The Project Gutenberg eBook of THE CLOSET OF SIR KENELM DIGBY KNIGHT OPENED, by SIR KENELM DIGBY.

A PLAIN QUAKING-PUDDING

Take about three Pints of new morning Milk, and six or seven new laid Eggs, putting away half the whites, and two spoonfuls of fine-flower, about a quarter of a Nutmeg grated, and about a quarter of a pound of Sugar (more or less, according to your taste,) After all these are perfectly mingled and incorporated together, put the matter into a fit bag, and so put it into boiling water, and boil it up with a quick fire. If you boil it too long, the Milk will turn to whay in the body or substance of the Pudding, and there will be a slimy gelly all about the outside. But in about half an hour, it will be tenderly firm, and of an uniform consistence all over. You need not put in any Butter or Marrow or Suet, or other Spice, but the small proportion of Nutmeg set down, not grated bread. For the Sauce, you pour upon it thickened melted Butter, beaten with a little Sack, or Orange-flower water, and Sugar; or compounded in what manner you please, as in other such like Puddings.

A GOOD QUAKING BAG-PUDDING

Set a quart of good morning Milk upon the fire, having seasoned it with Salt, and sliced or grated Nutmeg. When it beginneth to boil, take it from the fire, and put into it four peny Manchets of light French-bread sliced very thin (If it were Kingstone-bread, which is firmer, it must be grated) and a lump of Sweet-butter as big as a Wall-nut, and enough Sugar to season it; and cover the possnet with a plate to keep the heat in, that the bread may soak perfectly. Whiles this standeth thus, take ten yolks of New-laid-eggs, with one White, and beat them very well with a spoonful or two of Milk; and when the Milk is cooled enough, pour it (with the bread in it,) into the bason, where the beaten Eggs are, (which likewise should first be sweetned with Sugar to their proportion,) and put about three spoonfuls of fine flower into the composition, and knead them well together. If you will, you may put in a spoonful of Sack or Muscadine, and Ambared Sugar, working all well together; as also, some lumps of Marrow or Suet shred very small: but it will be very good without either of these. Then put this mixtion into a deep Woodden dish (like a great Butter-box) which must first be on the inside a little greased with Butter, and a little Flower sprinkled thereon, to save the Pudding from sticking to the sides of the dish. Then put a linnen cloth or handkercher over the mouth of the dish, and reverse the mouth downwards, so that you may tye the Napkin close with two knots by the corners cross, or with a strong thred, upon the bottom of the dish, then turned upwards; all which is, that the matter may not get out, and yet the boiling water get through the linnen upon it on one side enough to bake the pudding sufficiently. Put the Woodden-dish thus filled and tyed up into a great Possnet or little Kettle of boiling water. The faster it boils, the better it will be. The dish will turn and rowl up and down in the water, as it gallopeth in boiling. An hours boiling is sufficient. Then unty your linnen, and take it off, and reverse the mouth of the dish downwards into the Silver-dish you will serve it up in; wherein is sufficient melted Butter thickened with beating, and sweetened to your taste with Sugar, to serve for Sauce. You may beat a little Sack or Muscadine, or Rose, or Orange-flower-water with the Sauce; a little of any of which may also go into the Composition of the Pudding. If you put in more Flower, or more then one white of Egg to this proportion, it will binde the Pudding too close and stiff.

In plain Bag-puddings it makes them much more savoury, to put into them a little Penny-royal shreded very small, as also other sweet-Herbs. You must put in so little, as not to taste strong of them, but onely to quicken the other flat Ingredients.

ANOTHER BAKED PUDDING

Take a Pint and half of good Sweet-cream; set it on the fire, and let it just boil up, take a peny Manchet, not too new, cut off the crust, and slice it very thin, put it into a clean earthen pan, and pour the Cream upon it, and cover it very close an hour or thereabouts, to steep the bread; when it is steeped enough, take four New laid-eggs, yolks and whites, beat them with a spoonful of Rose-water, and two of Sack; grate into it half a Nutmeg, and put into it a quarter of a pound of good white-Sugar finely beaten, stir all this together with the Cream and Bread; then shred very small half a pound of good Beef-kidney-suet, and put this to the rest, and mingle them very well together with a slice or spoon; then size your dish, that you intend to bake it in, and rub the bottom of it with a little sweet-Butter; then put your pudding into it, and take the Marrow of two good bones, and stick it in lumps here and there all over your Pudding; so put it into the oven three quarters of an hour, in which time it will be well baked. Strew on it some fine Sugar, and serve it.

TO MAKE BLACK PUDDINGS

Take a pottle of half-cut Groats; pick them clean, that there may be no husks nor foulness in them; then put them into a Mortar, bruise them a little with a Pestle; then have ready either Milk, or fresh meat-broth boiled up, and the Oat-meal immediately put into it; It must be just so much as will cover it; then cover the thing close that it is in, and let it steep twenty four hours; To this two quarts of Oatmeal, put a pint and half of blood, season it well with Salt, and a little Pepper, and a little beaten Cloves and Mace, eight Eggs, yolks and whites, five pound of Kidney-beef-suet shred, but not too small; then put in of these herbs; Peny-royal, Fennel, Leek-blades, Parsley, Sage, Straw-berry-leaves and Violet leaves, equal parts, in all to the quantity of a good handful; let them be pick'd and washed very clean, and chop'd very small, and mingled well with the former things; Then fill your Puddings.

Make ready your guts in this manner. Cleanse them very well, when they are fresh taken out of the Hog; and after they are well washed and scowred, lay them to soak in fair water three days and three nights, shifting the water twice every day: and every time you shift the water, scour them first with Water and Salt. An hour and a quarter is enough to boil them.

TO PRESERVE PIPPINS IN JELLY, EITHER IN QUARTERS, OR IN SLICES

Take good sound clear Pippins, pare, quarter and coar them; then put them into a skillet of Conduit-water, such a proportion as you intend to make; boil it very well: then let the liquor run from the pulp through a sieve, without forcing, and let it stand till the next morning. Take Orange or Limon peel, and boil in a skillet of water, till they are tender; then rowl them up in a linnen cloth to dry the water well out of them; let them lie so all night. Then take of double refined and finely beaten and searced Sugar a pound to every pint of Pippin Liquor that ran through the sieve, and to every pound of Sugar, and pint of liquor, put ten Ounces of Pippins in quarters or in slices, but cut them not too thin; boil them a little while very fast in the Pippin-liquor, before you put in the Sugar, then strew in the Sugar all over them as it boileth, till it is all in, keeping it still fast boiling, until they look very clear; by that you may know they are enough. While they boil, you must still be scumming them; then put in your juyce of Limon to your last, and Amber, if you please; and after let it boil half a dozen walms, but no more. Then take it from the fire, and have ready some very thin Brown-paper, and clap a single sheet close upon it, and if any scum remain, it will stick to the Paper. Then put your quarters or slices into your Glasses, and strew upon them very small slices of Limon or Orange (which you please) which you had before boiled; then fill up your Glasses with your jelly.

For making your Pippin-liquor, you may take about some fourty Pippins to two quarts of water, or so much as to make your Pippin-liquor strong of the Pippins, and the juyce of about four Limons.

MY LADY DIANA PORTER'S SCOTCH COLLOPS

Cut a leg or two of Mutton into thin slices, which beat very well. Put them to fry over a very quick fire in a pan first glased over, with no more Butter melted in it, then just to besmear a little all the bottom of the Pan. Turn them in due time. There must never be but one row in the pan, nor any slice lying upon another; but ev ery one immediate to the pan. When they are fryed enough, lay them in a hot dish covered, over a Chafing-dish, and pour upon them the Gravy that run out of them into the Pan. Then lay another row of slices in the Pan to fry as before; and when they are enough, put them into the dish to the other. When you have enough, by such repetitions, or by doing them in two or three pans, all at a time; take a Porrenger full of Gravy of Mutton, and put into it a piece of Butter as much a Wall-nut, and a quartered Onion if you will (or rub the dish afterwards with Garlike) and Pepper and Salt, and let this boil to be very hot; then throw away the Onion, and pour this into the dish upon the slices, and let them stew a little together; then squeese an Orange upon it, and serve it up.

