Chapter XII: Part 12

Cannot we remember—you and I, my dear reader—that we may sometimes be as nearly right as those who talk more loudly and strongly than we upon domestic economy, laying down rules we never thought of suggesting; splitting into ninths a hair our short-sighted eyes cannot make out when whole, and annihilating our timid objections with a lordly “_I_ always do so,” which is equal to a decree of infallibility? Cannot we make up our minds, once and for all, to be a law unto ourselves in all matters pertaining to our households? Mrs. Jones’ rule may be good for her; Mrs. Robinson’s better than any other in her particular case, and Mrs. Brown’s best of all for one in her peculiar circumstances; yet any one or all of them be unsuitable for our use.

Avoid talking about your domestic affairs with people whose gossip on these topics is incessant. You are angry when a whiff of some such discussion as enlightened Mrs. Sterling, with regard to her mistake, is wafted to you through the dumb-waiter or register, an accident that will occur while the tones of the plaintiffs are loud and untrained by education or policy. It is mean and unkind—traitorous, in fact, you say, for them so to misrepresent and revile you—after all the kindness you have showed to them, too! Bridget, Chloe, or Gretchen, passing the parlor-door and catching the sound of her name as roughly handled, may have her own sensations, and draw her own inferences—_being human like yourself_. It is tiresome and vulgar, this everlasting exchange of experiences about “my girl,” and “your girl,” and everybody else’s “girl.” It is time sensible women ceased, in this respect, to imitate the fashion of the class they censure, and put down the bootless tattle with a strong will. Order your household, then, so far aright as you can by the help of common sense and grace from on high, and let Mesdames Jones, Robinson, and Brown look to the ways of their own, and expend their surplus energies upon their neighbors’ concerns—counting you out.

(I believe that is slang, but let it stand!)

These worthy and fussy housewives act upon the supposition that all “girls” are cast in the same mould. Being human (do not let us forget that!), the probability is, that there are varieties of the species.

But, if the mistresses are led by their associates, the “girl’s” “acquaintances” sway her yet more powerfully. Every conscientious, well-meaning housewife knows what a brake is this informal, but terrible “Union” upon her endeavors to improve and really benefit those under her direction. I have been amazed and disgusted at the tyranny exercised by this irresponsible body over the best servants I have ever seen.

“We would be hooted at, ma’am, if we didn’t give in to them,” said one, when I represented how senseless and almost suicidal was the course recommended by these evil advisers. “There’s not a girl in the town would speak to us if we didn’t join in with the rest. It’s like a strike, you see—awful upon them as holds back.”

Do not, then, my discouraged fellow-laborer, imagine that I am ignorant of your trials, your doubts, your disheartening experiences. If I disagree with Mrs. S-k-n-s-t-n and do not pronounce our servants to be the greatest plague of life, inclining rather to the belief that—always allowing for human nature and the drawbacks I have enumerated—good mistresses are apt to make good servants, it is in consequence of long and careful study and observation of the practical working of Mrs. Sterling’s rule. Like begets like. Pleasant words are more likely to be answered by pleasant than are tart or hasty ones. If you would have your servants respectful to you, be respectful to them. The best way to teach them politeness is by example. It should not cost you an effort to say, “Thank you,” or “If you please.” The habit exerts an unconscious refining influence upon them, and you dignify instead of degrading your ladyhood by being pitiful and courteous to all. If you can only maintain your position by haughtiness and chilling disregard of the feelings of inferiors, your rank is false, or you unfit to hold it.

To begin, then: Be mistress of yourself. Amid all your temptations to angry or sarcastic speech (and how many and how strong these are, you and I know), curb yourself with the recollection that it is despicable, no less than useless, to say cutting things to one who has no right to retort upon you in kind.

“Ma’,” says Miss Aurelia in Miss Sedgwick’s admirable story, “Live and let Live”—“how can you let your help be so saucy to you?”

Master Julius, who was standing by, took a different view of the matter.

“If Ma’ doesn’t want her help to be _sarcy_ to her,” he said, “she hadn’t ought to be _sarcy_ to them.”

