ALMOND CHEESE CAKE

This though usually called a cheese cake, is in fact a pudding.

Cut a piece of rennet about two inches square, wash off the salt in cold water, and wipe it dry. Put it into a tea-cup, pour on it sufficient luke-warm water to cover it, and let it soak all night, or at least several hours. Take a quart of milk, which must be made warm, but not boiling. Stir the rennet-water into it. Cover it, and set it in a warm place. When the curd has become quite firm, and the whey looks greenish, drain off the whey, and set the curd in a cool place. While the milk is turning, prepare the other ingredients. Wash and dry half a pound of currants, and dredge them well with flour. Blanch three ounces of sweet and one ounce of bitter almonds, by scalding and peeling them. Then cool them in cold water, wiping them dry before you put them into the mortar. If you cannot procure bitter almonds, peach kernels may be substituted. Beat them, one at a time, in the mortar to a smooth paste, pouring in with every one a few drops of rose water to prevent their being oily, dull-coloured, and heavy. If you put a sufficiency of rose water, the pounded almond paste will be light, creamy, and perfectly white. Mix, as you do them, the sweet and bitter almonds together. Then beat the yolks of eight eggs, and when light, mix them gradually with the curd. Add five table-spoonfuls of cream, and a tea-spoonful of mixed spice. Lastly, stir in, by degrees, the pounded almonds, and the currants alternately. Stir the whole mixture very hard. Bake it in buttered dishes, laying puff paste round the edges. If accurately made, it will be found delicious. It must be put in the oven immediately.

COMMON CHEESE CAKE.--Boil a quart of rich milk. Beat eight eggs, put them to the milk, and let the milk and eggs boil together till they become a curd. Then drain it through a very clean sieve, till all the whey is out. Put the curd into a deep dish, and mix with it half a pound of butter, working them well together. When it is cold, add to it the beaten yolks of four eggs, and four large table-spoonfuls of powdered white sugar; also a grated nutmeg. Lastly, stir in, by degrees, half a pound of currants that have been previously picked, washed, dried, and dredged with flour. Lay puff paste round the rim of the dish, and bake the cheese cake half an hour. Send it to table cold, dredged with sugar.

PRUNE PUDDING.--Scald a pound of prunes; cover them, and let them swell in the hot water till they are soft. Then drain them, and extract the stones; spread the prunes on a large dish, and dredge them with flour. Take one jill or eight large table-spoonfuls from a quart of rich milk, and stir into it, gradually, eight spoonfuls of sifted flour. Mix it to a smooth batter, pressing out all the lumps with the back of the spoon. Beat eight eggs light, and stir them, by degrees, into the remainder of the milk, alternately with the batter that you have just mixed. Then add the prunes one at a time, stirring the whole very hard. Tie the pudding in a cloth that has been previously dipped in boiling water and then dredged with flour. Leave room for it to swell, but secure it firmly, so that no water can get in. Put it into a pot of boiling water, and boil it two hours. Send it to table hot, (not taking it out of the pot till a moment before it is wanted,) and eat it with cream sauce; or with butter, sugar, and nutmeg beaten together, and served up in a little tureen.

A similar pudding may be made with whole raisins.

EVE'S PUDDING.--Pare, core, and quarter six large pippins, and chop them very fine. Grate stale bread till you have six ounces of crumbs, and roll fine six ounces of white sugar. Pick, wash, and dry six ounces of currants, and sprinkle them with flour. Mix all these ingredients together in a large pan, adding six ounces of butter cut small, and two table-spoonfuls of flour. Beat six eggs very light, and moisten the mixture with them. Add a grated nutmeg, and a tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon. Stir the whole very well together. Have ready a pot of boiling water. Dip your pudding cloth into it, shake it out, and dredge it with flour. Then put in the mixture, and tie it very firmly; leaving space for the pudding to swell, and stopping up the tying place with a paste of wetted flour. Boil it three hours; keeping at the fire a kettle of boiling water, to replenish the pot, that the pudding may be always well covered. Send it to table hot, and eat it with sweetened cream flavoured with wine and nutmeg.

CINDERELLAS OR GERMAN PUFFS.--Sift half a pound of the finest flour. Cut up in a quart of rich milk, half a pound of fresh butter, and set it on the stove, or near the fire, till it has melted. Beat eight eggs very light, and stir them gradually into the milk and butter, alternately with the flour. Add a powdered nutmeg, and a tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon. Mix the whole very well to a fine smooth batter, in which there must be no lumps. Butter some large common tea-cups, and divide the mixture among them till they are half full or a little more. Set them immediately in a quick oven, and bake them about a quarter of an hour. When done, turn them out into a dish, and grate white sugar over them. Serve them up hot, with a sauce of sweetened cream flavoured with wine and nutmeg; or you may eat them with molasses and butter; or with sugar and wine. Send them round whole, for they will fall almost as soon as cut.

