Good Things in England - A Practical Cookery Book for Everyday Use, Containing Traditional and Regional Recipes Suited to Modern Tastes. Florence White
not be injured.
5. When the water boils, draw back the pan, and glide the eggs gently into it, and let them stand until the whites appear almost set which will be in about a minute.
6. Then without shaking them move the pan over the fire, and just simmer them from two and a half to three minutes. Lift them out separately with a slice, quickly trim off the ragged edges and serve them upon spinach, minced veal, turkey or chicken, or upon delicately toasted bread, sliced thick and freed from crust; it is an improvement to have the bread buttered, but it is then less wholesome(!)
TIME: to poach eggs — Swans’ eggs 5 to 6 minutes; Turkeys’ eggs 4 minutes; hens’ eggs 3 to 3 1/2 minutes; Guinea-fowl’s 2 to 3 minutes. Bantams’ 2 minutes.
Scrambled Eggs
Florence B. Jack, 1914
INGREDIENTS: Eggs 4; milk, thin white sauce or stock 4 tablespoonfuls; butter 1 oz.; seasoning; buttered toast 2 slices; parsley.
METHOD
1.Prepare the toast, cut off the crust and keep the toast hot.
2.Melt the butter in an aluminium or earthenware saucepan.
3.Beat up the eggs with the liquid chosen and the seasoning.
4.Pour into the saucepan and stir over a moderate fire till the mixture gets thick and creamy;
5.Remove from fire stirring all the time – it will get a little thicker from the heat of the saucepan, and pile on the toast.
6.Garnish with parsley and serve at once; it must not be allowed to stand.
N.B.—If cooked too long the eggs will be hard and tough and watery; if not cooked long enough they will be thin and ‘runny.’ They require care and if well-made are quite as delicious as an omelet.
Variations of Scrambled Eggs
Florence B. Jack, 1914
Miss Jack gives nine ways of varying scrambled eggs:
1. Mixing in anchovy essence.
2. Adding a little grated cheese to ordinary scrambled egg3.
3. Adding a few green peas to ordinary scrambled eggs.
4. Adding some minced ham to ordinary scrambled eggs.
5. Blending the egg with diced sheeps’ kidney (cooked).
6. Blending the egg with diced mushrooms (cooked).
7. Serving them in the midst of a circle of spinach (cooked).
8. Serving them with tomatoes (cooked).
To which may be added blending them with flaked finnan-haddock or minced ham and parsley.
Raised Meat and Game Pies
MELTON MOWBRAY PORK PIE
Mr. Fred Wright’s Family Recipe, given July, 1927
It was Mrs. Brewitt who suggested that Mr. Fred Wright should be asked to give his mother’s recipe for Melton Mowbray Pork Pie which had been in her family for generations. Mr. Wright most generously gave it and thereby saved it for the world, because he has since died and all trace of his mother’s cookery book is lost. Mrs. Brewitt said ‘There are no pies nearly as good.’ When giving the recipe which follows Mr Wright emphasized two important points: the anchovy used as seasoning, and the putting of the hot strong stock made from the gristly bits into the pies directly they come from the oven. ‘Those are the secrets,’ said Mr. Wright.
This recipe has been tested in the Experiment Kitchen of the English Folk Cookery Association and found perfect. It is not difficult to carry out if the directions are carefully followed.
INGREDIENTS: For the hot water crust: Flour 1 stone; lard 4 lb., salt a good handful; water 4 pints.
N.B.— 1 pint of water to 1 lb. lard; a quarter of a stone of flour will make from 2 1/2 to 3 lb. pies.
For the meat filling: Pork 9 lb.; salt 3 oz.; white pepper 1/2 oz.; essence of anchovy 1 dessertspoonful.
N.B.—9 lb. of meat will make 6 pies. There should be quite one-third fat in proportion of two-thirds of lean meat.
TIME: to bake, about 2 to 5 hours or more in a slow oven according to size.
METHOD
1.Prepare the meat by removing all gristly bits, skin and bone and put them on in cold water to stew well to make a stiff jellied stock when cold. Season and strain before using.
2.Make the hot-water crust, by boiling the lard in water, and immediately after it has boiled use the lard and a portion of the water and knead it half an hour, then place it in a warm earthen pan covered with a warm cloth for half an hour.
3.If you cannot ‘raise’ the crust, line a cake tin that has a loose bottom, with the pastry; to do this grease the inside of the tin well and take off a piece of the paste for a cover, make the rest into around cone-shaped ball and press it out from the centre outwards until you have a round large enough to cover the bottom of the cake tin, and come well up the sides. Drop this into the tin which should first be warmed, and with your hands mould it to the tin with your fingers, bringing the crust to about half an inch above the top of the tin.
4.Take a piece oft the portion left for the top to make some leaves and a rose for decoration.
5.Press out the top piece till it is large enough to cover the top of the tin – and keep this and the decorations warm but not too warm whilst you pack the pie closely with the prepared meat.
6.Do not put any liquid in the pie, but press the meat, which must be chopped and seasoned, well down.
7.Then cover it with the lid, pinch the edges together, make a hole in the top; put the cut-out leaves of paste in place and the rose into the hole in the middle.
8.Brush all over with yolk of egg mixed with a little milk and bake as above.
9.When the pie is baked, directly it comes from the oven remove the rose and with a funnel pour in as much of the strained hot stock as it will hold, and don’t replace the rose until the pie is quite cold. Then the rose may be replaced and if necessary stuck in with a little white of egg.
How They Raise a Piecrust in Warwickshire
Mrs. Loudon, 1851
Mrs. Loudon says: ‘In my native Warwickshire half a pound of lard is put into a saucepan containing a quart of water. The saucepan is set on the fire, and stirred till the water boils. The boiling lard and water is slowly poured into as much flour as will suffice to make it into a smooth and very stiff paste, and mixed with a wooden spoon, after which it must be beaten with a rolling-pin. When the ingredients are thoroughly incorporated the paste is put into an earthen pan, covered with a linen cloth, and placed near the fire where it is left for about half an hour. The meat is now prepared by being separated from every particle of bone, skin, and gristle, and cut into pieces about the size of dice. Care is taken to keep the fat and lean separate; but both are well seasoned with pepper and salt.
‘A piece of the paste large enough to form one pie is then broken off the mass, and the rest is again covered up, as it cannot be worked if it is too cold, though it will not stand if it is too warm. If it breaks and crumbles, instead of being plastic, it is too cold; and if it is too soft when raised, it is either too warm or too rich.
‘When it is just of the right heat to bear being moulded, and yet to retain whatever shape may be given to it, the piece of paste is worked with the hands on a pasteboard, into the form of a high-peaked hat with a broad brim; and then the peak of the hat being turned downwards on the board,