The cooks shall be busied, by day and by night, In roasting and _boiling_, for taste and delight.

Provision is making for beer, ale, and wine, For all that are willing or ready to dine.

Meantime goes the caterer to fetch in _the chief_,-- _Plum pudding_, goose, capon, minced pies, and roast beef.

ANCIENT CHRISTMAS CAROL.

One quarter of a pound of beef suet; take out the strings and skin; chop it to appear like b.u.t.ter; stone one pound of raisins, one pound of currants, well washed, dried, and floured, one pound loaf sugar, rolled and sifted, one pound of flour, eight eggs well beaten; beat all well together for some time, then add by degrees two gla.s.ses of brandy, one wine, one rose-water, citron, nutmeg, and cinnamon; beat it all extremely well together, tie it in a floured cloth very tight, let it boil four hours constantly; let your sauce be a quarter pound of b.u.t.ter, beat to a cream, a quarter pound loaf sugar pounded and sifted; beat in the b.u.t.ter with a little wine and sugar and nutmeg.

COCOANUT PUDDING.

Whatever was the _best pie_ going, In _that_ Ned--trust him--had his finger.

MOORE.

Take the thin brown skin off of a quarter pound of cocoa, wash it in cold water, and wipe it dry; grate it fine, stir three and half ounces of b.u.t.ter and a quarter pound of powdered sugar, to a cream; add half teaspoonful of rose-water, half gla.s.s of wine and of brandy mixed, to them. Beat the white of six eggs till they stand alone, and then stir them into the b.u.t.ter and sugar; afterwards sprinkle in the grated nut, and stir hard all the time. Put puff paste into the bottom of the dish, pour in the mixture, and bake it in a moderate oven, half an hour. Grate loaf sugar over it when cold.

APPLE PUDDING.

Where London's column, pointing to the skies, Like a tall bully, lifts the head and lies, There dwelt a citizen of sober fame, A plain, good man, and Balaam was his name; Religious, punctual, frugal, and so forth, His word would pa.s.s for more than he was worth; One solid dish his week-day meal affords, And _apple pudding_ solemnized the Lord's.

POPE.

Make a batter of two eggs, a pint of milk and three or four spoonfuls of flour; pour it into a deep dish, and having pared six or eight apples, place them whole in the batter, and bake them.

HASTY PUDDING.

But man, more fickle, the bold license claims, In different realms, to give thee different names.

_Thee_, the soft nations round the warm Levant Polanta call; the French, of course, Polante.

E'en in thy native regions, how I blush To hear the Pennsylvanians call thee _mush_!

All spurious appellations, void of truth; I've better known thee from my earliest youth: Thy name is _Hasty Pudding_! Thus our sires Were wont to greet thee from the fuming fires; And while they argued in thy just defence, With logic clear, they thus explained the sense: "In _haste_ the boiling caldron, o'er the blaze, Receives and cooks the ready-powdered maize; In haste 'tis served, and then in equal _haste_, With cooling milk, we make the sweet repast.

No carving to be done, no knife to grate The tender ear, and wound the stony plate; But the smooth spoon, just fitted to the lip, And taught with art the yielding ma.s.s to dip, By frequent journeys to the bowl well stored, Performs the _hasty_ honors of the board."

Such is thy name, significant and clear,-- A name, a sound, to every Yankee dear; But most to me, whose heart and palate chaste Preserve my pure, hereditary taste.

BARLOW.

YORKSHIRE PUDDING.

The strong table groans Beneath the smoking sirloin, stretch'd immense From side to side; in which with desperate knife They deep incisions make, and talk the while Of England's glory, ne'er to be defaced While hence they borrow vigor; or amain Into the _pudding_ plunged at intervals, If stomach keen can intervals allow, Relating all the glories of the chase.

THOMSON.

This pudding is especially an excellent accompaniment to a sirloin of beef. Six tablespoonfuls of flour, three eggs, a teaspoonful of salt, and a pint of milk, make a middling stiff batter; beat it up well; take care it is not lumpy. Put a dish under the meat; let the drippings drop into it, till it is quite hot and well greased; then pour in the batter.

When the upper surface is browned and set, turn it, that both sides may be brown alike. A pudding an inch thick will take two hours. Serve it under the roast beef, that the juice of the beef may enter it. It is very fine.

SUET PUDDING.

