Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches by Eliza Leslie Published: 1840

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WARM CAKES FOR BREAKFAST AND TEA.

BUCKWHEAT CAKES.

Take a quart of buckwheat meal, mix with it a tea-spoonful of
salt, and add a handful of Indian meal. Pour a large table-spoonful
of the best brewer's yeast into the centre of the meal.
Then mix it gradually with cold water till it becomes a batter.
Cover it, put it in a warm place and set it to rise; it will take
about three hours. When it is quite light, and covered with
bubbles, it is fit to bake. Put your griddle over the fire, and
let it get quite hot before you begin. Grease it well with a piece
of butter tied in a rag. Then dip out a large ladle full of the
batter and bake it on the griddle; turning it with a broad wooden
paddle. Let the cakes be of large size, and even at the edges.
Ragged edges to batter cakes look very badly. Butter them as you
take them off the griddle. Put several on a plate, and cut them
across in six pieces.

Grease the griddle anew, between baking each cake.

If your batter has been mixed over night and is found to be sour
in the morning, melt in warm water a piece of pearl-ash the size
of a grain of corn, or a little larger; stir it into the batter;
let it set half an hour, and then bake it. The pearl-ash will
remove the sour taste, and increase the lightness of the cakes.


FLANNEL CAKES.

Put a table-spoonful of butter into a quart of milk, and warm them
together till the butter has melted; then stir it well, and set it
away to cool. Beat five eggs as light as possible, and stir them
into the milk in turn with three pints of sifted flour; add a
small tea-spoonful of salt, and a large table-spoonful and a half
of the best fresh yeast. Set the pan of batter near the fire to
rise; and if the yeast is good, it will be light in three hours.
Then bake it on a griddle in the manner of buckwheat cakes. Send
them to table hot, and cut across into four pieces. This batter
may be baked in waffle-irons. If so, send to table with the cakes
powdered white sugar and cinnamon.


INDIAN BATTER CAKES.

Mix together a quart of sifted Indian meal, (the yellow meal is
best for all purposes,) and a handful of wheat flour. Warm a quart
of milk, and stir into it a small tea-spoonful of salt, and two
large table-spoonfuls of the best fresh yeast. Beat three eggs
very light, and stir them gradually into the milk in turn with the
meal. Cover it, and set it to rise for three or four hours. When
quite light, bake it on a griddle in the manner of buckwheat
cakes. Butter them, cut them across, and send them to table hot,
with molasses in a sauce-boat.

If the batter should chance to become sour before it is baked,
stir in about a salt-spoonful of pearl-ash dissolved in a little
lukewarm water; and let it set half an hour longer before it is
baked.


INDIAN MUSH CAKES.

Pour into a pan three pints of cold water, and stir gradually into
it a quart of sifted Indian meal which has been mixed with half a
pint of wheat flour, and a small tea-spoonful of salt. Give it a
hard stirring at the last. Have ready a hot griddle, and bake the
batter immediately, in cakes about the size of a saucer. Send them
to table piled evenly, but not cut. Eat them with butter or
molasses.

This is the most economical and expeditious way of making soft
Indian cakes; but it cannot be recommended as the best. It will be
some improvement to mix the meal with milk rather than water.


JOHNNY CAKE.

Sift a quart of Indian meal into a pan; make a hole in the middle,
and pour in a pint of warm water. Mix the meal and water gradually
into a batter, adding a small tea-spoonful of salt. Beat it very
hard, and for a long time, till it becomes quite light. Then
spread it thick and even on a stout piece of smooth board. Place
it upright on the hearth before a clear fire, with a flat iron or
something of the sort to support the board behind, and bake it
well. Cut it into squares, and split and butter them hot.


INDIAN FLAPPERS.

Have ready a pint of sifted Indian meal, mixed with a handful of
wheat flour, and a small tea-spoonful of salt. Beat four eggs very
light, and stir them by degrees into a quart of milk, in turn with
the meal. They can be made in a very short time, and should be
baked as soon as mixed, on a hot griddle; allow a large ladle full
of batter to each cake, and make them all of the same size. Send
them to table hot, buttered and cut in half.


INDIAN MUFFINS.

Sift and mix together a pint and a half of yellow Indian meal, and
a handful of wheat flour. Melt a quarter of a pound of fresh
butter in a quart of milk. Beat four eggs very light, and stir
into them alternately (a little at a time of each) the milk when
it is quite cold, and the meal; adding a small tea-spoonful of
salt. The whole must be beaten long and hard. Then butter some
muffin rings; set them on a hot griddle, and pour some of the
batter into each.

