The Lady's Own Cookery Book, and New Dinner-Table Directory;

To one pound of scarlet strawberries, which are by far the best for the purpose, put a pound of powdered sugar. Take another half pound of strawberries, and squeeze all their juice through a cloth, taking care that none of the seeds come through to the jam. Then boil the strawberries, juice, and sugar, over a quick fire; skim it very clean; set it by in a clean China bowl, covering it close with writing paper; when the currants are ripe, add to the strawberries full half a pint of red currant juice, and half a pound more of pounded sugar: boil it all together for about ten or twelve minutes over a quick fire, and skim it very well.

Another way

Gather the strawberries very ripe; bruise them fine; put to them a little juice of strawberries; beat and sift their weight in sugar, and strew it over them. Put the pulp into a preserving-pan; set it on a clear fire, and boil it three quarters of an hour, stirring it all the time. Put it into pots, and keep it in a dry place, with brandy paper over it.

Sugar, to clarify

Break into pieces two pounds of double-refined sugar; put it into a stewpan, with a pint of cold spring water; when dissolved, set it over a moderate fire; beat about half the white of an egg; put it to the sugar, before it gets warm, and stir it well together. When it boils, take off the scum; keep it boiling till no scum rises and it is perfectly clear. Run it through a clean napkin; put it in a bottle well corked, and it will keep for months.

Syllabub

Take a quart of cream with a slice or two of lemon-peel, to be laid to soak in the cream. Take half a pint of sack and six spoonfuls of white wine, dividing it equally into your syllabub. Set your cream over the fire, and make it something more than lukewarm; sweeten both sack and cream, and put the cream into a spouted pot, pouring it rather high from the pot into the vessel in which you intend to put it. Let it be made about eight or nine hours before you want it for use.

Another way

Mix a quart of cream, not too thick, with a pint of white wine, and the juice of two lemons; sweeten it to your taste; put it in a broad earthen pan; then whisk it up. As the froth rises, take it off with a spoon, and put it in your glasses, but do not make it long before you want them.

Everlasting Syllabub – very excellent

Take a quart and half a pint of cream, one pint of Rhenish wine, half a pint of sack, the juice of three lemons, about a pound of double-refined sugar, beaten fine and sifted before you put it into the cream. Grate off the rinds of the three lemons used, put it with the juice into the wine, and that to the cream. Then beat all together with a whisk just half an hour; take it up with a spoon, and fill your glasses. It will keep good nine or ten days, and is best three or four days old.

Solid Syllabub

Half a pint of white wine, a wine-glass of brandy, the peel of a lemon grated and the juice, half a pound of powdered loaf-sugar, and a pint of cream. Stir these ingredients well together; then dissolve one ounce of isinglass in half a pint of water; strain it; and when cool add it to the syllabub, stirring it well all the time; then put it in a mould. It is better made the day before you want it.

Whipt Syllabub

Boil a quart of cream with a bit of cinnamon; let it cool; take out the cinnamon, and sweeten to your taste. Put in half a pint of white wine, or sack, and a piece of lemon-peel. Whip it with a whisk to a froth; take it off with a spoon as it rises; lay it on the bottom of a sieve; put wine sweetened in the bottom of your glasses, and lay on the syllabub as high as you can.

Taffy

Two pounds of moist sugar, an ounce of candied orange-peel, the same of citron, the juice of three lemons, the rind of two grated, and two ounces and a half of butter. Keep stirring these on the fire until they attain the desired consistency. Pour it on paper oiled to prevent its sticking.

Trifle. No. 1

Take as many macaroons as the bottom of your dish will hold; peel off the wafers, and dip the cakes in Madeira or mountain wine. Make a very thick custard, with pounded apricot or peach kernels boiled in it; but if you have none, you may put some bitter almonds; pour the custard hot upon the maccaroons. When the custard is cold, or just before the trifle is sent to table, lay on it as much whipped syllabub as the dish can hold. The syllabub must be done with very good cream and wine, and put on a sieve to drain before you lay it on the custard. If you like it, put here and there on the whipped cream bunches of preserved barberries, or pieces of raspberry jam.

