Add a pint and a half of good ale yeast (from pale malt, if possible) to a bushel of the very best white flour; let the yeast lie all night in water, then pour off the water quite clear; heat two gallons of water just milk-warm, and mix the water, yeast, and two ounces of salt well together for about a quarter of an hour. Strain the whole, and mix up your dough as light as possible, letting it lie in the trough an hour to rise; next roll it with your hand, pulling it into little pieces about the size of a large walnut. These must be rolled out thin with a rolling-pin, in a good deal of flour, and if covered immediately with a piece of flannel, they will rise to a proper thickness; but if too large or small, dough must be added accordingly, or taken away; meanwhile, the dough must be also covered with flannel.

Next begin baking; and when laid on the iron, watch carefully, and when one side changes colour, turn the other, taking care that they do not burn or become discoloured. Be careful also that the iron does not get too hot. In order to bake muffins properly, you ought to have a place built as if a copper were to be set; but instead of copper a piece of iron must be put over the top, fixed in form like the bottom of an iron pot, underneath which a coal fire is kindled when required. Toast the muffins crisp on both sides with a fork; pull them open

, and they will be like a honeycomb; lay in as much butter as you intend; then clap them together, and set by the fire: turn them once, that both sides may be buttered alike. When quite done, cut them across with a knife; but if you use a knife either to spread or divide them, they will be as heavy as lead. Some kinds of flour will soak up more water than others; when this occurs, add water; or if too moist, add flour: for the dough must be as light as possible.

All cakes of this description may be made with the aid of a little baking-powder, or egg-powder. For instructions respecting these preparations the reader is referred to

.

Take of flour one pound; sugar, one ounce; butter, one ounce; baking-powder, three teaspoonfuls; milk, six ounces; water, six ounces. Rub the butter and baking powder into the flour; dissolve the sugar in the water, and then add the milk. Pour this mixture gradually over the flour, and mix well together; divide the mass into three portions, and bake twenty-five minutes. Flat round tins or earthen-pans are the best to bake the cakes in. Buttermilk may be used instead of milk and water, if preferred.

Take of flour one pound and a half; baking powder, four teaspoonfuls; sugar, one ounce and a half; butter, one ounce and a half; milk, twenty ounces; currants, six ounces, more or less. Mix the baking powder and butter into the flour by rubbing them together; next dissolve the sugar in the milk, and add it gradually to the flour, mixing the whole intimately, and adding fruit at discretion. Bake in a tin or earthen pan.

Take of flour one pound; baking powder, three teaspoonfuls; sugar, three ounces; butter, three ounces; currants, four ounces; milk, one pint, or twenty ounces: bake one hour in a quick oven.

Take of flour one pound; baking powder, three teaspoonfuls; butter, six ounces; loaf sugar, six ounces; currants, six ounces; three eggs; milk, about four ounces; bake for one hour and a half in a tin or pan.

Take of flour one pound; baking powder, three teaspoonfuls; butter, six ounces; loaf sugar, four ounces; one egg; essence of lemon, six or eight drops: make into twenty buns, and bake in a quick oven for fifteen minutes.

Take of flour half a pound; bicarbonate of soda, two drachms; tartaric acid, two drachms; butter, four ounces; white sugar, two ounces; currants, four ounces; two eggs; warm milk, half a teacupful.

Take of flour two pounds; carbonate of ammonia, three drachms, in fine powder; white sugar, four ounces; arrowroot one ounce; butter, four ounces; one egg: mix into a stiff paste with new milk, and beat them well with a rolling-pin for half an hour; roll out thin, and cut them out with a docker, and bake in a quick oven for fifteen minutes.

Take of flour half a pound; butter, four ounces; sugar, four ounces; two eggs; carbonate of ammonia, one drachm; white wine, enough to mix to a proper consistence. Cut out with a glass.

