Then mash it into a smooth ma.s.s. Have some puff-paste sh.e.l.ls baked empty; and when cool, fill them to the top, and grate nutmeg and powdered sugar thickly over them. The juice and grated yellow rind of a lemon (added when the rhubarb is half stewed,) will be a pleasant flavoring. This is sometimes called "spring-fruit" and "pie-plant." It comes earlier, but is by no means so good as gooseberries. We do not think it worth preserving, or making into a sweetmeat.

VOL-AU-VENT.--Have ready a large quant.i.ty of the best and lightest puff paste. Roll it an inch thick, and then cut it neatly into shapes, either square or circular. Bake every one separately on a flat tin pan, cutting a round hole in the centre of each, and fitting in pieces of stale bread to keep the holes open while baking. The cakes of paste should diminish in size as they ascend to the top, but the holes should all be of exactly the same dimensions. The lower cake, which goes at the bottom, should be solid and not perforated at all. The small cake which finishes the top of the pyramid must also be left solid, for a lid. When all the cakes are baked and risen high, (as good puff-paste always does) take them carefully off the baking plates; remove the bread that has kept the centres open and in shape; brush over every cake, separately, with beaten white of egg, and pile one upon another nicely and evenly so as to form a pyramid. Have ready a very nice stew of oysters or game cut small, and cooked with cream, &c. Fill the pyramid with this, and then put on the top or lid, which may terminate in a flower of baked paste.

_A Sweet Vol-au-Vent_--May be filled with small preserves, or with ripe strawberries or raspberries, made very sweet. Vol-au-vents are for dinner, or supper parties. The paste should be peculiarly light. The name _Vol-au-vent_ signifies, in French, something that will fly away in the wind; which, however, it never does.

A SOUFFLe PUDDING.--Take eight rusks, or soft sugar-biscuits, or plain buns. Lay them in a large deep dish, and pour on a pint of milk, sufficient to soak them thoroughly. Cover the dish, and let them stand undisturbed for about an hour and a half before dinner. In the mean time, boil half a pint of milk in a small sauce-pan with a handful of bitter almonds or peach kernels broken small, or a small bunch of fresh peach-leaves, with two large sticks of cinnamon, broken up. Boil this milk slowly, (keeping it covered,) and when it tastes strongly of the flavoring articles, strain it, and set it away to cool. When cold, mix it into another pint of milk, and stir in a quarter of a pound of powdered loaf sugar. Beat eight eggs very light, and add them gradually to the milk, so as to make a rich custard. After dinner has commenced, beat and stir the soaked rusk very hard till it becomes a smooth ma.s.s, and then, by degrees, add to it the custard. Stir the whole till thoroughly amalgamated. Set the dish into a brisk oven, and bake the pudding rather more than ten minutes. The yeast, &c., in the rusk, will cause it to puff up very light. When done, send it to table warm, with white sugar sifted over it. You may serve up with it as sauce sweetened thick cream flavored with rose-water, and grated nutmeg, or powdered loaf sugar and fresh b.u.t.ter stirred together in equal portions, and seasoned with lemon or nutmeg.

ICED PLUM PUDDING.--Take two dozen sweet and half a dozen bitter almonds. Blanch them in scalding water, and then throw them into a bowl of cold water. Pound them one at a time in a mortar, till they become a smooth paste, free from the smallest lumps. As you proceed, add frequently a few drops of rose-water or lemon juice to make them light, and prevent their oiling. Seed and cut in half a quarter of a pound of the best bloom raisins. Mix with them a quarter of a pound of Zante currants, picked, washed, and dried; and add to the raisins and currants three ounces of citron, chopped. Mix the citron with the raisins and currants, and dredge them all with flour to prevent their sinking or clodding. Take a half pint of very rich milk; split a vanilla bean, and cut it into pieces two or three inches long, and boil it in the milk till the flavor of the vanilla is well extracted; then strain it out, and mix the vanilla milk with a pint of rich cream, and stir in, gradually, a half pound of powdered loaf sugar, and a nutmeg grated.

