The Lady's Own Cookery Book, and New Dinner-Table Directory Part 51

_Barberries, to preserve._

Tie up the finest maiden barberries in bunches; to one pound of them put two pounds and a quarter of sugar; boil the sugar to a thick syrup, and when thick enough stir it till it is almost cold. Put in the barberries; set them on the fire, and keep them as much under the syrup as you can, shaking the pan frequently. Let them just simmer till the syrup is hot through, but not boiling, which would wrinkle them. Take them out of the syrup, and let them drain on a lawn sieve; put the syrup again into the pot, and boil it till it is thick. When half cold put in the barberries, and let them stand all night in the preserving-pan. If the syrup has become too thin, take out the fruit and boil it again, letting it stand all night: then put it into pots, and cover it with brandy paper.

_Biscuits._

Take one pound of loaf sugar, finely beaten and sifted; then take eight eggs, whites and all; beat them in a wooden bowl for an hour; then take a quarter of a pound of blanched almonds, beat them very small with some rose-water; put them into the bowl, and beat them for an hour longer; then shake in five ounces of fine flour and a spoonful of coriander seed, and one of caraways. Beat them half an hour; b.u.t.ter your plates, and bake them.

_Another way._

Take one pound of flour; mix it stiff with water; then roll it very thin; cut out the biscuits with cutters, and bake them.

_Dutch Biscuits._

Take the whites of six eggs in fine sugar, and the whites of four in flour; then beat your eggs with the sugar and flour well with a whisk: b.u.t.ter your pans, and only half fill them; strew them over with sugar before you put them in the oven; grate lemon-peel over them.

_Ginger Biscuits._

One pound of flour, half a pound of b.u.t.ter, half a pound of loaf sugar, rather more than one ounce of ginger powdered, all well mixed together.

Let it stand before the fire for half an hour; roll it into thin paste, and cut out with a coffee-cup or wine-gla.s.s: bake it for a few minutes.

_Lemon Biscuits._

Blanch half a pound of sweet almonds in cold water; beat them with the whites of six eggs, first whipped up to a froth; put in a little at a time as they rise; the almonds must be very fine. Then add one pound of double-refined sugar, beaten and sifted; put in, by degrees, four ounces of fine flour, dried well and cold again; the yolks of six eggs well beaten; the peels of two large lemons finely grated: beat these all together about half an hour; put them in tin pans; sift on a little sugar. The oven must be pretty quick, though you keep the door open while you bake them.

_Another way._

Take three pounds of fine sugar, and wet it with a spoonful and a half of gum-dragon, and put in the juice of lemons, but make the ma.s.s as stiff as you can: mix it well, and beat it up with white of eggs. When beaten very light, put in two grains of musk and a great deal of grated lemon; drop the paste into round papers, and bake it.

_Ratafia Biscuits._

Blanch two ounces of bitter almonds in cold water, and beat them extremely fine with orange-flower water and rose-water. Put in by degrees the whites of five eggs, first beaten to a light froth. Beat it extremely well; then mix it up with fine sifted sugar to a light paste, and lay the biscuits on tin plates with wafer paper. Make the paste so light that you may take it up with a spoon. Lay it in cakes, and bake them in a rather brisk oven. If you make them with sweet almonds only, they are almond puffs or cakes.

_Table Biscuits._

Flour, milk, and sugar, well mixed together. Shape the biscuits with the top of a gla.s.s, and bake them on a tin.

_Blancmange._ No. 1.

To one pint of calves' foot or hartshorn jelly add four ounces of almonds blanched and beaten very fine with rose and orange-flower water; let half an ounce of the almonds be bitter, but apricot kernels are better. Put the almonds and jelly, mixed by degrees, into a skillet, with as much sugar as will sweeten it to your taste. Give it two or three boils; then take it up and strain it into a bowl; add to it some thick cream: give it a boil after the cream is in, and keep it stirred while on the fire. When strained, put it into moulds.

_Blancmange._ No. 2.

Boil three ounces of isingla.s.s in a quart of water till it is reduced to a pint; strain it through a sieve, and let it stand till cold. Take off what has settled at the bottom: then take a pint of cream, two ounces of almonds, and a few bitter ones; sweeten to your taste. Boil all together over the fire, and pour it into your moulds. A laurel leaf improves it greatly.

_Blancmange._ No. 3.

Take an ounce of isingla.s.s dissolved over the fire in a quarter of a pint of water, strain it into a pint of new milk; boil it, and strain again; sweeten to your taste. Add a spoonful of orange-flower water and one of mountain. Stir it till it is nearly cold, and put it into moulds.

Beat a few bitter almonds in it.

_Blancmange._ No. 4.

Into two quarts of milk put an ounce of isingla.s.s, an ounce of sugar, half the peel of a lemon, and a bit of cinnamon. Keep stirring till it boils.

_Dutch Blancmange._

Steep an ounce of the best isingla.s.s two hours in a pint of boiling water. Take a pint of white wine, the yolks of eight eggs well beaten, the juice of four lemons and one Seville orange, and the peel of one lemon; mix them together, and sweeten to your taste. Set it on a clear fire; keep it stirred till it boils, and then strain it off into moulds.

_Bread._

Forty pounds of flour, a handful of salt, one quart of yest, three quarts of water; stir the whole together in the kneading trough. Strew over it a little flour, and let it stand covered for one hour. Knead it and make it into loaves, and let them stand a quarter of an hour to rise, before you put them in the oven.

_Diet Bread, which keeps moist._

Three quarters of a pound of lump sugar, dissolved in a quarter of a pint of water, half a pound of the best flour, seven eggs, taking away the whites of two; mix the liquid sugar, when it has boiled, with the eggs: beat them up together in a basin with a whisk; then add by degrees the flour, beating all together for about ten minutes; put it into a quick oven. An hour bakes it.

Tin moulds are the best: the dimensions for this quant.i.ty are six inches in length and four in depth.

_Potato Bread._

Boil a quant.i.ty of potatoes; drain them well, strew over them a small quant.i.ty of salt, and let them remain in the vessel in which they were boiled, closely covered, for an hour, which makes them mealy: then peel and pound them as smooth as flour. Add eight pounds of potatoes to twelve of wheaten flour; and make it into dough with yest, in the way that bread is generally made. Let it stand three hours to rise.

_Rice Bread._

Boil a quarter of a pound of rice till it is quite soft; then put it on the back of a sieve to drain. When cold, mix it with three quarters of a pound of flour, a tea-cupful of milk, a proper quant.i.ty of yest, and salt. Let it stand for three hours; then knead it very well, and roll it up in about a handful of flour, so as to make the outside dry enough to put into the oven. About an hour and a quarter will bake a loaf of this size. When baked, it will produce one pound fourteen ounces of very good bread; it is better when the loaves are not made larger than the above-mentioned quant.i.ty will produce, but you may make any quant.i.ty by allowing the same proportion for each loaf. This bread should not be cut till it is two days old.

_Rye Bread._

Take one peck of wheaten flour, six pounds of rye flour, a little salt, half a pint of good yest, and as much warm water as will make it into a stiff dough. Let it stand three hours to rise before you put it into the oven. A large loaf will take three hours to bake.