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
oven; and when quite done, turn it. Pour on it a fresh layer of the mixture, and proceed with it in like manner, till the whole is properly baked. Apple postilla is also made by peeling the apples and taking out the cores after they are baked, sweetening with sugar, and beating it up with a wooden spoon till it is all of a froth. Then put it on two trays, and bake it for two hours in an oven moderately hot. After this another layer of the beaten apples is added, and pounded loaf sugar spread over. Sometimes a still finer sort is made, by beating yolks of eggs to a froth, and then mixing it with the apple juice.
APPLE PUDDING. Butter a baking dish, put in the batter, and the apples whole, without being cut or pared, and bake in a quick oven. If the apples be pared, they will mix with the batter while in the oven, and make the pudding soft. Serve it up with sugar and butter. For a superior pudding, grate a pound of pared apples, work it up with six ounces of butter, four eggs, grated lemon peel, a little sugar and brandy. Line the dish with good paste, strew over it bits of candied peel, put in the pudding, and bake it half an hour. A little lemon juice may be added, a spoonful of bread crumbs, or two or three Naples biscuits. Another way is, to pare and quarter four large apples, boil them tender, with the rind of a lemon, in so little water that it may be exhausted in the boiling. Beat the apples fine in a mortar, add the crumb of a small roll, four ounces of melted butter, the yolks of five and the whites of three eggs, the juice of half a lemon, and sugar to taste. Beat all together, and lay it in a dish with paste to turn out, after baking.
APPLE PUFFS. Pare the fruit, and either stew them in a stone jar on a hot hearth, or bake them. When cold, mix the pulp of the apple with sugar and lemon peel shred fine, taking as little as possible of the apple juice. Bake them in thin paste, in a quick oven: if small, a quarter of an hour will be sufficient. Orange or quince marmalade is a great improvement; cinnamon pounded, or orange flower-water, will make an agreeable change.
APPLE SAUCE. Pare, core, and slice some apples; put them in a stone jar, into a saucepan of water, or on a hot hearth. If the latter, put in a spoonful or two of water, to prevent burning. When done, mash them up, put in a piece of butter the size of a nutmeg, and a little brown sugar. Serve it in a sauce tureen, for goose and roast pork.
APPLE TRIFLE. Scald some apples, pass them through a sieve, and make a layer of the pulp at the bottom of a dish; mix the rind of half a lemon grated, and sweeten with sugar. Or mix half a pint of milk, half a pint of cream, and the yolk of an egg. Scald it over the fire, and stir it all the time without boiling; lay it over the apple pulp with a spoon, and put on it a whip prepared the day before.
APPLE WATER. Cut two large apples in slices, and pour a quart of boiling water on them, or on roasted apples. Strain it well, and sweeten it lightly. When cold, it is an agreeable drink in a fever.
APPLE WINE. To every gallon of apple juice, immediately as it comes from the press, add two pounds of lump sugar; boil it as long as any scum rises, then strain it through a sieve, and let it cool. Add some yeast, and stir it well; let it work in the tub for two or three weeks, or till the head begins to flatten; then skim off the head, draw off the liquor clear, and tun it. When made a year, rack it off, and fine it with isinglass. To every eight gallons add half a pint of the best rectified spirits of wine, or a pint of brandy.
APRICOTS DRIED. Pare thin and halve four pounds of apricots, put them in a dish, and strew among them three pounds of fine loaf-sugar powdered. When the sugar melts, set the fruit over a stove to do very gently; as each piece becomes tender, take it out, and put it into a china bowl. When all are done, and the boiling heat a little abated, pour the syrup over them. In a day or two remove the syrup, leaving only a little in each half. In a day or two more turn them, and so continue daily till quite dry, in the sun or in a warm place. Keep the apricots in boxes, with layers of fine paper.
