DINNER SWEETS OF ALL SORTS
PIES
Pastry
Have all ingredients very cold. Into a pound of flour chop three-quarters of a cup of firm, cold butter. When the flour is like a coarse powder stir into it a small cupful of iced water. With a spoon mix together, then turn upon a floured pastry-board, roll out quickly and lightly, fold and roll out again. Set the pastry on the ice until chilled through, roll out and line a pie-dish with it. Before filling the pastry shell with fruit, or other material of which the pie is to be made, wash over the lower crust with the unbeaten white of an egg, and, when the filling is put in, set the pie immediately in an oven that is as hot at the bottom as at the top. The oven must be hot and steady.
A good puff paste
Into a half-pound of flour chop six ounces of firm, cold butter, and, when like a coarse powder, wet with a small cupful of iced water. Stir to a paste and turn upon a chilled board. Roll out quickly and lightly, handling as little as possible. Fold and roll out three times, then set on the ice for several hours before making into pies. Always bake pastry in a very hot oven.
Family pie crust
Sift a quart of flour three times with one teaspoonful of baking-powder. Chop into it two tablespoonfuls of cottolene or other fat until it is like granulated dust. Wet with iced water into a stiff dough, handling as little as you can, using a wooden spoon until it is too stiff to manage. Turn upon a floured board and roll out thin. Have ready two tablespoonfuls of firm butter, and with this dot the paste in rows one inch apart, using one tablespoonful of butter. Roll up the sheet of paste, inclosing the butter; beat flat with the rolling-pin, and roll out as before. Use the other tablespoonful of butter in dotting this sheet, sprinkle lightly with flour, and roll up tightly. Give a blow or two of the pin to hold it in fold, and set on the ice until you are ready to use it—all night if you like. It is better for three or four hours’ chilling.
Butter the pie-plates, lay the crust lightly within them; pinch the edges to hinder it from “crawling” while baking, fill with fruit, or whatever else is to go into them. If this is to be what a witty editor designates as “the kivered pie which stands high in the royal family of Pie,” lay the paste neatly over the filling, trim off ragged edges, and press or print down the edges.
A North Carolina man thus separates the “royal family” aforesaid: “There are three varieties: kivered, unkivered and barred.”
The New York editor, just quoted, says of the “kivered” variety:
“Its triumphant composition requires of the artist higher qualities of head and heart, a more delicate touch, a higher strain of genius, a sublimer imagination, than the composition of the unkivered, or the barred. There must be magic in the upper crust of it. Ah! that delicious, finely-flaking upper crust, designed by a deep-revolving brain and fashioned by a sensitive hand, a pâté Queen Mab would be glad to nibble!”
On the other hand, a New Orleans knight of the pen boldly defines the kivered pie as “distinctively a product of New England civilization, that has no place in simpler and more democratic states. Descendants of the men who made the charge up King’s Mountain, the Majuba Hill of this continent, take their pie unkivered. They will not touch the kivered abomination!”
Mince pie
Returning to our New York editorial, the amused reader finds this eulogium upon mince pie:
“There goes much skill to the making of a mince pie. Within the fortunate inwards of the president of pies are strange dainties and spices, and Dr. Johnson’s drink of heroes. The elements are so mixed in it that nature may stand up and say to all the world: ‘This is a pie! A great mince pie is a masterpiece!’”
An anonymous writer upon the same subject says for the comfort of semi-dyspeptics:
“Mince-meat ought to be extremely wholesome for the same reasons that make it good to eat—its flavors of sweet and sour, of meat, apple and spice, which relieve each other, and its finely divided particles which allow the choicer blending of flavors and save the stomach much of the grinding work which reduces food to the pulp in which it enters the blood. What gives mince pie its ill repute as the very spawn of nightmare, are its overdressing with suet and butter, only fit for polar consumption, and its drugging with spices. Spice is the very food of the nerves, rightly used, growing more essential as circulation and sense dull with age. But it should be delicately, discerningly used not to lose its potency. The overdressing with fat is a relic of the old English barbarism which stewed its food in tallow, and, as the old play has it, ‘took two fat wethers to baste one capon.’”
Mince-meat
(A family recipe 150 years old.)
Boil two pounds of lean beef, and when cold, chop fine. Mince a pound of beef suet to a powder. Peel and chop five pounds of apples. Seed and halve two pounds of raisins. Wash, and pick over carefully two pounds of cleaned currants and one pound of sultana raisins. Cut into tiny bits three-quarters of a pound of citron. Mix these ingredients, adding, as you do so, two tablespoonfuls, each, of cinnamon and mace, a tablespoonful, each, of cloves and allspice, a teaspoonful of ground nutmeg, a tablespoonful of salt and two and a half pounds of brown sugar. When all is well mixed, stir in a quart of sherry and a pint of the best brandy. Mix thoroughly and pack down in a stone crock.
Mince-meat should be prepared several weeks before it is needed, that it may “ripen” and become mellow. Those whose temperance principles forbid the moistening of the mince-meat with brandy or sherry, may use cider in their place. In making mince pies have the best puff-paste. Line pie-plates with this, fill the crust shells with the mince-meat, and lay strips of pastry, lattice-wise, across the tops of the pies. Bake in a good oven, which should be as hot at the bottom as at the top. The pies may be kept for weeks, but must be reheated before serving.
Our New Orleans essayist upon the national pie, is cavalierly disdainful in throwing aside the third variety:
“The barred pie may be dismissed without discussion, being a mere compromise, a pabulum for colorless individuals who are the mugwumps of the dining-room.”
In defiance of the slur, I commend my “barred” mince pie, with its latticed cover, as the pearl of the royal race. For a century and a half, the Old Virginia housewives, from whom I proudly claim descent, laid the dainty trellis across the heaving brown breast of the masterpiece, and six generations of epicures have set thereon the seal of their approval.
Pumpkin pie (No. 1)
Belongs to the noble order of the “unkivered” pie.
Add the beaten yolks of four eggs and one cupful of white sugar to two cupfuls of pumpkin that has been stewed and put through a colander. With this mix a quart of milk, one teaspoonful of cinnamon, mace and nutmeg mixed, and the whites of the eggs, beaten stiff. Line a very deep pie-dish with a good paste, cut slashes in it here and there, stir the pumpkin custard well from the bottom and put it into the pastry. Bake in a steady oven.
Pumpkin pie (No. 2)
Into a quart of stewed and strained pumpkin stir a quart of milk, a cup of granulated sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg to taste, and, last of all, five eggs, well beaten. Mix thoroughly, and pour the mixture into a deep pie-plate lined with puff paste. Bake in a good oven until the pumpkin custard is “set.” Eat cold. Canned pumpkin is used in the same way and is almost as good as the fresh.
Lemon cream pie (No. 1)
Heat a quart of milk and stir into it one-third of a cupful of prepared flour wet with a little cold milk. Let this get hot, stirring all the while. Beat the yolks of five eggs light with five tablespoonfuls of sugar, and add the milk and flour to this. Let all cook together for one minute after they come to the simmer; take from the fire and add the juice and grated peel of a large lemon. Bake in open shells of puff paste, and, as soon as the custard is set, cover it with a meringue made of the whites of the five eggs beaten stiff with three tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar. Brown lightly and serve cold.
