DIRECTIONS ABOUT PUDDINGS.

The eggs for all sorts of puddings in which they are used, should be well beaten, and then strained. If hot milk is used, the eggs should be added after all the other ingredients. Milk for pumpkin, squash, cocoanut, tapioca, ground rice, sago, arrow-root, and sweet potato puddings, should be boiled; for bread and plum puddings also, unless the bread is soaked in milk over night. When suet is used in puddings, it should be chopped fine as possible.

In making batter puddings, but a small portion of the milk should be put to the flour at first, as it will be difficult to stir out the little lumps, if the whole quantity is mixed together at once. After the flour is stirred smooth, in a part of the milk, add the eggs not beaten, and beat the mixture well; then add the remainder of the milk, and stir all together till equally mixed. A flour pudding is much lighter, when the materials are all beaten together, than if the eggs are done separately. When berries or cherries are to be used, put them in last. A batter pudding, with berries, requires at least a third more flour than one without. For cherry pudding but a small addition of flour is needed.

A buttered earthen bowl, with a cloth tied up close over it, is a very good thing in which to boil a pudding or dumpling; but some persons think they are lighter boiled in a cloth. A large square of thick tow or hemp cloth does very well; but if a bag is preferred, it should be so cut that the bottom will be several inches narrower than the top, and the corners rounded. The seam should be stitched close with a coarse thread on one side, and then turned and stitched again on the other, in order to secure the pudding from the water. When used, let the seam be outside. A strong twine, a yard long, should be sewed at the middle to the seam, about three inches from the top of the bag. When the bag is to be used, wring it in cold water, and sprinkle the inside thick with flour,[7] and lay it in a dish; pour in the batter and tie up the bag quickly, drawing the string as tight as possible. Allow a little room for the pudding to swell. (An Indian pudding made with cold milk, swells more than any other.) Lay it immediately into the boiling pot, and after ten minutes, turn it over to prevent the flour from settling on one side. If there is fruit in the pudding, it should be turned three or four times during the first half hour. Keep it covered by adding water from the tea-kettle if necessary, and be careful that it boils steadily. If it does not, the pudding will be watery. When you take it up, plunge it for a moment in a pan of cold water; then pour off the water, untie the twine, and gently lay back the top of the bag. Have a dish ready, and turn the pudding out upon it. A batter pudding without berries cooks very nicely in a tin pudding pan, set upright in a kettle of boiling water.

To cut a boiled pudding without making it heavy, lay the knife, first one side and then the other, upon it, long enough to warm the blade.

If these directions seem needlessly minute, it should be remembered that those things which seem perfectly obvious to the experienced, are often very perplexing to the uninitiated.

Elegant Pudding Sauce.

To four large spoonfuls of fine white sugar, put two of butter, one of flour, and stir them together to a cream in an earthen dish. Cut the white of an egg to a stiff froth, and add it; then pour into the dish a gill of boiling water, stirring the mixture very fast. Put it into the sauce tureen and add essence of lemon, or rose, or grate nutmeg over the top as you prefer.

A Plainer Sauce.

To three large spoonfuls of clean brown sugar, put rather more than one spoonful of butter, and half a one of flour; stir all together in an earthen dish until white, then add a gill of boiling water, and stir it steadily till it is all melted, then set it upon the coals long enough just to boil up. Add rose-water, a few drops of lemon juice, or a spoonful of boiled cider.

Cold Sauce.

Take the same measure of butter and sugar as given in either of the above receipts, and stir them to a cream. Omit the flour; but add the white of egg.

Sour Cream Sauce.

Put together a cup of sugar and a cup and a half of thick sour cream. Stir the mixture five or six minutes, then put it into a sauce tureen and grate nutmeg over it.

This sauce is specially appropriate for Indian puddings, baked or boiled, and for the boiled suet puddings.

Apple Pudding.

To a quart of stewed sour apple, put while it is hot, a piece of butter the size of an egg, and sugar enough to make it quite sweet. Beat it several minutes in order to mix it thoroughly. Beat four eggs and stir into it, add lemon or any essence you choose. Butter a cold dish thick, with cold[8] butter, and strew the bottom and sides with cracker crumbs, or very fine bread crumbs; then pour in the mixture, sift plenty of the cracker crumbs on the top, grate a little nutmeg upon it, and sprinkle it with sifted sugar. Bake forty or fifty minutes in one dish, or half an hour in two. It is as good cold, the second day, as when first baked. It is an improvement to eat it with cream.

Another (Marlborough).