A FRICACEE OF VEAL

Cut a leg of Veal into thin slices, and beat them; or the like with Chicken, which must be flead off their skin. Put about half a pint of water or flesh-broth to them in a frying-pan, and some Thyme, and Sweet-marjoram, and an Onion or two quartered, and boil them till they be tender, having seasoned them with Salt, and about twenty Corns of whole white Pepper, and four or five Cloves. When they are enough, take half a pint of White wine, four yolks of Eggs, a quarter of a pound of butter (or more) a good spoonful of Thyme, Sweet-Marjoram and Parsley (more Parsley then of the others) all minced small; a Porrenger full of gravy. When all these are well incorporated together over the fire, and well beaten, pou r it into the pan to the rest, and turn it continually up and down over the fire, till all be well incorporated. Then throw away the Onion and first sprigs of Herbs, squeese Orange to it, and so serve it up hot.

If instead of a Fricacee, you will make un estuveé de veau, stew or boil simpringly your slices of Veal in White-wine and water, ana, with a good lump of Butter, seasoning it with Pepper and Salt and Onions. When it is enough, put to it store of yolks of Eggs beaten with Verjuyce, or White-wine and Vinegar, and some Nutmeg (and gravy if you will) and some Herbs as in the Fricacee; and stir all very well over the fire till the sauce be well lié together.

A TANSY

Take three pints of Cream, fourteen New-laid-eggs (seven whites put away) one pint of juyce of Spinage, six or seven spoonfuls of juyce of Tansy, a Nutmeg (or two) sliced small, half a pound of Sugar, and a little Salt. Beat all these well together, then fryit in a pan with no more Butter then is necessary. When it is enough, serve it up with juyce of Orange or slices of Limon upon it.

TO STEW OYSTERS

Take what quantity you will of the best Oysters to eat raw. Open them, putting all their water with the fish into a bason. Take out the Oysters one by one (that you may have them washed clean in their own water) and lay them in the dish you intend to stew them in. Then let their water run upon them through a fine linnen, that all their foulness may remain behind. Then put a good great lump of Butter to them, which m ay be (when melted) half as much, as their water. Season them with Salt, Nutmeg, and a very few Cloves. Let this boil smartly, covered. When it is half boiled, put in some crusts of light French-bread, and boil on, till all be enough, and then serve them up.

You may put in three or four grains of Ambergreece, when you put in the Nutmeg, that in the boiling it may melt. You may also put in a little White-wine or Verjuyce at the last, or some juyce of Orange.

TO DRESS LAMPREY'S

At Glocester they use Lamprey's thus. Heat water in a Pot or Kettle with a narrow mouth, till it be near ready to boil; so that you may endure to dip your hand into it, but not to let it stay in. Put your Lamprey's, as they come out of the River, into this scalding-water, and cover the pot, that little while they remain in, which must be but a moment, about an Ave Maria while. Then with a Woodden ladle take them out, and lay them upon a table, and hold their head in a Napkin (else it will slip away, if held in the bare hand) and with the back of a knife scrape off the mud, which will have risen out all along the fish. A great deal and very thick will come off: and then the skin will look clean and shining and blew, which must never be flead off. Then open their bellies all along, and with a Pen-knife loosen the string which begins under the gall (having first cast away the gall and entrails) then pull it out, and in the pulling away, it will stretch much in length; then pick out a black substance, that is all along under the string, cutting t owards the back as much as is needful for this end. Then rowl them up and down in a soft and dry napkin, changing this as soon as it is wet for another, using so many Napkins as may make the fishes perfectly dry; for in that consisteth a chief part of their preparation. Then powder them well with Pepper and Salt, rubbing them in well, and lay them round in a Pot or strong crust upon a good Lare of Butter, and store of Onions every where about them, and chiefly a good company in the middle. Then put more Butter upon them, covering the pot with a fit cover, and so set them into a quick oven, that is strongly heated; where they will require three or four hours (at least) baking. When they are taken out of the oven and begin to cool, pour store of melted Butter upon them, to fill up the pot at least three fingers breadth above the fish, and then let it cool and harden; And thus it will keep a year, if need be, so the Butter be not opened, nor craked, that the air get into the fish.

To eat them presently, They dress them thus: When they are prepared, as abovesaid, (ready for baking) boil them with store of Salt and gross Pepper, and many Onions, in no more water, then is necessary to cover them, as when you boil a Carp or Pike au Court bouillon. In half or three quarters of an hour, they will be boiled tender. Then take them and drain them from the water, and serve them with thickened Butter, and some of the Onions minced into it, and a little Pepper, laying the fish upon some sippets of spungy bread, that may soak up the water, if any come from the fish; and pour butter upon the fish; so serve it up hot.

TO DRESS STOCK FISH, SOMEWHAT DIFFERINGLY FROM THE WAY OF HOLLAND

Beat the fish very well with a large Woodden-Mallet, so as not to break it, but to loosen all the flakes within. It is the best way to have them beaten with hard heavy Ropes. And though thus beaten, they will keep a long time, if you put them into Pease straw, so thrust in as to keep them from all air, and that they touch not one another, but have straw enough between every fish. When you will make the best dish of them, take only the tails, and tye up half a dozen or eight of them with White-thred. First, they must be laid to soak over night in cold water. About an hour and half, (or a little more) before they are to be eaten, put them to boil in a pot or Pipkin, that you may cover with a cover of Tin or Letton so close, that no steam can get out; and lay a stone or other weight upon it, to keep the cover from being driven off by the steam of the water. Put in no more water, then well to cover them. They must never boil strongly, but very leasurely and but simpringly. It will be near half an hour before the water begin to boil so: And from their beginning to do so, they must boil a good hour. You must never put in any new water, though hot, for that will make the fish hard. After the hour, take out the fishes and untie them, and lay them loose in a colander with holes to drain out the water, and toss them in it up and down very well, as you use to do Butter and Pease ; and that will loosen and break asunder all the flakes, which will make them the more susceptible of the Butter, when you stew them in it, and make it pierce the better into the flakes, and make them tender. Then lay them by thin rows in the dish, they are to be served up in: casting upon every row a little salt, and some green Parsley minced very small. They who love young-green Onions or sives, or other savory Herbs, or Pepper, may use them also in the same manner, when they are in season. When all is in, fill up with sweet Butter well melted and thickened; and so let it stew there a while, to soak well into the fish; which will lie in fine loose tender flakes, well buttered and seasoned. You may eat it with Mustard besides.

BUTTERED WHITINGS WITH EGGS

Boil Whitings as if you would eat them in the Ordinary way with thick Butter-sauce. Pick them clean from skin and bones, and mingle them well with butter, and break them very small, and season them pretty high with Salt. In the mean time Butter some Eggs in the best manner, and mingle them with the buttered Whitings, and mash them well together. The Eggs must not be so many by a good deal as the Fish. It is a most savoury dish.

TO DRESS POOR-JOHN AND BUCKORN

The way of dressing Poor-John, to make it very tender and good meat, is this. Put it into the Kettle in cold water, and so hang it over the fire; and so let it soak and stew without boiling for 3 hours: but the water must be very hot. Then make it boil two or three walms. By this ti me it will be very tender and swelled up. Then take out the back-bone, and put it to fry with Onions. If you put it first into hot water (as ling and such salt fish,) or being boiled, if you let it cool, and heat it again it will be tough and hard.