Lemon cream pie (No. 2)
Cream a tablespoonful of butter with a cupful of sugar; dissolve a heaping tablespoonful of corn-starch in a gill of cold water, and stir it into a cupful of boiling water. Stir until smooth; then pour over the sugar and butter. Mix well and when cool stir in the grated rind and the juice of a large lemon, and one beaten egg. Line a pie-plate with puff paste, fill with this mixture and bake. When done, cover with a meringue, and return to the oven just long enough to brown lightly.
Lemon pie with crust
Beat two eggs light and stir into them two cupfuls of sugar; add a pint of water, three tablespoonfuls of cracker-dust, the same quantity of flour rubbed to a paste with a little cold water, the grated rind of one, and the juice of two lemons. Beat hard, add a pinch, each, of cinnamon and nutmeg, and turn the mixture into pie-plates lined with pastry. Cover with an upper crust, cut gashes in this for the escape of the steam, and bake in a steady oven for forty minutes.
Crustless lemon pie
Soak a cupful of crumbs for an hour in a little milk. Cream together a half-cupful of sugar and half as much butter, whip into them the beaten yolks of three eggs and the white of one, reserving the other whites for the meringue. Now add the juice and grated rind of two lemons, then the soaked crumbs. Line a large pie-plate with puff paste, pour in the lemon mixture and bake to a golden brown. Make a meringue of the stiffened whites and two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar. Draw the pie to the door of the oven, spread with the meringue and return it to the oven just long enough to brown it delicately. Eat cold.
Cocoanut pie
Cream a half-cupful of butter with two scant cupfuls of powdered sugar, and when very light add half a grated cocoanut and a generous tablespoonful of rose-water. Now “fold” in quickly and lightly the stiffened whites of six eggs, turn into a deep pie-dish lined with puff paste and bake in a quick oven. Eat cold with powdered sugar and whipped cream flavored with rose-water. This is delicious.
When it is possible to do so buy the fresh cocoanut and grate it. The prepared or desiccated article put up in boxes may be used as a makeshift. It can never be a worthy substitute for the fresh and juicy nut.
Chocolate pie (No. 1)
Make a custard by pouring two cupfuls of scalding milk gradually upon three eggs that have been beaten well with four tablespoonfuls of sugar. Return to the fire, stir in a half-cupful of grated sweet-chocolate, remove from the fire, add a teaspoonful of vanilla, and pour the mixture into a pie-plate lined with puff paste. Bake until “set.”
Chocolate pie (No. 2)
One pint of milk; one cupful of sugar; yolks of two eggs; two tablespoonfuls of grated chocolate. Mix, and bake in an open crust. Make a meringue of the whites of the eggs and a tablespoonful of sugar and spread on the top of the pie to brown.
Orange pie
Rub to a creamy paste a half-cupful of butter and a cupful of granulated sugar. Beat light the yolks of four eggs, whip them into the butter and sugar, add the juice and a quarter of the grated peel of a large orange, a teaspoonful of lemon juice, and the stiffened whites of two eggs. Line a pie-plate with light puff paste and turn the orange mixture into this. Bake until the filling is set and the crust lightly browned. Beat the whites of two eggs light with two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar. When the pie is done, draw it to the door of the oven, spread it with this meringue, and return to the oven just long enough to color the meringue delicately. Eat cold.
Custard pie
Whip light the yolks of three eggs with four tablespoonfuls of sugar. Pour upon them two cupfuls of boiling milk, stirring this in slowly. Flavor with a teaspoonful of vanilla. Line a pie-plate with paste, brush the inside with the white of an egg, pour in the custard and bake.
Sliced apple pie
Line a deep pie-dish with good puff paste. Put into this peeled and cored and thinly-sliced apples; sprinkle thickly with sugar and squeeze a few drops of lemon juice upon them. Add more sliced apple, more sugar, a little more lemon, and proceed in this way until the dish is full. Cover with a round of puff paste, pinch together the edges of the upper and lower crusts, and cut several slits in the upper to allow the steam to escape. Bake in a steady oven to a golden brown, covering the pie with paper for the first ten minutes.
Creamed sweet apple pie
Pare, core and quarter Campfield pound sweets, or other sweet apples. Put them into a pudding-dish with a few spoonfuls of water to prevent burning, cover closely and cook until tender, but not broken. Add two tablespoonfuls of sugar to each cupful and let them get cold in the syrup. Then cut into thin slices or tiny dice. Roll out some puff paste quite thin; line a pie-plate, sprinkle with flour, lay on another crust and bake until brown. When ready to serve, open the crusts, spread the lower one with the stewed apple, cover with whipped cream, put on the top crust and sprinkle that with powdered sugar.
Creamed apple-sauce pie
Bake your crusts as directed in preceding recipe. When you separate them, spread with well-sweetened apple-sauce beaten light; cover with whipped cream; lay on the upper crust and sprinkle powdered sugar on top.
In both of these recipes you may substitute a meringue of frothed whites, slightly sweetened, for the cream, spreading the same upon the top crust.
Apple meringue pie
Slice and stew ripe, tart apples; run through the colander or vegetable press into a bowl. Sweeten plentifully, and beat in, while hot, a tablespoonful of butter. Have ready buttered pie-plates lined with puff paste; when the sauce is cold fill these shells with it and bake until very lightly browned. Cover with a meringue, slightly sweetened and flavored with vanilla or other essence; set in a hot oven and bake until the meringue begins to color. Sift powdered sugar over all. Eat cold.
Peach meringue pie
Stew and rub peaches through a colander or a vegetable press. Sweeten to taste, and when cold, proceed as directed in last recipe. They are very nice.
Whole peach pie
Line a deep pie-plate with pastry, and lay in it as many whole peeled peaches as it will hold. Strew thickly with sugar; fit on an upper crust and bake to a golden brown. Eat with powdered sugar and cream.
Creamed peach pie (No. 1)
Peel, stone and halve ripe peaches. Line a deep pie-plate with puff paste, and lay the peaches in this. Sprinkle thickly with sugar, and fit on an upper crust. Have ready and cold, a cream sauce. To make this, scald a half-pint of milk and thicken it with a tablespoonful of corn-starch rubbed smooth in a little cold milk. Add two tablespoonfuls of sugar and the frothed white of one egg. Boil together for five minutes and set aside to cool. When the pie is done carefully lift the top crust and fill the pie to overflowing with the cream sauce. Replace the crust and set in a cool place. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and eat very cold.
Creamed peach pie (No. 2)
Bake as above, stoning the peaches and cutting each in half. While hot, insinuate the blade of a knife between upper and lower crust, to loosen them. Let the pie get cold; lift the crust and spread whipped cream upon the peaches. Cover again, strew powdered sugar upon the top crust and eat.
Creamed raspberry pie
Line a pie-dish with good pastry and fill it three-quarters full of red raspberries strewed with granulated sugar. Cover with an upper crust, but rub the edges of this and of the lower crust with butter to prevent their sticking together. Make a cream of a cupful of hot milk thickened with a teaspoonful of corn-starch wet with cold milk. Stir in two tablespoonfuls of sugar, remove from the fire, and when cool whip in the stiffened whites of three eggs. When the pie is done and is cold, lift off the upper crust and cover the raspberries with the “cream.” Replace the cover and sift powdered sugar over it.
