Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches by Eliza Leslie Published: 1840
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MISCELLANEOUS RECEIPTS.
MINCED OYSTERS.
Take fifty fine large oysters, and mince them raw. Chop also four
or five small pickled cucumbers, and a bunch of parsley. Grate
about two tea-cupfuls of stale bread-crumbs, and beat up the yolks
of four eggs. Mix the whole together in a thick batter, seasoning
it with cayenne and powdered mace; and with a little salt if the
oysters are fresh. Have ready a pound of lard, and melt in the
frying-pan enough of it to fry the oysters well. If the lard is in
too small a quantity they will be flat and tough. When the lard is
boiling hot in the pan, put in about a table-spoonful at a time of
the oyster-mixture, and fry it in the form of small fritters;
turning them so as to brown on both sides. Serve them up hot, and
eat them with small bread rolls.
STEWED BLACK FISH.
Flour a deep dish, and lay in the bottom a piece of butter rolled
in flour. Then sprinkle it with a mixture of parsley, sweet
marjoram, and green onion; all chopped fine. Take your black fish
and rub it inside and outside with a mixture of cayenne, salt, and
powdered cloves and mace. Place skewers across the dish, and lay
the fish upon them. Then pour in a little wine, and sufficient
water to stew the fish. Set the dish in a moderate oven, and let
it cook slowly for an hour.
Shad or rock fish may be dressed in the same manner.
FRIED SMELTS.
These little fish are considered extremely fine. Before they are
cooked, cut off the heads and tails. Sprinkle the smelts with
flour, and have ready in a frying pan over the fire plenty of
fresh lard or butter. When it boils, put in the fish and fry them.
BROILED SWEET-BREADS.
Split open and skewer the sweet-breads; season them with pepper and
salt, and with powdered mace. Broil them on a gridiron till
thoroughly done. While they are broiling, prepare some melted
butter seasoned with mace and a little white wine, or mushroom
catchup; and have ready some toast with the crust cut off. Lay the
toast in the bottom of a dish; place the sweet-breads upon it, and
pour over them the drawn butter.
PICKLED EGGS.
Boil twelve eggs quite hard, and lay them in cold water; having
peeled off the shells. Then put them whole into a stone jar, with
a quarter of an ounce of whole mace, and the same quantity of
cloves; a sliced nutmeg; a table-spoonful of whole pepper; a small
bit of ginger; and a peach leaf. Fill up the jar with boiling
vinegar; cover it closely that the eggs may cool slowly. When they
are cold, tie up the jar; covering the cork with leather. After it
has stood three days pour off the pickle, boil it up again, and
return it boiling hot to the eggs and spice. They will be fit for
use in a fortnight.
GUMBO SOUP.
Take four pounds of the lean of a fresh round of beef and cut the
meat into small pieces, avoiding carefully all the fat. Season the
meat with a little pepper and salt, and put it on to boil with
three quarts and a pint of water (not more.) Boil it slowly and
skim it well. When no more scum rises, put in half a peck of
ochras, peeled and sliced, and half a peck of tomatas cut in
quarters. Boil it slowly till the ochras and tomatas are entirely
dissolved, and the meat all to rags. Then strain it through a
cullender, and send it to table with slices of dry toast. This
soup cannot be made in less than seven or eight hours. If you dine
at two, you must put on the meat to boil at six or seven in the
morning. It should be as thick as a jelly.
SHREWSBURY CAKES.
Rub three quarters of a pound of butter into two pounds of sifted
flour, and mix in half a pound of powdered sugar, and half a pound
of currants, washed and dried. Wet it to a stiff paste with rich
milk. Roll it out, and cut it into cakes. Lay them on buttered
baking sheets, and put them into a moderate oven.
RICE FLUMMERY.
To two quarts of milk allow half a pound of ground rice. Take out
one pint of the milk, and mix the rice gradually with it into a
batter; making it quite smooth and free from lumps. Put the three
pints of milk into a skillet, (with a bunch of peach leaves or a
few peach-kernels.) and let it come to a boil. Then while it is
still boiling, stir in by degrees the rice batter, taking care not
to have it lumpy; add sugar, mace, and rose brandy to your taste;
or you may flavour it with a small tea-spoonful of oil of lemon.
When it has boiled sufficiently, and is quite thick, strain it,
and put it into a mould to congeal. Make a rich boiled custard,
(flavoured in the same manner,) and send it to table in a pitcher
to eat with the flummery. Both should be cold. If you mould it in
tea-cups, turn it out on a deep dish, and pour the custard round
it.
APPLE BUTTER WITHOUT CIDER.
To ten gallons of water add six gallons of the best molasses,
mixing them well together. Put it into a large kettle over a good
fire; let it come to a hard boil, and skim it as long as any scum
continues to rise. Then take out half the liquid, and put it into
a tub. Have ready eight bushels of fine sound apples, pared, cored
and quartered. Throw them gradually into the liquid that is still
boiling on the fire. Let it continue to boil hard, and as it
thickens, add by degrees the other half of the molasses and water,
(that which has been put into the tub.) Stir it frequently to
prevent its scorching, and to make it of equal consistence
throughout. Boil it ten or twelve hours, continuing to stir it. At
night take it out of the kettle, and set it in tubs to cool;
covering it carefully. Wash out the kettle and wipe it very dry.
