AN ANXIOUS LITTLE COOK - The preserved ginger made in China or the East Indies is much superior to anything we can make at home, as the roots are fresh. The method of making here is, to boil the dried roots till tender, and then boil again in a thin syrup of white sugar.
IDA - To make ginger wine - Put 19 lbs of sugar to 7 gallons of water, and boil for half an hour; skimming it carefully. Then add to it 9 oz of the best ginger, bruised. When nearly cold, chop 9 lbs of raisins very small, and put them into a 9 gallon cask with 1 oz of isinglass and 4 lemons sliced, and a 1/2 pint of fresh yeast. Pour the liquor in which the ginger and sugar were boiled upon them, and leave unstopped for three weeks, and in about three months it will be ready for bottling. There will be one gallon more than the cask will hold at first, which must be placed in a bottle, and kept to fill up the cask every few days; for as the liquor works off, the cask must be kept full. Spring and autumn are the seasons for making this wine.
K.B. - To make inexpensive ginger beer - Put into a sufficiently large earthenware jar 1 gallon of boiling water, 1 lb of loaf sugar, 1 oz of the best ginger bruised, 1 oz of cream-of-tartar, or a sliced lemon. Stir these ingredients up till the sugar be dissolved, and let it remain till as warm as new milk. Then add a tablespoonful of good yeast, poured on a piece of bread, and floated on the top. Cover the whole with a cloth, let it remain 24 hours, and then strain and put into bottles, filling them only three quarters up, cork them well, and tie the corks, and in two days the beer will fit to drink. This quantity will make 18 bottles, and will cost less than a shilling.
A YOUNG HOUSEKEEPER (Janin H.) - We have heard of a family of three persons living on 15s per week, for eatables alone, but we cannot tell if you could manage to live on that sum. The sweetbread is the pancreas of an animal, used for food - that of the calf is the most recherché.
YLIME - What are called "Slim Cakes" are usually made just as pastry is made, not too much butter being used to make them short. They are baked on a flat tin in the oven, or in America on the top of the flat-iron stand sold with the kitcheners.
Showing posts with label cookery advice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cookery advice. Show all posts
Thursday, 21 July 2016
Tuesday, 28 June 2016
11 September 1880 - Answers to Correspondents - Cookery
M.S.T. - 1. To make a "corn dodger," pour boiling water on one quart of Indian meal till all be wet, but no water about it. Add two tablespoonfuls of flour and one teaspoonful of salt. Mix well and spread it smoothly on a plate or pan previously heated and oiled. Then set on the fire, and as soon as able pass a knife under the paste to turn it; and lastly, stand it up before the fire to toast. 2. "Imperial" is very easily made. Take cream of tartar 1/2 oz, lemon peel 3 oz, white sugar 4 oz, boiling water 3 pints. Mix all together, cover, and leave it to cool. It is a good beverage in cases of fever, or for ordinary use in hot weather.
LOTTIE - "Frumenty," otherwise called "furmety" and "frumenty," is popular in counties besides Lincolnshire. It consists of wheat boiled first in water and then in milk, with a little admixture of flour. Sugar and spice are added, and sometimes currants, raisins, eggs and lemon peel.
JEMIMA - To make lemon-kali, use of powdered white sugar 1/2 lb, tartaric acid and carbonate of soda of each 1/4 lb, and 40 drops of essence of lemon. Add the latter to the sugar, and mix well. Then the other powder; and having dried it well, pass through a sieve, and keep in a closely-corked bottle. A teaspoonful will suffice for a small tumbler of water, until it concretes into small grains, like salt of tartar; and pearlash is of the some nature. Your writing is not at all well formed, and we should imagine that you have been more in the habit of writing in the German character.
KITTY - Water and cream ices are of many kinds respectively, and one example of each must suffice. A strawberry water-ice is made thus: Pick 1 lb of strawberries and 4 oz of red currants; bruise all together, with a gill of syrup, in a basin with a wooden spoon, and rub the fruit through a hair sieve into another basin. Then add a pint of syrup, freeze, and set up. To make the same fruit into cream-ice, bruise a pound of them with 8 oz of sifted white sugar, rub through a hair sieve, add the pulp to a pint of thick cream, freeze, and serve. To make current and raspberry cream-ice, bruise 1 lb of red currants and 1/2 lb of raspberries, with 10 oz of sifted sugar; stir in a sugar boiler on the fire until it begins to simmer; then rub the fruit through the sieve, mix the pulp with a pint of cream, and freeze it.