Then add the pounded almonds, and a large wine-gla.s.s of either marasquino, noyau, curacoa, or the very best brandy. Beat, in a shallow pan, the yolks of eight eggs till very light, thick, and smooth, and stir them gradually into the mixture. Simmer it over the fire, (stirring it all the time,) but take it off just as it is about to come to a boil, otherwise it will curdle. Then, while the mixture is hot, stir in the raisins, currants, and citron. Set it to cool, and then add a large tea-cupful of preserved strawberries or raspberries, half a dozen preserved apricots or peaches; half a dozen preserved green limes; and any other very nice and delicate sweetmeats. Then whip to a stiff froth another pint of cream, and add it lightly to the mixture. Put the whole into a large melon-mould that opens in the middle, and freeze it in the usual way. It will take four hours to freeze it well. Do not turn it out till just before it is wanted. Then send it to table on a gla.s.s dish. It will be found delicious. Iced puddings are now considered indispensable on fashionable supper tables or at dinner parties. There is no flour in this pudding. The freezing will keep it together.

RENNETS.--Milk turned into a curd with wine is by no means so good as that which is done with rennet-water alone. The curd and whey do not separate so completely; the curd is less firm, and the whey less clear; the latter being thick and white, instead of thin and greenish, as it ought to be. Neither is it so light and wholesome as when turned with rennet.

Rennets of the best quality can be had at all seasons in the Philadelphia market; particularly in the lower part, called the Jersey market. They are sold at twelve, eighteen, or twenty-five cents, according to their size, and will keep a year or two; but have most strength when fresh. You may prepare excellent rennets yourself at a very trifling expense, by previously bespeaking them of a veal butcher; a rennet being the stomach of a calf. Its form is a bag. As soon as you get the rennet, empty out all its contents, and wipe it very clean, inside and out; then rince it with cold water, but do not wash it much, as washing will weaken its power of turning milk into curd. When you have made it quite clean, lay the rennet in a broad pan, strew it over on both sides with plenty of fine salt; cover it, and let it rest five days. When you take it out of the pan, do not wipe or wash it, for it must be stretched and dried with the salt on. For this purpose hold it open like a bag, and slip within it a long, thick, smooth rod, bent into the form of a large loop wide at the top, and so narrow at the bottom as to meet together. Stretch the rennet tightly and smoothly over this bent rod, on which it will be double, and when you have brought the two ends of the rod together at the bottom, and tied them fast, the form will somewhat resemble that of a boy's kite. Hang it up in a dry place, and cut out a bit as you want it. A piece about two inches square will turn one quart of milk; a piece of four inches, two quarts. Having first washed off all the salt in several cold waters, and wiped the bit of rennet dry, pour on it sufficient _lukewarm_ water to cover it well. Let it stand several hours; then pour the rennet-water into the milk you intend for the curd, and set it in a warm place. When the curd is entirely formed, set the vessel on ice.

Rennet may be used with good effect before it has _quite_ dried.

AN EASY WAY OF MAKING b.u.t.tER IN WINTER.--The following will be found an excellent method of making b.u.t.ter in cold weather for family use. We recommend its trial. Take, in the morning, the unskimmed milk of the preceding evening, (after it has stood all night in a _tin_ pan,) and set it over a furnace of hot coals, or in a stove; being careful not to disturb the cream that has risen to the surface. Let it remain over the fire till it simmers, and begins to bubble round the edges; but on no account let it come to a boil. Then take the pan carefully off, (without disturbing the cream) and carry it to a cool place, but not where it is cold enough to freeze. In the evening take a spoon, and loosen the cream round the sides of the pan. If very rich, it will be almost a solid cake. Slip off the sheet of cream into another and larger pan, letting as little milk go with it as possible. Cover it, and set it away. Repeat the process for several days, till you have thus collected a sufficiency of clotted cream to fill the pan. Then scald a wooden ladle, and beat the cream hard with it during ten minutes. You will then have excellent b.u.t.ter. Take it out of the pan, lay it on a flat dish, and with the ladle squeeze and press it hard, till all the b.u.t.termilk is entirely extracted and drained off. Then wash the b.u.t.ter in cold water, and work a very little salt into it. Set it away in a cool place for three hours.

Then squeeze and press it again; also washing it a second time in cold water. Make it up into pats, and keep it in a cool place.

The unskimmed morning's milk, of course, may also be used for this purpose, after it has stood twelve hours. The simmering over the fire adds greatly to the quant.i.ty of cream, by throwing all the oily part of the milk to the surface; but if allowed to boil, this oleaginous matter will again descend, and mix with the rest, so as not to be separated.

This is the usual method of making winter b.u.t.ter in the south of England; and it is very customary in the British provinces of America.

Try it.

