The Golden Age Cook Book

APPLE MERINGUE

Put a pint of apple sauce, made of tart cooking apples, slightly sweetened, into a pudding dish. Beat the whites of four eggs to a stiff froth and stir into it a cup and a quarter of sugar, flavor with a very little extract of lemon – a few drops only – and spread over the apple sauce, and bake twenty or twenty-five minutes. Make a custard of the four egg yolks and a pint of milk, sweeten to taste and flavor with vanilla. Serve the meringue very cold in the dish in which it is baked, with the custard as a sauce in a sauceboat or glass pitcher.

APPLE PUDDING. – No. 1

Take some tart cooking apples, pare, core and slice them and lay in cold water for a few minutes to prevent them from turning dark. Put the apples in a porcelain lined or granite saucepan and add water as deep as the apples, but not to cover them. Cover the saucepan tightly and let the apples cook until tender, then mash well, add sugar, grated lemon peel and cinnamon to taste. Put it back on the stove, and when it comes to a boil add a tablespoonful of potato flour mixed with a little cold water, stir well and let it cook for a few minutes. Turn it into a mould and serve the next day with cream.

APPLE PUDDING. – No. 2

Prepare the apples as for Apple Pudding, No. 1. When tender mash through a colander, and put the purée back on the stove. When it boils stir in a very heaping tablespoonful of potato flour mixed with a little cold water, and let it cook for a few minutes. Remove from the fire, stir in a wine glass of sherry. Turn into a mould, set it on the ice until the next day and serve with cream.

APPLES STEWED IN BUTTER

Take half a dozen good, tart cooking apples – greenings or Newtown pippins; peel, cut in slices about a quarter of an inch thick and core them. Melt an ounce of butter in a spider, and lay in the slices of apples with a quarter of a pound of granulated sugar and the juice of a lemon, stew gently over a moderate fire. When done arrange them nicely on a dish, melt a generous tablespoonful of currant jelly in the spider, and when ready to serve mix with it half a glass of Madeira or sherry; pour over the apples and serve.

TO STEAM APPLES

Pare and core some good cooking apples, place them in an earthen or granite ware dish that fits in a steamer. Have water boiling in the steamer, set the dish over it, stretch a towel over the top, put on the cover and fold the ends of the towel over it. Steam the apples until tender – about twenty minutes. Take the apples out, measure the juice in the pan and add to it an equal quantity of sugar, flavor with a little lemon juice, cook until thick, put the apples in a glass dish and pour the syrup over them. It will be a jelly when cold. Serve with cream.

SCALLOPED APPLES

Pare, core and cut in slices some good, tart cooking apples, put a layer in a baking dish with sugar, cinnamon and a grating of lemon rind, dot with tiny lumps of butter, then another layer of apples, sugar, etc., and so on until the dish is full. Add a very little water and the juice of a lemon, and use a little more sugar and butter on top than on the other layers. Bake until the apples are thoroughly cooked. Cover until nearly done, when the cover should be removed to allow them to brown. Serve hot with cream or hard sauce.

BANANA FRITTERS

Half a pint of sweet milk, a scant half pint of flour, two rounded teaspoonfuls of baking powder and a small pinch of salt, stir all together; this should make a batter as thick as that of cake. Roll the pieces of fruit in it with a fork, and drop quickly into boiling fat. The batter should be prepared just as it is wanted and not allowed to stand. Cut three medium-sized bananas into three pieces each and divide each slice lengthwise so that the fruit will be thin enough to cook thoroughly while the batter is browning. This recipe will make eighteen small fritters. Put them on a hot platter – do not pile up – and serve immediately with a fruit sauce.

BAVARIAN CHERRY CAKE

Half a pound of fine, juicy black cherries, five tablespoonfuls of fine bread crumbs, five tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar, five eggs and one ounce of sweet chocolate grated. Put the grated chocolate in a mixing bowl, break an egg into it and add one tablespoonful of bread crumbs and one of sugar, beat light and break another egg into it, adding another tablespoonful of bread crumbs and one of sugar. Then separate the three remaining eggs, the yolks from the whites, adding one yolk at a time alternately with bread crumbs and sugar until all are used. Add the cherries. Beat the three whites of eggs to a stiff froth and fold it in lightly. Butter thick a cake mould, sift dried bread crumbs over it, turn the cake into it and bake about three-quarters of an hour in a moderate oven. Test it as other cake. In Bavaria it is served cold, but I think it would also be nice hot with fruit sauce.

