PHILADELPHIA, MAY, 1861.
Receipts, & c.
TO MAKE MUFFINS AND CRUMPETS.
You must first provide yourself with an iron plate. This should be about eighteen inches square and three-quarters of an inch thick. The surface should be perfectly level and very smooth, though, not polished. Muffin and crumpet makers generally have the plate (larger than that I have named, and circular) firmly imbedded in brickwork, with a furnace under it, such us is placed under a copper. You, however, need not go to this expense as you can place your plate over the fire in your range, resting it on the hobs, taking care to have a fire clear at the top, that your articles may not be smoked. The fire should be made up with. coke or cinders, and so regulated that the heat may not be too great. The exact degree of heat required you will soon be able to ascertain by experiments. You will ruin your muffins and crumpets, if you suffer them to be burnt. When the raw material is laid on the plate, it must be carefully watched and duly turned. This turning must be performed with dexterity by means of a knife somewhat resembling a painter's palette knife, only broader and longer, sufficiently fill to bend easily, and about sixteen inches in length.
Crumpets.—Make a batter thus: To two quarts of water, just lukewarm, add a quarter of a pint of good yeast, free from bitterness, and mix them intimately. Put to this as much flour as will make a thinnish batter, and put it in a warm situation for about six hours. Stir it well up with a broad, flat wooden spoon, and let it remain in the warmth three or four hours longer. Have ready some tin hoops of the size you wish your crumpets, and about half an inch deep. Next ascertain whether the iron plate is sufficiently hot, which it will be if, when you throw a pinch, of dry flour upon it, it becomes brown. Lay as many of your hoops upon the hot plate as there is room for; say four, and with a small hullo pour a sufficient quantity of batter into each hoop. When the top is covered with little air bladders turn each crumpet dexterously over, tin and all, with your long knife, and bake for about five minutes longer. Observe carefully all that takes place during the baking of the first batch, and you will have no difficulty afterwards.
Crumpets may either be served up hot at the time they are made, or they may be made some time beforehand, and toasted -when required for use. If you toast them, let both sides be made a pale brown, lay them on warm plates, and spread some suit butter lightly on each side. They should be toasted quickly, and it is best not to lay them upon one another, as that causes them to taste rather doughy.
Muffins.—Ordinary brewers' yeast may answer the purpose, if it be first strained through some bran to free it from its bitter taste. Put it in a quart of warm water, and mix in it as much flour as will make it a stiff batter. Place it is a warm situation for four hours, then stir It well down. Take up a portion of the batter, say a quarter of a pound, in a broad wooden spoon, in your left hand ; and with your right hand, with a small wooden spoon, or with your hand, form it into a round, ball-like shape. Spread some flour, about half an inch deep, upon a pasteboard, and make a little round hollow for each of these balls. Cover them up with flannel, and let them remain two hours to prove. When your iron plate is sufficiently hot, as for crumpets, set the muffins upon it. When they have risen properly turn them over, and bake till they are sufficiently set.
Muffins are rarely used without toasting. Run the point of a sharp knife about a quarter of an inch deep along the outer edge of each, exactly is the middle. Then toast them, by holding them at such a distance from a clear-fronted fire that they may get hot through
Without burning. When toasted on both sides pull them open and place a thin layer of butter on each side ; close them again, and cut each muffin separately with a sharp knife across the middle. Pile them lightly upon each other on a warm plate.
MISCELLANEOUS COOKING.
A NICE DINNER OR SUPPER.—Cold meat, especially if rather underdone, may be readily made into a savory dish, as follows : Cut the meat into slices, spread them out on a dish, and sprinkle them with pepper, salt, and flour. Chop an onion, and sprinkle that over also. Put the pieces into a deep dish, and add water is the proportion of a small teacupful to a pound of meat. Add, to make it more savory, a tablespoonful of vinegar or ketchup, or any gravy that may be is the house. Cover the whole with mashed potatoes, and put the dish in a side oven, If the family have one, or, if not, in a Dutch oven before the fire, about half an hour before meal-time.
