Miss Leslie's Lady's New Receipt-Book, 3rd ed. Eliza Leslie
dough. Lay an old plate at the bottom of a large pot of boiling water; put in the pudding, and keep it boiling steadily for an hour or more, turning it several times. When done, dip it into cold water, untie the cloth, and turn out the pudding. Send it to table hot.
A beef-steak pudding may be made as above.
You may make the crust of fresh butter, instead of suet; allowing a pound of butter to two pounds, or two quarts of flour.
VENISON CHESNUT PUDDING.—Take some steaks of fresh-killed venison; season them slightly with pepper and salt. Have ready a sufficient quantity of large chesnuts, boiled and peeled. Make a crust of flour and suet, in the proportion of three quarters of a pound of finely minced suet to two pounds of flour. Roll it out thick, in two pieces, and place on one piece the venison and chesnuts, in alternate layers. Pour on a little water. Cover it with the other piece of paste, uniting it closely round the edges. Put it into a strong pudding-cloth; tie it tightly, and plaster the tying-place with a lump of flour and water. Put the pudding into a pot of boiling water, and boil it four hours.
For the chesnuts, you may substitute cold, boiled sweet potatoes, cut into round, thick slices.
This is an excellent pudding in a venison country; but the meat must be very fresh and juicy. The paste may be made with butter.
FRENCH STEW OF RABBITS.—Having cut up the rabbits, lay the pieces in cold water, to soak out the blood. Then wash them through another water. Season them with a little pepper, some powdered mace and nutmeg, and the yellow rind of a lemon grated. Put them into a jar, or a wide-mouthed pitcher, adding some chopped celery, sweet-marjoram, and tarragon leaves. Intersperse them with a few small thin slices of cold ham or smoked tongue, and add a tea-cup full of water and two glasses of white wine. Cover the jar very closely, so that none of the flavour may escape with the steam; set it over the fire in a large kettle of cold water, and let it stew slowly two hours. When nearly done, add some pieces of butter rolled in flour.
Hares may be stewed in the same manner; also, fresh venison.
For the wine, you may substitute two wine-glasses of rich cream.
TONGUE TOAST.—Take a cold smoked tongue that has been well boiled; and grate it with a coarse grater, or mince it fine. Mix it with cream, and beaten yolk of egg; and give it a simmer over the fire. Having first cut off all the crust, toast very nicely some slices of bread; and then butter them rather slightly. Lay them in a flat dish that has been heated before the fire; and cover each slice of toast thickly with the tongue-mixture, spread on hot; and send them to table covered. This is a nice breakfast or supper dish.
For tongue, you may substitute cold ham finely minced.
BISCUIT SANDWICHES.—Split some light soft milk biscuits (or small French rolls) and butter them. Cover the lower half thickly with grated ham, or smoked tongue; pressing it down upon the butter. Then put on the upper half or lid; pressing that on, to make it stick. Pile the biscuits handsomely in a pyramid upon a flat dish, and place among them, at regular distances, green sprigs of pepper-grass, corn-salad, water-cresses, or curled parsley, allowing four or six to each biscuit. Put in the sprigs between the upper and lower halves of the biscuits, so that they may stick out at the edges.
To make more space for the grated ham, you may scoop out a little of the inside of the upper-half of each milk biscuit or roll. They should be fresh, of that day’s baking.
This is a nice supper-dish.
POTTED HAM.—Take some cold ham, slice it, and mince it small, fat and lean together. Then pound it in a mortar; seasoning it as you proceed with cayenne pepper, powdered mace, and powdered nutmeg. Then fill with it a large deep pan, and set it in an oven for half an hour. Afterwards pack it down hard in a stone jar, and fill up the jar with lard. Cover it closely, and paste down a thick paper over the jar. If sufficiently seasoned, it will keep well in winter; and is convenient for sandwiches, or on the tea-table. A jar of this will be found useful to travellers in remote places.
