Butter some little paper cases, and let them dry in the oven. Put into each one a pat of butter and let it melt lightly. Break an egg into each case, taking care not to break the yolk, and put a bit of butter on each yolk. Place in a quick oven till the whites are half set. At the moment of serving take them out, and have ready some minced tongue or ham, to sprinkle on them, and decorate with a big bit of truffle.
Rub the butter into the flour, stir in the baking powder, and make into a very light dough with the milk; turn on to a floured board, knead for a few minutes, roll out about half an inch thick. Cut into shapes, put on to a floured tin, and bake in a quick oven for about ten minutes. Serve either hot or cold.
One pint of milk, boiled and cooled, a piece of butter the size of an egg, one-half cupful of fresh yeast, one tablespoonful of sugar, one pinch of salt, and two quarts of sifted flour. Melt the butter in the warm milk, then add the sugar, salt and flour, and let it rise over night. Mix rather soft. In the morning, add to this half of a teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a spoonful of water. Mix in enough flour to make the same stiffness as any biscuit dough; roll out not more than a quarter of an inch thick. Cut with a large round cutter; spread soft butter over the tops and fold one-half over the other by doubling it. Place them apart a little so that there will be room to rise. Cover and place them near the fire for fifteen or twenty minutes before baking. Bake in rather a quick oven.
Take your apricocks before they are full ripe, pare them and stone them, and to every pound of apricocks take a pound of lump loaf sugar, put it into your pan with as much water as will wet it; to four pounds of sugar take the whites of two eggs beat them well to a froth, mix them well with your sugar whilst it be cold, then set it over the fire and let it have a boil, take it off the fire, and put in a spoonful or two of water, then take off the skim, and do so three or four times whilst any skim rises, then put in your apricocks, and let them have a quick boil over the fire, then take them off and turn them over, let them stand a little while covered, and then set them on again, let them have another boil and skim them, then take them out one by one; set on your syrrup again to boil down, and skim it, then put in your apricocks again, and let them boil whilst they look clear, put them in pots, when they are cold cover them over with a paper dipt in brandy, and tie another paper at the top, set them in a cool place, and keep them for use.
Take six pounds of ripe yellow quinces; and having washed them clean, pare and core them, and cut them into small pieces. To each pound of the cut quinces allow half a pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Put the parings and cores into a kettle with water enough to cover them, and boil them slowly till they are all to pieces, and quite soft. Then having put the quinces with the sugar into a porcelain preserving kettle, strain over them, through a cloth, the liquid from the parings and cores. Add a little cochineal powdered, and sifted through thin muslin. Boil the whole over a quick fire till it becomes a thick smooth mass, keeping it covered except when you are skimming it; and always after skimming, stir it up well from the bottom. When cold, put it up in glass jars. If you wish to use it soon, put it warm into moulds, and when if is cold, set the moulds in lukewarm water, and the marmalade will turn out easily.
Clean and wash the grouse. Lard the breast and legs. Run a small skewer into the legs and through the tail. Tie firmly with twine. Dredge with salt, and rub the breast with soft butter; then dredge thickly with flour. Put into a quick oven. If to be very rare, cook twenty minutes; if wished better done, thirty minutes. The former time, as a general thing, suits gentlemen better, but thirty minutes is preferred by ladies. If the birds are cooked in a tin-kitchen, it should be for thirty or thirty-five minutes. When done, place on a hot dish, on which has been spread bread sauce. Sprinkle fried crumbs over both grouse and sauce. Garnish with parsley. The grouse may, instead, be served on a hot dish, with the parsley garnish, and the sauce and crumbs served in separate dishes. The first method is the better, however, as you get in the sauce all the gravy that comes from the birds.
Bake the fish in the oven, unless there is cold fish in the larder, which will do just as well; take away the skin and bone, and flake it up. Make a sauce of the butter, flour, and milk; season with anchovy, pepper, salt, and lemon juice; stir in the fish and mix well. Line some small patty pans with flaky pastry, put a spoonful of the mixture in the centre, cover with a round of pastry, press the edges together, and trim into a neat shape; make a small hole in the centre with a skewer, brush over with egg or milk, put into a quick oven, and bake for about twenty minutes. Dish on a fancy paper, and garnish each patty with a tiny sprig of parsley.