Buckorne is to be watered a good hour before you put it to the fire. Then boil it till it be tender, which it will be quickly. Then Butter it as you do Ling; and if you will, put Eggs to it.

THE WAY OF DRESSING STOCK-FISH IN HOLLAND

First beat it exceedingly well, a long time, but with moderate blows, that you do not break it in pieces, but that you shake and loosen all the inward Fibers. Then put it into water (which may be a little warmed) to soak, and infuse so during twelve or fourteen hours (or more, if it be not yet pierced into the heart by the water, and grown tender.) Then put it to boil very gently, (and with no more water, then well to cover it, which you must supply with new hot water as it consumeth) for six or seven hours at least, that it may be very tender and loose and swelled up. Then press and drain out all the water from it; and heat it again in a dish, with store of melted Butter thickened; and if you like it, you may season it also with Pepper and Mustard. But it will be yet better, if after it is well and tender boiled in water, and that you have pressed all the water you can out of it, you boil it again an hour longer in Milk; out of which when you take it, to put it into the dish with butter, you do not industriously press out all the Milk, a s you did the water, but only drain it out gently, pressing it moderately. In the stewing it with butter, season it to your taste, with what you think fitting.

ANOTHER WAY TO DRESS STOCK-FISH

Beat it exceeding well with a large woodden Mallet, till you may easily pluck it all in pieces, severing every flake from other, and every one of them in it so being loose, spungy and limber, as the whole fish must be, and plyant like a glove, which will be in less then an hour. Pull then the bones out, and throw them away, and pluck off the skin (as whole as you can; but it will have many breaches and holes in it, by the beating) then gather all the fish together, and lap it in the skin as well as you can, into a round lump, like a bag-pudding, and tye it about with cords or strings (like a little Collar of Brawn, or souced fish) and so put it into lukewarm water (overnight) to soak, covering the vessel close; but you need not keep it near any heat whiles it lyeth soaking. Next morning take it out that water and vessel, and put it into another, with a moderate quantity of other water, to boil; which it must do very leisurely, and but simpringly. The main care must be, that the vessel it boileth in, be covered so exceeding close, that not the least breath of steam get out, else it will not be tender, but tough and hard. It will be boiled enough, and become very tender in about a good half hour. Then take it out, unty it, and throw away the skin, and lay the flaky fish in a Cullender, to drain away the water from it. You must presently throw a little Salt upon it, and all about in it, to season it. For then it will imbibe it into it self presently; whereas if you Salt it not, till it grow cold in the air, it will not take it in. Mean while prepare your sauce of melted well thickened butter (which you may heighten with shreded Onions or Syves, or what well tasted herbs you please) and if you will, you may first strew upon the fish some very small shreded young Onions, or Sibbouls, or Syves, or Parsley. Then upon that pour the melted butter to cover the fish all over, and soak into it. Serve it in warm and covered.

TO DRESS PARSNEPS

Scrape well three or four good large roots, cleansing well their outside, and cutting off as much of the little end as is Fibrous, and of the great end as is hard. Put them into a possnet or pot, with about a quart of Milk upon them, or as much as will cover them in boiling, which do moderately, till you find they are very tender. This may be in an hour and half, sooner or later, as the roots are of a good kind. Then take them out, and scrape all the outside into a pulpe, like the pulpe of roasted apples, which put in a dish upon a chafing dish of Coals, with a little of the Milk, you boiled them in, put to them; not so much as to drown them, but only to imbibe them: and then with stewing, the pulpe will imbibe all that Milk. When you see it is drunk in, put to the pulpe a little more of the same Milk, and stew that, till it be drunk in. Continue doing thus till it hath drunk in a good quantity of the Milk, and is well swelled with it, and will take in no more, which may be in a good half hour. Eat them so, without Sugar or Butter; for they will have a natural sweetness, that is beyond sugar, and will be Unctuous, so as not to need Butter.

Parsneps (raw) cut into little pieces, is the best food for tame Rabets, and makes them sweet. As Rice (raw) is for tame Pigeons, and they like it best, varying it sometimes with right tares, and other seeds.

CREAM WITH RICE

A very good Cream to eat hot, is thus made. Into a quart of sweet Cream, put a spoonful of very fine powder of Rice, and boil them together sufficiently, adding Cinnamon, or Mace and Nutmeg to your liking. When it is boiled enough take it from the fire, and beat a couple of yolks of new-laid Eggs, to colour it yellow. Sweeten it to your taste. Put bread to it, in it's due time.

GREWEL OF OAT-MEAL AND RICE

Doctor Pridion ordered my Lord Cornwallis, for his chief diet in his looseness, the following grewel, which he found very tastefull.

Take about two parts of Oat-meal well beaten in a Mortar, and one part of Rice in subtile powder. Boil these well in water, as you make water-grewel, adding a good proportion of Cinnamon to boil also in due time, then strain it through a cloth, and sweeten it to your taste.

The yolk of an Egg beaten with a little Sherry-sack, and put to it, is not bad in a looseness. At other times you may add Butter. It is very tasteful and nourishing.

SAUCE FOR A CARP OR PIKE. TO BUTTER PEASE

Take two or three spoonfuls of the Liquor the Carp was boiled in, and put it i nto a pipkin; There must be no more, then even to cover the bottom of the pipkin. Make this boil by itself; as soon as it doth so, put to this half a pound of sweet butter, let it melt gently, or suddenly, it imports not, so as the liquor boiled, when you did put the butter in; when the butter is melted, then take it from the fire, and holding the handle in your hand, shake it round a good while and strongly, and it will come to be thick, that you may almost cut it with a Knife. Then squeese juyce of Limon into it, or of sharp Orange, or Verjuyce or Vinegar; and heat it again as much as you please upon the fire. It will ever after continue thick, and never again, upon any heating, grow oily, though it be cold and heated again twenty times. Butter done with fair water, as is said above, with the other Liquor, will be thick in the same manner, (for the liquors make no difference in that:)

Put of this butter to boiled Pease in their dish, which cover with another; so shake them very strongly, and a good while together. This is by much the best way to butter pease, and not to let the butter melt in the middle of them, and then stir them long with a spoon. This will grow Oily (though it be good at the first doing) if you heat them again: The other, never; and therefore, is the best way upon all occasions to make such thickened melted Butter. You may make sauce for a Pike in the same manner you did for a Carpe; putting Horse-radish to it if you please.

A HERRING-PYE

Put great store of sliced Onions, with Currants and Raisins of the Sun both above and under the Herrings, and store of Butter, and so bake them.

A SYLLABUB

Take a reasonable quantity (as about half a Porrenger full) of the Syrup, that hath served in the making of dryed plums; and into a large Syllabub-pot milk or squirt, or let fall from high a sufficient quantity of Milk or Cream. This Syrup is very quick of the fruit, and very weak of Sugar; and therefore makes the Syllabub exceeding well tasted. You may also use the Syrup used in the like manner in the drying of Cherries.

BUTTER AND OIL TO FRY FISH

The best Liquor to fry Fish in, is to take Butter and Salet Oyl, first well clarified together. This hath not the unsavoury taste of Oyl alone, nor the blackness of Butter alone. It fryeth Fish crisp, yellow, and well tasted.

TO PREPARE SHRIMPS FOR DRESSING

When you will Butter Shrimps, first wash them well in warm Milk and Water equally mingled together, and let them soak a little in it; then wash them again in fresh Milk and Water warmed, letting them also soak therein a while. Do this twice or thrice with fresh Milk and Water. This will take away all the rankness and slimyness of them. Then Butter them, or prepare them for the table, as you think fit.