Cherry pie
Many persons make a cherry pie without stoning the cherries. That stoning them is a trouble is not to be denied, but the result is so satisfactory that it really seems worth while to take the pains to accomplish it. In stoning cherries, use a sharp knife and save all the juice. Grease a deep pie-dish and line it with good puff pastry. Fill the pastry shell with the cherries and the juice that flowed from them in the stoning process. Cover with a thin crust, cut slits in this for the escape of the steam, and bake. Eat cold.
Cranberry pie
Seed a cupful of raisins and chop them into bits. Cut into halves two cupfuls of cranberries and mix them with the minced raisins. Add two even cupfuls of sugar, a cupful of water, two tablespoonfuls of flour and a few drops of lemon juice. Line deep pie-plates with puff paste; fill each with the mixture, put on a thin upper crust and cut slits in this for the escape of the steam. Bake in a good oven to a golden brown. When cold, sprinkle with sugar.
Cranberry and raisin pie
Seed and mince one cupful of raisins; mix with two cupfuls of cranberries halved, a half cupful of water and a cupful of sugar. Stir one teaspoonful of flour with the sugar and mix all well. Fill shells of pastry laid in buttered plates with this mixture, called by some “mock cherry pie,” lay strips of crust cut with a jagging-iron over the top and bake.
Strawberry pie
Line a buttered plate with puff paste, wash with white of egg and fill with ripe strawberries capped and washed. Sweeten plentifully, cover with another crust; cut slits in this, and bake.
Currant pie (No. 1)
Mix ripe and stemmed currants with one cupful of sugar to two of currants, and bake between upper and lower crusts. Strew white sugar over the top and eat cold.
Currant pie (No. 2)
Fill a pastry shell with one cupful of ripe currants, cleaned and stemmed. Pour upon them an egg, beaten light with one-half cupful of sugar. Lay another crust over the currants and bake.
New England blueberry pie
Wash and dredge blueberries with flour; then scatter among them half a cupful of sugar for each pint of berries. Fill paste shells with this, dot with butter, cover with another crust and bake.
These are richer than huckleberry or blueberry pies, when made in the usual way, the flour thickening the juice slightly and the butter tempering the acid.
Blackberry pie
Make as directed in foregoing recipe.
Combination berry pie
Line a deep pie-plate with pastry and bake long enough to set the crust on top, but not to brown, or entirely cook it. Have ready a mixture of equal quantities of elderberries and huckleberries with one-fourth as many red currants. Dredge with flour, and sprinkle over all a generous cupful of sugar for a quart of berries; dot the surface with bits of butter,—one tablespoon in all,—cover with a crust which should be well turned under the crust of the lower one, and bake, covered, half an hour, then brown.
Sweet potato pie
Parboil, peel, and when cold, grate enough sweet potatoes to make a pound. Cream a half cupful of butter with three-quarters of a cupful of sugar and the beaten yolks of four eggs, a teaspoonful, each, of powdered cinnamon and nutmeg, the grated potato, the juice and rind of a lemon, a wineglassful of brandy and, last of all, the whites of the eggs. Line a large pie-plate with puff paste, fill with the mixture and bake.
Irish potato pie
Boil and rub through a colander or vegetable press; then proceed as with the sweet potatoes in last recipe, but using a full cupful of sugar.
This pie is even more delicious than the sweet potato compound.
Rhubarb and raisin pie
Peel the rhubarb and cut into inch pieces; pour boiling water over it and let stand for ten minutes. Drain; line the pie-plate with plain paste. Fill the pie with rhubarb, and strew over it one cupful of sugar and one-half cupful of raisins. Add small pieces of butter. Cover with a crust and bake.
Whipped cream pie
(Contributed)
Line a pie-plate with a rich crust and bake in a hot oven. When cool spread over with a layer of jelly or marmalade. Whip one cupful of thick cream, sweetened with powdered sugar, and flavored with vanilla; pour this over the marmalade. Or fill crust with whipped cream to which has been added one teacupful of blanched chopped almonds.
Turnover pies
(Contributed)
Mix a plain puff paste. Roll thin and cut into circular pieces about the size of a saucer. Put fruit over one-half of the piece. Sprinkle with sugar. Wet the edges and turn the paste over. Press the edges together and bake on tins in a quick oven twenty minutes.
Mock mince pie
(Contributed)
Mix well together one cupful of raisins chopped fine, one-half cupful of chopped currants, one-fourth teaspoonful of salt, one tablespoonful of vinegar, two-thirds of a cupful of molasses, one-half cupful of cider, one-half cup of sugar, one-half cupful of cut citron and the juice and rind of two lemons, two Boston crackers rolled and one well-beaten egg. Line a pie-pan with paste and fill with some of the mixture, cover with a puff paste and bake.
Washington pie
(Contributed)
Beat together one tablespoonful of butter, one cupful of sugar and one egg until light. Add one cupful of milk and two cupfuls of flour into which have been sifted one teaspoonful of ginger, one teaspoonful of cinnamon and one-half teaspoonful of baking-powder. Beat thoroughly until smooth. Line the Washington pie-plate with a plain paste, put the mixture into it and bake in a moderate quick oven thirty minutes. When done cover with frosting and set to cool.
Crumb pie
Soak a half cupful of bread-crumbs in enough milk to cover them until they are soft and have absorbed all the milk. Cream a third of a cupful of sugar with two ounces of butter; add two eggs, well beaten, and the juice and grated rind of two small lemons, or one very large one. Now, stir in the soaked crumbs, beat for a minute; turn into a pie-plate lined with puff paste, and bake in a hot oven until brown and very light.
Custard pie
Make a custard by pouring three cupfuls of scalding milk upon four eggs that have been beaten light with four tablespoonfuls of sugar. Flavor with vanilla, and pour into a pie-dish lined with puff paste. Bake until set. Serve cold.
Vinegar pie (No. 1)
One cupful of vinegar; one cupful of water; a tablespoonful of butter; one heaping tablespoonful of flour wet with cold water; two-thirds of a cupful of sugar. Put flour, vinegar, butter and sugar into a saucepan and stir until melted, then add the cold water. Stir until thick. Have pie-tins lined with a rich crust; fill with the mixture and bake for fifteen minutes in a hot oven.
Beat the white of an egg to a stiff meringue, adding two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar. When the pies are done, draw them to the door of the oven, spread thickly with the meringue, and return to the oven until a very light brown.
Vinegar pie (No. 2)
One egg; one heaping tablespoonful of flour; one teacupful of sugar; one cupful of cold water; one tablespoonful of vinegar; nutmeg to taste. Beat the egg, add the sugar and flour, beating hard; then add the other ingredients, and bake in an open crust.
Currant tarts
Into a quart of sifted flour chop a cupful of firm, cold butter. When the butter is like coarse sand add a cupful of iced water and work into a paste, touching with the hands as little as possible. Turn upon a pastry-board and roll out twice; then set on the ice for an hour or two. Line small buttered tart-pans with this paste.
Stem and pick over ripe red currants and wash them. Nearly fill the pastry shells with these and sweeten very generously with granulated sugar. Bake, and, when cold, sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Cranberry tarts
Make a cranberry sauce according to directions already given. Line pâté-pans with puff paste; fill with the cranberry sauce, lay strips of pastry, crosswise, over the tops, and bake in a quick oven. When done, sprinkle with granulated sugar and set away to cool.
