The accomplisht cook Part 49

Take spinage boil'd, green peese, green apric.o.c.ks, green plums quodled, peaches quodled, green necturnes quodled, gooseberries quodled, green sorrel, and the juyce of green wheat.

_To bake Apric.o.c.ks green._

Take young green apric.o.c.ks, so tender that you may thrust a pin through the stone, scald them and sc.r.a.pe the out side, of putting them in water as you peel them till your tart be ready, then dry them and fill the tart with them, and lay on good store of fine sugar, close it up and bake it, ice it, sc.r.a.pe on sugar, and serve it up.

_To bake Mellacattons._

Take and wipe them clean, and put them in a pie made scollop ways, or in some other pretty work, fill the pie, and put them in whole with weight for weight in refined sugar, close it up and bake it, being baked ice it.

Sometimes for change you may add to them some chips or bits of whole cinamon, a few whole cloves, and slic't ginger.

_To preserve Apric.o.c.ks, or any Plums green._

Take apric.o.c.ks when they are so young and green, that you may put a needle through stone and all, but all other plums may be taken green, and at the highest growth, then put them in indifferent hot water to break them, & let them stand close cover'd in that hot water till a thin skin will come off with sc.r.a.ping, all this while they will look yellow; then put them into another skillet of hot water, and let them stand covered until they turn to a perfect green, then take them out, weigh them, take their weight in sugar and something more, and so preserve them. Clarifie the sugar with the white of an egg, and some water.

_To preserve Apric.o.c.ks being ripe._

Stone them, then weigh them with sugar, and take weight for weight, pare them and strow on the sugar, let them stand till the moisture of the apric.o.c.ks hath wet the sugar, and stand in a sirrup: then set them on a soft fire, not suffering them to boil, till your sugar be all melted; then boil them a pretty s.p.a.ce for half an hour, still stirring them in the sirrup, then set them by two hours, and boil them again till your sirrup be thick, and your apric.o.c.ks look clear, boil up the sirrup higher, then take it off, and being cold put in the apric.o.c.ks into a gally-pot or gla.s.s, close them up with a clean paper, and leather over all.

_To preserve Peaches after the Venetian way._

Take twenty young peaches, part them in two, and take out the stones, then take as much sugar as they weigh, and some rose-water, put in the peaches, and make a sirrup that it may stand and stick to your fingers, let them boil softly a while, then lay them in a dish, and let them stand in the same two or three days, then set your sirrup on the fire, let it boil up, and then put in the peaches, and so preserve them.

_To preserve Mellacattons._

Stone them and parboil them in water, then peel off the outward skin of them, they will boil as long as a piece of beef, and therefore you need not fear the breaking of them; when they are boil'd tender make sirrup of them as you do of any other fruit, and keep them all the year.

_To preserve Cherries._

Take a pound of the smallest cherries, but let them be well coloured, boil them tender in a pint of fair water, then strain the liquor from the cherries and take two pound of other fair cherries, stone them, and put them in your preserving-pan, with a laying of cherries and a laying of sugar, then pour the sirrup of the other strained cherries over them, and let them boil as fast as maybe with a blazing fire, that the sirrup may boil over them; when you see that the sirrup is of a good colour, something thick, and begins to jelly, set them a cooling, and being cold pot them; and so keep them all the year.

_To preserve Damsins._

Take damsins that are large and well coloured, (but not throw ripe, for then they will break) pick them clean and wipe them one by one; then weigh them, and to every pound of damsins you must take a pound of Barbary sugar, white & good, dissolved in half a pint or more of fair water; boil it almost to the height of a sirrup, and then put in the damsins, keeping them with a continual sc.u.ming and stirring, so let them boil on a gentle fire till they be enough, then take them off and keep them all the year.

_To preserve Grapes as green as Gra.s.s._

Take grapes very green, stone them and cut them into little bunches, then take the like quant.i.ty of refin'd sugar finely beaten, & strew a row of sugar in your preserving pan, and a lay of grapes upon it, then strow on some more sugar upon them, put to them four or five spoonfuls of fair water, and boil them up as fast as you can.