Trifle. No. 2

Take a quart of sweet cream; boil it with a blade of mace and a little lemon-peel; sweeten it with sugar; keep stirring it till it is almost cold to prevent it from creaming at top; then put it into the dish you intend to serve it in, with a spoonful or less of runnet. Let it stand till it becomes like cheese. You may perfume it, or add orange-flower water.

Trifle. No. 3

Cover the bottom of your dish with maccaroons and ratafia cakes; just wet them all through with mountain wine or raisin wine; then make a boiled custard, not too thick, and when cold pour it over them. Lay a whipped syllabub over that. You may garnish with currant jelly.

Trotter Jelly

Boil four sheep’s trotters in a quart of water till reduced to a pint, and strain it through a fine sieve.

Veal and Ham Patés

Chop six ounces of ready dressed lean veal and three ounces of ham very small; put it into a stewpan, with an ounce of butter rolled in flour, half a gill of cream, the same quantity of veal stock, a little lemon-peel, cayenne pepper and salt, to which add, if you like, a spoonful of essence of ham and some lemon-juice.

Venison Pasty

Bone a neck and breast of venison, and season them well with salt and pepper; put them into a pan, with part of a neck of mutton sliced and laid over them, and a glass of red wine. Cover the whole with a coarse paste, and bake it an hour or two; but finish baking in a puff paste, adding a little more seasoning and the gravy from the meat. Let the crust be half an inch thick at the bottom, and the top crust thicker. If the pasty is to be eaten hot, pour a rich gravy into it when it comes from the oven; but, if cold, there is no occasion for that. The breast and shoulder make a very good pasty. It may be done in raised crust. A middle-sized pasty will take three hours’ baking.

Vol-au-Vent

Take a sufficient quantity of puff-paste, cut it to the shape of the dish, and make it as for an apple pie, only without a top. When baked, put it on a sheet of writing paper, near the fire, to drain the butter, till dinner time. Then take two fowls, which have been previously boiled; cut them up as for a fricassee, but leave out the back. Prepare a sauce, the white sauce as directed for boiled fowls. Wash a table-spoonful of mushrooms in three or four cold waters; cut them in half, and add them also; then thoroughly heat up the sauce, and have the chicken also ready heated in a little boiling water, in which put a little soup jelly. Strain the liquor from the chicken; pour a little of the sauce in the bottom of the paste, then lay the wings, &c. in the paste; pour the rest of the sauce over them, and serve it up hot. The paste should be well filled to the top, and if there is not sauce enough more must be added.

Wafers

Take a pint of cream, melt in it half a pound of butter, and set it to cool. When cold, stir into it one pound of well dried and sifted flour by degrees, that it may be quite smooth and not lumpy, also six eggs well beaten, and one spoonful of ale yest. Beat all these well together; set it before the fire, cover it, and let it stand to rise one hour, before you bake. Some order it to be stirred a little while to keep it from being hard at top. Sprinkle over a little powdered cinnamon and sugar, when done.

Sugar Wafers

Take some double-refined sugar, sifted; wet it with the juice of lemon pretty thin, and then scald it over the fire till it candies on the top. Then put it on paper, and rub it about thin; when almost cold, pin up the paper across, and put the wafers in a stove to dry. Wet the outside of the paper to take them off. You may make them red with clear gilliflowers boiled in water, yellow with saffron in water, and green with the juice of spinach. Put sugar in, and scald it as though white, and, with a pin, mark your white ones before you pin them up.

Walnuts, to preserve

Take fine large walnuts at the time proper for pickling; prick, with a large bodkin, seven or eight holes in each to let out the water; keep them in water till they change colour or no longer look green; then put them over a fire in cold water to boil, till they feel just soft, but not too soft. Spread them on a coarse cloth to cool, and take away the water; stick in each walnut three or four cloves, three or four splinters of cinnamon, and the same of candied orange; then put them in pots or glasses. Boil a syrup, but not thick, which, when cold, pour over the walnuts, and let it stand a day or two; then pour the syrup off; add some more sugar; boil it up once more, and pour it again over the walnuts. When cold, tie them up.