This will make a good dinner occasionally; or, for a working-man, who has to go out to work and does not get his dinner regularly, his wife will, no doubt, get smiles and commendations if she thus prepare a supper for him.
Cheap RICE Pudding—Boil a pound of rice in three pints of water, till it is thoroughly soft. Stir in a small teaspoonful of powdered allspice, if agreeable, or a blade or two of cinnamon. It may then be served out is plates, and a little treacle poured over each, or, after the rice is soft, two tablespoonfuls of flour may be stirred into a pint of milk, and put into the rice and stirred up. Let it boil for a few minutes, and sweeten to taste with brown sugar.
POTATO SOUP MAIGRE.—Take some large, mealy potatoes; peel, and cut them into small slices, with an onion; boil them in three pints of water till tender, and then pulp thorn through a colander: add a small piece of butter, a little Cayenne pepper, and salt, and, just before the soup is served, two spoonfuls of good cream. The soup must not be allowed to boil after the cream has been put into it.
This will be found a most excellent soup, and, being easily and quickly made, is useful upon an emergency, when such an addition Is suddenly required to the dinner.
MOCK TURTLE SOUP—Scald and clean thoroughly a calf's head with the skin on; boil it gently an hour in four quarts of water, skimming it well. Take out the head, and when almost cold cut the meat off, and divide it into bits about an inch square.
Slice and fry of a light brown is butter two pounds of the leg of beef, and two pounds of veal, and five onions cut small, and two ounces of green sago. Add these to the liquor In which the head was boiled, also the bones of the head and trimmings, two whole onions, a handful of parsley, one teaspoonful of ground allspice, and two teaspoonfuls of black pepper, salt to your taste, and the rind of ; lemon ; let it simmer and stew gently for five hours; then strain it, and when cold take off the fat. Put the liquor into a clean stewpan, add the meat cut from the head, and for a gallon of soup add half a pint of Madeira wine, or claret, or the juice of a lemon made thick with pounded loaf-sugar; mix a spoonful of flour and a cup of butter with a little of the broth, and stir It is. Let it stir very gently till the meat is tender, which will be about an hour.
About twenty minutes before it is to be served, add & small teaspoonful of Cayenne, the yolks of eight or ten hard-boiled eggs, and a dozen forcemcat balls; some add the juice of a lemon. When the meat is tender the soup is done.
To make the meat balls, boll the brains for ten minutes, then put them in cold water; when cool, chop, and mix them with five spoonfuls of grated bread, a little grated nutmeg, popper, salt, and thyme, and two eggs; roll the balls as large as the yolk of an egg, and fry them of a light brown in butter or good dripping.
Very good soup, in imitation of turtle, is also made from calves' feet: four of these boiled in two quarts of water till very tender, the meat taken from the bones, the liquor strained; a pint of good beef gravy and two glasses of wine added; seasoned as the calves' head soup, with hard eggs, balls, etc.
To CRISP PARSLEY.—Pick some bunches of young parsley, wash them, and swing them In a cloth to dry; put them on a sheet of paper in a toaster before the (fire, and keep them frequently turned till they are quite crisp, which will be in about six or eight minutes.
To FRY PARSLEY.—When the parsley has been washed and thoroughly dried, throw it into lard or butter which is on the point to boll; take it up with a slice the instant It Is crisp, and lay it on paper on a sieve before the fire.
FRIED BREAD FOR GARNISHING.—Take slices of stale bread about a third of an inch thick, cut them into shapes with a paste-cutter, fry them in fresh butter a light brown, lay them upon a cloth to dry, and place them round the dish. They may be made to adhere by brushing the under part with a little flour mixed with white of egg.
CHEESE STIRABOUT.—One pound of oatmeal, three ounces of salt, half a pound of cheese cut up, two tablespoonfuls of mustard, two gallons of water; add your oatmeal with the hand ; stir it all the time.
HOMEMADE WINES.
To SWEETEN WINES.—To fifteen gallons of wine put half a pound of dry ground mustard-seed, and a small handful of clary flowers; put it in a linen bag, and sink it to the bottom of the cask.
