hind shin of beef, cut off all the flesh
of the leg-bone which must be taken away entirely, or the soup will
be greasy.—Wash the meat clean and lay it in a pot,
sprinkle over it one small table-spoonful of pounded black
pepper, and two of salt; three onions the size of a hen's egg, cut
small, six small carrots scraped and cut up, two small
turnips pared and cut into dice; pour on three quarts of water, cover the
pot close, and keep it gently and steadily boiling five hours,
which will leave about three pints of clear soup; do not let
the pot boil over, but take the scum carefully, as it rises.—When it
has boiled four hours, put in a small
Get eight pounds of coarse lean beef—wash it clean and lay it in your pot,
put in the same ingredients as for the shin soup, with the same quantity
of water, and follow the process directed for that. Strain the soup through a
sieve and serve it up clear with nothing more than toasted bread
Take the nicest part of the thick brisket of beef
about eight pounds, put it into a pot with every thing directed
for the other soup; make it exactly in the same way,
only put it on an hour sooner that you may have time to prepare the
bouilli, after it has boiled five hours take out the beef, cover up the
soup and set it near the fire that it may keep hot.
Take the skin off the beef, have the yelk of an egg well beaten, dip a feather
in it and wash the top of you beef, sprinkle over it the crumb of stale
bread finely grated, put in a Dutch oven previously heated, put the
top on with coals enough to brown, but not burn the beef; let it stand
nearly an hour and prepare your gravy thus:—Take a
sufficient quantity of soup and the vegetables boiled in it;
add to it a table-spoonful of red wine, and two of mushroom catsup,
thicken with a little bit of butter and a little brown flour: make it very
Put into a pot three quarts of water, three onions cut small, one spoonful
of black pepper pounded, and two of salt, with two or three slices of
lean ham; let it boil steadily two hours; skim it occasionally, then put into it
a shin of veal, let it boil two hours longer; take out the slices of ham, and skim off the grease if any should rise, take a gill of good cream, mix with it
two table-spoonsful of flour very nicely, and the yelks of two eggs beaten
well, strain this mixture, and add some chopped parsley; pour some soup on by
degrees, stir it well, and pour it into the pot continuing
to stir until it has boiled two or three minutes to take off the raw taste of
the eggs. If the cream be not perfectly sweet, and the eggs quite new, the
thickening will curdle in the soup. For a change, you
may put a dozen ripe tomatas
Put on two quarts of oysters, with three quarts of water, three onions
chopped up, two or three slices of lean ham, pepper and
salt; boil it till reduced one half, strain it
through a sieve, return the liquid into the pot,
put in one quart of fresh oysters, boil it till they are
sufficiently done, and thicken the soup with four spoonsful of flour,
two gills of rich cream, and the yelks of six new laid eggs beaten well;
boil it a few minutes after the thickening is put in. Take care
that it does not curdle, and that the flour is not in lumps: serve
it up with the last oysters that were put in. If the flavour of thyme be
agreeable you may put in a little, but take care that it does not boil
in it long enough to discolour the soup.
Put on three gills of barley, three quarts of water, a few onions cut up, six carrots, scraped and cut in dice, an equal quantity of turnips cut small: boil it gently two hours, then put in four or five pounds of the rack or neck of mutton, a few slices of lean ham, with pepper and salt; boil it slowly, two hours longer, and serve it up. Tomatas are an excellent addition to this soup.
Take one quart of split peas, or Lima beans which are better, put them
in three quarts of very soft water with three onions chopped up,
pepper and salt; boil them two hours; wash them well and pass them
through a sieve; return the liquid into the pot,
thicken it with a large piece of butter and flour, put in some slices of nice
salt pork, and a large tea-spoonful of celery-seed pounded; boil it till
the pork is done, and serve it up; have some toasted bread
cut into dice and fried in butter, which must
Make it exactly as you do the dried pea soup, only in place of the celery-seed, put a handful of mint chopped small, and a pint of young peas which must be boiled in the soup till tender; thicken it with a quarter of a pound of butter, and two spoonsful of flour.
Get two double handsful of young ochra, wash and slice it thin, add two
onions chopped fine, put it into a gallon of water at a very early hour in an
earthen pipkin, or very nice iron pot: it must be kept steadily simmering,
but not boiling: put in pepper and salt. At 12 o'clock, put in a handful of
Lima beans, at half past one o'clock, add three cimlins cleaned and cut in small
pieces, a fowl, or knuckle of veal, a bit of bacon or pork
that has been boiled, and six tomatas, with the skin taken off when nearly
Cut up two hares, put them into a pot with a piece of bacon, two onions chopped, a bundle of thyme and parsley which must be taken out before the soup is thickened, add pepper, salt, pounded cloves, and mace, put in a sufficient quantity of water, stew it gently three hours, thicken with a large spoonful of butter, and one of brown flour with a glass of red wine; boil it a few minutes longer, and serve it up with the nicest parts of the hares. Squirrels make soup equally good, done the same way.
Chop up twelve large onions, boil them in three quarts of milk and water
equally mixed, put in a bit of veal or fowl, and a piece of bacon,
with pepper and salt. When the
Put the fowls in a coop and feed them moderately for a fortnight;
kill one and cleanse it, cut off the legs and wings, and separate the
breast from the ribs; which, together with the whole back, must be thrown
away, being too gross and strong for use. Take the skin and fat from
the parts cut off which are also gross. Wash the pieces nicely and put them
on the fire with about a pound of bacon, a large onion chopped
small, some pepper and salt, a few blades of mace, a handful of parsley
cut up very fine, and two quarts of water if it be a common fowl or duck—a
turkey will require more water. Boil it gently for three hours, tie
up a small bunch of thyme, and let it boil in it half an hour, then take
it out. Thicken your soup with a large
Take two large or four small white catfish that have been caught in deep water, cut off the heads, and skin and clean the bodies, cut each in three parts, put them in a pot with a pound of bacon, a large onion cut up, a handful of parsley chopped small, some pepper and salt, pour in a sufficient quantity of water, and stew them till the fish is quite tender and not broken, beat the yelks of four fresh eggs, add to them a large spoonful of butter, two of flour, and half a pint of rich milk, make all these warm and thicken the soup, take out the bacon, and put some of the fish in your tureen, put in the soup, and serve it up.
Take four large bunches of asparagus,
Take the bone from a round of beef, fill the
space with a forcemeat made of the crumbs of a stale loaf,
four ounces of marrow, two heads of garlic chopped with thyme and parsley,
some nutmeg, cloves, pepper, and salt, mix it to a paste with the
yelks of four eggs beaten, stuff the lean part of the round with it, and
make balls of the remainder; sew a fillet of strong linen wide enough
to keep it round and compact, put it in a vessel just sufficiently large
to hold it, add a pint
Bone a brisket of beef, and make holes in it with a sharp knife about an inch apart, fill them alternately with fat bacon, parsley, and oysters, all chopped small and seasoned with pounded cloves and nutmeg, pepper and salt, dredge it well with flour, lay it in a pan with a pint of red wine and a large spoonful of lemon pickle; bake it three hours, take the fat from the gravy and strain it; serve it up garnished with green pickles.
Cut slices from a fat rump of beef six inches
Take out as much of the bone as can be done with a saw, that it may lie
flat in the dish, stuff it with forcemeat made as before directed, lay
it in a pot with two quarts of water, a pint of red wine, some carrots
and turnips cut in small pieces and strewed over it, a head of cellery
cut up, a few cloves of garlic, some pounded cloves, pepper and salt, stew
it gently till sufficiently done, skim the fat
Cut a few slices of beef six inches long, two or three wide, and one thick, lard them with bacon, dredge them well, and make them a nice brown before a brisk fire; stir them half an hour in a well seasoned gravy, put some stewed sorrel or spinage in the dish, lay on the beef, and pour over a sufficient quantity of gravy; garnish with fried balls.
Take a rib roasting piece that has been hanging days or a fortnight,
bone it neatly, rub some salt over it and roll it tight, binding it around with
twine, put the spit through the inner fold without sticking it in the
flesh—skewer it well and roast it nicely; when nearly done, dredge and froth
it, garnish with scraped horse radish.
Get a nice flank of beef, rub it well with a large portion of salt petre and common salt, let it remain ten days, then wash it clean, take off the outer and inner skin with the gristle, spread it on a board and cover the inside with the following mixture: parsley, sage, thyme, chopped fine, pepper, salt, and pounded cloves, roll it up, sew a cloth over it and bandage that with tape, boil it gently five or six hours, when cold lay it on a board without undoing it, put another board on the top with a heavy weight on it, let it remain twenty-four hours, take off the bandages, cut a thin slice from each end, serve it up garnished with green pickle and sprigs of parsley.
Select a fine fat round weighing about twenty-five pounds, take three
ounces saltpetre, three of brown sugar, one ounce of cloves, half an
ounce of alspice, a large nutmeg, and a quart of salt, pound them all
together very fine, take the bone out, rub it well with this
Mince cold roast beef, fat and lean, very fine, add chopped onion, pepper,
salt, and a little good gravy, fill scollop shells two parts full,
and fill them up with potatoes mashed smooth with cream, put a bit
of butter on the top, and set them in an oven to brown.
The best part of the beef for steaks, is the seventh and eight ribs, the fat and lean are better mixed, and it is more tender than the rump if it is kept long enough; cut the steaks half an inch thick, beat them a little, have fine clear coals, rub the bars of the grid-iron with a cloth dipped in lard before you put it over the coals, that none may drip to cause a bad smell, put no salt on till you dish them, broil them quick, turning them frequently; the dish must be very hot, put some slices of onion in it, lay in the steaks, sprinkle a little salt, and pour over them a spoonful of water and one of mushroom catsup, both made boiling hot, garnish with scraped horse raddish, and put on a hot dish cover. Every thing must be in readiness, for the great excellence of a beef steak lies in having it immediately from the gridiron.
Cut slices of raw beef, put them in a stew pan with a little water,
some catsup, a clove of garlic, pepper and salt, stew them till done,
Cut nice steaks and stew them till half done, put a puff paste in the dish, lay in the steaks with a few slices of boiled ham, season the gravy very high, pour it in the dish, put on a lid of paste and bake it.
Cut off the flank and take the bone out, then take slices the size
of the fillet and half an inch thick, beat two yelks of eggs light,
and have some grated
bread mixed with pepper, salt, pounded nutmeg and chopped parsley; beat
the slices a little, lay them on a board and wash the upper side with the egg,
cover it thick with the bread crumbs, press them on
Take the best end of a rack of veal, cut it in cops with one bone in each,
leave the small end of the bone bare two inches, beat them flat, and prepare
them with eggs and crumbs as the cutlets, butter some half-sheets of
white paper, wrap one round each chop, skewer it well, leaving the bare
bone out, broil them till done, and take care the paper does not burn;
have nice white sauce in a boat.
Boil a half pint of pearl barley in salt and water till quite tender, drain the water from it and stir in a piece of butter, put it in a deep dish, and lay it on the barley, pour some parsley and butter over it.
Take the bone out of the fillet, wrap the paper around and sew it, make a forcemeat of bread crumbs, the fat of bacon, a little onion chopped, parsley, pepper, salt, and a nutmeg pounded, wet it with the yelks of eggs, fill the place from which the bone was taken, make holes around it with a knife and fill them also, and lard the top, put it in a Dutch oven with a pint of water, bake it sufficiently, thicken the gravy with butter and brown flour, add a gill of wine and one of mushroom catsup, and serve it garnished with forcemeat balls fried.
They may be made of the nice part of the
Take the bone out of the fillet and cut thin slices the size of the leg, beat
them flat, rub them with the yelk of an egg beaten, lay on each piece a thin
slice of boiled ham, sprinkle salt, pepper, grated nutmeg, chopped parsley
bread crumbs over all, roll them up tight and secure them with skewers, rub
them with egg and roll them in bread crumbs, lay them on a tin dripping pan
and set them in an oven, when brown on one side turn them, and when
sufficiently done, lay them in a rich highly seasoned gravy made of
proper thickness, stew them till tender, garnish with forcemeat balls
and green pickles sliced.
Separate the joints of the brisket, and saw off the sharp ends of the ribs, trim it neatly and half roast it; put it in a stew pan with a quart of good gravy seasoned with wine, walnut, and mushroom catsup, a tea-spoonful of curry powder and a few cloves of garlic, stew it till tender, thicken the gravy and garnish with sweet breads nicely broiled.
Cut slices from the fillet an inch thick and six inches long, lard them with slips of lean middling of bacon, bake them a light brown, stew them in well seasoned gravy, made as thick as rich cream, serve them up hot and lay round the dish sorrel stewed with butter, pepper, and salt, till quite dry.
A loin of veal must always be roasted; the fillet
or leg may be dressed in various ways, the knuckle or knee is proper for
soup or for boiling; these are the pieces that compose the hind quarter.
In the fore quarter, the breast and rack admit variety in cooking;
the shoulder and neck are only fit for soup.
Have the head nicely cleaned, divide the chop from the scull,
take out the brains and tongue, and boil the other parts till tender,
take them out of the water and put into it a knuckle of veal or four
pounds of lean beef, three onions chopped, thyme, parsley, a teaspoonful
of pounded cloves, the same of mace; salt, and cayenne pepper, to your taste,
boil these things together till reduced to a pint, strain it and add two gills
of red wine, one of mushroom and one of walnut catsup, thicken
it with butter and brown flour; the head must be cut in small pieces and
stewed a few minutes in the gravy; put a paste round the edge of a deep
dish, thre folds one on the other, but none on the bottom, pour
in the meat and gravy, and bake it till the paste is done; pick all strings
from the brains, pound them, and add grated bread, pepper, and salt,
make them in little cakes with the yelk of an egg, fry them a nice brown,
boil six eggs hard, leave one whole and divide the others exactly in two, have
some bits of paste nicely baked; when the head is take from the oven, lay the
whole egg in the middle, and dispose
Clean and divide it as for the turtle, take out the brains
and tongue, boil it tender, take the eyes out whole, and
cut the flesh from the skull in small pieces; take some of the water
it was boiled in for gravy, put to it salt, cayenne pepper, a
grated nutmeg, with a spoonful of lemon pickle; stew it till
it is well flavoured, take the jowl or chop, do not take
out the bone, but saw off the lower part with the teeth, cover it with
bread crumbs, chopped parsley, pepper and salt, set it in an oven to
brown, thicken the gravy with the yelks
After cleaning it nicely, saw the bone down the middle of the scull, but do not separate the head, take out the brains and tongue, boil it tender enough to remove the bones, which must be take entirely out; lay it on a board, have a good quantity of chopped parsley seasoned with mace, nutmeg, pepper, and salt, spread a layer of this, then one of thick slices of ham, another of parsley and one of ham, roll it up tight, sew a cloth over it and bind that round with tape, boil it half an hour and when cold press it; it must be kept covered with vinegar and water, and is very delicious eaten with sallad or oil and vinegar.