TOSTS OF VEAL

My Lady Lusson makes thus her plain tosts of kidney of Veal: Cut the kidney with all the fat about it, and a good piece of the lean flesh besides. Hash all this as small as you can. Put to it a quarter of a pound of picked and washed Currants, and as much Sugar, one Nutmeg grated, four yolks and two whites of new-laid Eggs raw; work all these very well together, seasoning it with Salt. Spread it thick upon slices of light white-bread cut like tosts. Then fry them in Butter, such quantity as may boil over the tops of the tosts.

TO MAKE MUSTARD

The best way of making Mustard is this: Take of the best Mustard-seed (which is black) for example a quart. Dry it gently in an oven, and beat it to subtle powder, and searse it. Then mingle well strong Wine-vinegar with it, so much that it be pretty liquid, for it will dry with keeping. Put to this a little Pepper beaten small (white is the best) at discretion, as about a good pugil, and put a good spoonful of Sugar to it (which is not to make it taste sweet, but rather quick, and to help the fermentation) lay a good Onion in the bottom, quartered if you will, and a Race of Ginger scraped and bruised; and stir it often with a Horse-radish root cleansed, which let always lie in the pot, till it have lost it's vertue, then take a new one. This will keep long, and grow better for a while. It is not good till after a month, that it have fermented a while.

Some think it will be the quicker, if the seed be ground with fair water, in stead of vinegar, putting store of Onions in it.

My Lady Holmeby makes her quick fine Mustard thus: Choose true Mustard-seed; dry it in an oven, after the b read is out. Beat and searse it to a most subtle powder. Mingle Sherry-sack with it (stirring it a long time very well, so much as to have it of a fit consistence for Mustard. Then put a good quantity of fine Sugar to it, as five or six spoonfuls, or more, to a pint of Mustard. Stir and incorporate all well together. This will keep good a long time. Some do like to put to it a little (but a little) of very sharp Wine-vinegar.

TO MAKE A WHITE-POT

Boil three pints of sweet Cream with a very little Salt and some sliced Nutmeg. As soon as it begins to boil, take it from the fire. In the mean time beat the yolks of twelve or fifteen new-laid Eggs very well with some Rose or Orange-flower-water, and sweeten the Cream to your taste with Sugar. Then beat three or four spoonfuls of Cream with them, and quickly as many more; so proceeding, till you have incorporated all the Cream and all the Eggs. Then pour the Eggs and Cream into a deep dish laid over with sippets of fine light bread, which will rise up to the top for the most part. When it is cooled and thickened enough to bear Raisins of the Sun, strew all over the top with them (well-washed.) Then press a little way into it with great lumps of raw Marrow. Two bones will suffice. Cover your dish with another, and set it upon a great pot of boiling water, with a good space between the water and the dish, that there be room for the hot steam to rise and strike upon the dish. Keep good fire always under your pot. In less then an hour (usually) it is baked enough. You will perceive that, if the M arrow look brown, and be enough baked. If it should continue longer on the heat, it would melt. You may bake it in an oven if you will; but it is hard to regulate it so, that it be not too much or too little: whereas the boiling water is certain. You may strew Ambred Sugar upon it, either before you set it to bake, or after it is done.

FOR ROSTING OF MEAT

To rost fine meat (as Partridge, Pheasant, Chicken, Pigeon) that it be full of juyce; baste it as soon as it is through hot, and time to baste, with Butter. When it is very moist all over, sprinkle flower upon it every where, that by turning about the fire, it may become a thin crust. Then baste it no more till the latter end. This crust will keep in all the juyce. A little before you take it up, baste it again with Butter, and this will melt away all the crust. Then give it three or four turns of the spit, that it may make the outside yellow and crisp.

You may also baste such meat with yolks of new-laid Eggs, beaten into a thin oyl. But with this you continue basting all the while the meat rosteth.

TO STEW A RUMP OF BEEF

Take a rump of Beef, break all the bones; season it with Pepper and Salt to your liking; Take three or four Nutmegs, and a quantity of Mace, beat them grossly; Then take a bunch of very good sweet herbs, and one good Onion cut in quarters, or Garlike, as you like it. Put in half a pint of White-wine Vinegar, and one pint of good Claret, one handful of Sugar; and a piece or two of beef Suet or Butter: shred some Cabbage under and over, and scrape in a pound of good old Cheese. Put all these into an earthen pot, and let it stand in an oven with brown-bread four or five hours; but let the pot be covered close with paste.

TO STEW A RUMP OF BEEF

Take a fat rump of young Beef, as it comes from the Butcher, and take out all the bones, excepting the tip of it towards the tail that is all fat, which you cannot take out, without spoiling or defacing or breaking it. But take out all the thick bones towards the Chine, and the thick Sinews, that are on the outer sides of the flesh; (which will never become tender with boiling) so that you have nothing but the pure flesh and fat, without any bony or tough substance. Then beat well the lean part with a woodden roling pin, and when you have beaten well one side, turn the other. Then rub it well with Pepper grosly beaten, and salt; just as you would do, to season a Venison pasty, making the seasoning higher or gentler according to your taste. Then lay it in a fit vessel, with a flat bottom (pipkin or kettle as you have conveniency) that will but just contain it, but so that it may lye at ease. Or you may tye it up in a loose thin linnen cloth, or boulter, as they do Capons à la mode, or Brawn, or the like. Then put water upon it, but just to cover it, and boil it close covered a matter of two hours pretty smartly, so that it be well half boiled. Then take it out of that, and put it into another fit vessel, or the same cleansed, and put upon it about two quarts of good strong deep well bodied Claret-wine, and a good bundle of sweet-herbs, (Penny-royal, Sweet-Marjoram, Winter-savory, Limon Thyme, &c.) and a good large Onion peeled, and stuck as close with Cloves, as you can stick it, if you like the taste of Onions. They must be the strong biting Onions, that are round and red: a little Nutmeg, and some Mace. Put to the wine about a pint of the Liquor that you have already boiled the Beef in; and if you would have it strong of the seasoning of Pepper, and Salt; take the bottom of this Liquor. Thus let it boil very gently, simpringly, or rather stew with Char-coal over a little furnace, or a fit Chafing-dish, a matter of three hours, close covered. If the Liquor waste too much, you may recruit it with what you have kept of that, which your beef was boiled in. When it is near time to take it up, stew some Oysters in their own Liquor (to which you may add at the latter end, some of the winy Liquor, that the Beef is now stewing in, or some of the first Beef-broth, or use some good pickled Oysters) and at the same time make some thin tostes of Kingstone manchet, which toste very leisurely, or rather dry them throughly, and very hard, and Crisp, but not burned, by lying long before the fire. And if you have fresh Champignons, dress a good dish full of them, to be ready at the same time, when all the rest is ready; If not, use pickled ones, without further dressing. When you find your Beef is as tender as can be, and will scarcely hold together, to be taken up together, and that all the other things are ready, lay the tostes in the dish, where the Beef is to lye; pour some of the Liquor upon it. Then lay the Beef upon the tosts; throw away the bundle of Herbs and Onions; and pour the rest of the Liquor upon the Beef, as also the Oysters, and the Mushrooms, to which add a pretty deal, about half a pint of Broom-buds: and so let it stand a while well covered over coals to Mittoner; and to have all the several substances communicate their tastes to one another, and to have the tostes swell up like a gelly. Then serve it up. If you want Liquor, you may still recruit your self out of the first Beef-broth, which you keep all to supply any want afterwards. Have a care, whiles it is stewing, in the Winy-liquor, to lift the flesh sometimes up from the bottom of the vessel, least if it should lye always still, it may stick to the bottom, and burn; but you cannot take it out, for it would fall in pieces. It will be yet better meat, if you add to it, at the last (when you add all the other heightnings) some Marrow, and some Chess-nuts, and some Pistachios, if you will. Put to your Broom-buds (before you put them in to the rest) some elder Vinegar, enough to soak them, and even to cover them. If you find this make your composition of the whole too sharp, you may next time take less. When you put the Beef to stew with the wine (or a while after) you may put to it a pretty quantity (as much as you can take in both hands at once) of shreded Cabbage, if it be the season; or of Turneps, if you like either of these. Carrots make it somewhat flat. If the wine be not quick enough, you may put a little elder Vinegar to it. If you like Garlike, you may put in a little, or rub the dish with it.