Make a nice paste and lay into your dishes. Take one quart of strained apple, one quart of sugar, eight eggs, three nutmegs, a pint of cream, a quarter of a pound of butter, a fresh lemon, pulp and juice, and the rind grated. If you have no cream, milk will do, but it should be boiled, and half a pound of butter, instead of one quarter, melted into it. The apples should be very sour. This will fill six deep dishes or soup plates. Bake three quarters of an hour.

Another (Pemberton).

To six large, sour apples, put a pint of cream, an ounce of butter, six eggs, one lemon, sugar to the taste.

To be prepared exactly in the same way as the Marlborough pudding.

Almond.

Blanch (that is, peel off the brown skin) of five bitter, and ten sweet almonds; to do this, easily, pour boiling water on them, then pound them fine in a mortar. Set a pail with a quart of rich milk into a kettle of hot water; when it boils, put in the almonds. Mix two and a half table-spoonfuls of ground rice smooth, with a large tumbler of milk, and stir it in. Boil it half an hour, stirring it often; then add the yolks of three eggs beaten with half a coffee cup of fine sugar, and in about a minute take the pail from the kettle, and stir in another half cup of sugar. Pour it into a dish and set it away to cool. Cut the whites of the eggs, and a large spoonful of fine sugar to a stiff froth, drop them on the top with a large spoon, and set the pudding into the oven till the top is brown. To be eaten cold.

Baked Batter.

Allow a pint of cold milk, four table-spoonfuls of flour, two eggs, and a little salt.

Stir the flour smooth in a part of the milk, then put in the eggs without first beating, and beat them well with the mixed flour. Then add the remainder of the milk, and the salt, and when well stirred together, pour it into a buttered dish, and bake it half an hour. When it is done, the whole top will have risen up. So long as there is a little sunken spot in the centre, it is not baked enough. Make a cold or melted sauce as you prefer. This makes an ample pudding for a family of four. A flour pudding will not be light unless it is put into the oven immediately on being made.

Boiled Batter.

Use the very same proportions; butter a tin pudding-pan having a close cover, and put in the mixture; set it immediately into a kettle of boiling water. See that the water comes up high enough around it to cook the pudding, but so that it will not boil quite up to the top. If it boils away, add more hot water.

Another.

To a quart of milk put six eggs, eight spoonfuls of flour, and a teaspoonful of salt. To be boiled two hours.

If you wish to make a nice addition to your dinner on short notice, prepare this batter, and butter little cups that hold about a gill, fill them three quarters full, and bake in the stove. They will bake in fifteen minutes. They should be turned out upon a dish, and be eaten with sauce. Such a pudding requires forty minutes to bake in one dish.

Rye Batter.

To a pint of cold milk, put three heaping spoonfuls of sifted rye meal, a little salt, and three eggs. Boil it an hour and a half in a buttered bowl with the cloth tied very tight over it. The bowl should be of a size to allow a very little for swelling.

Bird's Nest.

For a pint of cold milk allow three eggs, five spoonfuls of flour, six medium sized, fair apples, and a small teaspoonful of salt.

Pare the apples, and take out the cores; arrange them in a buttered dish that will just receive them (one in the centre and five around it). Wet the flour smooth in part of the milk, then add the eggs and beat all together a few minutes; then put in the salt, and the rest of the milk. Stir it well and pour it into the dish of apples. Bake it an hour, and make a melted sauce. For a large family make double measure, but bake it in two dishes, as the centre apples of a large dish will not cook as quickly, as those around the edge.

Bread.

Take nice pieces of light bread, break them up, and put a small pint bowl full into a quart of milk; set it in a tin pail or brown dish on the back part of the stove or range, where it will heat very gradually, and let it stand an hour or more. When the bread is soft enough to be made fine with a spoon, just boil it up; set it off, and stir in a large teaspoonful of butter, a little salt, and from two to four beaten eggs. Bake it an hour. Make a sauce for it. To be eaten without sauce, put in twice the measure of butter, beat the eggs with a cup of nice brown sugar, a teaspoonful of cinnamon, and half as much powdered clove.

Bread and Butter.

Cut five slices of light bread across the loaf, very thin; spread them thick with butter; cut the slices in two or four parts; butter a dish and lay them in with a few dried currants between each slice. Lay them so that the top will be even, and not quite as high as the dish; pour over them a quart of custard made with boiled milk, and five or six eggs, and flavored with peach and nutmeg. It will bake in less than an hour. Some persons prefer to toast the bread.

Cottage.

One teacup of sweet milk, three of flour, one coffee-cup of brown sugar, one egg, one table-spoonful of butter, half a teaspoonful of saleratus. Melt the butter. Dissolve the saleratus in a little of the milk, and stir it in after the other ingredients are mixed. Bake half an hour. To be eaten with sweet sauce.