Take the heart and liver from the harslet and cut off the windpipe,
boil the lights very
Boil the feet till very tender, cut them in two and put out the large bones,
have half a pint of good white gravy, add to it a spoonful of white
wine, one of lemon pickle, and
Prepare them as for the fricasee, dredge them well with flour and fry them a light brown, pour parsley and butter over and garnish with fried parsley and butter over and garnish with fried parsley.
Directions for cleaning calve's head and feet, for those who live in the
country and butcher their own meats. As soon as the animal is killed,
have the head and feet taken off,
wash them clean, sprinkle some pounded rosin all over the hairs, then
dip them in boiling water, take them instantly out, the rosin will dry immediately, and they may be
scrapped clean with ease, the feet should be soaked in water three or four days,
changing it daily, this will make them very white.
Boil the sweetbreads tender, stew the oysters, season them with pepper and salt, and thicken with cream, butter, the yelks of eggs and and flour, put a puff paste at the bottom and around the sides of a deep dish, take the oysters up with an egg spoon, lay them in the bottom and cover them with the sweetbreads, fill the dish with the gravy, put a paste on the top and bake it. This is the most delicious pie that can be made. The sweetbread of veal is the most delicious part, and may be broiled, fried, or dressed in any way, and is always good.
As soon as it is taken out cut it open length-way, empty it of its contents
and wash it in several changes of warm water, rub it with salt and
let it remain two or three days, then wash it, stretch it on slender sticks and dry them in the shade; when as dry as parchment, which it will resemble,
put it in paper bags and keep it in a dry place, it will remain good two years.
The fore quarter should always be roasted and served with mint sauce in a boat, chop the mint small and mix it with vinegar enough to make it liquid, sweeten it with sugar.
The hind quarter may be boiled or roasted, and requires mint sauce; it may also be dressed in various ways.
Cut the shank bone from the hind quarter, separate the joints of the loin, lay it in a pan with the kidney uppermost, sprinkle some pepper and salt, add a few cloves of garlic, a pint of water and a dozen large ripe tomatas with the skins taken off, bake it but do not let it be burnt, thicken the gravy with a little butter and brown flour.
Separate the leg from the loin, cut off the shank and boil the leg; divide
the loin in chops, dredge and fry them a nice brown, lay the leg in the
middle of the dish and put the
The leg cut into steaks and the loin into chops
will make a fine fricassee, or cutlets.
Clean them very nicely, and boil them till tender, take off the flesh from the head with the eyes, also mince the tongue and heart which must be boiled with the head, split the feet in two, put them with the pieces from the head and the mince, into a pint of good gravy seasoned with pepper, salt, and tomata catsup, or ripe tomatas, stew it till tender, thicken the gravy and lay the liver cut in slices and broiled over it; garnish with crisp parsley and bits of curled bacon.
The saddle should always be roasted and garnished with scraped horse
raddish. See general observations on roasting. Mutton is in the highest
perfection from August until Christmas, when it begins to delicne in
goodness.
Cut off the shank, wrap the flank nicely round and secure it with skewers, dredge it well with flour, and put it on the fire in a kettle of cold water with some salt and three or four heads of garlic, which will give it a delicately fine flavour; skim it well and when nearly done take it from the fire and keep it hot and closely covered, that the steam may finish it; have carrots well boiled to put in the dish under it, or turnips boiled, mashed smooth and stewed with a lump of butter and salt, lay the mutton on, and pour over it, butter melted with some flour in it, and a cup full of capers with some of the vinegar; shake them together over the fire till hot before you pour it on.
Prepare it as for boiling, be very careful in spitting it, cover it with paper and follow the directions for roasting, serve it up garnished with scraped horse raddish.
Take the flank off but leave all the fat, cut
Cut off the flank, take out the bone, and cut it in large slices half an inch thick, sprinkle some salt and pepper and broil it, pour over it nice melted butter with capers; a let cut in the same way and dressed as directed for veal cutlets is very fine. It is also excellent when salted as beef, and boiled, served up with carrots or turnips.
A shoulder of mutton is best when roasted, but may be made into cutlets or in a harrico.
Take the nicest part of the rack, divide it into chops with one bone in each,
beat them flat, sprinkle salt and pepper on them, and broil the nicely; make a rich gravy out of
Cut the rack as for the harrico, broil them, and when dished, put over them a gravy made with two large spoonfuls of boiling water, one of mushroom catsup, a small spoonful of butter and some salt, stir it till the butter is melted, and garnish with horseradish scraped.
Separate the joints of the brisket, and saw off the sharp ends of the ribs, dredge it with flour, and boil it; serve it up covered with onions—see onion sauce.
Prepare the breast as for broiling, brown
Prepare it as before, score the top, wash it over with the yelk of an egg, sprinkle some salt, and cover it with bread crumbs, bake it and pour caper sauce in the dish. It may also be roasted, the skin taken off and frothed nicely, serve it up with good gravy, and garnish with currant jelly cut in slices.
The neck of mutton is fit only for soup; the liver is very good when broiled.
Put it in cold water with some salt, and boil it till tender; serve it up covered with onion sauce.
Wash and clean ten heads of celery, cut
off the green tops and take off the outside stalks, cut the heads
in thin slices, boil them tender in a little milk, just enough for gravy,
Cut the loin in four pieces, take off the skin, rub each piece with salt, wash them with the yelk of an egg, and cover them thickly with bread crumbs, chopped parsley, pepper and salt; wrap them up securely in paper, put them on a bird spit, and roast them; put a little brown gravy in the dish, and garnish with pickle.
The pig must be very fat, nicely cleaned, and not too large to lie in the dish;
chop the liver fine and mix it with crumbs of bread, chopped onion and parsley,
with pepper and salt, make it into a paste with butter and an egg,
stuff the body well with it and sew it up, spit it and have
a clear fire to roast it; baste with salt and water at first,
then rub it frequently with a lump of lard wrapped in a piece of clean Linen;
this will make it much more crisp when basting it from the dripping pan.
When the pig is done, take off the
This is the name given in the southern states to a fat young hog, which, when the head and feet are taken off, and it is cut into four quarters, will
weigh six pounds per quarter. Take a fore quarter, make several
incisions between the ribs, and stuff it with rich forcemeat;
put it in a pan with a pint of water, two cloves garlic, pepper, salt, two
gills of red wine, and two of mushroom catsup, bake it and thicken the gravy with butter and brown flour; it must be jointed and the ribs cut across before it
is cooked, or it cannot be carved well; lay it in the dish with the ribs
uppermost; if it be not sufficiently brown, add a little sugar to the
gravy; garnish with balls.
Joint it for the convenience of carving, roast it before a brisk fire; when done, take the skin off, dredge and froth it, put a little melted butter with some caper vinegar over it, or serve it with mint sauce.
Take the skin from the hind quarter, and cut it in pieces, prepare them in the way directed for veal cutlets, make a little nice gravy with the skin and the scraps of meat left, thicken it with the butter and brown flour, and season it in any way you like.
Rub a hind quarter with salt petre and common salt, let it lie ten days, then boil it, and put either carrots or parsneps under it.
Take out the brains and boil the head till quite tender, cut the heart and liver
from the harslet, and boil the feet with the head; cut all the meat from
the head in small pieces, mince the tongue and chop the brains small,
take some of the water the head was boiled
Boil a small leg of pork that has been sufficiently salted, score the top and serve it up; the pudding must be in a separate dish; get the small delicate peas, wash them well, and tie them in a cloth, allowing a little room for swelling, boil them with the pork, then mash and season them, tie them up again and finish boiling it; take care not to break the pudding in turning it out.
Take the neck chine, rub it well with salt, lay it in a pan, put it in a pint
of water, and fill it up with sweet potatoes nicely washed, but not peeled,
cover it close and bake it till done; serve it up with the potatoes, put a
little gravy in the dish.
Boil it well, take off the skin, and cover the top thickly with bread crumbs, put it in an oven to brown, and serve it up.
Take a well smoked ham, wash it very clean, make incisions all over the top two inches deep, stuff them quite full with parsley chopped small and some pepper, boil the ham sufficiently; do not take off the shin. It must be eaten cold.
Split the feet in two, dredge them with the flour and fry them a nice brown; have some well seasoned gravy thickened with brown flour and butter, stew the feet in it a few minutes.
Take the tender pieces of fresh pork, chop them exceedingly fine, chop
some of the leaf fat, and put them together in the proportion of three
pounds of pork to one of fat, season it very high with pepper and salt,
add a small
Catch the blood as it runs from the hog, stir it continually till cold to prevent its coagulating, when cold thicken it with boiled rice or oatmeal, add leaf fat chopped small, pepper, salt and any herbs that are liked, fill the skins and smoke them two or three days; they must be boiled before they are hung up, and prick them with a fork to keep them from bursting.
Get a piece of sturgeon with the skin on the piece next to the tail,
scrape it well, cut out the gristle, and boil it about twenty minutes
to take out the oil; take it up, pull off the large scales, and when
cold, stuff it with forcemeat, made of bread crumbs, butter, chopped parsley,
pepper and salt, put it in a dutch oven just large enough to hold it, with a
pint and a half of water, a gill of red wine,
The tail piece is the best; skin it and cut off the gristle, cut it into slices about half an inch thick, sprinkle over them pepper and salt, dredge them with flour, and fry them a nice light brown; have ready a pint of good gravy, seasoned with catsup, wine, and a little pounded cloves, and thickened with brown flour and butter; when the cutlets are cold, put them into the gravy and stew them a few minutes; garnish the dish with nice forcemeat balls and parsley fried crisp.
Cut them as for the cutlets, dredge them and fry them nicely; dish them
quickly lest they get cold, pour over melted butter with chopped parsley, and
garnish with fried parsley.
Leave the skin on, which must be nicely scraped, take out the gristle, rub it with salt and let it lie an hour, then put it on in cold water with some salt and a few cloves of garlic; it must be dredged with flour before it is put into the water, skim it carefully, and when dished, pour over it melted butter with chopped parsley, a large spoonful of mushroom catsup, one of lemon pickle, and one of pepper vinegar; send some of it to table in a sauce boat; the sturgeon being a dry fish, rich sauce is necessary.
The shad is a very indifferent fish unless it be large and fat;
when you get a good one prepare it nicely, put some force meat
inside and lay it at full length in a pan, with a pint of water, a
gill of red wine, one of mushroom catsup, a little pepper, vinegar,
salt, a few cloves of garlic, and six cloves; stew it gently till
the gravy is sufficiently reduced; there should always be a fish-slice with
holes to lay the fish on, for the convenience of dishing
without breaking it; when the fish is taken
Get a nice fat shad, fresh from the water, that the skin may not crack in boiling, put it in cold water on a slice, in a kettle of proper length, with a glass of pale vinegar, salt, a little garlic, and a bundle of parsley; when it is done, drain all the water from the fish, lay it in the dish, and garnish with scraped horse radish; have a sauce boat of nice melted butter, to mix with the different catsups as taste shall direct.
Fill the cavity with good forcemeat, sew it up and tie it on a board
of proper size, cover it with bread crumbs, with some salt and pepper, set
it before the fire to roast; when done on one side, turn it, tie it again,
and when sufficiently done, pull out the thread, and serve it up with butter
and parsley poured over it.
Separate one side from the backbone, so that it will lie open without being split in two, wash it clean, dry it with a cloth, sprinkle some salt and pepper on it, and let it stand till you are ready to broil it; have the grid-iron hot and well greased, broil it nicely, and pour over it melted butter.
The best part of the rock is the had and shoulders; clean it nicely, put
it into the fish kettle with cold water and salt, boil it gently
and skim it well; when done, drain off the water, lay it in the dish,
and garnish with scraped horse radish; have two boats of butter
nicely melted with chopped parsley, or, for a change, you may have
anchovy butter; the roe and liver should be fried and served
in separate dishes. If any of the rock be left it will make a delicious
dish next day; pick it in small pieces, put it in a stew pan with
a gill of water, a good lump of butter, some salt, a large spoonful of lemon
pickle and one of pepper vinegar, shake it over the fire till perfectly hot,
and serve it up. It is almost equal to stewed crab.
Clean the fish nicely, but do not take out the roes, dry them on a cloth, sprinkle some salt, and dredge them with flour, lay them separately on a board, when one side is dry, turn them, sprinkle salt and dredge the other side; be sure the lard boils when you put the fish in and fry them with great care; they should be a yellowish brown when done. Send melted butter or anchovy sauce in a boat.
Select the largest oysters, drain off their liquor, and wash them in clean water; pick out the pieces of shells that may be left, put them in a stew pan with water proportioned to the number of oysters, some salt, blades of mace, and whole black pepper; stew them a few minutes, then put them in a pot, and when cold, add as much pale vinegar as will give the liquor an agreeable acid.
Take the white channel catfish, cut off their heads, skin and clean them,
cut them in pieces four inches long, put as many as will
Take out the gills and the blood from the bone, wash the head very
clean, rub over it a little salt, then lay it on your fish plate;
throw in the water a good handful of salt, with a glass of vinegar, then
put in the fish, and let it boil gently half an hour; if it is a large one,
three quarters; take it up very carefully, strip the skin nicely off,
set it before a brisk fire, dredge it all over with flour, and baste it well
with butter; when the froth begins to rise, throw over it some very fine white
bread crumbs; you must keep basting it all the time to make it froth well;
when it is a fine light brown, dish it up, and garnish it with a
Take a lobster, if it be alive, stick a skewer in the vent of the tail, (to keep the water out,) throw a handful of salt in the water; when it boils, put in the lobster and boil it half an hour; it if has spawn on it, pick them off, and pound them exceedingly fine in a marble mortar, and put them into half a pound of good melted butter, then take the meat out of the lobster, pull it in buts and put in your butter, with a meat spoonful of lemon pickle, and the same amount of walnut catsup, a slice of lemon, one or two slices of horse radish, a little beaten mace, salt and cayenne to your taste, boil them in a minute, then take out the horse radish and lemon, and serve up in your sauce boat.