Sir Balaam now, he lives like other folks; He takes his chirping, and cracks his jokes.

Live like yourself, was soon my lady's word; And lo! _suet pudding_ was seen upon the board.

POPE.

Suet, a quarter of a pound; flour, three tablespoonfuls; eggs two, and a little grated ginger; milk, half a pint. Mince the suet as fine as possible; roll it with the rolling-pin, so as to mix it well with the flour; beat up the eggs, mix them with the milk, and then mix them all together; wet your cloth well in boiling water, and boil it an hour and a quarter. Mrs. Gla.s.se has it: "When you have made your water boil, then put your pudding into your pot."

OATMEAL PUDDING.

Of oats decorticated take two pounds, And of new milk enough the same to drown; Of raisins of the sun, stoned, ounces eight; Of currants, cleanly picked, an equal weight; Of suet, finely sliced, an ounce at least; And six eggs, newly taken from the nest: Season this mixture well with salt and spice; 'Twill make a pudding far exceeding rice; And you may safely feed on it like farmers, For the recipe is learned Dr. Harmer's.

EVE'S PUDDING.

If you want a good pudding, mind what you are taught: Take eggs, six in number, when bought for a groat; The fruit with which Eve her husband did cozen, Well pared and well chopped, take at least half a dozen; Six ounces of bread--let the cook eat the crust-- And crumble the soft as fine as the dust; Six ounces of currants from the stalks you must sort, Lest they husk out your teeth, and spoil all the sport; Six ounces of sugar won't make it too sweet, And some salt and some nutmeg will make it complete.

Three hours let it boil, without any flutter, And Adam won't like it without sugar and b.u.t.ter.

ANONYMOUS.

CHARLOTTE DES POMMES.

_Charlotte_, from rennet apples first did frame _A pie_, which still retains her name.

Though common grown, yet with white sugar stewed, And b.u.t.ter'd right, its goodness is allowed.

KING.

Pare, core, and mince fifteen French rennet apples; put them into a frying-pan with some powdered loaf sugar, a little pounded cinnamon, grated lemon-peel, and two ounces and a half of fresh b.u.t.ter; fry them a quarter of an hour over a quick fire, stirring them constantly. b.u.t.ter the shape the size the Charlotte is intended to be; cut strips of bread long enough to reach from the bottom to the rim of the shape, so that the whole be lined with bread; dip each bit into melted b.u.t.ter, and put a layer of fried apples, and one of apricot jam or marmalade, and then one of bread dipped into b.u.t.ter; begin and finish with it. Bake it in an oven for an hour. Turn it out to serve.

BATTER PUDDING.

A frugal man, upon the whole, Yet loved his friend, and had a soul; Knew what was handsome, and would do't On just occasion, coute qui coute.

He brought him bacon (nothing lean); _Pudding_, that might have pleased a dean; Cheese, such as men of Suffolk make, But wished it Stilton for his sake.

POPE.

Take six ounces of flour, a little salt, and three eggs; beat it well with a little milk, added by degrees, till the batter becomes smooth; make it the thickness of cream; put it into a b.u.t.tered and floured bag; tie it tightly; boil one and a half hour, or two hours. Serve with wine sauce.

APPLE DUMPLINGS.

By the rivulet, on the rushes, Beneath a canopy of bushes, Colin Blount and Yorkshire Tray Taste the _dumplings_ and the whey.

SMART.

Pare and scoop out the core of six large baking apples; put part of a clove and a little grated lemon-peel inside of each, and enclose them in pieces of puff paste; boil them in nets for the purpose, or bits of linen, for an hour. Before serving, cut off a small bit from the top of each, and put a teaspoonful of sugar and a bit of fresh b.u.t.ter; replace the bit of paste, and strew over them pounded loaf sugar.

SWEETMEAT FRITTERS.

If chronicles may be believed, So loved the pamper'd gallant lived, That with the nuns he always dined On rarities of every kind; Then h.o.a.rds, occasionally varied, Of biscuits, _sweetmeats_, nuts, and fruits.

Cut small any sort of candied fruit, and heat it with a bit of fresh b.u.t.ter, some good milk, and a little grated lemon-peel; when quite hot, stir in enough of flour to make it into a stiff paste; take it off the fire, and work in eight or ten eggs, two at a time. When cold, form the fritters, fry, and serve them with pounded loaf sugar strewed over them.

FRITTERS.