PICKLED CHAMPIGNONS

Champignons are best, that grow upon gravelly dry rising Grounds. Gather them of the last nights growth; and to preserve them white, it is well to cast them into a pitcher of fair-water, as you gather them: But that is not absolutely necessary, if you will go about dressing them as soon as you come home. Cut the great ones into halves or quarters, seeing carefully there be no worms in them; and peel off their upper skin on the tops: the little ones, peel whole. As you peel them, throw them into a bason of fair-water, which preserves them white. Then put them into a pipkin or possnet of Copper (no Iron) and put a very little water to them, and a large proportion of Salt. If you have a pottle of Mushrooms, you may put to them ten or twelve spoonfuls of water, and two or three of Salt. Boil them with pretty quick-fire, and scum them well all the while, taking away a great deal of foulness, that will rise. They will shrink into a very little room. When they are sufficiently parboiled to be tender, and well cleansed of their scum, (which will be in about a quarter of an hour,) take them out, and put them into a Colander, that all the moisture may drain from them. In the mean time make your pickle thus: Take a quart of pure sharp white Wine Vinegar (elder-Vinegar is best) put two or three spoonfuls of whole Pepper to it, twenty or thirty Cloves, one Nutmeg quartered, two or three flakes of Mace, three Bay-leaves; (some like Limon-Thyme and Rose-mary; but then it must be a very little of each) boil all these together, till the Vinegar be well impregnated with the Ingredients, which will be in about half an hour. Then take it from the fire, and let it cool. When the pickle is quite cold, and the Mushrooms also quite cold, and drained from all moisture: put them into the Liquor (with all the Ingredients in it) which you must be sure, be enough to cover them. In ten or twelve days, they will have taken into them the full taste of the pickle, and will keep very good half a year. If you have much supernatant Liquor, you may parboil more Mushrooms next day, and put them to the first. If you have not gathered at once enough for a dressing, you may keep them all night in water to preserve them white, and gather more the next day, to joyn to them.

TO STEW WARDENS OR PEARS

Pare them, put them into a Pipkin, with so much Red or Claret Wine and water, ana, as will near reach to the top of the Pears. Stew or boil gently, till they grow tender, which may be in two hours. After a while, put in some sticks of Cinnamon bruised and a few Cloves. When they are almost done, put in Sugar enough to season them well and their Syrup, which you pour out upon them in a deep Plate.

TO STEW APPLES

Pare them and cut them into slices. Stew them with Wine and Water as the Pears, and season them in like manner with Spice. Towards the end sweeten them with Sugar, breaking the Apples into Pap by stirring them. When you are r eady to take them off, put in good store of fresh-butter, and incorporate it well with them, by stirring them together. You stew these between two dishes. The quickest Apples are the best.

PORTUGUEZ EGGS

The way that the Countess de Penalva makes the Portuguez Eggs for the Queen, is this. Take the yolks (clean picked from the whites and germ) of twelve new-laid Eggs. Beat them exceedingly with a little (scarce a spoonful) of Orange-flower-water. When they are exceeding liquid, clear, and uniformly a thin Liquor, put to them one pound of pure double refined Sugar (if it be not so pure, it must be clarified before) and stew them in your dish or bason over a very gentle fire, stirring them continually, whiles they are over it, so that the whole may become one uniform substance, of the consistence of an Electuary (beware they grow not too hard; for without much caution and attention, that will happen on a sudden) which then you may eat presently, or put into pots to keep. You may dissolve Ambergreece (if you will, ground first very much with Sugar) in Orange-flower or Rose-water, before hand, and put it (warm and dissolved) to the Eggs, when you set them to stew. If you clarifie your Sugar, do it with one of these waters, and whites of Eggs. The flavor of these sweet-waters goeth almost all away with boiling. Therefore half a spoonful put into the composition, when you take it from the fire, seasoneth it more then ten times as much, put in at the first.

TO BOIL EGGS

A certain and infallible method to boil new-laid Eggs to sup up, and yet that they have the white turned to milk, is thus: Break a very little hole, at the bigger end of the shell, and put it into the water, whiles it boileth. Let it remain boiling, whiles your Pulse beateth two hundred stroaks. Then take it out immediately, and you will find it of an exact temper: others put Eggs into boyling water just as you take it from the fire, and let them remain there, till the water be so cooled, that you may just put in your hand, and take out the Eggs.

Others put the Eggs into cold water, which they set upon the fire, and as soon as the water begins to boil, the Eggs are enough.

TO MAKE CLEAR GELLY OF BRAN

Take two pound of the broadest open Bran of the best Wheat, and put it to infuse in a Gallon of Water, during two or three days, that the water may soak into the pure flower, that sticks to the bran. Then boil it three or four walms, and presently take it from the fire, and strain it through some fine strainer. A milky substance will come out, which let stand to settle about half a day. Pour off the clear water, that swimmeth over the starch or flomery, that is in the bottom (which is very good for Pap, &c.) and boil it up to a gelly, as you do Harts-horn gelly or the like, and season it to your taste.

TO BAKE VENISON

Boil the bones (well broken) and remaining flesh of the Venison, from whence the meat of the Pasty is cut, in the Liquor, wherein Capons and Veal, or Mutton have been boiled, so to make very strong broth of them. The bones must be broken, that you may have the Marrow of them in the Liquor; and they must stew a long time (covering the pot close:) that you may make the broth as strong as you can; and if you put some gravy of Mutton or Veal to it, it will be the better. When the Pasty is half baked, pour some of this broth into it, by the hole at the top; and the rest of it, when it is quite baked, and wanteth but standing in the oven to soak. Or put it all in at once, when the Pasty is sufficiently baked, and afterwards let it remain in the oven a good while soaking.

You may bake the bones (broken) with the broth and gravy, or for want thereof, with only water in an earthen pot close stopped, till you have all the substance in the Liquor; which you may pour into the Pasty an hour before it is baked enough.

If you are in a Park, you may soak the Venison a night in the blood of the Deer; and cover the flesh with it, clotted together when you put it in paste. Mutton blood also upon Venison, is very good. You may season your blood a little with Pepper and Salt.

TO BAKE VENISON TO KEEP

After you have boned it, and cut away all the sinews, then season it with Pepper and Salt pretty high, and divide a Stag into four pots; then put about a pound of Butter upon the top of each pot, and cover it with Rye-past pretty thick. Your oven must be so hot, that after a whole night it maybe baked very tender, which is a great help to the keeping of it. And when you draw it, drain all the Liquor from it, and turn your pot upon a pie plate, with the bottom upwards, and so let it stand, until it is cold; Then wipe your pot, that no gravy remain therein, and then put your Venison into the same pot again; then have your Butter very well clarified, that there be no dross remaining; Then fill up your pot about two Inches above the meat with Butter, or else it will mould. And so the next day binde it up very close, with a piece of sheeps Leather so that no air can get in. After which you may keep it as long as you please.

Master Adrian May put's up His Venison in pots, to keep long, thus: Immediately as soon as He hath killed it, he seasoneth and baketh it as soon as He can, so that the flesh may never be cold. And this maketh that the fat runneth in among the lean, and is like calvered Salmon, and eats much more mellow and tender. But before the Deer be killed, he ought to be hunted and chafed as much as may be. Then seasoned and put in the oven before it be cold. Be sure to pour out all the gravy, that settleth to the bottom, under the flesh after the baking, before you put the Butter to it, that is to lie very thick upon the meat, to keep it all the year.