To two pounds of flour add three quarters of a pound of good moist sugar, one ounce best Jamaica ginger well mixed in the flour; have ready three quarters of a pound of lard, melted, and four eggs well beaten: mix the lard and eggs together, and stir into the flour, which will form a paste; roll out in thin cakes, and bake in a moderately heated oven. Lemon biscuits may be made in a similar way, by substituting essence of lemon for ginger.

(

.)—The following receipt is as excellent as it is simple, it gives less trouble than any other, and has never been known to fail:—Take five eggs and half a pound of loaf sugar, sifted; break the eggs upon the sugar, and beat all together with a steel fork for half an hour. Previously take the weight of two eggs and a half, in their shells, of flour. After you have beaten the eggs and sugar the time specified, grate in the rind of a lemon (the juice may be added at pleasure), stir in the flour, and immediately pour it into a tin lined with buttered paper, and let it be instantly put into rather a cool oven.

Take equal weight of eggs and sugar; half their weight in sifted flour; to twelve eggs add the grated rind of three lemons, and the juice of two. Beat the eggs carefully, white and yolks separately, before they are used. Stir the materials thoroughly together, and bake in a quick oven.

Almond Sponge Cake is made by adding blanched almonds to the above.

Take one pound of fresh butter; one pound of sugar; one pound and a half of flour; two pounds of currants; a glass of brandy; one pound of sweetmeats; two ounces of sweet almonds; ten eggs; a quarter of an ounce of allspice; and a quarter of an ounce of cinnamon. Melt the butter to a cream, and put in the sugar. Stir it till quite light, adding the allspice and pounded cinnamon; in a quarter of an hour, take the yolks of the eggs, and work them two or three at a time; and the whites of the same must by this time be beaten into a strong snow, quite ready to work in. As the paste must not stand to chill the butter, or it will be heavy, work in the whites gradually, then add the orange peel, lemon, and citron, cut in fine strips, and the currants, which must be mixed in well, with the sweet almonds; then add the sifted flour and glass of brandy. Bake this cake in a tin hoop, in a hot oven, for three hours, and put twelve sheets of paper under it to keep it from burning.

Extract the juice from red currants by simmering them very gently for a few minutes over a slow fire; strain it through folded muslin, and to one pound of the juice add a pound and a half of freshly gathered cooking apples, pared, and rather deeply cored, that the fibrous part may be avoided. Boil these quite slowly until the mixture is perfectly smooth; then, to evaporate part of the moisture, let the boiling be quickened. In from twenty-five to thirty minutes, draw the pan from the fire, and throw in gradually a pound and a quarter of sugar in fine powder; mix it well with the fruit, and when it is dissolved, continue the boiling rapidly for twenty minutes longer, keeping the mixture constantly stirred; put it into a mould, and store it, when cold, for winter use, or serve it for dessert, or for the second course; in the latter case, decorate it with spikes of almonds, blanched, and heap solid whipped cream round it, or pour a custard into the dish. For dessert, it may be garnished with dice of the palest apple jelly.

Roll out the paste about half an inch thick, and cut it into pieces; then roll again till each piece becomes twice the size; put some Banbury meat in the middle of one side; fold the other over it, and pinch it up into a somewhat oval shape; flatten it with your hand at the top, letting the seam be quite at the bottom; rub the tops over with the white of an egg, laid on with a brush, and dust loaf sugar over them: bake in a moderate oven.

The meat for Banbury cakes is made thus:—Beat up a quarter of a pound of butter until it becomes in the state of cream; then mix with it half a pound of candied orange and lemon peel, cut fine; one pound of currants, a quarter of an ounce of ground cinnamon; and a quarter of an ounce of allspice: mix all well together, and keep in a jar till wanted for use.