CRANBERRY BAVARIAN CREAM

Stew one quart of cranberries; while hot rub through a sieve; measure out half a pint, and add to it a half cup of granulated sugar. Have a quarter of a box of gelatine soaked in a quarter of a cup of water one hour, set the bowl over steam entirely to dissolve the gelatine, then add the cranberries. Turn it into an earthenware bowl, set in a pan of ice water and beat until it is perfectly cold and begins to thicken, then add half a cup of rich milk and beat again, and at the last add half a cup of whipped cream. Beat it thoroughly and turn it into a mould and set on the ice to congeal. Serve with cream. Do not use a tin mould for cranberries.

A MOULD OF FRESH FRUIT

Take enough fresh, ripe currants and raspberries to make half a cupful of juice of each, and press through a sieve fine enough to retain the seeds; or the fruit may be strained and squeezed through cheese cloth. Take also enough ripe cherries to make a cupful of juice and mix all together. Put a quart of boiling water in a saucepan over the fire with four ounces of sugar and two ounces of almonds blanched and cut fine. Mix five ounces of arrowroot or the same quantity of potato flour with the cold fruit juices, stir it into the boiling water and let it boil about five minutes, turn it into a wet mould, and when cold set on the ice. This should be made the day before it is to be served. Serve with cream.

A DESSERT OF MIXED FRUIT

Peel some sweet, juicy oranges, removing all the white, bitter skin, cut in thin slices and put a layer at the bottom of a glass dish, sprinkle with sugar, then put a layer of freshly grated cocoanut and a layer of bananas, cut in thin slices, and repeat, beginning again with oranges, until the bowl is full, finishing with a layer of cocoanut. Pour over it any juice that may have run from the oranges, and if liked a glass or two of sherry may be added. Serve very cold.

GOOSEBERRY PUDDING

Use either ripe or unripe English gooseberries for this pudding, stem and pick off the flower, wash and cover with water and cook until tender, strain through a sieve. Return to the fire, let it come to a boil, sweeten to taste, flavor with cinnamon and some almonds blanched and cut fine. Stiffen with potato flour as in other fruit puddings– a tablespoonful to a quart of the purée – and mould and serve in the same way.

PINEAPPLE MERINGUE

Half a large or one small pineapple grated, two ounces of butter, three of granulated sugar, an ounce and a half of grated bread crumbs, the yolks of three eggs and the whites of four. Cream the butter and sugar, add the yolks and one white of egg beaten well together, then the fruit and bread crumbs; turn into a pudding dish and bake twenty minutes. Beat three whites of eggs to a stiff froth and add three-quarters of a cup of granulated sugar to it, flavor with a few drops of almond extract, spread over the pudding, set the dish in a pan of warm water in the oven and bake about ten or fifteen minutes. Test with a straw; when it comes out clean it is done. Serve cold.

PRUNE SOUFFLÉ

Soak three-quarters of a pound of prunes in water to cover them over night, cook until soft in the water they were soaked in, drain, take out the stones and press through a purée sieve. Add half a cup of granulated sugar and the whites of three eggs beaten to a stiff froth. Bake in a pudding dish twenty minutes. Serve in the dish in which it is baked, cold, with cream.

PRUNE MOULD

Prepare a prune purée as above and to the same quantity have a third of a box of gelatine soaked in a little of the water the prunes were cooked in, and dissolved over the teakettle. Stir quickly into the purée, then add three whites of eggs beaten to a stiff froth. Wet a mould and pour the mixture into it; set on the ice to congeal. Turn out on a glass dish and serve with cream.

STEWED DRIED FIGS

Wash and cut in half two dozen dried figs, slice very thin one small lemon, add to the figs, put in a saucepan and pour over them cold water almost to cover. Let them cook until the lemon is clear. Sweeten to taste.

RHUBARB MERINGUE

Take three cups of stewed rhubarb, put in a saucepan over the fire, sweeten to taste, and when hot add two ounces of butter and three ounces of bread crumbs dried and rolled fine, the juice and rind of half a lemon. Remove from the fire and stir in three egg yolks, turn it into a pudding dish, set aside while preparing the meringue. Beat the whites of three eggs to a stiff froth, add three-quarters of a cup of granulated sugar and pour over the rhubarb. Set the pudding dish in a pan of hot water in the oven and bake ten or fifteen minutes. Test with a broom straw; when it comes out of the meringue clean it is done. Serve cold with cream.