A BOILED BREAD PUDDING.--Boil a quart of rich milk. While it is boiling, take a small loaf of baker's bread, such as is sold for five or six cents. It may be either fresh or stale. Pare off all the crust, and cut up the crumb into very small pieces. You should have baker's bread if you can procure it, as home-made bread may not make the pudding light enough. Put the bread into a pan; and when the milk boils, pour it scalding hot over the bread. Cover the pan closely, and let it steep in the hot steam for about three quarters of an hour. Then remove the cover, and allow the bread and milk to cool. In the mean time, beat four eggs till they are thick and smooth. Then beat into them a table-spoonful and a half of fine wheat flour. Next beat the egg and flour into the bread and milk, and continue to beat hard till the mixture is as light as possible; for on this the success of the pudding chiefly depends.

Have ready over the fire a pot of boiling water. Dip your pudding-cloth into it, and shake it out. Spread out the cloth in a deep dish or pan, and dredge it well with flour. Pour in the mixture, and tie up the cloth, leaving room for it to swell. Tie the string firmly and plaster up the opening (if there is any) with flour moistened with water. If any water gets into it the pudding will be spoiled.

See that the water boils when you put in the pudding, and keep it boiling hard. If the pot wants replenishing, do it with boiling water from a kettle. Should you put in cold water to supply the place of that which has boiled away, the pudding will chill, and become hard and heavy. Boil it an hour and a half.

Turn it out of the bag the minute before you send it to table. Eat it with wine sauce, or with sugar and butter, or molasses.

It will be much improved by adding to the mixture half a pound of whole raisins, well floured to prevent their sinking. Sultana raisins are best, as they have no seeds.

If these directions are exactly followed, this will be found a remarkably good and wholesome plain pudding.

For all boiled puddings, a square pudding-cloth which can be opened out, is much better than a bag. It should be very thick.

A BAKED BREAD PUDDING.--Take a stale five cent loaf of bread; cut off all the crust, and grate or rub the crumb as fine as possible. Boil a quart of rich milk, and pour it hot over the bread; then stir in a quarter of a pound of butter, and the same quantity of sugar, a glass of wine and brandy mixed, or a glass of rose water. Or you may omit the liquor and substitute the grated peel of a large lemon. Add a table-spoonful of mixed cinnamon and nutmeg powdered. Stir the whole very well, cover it, and set it away for half an hour. Then let it cool. Beat seven or eight eggs very light, and stir them gradually into the mixture after it is cold. Then butter a deep dish, and bake the pudding an hour. Send it to table cool.

A BREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING.--Cut some slices of bread and butter moderately thick, omitting the crust; stale bread is best. Butter a deep dish, and cover the bottom with slices of the buttered bread. Have ready a pound of currants, picked, washed and dried. Spread one third of them thickly over the bread and butter, and strew on some brown sugar. Then put another layer of bread and butter, and cover it also with currants and sugar. Finish with a third layer of each, and pour over the whole four eggs, beaten very light and mixed with a pint of milk, and a wine glass of rose water. Bake the pudding an hour, and grate nutmeg over it when done. Eat it warm, but not hot.

You may substitute for the currants, raisins seeded, and cut in half.

This pudding may be made also with layers of stewed gooseberries instead of the currants, or with pippin apples, pared, cored and minced fine.

A SUET PUDDING.--Mince very finely as much beef suet as will make two large table-spoonfuls. Grate two handfuls of bread-crumbs; boil a quart of milk and pour it hot on the bread. Cover it, and set it aside to steep for half an hour; then put it to cool. Beat eight eggs very light; stir the suet, and six table-spoonfuls of flour alternately into the bread and milk, and add, by degrees, the eggs. Lastly, stir in a table-spoonful of powdered nutmeg and cinnamon mixed, and a glass of mixed wine and brandy. Pour it into a square cloth dipped in hot water, and floured; tie it firmly, put it into a pot of boiling water, and boil it two hours. Do not take it up till immediately before it is wanted, and send it to table hot.

Eat it with wine sauce, or with molasses.

A CUSTARD PUDDING.--Take five table-spoonfuls out of a quart of cream or rich milk, and mix them with two large spoonfuls of fine flour. Set the rest of the milk to boil, flavouring it with half a dozen peach leaves, or with bitter almonds broken up. When it has boiled hard, take it off, strain it, and stir it in the cold milk and flour. Set it away to cool, and beat well eight yolks and four whites of eggs; add them to the milk, and stir in, at the last, a glass of brandy or white wine, a powdered nutmeg, and a quarter of a pound of sugar. Butter a large bowl or mould; pour in the mixture; tie a cloth tightly over it; put it into a pot of boiling water, and boil it two hours, replenishing the pot with hot water from a tea-kettle. When the pudding is done, let it get cool before you turn it out. Eat it with butter and sugar stirred together to a cream, and flavoured with lemon juice or orange.

