Mince a bit of cold veal, and six oysters; mix with a few crumbs of bread, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and a very small bit of lemonpeel; add the liquor of the oysters: warm all in a tosser, but do not boil. Let it go cold. Have ready a good puff paste, roll thin, and cut it in round or square bits. Put some of the above between two of them; twist the edges to keep in the gravy, and fry them of a fine brown.
This is a very good thing; and baked, is a fashionable dish.
Put a fine puff paste into small pattypans, and a bit of bread in each; and against they are baked, have ready the following to fill with, taking out the bread. Take off the beards of the oysters; cut the other parts in small bits; put them in a small tosser, with a grate of nutmeg, the least white pepper, and salt, a morsel of lemonpeel, cut so small that you can scarcely see it, a little cream, and a little of the oyster liquor. Simmer for a few minutes before you fill.
Make with the same seasoning, a little cream, and the smallest bit of butter.
Beef and veal patties, as likewise turkey and chicken, are under the several articles in the foregoing pages.
Chop the meat of a boiled calf’s foot, of which you use the liquor for jelly, two apples, one ounce of orange and lemonpeel candied, and some fresh peel and juice: mix with them half a nutmeg grated, the yelk of an egg, a spoonful of brandy, and four ounces of currants washed and dried.
Bake in small pattypans.
Chop the kidney and fat of cold veal, apple, orange and lemonpeel candied, and fresh currants, a little wine, two or three cloves, a little brandy, and a bit of sugar. Bake in puff paste as before.
Of scraped beef free from skin and strings, weigh two pounds; four pounds of suet picked and chopped; then add six pounds of currants, nicely cleaned and perfectly dry, three pounds of chopped apples, the peel and juice of two lemons, a pint of sweet wine, a nutmeg, a quarter of an ounce of cloves, ditto mace, ditto pimento, in finest powder; press the whole into a deep pan when well mixed, and keep it covered in a dry cool place.
Half the quantity is enough, unless for a very large family.
Have citron, orange, and lemonpeel ready, and put some of each in the pies when made.
Of the best apples six pounds, pared, cored, and minced; of fresh suet, and raisins stoned, each three pounds, likewise minced: to these add of mace and cinnamon a quarter of an ounce each, and eight cloves, in finest powder, three pounds of the finest powder sugar, three quarters of an ounce of salt, the rinds of four and juice of two lemons, half a pint of port wine, and the same of brandy. Mix well, and put into a deep pan.
Have ready washed and dried four pounds of currants, and add as you make the pies, with candied fruit.
Squeeze a large lemon: boil the outside till tender enough to beat to a mash: add to it three large apples chopped, four ounces of suet, half a pound of currants, and four ounces of sugar. Put the juice of the lemon and candied fruit, as for other pies. Make a short crust, and fill the patty pans as usual.
Boil six eggs hard, and shred them small: shred double the quantity of suet; then put currants washed and picked, one pound or more, if the eggs were large; the peel of one lemon shred very fine, half the juice, six spoonfuls of sweet wine, mace, nutmeg, sugar, a very little salt, orange, lemon, and citron candied. Make a light paste for them.
Wash and pick some rice: stew it very gently in a small quantity of veal, or rich mutton broth, with an onion, a blade of mace, pepper, and salt. When swelled, but not boiled to mash, dry it on the shallow end of a sieve before the fire, and either serve it dry, or put it in the middle of a dish, and pour the gravy round, having heated it.
Prepare some rice as above: drain, and put it with some new milk, enough just to swell it, over the fire. When tender, pour off the milk, and add a bit of butter, a little sugar, and pounded cinnamon. Shake it, that it do not burn, and serve.
Prepare as above; then put it into a large quantity of water, boil it quick, throw in a little salt, and observe the very moment when it is swelled large, but not too much softened; then drain off the water, and pour the rice on the shallow end of a sieve: set it before a fire, and let it stay until it separates and dries. Serve it without sauce of any kind.
Make a batter of eggs and milk, and a very little flour; put to it chopped parsley, onions, or chives (the latter is best); or a very small quantity of shalot, a little pepper, salt, and a scrape or two of nutmeg. Make some very nice dripping: boil in a small fryingpan, and pour the above batter into it. When one side is of a fine yellow brown, turn and do the other. Some scraped lean ham, put in at first, is a very pleasant addition. Three eggs will make a pretty sized omlet; but many cooks will use eight or ten.
If the taste be approved, a little tarragon gives a fine flavour. A good deal of parsley should be used.
Scrape a quarter of a pound of Cheshire, and ditto of Gloucester cheese, ditto of good fresh butter; then beat all in a mortar with the yelks of four eggs, and the inside of a small French roll boiled in cream till soft. Mix the paste then with the whites of the eggs previously beaten, and put into small paper pans made rather long than square, and bake in a Dutch oven till of a fine brown. They should be eaten quite hot.