SCALLOPED RHUBARB

A dozen large stalks of young rhubarb, washed and scraped and cut in thin slices, half a loaf of bakers' stale bread grated, four heaping tablespoonfuls of granulated sugar, one generous tablespoonful of butter, and the grated rind of a large lemon. Butter a pudding dish, divide the ingredients into four parts, begin with the rhubarb and finish with bread crumbs. Sprinkle the sugar and grated lemon peel over the rhubarb and cut the butter in tiny bits over the bread crumbs, dredge the top with sugar. Bake three-quarters of an hour in a moderate oven and serve hot with cream or hard sauce.

RICE AND DATE PUDDING

Half a cup of rice washed and boiled in water, one pound of dates, washed first in cold then in hot water, stoned and chopped a little, one pint of milk, two eggs, two tablespoonfuls of granulated sugar, and a little salt. Butter well a pudding dish, lay in half the dates, then over them half the rice, then dates again with a layer of rice on top. Beat the eggs light, add to them the milk, sugar and salt, and pour over the rice and fruit and bake from twenty-five to thirty minutes. Serve cold, with cream.

RICE AND FIG PUDDING

may be made according to the preceding recipe, steaming or stewing the figs a little and chopping slightly.

RICE AND RAISIN PUDDING

Soak the raisins, seed them and stew a little, and follow the same recipe.

RICE AND PRUNE PUDDING

Soak the prunes over night, stew and stone and slightly chop them and proceed as in the other puddings. Any kind of dried or fresh fruit may be used for this very wholesome and nutritious pudding.

RICE FLOUR PUDDING

Take a quart of milk, leaving out enough to mix with three ounces of rice flour, put the rest in a saucepan over the fire. When it boils add one ounce and a half of sugar, one-half ounce of sweet and a few bitter almonds, blanched and pounded, or chopped very fine, one ounce of butter, and a small piece of vanilla bean if convenient, if not flavor at the last with vanilla extract. Mix the three ounces of rice flour with milk, reserved from the quart, and stir into the pudding. Beat one egg yolk with half a cup of cream and stir in just before removing from the fire. Turn into a mould that has been dipped in cold water and serve very cold with fruit sauce.

RICE SOUFFLÉ COLD

Put into a double boiler a quarter of a pound of well washed rice, a pint and a third of milk, a small tablespoonful of butter, and cook until the rice is so stiff that it no longer adheres to the sides of the pan. Soak a heaping tablespoonful of gelatine in two tablespoonfuls of water fifteen minutes. Put a pint of thin cream or rich milk in a saucepan over the fire with two ounces of blanched and pounded almonds; while it is coming to a boil beat two egg yolks and two tablespoonfuls of granulated sugar together until light, then add the gelatine to the milk on the stove. When it has dissolved pour a little of the cream into the eggs and sugar, mix well, then turn it back into the saucepan, and stir all rapidly together until it begins to thicken, remove at once from the fire, add to the rice and beat until smooth. Rinse a mould with cold water, turn the soufflé into it and set on ice until it is wanted. Turn it out on a glass dish and serve with or without a fruit sauce.

RICE PUDDING. – No. 1

Take a quarter of a pound of rice, wash well in cold and then scald in boiling water, drain and put on in a quart of sweet milk in a double boiler, cook one hour and a half. A little before it is done stir in an ounce and a half of butter, one ounce of sugar, a little grated lemon peel, a few sweet and bitter almonds blanched and chopped very fine or pounded in a mortar. Don't stir too much, but keep the rice grains whole. When done dip a mould in cold water and turn the rice into it. Set it on the ice and serve very cold with a fruit sauce.

RICE PUDDING. – No. 2

Put a scant half cup of rice to soak in water for an hour, then boil in salted boiling water for twenty minutes. While it is cooking put three cups of rich milk and half a cup of sugar in a saucepan on the stove, mix a tablespoonful of corn starch with a little cold milk, stir with the milk and sugar and let it come to a boil, then add a cupful of the hot boiled rice and stir until it thickens like custard. Turn it into a pudding dish, flavor with vanilla or anything liked and bake slowly until a delicate brown. Serve cold in the dish in which it is baked, with brandy peaches or any fruit liked.