Send the muffins to table hot, and split them by pulling them open
with your fingers, as a knife will make them heavy. Eat them with
butter, molasses or honey.


WATER MUFFINS.

Put four table-spoonfuls of fresh strong yeast into a pint of
lukewarm water. Add a little salt; about a small tea-spoonful;
then stir in gradually as much sifted flour as will make a thick
batter. Cover the pan, and set it in a warm place to rise. When it
is quite light, and your griddle is hot, grease and set your
muffin rings on it; having first buttered them round the inside.
Dip out a ladle full of the batter for each ring, and bake them
over a quick fire. Send them to table hot, and split them by
pulling open with your hands.


COMMON MUFFINS.

Having melted three table-spoonfuls of fresh butter in three pints
of warm milk, set it away to cool. Then beat three eggs as light
as possible, and stir them gradually into the milk when it is
quite cold; adding a tea-spoonful of salt. Stir in by degrees
enough of sifted flour to make a batter as thick as you can
conveniently beat it; and lastly, add two table-spoonfuls of
strong fresh yeast from the brewery. Cover the batter and set it
in a warm place to rise. It should be light in about three hours.
Having heated your griddle, grease it with some butter tied in a
rag; grease your muffin rings round the inside, and set them on
the griddle. Take some batter out of the pan with a ladle or a
large spoon, pour it lightly into the rings, and bake the muffins
of a light brown. When done, break or split them open with your
fingers; butter them and send them to table hot.


SODA BISCUITS.

Melt half a pound of butter in a pint of warm milk, adding a tea-spoonful
of soda; and stir in by degrees half a pound of sugar.
Then sift into a pan two pounds of flour; make a hole in the
middle; pour in the milk, &c., and mix it with the flour into a
dough. Put it on your paste-board, and knead it long and hard till
it becomes very light. Roll it out into a sheet half an inch
thick. Cut it into little round cakes with the top of a wine
glass, or with a tin cutter of that size; prick the tops; lay them
on tins sprinkled with flour, or in shallow iron pans; and bake
them of a light brown in a quick oven; they will be done in a few
minutes. These biscuits keep very well.


A SALLY LUNN.

This cake is called after the inventress. Sift into a pan a pound
and a half of flour. Make a hole in the middle, and put in two
ounces of butter warmed in a pint of milk, a salt-spoonful of
salt, three well-beaten eggs, and two table-spoonfuls of the best
fresh yeast. Mix the flour well into the other ingredients, and
put the whole into a square tin pan that has been greased with
butter. Cover it, set it in a warm place, and when it is quite
light, bake it in a moderate oven. Send it to table hot, and eat
it with butter.

Or, you may bake it on a griddle, in small muffin rings, pulling
the cakes open and buttering them when brought to table.


SHORT CAKES.

Rub three quarters of a pound of fresh butter into a
pound and a half of sifted flour; and make it into a dough with a
little cold water. Roll it out into a sheet half an inch thick,
and cut it into round cakes with the edge of a tumbler. Prick them
with a fork; lay them in a shallow iron pan sprinkled with flour,
and bake them in a moderate oven till they are brown. Send them to
table hot; split and butter them.


TEA BISCUIT.

Melt a quarter of a
pound of fresh butter in a quart of warm milk, and add a salt-spoonful
of salt. Sift two pounds of flour into a pan, make a hole
in the centre, and put in three table-spoonfuls of the best
brewer's yeast. Add the milk and butter and mix it into a stiff
paste. Cover it and set it by the fire to rise. When quite light,
knead it well, roll it out an inch thick, and cut it into round
cakes with the edge of a tumbler. Prick the top of each with a
fork; lay them in buttered pans and bake them light brown. Send
them to table warm, and split and butter them.


RICE CAKES.

Pick and wash half a pint of rice, and boil it very soft. Then drain
it, and let it get cold. Sift a pint and a half of flour over the
pan of rice, and mix in a quarter of a pound of butter that has
been warmed by the fire, and a salt-spoonful of salt. Beat five
eggs very light, and stir them gradually into a quart of milk.
Beat the whole very hard, and bake it in muffin rings, or in
waffle-irons. Send them to table hot, and eat them with butter,
honey, or molasses. You may make these cakes of rice flour instead
of mixing together whole rice and wheat flour.


CREAM CAKES.

Having
beaten three eggs very light, stir them into a quart of cream
alternately with a quart of sifted flour; and add one wine glass
of strong yeast, and a salt-spoon of salt. Cover the batter, and
set it near the fire to rise. When it is quite light, stir in a
large table-spoonful of butter that has been warmed by the fire.
Bake the cakes in muffin rings, and send them to table hot, split
with your fingers, and buttered.