N.B. if you cannot get lobsters, you may make shrimp; cockle, or muscle sauce
the same way; if there can be no shell fish got
Steep your salt fish in water all night, with a glass of vinegar; it will take out the salt, and make it taste like fresh fish; the next day boil it; when it is enough, take off the skin, pull it in fleaks into your dish, then pour egg sauce over it, or parsnips boiled and beat fine, with butter and cream; send it to the table on a water plate, for it will soon grow cold.
Boil four eggs hard, first half chop the white, then put in the yelks and chop them both together, but not very small, put them into half a pound of good melted butter, and let it boil up, then pour it on the fish.
Steep your sounds as you do the salt cod, and boil them in a large quantity
of milk and water; when they are very tender and white, take them up and drain
the water out and
Gut and scale your fish, wash and dry them well with a clean cloth, dredge them with flour, fry them in lard until they are a light brown, and then put them in a stew pan with a pint of water and one pint of red wine, a meat spoonful of lemon pickle, the same of walnut catsup, a little mushroom powder and cayenne to taste, a large onion stuck with cloves, and a stick of horse radish; cover your pan close up to keep in the steam, let them stew gently over a stove fire till the gravy is reduced to just enough to cover your fish in the dish, then take the fish out and put them on the dish you intend for the table; set the gravy on the fire, and thicken it with flour and a large lump of butter, boil it a little , and strain it over your fish; garnish them with pickled mushrooms and scraped horse radish, and send them to the table.
Clean the eels and cut off their heads, dry them and
Skin and wash your eels, then dry them with a cloth, sprinkle them with pepper, salt, and a little dried sage, turn them backward and forward, and skewer them; rub a grid-iron with beef suet, broil them a nice brown, put them on a dish with good melted butter, and lay around fried parsley.
When you have skinned and cleansed your eels as before, rub them with the yelk of an egg, strew over them; bread crumbs, chopped parsley, sage, pepper, and salt; baste them; well with butter, and set them in a dripping pan; serve them up with parsley and butter for sauce.
When the oysters are opened, put them in a bowl and wash them; out of their own
liquor, put some in the scollop shells, strew
Take a quarter of a hundred of large oysters, beat the yelks of two eggs, add to it a little nutmeg and a blade of mace pounded, a spoonful of flour, and a little salt; dip in the oysters and fry them a light brown; if you choose you may add a little parsley shred fine. They are a proper garnish for calveshead, or most made dishes.
Take little round loaves, cut off the top, scrape out all the crumbs,
then put the oysters into a stew pan with the crumbs that came out of the
loaves, a little water, and a good lump of butter; stew them together ten or
fifteen minutes, then put in a spoonful of good cream, fill your loaves, lay the
bit of crust carefully on again, set them in the oven to crisp.
Three are enough for a side dish.
Chop a few sage leaves and two onions very fine, mix them with a good lump of butter, a teaspoonful of pepper and two of salt, put it in the goose, then spit it, lay it down, and dust it with flour; when it is thoroughly hot, baste it with nice lard; if it be a large one, it will require an hour and a half, before a good clear fire; when it is enough, dredge and baste it, pull out the spit, and pour in a little boiling water.
Pare, core, and slice some apples, put them in a sauce pan, with as much water as will keep them from burning, set them over a very slow fire, keep them close covered till reduced to a pulp, then put in a lump of butter, and sugar to your taste, beat them well, and send them to the table in a china bowl.
Scald and draw your ducks, put them in warm water for a few minutes, then
take them out and put them in an earthen pot; pour over them a pint of boiling
milk, and let
Boil eight or ten large onions, change the water two or three times while they are boiling, when enough, chop them on a board to keep them a good colour, put them in a sauce pan with a quarter of a pound of butter and two spoonful of thick cream, boil it a little, and pour it over the ducks.
When you have drawn the ducks, shread one onion and a few sage leaves,
put them into the ducks with pepper and salt, spit and dust them
with flour, and baste them with lard: if your fire be very hot, they will roast
in twenty minutes, and the quicker they are roasted the better they will
taste; just before you draw them, dust them with flour, and baste them.
Get ready some gravy made of
Grate a loaf of bread, chop a score or more of oysters fine, add
nutmeg pepper and salt to your taste, mix it up into a light
forcemeat with a quarter of a pound of butter, a spoonful or two of
cream, and three eggs; stuff the craw with it, and make the rest
into balls and boil them, sew up the turkey, dredge it well with flour,
put it in a kettle of cold water, cover it, and set it over the fire;
as the scum begins to rise, take it off, let it boil very slowly for half an
hour, then take off your kettle and keep it close covered; if it be of a middle
size, let it stand in in the hot water half an hour, the steam being kept
in will stew it enough, make it rise, keep the skin whole, tender, and
very white; when you dish it, pour on a little oyster sauce, lay the
balls round, and serve it up with the rest of the sauce in a boat.
N.B. Set on the turkey in time, that it may stew as above; it is the best
way to boil one to perfection. Put it over the fire to heat, just before
you dish it up.
As you open the oysters, put a pint into a bowl, wash them out of their own liquor, and put them in another bowl; when the liquor has settled, put it off into a sauce pan, with a little white gravy and a a teaspoonful of lemon pickle, thicken it with flour and a good lump of butter, boil it three or four minutes, put in a spoonful of good cream, add the oysters, keep shaking them over the fire till they are quite hot, but don't let them boil, for it will make them hard and appear small.
Make the forcemeat thus: take the crumbs of a loaf of bread, a quarter of
a pound of beef suet shread fine, a little sausage meat or veal scraped and
pounded fine, nutmeg, pepper, and salt to your taste, mix it lightly
with three eggs, stuff the craw with it, spit it, and lay it down a
good distance from the fire,
Cut the crumb of a loaf of bread in thin slices and put it in cold water, with a few pepper corns, a little salt and onion, then boil it till the bread is quite soft, beat it well, put in a quarter of a pound of butter, two spoonful of thick cream, and put it in a bowl.
Dust the fowls well with flour, put them in a kettle of cold water, cover
it close, set it on the fire; when the scum begins to rise, take
it off, let them boil very slowly for twenty minutes, then take them off
cover them close, and the heat of the water will stew them
Take a scrag of veal, the necks of fowls, or any bits of mutton or veal you have, put them in a sauce pan with a blade or two of mace, a few black pepper corns, one anchovy, a head of celery, a bunch of sweet herbs, a slice of the end of a lemon, put in a quart of water, cover it close, let it boil till it is reduced to half a pint, strain it, and thicken it with a quarter of a pound of butter mixed with flour, boil it five or six minutes, put in two spoonsful of pickled mushrooms, mix the yelks of two eggs with a cup full of good cream and a little nutmeg, put it in the sauce, keep shaking it over the fire but don't let it boil.
Take the fowls when they are ready dressed, put them down to a good fire,
dredge,
Boil four eggs for ten minutes, chop half the whites, put them with the yelks, and chop them both together, but not very fine, put them into a quarter of a pound of good melted butter, and put it in a boat.
Put the chickens in scalding water; as soon as the feathers will slip off,
take them out, or it will make the skin hard and break; when you have
drawn them, lay them in skimmed milk for two hours, and truss and dust them
well with flour, put them in cold water, cover them close, set them
over a very slow fire, take off the scum, let the boil slowly for five or
six minutes, take them off the fire, keep them close covered in the
water for half an hour, it will stew them enough: when you
When you kill young chickens, pluck them very carefully, truss and put them down to a good fire, dredge and baste them with lard; they will take a quarter of an hour in roasting; froth them up, lay them on the dish, pour butter and parsley on, and serve them up hot.
Pluck, but don't draw them, put them on a small spit, dredge them and baste them well with lard, toast a few slices of bread, put them on a clean plate, and set it under the birds while they are roasting; if the fire be good, they will take about ten minutes; when you draw them, lay them upon the toasts on the dish, pour melted butter round them, and serve them up
When the ducks are ready dressed, put
Scald the pigeons, draw them, take the craw out, wash them in several waters, cut off the pinions, turn the legs under the wings, dredge them and put them in soft cold water, boil them slowly a quarter of an hour, dish them up, pour over them good melted butter, lay round a little brocoli in bunches, and send butter and parsley in a boat.
When you have dressed your pigeons as before, roll a good lump of butter
in chopped parsley, with pepper and salt, put it in your pigeons, spit, dust
and baste them, if the fire be good, they will roast in twenty minutes;
Lard them with slips of bacon, put them on a skewer, tie it to the spit at both ends, dredge and baste them, let them roast ten minutes, take the crumb of half a loaf of bread, with a piece of butter the size of a walnut, put it in a stew pan and shake it over a gentle fire till they are a light brown, lay them between your birds, and pour over them a little melted butter.
When you have cased the rabbits, skewer them with their heads straight up, the forelegs brought down, and the hind-legs straight, boil them three quarters of an hour at least, then smother them with onion sauce, made the same as for boiled ducks, and serve them up.
When you have cased the rabbits, skewer their heads with their mouths
open upon their
Wash and pick the head very nicely, having taken out the brains and tongue,
prepare a good quantity of forced meat, with veal and suet
well seasoned, fill the hole of the head with this forced meat,
skewer and tie it together upon the spit, and roast it for
an hour and a half. Beat up the brains with a little sage and
parsely shread fine, a little salt, and the yelks of two or three eggs;
boil the tongue and peel it and cut it into large dice, and fry that and
the brains, and also some of the forced
Boil the head till the meat is almost enough for eating; then cut it in thin slices, take three quarters of a pint of good gravy, and add half a pint of white wine, half a nutmeg, two anchovies, a small onion stuck with cloves, and a little mace; boil these up in the liquor for a quarter of an hour, then strain it and boil it up again; put in the meat, with salt to your taste, let it stew a little, and if you choose it, you may add some sweet breads, and make some forced meat balls with veal; mix the brains with the yelks of eggs, and fry them to lay for a garnish. When the head is ready to be sent in, stir in a bit of butter.
Divide the calf's head, wash it clean, and having the yelks of two eggs
well beaten, was the outside of the head all over with them, and on that
strew raspings of bread
Take a fresh calf's liver, and having made a hole in it with a large
knife run in lengthways, but not quite through, have ready a forced meat,
or stuffing made of part of the liver par-boiled, fat of bacon minced fine,
and sweet herbs powdered; add to these some grated bread and spice
finely powdered, with pepper and salt. With this stuffing fill the hole in the
liver, which must be larded with fat bacon, and then roasted, flouring it well,
and basting with butter till it is enough. This is to be served up hot, with
gravy sauce having a little wine in it.
Having prepared the fowls, rub the insides with salt, pepper and a little powder of cloves, put a shalot or two with a lump of butter in the body of each, then lay them in a pan that will just hold them, putting butter under and over them; cover them with vinegar and water, and add pepper, salt, whole cloves, lemon peal, and a bunch of sweet herbs; then cover the pan close and let them stew three or four hours, pass the liquor through a sieve, pour it over the ducks, and serve them up hot with a garnish of lemon sliced, and raspings of fried bread. The same way may teal, widgeons, &c. be dressed.
The ducks must be singed, picked, and drawn, mince the livers
with a little scraped bacon, some butter, green onions, sweet herbs and
parsley, seasoned with salt, pepper, and mushrooms; these being all
minced together, put them into the bodies of the ducks, and roast them,
covered with slices of bacon and wrapped up in paper; then put a little gravy,
the juice of an orange, a few shallots minced,
Stuff the ducks as before, cut the roots off small onions, blanch them in scalding water, then pick and put them into a stew pan with a little gravy, set them over a gentle fire, and let them simmer; when they are done, thicken them with cream and flour, and when they are roasted, dish them, and pour a ragout of onions over them, and serve them up hot.
Cut two chickens as for fricasee, wash them clean, and put them
in a stew pan with as much water as will cover them, sprinkle them
with a large spoonful of salt, and let them boil till tender, covered close
all the time, and skim them well; when boiled enough, take up the chickens, and put the liquor of them into a pan, then put half a pound of fresh butter in the
Take half a pound of rice, wash it clean in salt and water, then put it into two quarts of boiling water, and boil it briskly twenty minutes; then strain it in a colander and shake it into a dish, but do not touch it with your fingers nor with a spoon.
Beef, veal, mutton, rabbits, fish &c. may be curried and sent to table with or without the dish of rice.
Curry powder is used as a fine flavoured seasoning for fish, fowl, steaks,
chops, veal cutlets, hashes, minces, alamodes, turtle soup,
and in all rich dishes, gravies, sauce, &c. &c.
Lay at the bottom of a small Dutch over some slices of boiled pork or salt beef, then potatoes and onions cut in slices, salt, pepper, thyme and parsley shread fine, some crackers soaked, and a layer of fowls cut up, or slices of veal; cover them with a paste not too rich, put another layer of each article, and cover them with a paste until the oven is full; put a little butter between each layer, pour in water till it reaches the top crust, to which you must add some wine, catsup of any kind you pleas, and some pounded cloves; let it stew until there is just gravy enough left; serve it in a deep dish and pour the gravy on.
Pour half a pound of butter or dripping boiling hot into quart of flour, add as much water as will make it a paste, work it and roll it well before you use it. It is quite a savoury paste.
Take a an equal quantity of each, let the ocra be young, slice it, and skin
the tomatas,
Gather young pods of ocra, wash them clean, and put them in a pan with a little water, salt and pepper, stew them till tender, and serve them with melted butter. They are very nutritious and easy of digestion.
Boil two or three pounds of tripe, cut it in pieces, and put it on the fire with a knuckle of veal and a sufficient quantity of water, part of a pod of pepper, a little spice, sweet herbs according to your taste, salt, and some dumplins; stew it till tender, and thicken the gravy with butter and flour.
Take 2 lbs. beef, 1 lb mutton, a chicken or half a pullet, and
a small piece of pork; put them into a pot with very little water,
and set it on the fire at ten o'clock to stew gently;
Peel the skin from ripe tomatas, put them in a pan with a spoonful of melted butter, some pepper and salt, shred cold meat or fowl, put it in and fry it sufficiently; put slices of butter in a frying pan, add some salt and a small portion of parsley, break in six eggs, stir them quickly for a few minutes, and serve them up.
Get a round of beef, lard it well, and put it in a Dutch oven; cut the
meat from a shin of beef or any coarse piece in thin slices, put
Cut the fish in pieces six inches long, put it in a pot with onion, parsley, thyme, mushrooms, a little spice, pepper and salt, and red wine to wet it completely, set it on a quick fire and reduce it one third, thicken with a spoonful of butter and two of flour, put it in a dish with bits of bread fried in butter, and pour the gravy over it.