ZARA - 1. To pot shrimps, remove the tails from the shells of a quart of shrimps freshly boiled. Pound the shells in a mortar with 4 oz of clarified butter, a small blade of mace, a teaspoonful of anchovy, and a little cayenne pepper. Place all in a stewpan with a small quantity of bruised lobster spawn, and stir over the fire for about eight minutes. Then rub it through a coarse hair sieve, and then add the tails. Make all hot together and fill the pots, covering with clarified butter. Lay them by in a cool place. 2. To glaze either a tongue or ham, boil a shin of beef for twelve hours in eight or ten quarts of water, and draw the gravy from a knuckle of veal in the same way. Put in spices and herbs, and add all to the shin of beef. Boil till reduced to a quart, and, when required, warm a little and spread it over the tongue or ham with a feather. It will keep good for a year in a cold place.
MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS - 1. For a rich "Shrewsbury cake" take 1 lb of flour, 10 oz of finely-powdered loaf sugar, 10 oz of butter, 1/2 a nutmeg, grated, the same quantity of ground cinnamon, and two eggs. For a common one take 12 oz of flour, 4 oz of butter, 4 oz powdered loaf sugar, one egg, and sufficient milk to make a paste. If lightness be desired, add 1 dram of finely-powdered volatile salt. Rub the butter in with the flour till reduced to fine crumbs; and make a hollow, into which pour the milk, sugar, eggs, and spice. Make a moderately firm paste, roll out to about one-eighth of an inch in thickness; then divide into cakes with a round butter. Lay on buttered baking sheets, and bake in a cool oven.
LOTTIE - "Frumenty," otherwise called "furmety" and "frumenty," is popular in counties besides Lincolnshire. It consists of wheat boiled first in water and then in milk, with a little admixture of flour. Sugar and spice are added, and sometimes currants, raisins, eggs and lemon peel.
JEMIMA - To make lemon-kali, use of powdered white sugar 1/2 lb, tartaric acid and carbonate of soda of each 1/4 lb, and 40 drops of essence of lemon. Add the latter to the sugar, and mix well. Then the other powder; and having dried it well, pass through a sieve, and keep in a closely-corked bottle. A teaspoonful will suffice for a small tumbler of water, until it concretes into small grains, like salt of tartar; and pearlash is of the some nature. Your writing is not at all well formed, and we should imagine that you have been more in the habit of writing in the German character.
KITTY - Water and cream ices are of many kinds respectively, and one example of each must suffice. A strawberry water-ice is made thus: Pick 1 lb of strawberries and 4 oz of red currants; bruise all together, with a gill of syrup, in a basin with a wooden spoon, and rub the fruit through a hair sieve into another basin. Then add a pint of syrup, freeze, and set up. To make the same fruit into cream-ice, bruise a pound of them with 8 oz of sifted white sugar, rub through a hair sieve, add the pulp to a pint of thick cream, freeze, and serve. To make current and raspberry cream-ice, bruise 1 lb of red currants and 1/2 lb of raspberries, with 10 oz of sifted sugar; stir in a sugar boiler on the fire until it begins to simmer; then rub the fruit through the sieve, mix the pulp with a pint of cream, and freeze it.
ZARA - 1. To pot shrimps, remove the tails from the shells of a quart of shrimps freshly boiled. Pound the shells in a mortar with 4 oz of clarified butter, a small blade of mace, a teaspoonful of anchovy, and a little cayenne pepper. Place all in a stewpan with a small quantity of bruised lobster spawn, and stir over the fire for about eight minutes. Then rub it through a coarse hair sieve, and then add the tails. Make all hot together and fill the pots, covering with clarified butter. Lay them by in a cool place. 2. To glaze either a tongue or ham, boil a shin of beef for twelve hours in eight or ten quarts of water, and draw the gravy from a knuckle of veal in the same way. Put in spices and herbs, and add all to the shin of beef. Boil till reduced to a quart, and, when required, warm a little and spread it over the tongue or ham with a feather. It will keep good for a year in a cold place.
MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS - 1. For a rich "Shrewsbury cake" take 1 lb of flour, 10 oz of finely-powdered loaf sugar, 10 oz of butter, 1/2 a nutmeg, grated, the same quantity of ground cinnamon, and two eggs. For a common one take 12 oz of flour, 4 oz of butter, 4 oz powdered loaf sugar, one egg, and sufficient milk to make a paste. If lightness be desired, add 1 dram of finely-powdered volatile salt. Rub the butter in with the flour till reduced to fine crumbs; and make a hollow, into which pour the milk, sugar, eggs, and spice. Make a moderately firm paste, roll out to about one-eighth of an inch in thickness; then divide into cakes with a round butter. Lay on buttered baking sheets, and bake in a cool oven.