FRENCH ROLLS.

Sift a pound of
flour into a pan, and rub into it two ounces of butter; mix in the
whites only of three eggs, beaten to a stiff froth, and a table-spoonful
of strong yeast; add sufficient milk to make a stiff
dough, and a salt-spoonful of salt. Cover it and set it before the
fire to rise. It should be light in an hour. Then put it on a
paste-board, divide it into rolls, or round cakes; lay them in a
floured square pan, and bake them about ten minutes in a quick
oven.


COMMON ROLLS.

Sift two pounds of flour into a pan, and mix
with it a tea-spoonful of salt. Warm together a jill of water and
a jill of milk. Make a hole in the middle of the pan of flour; mix
with the milk and water a jill of the best yeast, and pour it into
the hole. Mix into the liquid enough of the surrounding flour to
make a thin batter, which you must stir till quite smooth and free
from lumps. Then strew a handful of flour over the top, and set it
in a warm, place to rise for two hours or more. When it is quite
light, and has cracked on the top, make it into a dough with some
more milk and water. Knead it well for ten minutes. Cover it, and
set it again to rise for twenty minutes. Then make the dough into
rolls or round balls. Bake them in a square pan, and send them to
table hot, cut in three, buttered and put together again.

BREAD.


Take one peck or two gallons of fine wheat flour, and sift it into
a kneading trough, or into a small clean tub, or a large broad
earthen pan; and make a deep hole in the middle of the heap of
flour, to begin the process by what is called setting a sponge.
Have ready half a pint of warm water, which in summer should be
only lukewarm, but even in winter it must not be hot or boiling,
and stir it well into half a pint of strong fresh yeast; (if the
yeast is home-made you must use from three quarters to a whole
pint;) then pour it into the hole in the middle of the flour. With
a spoon work in the flour round the edges of the liquid, so as to
bring in by degrees sufficient flour to form a thin batter, which
must be well stirred about, for a minute or two. Then take a
handful of flour, and scatter it thinly over the top of this
batter, so as to cover it entirely. Lay a warmed cloth over the
whole, and set it to rise in a warm place; in winter put it nearer
the fire than in summer. When the batter has risen so as to make
cracks in the flour on the top, scatter over it three or four
table-spoonfuls (not more) of fine salt, and begin to form the
whole mass into a dough; commencing round the hole containing the
batter, and pouring as much soft water as is necessary to make the
flour mix with the batter; the water must never be more than
lukewarm. When the whole is well mixed, and the original batter
which is to give fermentation to the dough is completely
incorporated with it, knead it hard, turning it over, pressing it,
folding it, and working it thoroughly with your clenched hands for
twenty minutes or half an hour; or till it becomes perfectly light
and stiff. The goodness of bread depends much on the kneading,
which to do well requires strength and practice. When it has been
sufficiently worked, form the dough into a lump in the middle of
the trough or pan, and scatter a little dry flour thinly over it;
then cover it, and set it again in a warm place to undergo a
farther fermentation; for which, if all has been done rightly,
about twenty minutes or half an hour will be sufficient. The oven
should be hot by the time the dough has remained twenty minutes in
the lump. If it is a brick oven it should be heated by faggots or
small light wood, allowed to remain in till burnt down into coals.
When the bread is ready, clear out the coals, and sweep and wipe
the floor of the oven clean. Introduce nothing wet into the oven,
as it may crack the bricks when they are hot. Try the heat of the
bottom by throwing in some flour; and if it scorches and burns
black, do not venture to put in the bread till the oven has had
time to become cooler. Put the dough on the paste-board, (which
must be sprinkled with flour,) and divide it into loaves, forming
them of a good shape. Place them in the oven, and close up the
door, which you may open once or twice to see how the bread is
going on. The loaves will bake in from two hours and a half to
three hours, or more, according to their size. When the loaves are
done, wrap each in a clean coarse towel, and stand them up on end
to cool slowly. It is a good way to have the cloths previously
made damp by sprinkling them plentifully with water, and letting
them lie awhile rolled up tightly. This will make the crust of the
bread less dry and hard. Bread should be kept always wrapped in a
cloth, and covered from the air in a box or basket with a close
lid. Unless you have other things to bake at the same time, it is
not worth while to heat a brick oven for a small quantity of
bread. Two or three loaves can be baked very well in a stove,
(putting them into square iron pans,) or in a Dutch oven.
[Footnote: If you bake bread in a Dutch oven, take off the lid
when the loaf is done, and let it remain in the oven uncovered for
a quarter of an hour.] If the bread has been mixed over night
(which should never be done in warm weather) and is found, on
tasting it, to be sour in the morning, melt a tea-spoonful of
pearl-ash in a little milk-warm water, and sprinkle it over the
dough; let it set half an hour, and then knead it. This will
remove the acidity, and rather improve the bread in lightness. If
dough is allowed to freeze it is totally spoiled. All bread that
is sour, heavy, or ill-baked is not only unpalatable, but
extremely unwholesome, and should never be eaten. These accidents
so frequently happen when bread is made at home by careless,
unpractised or incompetent persons, that families who live in
cities or towns will generally risk less and save more, by
obtaining their bread from a professional baker. If you like a
little Indian in your wheat bread, prepare rather a larger
quantity of warm water for setting the sponge; stirring into the
water, while it is warming, enough of sifted Indian meal to make
it like thin gruel. Warm water that has had pumpkin boiled in it
is very good for bread. Strong fresh yeast from the brewery should
always be used in preference to any other. If the yeast is home-made,
or not very strong and fresh, double or treble the quantity
mentioned in the receipt will be necessary to raise the bread. On
the other hand, if too much yeast is put in, the bread will be
disagreeably bitter. [Footnote: If you are obliged from its want
of strength to put in a large quantity of yeast, mix with it two
or three handfuls of bran; add the warm water to it, and then
strain it through a sieve or cloth; or you may correct the
bitterness by putting in a few bits of charcoal and then straining
it.] You may take off a portion of the dough that has been
prepared for bread, make it up into little round cakes or rolls,
and bake them for breakfast or tea.