Lemon tarts
Cream together a cupful of butter and two cupfuls of sugar, stir in the beaten yolks of six eggs, the grated rind of one, and the juice of two lemons, a dash of nutmeg, a wineglassful of brandy, and the stiffened whites of the eggs. Line pâté-pans with puff paste, and fill with this mixture. Bake in a quick oven and serve cold.
Orange cheese cakes
Peel and seed four large oranges, saving all the juice. Boil half of the peels until tender, and, when cold, beat them to a paste with twice their weight in powdered sugar; add the minced pulp and the juice of the oranges with a tablespoonful of butter; beat all together; line pâté-pans with puff paste, lay in the orange mixture and bake.
There must be no fibrous skin or membrane left in the pulp. To get rid of this rub it through a colander.
Cherry tarts
Wash, stem and stone the cherries. Allow one cupful of sugar to a pint of cherries, if tart fruit be used. Put the sugar and one-half cupful of water on the fire; when boiling add the fruit and cook ten minutes. Stir in one teaspoonful of butter and, if the syrup seem thin, wet one teaspoonful of corn-starch in cold water and stir in to thicken the juice slightly.
Have ready-baked pâtés of pastry; fill with the cherry mixture when the latter is cold, sift sugar over top, and eat.
Fried tartlets
Make a rich puff paste and cut it into pieces six inches square. In the center of each square put a great spoonful of raspberry, strawberry, currant or gooseberry jam. Pinch the four corners of the square together, or fold it in half and pinch the edges tightly together that the fruit may not ooze out. Drop the tarts carefully into a kettle of deep, boiling cottolene or other fat, and fry quickly to a delicate brown. Drain in a colander lined with tissue paper.
These are the celebrated “Banbury tarts” of English folk-lore.
HOT PUDDINGS
Boiled puddings
Before attempting a boiled pudding, be sure that you have a good mold with a tightly-fitting cover in which to cook it. You may use such a substitute as a bowl with a floured cloth tied over the top, but this is, at best, a “make-do” which may allow the water to enter and ruin your dough. The best substitute for a mold is a cottolene pail with a top, which may be made more secure by tying it on. Always grease your mold thoroughly,—top, bottom and sides,—and leave room for the swelling of the contents. Three hours will be, as a rule, the longest time required for the boiling of a pudding of ordinary size. All boiled puddings should be served as soon as they are cooked.
Apple pudding (No. 1)
Chop a cupful of suet to a coarse powder and stir it into three cupfuls of flour, twice sifted with a teaspoonful of baking-powder. Add enough milk to make a dough that can be rolled out. Roll into a square sheet. In the center of the sheet lay three cupfuls of peeled and minced apples, strewn with sugar. Bring the four corners of the sheet over the fruit, and pinch the corners together in the middle. Tie up firmly with a piece of broad white tape passed twice around the pudding. Lay in a steamer and cook for two and one-half hours. Remove the tape and serve the pudding with a hard sauce flavored with lemon juice and powdered cinnamon.
Apple pudding (No. 2)
Into two cupfuls of prepared flour chop a tablespoonful of butter, until it is like a coarse yellow powder. Make a batter of this buttered flour, a teacupful of milk and three beaten eggs. Have ready half a dozen peeled and sliced apples, wiped dry, then dredged with flour; stir these into the batter and turn into a greased pudding-mold. Boil for two hours. Eat with a hot lemon sauce.
Cranberry pudding
Sift three cupfuls of flour with a half teaspoonful of salt and stir in a cupful of molasses, a small cupful of sour cream, two beaten eggs and half a teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a little boiling water. Last of all, beat in a cupful and a half of halved cranberries, thoroughly dredged with flour. Turn into a greased mold and steam for at least two hours. Eat with a hard sauce.
Blackberry pudding
Make a batter of a pint of milk, two eggs, and a cupful of flour, sifted with a saltspoonful of salt and a small teaspoonful of baking-powder. Add more flour if the batter is too thin. Beat thoroughly and stir into the batter a pint of blackberries thoroughly dredged with flour. Pour at once into a greased mold and boil for two hours. Serve with a hard sauce.
Plum pudding (No. 1)
Rub together a cupful of granulated sugar and a half cupful of butter. Into this stir a half pound of chopped and powdered suet, then beat in five eggs, a half pint of milk and a teaspoonful of orange juice. Dredge with flour a cupful, each, of seeded raisins and cleaned currants and a half cupful of minced citron. Add this fruit to the batter and stir in a quarter of a teaspoonful, each, of powdered cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Last of all, beat in a quart of flour, turn into a large mold and steam for six hours.
Plum pudding (No. 2)
Half a pound, each, of sugar and suet; a quarter of a pound of butter; five cupfuls of flour; one pound, each, of cleaned currants and of raisins; two tablespoonfuls of shredded citron; one cupful of milk; half a teaspoonful, each, of ground mace, cloves and nutmeg; six eggs; half a cupful of brandy.
Rub butter and sugar together and mix with them the milk and the beaten yolks of the eggs. Add the flour and the whipped whites; dredge the raisins (which should have been seeded and chopped), the currants and citron with flour, and put these in with the spices and the brandy. Mix well, pack into a greased mold, plunge at once into a pot of boiling water and boil five hours. Be careful that the water does not boil over the top of the mold and get into the pudding.
Fig pudding (No. 1)
Soak a cupful of bread-crumbs in a cupful of milk for half an hour. Chop enough suet to make a quarter of a cupful; beat three eggs light; cut into tiny bits a sufficient number of soaked figs to make a cupful of the minced fruit.
Turn the soaked crumbs into a bowl, and stir into them a half cupful of granulated sugar, the whipped eggs, the powdered suet, a pinch of salt and a dash, each, of cinnamon and nutmeg. Last of all, stir in the minced figs thickly dredged with flour, beat well and turn into a greased pudding mold with a closely-fitting top. Boil for about three hours. Turn out and eat with a hard sauce.
WHIPPED CREAM
FLOATING ISLAND
BIRTHDAY CAKE
Fig pudding (No. 2)
Use only the best figs, soak one hour in a little warm water, and chop enough to make a generous cupful when minced. Soak two cupfuls of fine bread-crumbs in two cupfuls of milk until very soft. Into the crumbs stir five eggs, beaten light, a half cupful of sugar, a saltspoonful of salt, and the cupful of minced figs, thoroughly dredged with flour. Beat hard for several minutes, and turn into a greased pudding mold with a close top. Set in boiling water and cook for three hours. Dip the mold into cold water for an instant, then turn the pudding out upon a hot platter. Set in the oven long enough for the moisture to dry from the outside of the pudding. Three minutes in a hot oven should suffice. Send to the table and eat with a hard sauce flavored with a little nutmeg.
Fig and raisin pudding
Soak a large cupful of bread-crumbs in a cupful of milk for an hour; stir into them three eggs, beaten very light, three tablespoonfuls of powdered suet, and three tablespoonfuls of flour sifted with a teaspoonful of baking-powder. Have ready a half cupful of minced figs and the same quantity of seeded and quartered raisins. Mix the fruit together, dredge thoroughly with flour, and stir it into the pudding batter. Pour the mixture into a large pudding mold with a closely fitting top, leaving an abundance of room in the mold for the pudding to swell. Steam for fully three hours. Turn from the mold, set the pudding in the oven for five minutes, and serve with a liquid sauce.