RICE OMELETTE SOUFFLÉ

Boil a quarter of a pound of well-washed Carolina rice in a pint and a half of milk until stiff. Stir in two ounces of butter, half a pint of cream and four egg yolks beaten light with two ounces of granulated sugar and vanilla to taste, add a quarter of a pound of citron cut fine and two ounces of almonds blanched and pounded fine in a mortar. Stir all well together, adding at the last four whites of eggs beaten very stiff. Put in a pudding dish and bake until firm – about half an hour. Serve immediately in the dish in which it was baked.

STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE. – No. 1

Puff paste makes a delicious strawberry shortcake. Roll thin, as for pie crust, and line three layer cake tins and bake. Put a quart of fresh, ripe strawberries stemmed in a bowl, sweeten them, cover and stand the bowl on the shelf over the range, stir occasionally and mash slightly with the back of a spoon. When serving time comes lay one of the shells on the dish in which it is to be served, and pour a third of the berries over it, then put on a second and a third, decorate the top layer with whipped cream and serve with cream. It should be served immediately after the berries are added to the crust that it may be crisp. Both berries and shells should be cold.

STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE. – No. 2

Make a biscuit dough in the proportion of a pint of flour, a heaping teaspoonful of baking powder and half a teaspoonful of salt, a tablespoonful of butter and enough milk to mix it. Roll about an inch thick, cut it round or oblong and bake in a quick oven about fifteen minutes. Cut around the edge and pull gently apart, butter slightly, have the berries prepared as for Shortcake No. 1. Put the crust on the serving dish, pour half the berries over it, put on the top and pour the remainder of the berries over it. Serve with cream.

LADIES' LOCKS FILLED WITH STRAWBERRIES

Roll the puff paste thin, cut in strips an inch wide and about twelve inches long; wind these around the forms overlapping the paste as it is wound. Brush over with beaten egg and bake on the forms. When baked slip the forms out, fill with strawberries prepared as for strawberry shortcake.

STRAWBERRIES SCALLOPED

Equal quantities of fresh strawberries and bakers' stale bread grated. Begin with a layer of the berries, sprinkle well with sugar, then a layer of bread crumbs, dot with bits of butter, then another layer of fruit and sugar; finish with bread crumbs and butter, sprinkle a little sugar over the top and bake half an hour in a good oven. Serve hot with cream. Currants and raspberries, either separately or mixed, and blackberries also make excellent puddings.

CURRANT PUDDING

Stem and wash some currants, mash through a sieve, add as much water as there is currant juice and sweeten to taste. To one quart of liquid take two ounces of Groult's potato flour. Mix the potato flour with a little of the cold fruit juice, put the rest over the fire, and when it comes to a boil stir in the flour and let it cook for a few minutes. It will become clear. Turn it into a mould that has been dipped in cold water, and set it when cool on the ice until the next day. Turn out carefully and serve with cream.

STEWED DATES

Break the dates apart, wash in cold, then in hot water, drain them and cover with cold water; cook until tender – a very few minutes – take out the fruit, add a little sugar to the water and boil five minutes, pour over the dates and set away to get cold.

STUFFED DATES

Wash the dates as in the other recipes, drain in a colander and shake from time to time until they are dry. Stone them and fill with blanched almonds, or chopped nuts or cocoanut grated.

TAPIOCA AND APPLE PUDDING

Six good, tart cooking apples, three-quarters of a cup of pearl tapioca, sugar to taste and one quart of water. Soak the tapioca in the water two hours, then put in a double boiler and cook until clear, sweeten to taste. It may be flavored with the rind of lemon cut very thin and removed when the tapioca is done. Peel and core the apples and fill the holes with sugar, arrange them in a pudding dish and pour the tapioca over them, bake until the apples are tender. A few tiny bits of butter on the top will make it brown a little. Serve hot or cold with cream and sugar.

TAPIOCA AND STRAWBERRY JELLY

Five ounces of Groult's tapioca, two cups of boiling water, two cups of strawberry juice, four heaping tablespoonfuls of sugar and a dash of salt. Hull and wash the berries, mash with a spoon and strain through a fine cheese-cloth. Put the boiling water in a double boiler, and sprinkle in the tapioca, stirring to prevent lumping. Let it cook until clear, add the sugar and salt, and then the strawberry juice, and boil until thick – a few minutes only; turn into an earthenware mould; when cold set on the ice. It is better to make it the day before it is wanted. It should be served with cream.

TAPIOCA AND RASPBERRY JELLY

Follow the above recipe, using raspberries in the same proportion.