Next morning boil the apple butter six or eight hours longer; it
should boil eighteen hours altogether. Half an hour before you
take it finally out, stir in a pound of mixed spice; cloves,
allspice, cinnamon, and nutmeg, all finely powdered. When entirely
done, put up the apple butter in stone or earthen jars. It will
keep a year or more.
It can, of course, be made in a smaller quantity than that given
in the above receipt; and also at any time in the winter; fresh
cider not being an ingredient, as in the most usual way of making
apple butter.
AN APPLE POT PIE.
Make a paste, allowing a pound of butter, or of chopped suet to
two pounds and a quarter of flour. Have ready a sufficient
quantity of fine juicy acid apples, pared, cored, and sliced. Mix
with them brown sugar enough to sweeten them, a few cloves, and
some slips of lemon-peel. Butter the inside of an iron pot, and
line it with some of the paste. Then put in the apples,
interspersing them with thin squares of paste, and add a very
little water. Cover the whole with a thick lid of the dough, which
must be carefully closed round the edges. Pour on water enough to
fill the pot, and let it boil two hours. When done, serve it up on
a large dish, and eat it with butter and sugar.
PUDDING CATCHUP.
Mix together half a pint of noyau; a pint of sherry or other white
wine; the yellow peel of four lemons, pared thin; and half an
ounce of mace. Put the whole into a large bottle, and let it stand
for two or three weeks. Then strain it, and add half a pint of
capillaire or strong sugar syrup; or of Curaçoa. Bottle it, and it
will keep two or three years. It may be used for various sweet
dishes, but chiefly for pudding-sauce mixed with melted butter.
CURAÇOA.
Pound as much dried orange-peel as will make six ounces when done;
the peel of fresh shaddock will be still better; or you may
substitute six drachms of the oil of orange-peel. Put it into a
quart of the strongest and clearest rectified spirit; shake it,
let it infuse for a fortnight, and strain it. Then make a syrup by
dissolving a pound of the best loaf-sugar in a pint of cold water,
adding to it the beaten white of an egg, and boiling and skimming
it till the scum ceases to rise. Mix the syrup with the strained
liquor. Let it stand till next day, and then filter it through
white blotting paper fastened to the bottom of a sieve. Curaçoa is
a great improvement to punch; also a table-spoonful of it in a
tumbler of water makes a very refreshing summer drink.
PATENT YEAST.
Boil half a pound of fresh hops in four quarts of water, till the
liquid is reduced to two quarts Strain it, and mix in sufficient
wheat flour to make a thin batter; adding half a pint of strong
fresh yeast, (brewer's yeast, if it can be procured.) When it is
done fermenting, pour it into a pan, and stir in sufficient Indian
meal to make a moderately stiff dough. Cover it, and set it in a
warm place to rise. When it has become very light, roll it out
into a thick sheet, and cut it into little cakes. Spread them out
on a dish, and let them dry gradually in a cool place where there
is no sun. Turn them five or six times a day while drying; and
when they are quite dry, put them into paper bags, and keep them
in a jar or box closely covered, in a place that is not in the
least damp.
When you want the yeast for use, dissolve in a little warm water
one or more of the cakes, (in proportion to the quantity of bread
you intend making,) and when it is quite dissolved, stir it hard,
thicken it with a little flour, cover it, and place it near the
fire to rise before you use it. Then mix it with the flour in the
usual manner of preparing bread.
This is a very convenient way of preserving yeast through the
summer, or of conveying it to a distance.
TO DRY HERBS.
By drying herbs with artificial heat as quickly as possible, you
preserve their scent and flavour much better than when they are
dried slowly by exposing them to the sun and air; a process by
which a large portion of their strength evaporates. All sorts of
herbs are in the greatest perfection just before they begin to
flower. Gather them on a dry day, and place them in an oven, which
must not be hot enough to discolour, scorch, or burn them. When
they are quite dry, take them out, and replace them with others.
Pick the leaves from, the stems, (which may be thrown away,) and
put them into bottles or jars; cork them tightly, and keep them in
a dry place. Those that are used in cookery should be kept in a
kitchen closet.
PEACH KERNELS.
When peaches are in season, have in a convenient place an old
basket or something of the sort, in which all the peach stones can
be saved; they are too useful to be thrown away. Then have them
carefully cracked, so as to extract the kernels whole if possible.
Spread them out on a dish for one day. Then, put them into a box
or jar, and keep them to use as bitter almonds; for which they are
an excellent substitute in flavouring custards, creams and cakes.
Plum stones are worth saving in the same manner.
LEMON-PEEL.
Never throw away the rind of a lemon; Keep a wide-mouthed bottle
half full of brandy, and put into it (cut in pieces) all the
lemon-rind that you do not immediately want. As the white part of
the rind is of no use, it will be best to pare off the yellow very
thin, and put that alone into the brandy, which will thus imbibe a
very fine lemon flavour, and may be used for many nice purposes.
TO KEEP TOMATAS.
Take fine ripe tomatas, and wipe them dry, taking care not to
break the skin. Put them, into a stone jar with cold vinegar,
adding a small thin muslin bag filled with mace, whole cloves, and
whole peppers. Then cork the jar tightly with a cork that has been
dipped in melted rosin, and put it away in a dry place. Tomatas
pickled in this manner keep perfectly well and retain their
colour. For this purpose use the small round button tomatas.
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