Boiled Indian pudding (No. 1)
Heat a quart of milk to scalding, and beat into it gradually three cupfuls of Indian meal, into which you have stirred a scant teaspoonful of salt. When the meal is thoroughly beaten in and is free from lumps, add two heaping tablespoonfuls of powdered suet and remove from the fire. Turn into a bowl and set aside to cool. When the meal-mixture is very cold beat in four whipped eggs, a gill of molasses and a half teaspoonful of powdered cinnamon. Beat for five minutes and pour into a greased pudding mold with a closely fitting top. Boil for five hours, turn out upon a heated platter and set in the oven for five minutes before sending to the table. Eat with a hard or liquid sauce.
Indian pudding (No. 2)
Heat a quart of milk to scalding. Into a pint of Indian meal stir a half pound of finely chopped suet and a saltspoonful of salt. Turn this into the scalding milk. Stir all together and remove from the fire. When cold add three well-beaten eggs, a small cupful of molasses and half a teaspoonful of baking-soda dissolved in a tablespoonful of boiling water. Dredge a pound of seeded raisins with a cup of flour, and stir in last of all. Boil for three hours. Serve with hard sauce.
Batter pudding
Into four eggs, beaten very light, stir three cupfuls of milk and a pint of flour that has been twice sifted with a teaspoonful of baking-powder and a saltspoonful of salt. Turn into a greased pudding mold and steam for two hours. Eat with hot brandy sauce.
Boiled prune pudding
Stew a pound and a half of prunes; when cold remove the stones and cut each prune into four pieces. Into a half cupful of powdered suet stir a half cupful of powdered sugar, two beaten eggs, a gill of milk, a gill of the prune liquor and a scant pint of flour, sifted with a half teaspoonful of baking-powder and a saltspoonful of salt. Beat all thoroughly together, and, last of all, add the quartered prunes, thoroughly dredged with flour. Turn into a greased pudding mold with a closely fitting top and boil for two and a half hours. Eat hot with hard sauce.
Boiled huckleberry pudding
Make a rich biscuit dough. Roll this out, spread thickly with huckleberries, sprinkle with granulated sugar, and dot with bits of butter. Roll the sheet up carefully into an oblong parcel, pinch the edges together and put into a muslin bag. Plunge this into a vessel of boiling water and keep at a hard boil for at least two hours. Remove the pudding and serve with hot liquid sauce.
Steamed orange pudding (1)
Soak a cupful of bread-crumbs in a cupful of milk until very soft; beat into them three whipped eggs, two tablespoonfuls of powdered suet and three-quarters of a cupful of sugar. Carefully peel and divide into half lobes three oranges, dredge each piece thoroughly with flour, and stir the fruit into the above mixture. Turn into a greased pudding mold with a closely fitting top and steam for at least three hours. Turn the pudding out upon a hot platter, set in the oven for five minutes to dry, and send to the table with a hard sauce.
Boiled orange pudding (2)
Make a light paste of a pint of flour and three-quarters of a cupful of shortening—half butter, half cottolene or other fat—wet with enough iced water to make it of the proper consistency to roll out. Set in a cold place for several hours. Roll into a large sheet and cover this thickly with juicy oranges, peeled, sliced and seeded. Sprinkle the fruit well with granulated sugar and roll up the pastry. Fold the ends closely together, sew the pudding into a floured cheese-cloth bag, and boil for nearly two hours. Serve very hot with a hard sauce flavored with orange juice and a half teaspoonful of the grated peel.
Raisin pudding
Wash and seed a cupful and a half of raisins, and dredge them thickly with flour. Chop a cupful of suet very fine, removing all particles of string. It should be like powder. To this add a half cupful of brown sugar, a cupful of sour milk and three eggs beaten light. Now stir in enough flour to make a batter. (This batter must not be too thick, as the raisins have to be added to it.) About two cupfuls of flour should be enough. Beat in a half teaspoonful, each, of nutmeg and cinnamon and a small teaspoonful of soda, dissolved in a little boiling water. Now add the raisins, stir them in well, turn the pudding into a greased mold with a closely fitting top and steam for three hours. Eat with a hard sauce flavored with vanilla.
Fruit pudding
Cream together a cupful of butter and the same quantity of powdered sugar. Beat six eggs light and stir them into the butter and sugar. When thoroughly blended add three cupfuls of prepared flour and the grated peel of two lemons.
Have already prepared a half pound of seeded and halved raisins, eight minced figs and a quarter of a pound of minced citron. Mix these, dredge them thoroughly with flour and stir into the batter. Boil in a very large mold for three hours. This is an excellent company pudding and is a large one. Eat with hot liquid sauce.
Clonduff pudding
One cupful of molasses; half a cupful of melted butter; three and a half cupfuls of flour; one cupful of milk; three eggs, well-beaten; one-half teaspoonful of baking-soda; one teaspoonful of cinnamon; pinch of salt.
Stir molasses and butter to a cream, add the milk, the eggs, the spice, lastly, the flour, sifted three times with the salt and soda. Mix well, pour into a buttered mold; set in a pot of boiling water and cook steadily for three hours. The water must be kept at a fast boil all the time, replenishing from the tea-kettle if need be. Eat with wine sauce.
An excellent family pudding, and not expensive.
Sally’s pudding
Crumb stale cake finely. If there are several kinds, no matter. Stir the white of a raw egg into just enough cold water to moisten the crumbs. Don’t get them too soft. Press the mixture into a well-greased mold, with a close cover; boil steadily one hour; turn out while hot and eat with hard or liquid sauce.
Boiled gooseberry pudding
Top, tail and wash two cupfuls of gooseberries, ripe or green. Dredge with flour. Sift two cupfuls of flour with one teaspoonful of baking-powder and half as much salt. Cream one-half cupful of sugar with half as much butter. Add the well-beaten yolk of one egg, then the white, beaten stiff, one cupful of milk and the flour mixture alternately. Lastly, stir in the floured fruit; turn into a well-greased mold and boil two hours.
Steamed apricot pudding
With one heaping cupful of flour sift, twice, a heaping teaspoonful of baking-powder and half a teaspoonful of salt. Chop two tablespoonfuls of cottolene or other fat into this and mix to a dough with one cupful of milk. Strain the liquor from a can of apricots and save it to make sauce for the pudding. Butter a deep mold; pour an inch of dough into the bottom; cover with halved apricots; then more dough, and so on until all your materials are used up. Cover closely and boil or steam for three hours.
For sauce, strain and heat the syrup, thicken with a roux of flour and butter, cook for one minute; add a great spoonful of sugar and boil three minutes.
Suet pudding
Slightly warm and stir together one cupful of molasses and one of suet, freed from strings and powdered. Have ready a cupful of seeded and minced raisins and two even cupfuls of flour, sifted with one even teaspoonful of soda and a saltspoonful of salt. Beat two eggs light, add to the warmed mixture, season with mace and cinnamon, put in the flour, lastly the fruit. Pour into a buttered mold and steam nearly three hours.