SWEET POTATO PONE.--Stir together till very light and white, three quarters of a pound of fresh b.u.t.ter, and three quarters of a pound of powdered white sugar, adding two table-spoonfuls of ginger. Grate a pound and a half of sweet potato. Beat eight eggs very light, and stir them gradually into the b.u.t.ter and sugar, in turn with the grated sweet potato. Dissolve a tea-spoonful of saleratus or soda in a jill of sour milk, and stir it in at the last, beating the whole very hard. b.u.t.ter the inside of a tin pan. Put in the mixture, and bake it four hours or more. It should be eaten fresh, cut into slices.

RICE BREAD.--To a pint of well boiled rice add half a pint of wheat flour, mixing them well together. Take six eggs, and beat the whites and yolks separately. Having beaten the whites to a stiff froth, mix them gradually with a pint of rich milk, and two large table-spoonfuls of fresh b.u.t.ter, softened at the fire. Mix, by degrees, the yolks of the eggs with the rice and flour. Then add the white-of-egg mixture, a little at a time. Stir the whole very hard. Put it into a b.u.t.tered tin pan with straight or upright sides. Set it in a moderate oven, and bake it an hour or more. Then turn it out of the pan, put it on a dish, and send it warm to the breakfast table, and eat it with b.u.t.ter.

This cake may be baked, by setting the pan that contains it into an iron dutch-oven, placed over hot coals. Heat the lid of the oven on the inside, by standing it up before the fire while the rice-bread is preparing; and, after you put it on, keep the lid covered with hot coals.

Rice-bread may be made of ground rice flour, instead of whole rice.

RICE FLOUR BREAD.--Sift into a pan a pint and a half of rice flour, and a pint and a half of fine wheat flour. Add two large table-spoonfuls of fresh b.u.t.ter or lard, and mix in a pint and a half of milk. Beat four eggs very light; then stir them gradually into the mixture. When the whole has been well mixed, add, at the last, a small tea-spoonful of soda or saleratus, dissolved in as much warm water as will cover it. Put the whole into a b.u.t.tered tin pan, set it immediately into a quick oven, and bake it well. It is best when eaten fresh. Slice and b.u.t.ter it.

RICE FLOUR BATTER CAKES.--Melt a quarter of a pound of fresh b.u.t.ter, or lard, in a quart of milk; but be careful not to let it begin to boil.

Divide the milk equally, by putting it into two pans. Beat three eggs very light, and stir them into one half of the milk with the addition of a large table-spoonful of wheat flour. Stir in as much ground rice flour as will make a thick batter. Then put in a _small_ tea-cupful of strong fresh yeast, and thin the batter with the remainder of the milk. Cover it, and set it to rise. When it has risen high, and is covered with bubbles, bake it on a griddle in the manner of buckwheat cakes. Send them to table hot, and b.u.t.ter them.

Similar cakes may be made with indian meal instead of rice flour.

GROUND-NUT MACAROONS.--Take a sufficiency of ground-nuts, or pea-nuts, that have been roasted in an iron pot over the fire; remove the sh.e.l.ls, and weigh a pound of the nuts. Put them into a pan of cold water, and wash off the skins. Have ready some beaten white of egg. Pound the ground-nuts (two or three at a time,) in a marble mortar, adding frequently a little cold water to prevent their oiling. They must be pounded to a smooth light paste; and, as you proceed, remove the paste to a saucer or a plate. Beat, to a stiff froth, the whites of four eggs, and then beat into it gradually a pound of powdered loaf sugar, and a large tea-spoonful of powdered mace and nutmeg mixed. Then stir in, by degrees, the pounded ground-nuts, till the mixture becomes very thick.

Flour your hands, and roll between them portions of the mixture, forming each portion into a little ball. Lay sheets of white paper on flat baking tins, and place on them the macaroons at equal distances, flattening them all a little, so as to press down the b.a.l.l.s into cakes.

Then sift powdered sugar over each. Place them in a brisk oven, with more heat at the top than in the bottom. Bake them brown.

Almond macaroons may be made as above, mixing one quarter of a pound of sh.e.l.led bitter almonds, with three quarters of sh.e.l.led sweet almonds.

For almond macaroons, instead of flouring your hands, you may dip them in cold water; and when the macaroons are formed on the papers, go slightly over every one with your fingers wet with cold water.

Macaroons may be made, also, of grated cocoa-nut mixed with beaten white of egg and powdered sugar.