Teach your children the like forms of kindly speech and habits of consideration for the comfort and happiness of your domestics, checking with equal promptness undue freedom and the arrogance of station. It is as graceful to bend as it is mean to grovel.

Learn not to see everything, and, so soon as you can, put far from you the delusive hope that anybody else—unless it be dear old John—will ever serve you as well as you would serve yourself. This failure is attributable to some one of the nine-tenths we spoke of just now. She is a prudent housekeeper who can wink at trifling blemishes without effort or parade. There is one text which has come into my troubled mind hundreds of times on such occasions, calming perturbation into solemnity, and bringing, I hope, charity with humility—

“If _Thou_, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?”

But if your hold of the rein be gentle, let it also be firm. Never forget that the house is yours, and that you—not hirelings—are responsible for the disposition of the stores purchased with John’s money.

“I was much amused the other day,” said an easy-tempered lady to me, “at a talk that passed under my window between my new cook and one of her visitors.

“‘And how are ye gitting along?’ asked the guest.

“‘Oh! pretty well-ish, now,’ was the reply. ‘I was a-feard, when I first come, that _she_ would bother me a-trotting down into the kitchen so constant. But I give her a hint as how that wasn’t the trick of a raal lady, and she’s kep’ out nicely sence then. You’ve got to stand up for your own rights in this wurrld, or you’ll be trod upon.’”

Now, it would be throwing away words to reason with a woman like that cook, or a mistress might show that in no other department of labor would such a principle be tolerated—that from the Secretary of State down to the scavenger who empties your ash-pan, every employé who draws wages has an overlooker, to whom he is accountable for the manner in which his work is done and his money earned; and that the fact that she is an ignorant, high-tempered woman is no just cause of exemption. Yet in how many families is this point tacitly yielded, and the mistress admitted upon sufferance to her own kitchen—the room furnished with her money, and in which she hardly dare touch or look at the articles intended for the consumption of her own family?

One often hears such remarks as, “It isn’t every girl who will stand having the mistress popping in and out while she is at work.” When, in any other situation, the very fact of this unwillingness to have the owner of the materials used in that work present, would be strong presumptive proof of negligence or dishonesty. The principle is pernicious from beginning to end, and should not be tolerated for an instant.

It gives me pleasure to state here, that I know nothing personally of this curious reversal of the rights of employer and domestic. I am inclined to believe, if one-half I hear of other housewives’ trials be true, that I have been highly favored among American women. My authority in the kitchen, as in other parts of the household, has never been disputed—in my hearing or presence, that is. I have always met with a cheerful reception below-stairs when I appeared there to direct or share the labors of my cooks; have found them willing to undertake new dishes, and ready to learn my “way,” however unlike it might be to their own. As a rule, also,—to which the exceptions have been few and very far between—those employed by me have been cleanly, industrious, kind-hearted, and respectful; patient under inconveniences, and attentive in sickness. I should not, therefore, do my duty, did I not lift my voice in a plea for charitable judgment, just and generous treatment of a class which, however faulty, have much to do and to endure. Mrs. Skinflint’s grocer’s account may be less than yours, if you adopt this policy—Mrs. Sharp’s coal-cellar be better dusted, and the paint in her attic scrubbed oftener; but I believe, in the long run, you will be the most comfortable in body, as in conscience. Your machinery will move with fewer jerks and less friction. Your servants will remain with you longer, and be better-tempered while they stay, if you show that you appreciate the fact of a common humanity; that you owe them duties you are resolved to fulfil during their sojourn under your roof, however mercenary may be their performance of those devolving upon them.

Finally, dear sister, do not add to the real miseries of life by regarding the annoyance of a careless, slothful, or impertinent domestic as a real trouble. Class it with petty vexations which are yet curable as well as endurable, and live above it—a noble, beneficent existence in the love of your fellow-creatures and the fear of GOD—a life that can not suffer perceptible disturbance from such a contemptible rootlet of bitterness as this. It is only the feeble, the inefficient, or the indolent mistress whose peace of mind is dependent upon such casualties as a breeze, a hurricane, or a sudden vacancy in the department of the interior.