Mary’s favorite pudding
Sift twice with two cupfuls of whole wheat flour a heaping teaspoonful of baking-powder and half a teaspoonful of salt. Have ready half a cupful of nut-meats—walnuts or hickory-nuts—scalded, skinned and dried, then chopped, and a cupful of sultana raisins, stemmed and washed. Dredge well with flour. Mix one cupful of milk with one-half cupful of molasses. Stir the sifted flour into this, add the dredged nuts and fruit mixed together; turn into a well-buttered mold, fit upon it a close top, and steam or boil for three hours.
Cornstarch hasty pudding
Heat a quart of milk in a double boiler. When it reaches the boiling point add four tablespoonfuls of corn-starch wet up with cold water and a pinch of salt. Cook for ten minutes, stirring often; then add a tablespoonful of butter, and let it stand at the side of the range for five minutes longer. Beat well and serve hot. Eat with butter and sugar.
East Indian pudding (very good)
One cupful of milk; three-quarters of a cupful of flour, sifted with an even teaspoonful of baking powder; three tablespoonfuls of butter; four eggs; four tablespoonfuls of minced preserved ginger, and one tablespoonful of the syrup.
Heat the milk to scalding, stir in the butter, and, when this is melted, boil up before adding the dry flour—all at once. Stir quickly down to the bottom every time, and when you have a smooth batter, turn out into a bowl. Beat hard with upward strokes for one minute and let it cool quickly, uncovered. When cold, make a hole in the middle, and break in an egg from the shell. Beat it in hard and well before dropping in another. Proceed in this way until all the eggs are beaten into the dough.
Dredge the minced ginger with flour before adding it. Last of all, work in the syrup.
Butter a mold well, put in the pudding and steam for two hours, or boil for an hour and a half. Set in cold water for one minute to make it shrink from the sides of the mold. Turn out, and eat hot with brandy sauce.
Cherry batter pudding
Stone three cupfuls of ripe cherries. Beat two eggs light, stir into them a tablespoonful of melted butter and a pint of milk, then four cupfuls of prepared flour. Last of all, stir in the cherries, well dredged with flour. Turn into a greased mold and steam for three hours. Serve with a hard sauce.
Cabinet pudding
(Contributed)
Butter a pudding mold and sprinkle the bottom with chopped raisins, citron and currants; add a layer of sponge cake and sprinkle lightly with ground cinnamon and cloves. Alternate these layers until the mold is almost full. Beat four eggs until light, add one quart of milk and a little salt and four tablespoonfuls of melted butter. Pour over the cake. Let all stand one hour and then steam for one and a half hours and serve with a currant jelly sauce.
Cherry roly-poly
(Contributed)
Sift one teaspoonful of salt and three level teaspoonfuls of baking-powder into one pint of flour; rub into this one tablespoonful of butter and moisten with enough milk to make a rather stiff dough. Toss on the board and pat into a rectangular shape. Have ready some stoned and well-drained cherries, lay them on the dough and press them gently into it. Dredge with flour and roll over into a loose roll, pinch the edges together and wrap in a cloth. Lay in a steamer and cook one hour; serve with cherry sauce.
BAKED PUDDINGS
Baked prune pudding (No. 1)
Stone and chop eighteen stewed prunes. Beat the yolks of four eggs light with two tablespoonfuls of sugar. Cook together in a saucepan one tablespoonful of butter and two of flour, and when they are blended pour upon them a scant gill of hot milk. Cook, stirring, to a thick white sauce; beat this gradually into the yolks and sugar, and add the minced prunes. Beat hard for five minutes, and set aside to cool. When cold, add the stiffened whites of the four eggs, beat for a minute and turn into a buttered pudding-dish. Bake in a hot oven for half an hour.
The sauce to be eaten with this pudding is made by heating the prune liquor, adding to it sugar, and, when this is dissolved, a dash of lemon juice.
Prune pudding (No. 2)
Soak a pound of prunes all night and, in the morning, drain well. Put them over the fire with a half cupful of granulated sugar and enough water to cover them, and stew until tender. Take them from the liquor and set aside to cool in a colander, reserving the liquor for the pudding sauce. Stone the prunes and chop them very fine. Break six eggs, dividing the yolks from the whites. Whip the yolks until thick, beat into them three tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar, the minced prunes and the finely-chopped meats of a dozen English walnuts. Last of all, add quickly, and with light strokes, the stiffened whites of the eggs. Turn into a greased pudding-dish and bake in the lower part of a moderate oven for half an hour. Serve in the bake-dish as soon as done with a sauce made by stirring into a pint of rich cream three tablespoonfuls of sugar, a dash, each, of nutmeg and cinnamon, and a gill of prune syrup. Serve this sauce cold.
Fruit pudding
Into the beaten yolks of five eggs beat a cupful of sugar, a half pound of powdered suet, a teaspoonful, each, of ground nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves, two cupfuls of milk and a pint of flour. Have ready chopped two ounces of citron and a half pound of seeded raisins. To these add a half pound of cleaned currants and dredge all thoroughly with flour. Stir the fruit gradually into the batter, and, last of all, fold in the stiffened whites of five eggs. Turn into a greased pudding-dish and bake for an hour and a quarter in a steady oven. Eat with hard sauce.
Pineapple pudding
Peel and chop a pineapple and cover with granulated sugar. Let it stand in the ice-box for an hour, then drain the juice from the fruit, saving both. In the bottom of a buttered pudding-dish put a layer of split “lady fingers,” and over them pour a little of the pineapple juice, to which you have added two teaspoonfuls of lemon juice. Spread the lady-fingers with a layer of the chopped pineapple; put in another layer of the pineapple, and more of the juice and fruit. Have the top layer of the moistened pineapple. Cover, set the pudding-dish in an outer pan of boiling water, and bake in a steady oven for at least an hour. Uncover, and brown lightly. Serve this pudding with hot liquid sauce flavored with the juice of two lemons and the grated peel of one.
Apple and tapioca pudding
Soak a cupful of tapioca for two hours in enough cold water to cover it. Lay, side by side, in a deep bake-dish apples that have been pared and cored. Pour over them a cupful of boiling water; put a cover on the dish and cook in the oven until the apples are tender. When done, drain the water from the apples, leaving them still in the bake-dish, fill the centers with granulated sugar, squeeze a few drops of lemon juice on each, and pour the soaked tapioca over and around the fruit. Bake for about an hour. Eat hot with hard sauce.
Tapioca and raisin pudding
Soak a cupful of tapioca in a pint of milk for three hours, then add a quart of rich milk and soak at least an hour longer. Put into a double boiler and heat slowly. When the tapioca is very soft, cream two tablespoonfuls, each, of butter and sugar; add to this two beaten eggs, then gradually beat in the hot tapioca. Add a cupful of seeded and halved raisins, turn into a buttered pudding-dish and bake. Eat hot with hard sauce.
Peach batter pudding
Make a batter of four beaten eggs, a quart of milk, two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, three scant cupfuls of prepared flour and a saltspoonful of salt. Lay in a deep pudding-dish fifteen peaches that have been peeled, stoned and quartered. Strew with sugar, pour the batter over and around them and bake in a steady oven. Eat at once with hard sauce.
Plum pudding
Seed and chop a pound of raisins, stem and wash a pound of currants, shred and mince three tablespoonfuls of citron and dredge with flour. Rub to a cream a half pound of sugar and half as much butter, and beat into them six whipped eggs, a cupful of milk, a quart of flour, and spices to taste. Stir in the fruit, last of all.