A FRENCH HAM PIE.—Having soaked and boiled a small ham, and taken out the bone, trim the ham nicely so as to make it a good shape; and of the bone and trimmings make a rich gravy, by stewing them in a sauce-pan with a little water; carefully skimming off the fat. Make a sufficient quantity of force-meat, out of cold roast chicken or veal, minced suet, grated bread-crumbs, butter, pepper, chopped sweet-marjoram or tarragon; and grated lemon-peel, adding the lemon-juice, and some beaten egg. Mix the ingredients thoroughly. You may add some chopped oysters.
Having made a standing crust, allowing to two pounds of flour half a pound of butter, and a pound of minced suet, wetted to a paste with boiling water, put in the ham, (moistening it with the gravy,) and fill in all the vacancies with the force-meat, having a layer of force-meat at the bottom and top. Then put on the lid, pinching the edges together so as to close them well. Brush the paste all over with beaten yolk of egg; then put on the ornamental flowers and leaves that have been cut out of the dough. Bake it three or four hours. It may be eaten warm, but is generally preferred cold. It keeps well, if carefully secluded from the air.
TONGUE PIE is made as above; only substituting a smoked tongue for the ham. The tongue must be nicely trimmed and peeled, and the root minced fine, and mixed with the veal or chicken force-meat.
Either of these pies may be made and baked in deep dishes, and with paste made in the usual way of butter and flour, wetted with a little cold water.
HAM TOAST.—Grate a sufficiency of the lean of cold ham. Mix some beaten yolk of egg with a little cream, and thicken it with the grated ham. Then put the mixture into a sauce-pan over the fire, and let it simmer awhile. Have ready some slices of bread nicely toasted (all the crust being pared off) and well buttered. Spread it over thickly with the ham mixture, and send it to table warm.
POULTRY, GAME, ETC.
CHICKENS STEWED WHOLE.—Having trussed a pair of fine fat young fowls or chickens, (with the liver under one wing, and the gizzard under the other,) fill the inside with large oysters, secured from falling out, by fastening tape round the bodies of the fowls. Put them into a tin butter-kettle with a close cover. Set the kettle into a larger pot or sauce-pan of boiling water, (which must not reach quite to the top of the kettle,) and place it over the fire. Keep it boiling till the fowls are well done, which they should be in about an hour after they begin to simmer. Occasionally take off the lid to remove the scum; and be sure to put it on again closely. As the water in the outside pot boils away, replenish it with more hot water from a tea-kettle that is kept boiling hard. When the fowls are stewed quite tender, remove them from the fire; take from them all the gravy that is about them, and put it into a small sauce-pan, covering closely the kettle in which they were stewed, and leaving the fowls in it to keep warm. Then add to the gravy two table-spoonfuls of butter rolled in flour; two table-spoonfuls of chopped oysters; the yolks of three hard-boiled eggs minced fine; half a grated nutmeg; four blades of mace; and a small tea-cup of cream. Boil this gravy about five minutes. Put the fowls on a dish, and send them to table, accompanied by the gravy in a sauce-boat. This is an excellent way of cooking chickens.
FOWL AND OYSTERS.—Take a fine fat young fowl, and having trussed it for boiling, fill the body and crop with oysters, seasoned with a few blades of mace; tying it round with twine to keep them in. Put the fowl into a tall strait-sided jar, and cover it closely. Then place the jar in a kettle of water; set it over the fire, and let it boil at least an hour and a half after the water has come to a hard boil. When it is done, take out the fowl, and keep it hot while you prepare the gravy, of which you will find a quantity in the jar. Transfer this gravy to a sauce-pan; enrich it with the beaten yolks of two eggs, mixed with three table-spoonfuls of cream; and add a large table-spoonful of fresh butter rolled in flour. If you cannot get cream, you must have a double portion of butter. Set this sauce over the fire; stirring it well; and when it comes to a boil, add twenty oysters chopped small. In five minutes take it off; put it into a sauce-boat, and serve it up with