ABOUT MAKING OF BRAWN

It must be a very large oven, that so it may contract the stronger heat, and keep it the longer. It must be at least eight hours heating with wood, that it be as hot as is possible. If the Brawn be young, it will suffice eight hours or a little more in the oven. But if old, it must be ten or eleven. Put but two Collars into each pot, for bigger are unwieldy. Into every pot, put twelve corns of whole Pepper, four Cloves, a great Onion peeled and quartered, and two bay-leaves, before you put them into the oven. Before they are set in, you do not fill them with water to the top, least any should spill in sliding them in; but fill them up by a bowl fastned to a long Pole. No water must be put in, after the oven is closed (nor the oven ever be opened, till after all is throughly baked) and therefore you must put in enough at first to serve to the last; you must rowl your Collars as close as may be, that no air may be left in the folds of them: and sow them up in exceeding strong cloth, which a strong man must pull as hard as He can in the sowing. Their cloths must not be pulled off, till the Collars have been three or four days out of the oven, least you pull off part of the Brawn with them. You may put the same proportion of Pepper, Cloves, &c. into the Souce drink as you did in the baking them; which at either time (especially at first) give them a fine taste. The Souce-drink is made of six shillings Beer, and Thames or River-water, of each an equal quantity, well boiled with Salt. When boiled and cold, put in to it two or three quarts of skimmed Milk, only to colour it; and so change it once in three Weeks. Tender Brawn sliced thin, and laid Sallet-wise in a dish as the sliced Capon, and seasoned with Pepper, Salt and Vinegar and Oyl, with a little Limon, is a very good Sallet.

SALLET OF COLD CAPON ROSTED

It is a good Sallet, to slice a cold Capon thin; mingle with it some Sibbolds, Lettice, Rocket and Tarragon sliced small. Season all with Pepper, Salt, Vinegar and Oyl, and sliced Limon. A little Origanum doth well with it.

MUTTON BAKED LIKE VENISON, SOAKING EITHER IN THEIR BLOOD

Take a large fat loin of Mutton (or two) boned after the manner of Venison. Season it well to your taste with Pepper and Salt. Then lay it to steep all night in enough of the sheep's blood, to cover it over, and soak well into it. Then lay it into the past, with all the clotted thick blood, under it, upon it, and hanging about it. You may season the blood with Pepper and Salt, before you lay the meat in it. But though you do not, it will not be amiss, so as the meat be seasoned high enough. Then bake it as you do an ordinary Pasty; and you may put gravy of Mutton or strong broth into it. You may do it in a dish with past; as My Lady of Newport doth Her Venison. This way of steeping in blood before you bake it, is very good also for Venison.

TO MAKE AN EXCELLENT HARE-PYE

Hash the flesh of as many Hares, as you please, very small. Then beat them strongly in a Mortar into a Paste, which season duly with Pepper and Salt. Lard it throughly all over with great Lardons of Lard well rowled in Pepper and Salt. Put this into a straight earthen pot, to lye close in it. If you like Onions, you may put one or two quartered into the bottom of the Pot. Put store of Sweet-butter upon the meat, and upon that, some strong red Claret-wine. Cover the pot with a double strong brown paper, tyed close about the mouth of it. Set it to bake with houshold-bread (or in an oven, as a Venison pasty) for eight or ten hours. Then take out the pot, and thence the meat, and pour away all the Liquor, which let settle. Then take all the congealed Butter, and clarifie it well. Put your meat again into the pot, and put upon it your clarified Butter, and as much more as is necessary. And I believe the putting of Claret-wine to it now is better, and to omit it before. Bake it again, but a less while. Pour out all the Liquor, when it is baked, and clarifie the Butter again, and pour it upon the meat, and so let it cool; The Butter must be at least two or three fingers breadth over the meat.

TO BAKE BEEF

Bone it, and beat it exceeding well on all sides, with a roling pin, upon a table. Then season it with Pepper and Salt, (rubbing them in very well) and some Parsley, and a few Sweet herbs (Penny-royal, Winter-savoury, Sweet-marjoram, Limon Thyme, Red-sage, which yet to some seems to have a Physical taste) an Onion if you will. Squeese it into the pot as close as you can. Put Butter upon it, and Claret-wine, and covered all as above. Bake it in a strong oven eight or ten hours. Take it out of the oven, and the meat out of the pot, which make clean, from all settlings; and squeese all the juyce from it (even by a gentle press.) Then put it in again hard pressed into the pot. Clarifie the Butter, that you poured with the Liquor from the meat out of the pot; and pour it again with more flesh, to have enough to cover it two or three fingers thick.

TO BAKE PIDGEONS, (WHICH ARE THUS EXCELLENT, AND WILL KEEP A QUARTER OF A YEAR) OR TEALS, OR WILD-DUCKS

Season them duly with Pepper and Salt; then lay them in the pot, and put store of Butter, and some Claret-wine to them. Cover and bake as above: but a less while according to the tenderness of the meat. In due time take out your pot, and your birds out of it, which press not, but only wipe off the Liquor. Pour it out all. Clarifie the Butter; put in the birds again, and the clarified butter, and as much more as needs (all melted) upon them, and let it cool. You may put a few Bay-leaves upon any of these baked meats, between the meat and the Butter.

GREEN-GEESE-PYE

An excellent cold Pye is thus made. Take two fat Green-geese; bone them, and lay them in paste one upon the other, seasoning them well with Pepper and Salt, and some little Nutmeg, both above and below and between the two Geese. When it is well-baked and out of the oven, pour in melted Butter at a hole made in the top. The crust is much better than of a Stubble-goose.

TO BOIL BEEF OR VENISON TENDER AND SAVOURY

The way to have Beef tenderest, short and best boiled, as my Lord of Saint Alban's useth it, is thus. Take a rump or brisket of beef; keep it without salt as long as you may, without danger to have it smell ill. For so it groweth mellow and tender, which it would not do, if it were presently salted. When it is sufficiently mortified, rub it well with Salt; let it lie so but a day and a night, or at most two nights and a day. Then boil it in no more water then is necessary. Boil it pretty smartly at first, but afterwards but a simpring or stewing boiling, which must continue seven or eight hours. Sometimes he boileth it half over night, and the rest next morning. If you should not have time to Salt it, you may supply that want thus; When the Beef is through boiled, you may put so much Salt into the pot as to make the broth like brine, and then boil it gently an hour longer; or take out the Beef, and put it into a deep dish, and put to it some of his broth made brine, and cover it with another dish, and stew it so an hour. A hanch of Venison may be done the same way.

TO BAKE WILDE-DUCKS OR TEALS

Season your Duck and Teal with Pepper and Salt, both within and without, so much as you think may season them; then crack their bones with a roling pin; then put them into an earthen pot close, and cover them with Butter, and bake them in an oven as hot as for bread, and let them stand three or four hours; when you take them out of the oven, pour out all the Liquor from them, then melt so much Butter as will cover them; when you have melted your Butter, let it stand a while, until all the dross be settled to the bottom, and put in the clear Butter, which must cover the Fowl.

TO SEASON HUMBLE-PYES: AND TO ROST WILDE-DUCKS

Bake Humble-Pyes without chapping them small in a Pye, seasoned with Pepper and Salt, adding a pretty deal of Parsley, a little sweet-marjoram and Savoury, and a very little Thyme.

Rost wilde Ducks putting into their Bellies some Sage and a little Onion (both well shreded) wrought into a lump with butter, adding a little Pepper and Salt. And let their sauce be a little gravy of Mutton, to enlarge the seasoned gravy, that comes from the Ducks when they are cut up.