Beat ten eggs very light, add to them a quart of rich milk, with a quarter of
a pound
Take any kind of firm fish, cut it in pieces six inches long, sprinkle salt
and pepper over each piece, cover the bottom of a small Dutch
oven with slices of salt pork about half boiled, lay in the fish, strewing
a little chopped onion between cover with crackers that have been soaked
soft in milk, pour over it two gills of wine and two of water, put on the top
of the oven and stew it gently about an hour; take it out carefully and lay it
in a deep dish, thicken the gravy with a little flour and a spoonful of
butter, add some chopped parsley, boil it a few minutes, and pour it over
the fish; serve it up hot.
Put a large spoonful of butter in a quart of water, wet your corn meal with cold water in a bowl, add some salt, and make it quite smooth, then put it in the buttered water when it is hot, let it boil, stirring it continually till done; as soon as you can handle it, make it into a ball and let it stand till quite cold, then cut it in thin slices, lay them in the bottom of a deep dish so as to cover it, put on it slices of cheese, and on that a few bits of butter, then mush, cheese, and butter, until the dish is full, put on the top thin slices of cheese, put the dish in a quick oven; twenty or thirty minutes will bake it.
Boil as much macaroni as will fill your dish, in milk and water till quite tender, drain it on a sieve, sprinkle a little salt over it, put a layer in you dish, then cheese and butter as in the polenta, and bake it in the same manner.
Beat two or three fresh eggs quite light,
Take some veal, fat and lean, and some slices of boiled ham, chop them very fine, and season it with salt, pepper, grated nutmeg, and a small quantity of parsley and thyme minced very fine; make some paste, cover the bottoms of small moulds, fill them with the meat, put thin lids on, and bake them crisp; five is enough for a side dish.
Boil eighteen eggs, separate the yelks and whites and cut them in dice,
pour over them a sauce a-la-creme, (see eggs a-la-creme, page 104,)
add a little grated bread, mix all well together, and let it get cold;
put in some
Break six eggs, beat the yelks and whites separately till very light, then mix them, add four table spoonsful of powdered sugar and a little grated lemon peel, put a quarter of a pound of butter in a pan, when melted, pour in the eggs and stir them; when they have absorbed the butter, turn it on a plate previously buttered, sprinkle some powdered sugar, set it in a hot Dutch oven, and when a little brown, serve it up for a dessert.
Put a pint of water and a lump of butter the size of an egg into a
sauce pan, stir in as much flour as will make a thick batter,
put it on the fire, and stir it continually till it will not
stick to the pan; put it in a bowl, and when cold, add three
quarters of apound of grated cheese, mix it well, then break in two
Cut some slices of bread tolerably thick and toast them slightly, bone some anchovies, lay half of one on each toast, cover it well with grated cheese and chopped parsley mixed, pour a little melted butter on, and brown it with a salamander; it must be done on the dish you send it to table in.
Cut the fish in pieces the thickness of our hand, wash it and dry it in a
cloth, sprinkle on some pepper and salt, dredge it with flour, and fry it a nice
brown; when it gets cold, put it in a pot with a little chopped onion between
the layers, take as much vinegar as will cover it, mix
with it some oil, pounded mace, and whole black pepper, pour
it on and stop the pot closely. This is a very convenient
The best sturgeons are the small ones, about four feet long without the head, and the best part is the one next to the tail. After the sturgeon is split through the back bone, take a piece with the skin on, which is essential to its appearance and goodness, cut off the gristle, scrape the skin well, wash it, and salt it; let it lie twenty-four hours, wipe off the salt, roll it and tie it around with twine, put it on in a good deal of cold water, let it boil till you can run a straw easily into the skin, take it up, pull off the large scales, and when cold, put it in a pot, and cover it with one part vinegar and two of salt and water; keep it closely stopped, and when served, garnish with green fennel.
Boil twelve eggs just hard enough to allow you to cut them in slices,
cut some crusts of
Put a quarter of a pound of butter with a large table spoonful of flour rubbed well into it, in a sauce pan, add some chopped parsley, a little onion, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and a gill of creme; stir it over the fire until it begins to boil, then pour it over the eggs, cover the top with grated bread, set it in a Dutch oven with a heated top, and when a light brown, send it to table.
Take two good heads of cabbage, cut out the stalks, boil it tender with a little salt in the water, have ready one large spoonful of butter and a small one of flour rubbed into it, half a pint of milk, with pepper and salt, make it hot, put the cabbage in after pressing out the water, and stew it till quite tender.
Boil the fish tender, pick it from the bones,
Take cold fowl or fresh meat of any kind, with slices of ham, fat and lean, chop them together very fine, add half as much stale bread grated, salt, pepper, grated nutmeg, a teaspoonful of made mustard, a table spoonful of catsup, and a lump of butter; knead all well together till it resembles sausage meat, make them in cakes, dip them in the yelk of an egg beaten, cover them thickly with grated bread, and fry them a light brown.
Break six or eight eggs in a dish, beat them a little, add parsley
and chives chopped small, with pepper and salt, mix all well together.
Put some soft biscuit or toasted bread in the bottom of a sallad bowl, put in a layer of sliced tomatas with the skin taken off, and one of sliced cucumbers, sprinkled with pepper, salt, and chopped onion; do this until the bowl is full, stew some tomatas quite soft, strain the juice, mix in some mustard and oil, and pour over it; make it two hours before it is eaten.
Peel the skins from a dozen large tomatas, put four ounces butter
in a frying pan, add some salt, pepper, and a little chopped onion,
fry them a few minutes, add the tomatas and chop them while frying; when
nearly done, break in six eggs, stir them quickly, and serve them up.
Chop twenty-four anchovies, bones and all, ten shallots, a handful of scraped horse radish, four blades of mace, one quart of white wine, one pint of anchovy liquor, one pint of claret, twelve cloves, and twelve pepper corns; boil them together till reduced to a quart, then strain it off into a bottle for use. Two spoonsful will be sufficient for a pound of butter.
Take a gill of claret, with as much water, some grated bread, three heads of shallots, a little whole pepper, mace, grated nutmeg, and salt; let them stew over the fire, then beat it up with butter, and put it under the wild fowl, which being little roasted, will afford gravy to mix with this sauce.
Boil the livers, and shred them very small, shred two eggs
not boiled very hard, a large spoonful of grated white bread, some
broth, sweet herbs, two spoonsful of white wine, one of vinegar, a little salt,
and some butter; stir all together, and take care the butter does not oil.
Take a rasher or two of bacon and lay it at the bottom of a stew pan, putting either veal, mutton, or beef, cut in slices, over it; then add some sliced onions, turnips, carrots, celery, a little thyme, and allspice. Put it in a little water, and set it on the fire, drawing it till it be brown at the bottom, which you will know from the pan's hissing; then pour boiling water over it, and stew it an hour and a half; but the time must be regulated by the quantity. Season it with salt.
Take half a pound of veal, and half a pound of suet cut fine and
beat in a marble mortar or wooden bowl; add a few sweet herbs shred fine,
a little mace pounded fine, a small nutmeg grated, a little lemon peel,
some pepper and salt, and the yelks of two eggs; mix them well
together, and make them into balls and long pieces, then roll them in flour, and
fry them brown. If they are for the use of white sauce, do not fry them,
but put them in a sauce pan of hot water, and let them boil a few minutes.
Pour boiled onions over your ducks or rabbits prepared in this manner; peel some onions and boil them in plenty of water, then change the first water and boil them two hours. Take them up and put them in a colander to drain, and afterwards chop them on a board; then put them in a sauce pan, sprinkle a little flour over them, and put in a large piece of butter, with a little milk or cream, Set them over the fire, and when the butter is melted they will be done enough. This is a sauce for mutton.
Boil a little mace and a whole pepper long enough to take out the strong taste of the spice; then strain it off, and melt three quarters of a pound of butter in it. Cut the lobster in very small pieces, and stir it in, with anchovy, till it is tender.
Wash half a pint of shrimps very clean, and put them in a stew
pan with a spoonful of anchovy liquor, and a pound of thick melted
Scald a pint of oysters, and strain them through a sieve; then wash some more in cold water and take off their beards; put them in a stew pan and pour the liquor over them. Then add a large spoonful of anchovy liquor, half a lemon, two blades of mace, and thicken it with butter rolled in flour. Put in half a pound of butter, and boil it till it is melted; take out the mace and lemon, and squeeze the lemon juice into the sauce; boil it and stir it all the time, and put it in a boat.
Wash and pare a large bunch of celery very clean, cut it into little
bits, and boil it softly till it is tender. Add half a pint of cream,
some mace, nutmeg, and a small piece of butter rolled in flour;
then boil it gently. This is a good sauce for roasted or boiled fowls,
turkeys, partridges or any other game.
Clean and wash one quart of fresh mushrooms, cut them in two, and put them into a stew pan, with a little salt, a blade of mace, and a little butter. Stew them gently for half an hour, and then add a pint of cream and the yelks of two eggs beat very well; keep stirring it till it boils up, and then squeeze in a half a lemon. Put it over the fowls or turkies; or you may put it on a dish, with a piece of fried bread first buttered, then toasted brown, and just dipped into boiling water. This is a very good sauce for white fowls of all kinds.
Plain butter melted thick, with a spoonful of walnut pickle or catsup, is a very good sauce; but you may put as many things as you choose into sauces.
Nothing is more simple than this process, and nothing is so generally done
badly. Keep a quart tin sauce pan with a cover to it exclusively
for this purpose; weigh one quarter
Is made by mixing a sufficient quantity of
Get fine fresh oysters, wash them in their own liquor, put them in a marble mortar with salt, pounded mace, and cayenne pepper, in the proportions of one ounce salt, two drachms mace, and one of cayenne to each pint of oysters, pound them together, and add a pint of white wine to each pint; boil it some minutes, and rub it through a sieve; boil it again, skim it, and when cold, bottle, cork, and seal it. This composition gives a fine flavour to white sauces, and if a glass of brandy be added, it will keep good for a considerable time.
Pound two gills of celery seed, put it into a bottle, and fill it with
strong vinegar; shake it every day for a fortnight, then strain it
and keep it for use. It will impart a pleasant flavour
To have this delicate dish in perfection, the lettuce, pepper grass, chervil,
cress, &c. should be gathered early in the morning, nicely picked,
washed, and laid in cold water, which will be improved by adding
ice; just before dinner
Wash them, but do not pare or cut them unless they are very large;
fill a sauce pan half full of potatoes of equal size, (or make
them so by dividing the larger ones,) put to them as much cold water
as will cover them
Peel large potatoes, slice them about a quarter of an inch thick, or cut them in shavings round and round, as you would peal a lemon; dry them well in a clean cloth, and fry them in lard or dripping. Take care that your fat and frying-pan are quite clean; put it on a quick fire, watch it, and as soon as the lard boils and is still, put in the slices of potatoes, and keep moving them till they are crisp; take them up and lay them to drain on a sieve; send them up with very little salt sprinkled on them.
When the potatoes are thoroughly boiled, drain and dry them perfectly, pick
out every speck, and rub them through a colander into a clean stew pan:
to a pound of potatoes put half an ounce of butter, and a table spoonful of
milk; do not make them too moist; mix them well together. When the potatoes
are getting old and specked, and in
Prepare some onions by putting them through a sieve, and mix them with potatoes: in proportioning the onions to the potatoes, you will be guided by your wish to have more or less of their flavour.
Wash and dry your potatoes, (all of a size,) and put them in a tin Dutch oven, or cheese toaster; take care not to put them too near the fire, or they will get burned on the outside before they are warmed through. Large potatoes will require two hours to roast them. To save time and trouble, some cooks half boil them first.
Half boil large potatoes, drain the water from them, and put them into
an earthen dish, or small tin pan, under the meat that is roasting,
Mix mashed potatoes with the yelk of an egg, roll them into balls, flour them, or cover them with egg and bread crumbs, fry them in clean dripping, or brown them in a Dutch oven. They are an agreeable vegetable relish, and a supper dish.
Are boiled and dressed in the various ways we have just before directed for potatoes. They should be covered with thick melted butter, or a nice white or brown sauce.
Pick cabbages very clean, and wash them thoroughly, then look the
carefully over again; quarter them if they are very large; put them
into a sauce pan with plenty of boiling water, if any skum rises,
take it off, put a large spoonful of salt into the sauce
i.e. when they
are half done, to take them out, and put them into another
sauce pan of boiling water.
Are boiled in the same manner; quarter them when you send them to table.
The receipt written for cabbages will answer as well for sprouts, only they will be boiled enough in fifteen minutes.
Set a stew pan with plenty of water on the
Is tied up in bundles, and dressed in the same way as asparagus.
Choose those that are close and white, and of a middle size, trim off the outside leaves, cut off the stalk flat at the bottom, let them lie in salt and water an hour before you boil them. Put them in boiling water with a handful of salt in it, skim it well, and let it boil slowly till done, which a small one will be in fifteen minutes, a large one in twenty, and take it up the moment it is enough; a few minutes longer boiling will spoil it.
Are not so much used as they deserve to be; they are dressed in the same way as
parsnips, only neither scraped nor cut till after they are boiled; they
will take from an hour and a half to three hours in boiling, according to
their size; to be sent to the table with salt fish, boiled beef, &c.
When young, large, and juicy, it is a very good variety, an excellent garnish,
and easily converted into a very cheap and pleasant pickle.
Are to be cooked just in the same manner as carrots; they require more or less time, according to their size, therefore match them in size, and you must try them by thrusting a fork into them as they are in the water; when this goes easily through, they are done enough; boil them from an hour to two hours, according to their size and freshness. Parsnips are sometimes sent up mashed in the same way as turnips, and some cooks quarter before they boil them.
Let them be well washed and brushed, but not scraped; an hour is enough for young spring carrots; grown carrots must be cut in half, and will take from an hour and a half to two hours and a half. When done, rub off the peels with a clean coarse cloth, and slice them in two or four, according to their size. The best way to try if they are done enough, is to pierce them with a fork.
Peel off half an inch of the stringy outside,
When they are boiled quite tender, squeeze them as dry as possible, put them into a sauce pan, mash them with a wooden spoon, and rub them through a colander; add a little bit of butter, keep stirring them till the butter is melted and well mixed with them, and they are ready for table.
Are the shoots, which grow out, (in the spring,) from the old turnip roots.