COLUMBIAN PUDDING.--Tie up closely in a bit of very thin muslin a split vanilla bean, cut into pieces, and a broken-up stick of cinnamon. Put this bag, with its contents, into half a pint of rich milk, and boil it a long time till very highly flavored. Then take out the bag; set the milk near the fire to keep warm in the pan in which it was boiled, covering it closely. Slice thin a pound of almond sponge cake, and lay it in a deep dish. Pour over it a quart of rich cream, with which you must mix the vanilla-flavored milk, and leave the cake to dissolve in it. Blanch, in scalding water, two ounces of sh.e.l.led bitter almonds or peach kernels, and pound them (one at a time,) to a smooth paste in a marble mortar, pouring on each a few drops of rose-water or peach-water to prevent their oiling. When the almonds are done, set them away in a cold place till wanted. Beat eight eggs till very light and thick; and having stirred together hard the dissolved cake and the cream, add them gradually to the mixture in turn with the almond, and half a pound of powdered loaf sugar, a little at a time of each. b.u.t.ter a deep dish, and put in the mixture. Set the pudding into a brisk oven and bake it well. Have ready a star nicely cut out of a large piece of candied citron, a number of small stars, all of equal size, as many as there are States in the Union, and a sufficiency of rays or long strips also cut out of citron. The rays should be wide at the bottom and run to a point at the top. As soon as the pudding comes out of the oven, while it is smoking, arrange these decorations. Put the large star in the centre, then the rays so that they will diverge from it, narrowing off towards the edge of the pudding. Near the edge place the small stars in a circle.

Preserved citron-melon will be still better for this purpose than the dry candied citron.

This is a very fine pudding; suitable for a dinner party, or a Fourth of July dinner.

A WASHINGTON PUDDING.--Pick, and wash clean half a pound of Zante currants; drain them, and wipe them in a towel, and then spread them out on a flat dish, and place them before the fire to dry thoroughly.

Prepare about a quarter of a pound or half a pint of finely-grated bread-crumbs. Have ready a heaping tea-spoonful of powdered mace, cinnamon, and nutmeg mixed. When the currants are dry, dredge them thickly on all sides with flour, to prevent their sinking or clodding in the pudding while baking. Cut up in a deep pan half a pound of the best fresh b.u.t.ter, and add to it half a pound of fine white sugar, powdered.

Stir the b.u.t.ter and sugar together with a wooden spaddle, till they are very light and creamy. Then add a table-spoonful of wine, and a table-spoonful of brandy. Beat in a shallow pan, eight eggs till perfectly light, and as thick as a good boiled custard. Afterwards, mix with them, gradually, a pint of rich milk and the grated bread-crumbs, stirred in alternately. Next, stir this mixture, by degrees, into the pan of beaten b.u.t.ter and sugar, and add the currants a few at a time.

Finish with a table-spoonful of strong rose-water; or a wine-gla.s.s full, if it is not very strong. Stir the whole very hard. b.u.t.ter a large deep white dish, or two of soup-plate size. Put in the batter. Set it directly into a brisk oven, and bake it well. When cold, dredge the surface with powdered sugar. Serve it up in the dish in which it was baked. You may ornament the tops with bits of citron cut into leaves and forming a wreath; or with circles of preserved strawberries.

This will be found a very fine pudding. It must be baked in time to become quite cold before dinner.

For currants, you may subst.i.tute raisins of the best quality; seeded, cut in half, and well dredged with flour.

Instead of rose-water you may stir in the yellow rind (finely grated) of one large lemon, or two small ones, and their juice also.

A COTTAGE PUDDING.--Take ripe currants, and having stripped them from the stalks, measure as many as will make a heaping quart. Cover the bottom of a deep dish with slices of bread, slightly b.u.t.tered, and with the crust cut off. Put a thick layer of currants on the bread, and then a layer of sugar. Then other layers of bread, currants, and sugar, till the dish is full; finishing at the top with very thin slices of bread.

Set it into the oven, and bake it half an hour. Serve it either warm or cold; and eat it with sweetened cream.

Instead of currants you may take cherries, (first stoning them all,) raspberries, ripe blackberries, or barberries, plums, (first extracting the stones,) stewed cranberries, or stewed gooseberries. If the fruit is previously stewed, the pudding will require but ten minutes' baking.

When it is sent to table, have sugar at hand in case it should not be sweet enough.