White Walnuts

Take nuts that are neither too large nor too small; peel them to the white, taking off all the green with care, and throw them into pump water as you peel them; let them soak one night. Boil them quick in fair water, throwing in a handful or two of alum in powder, according to the quantity, that they may be very white. When boiled, put them in fresh water, and take them out again in a minute; lay them on a dry cloth to dry, and lard them with preserved citron; then put them in the syrup you have made for the purpose, while they were larding, and let them soak two or three days before you boil them quite; the syrup must be very clear. One hundred walnuts make about three pounds of sweetmeats.

Mustard Whey

Take milk and water of each a pint, bruised mustard seed an ounce and a half; boil these together till the curd is perfectly separated: then strain the whey through a cloth, and add a little sugar, which makes it more palatable.

Yest

Boil one ounce of hops in three quarts of water until reduced to about three pints. Pour it upon one pound of flour; make it into a batter; strain it through a colander, and, when nearly cold, put to it one pint of home-brewed yest. Put it into a bottle, and keep it for use. It should stand twenty-four or thirty hours before it is used.

Excellent Yest

Put a pint of well boiled milk into a hasty-pudding, and beat it till cold and there are few lumps remaining; then put to it two spoonfuls of yest and two of white powdered sugar, and stir it well. Put it in a large bowl not far from the fire, and next morning you will find it risen and light. Put it all to your flour, which must be mixed with as much warm milk and water as is necessary to make it into dough, and put it to rise in the common way.

Potato Yest

Boil rather more than a quarter of a peck of potatoes; bruise them through a colander; add half a pound of fine flour, and thin it with cold water till it is like a thick batter. Add three table-spoonfuls of good yest; let it stand for an hour, and make your bread.

This yest will always serve to make fresh from.

Another way

Weigh four pounds of raw potatoes pared; boil them in five pints of water. Wash and rub them through a sieve with the water in which they were boiled. Add four table-spoonfuls of good brown sugar; when milk-warm, put to the mixture three pennyworth of fresh yest; stir it well, and let it work in an open vessel. It will be fit for use in about twelve or fourteen hours.

About a pint and a half of this mixture will raise eighteen pounds of coarse flour; it may be put to rise over-night and will be ready to knead the first thing in the morning. It should be left to rise in the loaf four or five hours, before it is put in the oven.

PICKLES

General Directions

Stone jars, well glazed, are best for all sorts of pickles, as earthen vessels will not resist the vinegar, which penetrates through them.

Never touch pickles with the hand, or any thing greasy; but always make use of a wooden spoon, and keep them closely tied down, in a cool, dry place.

When you add vinegar to old pickles, let it boil, and stand till cold before you use it: on the contrary, when you make pickles, put it on the ingredients boiling and done with the usual spices.

Green Almonds

Boil a quantity of vinegar proportionate to that of the almonds to be pickled, skim it, and put into it salt, mace, ginger, Jamaica and white pepper. Put it into a jar, and let it stand till cold. Throw your almonds into the liquor, which must cover them.

Artichokes

Artichokes should be laid about six hours in a very strong brine of salt and water. Then put them into a pot of boiling water, and boil them till you can draw the leaves from the bottom, which must be cut smooth and clean, and put into a pot, with whole black pepper, salt, cloves, mace, bay-leaves, and as much white wine vinegar as will cover them. Lastly, pour upon them melted butter an inch thick, and cover them down close. When you take out any for use, put them into boiling water, with a piece of butter to plump them, and you may use them for whatever you please.

Artichokes to boil in Winter

Boil your artichokes for half a day in salt and water; put them into a pot of boiling water, allowing them to continue boiling until you can just draw off the leaves from the bottom; cut them very clean and smooth, and put them into the pot with cloves, mace, salt, pepper, two bay-leaves, and as much vinegar as will cover them. Pour melted butter over to cover them about an inch thick; tie and keep them close down for use, with a piece of butter to plump them. You may use these for what you like.

Asparagus

Scrape the asparagus, and cut off the prime part at the ends; wipe them, and lay them carefully in a jar or jelly-pot, pour vinegar over them, and let them lie in this about fourteen days. Then boil fresh vinegar, and pour it on them hot; repeat this until they are of a good colour; add a little mace and nutmeg, and tie them down close. This does very well for a made dish when asparagus is not to be had.