Put them into cold water an hour before they are dressed; the more water
they are boiled in the better they will look; if boiled in a small
quantity of water, they will taste bitter; when the water boils, put in
a small handful
Cut off the stalk end first, and then turn to the point and strip off
the strings; if not quite fresh, have a bowl of spring water, with a little
salt dissolved in it, standing before you, as the beans are cleansed and
trimmed, throw them in; when all are done, put them on the fire in boiling
water with some salt in it; when they have boiled fifteen or twenty minutes,
take one out and taste it; as soon as they are tender, take them up, and throw
them into a colander to drain. To send up the beans whole, when they are
young, is much the best method, and their delicate flavour and colour is much
better preserved. When a little more grown, they must be cut across, in two,
after stringing; and for common tables, they are split, and divided across; but
those who are nice, do not use them at such a growth as to require splitting.
Soak the in cold water, wash them; well, then put them into plenty of boiling water, with a handful of salt, and let them boil gently till they are tender, which will take an hour and a half, or two hours; the surest way to know when they are done enough, is to draw out a leaf; trim them and drain them on a sieve, and send up melted butter with them; which some put into small cups so that each guest may have one.
The kind which bears flowers around the joints of the stalks, must be cut into convenient lengths for the dish, scrape the skin from the stalk, and pick out any leaves or flowers that require to be removed; tie it up in bunches, and boil it as asparagus; serve it up hot with melted butter poured over it. The brocoli that heads at the top like cauliflowers, must be dressed in the same manner as the cauliflower.
To have them in perfection, they must be quite young, gathered early in the
morning,
Peel as many small turnips as will fill a dish; put them into a stew pan with
some butter and a little sugar, set them over a hot stove, shake them
over a hot stove, shake them about, and turn them till they are a good brown;
pour in half a pint of rich high seasoned gravy, stew the turnips till
tender, and serve them with the gravy poured over them.
Let them be young and fresh gathered, string them and cut them in long thin
slices, throw them in boiling water for fifteen minutes; have ready some well
seasoned brown gravy, drain the water from the beans, put them in the gravy,
stew them a few minutes, and serve them garnished with forcemeat balls;
there must not be gravy enough to float the beans.
This is the smallest and most delicate species of the Windsor bean. Gather
them in the morning when they are full-grown, but quite young, and do not
shell them till you are going to dress them. Put them into boiling water,
have a small bit of middling, (flitch,) of bacon, well boiled, take the skin
off, cover it with bread crumbs, and toast it; lay this in the middle of the
dish, drain all the water from the beans, put a little butter with them,
and pour them round the bacon. When the large Windsor beans are used, it is
best to put them into boiling water until
Like all other spring and summer vegetables, they must be young and
freshly gathered: Boil them till tender, drain them, add a little butter,
and serve them up. These beans are easily preserved for winter use,
and will be nearly as good as fresh ones.—Gather them on a dry day, when full
grown, but quite young: have a clean and dry keg, sprinkle some salt in
the bottom, put in a layer of pods, containing the beans, then a
little salt, do this till the keg is full; lay a board on, with a weight
to press them down; cover the keg very close, and keep it in a dry cool
place—they should be put up as late in the season, as they can be with
convenience. When used, the pods must be washed, and laid in fresh water all
night; shell them next day, and keep them in water till
you are going to boil them; when tender
The cabbage growing at the top is not good; cut the root in slices an inch thick, peel off the rind, and boil the slices in a large quantity of water, till tender; serve it up hot, with melted butter poured over it.
The purple ones are best, get them young and fresh, pull out the stem,
and parboil them to take off the bitter taste; cut them in slices an inch
thick, but do not peel them, dip them in the yelk of an egg and cover them with
grated bread, a little salt and pepper, when this has dried, cover the
other side in the same way; fry them a nice brown. They are very delicious,
tasting much like soft crabs. The egg plant may be dressed in another manner,
scrape the rind and parboil them, cut a slit from one end to the other, take
out the seeds, fill the space with a rich forcemeat,
Get one of good colour and seven or eight inches in diameter; cut a piece off the top, take out all the seeds, wash and wipe the cavity, pare the rind off, and fill the hollow with good forcemeat, put the top on and set it in a deep pan to protect the sides; bake it in a moderate over, put it carefully in the dish without breaking, and it will look like a handsome mould. Another way of cooking potato pumpkin is to cut it in slices, pare off the rind, and make a puree as directed for turnips.
Take those that are nearly of the same size that they may be done equally, wash
them clean, but do not peel them, boil them till tender, drain the water off
and put them on tin sheets in a stove for a few minutes, to dry.
Wash and wipe them, and if they be large cut them in two lengths; put them at the bottom of a stew-pan, lay over some slices of boiled ham, and on that, one or two chickens cut up with pepper, salt, and a bundle of herbs; pour in some water and stew them till done, then take out the herbs, serve the stew in a deep dish, thicken the gravy, and pour over it.
Cut them across without peeling, in slices half an inch thic broil them on a griddle, and serve them with butter in a boat.
Great care must be used in washing and picking it clean; drain it and throw
it into boiling water—a few minutes will boil it sufficiently; press
out all the water, put it in a stew-pan with a piece of butter, some pepper
and salt, chop it continually with a spoon till it is quite dry; serve it
with poached eggs or without as you please.
Is dressed as the spinach, and if they be mixed in equal proportions, improve each other.
Get a fine head of cabbage, not too large, pour boiling water on, and cover it till you can turn the leaves back, which you must do carefully; take some of those in the middle of the head off, chop them fine, and mix them with rich force-meat; put this in and replace the leaves to confine the stuffing; tie it in a cloth and boil it; serve it up whole with a little melted butter in the dish.
Gather young squashes, peel, and cut them in two; take out the seeds, and
boil them till tender; put them into a colander, drain off the water,
and rub them with a wooden spoon through the colander; then put them into
a stew-pan with a cupful of cream, a small piece of butter, some pepper
and salt, stew them, stirring very frequently until dry. This is the
most delicate way of preparing squashes.
The crooked neck of this squash is the best part. Cut it in slices an inch thick, take off the rind and boil them with salt in the water; drain them well before they are dished, and pour melted butter over—serve them up very hot.
The large part, containing the seeds, must be sliced and pared, cut it in small pieces and stew it till soft, with just water enough to cover it, pass it through a sieve and stew it again, adding some butter, pepper, and salt; it must be dry, but not burnt. It is excellent when stewed with pork chops.
There are many varieties of these peas, the smaller kind are the most
delicate.—Have them young and newly gathered, shell and boil them tender,
pour them in a colander to drain; put some lard in a frying-pan, when it boils,
mash the peas, and fry them in a cake of light brown; put it in the dish
with the crust uppermost, garnish with thin bits of fried bacon.
They are very nice when fried whole, so that each pea
Boil them separately, and mix them in the proportions you like; add butter, pepper and salt, and either stew them or fry them in a cake.
Scrape and wash the roots, put them into boiling water with salt; when done, drain them and place them in the dish without cutting them up. They are a very excellent vegetable, but require nicety in cooking; exposure to the air, either in scraping or after boiling, will make them black.
Boil a pint of rice quite soft, with a teaspoonful
of salt, mix with it while hot a large spoonful of butter,
and spread it on a dish to
cool; when perfectly cold, add a pint of rice flour
and half a pint of milk, beat them all together
till well mingled. Take the middle part
of the head of a barrel, make it quite clean, wet it, and put on
the mixture about an inch thick,
smooth with a spoon and baste it with a little milk, set the board
aslant before clear coals; when sufficiently baked, slip a thread
under the cake and turn it, baste and bake that side
in a similar manner, split it and butter while hot.
Small homony boiled and mixed with rice flour, is better than
all rice,
Boil half a pint of rice in water till tender, pour off the water and add a pint of milk with two eggs beaten well stirred into it, boil all together two or three minutes, serve it up hot, and eat it with butter, sugar, and nutmeg. It may be sweetened and cooled in moulds, turned out in a deep dish, and surrounded with rich milk, with raspberry marmalade stirred into it, and strained to keep back the seeds, or the milk may be seasoned with wine and sugar.
The salt should always be washed from butter, when it is
to be used in any thing that has sugar for an ingredient, and also
from that which is melted to grease any kind of mould
for baking, otherwise, there will be a disagreeable salt taste on the
outer side of the article baked. Raisins should be stoned and cut in
two, and have some flour sifted over them,
Sift a quart of flour, leave out a little for
rolling the paste, make up the remainder with cold water into
a stiff paste, knead it well, and roll it out several times;
wash the salt from a pound of butter, divide it into four parts,
put one of them on the paste in little bits, fold it up, and continue
to roll it till the butter is well mixed; then put another portion
of butter, roll it in the same manner; do this till all the
butter is mingled with the paste, touch it very lightly with the hands in
making, bake it in a
Boil either calves or hogs feet till perfectly tender, rub them through a
colander, when cold, pass them through again, and it will come
out like pearl barley; take
one quart of this, one of chopped apples, the same of currants,
washed and picked, raisins, stoned and cut,
of good brown sugar, suet, nicely chopped, and cider, with a pint of brandy;
add a tea-spoonful of pounded mace, one of cloves and of nutmegs;
mix all these together intimately. When the pies are to be made.
Boil four calf's feet, that have been
nicely cleaned and the hoofs taken off;
when the feet are boiled to pieces, strain the liquor
through a colander, and when cold, take all
the grease off and put the jelly in a skillet,
leaving the dregs which will be at the bottom.
There should be from four feet, about two quarts of jelly;
pour into it one quart of white wine, the juice of six
fresh lemons strained from the seeds, one pound and a
half of powdered loaf sugar, a little pounded cinnamon and mace, and the rind
thinly pared from two of the lemons;
wash eight eggs very clean, whip up the whites to a froth, crush the shells
and put with them, mix it with the jelly, stir it on the fire,
stir it occasionally till the jelly is melted, but do not
touch it afterwards. When it has boiled till it looks quite
clear on one side, and the dross accumulates on the other,
take off carefully the thickest part of the dross, and pour
Make a quart of flour into puff paste; when done,
divide it into three parts of unequal size; roll the largest out square
and moderately thin, spread over it a thin layer of marmalade, leaving
a margin all round about an inch broad; roll the next largest in the same
manner, lay it on, cover that with marmalade, leaving a margin; then roll
the smallest, and put it on the other two, spreading marmalade; fold it up,
one fold over the other, the width of your hand, press the ends together,
tie it in a cloth securely, and place it in a kettle of boiling water,
Boil a quart of milk with a stick of cinnamon, sweeten it to your taste; when cold, take out the cinnamon and add six eggs, well beaten; put it in cups, set them in water and make it boil till the custards are done.—Grate nutmeg on them.
Boil one pound of sweet potatos very tender, rub them while hot through a
colander, add six eggs, well beaten, three quarters of a pound of
powdered sugar, three quarters of butter, and some
grated nutmeg and lemon-peel, with a glass of brandy; put
a paste in the dish, and when the pudding is done,
sprinkle the top with sugar, and cover it with bits of citron.
Irish potato pudding is made in the same manner, but is not so good.
Blanch a pound of sweet almonds, pound them in a mortar with rose-water; whip the whites of seven eggs to a strong froth, put in one pound of powdered sugar, beat it some time, then put in the almonds, mix them well, and drop them on sheets of paper buttered; sift sugar over and bake them quickly. Be careful not to let the get discoloured.
Boil a quart of milk, and make it into a thick batter, with arrow root; add six eggs, half a pound of butter, the same of pounded sugar, half a nutmeg, and a little grated lemon-peel; put a paste in the dish, and bake it nicely; when done, sift sugar over it, and stick slips of citron all over the top.
Wash half a pound of sago in several waters;
put it on to boil in a quart of milk, with a stick of cinnamon;
stir it very frequently for it is apt to burn: when it becomes quite thick,
take out the cinnamon,
Beat six eggs, add six spoonsful of milk and six of flour, butter some cups, pour in the batter and bake them quickly; turn them out, and eat them with butter, sugar, and nutmeg.
Boil half a pound of rice in milk, until it is quite tender;
beat it well with a wooden spoon to mash the grains; add three quarters of
a pound of sugar, and the same of melted butter; half a nutmeg, six eggs, a gill
of wine, and some grated lemon-peel; put a paste in the dish and bake it.
For change, it may be boiled, and eaten with butter, sugar, and wine.
Take a pound of the best flour, sift it, and make it up before sunrise, with six eggs beaten light; a large spoonful of good yeast, and as much milk as will make it the consistence of bread; let it rise well; knead into it a half a pound of butter, put in a grated nutmeg, with one and a half pounds of raisins stoned and cut up; mix all well together, wet the cloth, flour it, and tie it loosely, that the pudding may have room to rise. Raisins for puddings or cakes should be rubbed in a little flour, to prevent their settling to the bottom—see that it does not stick to them in lumps.
Put a pound of sweet almonds in hot water till the skin will slip off them;
pound them with a little orange flower, or rose water, to keep them from
oiling; mix with them four crackers, finely pounded, or two gills of
rice flour; six eggs, a pint of cream, a pound of sugar, half a pound of butter,
and four-table-spoonsful of wine;
put a nice paste in the bottom of your dish, garnish
Beat sixteen eggs, add to them a quart of milk, a nutmeg, half a pound of flour, a pound of melted butter, a pound of sugar, and two gills of wine; take care the flour be not in lumps; butter the pan for the first pancake, run them as thin as possible, and when coloured, they are done; do not turn them, but lay them carefully in the dish, sprinkling powered sugar between each layer; serve them up hot. This quantity will make four dozen pancakes.
Put two quarts of milk on the fire; when it boils, pour
in half a pint of white wine; strain the curd from the whey, and pound
in a mortar, with six ounces of butter,
and half a pound of loaf sugar, and half a pint of rice flour, or as much
crackers, beaten as fine as flour; six eggs made light, and
half a grated nutmeg; beat all well together and
bake them in saucers in a moderate
Grate the rind from six fresh lemons, squeeze the juice from three, and strain in it; beat the yelks of sixteen eggs very light; put to them sixteen table-spoonsful of powdered loaf sugar, not heaped up; add the grated rind and the juice, with four crackers finely pounded; beat it till light, put a puff pastry in your dish, pour the pudding in, and bake it in a moderate oven; it must not be very brown.
Grate the crumb of a stale loaf, and pour on it a pint of
boiling milk, let it stand an hour, then beat to a pulp;
add six eggs, well beaten, half a pound of butter, the same
of powdered sugar, half a nutmeg, a glass of brandy, and some grated lemon-peel;
put a paste in the dish and bake it.
