Old Cookery Books and Ancient Cuisine Part 4

"There are indeed already in the world various books that treat on this subject, and which bear great names, as cooks to kings, princes, and n.o.blemen, and from which one might justly expect something more than many, if not most of these I have read, perform, but found my self deceived in my expectations; for many of them to us are impracticable, others whimsical, others unpalatable, unless to depraved palates; some unwholesome, many things copied from old authors, and recommended without (as I am persuaded) the copiers ever having had any experience of the palatableness, or had any regard to the wholesomness of them; which two things ought to be the standing rules, that no pretenders to cookery ought to deviate from. And I cannot but believe, that those celebrated performers, notwithstanding all their professions of having ingenuously communicated their art, industriously concealed their best receipts from the publick.

"But what I here present the world with is the product of my own experience, and that for the s.p.a.ce of thirty years and upwards; during which time I have been constantly employed in fas.h.i.+onable and n.o.ble families, in which the provisions ordered according to the following directions, have had the general approbation of such as have been at many n.o.ble entertainments.

"These receipts are all suitable to English const.i.tutions and English palates, wholesome, toothsome, all practicable and easy to be performed. Here are those proper for a frugal, and also for a sumptuous table, and if rightly observed, will prevent the spoiling of many a good dish of meat, the waste of many good materials, the vexation that frequently attends such mismanagements, and the curses not unfrequently bestowed on cooks with the usual reflection, that whereas G.o.d sends good meat, the devil sends cooks.

"As to those parts that treat of confectionary, pickles, cordials, English wines, &c., what I have said in relation to cookery is equally applicable to them also.

"It is true, I have not been so numerous in receipts as some who have gone before me, but I think I have made amends in giving none but what are approved and practicable, and fit either for a genteel or a n.o.ble Table; and altho' I have omitted odd and fantastical messes, yet I have set down a considerable number of receipts.

"The treatise is divided into ten parts: cookery contains above an hundred receipts, pickles fifty, puddings above fifty, pastry above forty, cakes forty, creams and jellies above forty, preserving an hundred, made wines forty, cordial waters and powders above seventy, medicines and salves above two hundred; in all near eight hundred.

"I have likewise presented you with schemes engraven on copper-plates for the regular disposition or placing the dishes of provision on the table according to the best manner, both for summer and winter, first and second courses, &c.

"As for the receipts for medicines, salves, ointments, good in several diseases, wounds, hurts, bruises, aches, pains, &c., which amount to above two hundred, they are generally family receipts, that have never been made publick; excellent in their kind, and approved remedies, which have not been obtained by me without much difficulty; and of such efficacy in distempers, &c., to which they are appropriated, that they have cured when all other means have failed; and a few of them which I have communicated to a friend, have procured a very handsome livelihood.

"They are very proper for those generous, charitable, and Christian gentlewomen that have a disposition to be serviceable to their poor country neighbours, labouring under any of the afflicted circ.u.mstances mentioned; who by making the medicines, and generously contributing as occasions offer, may help the poor in their afflictions, gain their good-will and wishes, ent.i.tle themselves to their blessings and prayers, and also have the pleasure of seeing the good they do in this world, and have good reason to hope for a reward (though not by way of merit) in the world to come.

"As the whole of this collection has cost me much pains and a thirty years' diligent application, and I have had experience of their use and efficacy, I hope they will be as kindly accepted, as by me they are generously offered to the publick: and if they prove to the advantage of many, the end will be answered that is proposed by her that is ready to serve the publick in what she may."

COOKERY BOOKS.

PART II.

SELECT EXTRACTS FROM AN EARLY RECEIPT-BOOK.

The earliest school of English Cookery, which had such a marked Anglo-Norman complexion, has been familiarised to us by the publication of Warner's _Antiquitates Culinaricae_, 1791, and more recently by the appearance of the "n.o.ble Book of Cookery" in Mrs.

Napier's edition, not to mention other aids in the same way, which are accessible; and it seemed to be doing a better service, when it became a question of selecting a few specimens of old receipts, to resort to the representative of a type of culinary philosophy and sentiment somewhere midway between those which have been rendered easy of reference and our own. I have therefore given in the few following pages, in a cla.s.sified shape, some of the highly curious contents of E. Smith's "Compleat Housewife," 1736, which maybe securely taken to exhibit the state of knowledge in England upon this subject in the last quarter of the seventeenth century and first quarter of the succeeding one. In the work itself no attempt at arrangement is offered.