Cut streaked bacon in thin slices an inch long; make a batter of milk, well beaten eggs, and flour; put a little lard or dripping into the pan, and when hot pour the batter in, and cover it with a dish. When fit to turn, put in the bacon, and turn it very carefully, that the bacon does not touch the pan.
Weigh an equal quantity of butter with as much fine flour as you judge necessary; mix a little of the former with the latter, and wet it with as little water as will make into a stiff paste. Roll it out, and put all the butter over it in slices; turn in the ends, and roll it thin; do this twice, and touch it no more than can be avoided. The butter may be added at twice; and to those who are not accustomed to make paste, it may be better to do so.
A quicker oven than for short crust.
Weigh a pound of flour, and a quarter of a pound of butter; rub them together, and mix into a paste with a little water, and an egg well beaten; of the former as little as will suffice, or the paste will be tough. Roll, and fold it three or four times.
Rub extremely fine, in one pound of dried flour, six ounces of butter, and a spoonful of white sugar. Work up the whole into a stiff paste, with as little hot water as possible.
Boil two ounces of fresh butter in half a pint of cream; stir until cold; then beat two eggs, strain them into the cream, and mix that by degrees into two table spoonfuls of flour: butter teacups, and into each put three spoonfuls of the batter; bake them half an hour, and serve the moment they are to be eaten, turned out of the cups, with sauce of melted butter, sugar, and the juice of a lemon.
Make two ounces of white sugar, pounded and sifted, quite dry; then mix it with a pound of flour well dried; rub into it three ounces of butter so fine as not to be seen: into some cream put the yelks of two eggs beaten, and mix the above into a smooth paste; roll it thin, and bake in a moderate oven.
Mix with a pound of fine flour, dried, an ounce of sugar pounded and sifted; then crumble three ounces of butter in it, till it looks all like flour, and with a gill of boiling cream, work it up to a fine paste.
Beat the white of an egg to a strong froth; then mix it with as much water as will make three quarters of a pound of fine flour into a very stiff paste: roll it very thin, then lay the third part of half a pound of butter upon it in little bits: dredge it with some flour, left out at first, and roll it up tight. Roll it out again, and put the same proportion of butter; and so proceed till all be worked up.
Dry a pound of the finest flour, and mix with it three ounces of refined sugar; then work half a pound of butter with your hand till it comes to a froth. Put the flour into it by degrees; and work into it, well beaten, and strained, the yelks of three and whites of two eggs. If too limber, put some flour and sugar to make fit to roll. Line your pattypans and fill. A little above fifteen minutes will bake them. Against they come out, have ready some refined sugar, beat up with the white of an egg, as thick as you can: ice them all over: set them in the oven to harden, and serve cold. Use fresh butter.
Salt butter will make a very fine flaky crust; but if for mincepies, or any sweet thing, should be washed.
Put four ounces of butter into a saucepan with water; and when it boils, pour it into as much flour as you choose, knead and beat it till smooth: cover it as on the other side. Raise it; and if for custard, put a paper within to keep out the sides till half done, then fill with a cold mixture of milk, egg, sugar, and a little peachwater, lemonpeel, or nutmeg. By cold is meant that the egg is not to be warmed, but the milk should be warmed by itself; not to spoil the crust.
Boil water with a little fine lard, and an equal quantity of fresh dripping, or of butter, but not much of either. While hot, mix this with as much flour as you will want, making the paste as stiff as you can to be smooth, which you will make it by good kneading, and beating with the rolling pin. When quite smooth, put it in a lump into a cloth, or under a pan to soak, till near cold.
Those who have not a good hand at raising crust, may do thus: roll the paste of a proper thickness, and cut out the top and bottom of the pie, then a long piece for the sides. Cement the bottom to the sides with egg, bringing the former rather further out, and pinching both together; put egg between the edges of the paste to make it adhere at the sides. Fill your pie, and put on the cover, and pinch it and the side crust together. The same mode of uniting the paste is to be observed, if the sides are pressed into a tin form, in which the paste must be baked, after it shall be filled and covered; but in the latter case the tin should be buttered, and carefully taken off when done enough; and as the form usually makes the sides of a lighter colour than is proper, the paste should be put into the oven again for a quarter of an hour. With a feather put egg over at first.
To a quarter of a peck of fine flour use two pounds and a half of butter, and four eggs: mix into paste with warm water, and work it smooth and to a good consistence. Put a paste round the inside, but not to the bottom of the dish, and let the cover be pretty thick, to bear the long continuance in the oven.
Boil a quarter of a pound of ground rice in the smallest quantity of water: strain from it all the moisture as well as you can. Beat it in a mortar, with half an ounce of butter, and one egg well beaten, and it will make an excellent paste for tarts, &c.
Pound boiled potatoes very fine; and add, while warm, a sufficiency of butter to make the mash hold together. Or you may mix with it an egg; then before it gets cold, flour the board pretty well to prevent it from sticking, and roll it to the thickness wanted.
If it is become quite cold before it be put on the dish, it will be apt to crack.