The first thing required for making wholesome bread is the utmost cleanliness; the next is the soundness and sweetness of all the ingredients used for it; and, in addition to these, there must be attention and care through the whole process. Salt is always used in bread-making, not only on account of its flavor, which destroys the insipid raw state of the flour, but because it makes the dough rise better. In mixing with milk, the milk should be boiled--not simply scalded, but heated to boiling over hot water--then set aside to cool before mixing. Simple heating will not prevent bread from turning sour in the rising, while boiling will act as a preventative. So the milk should be thoroughly scalded, and should be used when it is just blood warm. Too small a proportion of yeast, or insufficient time allowed for the dough to rise, will cause the bread to be heavy. The yeast must be good and fresh if the bread is to be digestible and nice. Stale yeast produces, instead of vinous fermentation, an acetous fermentation, which flavors the bread and makes it disagreeable. A poor, thin yeast produces an imperfect fermentation, the result being a heavy, unwholesome loaf. If either the sponge or the dough be permitted to overwork itself--that is to say, if the mixing and kneading be neglected when it has reached the proper point for either--sour bread will probably be the consequence in warm weather, and bad bread in any. The goodness will also be endangered by placing it so near a fire as to make any part of it hot, instead of maintaining the gentle and equal degree of heat required for its due fermentation. Heavy bread will also most likely be the result of making the dough very hard and letting it become quite cold, particularly in winter. An almost certain way of spoiling dough is to leave it half made, and to allow it to become cold before it is finished. The other most common causes of failure are using yeast which is no longer sweet, or which has been frozen, or has had hot liquid poured over it. As a general rule, the oven for baking bread should be rather quick and the heat so regulated as to penetrate the dough without hardening the outside. The oven door should not be opened after the bread is put in until the dough is set or has become firm, as the cool air admitted will have an unfavorable effect upon it. The dough should rise and the bread begin to brown after about fifteen minutes, but only slightly. Bake from fifty to sixty minutes and have it brown, not black or whitey brown, but brown all over when well baked. When the bread is baked, remove the loaves immediately from the pans and place them where the air will circulate freely around them, and thus carry off the gas which has been formed, but is no longer needed. Never leave the bread in the pan or on a pin table to absorb the odor of the wood. If you like crusts that are crisp do not cover the loaves; but to give the soft, tender, wafer-like consistency which many prefer, wrap them while still hot in several thicknesses of bread-cloth. When cold put them in a stone jar, removing the cloth, as that absorbs the moisture and gives the bread an unpleasant taste and odor. Keep the jar well covered and carefully cleansed from crumbs and stale pieces. Scald and dry it thoroughly every two or three days. A yard and a half square of coarse table linen makes the best bread-cloth. Keep in good supply; use them for no other purpose. Some people use scalding water in making wheat bread; in that case the flour must be scalded and allowed to cool before the yeast is added--then proceed as above. Bread made in this manner keeps moist in summer much longer than when made in the usual mode. Home-made yeast is generally preferred to any other. Compressed yeast, as now sold in most grocery stores, makes fine light, sweet bread, and is a much quicker process, and can always be had fresh, being made fresh every day.
Having well buttered the inside of a nicely tinned stew-pot, cut half a pound of ham into slices, and lay them at the bottom, with three pounds of the lean of fresh beef, and as much veal, cut from the bones, which you must afterward break to pieces, and lay on the meat. Cover the pan closely, and set it over a quick fire. When the meat begins to stick to the pan, turn it; and when there is a nice brown glaze at the bottom, cover the meat with cold water. Watch it well, and when it is just coming to a boil, put in half a pint of cold water. This will cause the scum to rise. Skim it well, and then pour in another half pint of cold water; skim it again; pour in cold water as before, half a pint at a time, and repeat this till no more scum rises. In skimming, carefully avoid stirring the soup, as that will injure its clearness. In the mean time prepare your vegetables. Peel off the outer skin of three large white onions and slice them. Pare three large turnips, and slice them also. Wash clean and cut into small pieces three carrots, and three large heads of celery. If you cannot obtain fresh celery, substitute a large table-spoonful of celery seed, tied up in a bit of clear muslin. Put the vegetables into the soup, and then place the pot on one side of the fire, where the heat is not so great as in the middle. Let it boil gently for four hours. Then strain the soup through a fine towel or linen bag into a large stone pan, but do not squeeze the bag, or the soup will be cloudy, and look dull instead of clear. In pouring it into the straining cloth, be careful not to disturb the ingredients at the bottom of the soup-pot. This soup should be of a fine clear amber colour. If not perfectly bright after straining, you may clarify it in this manner. Put it into the stew-pan. Break the whites of two eggs into a basin, carefully avoiding the smallest particle of the yolk. Beat the white of egg to a stiff froth, and then mix it gradually with the soup. Set it over the fire, and stir it till it boils briskly. Then take it off, and set it beside the fire to settle for ten minutes. Strain it then through a clean napkin, and it will be fit for use. But it is better to have the soup clear by making it carefully, than to depend on clarifying it afterward, as the white of egg weakens the taste. In making this (which is quite a show-soup) it is customary to reverse the general rule, and pour in cold water.
Measure one cup of mashed, boiled sweet potatoes. Thin with one pint of sweet milk. Beat three whole eggs very light with one-half cup of sugar. Mix with sweet potatoes. Season with one-quarter of a nutmeg grated, one teaspoon of cinnamon, and one-half teaspoon of lemon extract. Line pie-plate with crust, fill with mixture, and bake in quick oven.