Another (more rich).

One teacup of sugar, three table-spoonfuls of melted butter, one egg, one teacup of milk, two heaping cups of flour, a teaspoonful of saleratus or soda, and two of cream of tartar. If it is made with sour milk, the cream of tartar is to be left out.

Cocoanut.

Grate a cocoanut, and save the milk. Boil a quart of milk and pour upon it; add five eggs, with a coffee-cup of sugar beaten in them, an ounce of butter, two table-spoonfuls of rose-water, a little salt. If you have cream and plenty of eggs, make it of cream instead of milk, and add three more eggs, and any essence or spice you choose, and bake in one dish nearly an hour; or make a nice paste, and bake it in three deep plates like squash pies, forty minutes.

Cracker.

To a pint of boiled milk, put four crackers, pounded and sifted, three eggs, and a small teaspoonful of salt. Add whortleberries if convenient, and in that case, half of another cracker. Make a sweet sauce. Bake half an hour, or forty minutes. The same mixture made with cold milk is a nice pudding boiled an hour and a half.

Another.

Take the same proportions as in the previous receipt, of crackers, milk, and eggs; and add a cup of sugar, a table-spoonful of butter, cinnamon, a very little clove, and a cup of chopped raisins, and eat it with a sauce, or without. It is good cold.

Farina.

Two table-spoonfuls of farina, a pint of milk, two eggs, a small cup of sugar, and a half teaspoonful of salt; flavor with lemon or nutmeg. To mix it, set the milk in a pail into a kettle of hot water. When the top of the milk foams up, stir in the farina gradually, and add the salt. Let it remain in the kettle ten or fifteen minutes, and stir it repeatedly. Take the pail from the kettle, beat the eggs and sugar together, and stir them in; add the essence, and pour the mixture into a buttered dish. Bake half an hour or forty minutes. No sauce is necessary.

Potato.

Weigh two pounds of good potatoes, after they are pared; boil them, and when done, dry them; then pound them well in the kettle with a pestle. While they are still hot, add half a pound of sugar and half a pound of butter, which have been previously stirred together to a cream; and last, and a little at a time, seven eggs, a glass of wine, and spice to your taste. Bake with or without a paste. Omit the wine if you prefer, both in this, and the next receipt, and use lemon-juice.

Another.

To half a pound of boiled potato, rolled or pounded, put two ounces of butter, two eggs, half a gill of cream, one table-spoonful of white wine, sugar to your taste, and a very little salt. Beat it to a froth, and bake with or without a paste. If it is wanted more rich, add almonds and another egg.

Sweet Potato.

Boil the potatoes and rub them through a sieve; add eggs, milk, sugar, and spice precisely as for squash pies, only making the mixture a very little thicker with the potato. Bake in a deep dish with a paste, or without if preferred.

Sweet Potato Pone.

Pare and grate several sweet potatoes, and to three pounds of grated potato add two of sugar, twelve eggs, a little more than three pints of milk, the juice and grated rind of a lemon, a quarter of a pound of butter (melted), a table-spoonful of rose-water, a nutmeg, a little cinnamon and mace, a teaspoonful of salt. Mix thoroughly together and bake in deep pans two hours. It is usually eaten cold, as cake.

Plum.

A pound of bread or six pounded crackers, one quart of milk, six eggs, a large spoonful of flour, a teacup of sugar, one nutmeg, a teaspoonful of cinnamon, half a one of powdered clove, a piece of butter the size of an egg, the same quantity of chopped suet, and a pound of raisins. Boil the milk. It is very well to soak the bread in the milk over night; then the entire crust becomes soft, and mixes well with the other ingredients.

These puddings are served with a rich sauce, if eaten warm, but are excellent cold, cut up like cake. People that are subject to a great deal of uninvited company, find it convenient in cold weather to bake half a dozen at once. They will keep several weeks, and when one is to be used, it may be loosened from the dish by a knife passed around it, and a little hot water be poured in round the edge. It should then be covered close, and set for half an hour into the stove or oven.

Another.

Soak a pound of soft bread in a quart of boiled milk till it can easily be strained through a coarse hair sieve; then add seven eggs, two gills of cream, a quarter of a pound of butter (melted), a gill of rose-water, or some extract of rose, a little cinnamon or nutmeg, and a pound of raisins. For a small family, bake it in two dishes, an hour; and reserve one for another day. To warm it, see the directions in the last receipt.

Rice.