I.--MEAT, POULTRY, ETC.

_To make Dutch-beef_:--Take the lean part of a b.u.t.tock of beef raw; rub it well with brown sugar all over, and let it lie in a pan or tray two or three hours, turning it three or four times; then salt it well with common salt and salt-petre, and let it lie a fortnight, turning it every day; then roll it very strait in a coa.r.s.e cloth, and put it in a cheese-press a day and a night, and hang it to dry in a chimney.

When you boil it, you must put it in a cloth: when 'tis cold, it will cut out into s.h.i.+vers as Dutch-beef.

_To dry Mutton to cut out in s.h.i.+vers as Dutch-Beef_:--Take a middling leg of mutton, then take half a pound of brown sugar, and rub it hard all over your mutton, and let it lie twenty-four hours; then take an ounce and half of saltpetre, and mix it with a pound of common salt, and rub that all over the mutton every other day, till 'tis all on, and let it lie nine days longer; keep the place free from brine, then hang it up to dry three days, then smoke it in a chimney where wood is burnt; the fire must not be too hot; a fortnight will dry it. Boil it like other hams, and when 'tis cold, cut it out in s.h.i.+vers like Dutch-beef.

_To stuff a Shoulder or Leg of Mutton with Oysters_:--Take a little grated bread, some beef-suet, yolks of hard eggs, three anchovies, a bit of an onion, salt and pepper, thyme and winter-savoury, twelve oysters, some nutmeg grated; mix all these together, and shred them very fine, and work them up with raw eggs like a paste, and stuff your mutton under the skin in the thickest place, or where you please, and roast it; and for sauce take some of the oyster-liquor, some claret, two or three anchovies, a little nutmeg, a bit of an onion, the rest of the oysters: stew all these together, then take out the onion, and put it under the mutton.

_To marinade a Leg of Lamb_:--Take a leg of lamb, cut it in pieces the bigness of a half-crown; hack them with the back of a knife; then take an eschalot, three or four anchovies, some cloves, mace, nutmeg, all beaten; put your meat in a dish, and strew the seasoning over it, and put it in a stew-pan, with as much white-wine as will cover it, and let it be two hours; then put it all together in a frying-pan, and let it be half enough; then take it out and drain it through a colander, saving the liquor, and put to your liquor a little pepper and salt, and half a pint of gravy; dip your meat in yolks of eggs, and fry it brown in b.u.t.ter; thicken up your sauce with yolks of eggs and b.u.t.ter, and pour it in the dish with your meat: lay sweet-breads and forc'd-meat b.a.l.l.s over your meat; dip them in eggs, and fry them.

Garnish with lemon.

_A Leg of Mutton a-la-Daube_:--Lard your meat with bacon through, but slant-way; half roast it; take it off the spit, and put it in a small pot as will boil it; two quarts of strong broth, a pint of white-wine, some vinegar, whole spice, bay-leaves, green onions, savoury, sweet-marjoram; when 'tis stew'd enough, make sauce of some of the liquor, mushrooms, lemon cut like dice, two or three anchovies: thicken it with browned b.u.t.ter. Garnish with lemon.

_To fry Cuc.u.mbers for Mutton Sauce_:--You must brown some b.u.t.ter in a pan, and cut the cuc.u.mbers in thin slices; drain them from the water, then fling them into the pan, and when they are fried brown, put in a little pepper and salt, a bit of an onion and gravy, and let them stew together, and squeeze in some juice of lemon; shake them well, and put them under your mutton.

_To make Pockets_:--Cut three slices out of a leg of veal, the length of a finger, the breadth of three fingers, the thickness of a thumb, with a sharp penknife; give it a slit through the middle, leaving the bottom and each side whole, the thickness of a straw; then lard the top with small fine lards of bacon; then make a forc'd-meat of marrow, sweet-breads, and lamb-stones just boiled, and make it up after 'tis seasoned and beaten together with the yolks of two eggs, and put it into your pockets as if you were filling a pincus.h.i.+on; then sew up the top with fine thread, flour them, and put melted b.u.t.ter on them, and bake them; roast three sweet-breads to put between, and serve them with gravy-sauce.