APRICOTS PRESERVED. There are various ways of doing this: one is by steeping them in brandy. Wipe, weigh, and pick the fruit, and have ready a quarter of the weight of loaf sugar in fine powder. Put the fruit into an ice-pot that shuts very close, throw the sugar over it, and then cover the fruit with brandy. Between the top and cover of the pot, fit in a piece of thick writing paper. Set the pot into a saucepan of water, and heat it without boiling, till the brandy be as hot as you can bear your finger in it. Put the fruit into a jar, and pour the brandy on it. When cold, put a bladder over, and tie it down tight. – Apricots may also be preserved in jelly. Pare the fruit very thin, and stone it; weigh an equal quantity of sugar in fine powder, and strew over it. Next day boil very gently till they are clear, remove them into a bowl, and pour in the liquor. The following day, mix it with a quart of codlin liquor, made by boiling and straining, and a pound of fine sugar. Let it boil quickly till it comes to a jelly; put the fruit into it, give it one boil, skim it well, and distribute into small pots. – A beautiful preserve may also be made in the following manner. Having selected the finest ripe apricots, pare them as thin as possible, and weigh them. Lay them in halves on dishes, with the hollow part upwards. Prepare an equal weight of loaf sugar finely pounded, and strew it over them; in the mean time break the stones, and blanch the kernels. When the fruit has lain twelve hours, put it into a preserving pan, with the sugar and juice, and also the kernels. Let it simmer very gently till it becomes clear; then take out the pieces of apricot singly as they are done, put them into small pots, and pour the syrup and kernels over them. The scum must be taken off as it rises, and the pots covered with brandy paper. – Green apricots are preserved in a different way. Lay vine or apricot leaves at the bottom of the pan, then fruit and leaves alternately till full, the upper layer being thick with leaves. Then fill the pan with spring water, and cover it down, that no steam may escape. Set the pan at a distance from the fire, that in four or five hours the fruit may be soft, but not cracked. Make a thin syrup of some of the water, and drain the fruit. When both are cold, put the fruit into the pan, and the syrup to it; keep the pan at a proper distance from the fire till the apricots green, but on no account boil or crack them. Remove the fruit very carefully into a pan with the syrup for two or three days, then pour off as much of it as will be necessary, boil with more sugar to make a rich syrup, and add a little sliced ginger to it. When cold, and the thin syrup has all been drained from the fruit, pour the thick over it. The former will serve to sweeten pies.
APRICOT CHEESE. Weigh an equal quantity of pared fruit and sugar, wet the latter a very little, and let it boil quickly, or the colour will be spoiled. Blanch the kernels and add them to it: twenty or thirty minutes will boil it. Put it in small pots or cups half filled.
APRICOT JAM. When the fruit is nearly ripe, pare and cut some in halves; break the stones, blanch the kernels, and put them to the fruit. Boil the parings in a little water, and strain it: to a pound of fruit add three quarters of a pound of fine sifted sugar, and a glass of the water in which the parings were boiled. Stir it over a brisk fire till it becomes rather stiff: when cold, put apple jelly over the jam, and tie it down with brandy paper.
APRICOT PUDDING. Halve twelve large apricots, and scald them till they are soft. Meanwhile pour on the grated crumbs of a penny loaf a pint of boiling cream; when half cold, add four ounces of sugar, the yolks of four beaten eggs, and a glass of white wine. Pound the apricots in a mortar, with some or all of the kernels; then mix the fruit and other ingredients together, put a paste round a dish, and bake the pudding in half an hour.
AROMATIC VINEGAR. Mix with common vinegar a quantity of powdered chalk or whiting, sufficient to destroy the acidity; and when the white sediment is formed, pour off the insipid liquor. The powder is then to be dried, and some oil of vitriol poured upon it, as long as white acid fumes continue to ascend. This substance forms the essential ingredient, the fumes of which are particularly useful in purifying rooms and places where any contagion is suspected.
ARROW ROOT. This valuable article has often been counterfeited: the American is the best, and may generally be known by its colour and solidity. If genuine, the arrow root is very nourishing, especially for weak bowels. Put into a saucepan half a pint of water, a glass of sherry, or a spoonful of brandy, grated nutmeg, and fine sugar. Boil it up once, then mix it by degrees into a dessert-spoonful of arrow root, previously rubbed smooth with two spoonfuls of cold water. Return the whole into the saucepan, stir and boil it three minutes.
ARSENIC. The fatal effects of mineral poisons are too often experienced, and for want of timely assistance but seldom counteracted. Arsenic and other baleful ingredients, if used for the destruction of vermin, should never be kept