Beat six eggs very light; sift into them a pound of loaf sugar powdered, and a light pound of flour, with half a grated nutmeg and a glass of brandy; beat all together very well; and a pint of cream, pour it in a deep dish and bake it; when done, sift some powdered sugar over it.
Beat seven eggs very light, mix with them a pint of cream, and nearly as much spinach juice, with a little juice of tansey; add a quarter of a pound of powdered crackers or pounded rice made fine, a glass of wine, some grated nutmeg, and sugar; stir it over the fire to thicken, pour it into a paste and bake it.
Beat six eggs very light, add half a pint of milk, 6 oz. flour, 8 oz.
grated bread, 12 oz. suet, chopped fine, a little salt: when it is beat well
mix in 18 oz. preserved cherries or damsins; bake or boil it.
Make a sauce of melted butter, sugar, and wine.
Put a crust in the bottom of a dish, put on it a layer of ripe apples pared and sliced thin, then a layer of powdered sugar; do this alternately till the dish is full; put in a few tea-spoonsful of rose-water and some cloves; put on a crust and bake it.
Take well-flavoured apples, bake, but don't burn them; rub them through a sieve, take one pound of the apples, so prepared, mix with it, while hot, half a pound of butter, and half a pound of powdered sugar; the rinds of two lemons, grated, and when cold, add six eggs, well beaten; put a paste in the bottom of a dish, and pour in the apples; half an hour will bake it; sift a little sugar on the apples when baked.
Make up a pint of flour at sun-rise, exactly as you do for bread; see that
it rises well; have a large pot of water boiling, and half an hour before
the puddings are to go to table, make the dough in balls, the size of a
Wash a pint of small homony very clean, and boil it tender, add an equal quantity of corn meal, make it into a batter with eggs, milk, and a piece of butter; bake it like batter cakes on a griddle, and eat it with butter and molasses.
Beat six eggs very light, add a pint of rich milk, pare some apples, or peaches, slice them thin, make the eggs and milk into a tolerably thick batter with flour, add a small cup of melted butter, put in the fruit, and bake it in a deep dish; eat with sugar, butter, and nutmeg.
Boil one quart of milk, mix in it two gills and half of corn
very smoothly, seven
Mix one quart of corn meal with three quarts of milk, take care it be not lumpy, add three eggs and a gill of molasses; it must be put on at sunrise, to eat at three o'clock; the great art in this pudding is tying the bag properly, as the meal swells very much.
Stew a fine sweet pumpkin till soft and dry, rub it through a sieve, mix with the pulp six eggs quite light, a quarter of a pound of butter, half a pint of new milk, some pounded ginger and nutmeg, a wine glass of brandy, and sugar to your taste. Should it be too liquid, stew it a little dryer; put a paste round the edges and in the bottom of a shallow dish or plate, pour in the mixture, cut some thin bits of paste, twist them and lay them across the top and bake it nicely.
Pare and core the apples, and if you prefer
Stew any kind of fruit, and season it an any way you like best; fry some slices of bread in butter, put them, while hot, in the bottom and round the sides of a dish which has been rubbed with butter, put in your fruit, and lay slices of bread on the top; bake it a few minutes, turn it carefully into another dish, sprinkle on some powdered sugar, and glaze it with a salamander.
Pare some apples and cut them in thin slices, put them
in a bowl, with a glass of brandy, some white wine, a quarter of a pound of
pounded sugar, a little cinnamon finely powdered and the rind of a lemon
Put a piece of butter the size of an egg into a pint of water, let it boil a few minutes, thicken it very smoothly with a pint of flour, let it remain a short time on the fire, stir it all the time that it may not stick to the pan, pour it in a wooden bowl, add five or six eggs, breaking one and beating it in, then another, and so on till they are all in and the dough quite light, put a pint of lard in a pan, let it boil, make the fritters small, and fry them of a fine amber colour.
Cut your bread of a convenient size, pour
Put a lump of butter the size of an egg into a quart of water, make it sufficiently thick with corn meal and a little salt; it must be mixed perfectly smooth, stir it constantly till done enough.
Beat eight eggs very light, add to them twelve ounces of flour,
and one pound of sugar; when perfectly light, drop them on tin sheets,
and bake them in a quick oven.
To one pound of flour, add half a pound of sugar, half a pound of butter, some mace and nutmeg powdered, and a glass of brandy or wine; wet it with milk, and when well kneaded, roll it thin, cut it in shapes, and bake it quickly.
One measure of jelly, one of cream, and half of one of wine; boil it fifteen minutes over a slow fire, stirring all the time, sweeten it, and add a spoonful of orange flour or rose water; cool it in a mould, turn it in a dish, and pour around it cream seasoned in any way you like.
Rub half a pound of sugar into three pounds of flour, sift it,
pour on half a pint of good yeast, beat six eggs, add half a pint of milk,
mix all together, and knead it well; if not soft enough, add more milk;
it should be softer than bread; make it at night; in the morning, if well
risen, work in six ounces of
Three quarts of flour, three quarters of a pound of brown sugar, a large spoonful of pounded ginger, one teaspoonful of powdered cloves, sift it, melt half a pound of butter in a quart of rich molasses, wet the flour with it, knead it well, and bake it in a slack oven.
Mix three large spoonsful of pounded ginger with three quarts of flour, sift it, dissolve three teaspoonsful of pearl ash in a cup of water, and pour it on the flour; melt half a pound of butter in a quart of molasses, mix it with the flour, knead it well, cut it in shapes, and bake it.
Take two pounds of the nicest brown sugar, dry and pound it, put it into three
quarts of flour, add a large cup full of powdered ginger and sift the mixture;
wash the salt out of
Dry half a pound of good brown sugar, pound it and mix it with two pounds of flour and sift it; add two spoonsful of yeast, and as much new milk as will make it like bread; when well risen, knead in half a pound of butter, make in cakes the size of a half dollar, and fry them a light brown in boiling lard.
Take three pounds of flour, one and a half of pounded sugar,
a teaspoonful of cloves, one of mace and one of ginger all finely powdered,
pass the whole through a sieve; put to it four spoonsful of good yeast
and twelve eggs, mix it up well, and if not sufficiently soft, add a
little milk; make it up at night, and set it to rise; when well risen, knead
into it a pound
Wash the salt from a pound of butter and rub it till it is soft as cream, have ready a pound of flour sifted, one of powdered sugar, and twelve eggs well beaten; put alternately into the butter, sugar, flour, and the froth from the eggs; continuing to beat them together till all the ingredients are in, and the cake quite light; add some grated lemon peel, a nutmeg, and a gill of brandy; butter the pans and bake them. This cake makes an excellent pudding if baked in a large mould, and eaten with sugar and wine. It is also excellent when boiled, and served up with melted butter, sugar, and wine.
Take twelve fresh eggs, put them in the scale and balance them with sugar;
take
Have the following articles prepared before you begin the cake; four pounds
of flour dried and sifted; four pounds of butter washed to free it from
salt; two pounds of loaf sugar pounded, a quarter of a pound of mace, the same
of nutmegs powdered; wash four pounds of currants clean, pick and dry them,
blanch one pound of sweet almonds, and cut them in very thin slices,
stone two pounds of raisins, cut them in two, and strew a little flour over, to
prevent their sticking together, and two pounds of citron sliced thin;
break thirty eggs, separating the yelks and whites; work the butter to a
cream with your hand, put in, alternately,
only the froth put in.
When all are mixed, and the cake looks very light, add the spice,
with half a pint of brandy, the currants and almonds; butter
the mould well, pour in part of the cake, strew over it some raisins and
citron, do this until all is in: set it in a well heated oven, when it has
risen, and the top is coloured, cover it with paper; it will
require three hour's baking—it must be iced.
Beat twelve eggs light, add to them one pound of flour, and one of powdered sugar; continue to beat all together till perfectly light; bake it in long pans, four inches wide, with divisions, so that each cake, when done, will be four inches long, and one and a half wide.
Cream one pound of butter, add a pound of powdered sugar, with a pound
and a half of flour, six eggs, a grated nutmeg, and a
Prepare them as directed for pound cake, add raisins and currants, bake them in small tin shapes, and ice them.
Put four ounces of sugar with three quarters of a pound of flour, make it up with two spoonsful of yeast, and half a pint of milk; when well risen, work into it four ounces of butter, make it into small buns, and bake them in a quick oven; do not burn them.
Beat eight eggs very light, add to them a pound of flour sifted,
and a pound of powdered sugar; when it looks quite light, put in a pound of
suet finely shread, a pint of milk, a nutmeg grated and a gill of
brandy; mix with it a pound of currants, washed, picked, and dried,
tie it in a thick cloth, and boil it steadily eight hours.
Grate a large loaf of bread, and pour on the crumbs s pint of rich milk boiling hot; when cold, add four eggs, a pound of beef marrow sliced thin, a gill of brandy with sugar and nutmeg to your taste; mix all well together, and either bake or boil it; when done, stick slices of citron over the top.
Cut a loaf of bread as thin as possible, put a layer of it in the bottom of a deep dish, strew on some slices of marrow or butter, with a handful of currants or stoned raisins, do this till the dish is full; let the currants or raisins be at the top; beat four eggs, mix with them a quart of milk that has been boiled a little and become cold, a quarter of a pound of sugar, and a grated nutmeg; pour it in and bake it in a moderate oven; eat it with wine sauce.
Boil a quart of milk, and when cold, mix with it yelks of eight eggs; stir them
together over the fire a few minutes, sweeten it
Take a skimmed milk that has only acquired a moderately acid taste,
put it in an upright wooden vessel with a machine for drawing it off,
place it in a tub, and pour hot water in the tub till it rises nearly
as high as the milk in the vessel; cover the whole with a cloth to keep
in the heat. In a few hours the milk separates into two parts; the upper part
assuming the consistency of thick cream, that has very much
the appearance of good cream, only moderately acid; the other portion that
remains is a thin watery liquid, which is of a pungent acid taste, and may be
easily drawn off. The cream is then fit for use. Much of
the goodness of this depends upon the skill of the maker, as it is
greatly affected by various
When you find the barrel of flour a good one, empty it into a chest or box
made for the purpose, with a lid that will shut close; it keeps much better
in this manner than when packed in a barrel, and even improves by lying
lightly; sift the quantity you intend to make up, put into a bowl three quarters
of a pint of cold water to each quart of flour, with a large spoonful of
yeast, and a little salt, to every quart; stir into it just as much of the flour
as will make a thin batter, put half the remaining flour in the bottom of a tin
kettle, pour the batter on it, and cover it with the other half; stop it
close, and set it where it can have a moderate degree of warmth.
When it has risen well, turn it into a bowl, work in the dry flour
and knead it some minutes, return it into the kettle, stop it,
and give it moderate heat. In the morning, work it a little, make it
into rolls, and bake it. In
Put half a pound of fresh hops into a gallon of water and boil it away to two quarts, then strain it and make it a thin batter with flour; add half a pint of good yeast, and when well fermented, pour it in a bowl and work in as much corn meal as will make it the consistency of biscuit dough; set it to rise, and when quite like, make it into little cakes, which must be dried in the shade, turning them very frequently; keep them securely from damp and dust. Persons who live in towns, and can procure brewer's yeast will save trouble by using it; take one quart of water, and proceed as before directed.
Take one or more cakes, according to the flour you are to make;
pour on a little warm
Sift a quart of flour, put to it a little salt, and a large spoonful of yeast;
beat the white of a fresh egg to a strong froth, add it, and
make the flour up with cold water as soft as you can to allow it to be handled; set it in a moderately warm place.
Next morning, beat it well with a spoon, put it on the griddle in a round form,
and bake nicely, turning them frequently till done.
Sift a quart of flour, add a little salt, a spoonful of yeast, two eggs well beaten, and half a pint of milk, knead it and set it to rise; next morning, work in an ounce of butter, make the dough into small rolls, and bake them. The top crust should not be hard.
Take a quart of dough from your bread at a very early hour in the morning, break three fresh eggs, separating the yelks from the whites, whip them both to a froth, mix them with the dough, and add gradually milk warm water, till you make a better the thickness of buck wheat cakes; beat it well, and set it to rise till near breakfast time; have the griddle ready, pour on the batter to look quite round; they do not require turning.
Put a little salt, one egg beaten, and four ounces of butter, in a
quart of flour; make it into a paste with new milk, beat it for half an hour
with a pestle, roll the paste thin, and cut it into round cakes; bake
them on a grid-iron and be careful not to burn them.
Boil two cups of small hominy very soft, add an equal quantity of corn meal with a little salt, and a large spoonful of butter; make it in a thin batter with three eggs, and a sufficient quantity of milk, beat all together some time, and bake them on a griddle or in waffle irons. When eggs cannot be procured, yeast makes a good substitute; put a spoonful in the batter, and let it stand an hour to rise.
Take six spoonsful of flour and three of corn meal, with a little salt; sift them and make a thin batter with flour, eggs, and a sufficient quantity of rich milk; bake it in little tin moulds in a quick oven.
Melt as much butter in a pint of milk as will make it rich as cream, make the flour into a paste with this, knead it well, roll it out frequently, cut it in squares, and bake on a griddle.
Rub four ounces of butter into a quart of
Rub a piece of butter the size of an egg into a pint of corn meal, make a batter with two eggs and some new milk, add a spoonful of yeast, set by the fire an hour to rise butter little pans and bake it.
Boil and mash a potato, rub into it as much flour as will make it like bread, add spice and sugar to your taste, with a spoonful of yeast; when it has risen well, work in a piece of butter; bake it in small rolls, to be eaten hot with butter, either for breakfast or tea.
Boil two cups of rice quite soft, make it into a thick batter with two eggs, a spoonful of butter, and some milk; beat it till light, and bake it in waffle irons.
Make a batter of one quart of flour, three
Put half a pound of nice brown sugar into a quart of flour, sift it and make it into a paste with four ounces of butter melted in as much milk as will wet it; knead it till light, roll it tolerably thin, cut it in strips an inch wide, and just long enough to lay in a plate; bake then on a griddle, put them in the plate in rows to checker each other and serve them to eat with chocolate.
Make a very thin batter with eggs, milk, butter, and powdered loaf sugar, to your taste; pour it into wafer-irons, bake them very quick, without browning; roll them as you take them from the irons.
Put a large spoonful of yeast and a little salt into a quart of buck-wheat meal,
make it into a batter with cold water; let it rise
When ice creams are not put into shapes, they should always be served in glasses with handles.