BRAN BREAD.

Sift into a pan three quarts of unbolted wheat meal. Stir a jill of strong yeast,
and a jill of molasses into a quart of soft water, (which must be
warm but not hot,) and add a small tea-spoonful of pearl-ash, or
sal-aratus. Make a hole in the heap of flour, pour in the liquid,
and proceed in the usual manner of making bread. This quantity may
be made into two loaves. Bran bread is considered very wholesome;
and is recommended to persons afflicted with dyspepsia.


RYE AND INDIAN BREAD.

Sift two quarts of rye, and two quarts of Indian meal, and mix
them well together. Boil three pints of milk; pour it boiling hot
upon the meal; add two tea-spoonfuls of salt, and stir the whole
very hard. Let it stand till it becomes of only a lukewarm heat,
and then stir in half a pint of good fresh yeast; if from the
brewery and quite fresh, a smaller quantity will suffice. Knead
the mixture into a stiff dough, and set it to rise in a pan. Cover
it with a thick cloth that has been previously warmed, and set it
near the fire. When it is quite light, and has cracked all over
the top, make it into two loaves, put them into a moderate oven,
and bake them two hours and a half.


COMMON YEAST.

Put a large handful of hops into two quarts of boiling water,
which must then be set on the fire again, and boiled twenty
minutes with the hops. Have ready in a pan three pints of sifted
flour; strain the liquid, and pour half of it on the flour. Let
the other half stand till it becomes cool, and then mix it
gradually into the pan with the flour, &c. Then stir into it half
a pint of good strong yeast, fresh from the brewery if possible;
if not, use some that was left of the last making. You may
increase the strength by stirring into your yeast before you
bottle it, four or five large tea-spoonfuls of brown sugar, or as
many table-spoonfuls of molasses.

Put it into clean bottles, and cork them loosely till the
fermentation is over. Next morning put in the corks tightly, and
set the bottles in a cold place. When you are going to bottle the
yeast it will be an improvement to place two or three raisins at
the bottom of each bottle. It is best to make yeast very
frequently; as, with every precaution, it will scarcely keep good
a week, even in cold weather. If you are apprehensive of its
becoming sour, put into each bottle a lump of pearl-ash the size
of a hazle-nut.


BRAN YEAST.

Mix a pint of wheat bran, and a handful of hops with a quart of
water, and boil them together about twenty minutes. Then strain it
through a sieve into a pan; when the liquid becomes only milk-warm,
stir into it four table-spoonfuls of brewer's yeast, and two
of brown sugar, or four of molasses. Put it into a wooden bowl,
cover it, and set it near the fire for four or five hours. Then
bottle it, and cork it tightly next day.


PUMPKIN YEAST.

Pare a fine ripe pumpkin, and cut it into pieces. Put them into a
kettle with a large handful of hops, and as much water as will
cover them. Boil them till the pumpkin is soft enough to pass
through a cullender. Having done this, put the pulp into a stone
jar, adding half a pint of good strong yeast to set it into a
fermentation. The yeast must be well stirred into the pumpkin.
Leave the jar uncovered till next day; then secure it lightly with
a cork. If pumpkin yeast is well made, and of a proper
consistence, neither too thick nor too thin, it will keep longer
than any other.