Thursday, 5 May 2016
19 June 1880 - Answers to Correspondents - Cookery
A SUBSCRIBER - 1. Pink blancmange is coloured with prepared cochineal, to be procured from a chemist. 2. A good recipe for a sponge-cake - Place 8 eggs into one side of the scales, and their weight of pounded loaf-sugar in the other; and the weight of 5 of the eggs of good dry flour. Separate the yolks from the whites of the eggs, beat the former, and put them into a saucepan with the sugar, letting them remain over the fire til lukewarm, stirring them well. Then place them in a basin, add one tablespoonful of brandy, and the grated rind of one lemon, and stir all together; dredging in the flour very gradually. Whisk the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, and stir them in the whole mixture. Then beat all for 15 minutes, and place it in a buttered mould which has been sprinkled over with a little sifted sugar, and bake the cake in a quick oven for an hour and a half. You may flavour with a few drops of essence of almonds, if you prefer that to the lemon peel.
PRIMROSE - To make vegetable marrow jam; the marrows should be pared, seeds taken out, and cut into pieces about the size of walnuts. To 1lb of fruit add 3/4lb of sugar dissolved in cold water, and boil with a muslin bag containing a little ground ginger and a few cloves After it has boiled sufficiently add a few drops of essence of lemon.
DEWDROP (Surry) - "Sir Watkin's Pudding" is a good one. Take 1/2lb of beef suet, chop finely, 1/2lb white sugar pounded, 1/2lb bread crumbs, the rind and juice of two lemons, and the yolks and whites of two eggs, well beaten; mix all thoroughly together, and boil for four hours. Serve with wine sauce.
DAISY (Guildford) - "Hominy" is the inside part of the Indian corn. It is used as a vegetable, and puddings. As a vegetable, boil it for four hours in plenty of water, and strain through a colander. Use instead of potatoes. For a pudding, mix the boiled hominy with milk, two eggs, raisins, and a little suet; tie up in a basin, and boil for two hours. To be eaten with sugar and melted butter or treacle.
SCOTCH LASSIE should make her rhubarb wine at once, while it is plentiful. Extract the juice by bruising it and leaving it for some time in cold water. To make 10 gallons of wine, it will need 50lbs of rhubarb, and 37lbs of fine moist sugar. The tub should hold from 15 to 20 gallons, and to the proportions specified 4 gallons of water should be added and well stirred, and a blanket should be laid over it, while standing for 24 hours. Then draw off the juice through a tap low in the side of the tub, add another couple of gallons of water to the pulp, stir well, leave it to settle again for an hour or two, draw off and mix the two liquors together, and in it dissolve the sugar. Then cleanse the tub, return the wine to it, and cover with a blanket, keeping the temperature of the apartment not below 60 Fahrenheit, and leave for 48 hours, or at least till there is an appearance of fermentation, and draw off into a 10 gallon cask, which must be filled to the bung-hole with water, and as the fermentation proceeds and as the wine diminishes, it must be filled-up daily during ten or twelve days. The bung may then be put in, and a gimlet hole made at the side fitted with a spile. This latter should be removed every two or three days during ten days, to allow the carbonic acid gas to escape. Pour in at the vent hole a little liquor once a week, during a month, and then at intervals of a month till the end of December, when it should be drawn off the lees, the turbid part being strained off through flannel. This should be done on a fine frosty day. Clean the cask, return the pure wine, dissolving one drachm of isinglass into it, stir all together, and bung up the cask till March. A clean dry day should be chosen for bottling it. Use champagne bottles for ordinary ones will not be sufficiently strong and the corks secured with wire.
PRIMROSE - To make vegetable marrow jam; the marrows should be pared, seeds taken out, and cut into pieces about the size of walnuts. To 1lb of fruit add 3/4lb of sugar dissolved in cold water, and boil with a muslin bag containing a little ground ginger and a few cloves After it has boiled sufficiently add a few drops of essence of lemon.
DEWDROP (Surry) - "Sir Watkin's Pudding" is a good one. Take 1/2lb of beef suet, chop finely, 1/2lb white sugar pounded, 1/2lb bread crumbs, the rind and juice of two lemons, and the yolks and whites of two eggs, well beaten; mix all thoroughly together, and boil for four hours. Serve with wine sauce.