Boil a teacupful of rice in two teacups of water. When it has swelled so as to absorb the water, add a quart of milk and five or six peach leaves, and boil it until the rice is perfectly soft. Take it from the fire, remove the peach leaves, add a small piece of butter, a little salt, and three or four eggs, beaten with a teacup of sugar. Put it into a buttered dish, grate nutmeg over the top, and bake three quarters of an hour. Most people prefer this pudding cold.

Another (White Top).

Prepare the same measures of rice and milk, and in the same way as in the last receipt. Boil the rice very slowly after the milk is added, so that it may become very soft, and not get burned. Break six eggs, the yolks and whites separate; beat the yolks with a large cup of white sugar; and stir them, with salt, and a small bit of butter into the rice and milk. Then return the kettle to the fire two or three minutes, and see that it does not burn. Then put the mixture into a buttered dish, and cut the six whites and two large spoonfuls of fine sugar to a stiff froth. Flavor the froth with lemon, lay it over the pudding in folds like a turban, and set it into the oven long enough to brown the top. Ten minutes will be sufficient.

Ground Rice.

To a teacup of ground rice, allow a quart and a gill of milk, six eggs, a heaping teacup of sugar, a piece of butter the size of a small nut, one teaspoonful of salt, and any spice you prefer. Rose-water and nutmeg are generally considered best. Bake it from three quarters to one hour. The milk should be boiled, and the ground rice wet with a part of it reserved for the purpose. When the milk boils up, stir in the rice; mix it thoroughly with the milk, then let it boil up one or two minutes. When it has become a little thick, take it off, put in the butter and salt, add the eggs and sugar, and last of all, the spice. Bake it in one dish, in a moderately hot oven, an hour. If your family is small, bake it in two dishes, forty minutes. It is quite as good the second day as the first.

Sago.

A pint of milk, a table-spoonful and a half of pearl sago, two eggs, two large spoonfuls of sugar, and half a teaspoon of salt. Wash the sago in warm, but not hot water, twice; then put it with the milk into a pail and set it into a kettle of hot water. Stir it very often, as it swells fast, and will else lie in a compact mass at the bottom. When it has boiled two or three minutes, take the pail from the kettle, add the salt, and the eggs beaten with the sugar. Flavor it with vanilla or a few drops of essence of lemon, put it into a dish, and grate nutmeg over it. Set it immediately into the oven, and bake it about three quarters of an hour. If you make a quart of milk, three eggs answer very well. It should then bake an hour. With this number of eggs, the sago settles a little. To have it equally diffused take five eggs.

Squash, or Pumpkin.

A pint of milk, a large coffee-cup of strained pumpkin or squash, two eggs, three large spoonfuls of sugar, a teaspoonful of butter, a little salt, a small teaspoonful of cinnamon, half as much ginger, and some nutmeg.

To prepare it—first, stir the cinnamon and ginger into the squash, as, if they are added after the milk, they will float dry on the top; add salt, then the eggs beaten with the sugar; boil the milk and melt the butter in it, and add it slowly to the other ingredients, stirring fast meantime. Butter a cold dish with cold butter, and sprinkle the bottom and sides with sifted cracker, pour in the mixture, grate nutmeg over the top and then sprinkle it with pounded cracker, sift white sugar over, and bake it forty minutes.

To make a more economical pudding, use the same measure of milk, squash, sugar, ginger, and cinnamon, with but one egg. Stir a pounded and sifted cracker into the squash, before the boiled milk is added; simply butter a dish in the usual way; omit the nutmeg and also the sugar and cracker on the top.

The receipt for squash pies (see page 71) is a very nice rule for a pudding; omit the paste, and substitute the cracker crumbs in the dish. Such puddings, when made with a quart of milk, should be baked in two dishes, because if baked in one, the edges become too dry, before the centre is cooked.

Tapioca.

To a quart of milk, put two thirds of a cup of tapioca, five or six eggs, a dessert spoonful of butter, a cup of sugar, a teaspoonful of salt, and flavor with lemon, nutmeg, or extract of rose. Do not wash the tapioca, as the fine powder is the nicest part; but pick it over carefully, and soak it over night in half of the milk. If you have not done this, and need the pudding for dinner, it will soak in cold water (twice as much water as tapioca) in two or three hours. Boil it in the milk, set into a kettle of hot water; stir it often, beat the eggs and sugar thoroughly, together; stir them and all the other ingredients into the milk while it is yet hot. If the pudding is put immediately in the oven, it will bake in three quarters of an hour, or a little less. Three eggs to a quart of milk will make a very good tapioca pudding.

PUDDINGS WITHOUT EGGS.