BAKER'S YEAST.

To a gallon of soft water put two quarts of wheat bran, one quart
of ground malt, (which may be obtained from a brewery,) and two
handfuls of hops. Boil them together for half an hour. Then strain
it through a sieve, and let it stand till it is cold; after which
put to it two large tea-cups of molasses, and half a pint of
strong yeast. Pour it into a stone jug, and let it stand uncorked
till next morning. Then pour off the thin liquid from the top, and
cork the jug tightly. When you are going to use the yeast, if it
has been made two or three days, stir in a little pearl-ash
dissolved in warm water, allowing a lump the size of a hickory-nut
to a pint of yeast. This will correct any tendency to sourness,
and make the yeast more brisk.


TO MAKE BUTTER.

Scald your milk pans every day after washing them; and let them
set till the water gets cold. Then wipe them with a clean cloth.
Fill them all with cold water half an hour before milking time,
and do not pour it out till the moment before you are ready to use
the pans. Unless all the utensils are kept perfectly sweet and
nice, the cream and butter will never be good. Empty milk-pans
should stand all day in the sun.

When you have strained the milk into the pans, (which should be
broad and shallow,) place them in the spring-house, setting them
down in the water. After the milk has stood twenty-four hours,
skim off the cream, and deposits it in a large deep earthen jar,
commonly called a crock, which must be kept closely covered, and
stirred up with a stick at least twice a day, and whenever you add
fresh cream to it. This stirring is to prevent the butter from
being injured by the skin that will gather over the top of the
cream.

You should churn at least twice a week, for if the cream is
allowed to stand too long, the butter will inevitably have a odd
taste. Add to the cream the strippings of the milk. Butter of only
two or three days gathering is the best. With four or five good
cows, you may easily manage to have a churning every three days.
If your dairy is on a large scale, churn every two days.

Have your churn very clean, and rinse and cool it with cold water.
A barrel churn is best; though a small upright one, worked by a
staff or dash, will do very well where there are but one or two
cows.

Strain the cream from the crock into the churn, and put on the
lid. Move the handle slowly in warm weather, as churning too fast
will make the butter soft. When you find that the handle moves
heavily and with great difficulty, the butter has come; that is,
it has separated from the thin fluid and gathered into a lump, and
it then is not necessary to churn any longer. Take it out with a
wooden ladle, and put it into a small tub or pail. Squeeze and
press it hard with the ladle, to get out all that remains of the
milk. Add a little salt, and then squeeze and work It for a long
time. If any of the milk is allowed to remain in, it will speedily
turn sour and spoil the butter. Set it away in a cool place for
three hours, and then work it over again. [Footnote: A marble slab
or table will be found of great advantage in working and making up
butter.] Wash it in cold water; weigh it; make it up into separate
pounds, smoothing, and shaping it; and clap each pound on your
wooden butter print, dipping the print every time in cold water.
Spread a clean linen cloth on a bench in the spring-house; place
the butter on it, and let it set till it becomes perfectly hard.
Then wrap each pound in a separate piece of linen that has been
dipped in cold water.

Pour the buttermilk into a clean crock, and place it in the
spring-house, with a saucer to dip it out with. Keep the pot
covered. The buttermilk will be excellent the first day; but
afterwards it will become too thick and sour. Winter buttermilk is
never very palatable.

Before you put away the churn, wash and scald it well; and the day
that you use it again, keep it for an hour or more filled with
cold water.

In cold weather, churning is a much more tedious process than in
summer, as the butter will be longer coming. It is best then to
have the churn in a warm room, or near the fire. If you wish to
prepare the butter for keeping a long time, take it after it has
been thoroughly well made, and pack it down tightly into a large
jar. You need not in working it, add more salt than if the butter
was to be eaten immediately. But preserve it by making a brine of
fine salt, dissolved in water. The brine must be strong enough to
bear up an egg on the surface without sinking. Strain the brine
into the jar, so as to be about two inches above the butter. Keep
the jar closely covered, and set it in a cool place.

When you want any of the butter for use, take it off evenly from
the top; so that the brine may continue to cover it at a regular
depth.