Baked orange pudding
Make a batter of two eggs, a cupful of milk, a tablespoonful of melted butter and about three cupfuls of flour into which have been sifted two teaspoonfuls of baking-powder. Peel, seed and cut into bits four oranges; beat these into the batter and bake in a greased pudding-dish in a hot oven. Serve with hot liquid sauce made according to the following recipe:
Orange sauce
Rub together five tablespoonfuls of butter and a cupful of granulated sugar. Put these into a saucepan and pour upon them half a cupful of boiling water, then the stiffened whites of three eggs, the juice of two oranges and half a lemon. Beat with an egg-beater until very foamy, and serve.
Raspberry cottage pudding
Rub to a cream a tablespoonful of butter and a scant cupful of sugar. Stir in a gill of cream, three beaten eggs, and two cupfuls of prepared flour. Last of all, add a pint of red raspberries, plentifully dredged with flour. Turn into a greased mold and bake for one hour. Serve hot with hard sauce into which has been beaten the juice from a pint of red raspberries.
Blackberry pudding
Beat three eggs light and stir them into two cupfuls of milk. Sift a quart of flour with two teaspoonfuls of baking-powder and beat this gradually into the eggs and milk. Dredge three cupfuls of blackberries with flour and stir these into the batter. Turn into a greased pudding-dish, and bake, covered, for an hour; then uncover and brown. Eat with hard sauce.
Cherry pudding
Stem and stone two heaping cupfuls of cherries. Beat three eggs light and stir into them a pint of milk, a tablespoonful of melted butter, and a quart of flour which has been twice sifted with two teaspoonfuls of baking-powder. Beat well, and add the cherries, which should be thoroughly dredged with flour. Stir these in, lightly and quickly; turn into a greased pudding-dish and bake in a steady oven for an hour and a half. Bake, covered, for the first hour; uncover and brown. Serve the pudding in the dish in which it was baked. Eat hot with a hard sauce.
Rhubarb pudding
Grease a pudding-dish and put into it a layer of bread-crumbs that have been soaked in a pint of water to which have been added the juice of a lemon and a half cupful of sugar. Sprinkle these crumbs with bits of butter, and put over them a thick layer of stewed rhubarb well sweetened. Now add more crumbs and more rhubarb, and proceed in this manner until the dish is full. Sprinkle the top of the pudding with dry bread-crumbs dotted with bits of butter. Bake, covered, for half an hour; uncover, and bake for ten minutes longer. Eat with hard sauce, flavored with powdered nutmeg.
Brown betty
Peel and chop enough apples to make two cupfuls. Have ready one cupful of fine bread-crumbs and two tablespoonfuls of butter cut into small bits. Butter a bake-dish and put in the bottom of it a layer of chopped apple sprinkled with sugar, bits of butter, and a very little cinnamon; over this spread a layer of crumbs. Then comes another layer of apple, and so on until the dish is full. The topmost layer must be of crumbs dotted with bits of butter. Bake, closely covered, for forty minutes; remove the cover, set the dish on the upper grating of the oven, and brown the pudding. Serve hot, with hard butter and sugar sauce.
Rice custard pudding
Make a white sauce by cooking together, until they bubble, a tablespoonful of flour and one of butter, and pouring on them a cupful of milk. Stir until thick, and set aside to cool. When cool, beat into this sauce three-quarters of a cupful of cold boiled rice and four well-beaten eggs. Turn into a buttered pudding-dish, put the dish into a pan of boiling water and cook until the custard is set. A quarter of an hour should suffice. Eat with a vanilla sauce made according to the following directions:
Put a cupful of boiling water into a saucepan over the fire, stir into it two teaspoonfuls of corn-starch dissolved in cold water, one teaspoonful of butter, half a cupful of sugar, a teaspoonful of lemon juice and a teaspoonful of vanilla. Stir until the sauce boils and thickens.
Poor man’s pudding
Pare the crusts from slices of graham bread, toast delicately and cut the slices into dice. Butter a pudding-dish and strew the bottom with these bread dice. Moisten with a very little milk, and sprinkle with granulated sugar. Cover with apple sauce, well sweetened. Add more bread dice, then apple sauce, and proceed in this way until your dish is full. Let the top layer be of apple sauce. Strew with bread-crumbs and sprinkle with cinnamon. Cover and bake in a hot oven for twenty minutes, then uncover and brown. Eat cold with sugar and cream.
Canned peach puddings
Sift twice with two cupfuls of flour a heaping teaspoonful of baking-powder and a half teaspoonful of salt. Chop into this a tablespoonful of butter. Beat two eggs light, and mix with two cupfuls of milk. Wet the prepared flour into a soft dough with the milk and eggs. Butter several deep pâté-pans. Put half a peach into the bottom of each; dust with sugar and cover with batter; then, another peach and so on, until the pans are full. Set in a pan of boiling water in a good oven and bake, covered, twenty minutes. Uncover, cook five minutes longer, and turn out upon a hot dish.
Make sauce for them by adding sugar to the peach syrup, heating and stirring in a roux of one tablespoonful of butter cooked with a teaspoonful of flour.
A German pudding
Three-quarters of a cupful of seeded raisins, three-quarters of a cupful of cleaned currants, one-half cupful of chopped almonds, one-half cupful of sugar, six eggs, one-half cupful of sweet milk, five slices of stale white bread.
Cut the crust from the bread, cut the bread slices into small cubes, and fry them to a golden-brown in a large tablespoonful of butter. Have a pudding-dish buttered; put in a layer of bread, next of fruits and nuts mixed together, then more bread. Beat the yolks, sugar, milk and a little grated lemon peel; add the beaten whites of four eggs; pour this mixture over the pudding and bake slowly for three-quarters of an hour. When done, beat the remaining whites of the eggs light with a tablespoonful of sugar, spread upon the pudding and brown slightly. Serve warm with fruit sauce.
Baked Indian pudding
Stir into a cupful of yellow corn-meal a half teaspoonful of salt; pour gradually upon the salted meal two cupfuls of boiling water, and beat until free of lumps. Have ready heated in a large double boiler five cupfuls of milk, and into this stir the scalded meal. Boil for an hour. Whip four eggs very light, and into them a gill of molasses, a tablespoonful of melted butter, and a quarter of a teaspoonful, each, of powdered cinnamon and nutmeg. Now remove the boiled meal from the fire and add it very slowly, beating steadily, to the egg mixture. Turn all into a deep, greased pudding-dish and bake, covered, for nearly an hour. Uncover and brown. Serve the pudding from the dish in which it was baked. Eat with hard sauce flavored with lemon juice.
Baked Indian puddings
Make a mush as directed in last recipe. Beat light three eggs and one cupful of molasses, one tablespoonful of softened butter, one teaspoonful of soda. Ginger to taste. Stir in mush enough to make a thick batter. Butter and heat a dozen pâté-pans, fill only half-full with the mixture, put a raisin on top of each, and bake to a nice brown. Run a knife inside of the pans and turn out upon a hot dish. Serve with hard sauce flavored with vanilla.