DAISY (Guildford) - "Hominy" is the inside part of the Indian corn. It is used as a vegetable, and puddings. As a vegetable, boil it for four hours in plenty of water, and strain through a colander. Use instead of potatoes. For a pudding, mix the boiled hominy with milk, two eggs, raisins, and a little suet; tie up in a basin, and boil for two hours. To be eaten with sugar and melted butter or treacle.
SCOTCH LASSIE should make her rhubarb wine at once, while it is plentiful. Extract the juice by bruising it and leaving it for some time in cold water. To make 10 gallons of wine, it will need 50lbs of rhubarb, and 37lbs of fine moist sugar. The tub should hold from 15 to 20 gallons, and to the proportions specified 4 gallons of water should be added and well stirred, and a blanket should be laid over it, while standing for 24 hours. Then draw off the juice through a tap low in the side of the tub, add another couple of gallons of water to the pulp, stir well, leave it to settle again for an hour or two, draw off and mix the two liquors together, and in it dissolve the sugar. Then cleanse the tub, return the wine to it, and cover with a blanket, keeping the temperature of the apartment not below 60 Fahrenheit, and leave for 48 hours, or at least till there is an appearance of fermentation, and draw off into a 10 gallon cask, which must be filled to the bung-hole with water, and as the fermentation proceeds and as the wine diminishes, it must be filled-up daily during ten or twelve days. The bung may then be put in, and a gimlet hole made at the side fitted with a spile. This latter should be removed every two or three days during ten days, to allow the carbonic acid gas to escape. Pour in at the vent hole a little liquor once a week, during a month, and then at intervals of a month till the end of December, when it should be drawn off the lees, the turbid part being strained off through flannel. This should be done on a fine frosty day. Clean the cask, return the pure wine, dissolving one drachm of isinglass into it, stir all together, and bung up the cask till March. A clean dry day should be chosen for bottling it. Use champagne bottles for ordinary ones will not be sufficiently strong and the corks secured with wire.
Friday, 22 April 2016
29 May 1880 - Answers to Correspondents - Cookery
LADY JANE GREY and JOSEPHINE - To make tea cakes, put 2lbs of flour into a basin, and half a teaspoonful of salt, and rub in 1/2lb of butter or lard. Heat up one egg, and add to it a piece of German yeast of the size of a walnut, with enough of warm milk to make the flour into dough. Knead it well, and let it rise near the fire. Make into eight tea cakes, and bake from a quarter to half an hour.
JOLETTE and E. WITHERS - To make a Madeira cake, take three eggs, the grated rind of a lemon, 6oz of lump sugar, and half a gill of water; make a syrup of the lemon, sugar and water, and add it to the eggs - when well beaten - at boiling point. Beat the eggs and sugar, keeping them as hot as possible for 15 minutes, then add 5oz of flour, warmed, 2oz of butter, creamed to the cake batter, beating all thoroughly. Pour it into a mould, and bake for 15 minutes, then add a slice of citron peel to the top, when 15 minutes extra will be needed to finish the baking.
WEE BAIRNIE - Cut half a pound of beef into small square pieces, and place in a baking jar with a well-fitting lid. Add to it 1 pint of water and a little salt and bake for three or four hours in a warm but not a hot oven, or else leave it all night in the oven. This will make good beef-tea.
NELL - To make dessert biscuits, take 1lb of flour, and mix with the yolk of an egg to make into a stiff paste. Add sugar according to your taste, and flavouring; roll out very thinly, and cut them into small biscuits. Then bake them in a slow oven.
VEASE - To make mushroom katsup break up the mushrooms, and add 1/4lb of salt to every 3 1/2lb of mushrooms. Let them stand for a couple of days, and drain all the juice you can procure from them by pressure. Then boil it slowly for an hour, with 2oz of salt, a few cloves, and 1/4oz of peppercorns and whole ginger to each quart. Then strain, and when cold bottle - using new corks, and sealing them down.
JOLETTE and E. WITHERS - To make a Madeira cake, take three eggs, the grated rind of a lemon, 6oz of lump sugar, and half a gill of water; make a syrup of the lemon, sugar and water, and add it to the eggs - when well beaten - at boiling point. Beat the eggs and sugar, keeping them as hot as possible for 15 minutes, then add 5oz of flour, warmed, 2oz of butter, creamed to the cake batter, beating all thoroughly. Pour it into a mould, and bake for 15 minutes, then add a slice of citron peel to the top, when 15 minutes extra will be needed to finish the baking.