TO SOUCE TURKEYS

Take a good fat Turkey or two; dress them clean, and bone them; then tye them up in the manner of Sturgeon with some thing clean washed. Take your kettle, and put into it a pottle of good White-wine, a quart of Water, and a quart of Vinegar; make it boil, and season it with Salt pretty well. Then put in your Turkeys, and let them boil till they be very tender. When they are enough boiled, take them out, and taste the Liquor; if it be not sharp enough, put more Vinegar, and let it boil a little; then put it into an earthen pot, that will hold both Turkeys. When it is cold enough, and the Turkeys through-cold, put them into the Liquor in the Pot, and be sure they be quite covered with the Liquor; Let them lye in it three weeks or a month; Then serve it to the table, with Fennel on it, and eat it with elder Vinegar.

You may do a Capon or two put together in the same manner: but first larding it with great Lardons rowled in Pepper and Salt. A shorter time lying in the pickle will serve.

AN EXCELLENT MEAT OF GOOSE OR TURKEY

Take a fat Goose, and Powder it with Salt eight or ten days; Then boil it tender, and put it into pickle, like Sturgeon-pickle. You may do the like with a very fat Turkey; but the best pickle of that is, the Italian Marinating, boiling Mace, Nutmeg, &c. in it. You may boil Garlick in the belly of the fouls, if you like it, or in the pickle.

TO PICKLE AN OLD FAT GOOSE

Cut it down the back, and take out all the bones; Lard it very well with green Bacon, and season it well with three quarters of an Ounce of Pepper; half an Ounce of Ginger; a quarter of an Ounce of Cloves, and Salt as you judge proportionable; a pint of white wine and some Butter. Put three or four Bay-leaves under the meat, and bake it with Brown-bread in an earthen pot close covered, and the edges of the cover closed with Paste. Let it stand three or four days in the pickle; then eat it cold with Vinegar.

ABOUT ORDERING BACON FOR GAMBONS, AND TO KEEP

At Franckfort they use the following cautions about the Bacon they salt for Gambons or sides to keep. The best is of male Hogs of two year old, that have been gelt, when they were young. They kill them in the wane of the Moon, from a day or two after the full, till the last quarter. They fetch off their hair with warm-water, not by burning (which melteth the fat, and maketh it apt to grow r esty), and after it hath lain in the open air a full day, they salt it with dry Salt, rubbing it in well: Then lay what quantity you will in a tub for seven or eight days (in which time the Salt dissolveth to water); then take it out, and wipe it dry, and hang it in a room, where they keep fire, either on a hearth, or that smoak cometh out of a stove into the room (as most of those rooms do smoak) but hang them not in the Chimney, that the hot smoak striketh upon them; but if you have a very large Chimney, hang them pretty high and aside, that the smoak may not come full upon them. After a while, (when they are dry) take them thence, and hang them from the smoak in a dry warm room. When the weather groweth warm as in May, there will drop from them a kinde of melted oyly grease, and they will heat, and grow resty, if not remedied. Take them down then, and lay them in a cold dry place, with hay all about them, that one may not touch another. Change the Hay every thirty, or twenty, or fifteen days, till September, when the weather groweth cool; then hang them up again in the free air, in a dry Chamber. If you make the shoulders into Gambons, you must have a care to cut away a little piece of flesh within, called in Dutch the Mause; for if that remain in it, the Bacon will grow resty.

TO MAKE A TANSEY

Take Spinage, Sorrel, Tansey, Wheat, a quart of Cream; bread (the quantity of a two peny loaf) twenty Eggs, and half the whites, one Nutmeg, half a pound of Sugar, and the juyce of a couple of Limons. Spinage is th e chief herb to have the juyce; Wheat also is very good, when it is young and tender. You must not take much Sorrel, for fear of turning the Cream; but less Tansey, so little that it may not taste distinctly in the composition. The juyce of Limons is put in at the end of all. You may lay thin slices of Limon upon the Tansey made, and Sugar upon them.

ANOTHER WAY

Beat twelve Eggs (six whites put away) by themselves exceeding well (two or three hours), sometimes putting in a spoonful of Cream to keep them from oyling; Then mingle them well with a quart of Cream; to which put about half a pint of juyce of Spinage (as much as will make the Cream green) or of green wheat, and four spoonfuls of juyce or Tansey, one Nutmeg scraped into thin slices, and half a pound of Sugar; All things exceeding well Incorporated together; Fry this with fresh butter, no more then to glase the Pan over, and keep the Tansey from sticking to the Pan.

TO MAKE CHEESE-CAKES

Take twelve quarts of Milk warm from the Cow, turn it with a good spoonful of Runnet. Break it well, and put it into a large strainer, in which rowl it up and down, that all the Whey may run out into a little tub; when all that will is run out, wring out more. Then break the curds well; then wring it again, and more whey will come. Thus break and wring till no more come. Then work the Curds exceedingly with your hand in a tray, till they become a short uniform Paste. Then put to it the yolks of eight new laid Eggs, and two whites, and a pound of butter. Work all this long together.

In the long working (at the several times) consisteth the making them good. Then season them to your taste with Sugar finely beaten; and put in some Cloves and Mace in subtile powder. Then lay them thick in Coffins of fine Paste, and bake them.

SHORT AND CRISP CRUST FOR TARTS AND PYES

To half a peck of fine flower, take a pound and half of Butter, in this manner. Put your Butter with at least three quarts of cold water (it imports not how much or how little the water is) into a little kettle to melt, and boil gently: as soon as it is melted, scum off the Butter with a ladle, pouring it by ladlefuls (one a little after another, as you knead it with the flower) to some of the flower (which you take not all at once, that you may the better discern, how much Liquor is needful) and work it very well into Paste. When all your butter is kneaded, with as much of the flower, as serves to make paste of a fitting consistence, take of the water that the Butter was melted in, so much as to make the rest of the flower into Paste of due consistence; then joyn it to the Paste made with Butter, and work them both very well together, of this make your covers and coffins thin. If you are to make more paste for more Tarts or Pyes, the water that hath already served, will serve again better then fresh.

To make Goose-pyes, and such of thick crust, you must put at least two pound of Butter to half a peck of flower. Put no more Salt to your Past, then what is in the Butter, which must be the best new Butter that is sold in the Market.

TO MAKE A CAKE

Take eight wine quarts of flower; one pound of loaf Sugar beaten and searsed; one ounce of Mace, beat it very fine: then take thirty Eggs, fifteen whites, beat them well; then put to them a quart of new Ale-yest; beat them very well together, and strain them into your flower; then take a pint of Rose-water, wherein six grains of Ambergreece and Musk have been over night. Then take a pint and half of Cream or something more, and set it on the fire, and put into it four pounds and three quarters of Butter; And when it is all melted, take it off the fire and stir it about, until it be pretty cool; And pour all into your flower, and stir it up quick with your hands, like a lith pudding; Then dust a little flower over it, and let it stand covered with a Flannel, or other woollen cloth, a quarter of an hour before the fire, that it may rise; Then have ready twelve pounds of Currants very well washed and pick'd, that there may be neither stalks, nor broken Currants in them. Then let your Currants be very well dryed before the fire, and put warm into your Cake; then mingle them well together with your hands; then get a tin hoop that will contain that quantity, and butter it well, and put it upon two sheets of paper well buttered; so pour in your Cake, and so set it into the oven, being quick that it may be well soaked, but not to burn. It must bake above an hour a nd a quarter; near an hour and half. Take then a pound and half of double refined Sugar purely beaten and searsed; put into the whites of five Eggs; two or 3 spoonfuls of rose-water; keep it a beating all the time, that the Cake is a baking which will be two hours; Then draw your Cake out of the oven, and pick the dry Currants from the top of it, and so spread all that you have beaten over it, very smooth, and set it a little into the oven, that it may dry.