_To make a Florendine of Veal_:--Take the kidney of a loin of veal, fat and all, and mince it very fine; then chop a few herbs, and put to it, and add a few currants; season it with cloves, mace, nutmeg, and a little salt; and put in some yolks of eggs, and a handful of grated bread, a pippin or two chopt, some candied lemon-peel minced small, some sack, sugar, and orange-flower-water. Put a sheet of puff-paste at the bottom of your dish; put this in, and cover it with another; close it up, and when 'tis baked, sc.r.a.pe sugar on it; and serve it hot.

_To make a Tureiner_:--Take a china pot or bowl, and fill it as follows: at the bottom lay some fresh b.u.t.ter; then put in three or four beef-steaks larded with bacon; then cut some veal-steaks from the leg; hack them, and wash them over with the yolk of an egg, and afterwards lay it over with forc'd-meat, and roll it up, and lay it in with young chickens, pigeons and rabbets, some in quarters, some in halves; sweet-breads, lamb-stones, c.o.c.ks-combs, palates after they are boiled, peeled, and cut in slices: tongues, either hogs or calves, sliced, and some larded with bacon: whole yolks of hard eggs, pistachia-nuts peeled, forced b.a.l.l.s, some round, some like an olive, lemon sliced, some with the rind on, barberries and oysters: season all these with pepper, salt, nutmeg, and sweet-herbs, mix'd together after they are cut very small, and strew it on every thing as you put it in your pot: then put in a quart of gravy, and some b.u.t.ter on the top, and cover it close with a lid of puff-paste, pretty thick. Eight hours will bake it.

_To make Hams of Pork like Westphalia_:--To two large hams, or three small ones, take three pounds of common salt, and two pounds and half of brown coa.r.s.e sugar; mix both together, and rub it well into the hams, and let them lie seven days, turning them every day, and rub the salt in them, when you turn them; then take four ounces of salt-petre beat small, and mix with two handfuls of common salt, and rub that well in your hams, and let them lie a fortnight longer: then hang them up high in a chimney to smoke.

_To make a Ragoo of Pigs-Ears_:--Take a quant.i.ty of pigs-ears, and boil them in one half wine and the other water; cut them in small pieces, then brown a little b.u.t.ter, and put them in, and a pretty deal of gravy, two anchovies, an eschalot or two, a little mustard, and some slices of lemon, some salt, and nutmeg; stew all these together, and shake it up thick. Garnish the dish with barberries.

_To collar a Pig_:--Cut off the head of your pig; then cut the body asunder; bone it, and cut two collars off each side; then lay it in water to take out the blood; then take sage and parsley, and shred them very small, and mix them with pepper, salt, and nutmeg, and strew some on every side, or collar, and roll it up, and tye it with coa.r.s.e tape; so boil them in fair water and salt, till they are very tender: put two or three blades of mace in the kettle, and when they are enough, take them up, and lay them in something to cool; strain out some of the liquor, and add to it some vinegar and salt, a little white-wine, and three or four bay-leaves; give it a boil up, and when 'tis cold put it to the collars, and keep them for use.

_A Fricasy of Double Tripe_:--Cut your tripe in slices, two inches long, and put it into a stew-pan; put to it a quarter of a pound of capers, as much samphire shred, half a pint of strong broth, as much white-wine, a bunch of sweet-herbs, a lemon shred small; stew all these together till 'tis tender; then take it off the fire, and thicken up the liquor with the yolks of three or four eggs, a little parsley boiled green and chopp'd, some grated nutmeg and salt; shake it well together. Serve it on sippets. Garnish with lemon.

_To pot a Swan_:--Bone and skin your swan, and beat the flesh in a mortar, taking out the strings as you beat it; then take some clear fat bacon, and beat with the swan, and when 'tis of a light flesh colour, there is bacon enough in it; and when 'tis beaten till 'tis like dough, 'tis enough; then season it with pepper, salt, cloves, mace, and nutmeg, all beaten fine; mix it well with your flesh, and give it a beat or two all together; then put it in an earthen pot, with a little claret and fair water, and at the top two pounds of fresh b.u.t.ter spread over it; cover it with coa.r.s.e paste, and bake it with bread; then turn it out into a dish, and squeeze it gently to get out the moisture; then put it in a pot fit for it; and when 'tis cold, cover it over with clarified b.u.t.ter, and next day paper it up. In this manner you may do goose, duck, or beef, or hare's flesh.

_To make a Poloe_:--Take a pint of rice, boil it in as much water as will cover it; when your rice is half boiled, put in your fowl, with a small onion, a blade or two of mace, some whole pepper, and some salt; when 'tis enough, put the fowl in the dish, and pour the rice over it.