Boil a Vanilla bean in a quart of rich milk until it has imparted the flavour sufficiently;' then take it out, and mix with the milk, eight eggs, yelks and whites, beaten well; let it boil a little longer—make it very sweet, for much of the sugar is lost in the operation of freezing.
Make a quart of rich boiled custard; when cold, pour it on a quart of ripe red raspberries, mash them in it, pass it through a sieve, sweeten and freeze it.
Is made in the same manner; the strawberries
Take the nut from its shell, pare it, and grate it very fine; mix it with a quart of cream, sweeten and freeze it. If the nut be a small one, it will require one and a half to flavour a quart of cream.
Scrape a quarter of a pound of chocolate very fine, put it in a quart of milk, boil it till the chocolate is dissolved, stirring it continually; thicken with six eggs. A vanilla bean boiled with the milk, will improve the flavour greatly.
Make a rich soup, (see directions for oyster soup,) strain it from the oysters, and freeze it.
Make calf's foot jelly, not very stiff, freeze it and serve it in glasses.
Get fine soft peaches, perfectly ripe, peel them, take out the stones, and put them in a China bowl; sprinkle some sugar on and chop them very small, with a silver spoon; if the peaches be sufficiently ripe, they will become a smooth pulp; add as much cream or rich milk as you have peaches; put more sugar and freeze it.
Toast two gills of raw coffee till it is a light brown, and not a grain burnt; put it hot from the toaster, without grinding it, into a quart of rich, and perfectly sweet, milk; boil it, and add the yelks of eight eggs: when done, strain it through a sieve, and sweeten it— if properly done, it will not be discoloured. The coffee may be dried and will answer for making in the usual way to drink, allowing more for the quantity of water, than if it had not gone through this process.
Wash ripe quinces, and boil them whole,
Cut the finest citron melons, when perfectly ripe, take out the seeds and slice the nicest part into a China bowl, in small pieces, that will lie conveniently, cover them with powdered sugar, and let them stand several hours, then drain off the syrup they have made, and add as much cream as it will give a strong flavour to, and freeze it. Pine apples may be used in the same way.
Pour hot water on the almonds, and let them stand till the skins will
slip off, then pound them fine, and mix them with cream;
a pound of almonds, in the shells, will be sufficient for a quart of cream;
sweeten and freeze it.
The kernels of the common black
Pare the yellow rind very thin from four lemons, put them in a quart of fresh cream, and boil it; squeeze and strain the juice of one lemon, saturate it complete with powdered sugar, and when the cream is quite cold, stir it in; take care that it does not curdle—if not sufficiently sweet, add more sugar.
Make a quart of rich lemonade, whip the whites of six fresh eggs to a strong froth; mix them well with the lemonade, and freeze it. The juice of morello cherries, or of currants mixed with water and sugar and prepared in the same way, make very delicate ices.
It is the practice with some indolent cooks, to set
the freezer, containing the cream, in a tub with ice and salt, and put
it in the ice-house; it will certainly freeze there, but
Make a quart of milk quite hot that it may not whey when baked; let it stand to get cold, and then mix six eggs with it; sweeten it with loaf sugar, and fill the custard cups, put on the covers, and set them in a Dutch oven with water, but not enough to risk its boiling into the cups; do not put on the top of the oven. When the water has boiled ten or fifteen minutes, take out a cup, and if the custard be the consistence of jelly, it is sufficiently done, serve the in the cups, with the covers on, and a tea-spoon on the dish between each cup;—grate nutmeg on the tops when cold.
Put slices of Savoy cake or Naples biscuits at the bottom of a deep dish,
wet it with white wine, and fill the dish nearly to the top
with rich boiled custard; season half a pint of cream with white
wine and sugar, whip it to a froth; as it rises, take it lightly
off and lay it on the custard; pile it up high and tastely; decorate it with
preserves
Have the bowl nearly full of syllabub, made with white wine and sugar; beat the whites of six new laid eggs to a strong froth, then mix with it raspberry or strawberry marmalade enough to flavour and colour it; lay the froth lightly on the syllabub, first putting in some slices of cake, raise it in little mounds, and garnish with something light.
Season the milk with sugar and white wine, but not enough to curdle it; fill the glasses nearly full, and crown them with whipt cream seasoned.
Pare the rind very thin from four fresh lemons, squeeze the juice and strain it,
put them both into a quart of water, sweeten it to your taste, add the
whites of six eggs beat to a froth, set it over the fire, and keep
stirring until it thickens, but don't let it boil, then pour
Is made in the same manner, but requires more juice to give a flavour.
Stir as much raspberry marmalade into a quart of cream as will be sufficient to give a rich flavour of the fruit, strain it and fill your glasses, leaving out a part to whip into froth for the top.
Put one ounce of the best tea in a pitcher, pour on it a table-spoon of water,
and let it stand an hour to soften the leaves; then put to it
a quart of boiling cream, cover it close, and in half an hour strain it;
add four teaspoonsful of a strong infusion of rennet in water,
stir it and set it on some hot ashes and cover it; when you find,
by cooking a little of it, that it will jelly, pour it into glasses, and
garnish with thin bits of preserved fruit.
Wash the sago clean, and put it on the fire with a stick of cinnamon and as much water as will boil it thick and soft; take out the cinnamon and add rich boiled custard till it is of a proper thickness, sweeten it, and serve in glasses or cups with grated nutmeg on the top.
Is made the same way; you may add a little white wine to both, it will give an agreeable flavour.
Pick the stems and blossoms from two quarts of green gooseberries, put them in a stew pan with their weight in loaf sugar and a very little water; when sufficiently stewed, pass the pulp through a sieve, and when cold, add rich boiled custard till it is like thick cream; put it in a glass bowl and lay the frothed cream on the top.
Fill a deep dish with rich milk made warm,
Put as much rennet into rich milk as will set it; when the curd is formed, take it up carefully with an egg spoon to drain off the when, lay it in a deep dish, and surround it with cream; eat it with powdered sugar. This arcadian dish must be made with judgement, lest the curd be hard.
Break one ounce of isinglass into very small pieces, wash it well, and
pour on a pint of boiling water; next morning add a quart of milk,
boil it till the isinglass is dissolved,
Get five small eggs, make a hole at one end and empty the shells, fill
them with blanc mange, when stiff and cold, take off
Fill a deep glass dish half full of jelly— have as many small fish-moulds as will lie conveniently in it, fill them with blanc mange; when they are cold, and the jelly set, lay them on it as if going in different directions; put in a a little more jelly, and let it get cold to keep the fish in their places, then fill the dish so as to cover them. The jelly should be made of hog's feet, very light-coloured and perfectly transparent.
Roast two pheasants in the nicest manner: get a deep dish, the size and
form of the one you intend to serve the pheasants in—it
Truss six partridges neatly, cover them with thin slices of fat bacon, taken from the top of a middling, this keeps them white, and gives a good flavour; they must be wrapped entirely in it; roast them, and when done, take off the bacon; let them get cold, and use jelly as for the pheasants.
Boil as many large white perch as will be sufficient for the dish; do
not take off their heads, and be careful not to break their skins;
when cold, place them in the dish, and cover
Roast two half-grown chickens, cut off the legs and wings, pull the breast from each side entire, take the skin from all the pieces, lay it in the dish, and cover it with jelly.
Put eight or ten pounds of coarse lean beef, or the same quantity of the
inferior parts of the fore quarter of veal, into a pot
with two gallons of water; a pound of lean salt pork, three large onions
chopped, three carrots, a large handful of parsely, and any
sweet herb that you choose, with pepper and salt; boil it very gently
till reduced to two quarts; strain it through a sieve; next day take off the
fat, turn out the jelly, and separate it from the dregs at the bottom; put
it on the fire with half a pint of white wine, a large spoonful of lemon
pickle, and the whites and shells of four eggs beaten: when it boils clear
on one side, run it through the jelly bag.
Bone a small turnkey, put pepper and salt on the inside, and cover it with slices of boiled ham or tongue; fill it with well-seasoned forcemeat, sew it up and boil it:—cover it with jelly.
Turn a bowl on the dish, and put o it, in regular rings, beginning at the bottom, the following ingredients, all minced: anchovies with the bones taken out, the white meat of fowls, without the skin, hard boiled eggs, the yelks and whites chopped separately, parsley, the lean of old ham scraped, the inner stalks of celery; put a row of capers round the bottom of the bowl, and dispose the others in a fanciful manner; put a little pyramid of butter on the top, and have a small glass with egg mixed as for sallad to eat with the salmagundi.
Put some soup or gravy from any of the dishes on the table, into the stew-dish;
add a good portion of pepper, vinegar, wine, catsup,
Lay the perch in a deep dish with the heads on; sprinkle salt, pepper, and a little chopped onion over each layer; when they are all in, take as much water as will be sufficient to fill the dish a little more than half full; add a gill of wine, one of catsup, a little lemon pickle, and spice; cover the dish with a tin sheet, set it in the oven, and let it stew gently till done; when it is cold, take out the fish, without breaking, and put them in another dish, with the jelly attached to them.
The preserving pan should be made of bell metal, flat at the bottom, very
large in diameter but not deep. It should have a cover to fit closely,
and handles at the sides of the pan, for taking it off with ease when the syrup
Get the finest yellow clingstones, pare them, and lay them in a bowl,
have their weight of sugar pounded, and sprinkle it over them as they are
put in; let them stand two or three hours, put them together with the sugar
into the pan, add a little water, and let the peaches remain till thoroughly
scalded, take them out with the ladle, draining off the syrup; should
there not be enough to cover the peaches, add more water, boil it and
skim it,
Pare the peaches and cut them in as large slices as possible, have their weight in sugar, and preserve them as the others.
Get yellow soft peaches that are not quite ripe, pare and divide them, scrape the places where the stones lay with a teaspoon, and follow the former directions.
Take the ripest soft peaches, (the yellow ones make the prettiest marmalade,)
pare them and take out the stones;
put them in the pan with one pound of dry light coloured brown sugar to two
of peaches; when they are juicy they do not require water;
with a silver or wooden spoon, chop them with the sugar, continue
to do this, and let them boil gently till they are a transparent
pulp that will be a jelly when cold. Puffs made of this marmalade are very
delicious.
Slice them thin, and boil them till clear in a syrup made with half their weight of sugar, lay them on dishes in the sun, and turn them till dry; pack them in pots with powdered sugar sifted over each layer; should there be syrup left, continue the process with other peaches. They are very nice when done with pure honey instead of sugar.
The small pears are better for preserving than large one. Pare them and make a syrup with their weight of sugar and a little water, leave the stem on, and stick a clove in the blossom end of each; stew them till perfectly transparent.
Boil the pears till soft; when cold, rub the pulp through a sieve and boil it to a jelly, allowing one pound of sugar to two of pears.
Select the finest and most perfect quinces, lay them on shelves, but
do not let them
Prepare the quinces as before directed, take off the stems and blossoms,
wash them clean, and cut them in slices without paring;
fill the pan and pour in water to cover them, stew then gently,
putting in a little water occasionally, till they are soft; then
pour them into a jelly bag, let all the liquor run through
Boil the quinces in water until soft, let them cool, and rub all the pulp through a sieve; put two pounds of it to one of sugar, pound a little cochineal, sift it through a fine muslin, and mix it with the quince to give a colour; pick out the seeds, tie them in a muslin bag, and boil them with the marmalade; when it is a thick jelly, take out the seeds and put it in pots.
The most beautiful cherries to preserve are the carnation,
and common red, with short stems; select the finest that are not
too ripe; take an equal weight with the cherries of double refined sugar,
make it into a syrup, and preserve them without stoning and with the stems on:
if they be done carefully, and the &odq;Directions for preserving&cdq;
Take out the stones with a quill over a deep dish, to save the juice that runs from them; put to the juice, a pound of sugar for each pound of cherries, weighed after they are stoned; boil and skim the syrup, then put in the fruit and stew till quite clear.
Stone them and save the juice; weigh the cherries and allow one pound of
good brown sugar to three of the fruit; boil it with the
juice, put the cherries in, stew them fifteen or twenty minutes, take
them out, drain the syrup, and lay the cherries in dishes to to dry in the sun;
keep the syrup to pour over, a little at a time, as it dries on the cherries,
which must be frequently turned over; when all the syrup is used, put the
cherries away in pots, sprinkling a little powdered loaf sugar between
the layers.
They make excellent pies, puddings, and charlottes.
To each pound of ripe red, or English raspberries, put one pound of loaf sugar; stir it frequently, and stew till it is a thick jelly.
Get the largest strawberries before they are too ripe; have the best loaf sugar, one pound to each of strawberries; stew them very gently, taking them out to cool frequently, that they may not be mashed;—when they look clear, they are done enough.
Is made in the same manner as the raspberry, and is very fine to mix with cream, for blanc mange, puffs, sweet-meat puddings, &c. &c.
Select young gooseberries, make a syrup with one pound of loaf sugar,
to each of fruit; stew them till quite clear, and the syrup becomes thick,
but do not let them be
Take freshly gathered apricots, not too ripe; to half their weight of loaf sugar, add as much water as will cover the fruit, boil and skim it; then put in the apricots, and let them remain five or six minutes; take them up without syrup, and lay them on dishes to cool; boil the syrup till reduced one half: when the apricots are cold, put them in bottles and cover them with equal quantities of syrup and French brandy. If the apricots be cling-stones, they will require more scalding.
Get yellow soft peaches, perfectly free from defect,
and newly gathered, but not too ripe; place them in a pot and cover
them with cold weak lie, turn over those
that float frequently, that the lie may act equally on them;
at the end of an hour, take them out, wipe them carefully and with a soft cloth, to get off the down and skin, and lay
Get the short stemmed bright red cherries, in bunches; make a syrup with equal quantities of sugar and cherries, scald the cherries, but do not let the skins crack, which they will do if the fruit be too ripe.
Select those that are free from blemish, make a syrup with half their weight of sugar, and preserve them in the same manner as directed for apricots—green gages. The large amber, and blue plums are also excellent done in the same way.
Grate the yellow rind from two dozen fine fresh lemons, quarter them, but
leave them whole at the bottom, sprinkle salt on them, and put them
in the sun every day until dry;
then brush off the salt, put them in a pot with one ounce of nutmegs and one
of mace
Gather a peck of tomatas, pick out the stems, and wash them; put them on the fire without water, sprinkle on a few spoonsful of salt, let them boil steadily an hour, stirring them frequently, strain them through a colander, and then through a sieve; put the liquid on the fire with half a pint of chopped onions, a quarter of an ounce of mace broke into small pieces, and if not sufficiently salt, add a little more, one tablespoonful of whole black pepper, boil all together until just enough to fill two bottles; cork it tight.—Make in August.