Macaroni pudding
Break a half pound of spaghetti into bits of uniform length, and cook in a double boiler until tender. Have heated a pint and a half of rich milk, and thicken this slightly with a half teaspoonful of corn-starch rubbed into a teaspoonful of butter. When the milk is of the consistency of cream, drain the macaroni and stir into it this white sauce. Put into a double boiler and heat for five minutes. Turn into a deep dish, sprinkle lightly with powdered cinnamon, and serve with butter and sugar.
Bread-crumb pudding
Soak a pint of fine dry bread-crumbs for two hours in a quart of milk, then beat in two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, a half teaspoonful of powdered nutmeg, the whipped yolks and the stiffened whites of four eggs. Bake in a buttered pudding-dish and eat hot with hard sauce.
Cottage pudding (excellent)
Sift three cupfuls of flour twice with one teaspoonful of baking-powder and a little salt. Rub to a cream a cupful of powdered sugar and a heaping tablespoonful of butter. Beat two eggs light—yolks and whites separately. Mix the yolks with the creamed butter and sugar, then one cupful of milk; lastly, the prepared flour, alternately with the frothed whites. Bake, covered, in a buttered mold until a straw comes out clean from the thickest part.
Eat with hard, or with liquid sauce.
Bread and fig pudding
Cut figs into small dice. Make a custard by heating a cupful of milk and pouring it upon four eggs beaten light with six tablespoonfuls of sugar, then cooking it until it is just thick enough to coat the spoon. Dip crustless slices of bread for a second in milk; put a layer of them into a pudding-dish, cover with the fig-dice, and pour over all the hot custard. Then put in more bread, more figs and custard, and proceed until the dish is full. Wait a moment for the bread to absorb some of the custard, and pour the rest of the hot liquid into the dish until it is full to the brim. Cover the dish and bake until the custard is set; uncover and brown. Serve as soon as baked. Eat with a hard sauce.
Peach scallop
Peel and chop enough peaches to make two cupfuls. Put a layer of them into the bottom of a greased pudding-dish, sprinkle thickly with sugar, add a layer of stale sponge cake-crumbs, then more sugared peaches, and so on until the dish is full. Sprinkle with sugar and crumbs, and bake for three-quarters of an hour. Eat hot with hard sauce.
Date pudding
Substitute dates, stoned and minced, for figs in the next-to-the-last recipe.
Queen of puddings
Beat the yolks of four eggs light, add a cupful of sugar, a tablespoonful of softened butter, and when these are well-mixed, four cupfuls of milk. Lastly, beat in two cupfuls of dried crumbs, and turn into a buttered pudding-dish. Bake like a custard. When baked, spread over the top strawberries, sliced peaches or jelly of any sweet kind, and cover the whole with the whites of the eggs beaten stiff with half a cupful of sugar. Brown lightly in the oven. Sift powdered sugar over fresh fruit if it is used, and always over the meringue. Eat warm with sugar and cream, or very cold with the same.
An old-fashioned bread pudding
Soak a pint of fine crumbs in a quart of milk, and when they have soaked for two hours, stir in four well-beaten egg yolks, two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, a scant half teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a little boiling water and a pinch of nutmeg. Last of all, fold in lightly the stiffened whites of the eggs. Bake in a well-greased pudding-dish, cover for half an hour, then uncover and brown. Send to the table as soon as done and eat with hot wine sauce.
A baked Charlotte
Slice stale cake as neatly as may be. Spread each piece with jam or jelly; pack closely in a greased pudding-dish; pour over it a raw custard made by beating an egg very light and stirring it into a large cupful of milk. No sugar is needed. Bake, covered, for half an hour. Eat hot with lemon sauce, or very cold with cream.
Apple meringue pudding
Four cupfuls of well-sweetened apple sauce, run through a colander and beaten with an egg-whisk until light and creamy. One cupful of fine bread-crumbs; three eggs; one glass of sherry; one tablespoonful of butter (melted); juice of a lemon and half the grated rind; mace and cinnamon to taste. Mix crumbs, apple sauce and melted butter well together, add the seasoning, the lemon, and finally the beaten yolks of the eggs. Beat hard for one minute, turn into a buttered pudding-dish and bake, covered, for half an hour. Draw to the oven door and spread with a meringue made of the stiffened whites of the eggs. Eat ice-cold with cream.
Chocolate pudding
Make a good custard of a quart of milk, the yolk of five eggs and a cupful of sugar. Have ready two tablespoonfuls of cornstarch wet with cold milk. When the custard is hot, take from the fire, stir this in, with four tablespoonfuls of grated, unsweetened chocolate. Turn into a buttered pudding-dish and bake, covered, for half an hour. Draw to the door of the oven and spread with a stiff meringue made of the whites whipped light with two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar and a teaspoonful of vanilla. Return to the oven for one minute, or until the meringue is “set.”
Eat cold with whipped cream.
Summer squash pudding
Stew the squash, drain and rub through your vegetable press. To each pint add one cupful of sugar, one-half teaspoonful of mace and a little salt, and slowly pour over and mix in one quart of boiling milk. Set aside until perfectly cold, when add the yolks of five well-beaten eggs and a cupful of thick cream; bake in a pudding-dish in a moderate oven until firm in the center.
Draw to the oven door and cover with the whites of three eggs beaten to a meringue with a cup of fine macaroon-crumbs. Shut the oven and brown lightly.
Eat cold. It will be found very nice.
Cornstarch pudding
Dissolve three tablespoonfuls of corn-starch in a cupful of milk, then set aside until cool. Now beat in three tablespoonfuls of sugar and three beaten eggs with a teaspoonful of melted butter. Stir until thick and smooth. Scald a pint of milk and add to it the corn-starch and cold milk. Season with vanilla, and bake in a buttered pudding-dish. Serve cold with sweetened cream.
Bread-and-milk pudding
Soak two cupfuls of fine crumbs in a quart of milk for an hour. Stir in a tablespoonful of melted butter and a teaspoonful of vanilla. Now beat in three well-whipped eggs; turn into a buttered pudding-dish and bake until set. Eat hot with sugar and butter, or cream and sugar.
Bread-crumb pudding
Soak three cupfuls of fine crumbs for an hour in a quart of milk. Beat into the soaked crumbs four eggs, whipped light, a tablespoonful of melted butter and a teaspoonful of vanilla. Turn into a greased pudding-dish and bake, covered, for twenty minutes; uncover and brown. Eat at once with hard sauce flavored with vanilla.
Polly’s pudding
(A Virginia recipe)
Make a custard of two cupfuls of hot milk poured gradually upon the yolks of three eggs beaten light with four tablespoonfuls of sugar. Butter a pudding-dish and sprinkle the bottom with finely-minced candied lemon peel, minced crystallized fruit, and a very little shredded suet, then a layer of fine crumbs. Cover each layer with a few spoonfuls of the warm custard as you go on until the dish is full. Cover and bake half an hour; spread with a meringue made of the whites and a tablespoonful of sugar and color lightly. Eat cold.
Rice pudding without eggs
(Contributed)
Put into a baking-dish one cupful of rice; sweeten with a cupful of sugar; season with a teaspoonful, each, of salt, grated nutmeg and cinnamon. Scatter through the rice one-half cupful of seeded raisins and pour over it six cupfuls of milk. If the pudding looks dry, add another cupful of milk fifteen minutes before taking from the oven.