ICE-CREAM CAKES.--Stir together, till very light, a quarter of a pound of powdered sugar and a quarter of a pound of fresh b.u.t.ter. Beat six eggs very light, and stir into them a half pint of rich milk. Add, gradually, the eggs and milk to the b.u.t.ter and sugar, alternately with a half pound of sifted flour. Add a gla.s.s of sweet wine and some grated nutmeg. When all the ingredients are mixed, stir the batter very hard.

Then put it into small deep pans, or cups that have been well b.u.t.tered, filling them about two thirds with the batter. Set them immediately into a brisk oven, and bake them brown. When done, remove them from the cups, and place them to cool on an inverted sieve. When quite cold make a slit or incision in the side of each cake. If very light, and properly baked, they will be hollow in the middle. Fill up this cavity with ice cream, carefully put in with a spoon, and then close the slit with your fingers to prevent the cream running out. Spread them on a large dish. Either send them to table immediately before the ice-cream melts or keep them on ice till wanted.

WHIPPED CREAM MERINGUES.--Take the whites of eight eggs, and beat them to a stiff froth that will stand alone. Then beat into them, gradually, (a tea-spoonful at a time,) two pounds or more of finely-powdered loaf sugar; continuing to add sugar till the mixture is very thick, and finishing with lemon juice or extract of rose. Have ready some sheets of white paper laid on a baking board, and with a spoon drop the mixture on it in long oval heaps, about four inches in length. Smooth and shape them with a broad-bladed knife, dipped occasionally in cold water. The baking board used for this purpose should be an inch thick, and must have a slip of iron beneath each end to elevate it from the floor of the oven, so that it may not scorch, nor the bottoms of the meringues be baked too hard. This baking-board must not be of pine wood, as a pine board will communicate a disagreeable taste of turpentine. The oven must be moderate. Bake the meringues of a light brown. When cool, take them off the paper by slipping a knife nicely beneath the bottom of each.

Then push back or scoop out carefully a portion of the inside of each meringue, taking care not to break them. Have ready some nice whipped cream, made in the following proportion:--Take a quarter of a pound of broken-up loaf sugar, and on some of the lumps rub off the yellow rind of two large lemons. Powder the sugar, and then mix with it the juice of the lemons, and grate in some nutmeg. Mix the sugar with a half pint of sweet white wine. Put into a pan a pint of rich cream, and whip it with rods or a wooden whisk, or mill it with a chocolate mill till it is a stiff froth. Then mix in, gradually, the other ingredients; continuing to whip it hard a while after they are all in. As you proceed, lay the froth on an inverted sieve, with a dish underneath to catch the droppings; which droppings must afterwards be whipped and added to the rest. Fill the inside of each meringue with a portion of the whipped cream. Then put two together, so as to form one long oval cake, joining them nicely, so as to unite the flat parts that were next the paper, leaving the inside filled with the whipped cream. Set them again in the oven for a few minutes. They must be done with great care and nicety, so as not to break. Each meringue should be about the usual length of a middle finger. In dropping them on the paper, take care to shape the oval ends handsomely and smoothly. They should look like very long kisses.

CHOCOLATE PUFFS.--Beat very stiff the whites of three eggs, and then beat in gradually half a pound of powdered loaf sugar. Sc.r.a.pe down very fine three ounces of the best chocolate, (prepared cocoa is better still,) and dredge it with flour to prevent its oiling; mixing the flour well among it. Then add it gradually to the mixture of white of egg and sugar, and stir the whole very hard. Cover the bottom of a square tin pan with a sheet of fine white paper, cut to fit exactly. Place upon it thin spots of powdered loaf sugar about the size of a half dollar. Pile a portion of the mixture on each spot, smoothing it with the back of a spoon or a broad knife, dipped in cold water. Sift white sugar over the top of each. Set the pan into a brisk oven, and bake them a few minutes.

When cold, loosen them from the paper with a broad knife.

COCOA-NUT PUFFS.--Break up a large ripe cocoa-nut. Pare the pieces, and lay them awhile in cold water. Then wipe them dry, and grate them as finely as possible. Lay the grated cocoa-nut in well-formed heaps on a large handsome dish. It will require no cooking. The heaps should be about the circ.u.mference of a half dollar, and must not touch each other.

Flatten them down in the middle, so as to make a hollow in the centre of each heap; and upon this pile some very nice sweetmeat. Make an excellent whipped cream, well sweetened and flavored with lemon and wine, and beat it to a stiff froth. Pile some of this cream high upon each cake over the sweetmeats. If on a supper-table, you may arrange them in circles round a gla.s.s stand.