Gather full grown tomatas while quite green, take out the stems and stew them
till soft, rub them through a sieve, put the pulp on the fire
seasoned highly with pepper, salt,
Prepare it in the same manner, mix some loaf sugar with the pulp, and stew until it is a still jelly.
Get one dozen pods of pepper when ripe, take out the stems, and cut them in two; put them in a kettle with three pints of vinegar, boil it away to one quart and strain it through a sieve. A little of this is excellent in gravy of every kind, and gives a flavour greatly superior to black pepper; it is also very fine when added to each of the various catsups for fish sauce.
Take the flaps of the proper mushrooms from the stems, wash them,
add some salt, and crush them; then boil them some time,
strain them through a cloth, put them on the fire again with salt to
your taste, a few
Pick the tarragon nicely from the stem, let it lie in a dry place forty-eight hours, put it in a pitcher, and to one quart of the leaves put thre pints of strong vinegar; cover it close, and let it stand a week; then strain it, and after standing in the pitcher till quite clear, bottle it and cork it closely.
One ounce turmerick, one do. coriander seed, one do. cummin seed, one do. white ginger, one of nutmeg, one of mace, and one of cayenne pepper; pound all together, and pass them through a fine sieve; bottle and cork it well; one teaspoonful is sufficient to season any made dish.
Gather them full grown, but quite young; take off the green rind, and slice them
tolerably thick; put a layer in a deep dish, strew
Gather the melons a size larger than a goose egg, put them in a pot, pour boiling salt and water made strong upon them, and cover them up; next day, cut a slit from the stem to the blossom end, and take out the seeds carefully, return them to the brine, and let them remain in it eight days; then put them in strong vinegar for a fortnight, wipe the insides with a soft cloth, stuff them and tie them, pack them in a pot with the slit uppermost, strew some of the stuffing over each layer, and keep them covered with the best vinegar.
Wash a pound of white race ginger very clean, pour boiling water on it,
and let it stand
One pound of ginger sliced and dried, one of
horse radish scraped and dried, one of mustard seed washed and dried,
one ounce long pepper, an ounce of mace and one of nutmegs finely pounded;
put all these ingredients in a pot, pour two gallons of strong vinegar on,
and let it stand twelve months, stirring it very frequently. When this
vinegar is used for the pickles, put two gallons more vinegar, with some
mace and nutmegs, and keep it for another year. The articles for the yellow
pickle must be scalded, dried, and soaked a fortnight in plain
vinegar with some turmeric
Get white onions that are not too large,
cut the stem close to the root with a sharp knife,
put them in a pot of, pour on boiling salt and water to cover them,
stop the pot closely,
Gather the berries when full grown, but young, put them in a pot, pour boiling salt and water on, and let them stand three or four days; then drain off the water, and cover them with cold water, and cover them with cold vinegar; add a few blades of mace and whole grains of black pepper.
Cut them in nice bunches as soon as they are fully formed; they must
be young and tender: pour boiling salt and water on them, cover with a thick cloth and pewter plate, to keep in the steam; repeat this every day
till they are a good green, then put them in cold vinegar, with mace and whole
pepper;
The walnuts should be gathered when the nut is so young that you can run a pin into it easily; pour boiling salt and water on and let them be covered with it nine days, changing it every third day; take them out and put them on dishes in the air for a few minutes, taking care to turn them over; this will make them black much sooner; put them in a pot, strew over some whole pepper, cloves, a little garlic, mustard seed, and horse radish scraped and dried, cover them with strong cold vinegar.
Gather the large bell pepper when quite young, leave the seeds in and the stem
on, cut a slit in one side, between the large veins, to let the water in; pour
boiling salt and water on, changing it every day or three weeks—you
must keep them closely stopped;
Gather the walnuts as for pickling, and keep them in salt and water the same time; then pound them in a marble mortar; to every dozen walnuts, put a quart of vinegar; stir them well every day for a week, then put them in a bag and press all the liquor through; to each quart, put a tea-spoonful of pounded cloves, and one of mace, with six cloves of garlic; boil it fifteen or twenty minutes and bottle it.
Gather them while the shell is soft; green them with salt and water,
as before directed;
Pour boiling salt and water on, and cover them close; next
day take them out, dry them, and after standing in vinegar,
put them with the yellow pickle.
The intention of keeping all pickles in plain vinegar, previous
to their being put in the prepared pot, is to draw off the water with
which they are saturated, that they may not weaken the vinegar
of the pot. The best way to dry all articles for yellow pickle, is
to take advantage of a clear hot day, and put them in full sun-shine,
on a table covered with a soft thick cloth, pinning the corners round the
table, to prevent its blowing up over the articles; the
cloth absorbs the moisture, and by turning them frequently on a dry place,
they become white, and of course take the colour of the turmeric
better: one day of clear hot sun-shine is sufficient to prepare them for the
first vinegar.
To three gallons of water, put three pounds of sugar and four ounces of race ginger, washed in many waters to cleanse it; boil them together for one hour, and strain it through a sieve; when luke-warm, put it in a cask, with three lemons cut in slices, and two gills of beer yeast; shake it well and stop the cask very tight; let it stand a week to ferment, and if not clear enough to bottle, it must remain until it becomes so; it will be fit to drink in ten days after bottling.
Boil two quarts of milk with a stick of cinnamon, and let it stand to
be quite cold, first taking out the cinnamon; blanch four ounces
of the best sweet almonds, pound them in a marble mortar with a little
rose-water; mix them well with the milk, sweeten it to your taste, and let
it boil a few minutes only, lest the almonds should be oily; strain
it through a very fine sieve, till quite smooth and free from the
almonds; serve it up either cold or luke-warm in glasses with handles.
Gather ripe morello cherries, pick them from the stalk, and put them in an earthen pot, which must be set into an iron pot of water; make the water boil, but take care that none of it gets into the cherries; when the juice is extracted, pour it into a bag made of tolerably thick cloth which will permit the juice to pass, but not the pulp of your cherries; sweeten it to your taste, and when it becomes perfectly clear, bottle; put a gill of brandy into each bottle before you pour in the juice, cover the corks with rosin. It will keep all summer in a dry cool place, and is delicious mixed with water.
Gather full ripe currants on a dry day, pick them from the stalks,
and weigh them; then crush
them with your hands, leaving none whole; for every two pounds of currants
put one quart of water, stir all well together, and let it stand three hours,
and strain the liquor through a sieve; then, for every three pounds of
currants, put one pound of powdered loaf sugar, stir it till the sugar is dissolved, boil it,
Get equal quantities of morello and common black cherries, fill your cask,
and pour on (to a ten gallon cask) one gallon of boiling water; in two or three
hours, fill it up with brandy, let it stand a week, then draw off all,
and put another gallon of boiling water, and fill it again with brandy; at the
end of the week, draw the whole off, empty the cask of the cherries, and pour
in your brandy with water to reduce the strength; first dissolving one pound
of brown sugar in each
Gather leaves from fragrant roses without bruising, fill a pitcher with them, and cover them with French brandy; next day, pour off the brandy, take out the leaves, and fill the pitcher with fresh ones, and return the brandy; do this till it is strongly impregnated, then bottle it; keep the pitcher closely covered during the process. It is better than distilled rose water for cakes, &c.
Gather ripe clingstone peaches, wipe off the down, cut them to the stone in
several places, and put them in a cask; when filled with peaches,
pour on as much peach brandy as the cask will hold, let it stand
six or eight weeks, then draw it off, put in water until
reduced to the strength of wine; to each gallon of this, add one pound of
good brown sugar, dissolve it, and pour the cordial into a cask just large
enough to hold it; when perfectly clear it is fit for use.
To each quart or ripe red raspberries, put one quart of best French brandy, let it remain about a week, then strain it through a sieve or bag, pressing out all the liquid; when you have got as much as you want, reduce the strength to your taste with water, and put a pound of powdered loaf sugar to each gallon; let it stand till refined. Strawberry cordial is made the same way. It destroys the flavour of these fruits to put them on the fire.
Put a quart of ripe red raspberries in a bowl; pour on them a quart of strong well-flavoured vinegar, let them stand 24 hours, strain them through a bag, put this liquid on another quart of fresh raspberries, which strain in the same manner, and then on a third quart; when this last is prepared, make it very sweet with pounded loaf sugar; refine and bottle it. It is a delicious beverage mixed with iced water.
Pick the mint early in the morning, while
Mix your mead in the proportion of 36 oz. of honey to four quarts of warm water;
when the honey is completely held in solution, pour it into a cask.
When fermented, and become perfectly clear, bottle and cork it well. If
properly prepared, it is a pleasant and wholesome drink, and in summer,
particularly, grateful on account of the large quantity of
carbonic acid gas, which it contains.
Its goodness, however, depends greatly on the time of bottling, and
other circumstances, which can only be acquired by practice.
Cut six fresh lemons in thin slices, put them into a quart and a half of milk, boil it until the whey is very clear, then pass it through a sieve; put to this whey, one and a half quarts of French brandy, and three pounds of powdered loaf sugar; stir it till the sugar is dissolved; let it stand to refine, and bottle it: pare some of the yellow rind of the lemons very thin, and put a little in each bottle.
Boil a handful of hops, and twice as much of the chippings of sassafras root, in ten gallons of water; strain it, and pour in, while hot, one gallon of molasses, two spoonsful of the essence of spruce, two spoonsful of powdered ginger, and one of pounded allspice; put it in a cask: when sufficiently cold, add half a pint of good yeast; stir it well, stop it close, and when fermented and clear, bottle it, and cork it tight.
Put five quarts of hops, and five of wheat
Get lemons quite free from blemish, squeeze them and strain the juice;
to each pint of it, put a pound of good loaf sugar pounded; stir
it frequently until the sugar is completely dissolved,
cover the pitcher closely, and let it stand till the dregs have subsided,
and the syrup is transparent; have bottles perfectly clean and dry, put
a wine-glass full of French brandy into each bottle, fill it with syrup,
cork it and dip the neck into melted rosin or pitch; keep them in a
Pour water on the peels of the lemons, let them soak till you can
scrape all the white pulp off, then boil the peel till soft;
preserve them with half their weight of sugar, and keep them for
mince-pies, cakes, &c.: they are a very good substitute for citron.
To one measure of sugar, put seven measures of water, moderately warm; dissolve it completely; put it into a cask, stir in yeast, in the proportion of a pint to eight gallons: stop it close, and keep it in a warm place till sufficiently sour.
To one quart of clear honey, put eight quarts of warm water; mix it well together: when it has passed through the acetous fermentation, a white vinegar will be formed, in many respects better than the ordinary vinegar.
Boil two pounds of sugar with four quarts
Put a portion of acetate of potash, (sal diureticus,) into a smelling bottle, mix gradually with it half its weight of sulphuric acid, and add a few drops of oil of lavender.
Take lavender, rosemary, sage, wormwood, rue, and mint, of each a large
handful; put them in a pot of earthen ware, pour on them
four quarts of very strong vinegar, cover the pot closely, and
put aboard on the top; keep it in the hottest sun two weeks, then
strain and bottle it, putting in each bottle a clove of garlic. When it
has settled in the bottle and become clear, pour it off gently; do
this until you get it all free from sediment. The proper time to make
it is when the herbs are in full vigour, in June. The vinegar is very
Put a pint of highly rectified spirits of wine, to one ounce of essential oil of lavender, and two drachms of ambergris; shake them well together and keep it closely stopped.
One pint spirits of wine, one ounce oil of rosemary, and two drachms essence of ambergris.
Take a pound of castile or any other nice old soap, scrap it in small
pieces, and put it on the fire with a little water; stir it till it
becomes a smooth paste, pour it into a bowl, and when cold, add some
lavender water, or essence of any kind, beat it with a silver spoon
until well mixed, thicken it will corn meal, and keep it in
small pots closely covered, for the admission of air will soon make the soap
hard.
Get nice sweet lard that has no salt in it, put in any agreeable perfume, beat it to a cream, and put it in small pots.
Put on the fire any quantity of lie you chuse that is strong
enough to bear an egg, to each gallon add three quarters of a pound of
clean grease, boil it very fast and stir it frequently; a
few good hours will suffice to make it good soap.
When you find by cooling a little on a plate that it is a thick
jelly and no grease appears, put in salt in the proportion of one
pint to three gallons, let it boil a few minutes and pour it in
tubs to cool; (should the soap be thin, add a little water to that
in the plate, stir it well, and by that means ascertain how much water
is necessary for the whole quantity; very strong lie will require water to
thicken it after the incorporation is complete; this must be done before the
salt is added.) Next day, cut out the soap, melt it, and cool it again;
this takes out all the lie, and keeps the soap
from shrinking when dried. A strict conformity to these rules will banish
Wash a peck of good wheat and pick it very clean,
put it in a tub and cover it with water; it must be kept in the sun,
and the water changed every day, or it will smell very offensively.
When the wheat becomes quite soft, it must be well rubbed in the hands,
and the husks thrown into a another tub; let the white substance settle,
then pour off the water, put on fresh, stir it up well, and let
it subside; do this every day till the water comes off clear;
then pour it off, collect the starch in a bag, tie
it up tight, and set it in the sun a few days, then open it and dry the
starch on dishes.
Dissolve a piece of allum in strong lie, skim it carefully, mix in it some soap, wash the silver, and dry with a clean cloth.
A quarter of a pound of ivory black, two ounces of sugar candy, a quarter of an ounce of gum tragacanth, pound them all very fine, boil a bottle of porter, and stir the ingredients in while boiling hot.
Wash them in warm water and wipe them till quite dry, then touch them
lightly over without smearing the handles, with rotten stone made wet;
let it dry on them, and then rub with a clean cloth until they are
bright.
With this mode of cleaning, one set of knives and forks will serve a family
twenty years; they will require the frequent use of a steel to keep them with a keen edge, but must never be put into very hot water, lest
the handles be injured.
Have the moulds quite clean, and put very nice wick into them; cut the tallow in small pieces, put it into a tin vessel with a spout to it, set it in boiling water, and stir it until the tallow is melted, then fill the moulds; do not let it boil, for that makes it oily and it will scale off. When the candles are cold, wipe the moulds with a cloth dipped in hot water until they can be drawn with ease.