_To make a Pulpatoon of Pigeons_:--Take mushrooms, palates, oysters, sweet-breads, and fry them in b.u.t.ter; then put all these into a strong gravy; give them a heat over the fire, and thicken up with an egg and a bit of b.u.t.ter; then half roast six or eight pigeons, and lay them in a crust of forc'd-meat as follows: sc.r.a.pe a pound of veal, and two pounds of marrow, and beat it together in a stone mortar, after 'tis shred very fine; then season it with salt, pepper, spice, and put in hard eggs, anchovies and oysters; beat all together, and make the lid and sides of your pye of it; first lay a thin crust into your pattipan, then put on your forc'd-meat; then lay an exceeding thin crust over them; then put in your pigeons and other ingredients, with a little b.u.t.ter on the top. Bake it two hours.

_To keep Green Peas till Christmas_:--Sh.e.l.l what quant.i.ty you please of young peas; put them in the pot when the water boils; let them have four or five warms; then first pour them into a colander, and then spread a cloth on a table, and put them on that, and dry them well in it: have bottles ready dry'd, and fill them to the necks, and pour over them melted mutton-fat, and cork them down very close, that no air come to them: set them in your cellar, and when you use them, put them into boiling water, with a spoonful of fine sugar, and a good piece of b.u.t.ter: and when they are enough, drain and b.u.t.ter them.

II.--MEAT PIES AND PUDDINGS.

_A Battalia Pye_:--Take four small chickens, four squab pigeons, four sucking rabbets; cut them in pieces, season them with savoury spice, and lay 'em in the pye, with four sweet-breads sliced, and as many sheep's-tongues, two s.h.i.+ver'd palates, two pair of lamb-stones, twenty or thirty c.o.xcombs, with savoury-b.a.l.l.s and oysters. Lay on b.u.t.ter, and close the pye. A lear.

_To make an Olio Pye_:--Make your pye ready; then take the thin collops of the but-end of a leg of veal; as many as you think will fill your pye; hack them with the back of a knife, and season them with pepper, salt, cloves, and mace; wash over your collops with a bunch of feathers dipped in eggs, and have in readiness a good hand-full of sweet-herbs shred small; the herbs must be thyme, parsley, and spinage; and the yolks of eight hard eggs, minced, and a few oysters parboiled and chopt; some beef-suet shred very fine.

Mix these together, and strew them over your collops, and sprinkle a little orange-flower-water on them, and roll the collops up very close, and lay them in your pye, strewing the seasoning that is left over them; put b.u.t.ter on the top, and close up your pye; when 'tis drawn, put in gravy, and one anchovy dissolved in it, and pour it in very hot: and you may put in artichoke-bottoms and chesnuts, if you please, or sliced lemon, or grapes scalded, or what else is in season; but if you will make it a right savoury pye leave them out.

_To make a Lumber Pye_:--Take a pound and a half of veal, parboil it, and when 'tis cold chop it very small, with two pound of beef-suet, and some candied orange-peel; some sweet-herbs, as thyme, sweet-marjoram, and an handful of spinage; mince the herbs small before you put them to the other; so chop all together, and a pippin or two; then add a handful or two of grated bread, a pound and a half of currants, washed and dried; some cloves, mace, nutmeg, a little salt, sugar and sack, and put to all these as many yolks of raw eggs, and whites of two, as will make it a moist forc'd-meat; work it with your hands into a body, and make it into b.a.l.l.s as big as a turkey's egg; then having your coffin made put in your b.a.l.l.s. Take the marrow out of three or four bones as whole as you can: let your marrow lie a little in water, to take out the blood and splinters; then dry it, and dip it in yolk of eggs; season it with a little salt, nutmeg grated, and grated bread; lay it on and between your forc'd-meat b.a.l.l.s, and over that sliced citron, candied orange and lemon, eryngo-roots, preserved barberries; then lay on sliced lemon, and thin slices of b.u.t.ter over all; then lid your pye, and bake it; and when 'tis drawn, have in readiness a caudle made of white-wine and sugar, and thicken'd with b.u.t.ter and eggs, and pour it hot into your pye.

_Very fine Hogs Puddings_:--Shred four pounds of beef-suet very fine, mix with it two pounds of fine sugar powder'd, two grated nutmegs, some mace beat, and a little salt, and three pounds of currants wash'd and pick'd; beat twenty-four yolks, twelve whites of eggs, with a little sack; mix all well together, and fill your guts, being clean and steep'd in orange-flower-water; cut your guts quarter and half long, fill them half full; tye at each end, and again thus oooo. Boil them as others, and cut them in b.a.l.l.s when sent to the table.