Berry.

To a quart of washed whortleberries, put a pint of flour in which you have put a small teaspoonful of salt. Add a very little water. That which is upon the berries will be nearly enough. Boil it two hours in a cloth tied close, allowing no room to swell. To be eaten with melted sauce.

Another.

A pint of berries, a pint of flour, a pint of sour milk, a teaspoonful of salt, and one of saleratus. Boil it two hours. All boiled fruit puddings should be turned often in the pot, to prevent the fruit from settling on one side. Make a sweet sauce.

Baked Indian.

Boil a pint of milk, and set it off from the fire. Then stir in a large teacup of Indian meal, a cup of finely chopped suet, half a cup of white flour, the same of molasses, and a teaspoonful each of salt, ginger, and cinnamon. Grease thick a deep fire-proof patty pan, or a brown earthen one with a small top, such as are made for baking beans, and pour in the mixture; then stir in half a pint of cold milk. Bake it in a moderate heat two hours. If you object to using suet, substitute two eggs well beaten. An excellent sauce for this, and all kinds of Indian pudding, is made by mixing sour cream and sugar, seasoned with nutmeg.

The modern ovens do not bake this kind of pudding as well as a brick oven.

Another (with Sweet Apples).

Pare twelve sweet apples and slice them, or take out the cores with a tap-borer. Stir up a pudding of a quart of milk, and almost a quart of Indian meal; the measure may be filled quite full by using a spoonful or two of wheat flour. Add some salt, a teacup of molasses, and a little chopped suet. The milk should be boiled, and after it is taken from the fire, the meal and other ingredients stirred in. Then pour the whole over the apples. Bake three hours.

Boiled Plum.

Put to a quart of boiled milk twelve pounded crackers, a quarter of a pound of suet, a pound of currants, half a pound of raisins, a little salt, and a teacup of molasses. Steam in a pudding-pan, or boil it three hours and a half in a cloth or buttered bowl. To be eaten with sauce.

Railroad.

One cup of molasses, one of sweet milk, one of suet or of salt pork chopped fine; four cups of flour, one teaspoonful of saleratus, and if suet is used, one of salt, one cup of chopped raisins, one of currants. Warm the molasses and stir the saleratus into it; mix the suet or pork with the flour, then stir all together, and steam it four hours, according to the directions for Steamed Brown Bread (see page 31). Make a melted sauce, or the sour cream sauce.

Rice.

Wash a small coffee-cup of rice and put it into three pints of milk over night. In the morning add a piece of butter half as large as an egg, a teacup of sugar, a little salt, cinnamon, or nutmeg. Bake very slowly two hours and a half in a stove or brick oven. After it has become hot enough to melt the butter, but not to brown the top, stir it (without moving the dish if you can) from the bottom. If raisins are to be used, put them in now. They add much to the richness of the pudding. It is a very good pudding for so plain a kind, and is very little trouble. For a Sunday dinner, where a cooking stove is used, it is very convenient, as it employs but a few minutes to prepare it in the morning.

Sago.

Wash six table-spoonfuls of pearl sago and put it to soak in a large pint of warm water. Pare six good-sized, mellow, sour apples, and remove the cores with a tap-borer. Wash them, butter a deep pudding dish, and lay them in, with the open end up. Measure a teacup of sugar, fill the holes with it, and then grate half a nutmeg over the apples. Dissolve a little salt and the rest of the sugar, in the water with the sago; pour two thirds of the mixture over the apples, and set the dish in the oven or stove. After one hour take it out, pour the remainder of the sago and water into the dish, and press the apples down gently without breaking them. See that none of the sago lies above the water. Return the dish to the oven and bake it another hour. It is to be eaten with sugar and milk, or cream, and is a very delicate and healthful pudding.

Salem.

Three coffee-cups of flour, one of milk, one of chopped raisins, one of suet or salt pork chopped very fine, two thirds of a cup of molasses, a small teaspoonful of powdered cloves, half a nutmeg, a teaspoonful of saleratus, and if suet is used instead of pork, a little salt. Warm the molasses and dissolve the saleratus in it, mix the suet, flour, and raisins, then put all the ingredients together. Boil or steam it four hours. Make a melted sauce.

Suet.

A pint of suet chopped very fine, a pint of chopped apples, two gills of milk, a gill of molasses, a large teaspoonful of salt, and flour enough to make it rather stiff. Boil it four hours. This, and the last before it, should be boiled in a close tin pail or pudding pan, in a kettle of water.

Such a pudding as this is too hearty to be eaten after meat, and is substantial enough to constitute a dinner.