FLOUR HASTY PUDDING.--Tie together half a dozen peach-leaves, put them into a quart of milk, and set it on the fire to boil. When it has come to a hard boil, take out the leaves, but let the pot remain boiling on the fire. Then with a large wooden spoon in one hand, and some wheat flour in the other, thicken and stir it till it is about the consistence of a boiled custard. Afterwards throw in, one at a time, a dozen small bits of butter rolled in a thick coat of flour. You may enrich it by stirring in a beaten egg or two, a few minutes before you take it from the fire. When done, pour it into a deep dish, and strew brown sugar thickly over the top. Eat it warm.

INDIAN MUSH.--Have ready on the fire a pot of boiling water. Stir into it by degrees (a handful at a time) sufficient Indian meal to make it very thick, and then add a very small portion of salt. You must keep the pot boiling on the fire all the time you are throwing in the meal; and between every handful, stir very hard with the mush-stick, (a round stick flattened at one end,) that the mush may not be lumpy. After it is sufficiently thick, keep it boiling for an hour longer, stirring it occasionally. Then cover the pot, and hang it higher up the chimney, so as to simmer slowly or keep hot for another hour. The goodness of mush depends greatly on its being long and thoroughly boiled. If sufficiently cooked, it is wholesome and nutritious, but exactly the reverse, if made in haste. It is not too long to have it altogether three or four hours over the fire; on the contrary it will be much the better for it.

Eat it warm; either with milk, or cover your plate with mush, make a hole in the middle, put some butter in the hole and fill it up with molasses.

Cold mush that has been left, may be cut into slices and fried in butter.

Burgoo is made precisely in the same manner as mush, but with oatmeal instead of Indian.

A BAKED INDIAN PUDDING.--Cut up a quarter of a pound of butter in a pint of molasses, and warm them together till the butter is melted. Boil a quart of milk; and while scalding hot, pour it slowly over a pint of sifted Indian meal, and stir in the molasses and butter. Cover it, and let it steep for an hour. Then take off the cover, and set the mixture to cool. When it is cold, beat six eggs, and stir them gradually into it; add a table-spoonful of mixed cinnamon and nutmeg; and the grated peel of a lemon. Stir the whole very hard; put it into a buttered dish, and bake it two hours. Serve it up hot, and eat it with wine sauce, or with butter and molasses.

A BOILED INDIAN PUDDING.--Chop very fine a quarter of a pound of beef suet. Mix it with a quart of sifted Indian meal. Boil a quart of milk with some pieces of cinnamon broken up; strain it, and while it is hot, stir in gradually the meal and suet; add half a pint of molasses. Cover the mixture and set it away for an hour; then put it to cool. Beat six eggs, and stir them gradually into the mixture when it is cold; add a grated nutmeg, and the grated peel of a lemon. Tie the pudding in a cloth that has been dipped in hot water and floured; and leave plenty of room for it to swell. Secure it well at the tying place lest the water should get in, which will infallibly spoil it. Put it into a pot of boiling water, (which must be replenished as it boils away,) and boil it four hours at least; but five or six will be better. To have an Indian pudding _very good_, it should be mixed the night before, (all except the eggs,) and put on to boil early in the morning. Do not take it out of the pot till immediately before it is wanted. Eat it with wine sauce, or with molasses and butter. What is left may be boiled again next day.

INDIAN PUDDING WITHOUT EGGS.--Boil some cinnamon in a quart of milk, and then strain it. While the milk is hot, stir into it a pint of molasses, and then add by degrees a quart or more of Indian meal so as to make a thick batter. It will be much improved by the grated peel and juice of a large lemon or orange. Tie it very securely in a thick cloth, leaving room for it to swell, and pasting up the tying-place with a lump of flour and water. Put it into a pot of boiling water, (having ready a kettle to fill it up as it boils away,) hang it over a good fire, and keep it boiling hard for four or five hours. Eat it warm with molasses and butter.

This is a very economical, and not an unpalatable pudding; and may be found convenient when it is difficult to obtain eggs. The molasses should be West India.