WEE BAIRNIE - Cut half a pound of beef into small square pieces, and place in a baking jar with a well-fitting lid. Add to it 1 pint of water and a little salt and bake for three or four hours in a warm but not a hot oven, or else leave it all night in the oven. This will make good beef-tea.
NELL - To make dessert biscuits, take 1lb of flour, and mix with the yolk of an egg to make into a stiff paste. Add sugar according to your taste, and flavouring; roll out very thinly, and cut them into small biscuits. Then bake them in a slow oven.
VEASE - To make mushroom katsup break up the mushrooms, and add 1/4lb of salt to every 3 1/2lb of mushrooms. Let them stand for a couple of days, and drain all the juice you can procure from them by pressure. Then boil it slowly for an hour, with 2oz of salt, a few cloves, and 1/4oz of peppercorns and whole ginger to each quart. Then strain, and when cold bottle - using new corks, and sealing them down.
Monday, 7 March 2016
21 February 1880 - Answers to Correspondents - Cookery
A YOUNG HOUSEKEEPER - I think the best recipe for thin oatmeal cakes is the following. Pour a gill of boiling water on half a pound of oatmeal, having added a large pinch of salt to the oatmeal. Make it into a dough, turn it on to a board well covered with meal, work it very slightly, roll it out as thin as possible, cut into shapes, and bake on a hot stove. When a little brown on the under side, take them off, and place on a hanger before the fire, in order to brown the upper side.
A YOUNG COOK - We suggest the following recipe for an economical pie. Cut one pound of lean beef into dice, place it in a stew-pan with an ounce of butter, four minced onions, and a pinch of pepper and salt. Let all simmer in its own juices until perfectly tender. If not allowed to cook too fast, there will be nearly half a pint of gravy from good fresh meat. It will take nearly two hours to cook it thoroughly. Then put the meat and onions into a pie-dish, and cover it with nicely mashed potatoes. Mark the cover in squares on the top by crossing it with a knife, and bake all for twenty minutes. The potato crust should be nicely browned. A little milk or butter should be mixed with the potatoes, as it enables them to be smoothed more easily. If made with cold meat, of course it will not require the stewing before baking.
MARY M. - The best way to dress mutton chops is to grill them on a gridiron, and when transferred to a hot-water plate, or dish, put a piece of butter of the size of an acorn on each, and pepper them. The receipt to which you allude refers to cooking potato-chips, not chops Peel fine kidney potatoes, cut them in very thin round slices, lay them in a cloth to dry, and fry in the wire basket in good fat; clarified pot-skimmings are preferable to dripping, and beef-suet melted down with lard is next best, but oil is the best of all for frying potatoes. The chips would be sufficient only to cover the bottom of the basket. When taken out they should be laid on paper before the fire, that the great may be absorbed.
SWAINSTON - We suppose that your oven is too hot, or else you leave your pastry baking for too long a time.
A YOUNG COOK - We suggest the following recipe for an economical pie. Cut one pound of lean beef into dice, place it in a stew-pan with an ounce of butter, four minced onions, and a pinch of pepper and salt. Let all simmer in its own juices until perfectly tender. If not allowed to cook too fast, there will be nearly half a pint of gravy from good fresh meat. It will take nearly two hours to cook it thoroughly. Then put the meat and onions into a pie-dish, and cover it with nicely mashed potatoes. Mark the cover in squares on the top by crossing it with a knife, and bake all for twenty minutes. The potato crust should be nicely browned. A little milk or butter should be mixed with the potatoes, as it enables them to be smoothed more easily. If made with cold meat, of course it will not require the stewing before baking.
MARY M. - The best way to dress mutton chops is to grill them on a gridiron, and when transferred to a hot-water plate, or dish, put a piece of butter of the size of an acorn on each, and pepper them. The receipt to which you allude refers to cooking potato-chips, not chops Peel fine kidney potatoes, cut them in very thin round slices, lay them in a cloth to dry, and fry in the wire basket in good fat; clarified pot-skimmings are preferable to dripping, and beef-suet melted down with lard is next best, but oil is the best of all for frying potatoes. The chips would be sufficient only to cover the bottom of the basket. When taken out they should be laid on paper before the fire, that the great may be absorbed.
SWAINSTON - We suppose that your oven is too hot, or else you leave your pastry baking for too long a time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)