Barberries. No. 1

Gather the barberries when full ripe, picking out those that look bad. Lay them in a deep pot. Make two quarts of strong brine of salt and water; boil it with a pint of vinegar, a pound of white sugar, a few cloves, whole white pepper, and mace, tied in a bag; skim it, and when cold pour it on your barberries. Barberries with stones will pickle; they must be without stones for preserving.

Barberries. No. 2

Colour the water of the worst barberries, and add salt till the brine is strong enough to bear an egg. Boil it for half an hour, skimming it, and when cold strain it over the barberries. Lay something on them to keep them in the liquor: put them into a glass, and cover with leather.

Barberries. No. 3

Boil a strong brine of salt and water, let it stand till quite cold, and pour it upon the barberries.

Barberries. No. 4

Put into a jar some maiden barberries, with a good quantity of salt; tie on a bladder, and when the liquor scums change it.

Beet-root

Beet-root must be boiled in strong salt and water, to which add a pint of vinegar and a little cochineal. When boiled enough, take it off the fire, and keep it in the liquor in which it has been boiled. It makes a pretty garnish for a dish of fish, and is not unpleasant to eat.

Another

Boil the root till tender, peel it, and, if you think proper, cut it into shapes. Pour over it a hot pickle of white wine vinegar, horseradish, a little ginger, and pepper.

Beet-root and Turnips

Boil your beet-root in salt and water, with a little cochineal and vinegar; when half boiled, put in your turnips pared; when they are done enough, take them off, and keep them in the same liquor in which they were boiled.

Cabbage

Shave the cabbage into long slips, or, if you like, cut it in quarters. Scald it in salt and water for about four minutes; then take it out, and let it cool. Boil some vinegar, salt, ginger, whole pepper, and mace; after boiling and skimming it, let it get cold, and then put in your cabbage, which, if covered down presently, will keep white.

Red Cabbage. No. 1

Slice the cabbage very fine crosswise, put it on an earthen dish, sprinkle a handful of salt over it, cover it with another dish, and let it stand twenty-four hours. Then put it in a colander to drain, and lay it in your jar; take white wine vinegar enough to cover it, a little cloves, mace, and allspice. Put them in whole with one pennyworth of cochineal, bruised fine; boil it up, and put it over the cabbage, hot, or cold, which you like best. Cover it close with a cloth till it is cold, and then tie it over with leather.

Red Cabbage. No. 2

Slice the cabbage into a colander, sprinkle each layer with salt, let it drain two days; then put it into wide-mouthed bottles, pour on it boiling vinegar, sufficient to cover it, and add a few slices of beet-root. Cover the bottle with bladder.

Red Cabbage. No. 3

Take a firm cabbage cut in quarters; slice it; boil your vinegar with ginger and pepper; let it stand till cold; then pour it over your cabbage, and tie it down. It will be fit for use in three weeks.

Capers

Capers are the produce of, a small shrub, but preserved in pickle, and are grown in some parts of England, but they come chiefly from the neighbourhood of Toulon, the produce of which is considered the finest of any in Europe. The buds are gathered from the blossom before they open, and then spread on the floor, where the sun cannot reach them, and there they are left till they begin to wither; they are then thrown into sharp vinegar, and in about three days bay salt is added in proper quantity, and when this is dissolved they are fit for packing for sale, and sent all over the world.

Capsicum

Let the pods be gathered with the stalks on before they turn red, and with a penknife cut a slit down the side, and take out all the seed, but as little of the meat as possible. Lay them in strong brine for three days, changing the brine every day. Take them out, lay them on a cloth, and another over them. Boil the liquor, put into it some mace and nutmeg beaten small; put the pods into a jar; when the liquor is cold, pour it over them, and tie down with a bladder and leather.

Cauliflower

Cut from the closest and whitest heads pieces about the length of your finger, and boil them in a cloth with milk and water, but not till tender. Take them out very carefully, and let them stand till cold. With the best white wine vinegar boil nutmeg, cut into quarters, mace, cloves, a little whole pepper, and a bay-leaf, and let it remain till cold. Pour this into the jar to your cauliflower, and in three or four days it will be ready for use.

Another way

Having cut the flower in bunches, throw them for a minute into boiling salt and water, and then into cold spring water. Drain and dry them; cover with double-distilled vinegar; in a week put fresh vinegar, with a little mace and nutmeg, covering down close.