_To preserve Barberries._

Take barberries very fair and well coloured, pick out the stones, weigh them, and to every ounce of barberries take three ounce of hard sugar, half an ounce of pulp of barberries, and an ounce of red rose-water to dissolve the sugar; boil it to a sirrup, then put in the barberries and let them boil a quarter of an our, then take them up, and being cool pot them, and they will keep their colour all the year. Thus you may preserve red currans, _&c._

_To preserve Gooseberries green._

Take some of the largest gooseberries that are called Gascoyn gooseberries, set a pan of water on the fire, and when it is lukewarm put in the berries, and cover them close, keep them warm half an hour; then have another posnet of warm water, put them into that, in like sort quoddle them three times over in hot water till they look green; then pour them into a sieve, let all the water run from them, and put them to as much clarified sugar as will cover them, let them simmer leisurely close covered, then your gooseberries will look as green as leek blades, let them stand simmering in that sirrup for an hour, then take them off the fire, and let the sirrup stand till it be cold, then warm them once or twice, take them up, and let the sirrup boil by it self, pot them, and keep them.

_To preserve Rasberries._

Take fair ripe rasberries, (but not over ripe) pick them from the stalk, then take weight for weight of double refined sugar, and the juyce of rasberries; to a pound of rasberries take a quarter of a pint of raspa.s.s juyce, and as much of fair water, boil up the sugar and liquor, and make the sirrup, sc.u.m it, and put in the raspa.s.s, stir them into the sirrup, and boil them not too much; being preserved take them up, and boil the sirrup by it self, not too long, it will keep the colour; being cold, pot them and keep them.

Thus you may also preserve strawberries.

_The time to preserve Green Fruits._

Gooseberries must be taken about _Whitsuntide_, as you see them in bigness, the long gooseberry will be sooner than the red; the white wheat plum, which is ever ripe in Wheat harvest, must be taken in the midst of _July_, the pear plum in the midst of _August_, the peach and pippin about _Bartholomew-tide_, or a little before; the grape in the first week of _September_. Note that to all your green fruits in general that you will preserve in sirup, you must take to every pound of fruit, a pound and two ounces of sugar, and a grain of musk; your plum, pippin and peach will have three quarters of an hour boiling, or rather more, and that very softly, keep the fruit as whole as you can; your grapes and gooseberries must boil half an hour something fast and they will be the fuller. Note also, that to all your Conserves you take the full weight of sugar, then take two skillets of water, and when they are scalding hot put the fruits first into one of them and when that grows cold put them in the other, changing them till they be about to peel, then peel them, and afterwards settle them in the same water till they look green, then take them and put them into sugar sirrup, and so let them gently boil till they come to a jelly; let them stand therein a quarter of an hour, then put them into a pot and keep them.

SECTION XI.

_To make all manner of made Dishes, with or without Paste._

_To make a Paste for a Pie._

Take to a gallon of flour a pound of b.u.t.ter, boil it in fair water, and make the paste up quick.

_To make cool b.u.t.ter Paste for Patty-Pans or Pasties._

Take to every peck of flour five pound of b.u.t.ter, the whites of six eggs, and work it well together with cold spring water; you must bestow a great deal of pains, and but little water, or you put out the millers eyes. This paste is good only for patty-pan and pasty.

Sometimes for this paste put in but eight yolks of eggs, and but two whites, and six pound of b.u.t.ter.

_To make Paste for thin bak'd Meats._

The paste for your thin and standing bak'd meats must be made with boiling water, then put to every peck of flour two pound of b.u.t.ter, but let your b.u.t.ter boil first in your liquor.

_To make Custard Paste._

Let it be only boiling water and flour without b.u.t.ter, or put sugar to it, which will add to the stiffness of it, & thus likewise all pastes for Cuts and Orangado Tarts, or such like.