This receipt for making butter is according to the method in use
at the best farm-houses in Pennsylvania, and if exactly followed
will be found very good. The badness of butter is generally owing
to carelessness or mismanagement; to keeping the cream too long
without churning; to want of cleanliness in the utensils; to not
taking the trouble to work it sufficiently; or to the practice of
salting it so profusely as to render it unpleasant to the taste,
and unfit for cakes or pastry. All these causes of bad butter are
inexcusable, and can easily be avoided. Unless the cows have been
allowed to feed where there are bitter weeds or garlic, the milk
cannot naturally have any disagreeable taste, and therefore the
fault of the butter must be the fault of the maker. Of course, the
cream is much richer where the pasture is fine and luxuriant; and
in winter, when the cows have only dry food, the butter must be
consequently whiter and more insipid than in the grazing season.
Still, if properly made, even winter butter cannot taste badly.

Many economical housekeepers always buy for cooking, butter of
inferior quality. This is a foolish practice; as when it is bad,
the taste will predominate through all attempts to disguise it,
and render every thing unpalatable with which it is combined. As
the use of butter is designed to improve and not to spoil the
flavour of cookery, it is better to omit it altogether, and to
substitute something else, unless you can procure that which is
good. Lard, suet, beef-drippings, and sweet oil, may be used in
the preparation of various dishes; and to eat with bread or warm
cakes, honey, molasses, or stewed fruit, &c, are far superior to
bad butter.


CHEESE.

In making good cheese, skim milk is never used. The milk should either
be warm from the cow or heated to that temperature over the fire.
When the rennet is put in, the heat of the milk should be from 90
to 96 degrees. Three quarts of milk will yield, on an average, about
a pound of cheese. In infusing the rennet, allow a quart of lukewarm
water, and a table-spoonful of salt to a piece about half the size
of your hand. The rennet must soak all night in the water before
it can be fit for use. In the morning (after taking as much of it
as you want) put the rennet water into a bottle and cork it
tightly. It will keep the better for adding to it a wine glass of
brandy. If too large a proportion of rennet is mixed with the
milk, the cheese will be tough and leathery.

To make a very good cheese, take three buckets of milk warm from
the cow, and strain it immediately into a large tub or kettle.
Stir into it half a tea-cupful of infusion of rennet or rennet-water;
and having covered it, set it in a warm place for about
half an hour, or till it becomes a firm curd. Cut the curd into
squares with a large knife, or rather with a wooden slitting-dish,
and let it stand about fifteen minutes. Then break it up fine with
your hands, and let it stand a quarter of an hour longer. Then
pour off from the top as much of the whey as you can; tie up the
curd in a linen cloth or bag, and hang it up to drain out the
remainder of the whey; setting a pan under it to catch the
droppings. After all the whey is drained out, put the curd into
the cheese-tray, and cut it again into slices; chop it coarse; put
a cloth about it; place it in the cheese-hoop or mould, and set it
in the screw press for half an hour, pressing it hard. [Footnote:
If you are making cheese on a small scale, and have not a regular
press, put the curd (after you have wrapped it in a cloth) into a
small circular wooden box or tub with numerous holes bored in the
bottom; and with a lid that fits the inside exactly. Lay heavy
weights on the lid in such a manner as to press evenly all over.]
Then take it out; chop the curd very fine; add salt to your taste;
and put it again into the cheese-hoop with a cloth about it, and
press it again. You must always wet the cloth all over to prevent
its sticking to the cheese, and tearing the surface. Let it remain
in the press till next morning, when you must take it out and turn
it; then wrap it in a clean wet cloth, and replace it in the
press, where it must remain all day. On the following morning
again take out the cheese; turn it, renew the cloth, and put it
again into the press. Three days pressing will be sufficient.

When you finally take it out of the press, grease the cheese all
over with lard, and put it on a clean shelf in a dry dark room, or
in a wire safe. Wipe, grease, and turn it carefully every day. If
you omit this a single day the cheese will spoil. Keep the shelf
perfectly clean, and see that the cheese does not stick to it.
When the cheese becomes firm, you may omit the greasing; but
continue to rub it all over every day with a clean dry cloth.
Continue this for five or sis weeks; the cheese will then be fit
to eat.

The best time for making cheese is when the pasture is in
perfection.

You may enrich the colour of the cheese by a little anatto or
arnotta; of which procure a small quantity from the druggist,
powder it, tie it in a muslin rag, and hold it in the warm milk,
(after it is strained,) pressing out the colouring matter with
your fingers, as laundresses press their indigo or blue rag in the
tub of water. Anatto is perfectly harmless.

After they begin to dry, (or ripen, as it is called,) it is the
custom in some dairy-farms, to place the cheeses in the haystack,
and keep them there among the hay for five or six weeks. This is
said greatly to improve their consistence and flavour. Cheeses are
sometimes ripened by putting them every day in fresh grass.


SAGE CHEESE.