_To make Plumb-Porridge_:--Take a leg and s.h.i.+n of beef to ten gallons of water, boil it very tender, and when the broth is strong, strain it out, wipe the pot, and put in the broth again; slice six penny-loaves thin, cutting off the top and bottom; put some of the liquor to it, cover it up, and let it stand a quarter of an hour, and then put it in your pot, let it boil a quarter of an hour, then put in five pounds of currants, let them boil a little, and put in five pounds of raisins, and two pounds of prunes, and let them boil till they swell; then put in three quarters of an ounce of mace, half an ounce of cloves, two nutmegs, all of them beat fine, and mix it with a little liquor cold, and put them in a very little while, and take off the pot, and put in three pounds of sugar, a little salt, a quart of sack, and a quart of claret, the juice of two or three lemons; you may thicken with sagoe instead of bread, if you please; pour them into earthen pans, and keep them for use.

III.--SWEET-PUDDINGS, PIES, ETC.

_To make New-College Puddings_:--Grate a penny stale loaf, and put to it a like quant.i.ty of beef-suet finely shred, and a nutmeg grated, a little salt, some currants, and then beat some eggs in a little sack, and some sugar, and mix all together, and knead it as stiff as for manchet, and make it up in the form and size of a turkey-egg, but a little flatter; then take a pound of b.u.t.ter, and put it in a dish, and set the dish over a clear fire in a chafing-dish, and rub your b.u.t.ter about the dish till 'tis melted; put your puddings in, and cover the dish, but often turn your puddings, until they are all brown alike, and when they are enough, sc.r.a.pe sugar over them, and serve them up hot for a side dish.

You must let the paste lie a quarter of an hour before you make up your puddings.

_To make a Spread-Eagle pudding_:--Cut off the crust of three half-penny rolls, then slice them into your pan; then set three pints of milk over the fire, make it scalding hot, but not boil; so pour it over your bread, and cover it close, and let it stand an hour; then put in a good spoonful of sugar, a very little salt, a nutmeg grated, a pound of suet after 'tis shred, half a pound of currants washed and picked, four spoonfuls of cold milk, ten eggs, but five of the whites; and when all is in, stir it, but not till all is in; then mix it well, b.u.t.ter a dish; less than an hour will bake it.

_To make a Cabbage Pudding_:--Take two pounds of the lean part of a leg of veal; take of beef-suet the like quant.i.ty; chop them together, then beat them together in a stone mortar, adding to it half a little cabbage, scalded, and beat that with your meat; then season it with mace and nutmeg, a little pepper and salt, some green gooseberries, grapes, or barberries in the time of year. In the winter put in a little verjuice; then mix all well together, with the yolks of four or five eggs well beaten; then wrap it up in green cabbage leaves; tye a cloth over it, boil it an hour: melt b.u.t.ter for sauce.

_To make a Calf's Foot Pudding_:--Take two calf's feet finely shred; then of biskets grated, and stale mackaroons broken small, the quant.i.ty of a penny loaf; then add a pound of beef-suet, very finely shred, half a pound of currants, a quarter of a pound of sugar; some cloves, mace and nutmeg, beat fine; a very little salt, some sack and orange-flower-water, some citron and candied orange-peel; work all these well together, with yolks of eggs; if you boil it, put it in the caul of a breast of veal, and tie it over with a cloth; it must boil four hours. For sauce, melt b.u.t.ter, with a little sack and sugar; if you bake it, put some paste in the bottom of the dish, but none on the brim; then melt half a pound of b.u.t.ter, and mix with your stuff, and put it in your dish, and stick lumps of marrow in it; bake it three or four hours; sc.r.a.pe sugar over it, and serve it hot.

_To make a Chestnut Pudding_:--Take a dozen and half of chestnuts, put them in a skillet of water, and set them on the fire till they will blanch; then blanch them, and when cold, put them in cold water, then stamp them in a mortar, with orange-flower-water and sack, till they are very small; mix them in two quarts of cream, and eighteen yolks of eggs, the whites of three or four; beat the eggs with sack, rose-water and sugar; put it in a dish with puff-paste; stick in some lumps of marrow or fresh b.u.t.ter, and bake it.