TAPIOCA AND CURRANT JELLY

Follow the recipe for tapioca and strawberry jelly.

PEARL SAGO AND FRUIT JELLIES

Soak half a cup of pearl sago two hours in a cup of cold water, then add half a cup of water and a cup and a half of fruit juice – strawberry, raspberry, or currant; boil for twenty minutes and sweeten to taste. Fruit syrups may be used in winter; it will require less of the syrup than fruit juice.

BREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING. – No. 1

Cut six small tea buns in half, butter well, using two generous ounces of butter for the six, and put them together again. Beat three eggs with a cup and a half of rich milk, add half a cup of almonds blanched and chopped fine, one ounce of sugar, two tablespoonfuls of sherry, let the buns soak in this for awhile. Butter a mould, sprinkle with fine bread crumbs, take the buns out of the custard, lay them in the mould and pour the custard over them. Set the mould in a pan of boiling water in the oven and bake three-quarters of an hour, and serve hot with a sauce.

BREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING. – No. 2

Cut some slices of home-made bread about half an inch thick, butter and lay in a pudding dish, sprinkle with currants, put another layer of buttered bread and currants. Beat three eggs light and stir into a pint of milk, sweeten to taste, flavor with a little grated lemon peel or cinnamon, pour over the bread and butter and bake in a moderate oven until the custard is set. Test with a knife; if it comes out clean it is done. If baked too long the pudding will be watery. Serve cold and in the dish in which it is baked.

BREAD CUSTARD

Put a pint of rich milk in a saucepan on the fire. When it comes to a boil, add half a cup of grated stale bread crumbs, then stir in a heaping tablespoonful of butter, a little grating of lemon peel, a quarter of a cup of granulated sugar and a tablespoonful of almonds blanched and chopped fine. Have two eggs beaten light, remove the saucepan from the fire, stir a little of the mixture into the eggs and then turn that into the saucepan, stir well for a moment and pour it into a pudding dish. Set the dish in a pan of hot water in the oven and bake about twenty minutes, until firm in the center; test with a knife. If it comes out clean the pudding is done; if it bakes too long it will be watery. It may be eaten cold or hot. If served hot add a quarter of a cup more bread crumbs.

FRIED BREAD

Sweeten a pint of milk, flavor with cinnamon or nutmeg to taste. Have some slices of home-made bread half an inch thick, cut off the crust and soak the bread in the custard until all is absorbed, turning the bread in it. Put some butter in a spider; when hot fry the bread a nice brown on both sides. Arrange the slices nicely on a platter and serve with or without a sauce.

CHOCOLATE CREAM

Soak a third of a box of gelatine in a very little cold water. Put a cup and a half of milk in a saucepan with four ounces of sweet, fine chocolate grated, let it boil until dissolved and add a slightly heaping tablespoonful of sugar. Take two-thirds of the soaked gelatine and put into the chocolate when melted, cool the mixture and turn into a mould, roll the mould from side to side in the hands until it is thoroughly coated with the mixture about a finger thick. When cold, even off the surface with a knife. Whip about half a pint of nice, rich cream, sweeten with powdered sugar and flavor with vanilla. Melt the other third of the soaked gelatine in a little boiling water and stir quickly into the cream and fill the chocolate with it. Set on the ice. Serve very cold.

CHOCOLATE CUSTARD

Put a pint and a half of rich milk into a double boiler over the fire with the third of a vanilla bean split and cut in small pieces, let it come to a boil, and stir in two ounces of fine, sweet chocolate grated and a lump of butter the size of a walnut. Let it boil for a few moments, remove from the fire and beat very light four eggs, strain the chocolate gradually over them, stirring all the time, add a little salt, and sugar if necessary. Rinse a plain mould in cold water, pour the custard into it, set the mould in a pan of hot water and bake twenty-five minutes. Test with a knife. Too long cooking makes the custard watery. It must be served ice cold and may be prepared the day before. Serve with cream or soft boiled custard.

CHOCOLATE PUDDING

Beat one-quarter of a pound of butter to a cream and stir in six egg yolks, one at a time, then add a quarter of a pound of fine, sweet chocolate grated, a cup of almonds blanched and chopped fine, six tablespoonfuls of granulated sugar and one tablespoonful of citron cut very fine, beat the six whites of eggs to a stiff froth and stir in at the last. Pour into a mould and boil three-quarters of an hour and send to the table hot with whipped cream poured around it, or any fine sauce served in a sauceboat.