A quarter of a pound of flour; four yolks and three whites of eggs, with four spoonfuls of solid fresh yeast. Beat in a bowl, and set before the fire to rise; then rub into one pound of flour ten ounces of butter; put in half a pound of sugar, and caraway comfits; when the eggs and yeast are pretty light, mix by degrees all together; throw a cloth over it, and set before the fire to rise. Make the buns, and when on the tins, brush over with the yolk of egg and milk; strew them with caraway comfits; bake in a quick oven. If baking powder is used instead of yeast, use two teaspoonfuls, and proceed as directed, omitting to set the dough before the fire to rise, which is useless as regards all articles made with baking powder.

Take a quart of flour; four eggs; a piece of butter the size of an egg; a piece of lard the same size: mix the butter and lard well in the flour; beat the eggs light in a pint bowl, and fill it up with cold milk; then pour it gradually into the flour; add a teaspoonful of salt; work it for eight or ten minutes only: cut the dough with a knife to the size you wish it; roll them into cakes about the size of a breakfast plate, and bake in a quick oven.

Take one pound and a half of treacle; one and a half ounces of ground ginger; half an ounce of caraway seeds; two ounces of allspice; four ounces of orange peel, shred fine; half a pound of sweet butter; six ounces of blanched almonds; one pound of honey; and one and a half ounces of carbonate of soda; with as much fine flour as makes a dough of moderate consistence.

Make a pit in five pounds of flour; then pour in the treacle, and all the other ingredients, creaming the butter; then mix them altogether into a dough; work it well; then put in three quarters of an ounce of tartaric acid, and put the dough into a buttered pan, and bake for two hours in a cool oven. To know when it is ready, plunge a fork into it, and if it comes out sticky, put the cake in the oven again; if not it is ready. This is a good and simple test, which may be resorted to in baking bread and all kinds of cakes.

Take two ounces of fresh butter, and well work it with a pound of flour. Mix thoroughly with it half a saltspoonful of pure carbonate of soda, two ounces of sugar; mingle thoroughly with the flour, make up the paste with spoonfuls of milk; it will require scarcely a quarter of a pint. Knead smooth, roll a quarter of an inch thick, cut in rounds about the size of the top of a small wineglass; roll these out thin, prick them well, lay them on lightly floured tins, and bake in a gentle oven until crisp. When cold put into dry canisters. Thin cream used instead of milk, in the mixture will enrich the biscuits. To obtain variety caraway seeds or ginger can be added at pleasure.

Work into small crumbs three ounces of butter, two pounds of flour, and three ounces of powdered sugar and two of ginger, in fine powder; knead into a stiff paste, with new milk; roll thin, cut out with a cutter: bake in a slow oven until crisp through; keep of a pale colour. Additional sugar may be used when a sweeter biscuit is desired. For good ginger cakes, butter six ounces, sugar eight, for each pound of flour; wet the ingredients into a paste with eggs: a little lemon-peel grated will give an agreeable flavour.

Cut the butter into the flour. Add the sugar and caraway seeds. Pour in the brandy, and then the milk. Lastly, put in the soda. Stir all well with a knife, and mix it thoroughly, till it becomes a lump of dough. Flour your pasteboard, and lay the dough on it. Knead it very well. Divide it into eight or ten pieces, and knead each piece separately. Then put them all together, and knead them very well into one lump. Cut the dough in half, and lay it out into sheets, about half an inch thick. Beat the sheets of dough very hard on both sides with the rolling pin. Cut them out into round cakes with the edge of a tumbler. Butter tins and lay the cakes on them. Bake them of a very pale brown. If done too much they will lose their taste. Let the oven be hotter at the top than at the bottom. These cakes kept in a stone jar, closely covered from the air, will continue perfectly good for several months.

For a quart mould—dissolve two ounces of isinglass in a pint and three quarters of water; strain it, and add three quarters of a pound of sifted loaf sugar, the juice of six lemons and the rind of one; boil the whole for a few minutes, strain it again, and let it stand till quite cold and just beginning to stiffen; then beat the whites of two eggs, and put them to it, and whisk till it is quite white; put it into a mould, which must be first wetted with cold water. Salad oil is much better than water for preparing the mould for turning out jelly, blancmange, &c., but great care must be taken not to pour the jelly into the mould till

, or the oil will float on the top, and after it is turned out it must be carefully wiped over with a clean cloth. This plan only requires to be tried once to be invariably adopted.

