The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary; Including a System of Modern Cookery, in all Its Various Branches, Adapted to the Use of Private Families. Eaton Mary
full. – To make another sort of cream cheese, put as much salt to three pints of raw cream as will season it. Stir it well, lay a cheese cloth several times folded at the bottom of a sieve, and pour the curd upon it. When it hardens, cover it with nettles on a pewter plate. – What is called Rush Cream Cheese is made as follows. To a quart of fresh cream put a pint of new milk, warm enough to give the cream a proper degree of warmth; then add a little sugar and rennet. Set it near the fire till the curd comes; fill a vat made in the form of a brick, of wheat straw or rushes sewed together. Have ready a square of straw or rushes sewed flat, to rest the vat on, and another to cover it; the vat being open at top and bottom. Next day take it out, change it often in order to ripen, and lay a half pound weight upon it. – Another way. Take a pint of very thick sour cream from the top of the pan for gathering butter, lay a napkin on two plates, and pour half into each. Let them stand twelve hours, then put them on a fresh wet napkin in one plate, and cover with the same. Repeat this every twelve hours, till the cheese begins to look dry. Then ripen it with nut leaves, and it will be ready in ten days. Fresh nettles, or two pewter plates, will ripen cream cheese very well.
CREAM PUDDING. Slice the crumb of a penny loaf into a quart of cream, scald it over the fire, and break it with a spoon. Add to it six eggs, with three of the whites only, half a pound of fine raisins, a quarter of a pound of sugar, a little rose water and nutmeg. Beat it all up together, stir in a little marrow if approved, and bake it in a dish with paste.
CREAMS. To make an excellent cream, boil half a pint of cream and half a pint of milk with two bay leaves, a bit of lemon peel, a few almonds beaten to paste, with a drop of water, a little sugar, orange flower water, and a tea-spoonful of flour rubbed down with a little cold milk. When the cream is cold, add a little lemon juice, and serve it up in cups or lemonade glasses. – For a superior article, whip up three quarters of a pint of very rich cream to a strong froth, with some finely-scraped lemon peel, a squeeze of the juice, half a glass of sweet wine, and sugar to make it pleasant, but not too sweet. Lay it on a sieve or in a form, next day put it on a dish, and ornament it with very light puff paste biscuits, made in tin shapes the length of a finger, and about two thick. Fine sugar may be sifted over, or it may be glazed with a little isinglass. Macaroons may be used to line the edges of the dish.
CRESS VINEGAR. Dry and pound half an ounce of the seed of garden cresses, pour upon it a quart of the best vinegar, and let it steep ten days, shaking it up every day. Being strongly flavoured with the cresses, it is suitable for salads and cold meat. Celery vinegar is made in the same manner.
CRICKETS. The fume of charcoal will drive them away: or a little white arsenic mixed with a roasted apple, and put into the holes and cracks where the crickets are, will effectually destroy them. Scotch snuff dusted upon the holes where they come out, will also have the same effect.
CRIMP COD. Boil a handful of salt in a gallon of pump water, and skim it clean. Cut a fresh cod into slices an inch thick, and boil it briskly in the brine a few minutes; take the slices out very carefully, and lay them on a fish plate to drain. Dry and flour them, and lay them at a distance upon a clear fire to broil. Serve with lobster or shrimp sauce.
CRIMP SALMON. When the salmon is scaled and cleaned, take off the head and tail, and cut the body through into large slices. Throw them into a pan of pump water, sprinkle on a handful of bay salt, stir it about, and then take out the fish. Set on a deep stewpan, boil the head and tail whole, put in some salt, but no vinegar. When they have boiled ten minutes, skim the water clean, and put in the slices. When boiled enough, lay the head and tail in the dish, and the slices round; or either part may be dressed separately.
CRISP PARSLEY. Pick and wash some young parsley, shake it in a dry cloth to drain the water from it, spread it on a sheet of white paper, in a Dutch oven before the fire, and turn it frequently until it is quite crisp. This is a much better way of preparing it than by frying, which is seldom well done; and it will serve as a neat garnish for fish or lamb chops.