ANOTHER CAKE

Take three pounds and an half of flower; one penny worth of Cloves and Mace; and a quarter of a pound of Sugar and Salt, and strew it on the flower. Then take the yolks of eight Eggs well beaten, with a spoonful and half of rose water; Then take a pint of thick Cream, and a pound of Butter; Melt them together, and when it is so, take three quarters of a pint of Ale-yest, and mingle the yest and Eggs together. Then take the warm liquor, and mingle all together; when you have done, take all, and pour it in the bowl, and so cover the flower over the liquor; then cover the pan with a Napkin, and when it is risen, take four pounds of Currants, well washed and dryed, and half a pound of Raisins of the Sun sliced, and let them be well dryed and hot, and so stir them in. When it is risen, have your oven hot against the Cake is made; let it stand three quarters of an hour. When it is half baked, Ice it over with fine Sugar and Rose-water, and the whites of Eggs, and Musk and Ambergreece.

When you mingle your yest and Eggs together for the Cake, put Musk and Amber to that.

TO MAKE A PLUMB-CAKE

Take a peck of flower, and put it in half. Then take two quarts of good Ale-yest, and strain it into half the flower, and some new milk boiled, and almost cold again; make it into a very light paste, and set it before the fire to rise; Then take five pound of Butter, and melt it in a skillet, with a quarter of a pint of Rose-water; when your paste is risen, and your oven almost hot, which will be by this time, take your paste from the fire, and break it into small pieces, and take your other part of flower, and strew it round your paste; Then take the melted Butter, and put it to the past, and by degrees work the paste and flower together, till you have mingled all very well. Take six Nutmegs, some Cinnamon and Mace well beaten, and two pound of Sugar, and strew it into the Paste, as they are a working it. Take three pounds of Raisins stoned, and twelve pounds of Currants very well washed and dryed again; one pound of Dates sliced; half a pound of green Citron dryed and sliced very thin; strew all these into the paste, till it have received them all; Then let your oven be ready, and make up your Cake, and set it into the oven; but you must have a great care, it doth not take cold. Then to Ice it, take a pound and half of double refined Sugar beaten and searsed; The whites of three Eggs new-laid, and a little Orange-flower-water, with a little musk and Ambergreece, beaten and searsed, and put to your sugar; Then strew your Sugar into the Eggs, and beat it in a stone Mortar with a Woo dden Pestel, till it be as white as snow, which will be by that time the Cake is baked; Then draw it to the ovens mouth, and drop it on, in what form you will; let it stand a little again in the oven to harden.

TO MAKE AN EXCELLENT CAKE

To a Peck of fine flower, take six pounds of fresh butter, which must be tenderly melted, ten pounds of Currants, of Cloves and Mace, half an ounce of each, an ounce of Cinnamon, half an ounce of Nutmegs, four ounces of Sugar, one pint of Sack mixed with a quart at least of thick barm of Ale (as soon as it is settled, to have the thick fall to the bottom, which will be, when it is about two days old) half a pint of Rose-water; half a quarter of an ounce of Saffron. Then make your paste, strewing the spices, finely beaten, upon the flower: Then put the melted butter (but even just melted) to it; then the barm, and other liquors: and put it into the oven well heated presently. For the better baking of it, put it in a hoop, and let it stand in the oven one hour and half. You Ice the Cake with the whites of two Eggs, a small quantity of Rose-water, and some Sugar.

TO MAKE BISKET

To half a peck of flower, take three spoonfuls of barm, two ounces of seeds; Aniseeds or Fennel-seeds. Make the paste very stiff, with nothing but water, and dry it (they must not have so much heat, as to make them rise, but only dry by degrees; as in an oven after Manchet is taken out, or a gentle stove) in flat Cakes very well in an oven or stove.

TO MAKE A CARAWAY-CAKE

Take three pound and a half of the finest flower and dry it in an oven; one pound and a half of sweet butter, and mix it with the flower, until it be crumbled very small, that none of it be seen; Then take three quarters of a pint of new Ale-yeast, and half a pint of Sack, and half a pint of new milk; six spoonfuls of Rose-water, four yolks, and two whites of Eggs; Then let it lie before the fire half an hour or more. And when you go to make it up, put in three quarters of a pound of Caraway-Confits, and a pound and half of biskets. Put it into the oven, and let it stand an hour and half.

ANOTHER VERY GOOD CAKE

Take four quarts of fine flower, two pound and half of butter, three quarters of a pound of Sugar, four Nutmegs; a little Mace; a pound of Almonds finely beaten, half a pint of Sack, a pint of good Ale-yest, a pint of boiled Cream, twelve yolks, and four whites of Eggs; four pound of Currants. When you have wrought all these into a very fine past, let it be kept warm before the fire half an hour, before you set it into the oven. If you please, you may put into it, two pound of Raisins of the Sun stoned and quartered. Let your oven be of a temperate heat, and let your Cake stand therein two hours and a half, before you Ice it; and afterwards only to harden the Ice. The Ice for this Cake is made thus: Take the whites of three new laid Eggs, and three quarters of a pound of fine Sugar finely beaten; beat it well together with the whites of the Eggs, and Ice the Cake. If you please you may add a little Musk or Ambergreece.

EXCELLENT SMALL CAKES

Take three pound of very fine flower well dryed by the fire, and put to it a pound and half of loaf Sugar sifted in a very fine sieve and dryed; Three pounds of Currants well washed and dryed in a cloth and set by the fire; When your flower is well mixed with the Sugar and Currants, you must put in it a pound and half of unmelted butter, ten spoonfuls of Cream, with the yolks of three new-laid Eggs beat with it, one Nutmeg; and if you please, three spoonfuls of Sack. When you have wrought your paste well, you must put it in a cloth, and set it in a dish before the fire, till it be through warm. Then make them up in little Cakes, and prick them full of holes; you must bake them in a quick oven unclosed. Afterwards Ice them over with Sugar. The Cakes should be about the bigness of a hand-breadth and thin: of the cise of the Sugar Cakes sold at Barnet.

MY LORD OF DENBIGH'S ALMOND MARCH-PANE

Blanch Nut-Kernels from the Husks in the best manner you can. Then pun them with a due proportion of Sugar, and a little Orange-flower, or Rose-water. When it is in a fitting uniform paste, make it into round Cakes, about the bigness of your hand, or a little larger, and about a finger thick; and lay every one upon a fine paper cut fit to it; which lay upon a table. You must have a pan like a tourtiere, made to contain coals on the top, that is flat, with edges round about to hold in the coals, which set over the Cakes, with fire upon it. Let this remain upon the Cakes, till you conceive, it hath dryed them sufficiently for once; which may be within a quarter of an hour; but you take it off two or three times in that time, to see you scorch not the outside, but only dry it a little. Then remove it to others, that lye by them; and pull the Papers from the first, and turn them upon new Papers. When the others are dryed enough, remove the pan back to the first, to dry their other side: which being enough, remove it back to the second, that by this time are turned, and laid upon new Papers. Repeat this turning the Cakes, and changing the Pan, till they are sufficiently dry: which you must not do all at once, least you scorch them: and though the outside be dry, the inside must be very moist and tender. Then you must Ice them thus: Make a thick pap with Orange flower or Rose-water, and purest white Sugar: a little of the whites of Eggs, not above half a spoonful of that Oyl of Eggs, to a Porrenger full of thick Pap, beaten exceeding well with it, and a little juyce of Limons. Lay this smooth upon the Cakes with a Knife, and smoothen it with a feather. Then set the pan over them to dry them. Which being if there be any unevenness, or cracks or discolouring, lay on a little more of that Mortar, and dry it as before. Repeat this, till it be as clear, and smooth, and white, as you would have it. Then turn the other sides, and do the like to them. You must take care, not to scorch them: for then they would look yellow or red, and they must be pure, white and smooth like Silver between polished and matte, or like a looking Glass. This Coat preserves the substance of the Cakes within, the longer moist. You may beat dissolved Amber, or Essence of Cinnamon, with them.