Take some of the young top leaves of the sage plant, and pound
them in a mortar till you have extracted the juice. Put the juice
into a bowl, wipe out the mortar, put in some spinach leaves, and
pound them till you have an equal quantity of spinach juice. Mix
the two juices together, and stir them into the warm milk
immediately after you have put in the rennet. You may use sage
juice alone; but the spinach will greatly improve the colour;
besides correcting the bitterness of the sage.


STILTON CHEESE.

Having strained the morning's milk, and skimmed the cream from the
milk of the preceding evening, mix the cream and the new milk
together while the latter is quite warm, and stir in the rennet-water.
When the curd has formed, you must not break it up, (as is
done with other cheese,) but take it out all at once with a wooden
skimming dish, and place it on a sieve to drain gradually. While
it is draining, keep pressing it gently till it becomes firm and
dry. Then lay a clean cloth at the bottom of a wooden cheese-hoop
or mould, which should have a few small holes bored in the bottom.
The cloth must be large enough for the end to turn over the top
again, after the curd is put in. Place it in the press for two
hours; turn it, (putting a clean cloth under it,) and press it
again for six or eight hours. Then turn it again, rub the cheese
all over with salt, and return it to the press for fourteen hours.
Should the edges of the cheese project, they must be pared off.

When you take it finally out of the press, bind it round tightly
with a cloth, (which must be changed every day when you turn the
cheese,) and set it on a shelf or board. Continue the cloths till
the cheese is firm enough to support itself; rubbing or brushing
the outside every day when you turn it. After the cloths are left
off, continue to brush the cheese every day for two or three
months; during which time it may be improved by keeping it covered
all round, under and over, with grass, which must be renewed every
day, and gathered when quite dry after the dew is off. Keep the
cheese and the grass between two large plates.

A Stilton cheese is generally made of a small size, seldom larger
in circumference than a dinner plate, and about four or five
inches thick. They are usually put up for keeping, in cases of
sheet lead, fitting them exactly. There is no cheese superior to
them in richness and mildness.

Cream cheeses (as they are generally called) may be made in this
manner. They are always eaten quite fresh, while the inside is
still somewhat soft. They are made small, and are sent to table
whole, cut across into triangular slices like a pie or cake. After
they become fit to eat, they will keep good but a day or two, but
they are considered while fresh very delicious.


COTTAGE CHEESE.

This is that preparation of milk vulgarly called Smear Case. Take
a pan of milk that has just began to turn sour; cover it, and set
it by the fire till it becomes a curd. Pour off the whey from the
top, and tie up the curd in a pointed linen bag, and hang it up to
drain; setting something under it to catch the droppings. Do not
squeeze it. Let it drain all night, and in the morning put the
curd into a pan, (adding some rich cream,) and work it very fine
with a spoon, chopping and pressing it till about the consistence
of a soft bread pudding. To a soup plate of the fine curd put a
tea-spoonful of salt; and a piece of butter about the size of a
walnut; mixing all thoroughly together. Having prepared the whole
in this manner, put it into a stone or china vessel; cover it
closely, and set it in a cold place till tea time. You may make it
of milk that is entirely sweet by forming the curd with rennet.


A WELSH RABBIT.

Toast some slices of bread, (having cut off the crust,) butter
them, and keep them hot. Grate or shave down with a knife some
fine mellow cheese: and, if it is not very rich, mix with it a few
small bits of butter. Put it into a cheese-toaster, or into a
skillet, and add to it a tea-spoonful of made mustard; a little
cayenne pepper; and if you choose, a wine glass of fresh porter or
of red wine. Stir the mixture over hot coals, till it is
completely dissolved; and then brown it by holding over it a
salamander, or a red-hot shovel. Lay the toast in the bottom and
round the sides of a deep dish; put the melted cheese upon it, and
serve it up as hot as possible, with dry toast in a separate
plate; and accompanied by porter or ale.

This preparation of cheese is for a plain supper.

Dry cheese is frequently grated on little plates for the tea-table.


TO MAKE CHOCOLATE

To each square of a chocolate cake allow three jills, or a
chocolate cup and a half of boiling water. Scrape down the
chocolate with a knife, and mix it first to a paste with a small
quantity of the hot water; just enough to melt it in. Then put it
into a block tin pot with the remainder of the water; set it on
hot coals; cover it, and let it boil (stirring it twice) till the
liquid is one third reduced. Supply that third with cream or rich
milk; stir it again, and take it off the fire. Serve it up as hot
as possible, with dry toast, or dry rusk. It chills immediately.
If you wish it frothed, pour it into the cup, and twirl round in
it the little wooden instrument called a chocolate mill, till you
nave covered the top with foam.


TO MAKE TEA.