Clove Gilliflower, or any other Flower, for Salads

Put an equal weight of the flowers and of sugar, fill up with white wine vinegar, and to every pint of vinegar put a pound of sugar.

Codlings

The codlings should be the size of large walnuts; put vine leaves in the bottom of your pan, and lay in the codlings, covering with leaves and then with water; set them over a gentle fire till they may be peeled; then peel and put them into the water, with vine leaves at top and bottom, covering them close; set them over a slow fire till they become green, and, when they are cold, take off the end whole, cutting it round with a small knife; scoop out the core, fill the apple with garlic and mustard seed, put on the bit, and set that end uppermost in the pickle, which must be double-distilled vinegar cold, with mace and cloves.

Cucumbers. No. 1

Gather young cucumbers, commonly called gherkins – the small long sort are considered the best – wipe them very clean with a cloth; boil some salt and water, and pour over them; keep them close covered. Repeat this every day till they are green, putting fresh water every other day: let them stand near the fire, just to keep warm; the brine must be strong enough to bear an egg. When they are green, boil some white wine vinegar, pour it over them, put some mace in with them, and cover them with leather. It is better to put the salt and water to them once only, and they should be boiled up over the fire, in the vinegar, in a bell-metal kettle, with some vine leaves over, to green them. A brass kettle will not hurt, if very clean, and the cucumbers are turned out of it as soon as off the fire.

Cucumbers. No. 2

In a large earthen pan mix spring water and salt well together, taking two pounds of salt to every gallon of water. Throw in your cucumbers, wash them well, and let them remain for twelve hours; then drain and wipe them very dry, and put them into a jar. Put into a bell-metal pot a gallon of the best white wine vinegar, half an ounce of cloves and of mace, one ounce of allspice, one ounce of mustard-seed, a stick of horseradish sliced, six bay-leaves, a little dill, two or three races of ginger, a nutmeg cut in pieces, and a handful of salt. Boil all together, and pour it over the cucumbers. Cover them close down, and let them stand twenty-four hours, then pour off the vinegar from them, boil it, pour it over them again, and cover them close: repeat this process every day till they are green. Then tie them down with bladder and leather; set them in a cool dry place, and they will keep for three or four years. Beans may be pickled in the same manner.

Cucumbers. No. 3

Wipe the cucumbers clean with a coarse cloth, and put them into a jar. Take some vinegar, into which put pepper, ginger, cloves, and a handful of salt. Pour it boiling hot over the cucumbers, and smother them with a flannel: let them stand a fortnight; then take off the pickle, and boil it again. Pour it boiling on the cucumbers, and smother them as before. The pickle should be boiled in a bell-metal skillet. With two thousand cucumbers put into the pot about a pennyworth of Roman vitriol.

Large Cucumbers, Mango of

Take a cucumber, cut out a slip from the side, taking out the seeds, but be careful to let as much of the meat remain as you can. Bruise mustard seed, a clove of garlic, some bits of horseradish, slices of ginger, and put in all these. Tie the piece on again, and make a pickle of vinegar, whole pepper, salt, mace, and cloves: boil it, and pour it on the mangoes, and continue this for nine days together. When cold, cover them down with leather.

Another

Scrape out the core and seed, filling them with whole pepper, a clove of garlic, and other spice. Put them into salt and water, covered close up, for twenty-four hours; then drain and wipe them dry. Boil as much vinegar with spice as will cover them, and pour it on them scalding hot.

Cucumbers sliced

Take cucumbers not full grown, slice them into a pewter dish; to twelve cucumbers put three or four onions sliced, and as you do them strew salt on them; cover them with a pewter dish, and let them stand twenty-four hours. Then take out the onions, strain the liquor from the cucumbers through a colander, and put them in a well glazed jar, with a pickle made of white wine vinegar, distilled in a cold still, with seasoning of mace, cloves, and pepper. The pickle must be poured boiling hot upon them, and then cover them down as close as possible. In four or five days take them out of the pickle, boil it, and pour it on as before, keeping the jar very close. Repeat this three times; cover the jar with a bladder, and leather over it; the cucumbers will keep the whole year, and be of a fine sea-green, but perhaps not of so fine colour when first you open them; they will become so, however, if the vinegar is really fine.