Blanch and pound fine, with half a gill of rose water, six ounces of sweet and half an ounce of bitter almonds; boil a pint of milk, with a few coriander seeds, a little cinnamon, and some lemon-peel; sweeten it with two ounces and a half of sugar, rub the almonds through a fine sieve, with a pint of cream; strain the milk to the yolks of eight eggs, and the whites of three well beaten; stir it over a fire till it is of a good thickness, take it off the fire, and stir it till nearly cold, to prevent its curdling.

A teacupful of arrowroot to a pint of milk; boil the milk with twelve sweet and six bitter almonds, blanched and beaten; sweeten with loaf sugar, and strain it; break the arrowroot with a little of the milk as smooth as possible; pour the boiling milk upon it by degrees, stir the while; put it back into the pan and boil a few minutes, still stirring: dip the shape in cold water before you put it in, and turn it out when cold.

With three parts of fine ripe red currants mix one of white currants; put them into a clean preserving-pan, and stir them gently over a clear fire until the juice flows from them freely; then turn them in a fine hair sieve, and let them drain well, but without pressure. Pass the juice through a folded muslin, or a jelly bag; weigh it, and then boil it

for a quarter of an hour; add for each pound, eight ounces of sugar coarsely powdered, stir this to it off the fire until it is dissolved, give the jelly eight minutes more of quick boiling, and pour it out. It will be firm, and of excellent colour and flavour. Be sure to clean off the scum as it rises, both before and after the sugar is put in, or the preserve will not be clear. Juice of red currants, three pounds; juice of white currants, one pound: fifteen minutes. Sugar, two pounds: eight minutes. An excellent jelly may be made with equal parts of the juice of red and of white currants, and of raspberries, with the same proportion of sugar and degree of boiling as mentioned in the foregoing receipt.

White currant jelly is made in the same way as red currant jelly, only double refined sugar should be used, and it should not be boiled above ten minutes. White currant jelly should be put through a lawn sieve.

After the fruit is stripped from the stalks, put it into the pan, and when it boils, run it quickly through a sieve: take a pound of sugar to each pint of juice, and let it boil twenty minutes.

To each pound of picked fruit allow one gill of water; set them on the fire in the preserving-pan to scald, but do not let them boil; bruise them well with a silver fork, or wooden beater; take them oft and squeeze them through a hair sieve, and to every pint of juice allow a pound of loaf or raw sugar; boil it ten minutes.

Divide two dozen ripe apricots into halves, pound half of the kernels in a gill of water, and a teaspoonful of lemon juice; reduce the fruit to a pulp, and mix the kernels with it; put the whole into a stewpan with a pound of sugar, boil thoroughly, skim till clear, and put into small pots.

Ox-heel Jelly is made in the same way as Calves' Feet Jelly (

A tablespoonful of arrow-root, and cold water to form a paste; add a pint of boiling water; stir briskly, boil for a few minutes. A little sherry and sugar may be added. For infants, a drop or two of the essence of caraway seed or cinnamon is preferable.

(

)—Take rice, sago, pearl-barley, hartshorn shavings, each one ounce; simmer with three pints of water to one, and strain it. When cold, it will be a jelly, which give, dissolved in wine, milk, or broth, in change with the other nourishment.