In buying tea, it is best to get it by the box, of an importer,
that you may be sure of having it fresh, and unmixed with any that
is old and of inferior quality. The box should be kept in a very
dry place. If green tea is good, it will look green in the cup
when poured out. Black tea should be dark coloured and have a
fragrant flowery smell. The best pots for making tea are those of
china. Metal and Wedgwood tea-pots by frequent use will often
communicate a disagreeable taste to the tea. This disadvantage may
be remedied in Wedgwood ware, by occasionally boiling the tea-pots
in a vessel of hot water.

In preparing to make tea, let the pot be twice scalded from the
tea-kettle, which must be boiling hard at the moment the water is
poured on the tea; otherwise it will be weak and insipid, even
when a large quantity is put in. The best way is to have a chafing
dish, with a kettle always boiling on it, in the room where the
tea is made. It is a good rule to allow two tea-spoonfuls of tea
to half a pint or a large cupful of water, or two tea-spoonfuls
for each grown person that is to drink tea, and one spoonful
extra. The pot being twice scalded, put in the tea, and pour on
the water about ten minutes before you want to fill the cups, that
it may have time to draw or infuse. Have hot water in another pot,
to weaken the cups of those that like it so. That the second
course of cups may be as strong as the first, put some tea into a
cup just before you sit down to table, pour on it a very little
boiling water, (just enough to cover it,) set a saucer over it to
keep in the steam, and let it infuse till you have filled all the
first cups; then add it to that already in the tea-pot, and pour
in a little boiling water from the kettle. Except that it is less
convenient for a large family, a kettle on a chafing dish is
better than an urn, as the water may be kept longer boiling.

In making black tea, use a larger quantity than of green, as it is
of a much weaker nature. The best black teas in general use are
pekoe and pouchong; the best green teas are imperial, young hyson,
and gunpowder.


TO MAKE COFFEE.

The manner in which coffee is roasted is of great importance to
its flavour. If roasted too little, it will be weak and insipid;
if too much, the taste will be bitter and unpleasant. To have it
very good, it should be roasted immediately before it is made,
doing no more than the quantity you want at that time. It loses
much of its strength by keeping, even in twenty-four hours after
roasting. It should on no consideration be ground till directly
before it is made. Every family should be provided with a coffee
roaster, which is an iron cylinder to stand before the fire, and
is either turned by a handle, or wound up like a jack to go of
itself. If roasted in an open pot or pan, much of the flavour
evaporates in the process. Before the coffee is put into the
roaster, it should be carefully examined and picked, lest there
should be stones or bad grains among it. It should be roasted of a
bright brown; and will be improved by putting among it a piece of
butter when about half done.

Watch it carefully while roasting, looking at it frequently.

A coffee-mill affixed to the wall is far more convenient than one
that must he held on the lap. It is best to grind the coffee while
warm.

Allow half a pint of ground coffee to three pints of water. If the
coffee is not freshly roasted, you should put in more. Put the
water into the tin coffee-pot, and set it on hot coals; when it
boils, put in the coffee, a spoonful at a time, (stirring it
between each spoonful,) and add two or three chips of isinglass,
or the white of an egg. Stir it frequently, till it has risen up
to the top in boiling; then set it a little farther from the fire,
and boil it gently for ten minutes, or a quarter of an hour; after
which pour in a tea-cup of cold water, and put it in the corner to
settle for ten minutes. Scald your silver or china pot, and
transfer the coffee to it; carefully pouring it off from the
grounds, so as not to disturb them.

If coffee is allowed to boil too long, it will lose much of its
strength, and also become sour.


FRENCH COFFEE.

To make coffee without boiling, you must have a biggin, the best
sort of which is what in France is called a Grecque. They are to
be had of various sizes and prices at the tin stores. Coffee made
in this manner is much less troublesome than when boiled, and
requires no white of egg or isinglass to clear it. The coffee
should be freshly roasted and ground. Allow two cupfuls of ground
coffee to sis cupfuls of boiling water. Having first scalded the
biggin, (which should have strainers of perforated tin, and not of
linen,) put in the coffee, and pour on the water, which should be
boiling hard at the time. Shut down the lid, place the pot near
the fire, and the coffee will be ready as soon as it has all
drained through the coarse and fine strainers into the receiver
below the spout. Scald your china or silver pot, and pour the
coffee into it. But it is best to have a biggin in the form of an
urn, in which the coffee can both be made and brought to table.

For what is called milk coffee,--boil the milk or cream
separately; bring it to table in a covered vessel, and pour it hot
into the coffee, the flavour of which will be impaired if the milk
is boiled with it.


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