GOOSEBERRY WINE.—Bruise the gooseberries with the hands in a tub; to every six pounds of fruit add a quart of cold spring water, stirring it thoroughly; let it stand twenty hours, then strain them; dissolve two pounds of sugar to every quart of water employed, lot it remain another day, remove the scum very clearly, and pour it into the utensil or cask in which it is to remain previous to being bottled. The scum removed must be kept in flannel and the drainings caught in a vessel; they must be added to the other liquor. Let it work about sixty hours, not more, and then cover down close. In four months It will be ready for bottling.
GRAPE WINE.—To one gallon of grapes put one gallon of water ; bruise the grapes, let them stand a week without stirring, then draw off, and fine. Put to a gallon of wine three pounds of sugar, put it in a vessel; but it must not be stopped till it has done hissing.
MULBERRY WINE.—Take mulberries that are quite ripe; gather them when the weather is fine, spread them on a cloth on the floor or table for twenty-four hours, and boil up a gallon of water to a gallon of juice ; skim the water well, and add a little cinnamon, bruised. Add to every gallon six ounces of white sugar-candy, finely beaten, skim and strain the water when it is taken off and settled, and put to it the juice of the mulberries, and to every gallon of the mixture put a pint of white or Rhenish wine; let them stand six days in a cask to settle, then draw off the wine, and keep it cool. This is a very rich wine.
ORANGE WINE.—A dozen of oranges to a gallon of water and three pounds of loaf-sugar ; pare the oranges thin, and take off all the white skin ; squeeze them well, and then put out all the juice oranges, and the water together, and let stand for four-and-twenty hours ; then strain it off, and put it into a barrel with sugar, half the peels, and a quart of the best brandy ; bung it down when it has done hissing ; it must stand twelve months before it is bottled. The water must be cold, not boiled.
PARSNIP WINE.—Clean and quarter four pounds of parsnips, to which put one gallon of water; boil them till tender, drain them through a sieve, but do not bruise them ; pour the liquor into a tub, and to each gallon add, three pounds of lump sugar and half an ounce of crude tartar; when cool, put in the yeast, and lot it stand four days in a warm room, then turn it. The mixture should be fermented in a temperature of sixty degrees. When fermentation has subsided, bung down the cask, and let it stand twelve mouths before bottling it. March and September are the best months for making it. It only requires to be kept a few years to make it superior to all other made wines.
RAISIN WINE.—One hundred of Smyrnas to twenty gallons of water (wine measure); boil half a pound of hops in the water for an hour, let it stand till cold, then pour it over the fruit; let it remain three weeks, stirring it every day ; press it off, and put it into the cask ; do not bung it down till the fermentation has ceased ; when it has stood about a year, draw it off clear, put it in the barrel again, and let it stand to settle before it is bottled; before it is bunged down close put a quart of brandy to a hogshead of wine; what is thick should be run through a flannel bag. The time of steeping depends on the warmth of the weather. When the fruit is swelled, ready to break, it is fit to press.
RASPBERRY WINE.—Take three pounds of raisins, wash, clean, and stone them thoroughly ; boil two gallons of spring water for half an hour ; as soon as it is taken off the fire pour it into a deep stone jar, and put in the raisins, with six quarts of raspberries and two pounds of loaf-sugar; stir it well together, and cover down closely, and set it in a cool place ; stir it twice a day; then pass it through a sieve ; put the liquor into a close vessel, adding one pound more loaf-sugar ; let it stand for a day and a night to settle, after which bottle it, adding a little more sugar.
WALNUT WINE.—To one gallon of water put two pounds of brown sugar and a pound of honey, and boll them for half an hour ; be careful to skim it clean ; put Into a tub a handful of walnut leaves to every gallon, and pour the liquor upon them ; let it stand all night, then take out the leaves, and put in half a pint of yeast. Let it work fourteen days; beat it five times a day to take off its sweetness, and stop up the cask. It should stand six months before it is used.