A BAKED PLUM PUDDING.--Grate all the crumb of a stale six cent loaf; boil a quart of rich milk, and pour it boiling hot over the grated bread; cover it, and let it steep for an hour; then set it out to cool. In the mean time prepare half a pound of currants, picked, washed, and dried; half a pound of raisins, stoned and cut in half; and a quarter of a pound of citron cut in large slips; also, two nutmegs beaten to a powder; and a table-spoonful of mace and cinnamon powdered and mixed together. Crush with a rolling-pin half a pound of sugar, and cut up half a pound of butter. When the bread and milk is uncovered to cool, mix with it the butter, sugar, spice and citron; adding a glass of brandy, and a glass of white wine. Beat eight eggs very light, and when the milk is quite cold, stir them gradually into the mixture. Then add, by degrees, the raisins and currants, (which must be previously dredged with flour,) and stir the whole very hard. Put it into a buttered dish, and bake it two hours. Send it to table warm, and eat it with wine sauce, or with wine and sugar only.

In making this pudding, you may substitute for the butter, half a pound of beef suet minced as fine as possible. It will be found best to prepare the ingredients the day before, covering them closely and putting them away.

A BOILED PLUM PUDDING.--Grate the crumb of a twelve cent loaf of bread, and boil a quart of rich milk with a small bunch of peach leaves in it, then strain it and set it out to cool. Pick, wash and dry a pound of currants, and stone and cut in half a pound of raisins; strew over them three large table-spoonfuls of flour. Roll fine a pound of brown sugar, and mince as fine as possible three quarters of a pound of beef suet. Prepare two beaten nutmegs, and a large table-spoonful of powdered mace and cinnamon; also the grated peel and the juice of two large lemons or oranges. Beat ten eggs very light, and (when it is cold) stir them gradually into the milk, alternately with the suet and grated bread. Add, by degrees, the sugar, fruit, and spice, with a large glass of brandy, and one of white wine. Mix the whole very well, and stir it hard. Then put it into a thick cloth that has been scalded and floured; leave room for it to swell, and tie it very firmly, pasting the tying-place with a small lump of moistened flour. Put the pudding into a large pot of boiling water, and boil it steadily six hours, replenishing the pot occasionally from a boiling kettle. Turn the pudding frequently in the pot. Prepare half a pound of citron cut in slips, and half a pound of almonds blanched and split in half lengthways. Stick the almonds and the citron all over the outside of the pudding as soon as you take it out of the cloth. Send it to table hot, and eat it with wine sauce, or with cold wine and sugar.

If there is much of the pudding left, tie it in a cloth and boil it again next day.

All the ingredients of this plum pudding (except the eggs) should be prepared the day before, otherwise it cannot be made in time to allow of its being sufficiently boiled.

We have known of a very rich plum pudding being mixed in England and sent to America in a covered bowl; it arrived perfectly good after a month's voyage, the season being winter.

A BAKED APPLE PUDDING.--Take nine large pippin apples; pare and core them whole. Set them in the bottom of a large deep dish, and pour round them a very little water, just enough to keep them from burning. Put them into an oven, and let them bake about half an hour. In the mean time, mix three table-spoonfuls of flour with a quart of milk, a quarter of a pound of white sugar, and a tea-spoonful of mixed spice. Beat seven eggs very light, and stir them gradually into the milk. Then take out the dish of apples, (which by this time should be half baked,) and fill up the holes from whence you extracted the cores, with white sugar; pressing down into each a slice of fresh lemon. Pour the batter round the apples; put the dish again into the oven, and let it bake another half hour; but not long enough for the apples to fall to pieces; as they should, when done, be soft throughout, but quite whole. Send it to table warm.

This is sometimes called a _Bird's Nest Pudding_.

It will be much improved by previously boiling in the milk a small handful of peach-leaves. Let it get cold before you stir in the eggs.

BOILED APPLE PUDDING.--Pare, core, and quarter as many fine juicy apples as will weigh two pounds when done. Strew among them a quarter of a pound of brown sugar, and add a grated nutmeg, and the juice and yellow peel of a large lemon. Prepare a paste of suet and flour, in the proportion of a pound of chopped suet to two pounds of flour. Roll it out of moderate thickness; lay the apples in the centre, and close the paste nicely over them in the form of a large dumpling; tie it in a cloth and boil it three hours. Send it to table hot, and eat with it cream sauce, or with butter and sugar. The water must boil before the pudding goes in.

Any fruit pudding may be made in a similar manner.

AN EASTERN PUDDING.--Make a paste of a pound of flour and half a pound of minced suet; and roll it out thin into a square or oblong sheet; trim off the edges so as to make it an even shape. Spread thickly over it some marmalade, or cold stewed fruit, (which must be made very sweet,) either apple, peach, plum, gooseberry or cranberry. Roll up the paste, with the fruit spread on it, into a scroll. Secure each end by putting on nicely a thin round piece rolled out from the trimmings that you cut off the edges of the sheet. Put the pudding into a cloth, and boil it at least three hours. Serve it up hot, and eat it with cream sauce, or with butter and sugar. The pudding must be put on in boiling water.