It is better to buy the feet of the butcher, than at the tripe-shop ready boiled, because the best portion of the jelly has been extracted. Slit them in two, and take every particle of fat from the claws; wash well in warm water, put them in a large stewpan, and cover with water; skim well, and let them boil gently for six or seven hours, until reduced to about two quarts, then strain and skim off any oily substance on the surface. It is best to boil the feet the day before making the jelly, as, when the liquor is cold, the oily part being at the top, and the other being firm, with pieces of blotting paper applied to it, you may remove every particle of the oily substance without wasting the liquor. Put the liquor in a stewpan to melt, with a pound of lump sugar, the peel of two lemons, and the juice of six, six whites and shells of eggs beat together, and a bottle of sherry or Madeira; whisk the whole together until it is on the boil, then put it by the side of the stove, and let it simmer a quarter of an hour; strain it through a jelly-bag: what is strained first must be poured into the bag again, until it is as bright and clear as distilled water; then put the jelly in moulds, to be cold and firm; if the weather is too warm, it requires some ice or some of Nelson's gelatine.

If required to be very stiff, half an ounce of isinglass may be added when the wine is put in. It may be flavoured by the juice of various fruits and spices, &c., and coloured with saffron, cochineal, the juice of beetroot, spinach juice, claret, &c. It is sometimes made with cherry brandy, red noyeau, curaçao, or essence of punch.

Select the largest Seville oranges, as they usually contain the greatest quantity of juice, and take those that have clear skins, as the skins form the largest part of the marmalade. Weigh the oranges, and weigh also an equal quantity of loaf sugar. Peel the oranges, dividing the peel of each into quarters, and put them into a preserving-pan; cover them well with water, and set them on the fire to boil. In the meantime prepare your oranges; divide them into gores, then scrape with a teaspoon all the pulp from the white skin; or, instead of peeling the oranges, cut a hole in the orange and scoop out the pulp: remove carefully all the pips, of which there are innumerable small ones in the Seville orange, which will escape observation unless they are very minutely examined. Have a large basin near you with some cold water in it, to throw the pips and peels into—a pint is sufficient for a dozen oranges.

Boil these in the water, and having strained off the glutinous matter which comes from them, add it to the other parts. When the peels have boiled till they are sufficiently tender to admit of a fork being stuck into them, scrape away all the pith from the inside of them; lay them in folds, and cut them into thin slices of about an inch long. Clarify the sugar; then throw the peels and pulp into it, stir it well, and let it boil for half an hour. Then remove it from the fire, and when it becomes cool, put it by in pots. Marmalade should be made at the end of March, or at the beginning of April, as Seville oranges are then in their best state.

Peel and core two pounds of sub-acid apples—Wellingtons are excellent for the purpose—and put them in an enamelled saucepan with one pint of sweet cider, or half a pint of pure wine, and one pound of crushed sugar. Cook them by a gentle heat three hours, or longer, until the fruit is very soft, then squeeze it first through a cullender and then through a sieve. If not sufficiently sweet, add powdered sugar to taste, and put away in jars made air-tight by covering them with a piece of wet bladder.

After taking away the stones from the fruit, and cutting out any blemishes, put them over a slow fire, in a clean stewpan, with half a pint of water, and when scalded, rub them through a hair sieve. To every pound of pulp put one pound of sifted loaf sugar, put it into a preserving pan over a brisk fire, and when it boils skim it well, and throw in the kernels of the apricots and half an ounce of bitter almonds, blanched. Then boil it fast for a quarter of an hour longer, stirring it all the time. Store away in pots in the usual manner.

(

.)—Dissolve one ounce of essential oil of bitter almonds in one pint of spirit of wine. Use it as flavouring for cordials and pastry.

. A few drops only should be used to several pounds of syrups, pastry, &c. This and other flavourings may be bought in small bottles, ready for use, of grocers or oilmen.

Of fresh outer rind of Seville orange or lemon-peel, three ounces, apothecaries' weight; boiling water, a pint and a half; infuse the peel for a night in a close vessel; then strain the liquor; let it stand to settle; and having poured it off clear from the sediment, dissolve in it two pounds of double refined loaf sugar, and make it into a syrup with a gentle heat.

(A delicious summer drink.) Five pounds of lump sugar, two ounces of citric acid, a gallon of boiling water: when cold add half a drachm of essence of lemon and half a drachm of spirit of wine; stir it well and bottle it. About two tablespoonfuls to a glass of cold water.