CROSS BUNS. Warm before the fire two pounds and a half of fine flour; add half a pound of sifted loaf sugar, some coriander seeds, cinnamon and mace finely pounded. Melt half a pound of butter in half a pint of milk; after it has cooled, stir in three table-spoonfuls of thick yeast, and a little salt. Work the whole into a paste, make it into buns, and cut a cross on the top. Put them on a tin to rise before the fire, brush them over with warm milk, and bake in a moderate oven.
CROWS. These birds are extremely useful to the farmer, in devouring multitudes of locusts, caterpillars, and other insects, which are highly injurious to the crops; but at certain seasons they have become so numerous, and committed such depredations on the corn fields, that an act of parliament has been passed for their destruction. The most successful method is to prepare a kind of table between the branches of a large tree, with some carrion and other meat, till the crows are accustomed to resort to the place for food. Afterwards the meat may be poisoned; and the birds still feeding on it, will be destroyed. The drug called nux vomica is best adapted to the purpose.
CRUMPETS. Warm before the fire two pounds of fine flour, with a little salt, and mix it with warm milk and water till it becomes stiff. Work up three eggs with three spoonfuls of thick yeast, and a cupful of warm milk and water; put it to the batter, and beat them well together in a large bowl, with as much milk and water as will make the batter thick. Set it before the fire to rise, and cover it close. Set on the fryingpan, rub it over with a bit of butter tied up in muslin, and pour in as much batter at a time as is sufficient for one crumpet. Let it bake slowly till it comes to a pale yellow; and when cold, the crumpets may be toasted and buttered.
CUCUMBERS. The best way of cultivating this delicious vegetable is as follows. When the plants have been raised on a moderate hot bed, without forcing them too much, they should be set in the open ground against a south wall in the latter end of May, and trained upon the wall like a fruit tree. When they have run up about five feet, they will send forth blossoms, and the fruit will soon appear. Cucumbers of the slender prickly sort are to be preferred, and they should not be watered too much while growing, as it will injure the fruit. The flesh of cucumbers raised in this way, will be thicker and firmer, and the flavour more delicious, than those planted in the usual manner, where the runners are suffered to trail upon the ground. Melons may also be treated in the same manner, and the quality of both will be greatly improved. – When cucumbers are to be prepared for the table, pare and score them in several rows, that they may appear as if slightly chopped. Add some young onions, pepper and salt, a glass of white wine, the juice of a lemon, and some vinegar. Or cut them in thin slices, with pepper, salt, vinegar, and sliced onions. Or send them to table whole, with a sliced onion in a saucer.
CUCUMBER KETCHUP. Pare some large old cucumbers, cut them in slices, and mash them; add some salt, and let them stand till the next day. Drain off the liquor, boil it with lemon peel, mace, cloves, horse-radish, shalots, white pepper, and ginger. Strain it; and when cold put it into bottles, with the mace, cloves and peppercorns, but not the rest. A little of this ketchup will give an agreeable taste to almost any kind of gravy sauce.
CUCUMBER VINEGAR. Pare and slice fifteen large cucumbers, and put them into a stone jar, with three pints of vinegar, four large onions sliced, two or three shalots, a little garlic, two large spoonfuls of salt, three tea-spoonfuls of pepper, and half a tea-spoonful of cayenne. Keep the vinegar in small bottles, to add to sallad, or to eat with meat.
CULLIS. To make cullis for ragouts, cut in pieces two pounds of lean veal, and two ounces of ham. Add two cloves, a little nutmeg and mace, some parsley roots, two carrots sliced, some shalots, and two bay leaves. Put them into an earthen jar on a hot hearth, or in a kettle of boiling water. Cover them close, let them simmer for half an hour, observing that they do not burn; then put in beef broth, stew it, and strain it off.
CUMBERLAND PUDDING. To make what is called the Duke of Cumberland's pudding, mix six ounces of grated bread, the same quantity of currants well cleaned and picked, the same of beef suet finely shred, the same of chopped apples, and also of lump sugar. Add six eggs, half a grated nutmeg, a dust of salt, and the rind of a lemon minced as fine as possible; also a large spoonful each of citron, orange, and lemon cut thin. Mix them thoroughly together, put the whole into a basin, cover it close with a floured cloth, and boil it three hours. Serve it with pudding sauce, add the juice of half a lemon, boiled together.
CURD PUDDING.