Recollect, when the infliction is sharpest, that brier-pricks are disagreeable, but never serious, unless the blood be _very_ impure.

PUDDINGS.

I have, for convenience sake, classed among pies all preparations baked _in crust_ in a pie-dish. Many of these, however, are called puddings, such as custards of various kinds, lemon, cocoa-nut, and orange puddings. The reader will have no trouble in finding the receipts for these, if she will bear the above remark in mind.

BAKED PUDDINGS.

Beat your eggs very light—and, if you put in only one or two, whip white and yolk separately, beating the latter into the sugar before adding the whites.

Fruit, rice, corn-starch, and bread puddings require a steady, moderate oven in baking. Custard and batter puddings should be put into the dish, and this into the oven, the instant they are mixed, and baked quickly. _No_ pudding, unless it be raised with yeast, should be allowed to stand out of the oven after the ingredients are put together. Give one final hard stir just before it goes in, and be sure the mould is well greased.

APPLE MÉRINGUE PUDDING.

1 pint stewed apples.
3 eggs—whites and yolks separate.
½ cup white sugar, and one teaspoonful butter.
1 teaspoonful nutmeg and cinnamon mixed.
1 teaspoonful essence bitter almond (for the méringue.)

Sweeten and spice, and, while the apple is still very hot, stir in the butter, and, a little at a time, the yolks. Beat all light, pour into a buttered dish, and bake ten minutes. Cover, without drawing from the oven, with a méringue made of the beaten whites, two tablespoonfuls white sugar, and the bitter almond seasoning. Spread smoothly and quickly, close the oven again, and brown very slightly.

Eat cold, with white sugar sifted over the top, and send around cream to pour over it instead of sauce.

BAKED APPLE PUDDING.

6 large firm pippins (grated.)
3 tablespoonfuls butter.
½ cup sugar.
4 eggs—whites and yolks separate.
Juice of one lemon, and half the peel.

Beat butter and sugar to a cream, stir in the yolks, the lemon, the grated apple, lastly the whites. Grate nutmeg over the top, and bake until nicely browned.

Eat cold with cream.

SWEET APPLE PUDDING. ✠

1 quart milk.
4 eggs.
3 cups chopped apple.
1 lemon—all the juice and half the rind.
Nutmeg and cinnamon.
¼ teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a little vinegar.
Flour for a stiff batter.

Beat the yolks very light, add the milk, seasoning, and flour. Stir hard five minutes, and beat in the apple, then the whites, lastly the soda, well mixed in.

Bake in two square shallow pans one hour, and eat hot, with sweet sauce. Much of the success of this pudding depends upon the mixing—almost as much upon the baking. Cover with paper when half done, to prevent hardening.

PIPPIN PUDDING. ✠

8 fine pippins, pared, cored, and sliced, breaking them as
little as possible.
½ cup very fine bread-crumbs.
2 teaspoonfuls butter—melted.
5 eggs—whites and yolks separate.
¾ cup sugar.
1 oz. citron, shred finely.
1 teaspoonful nutmeg, and a dozen whole cloves.
1 cup milk or cream.

Soak the bread-crumbs in the milk, cream the butter and sugar, and beat into this the yolks. Next, adding the milk and soaked bread, stir until very smooth and light. Put in the nutmeg and citron, and whip in the whites lightly. Butter a deep dish, and put in your sliced apple, sprinkling each piece well with sugar, and scattering the cloves among them. Pour the custard you have prepared over them, and bake three-quarters of an hour.

Sift powdered sugar over the top, and eat cold.

BROWN BETTY. ✠

1 cup bread-crumbs.
2 cups chopped apples—tart.
½ cup sugar.
1 teaspoonful cinnamon.
2 tablespoonfuls butter cut into small bits.

Butter a deep dish, and put a layer of the chopped apple at the bottom; sprinkle with sugar, a few bits of butter, and cinnamon; cover with bread-crumbs; then more apple. Proceed in this order until the dish is full, having a layer of crumbs at top. Cover closely, and steam three-quarters of an hour in a moderate oven; then uncover and brown quickly.

Eat warm with sugar and cream, or sweet sauce.

This is a homely but very good pudding, especially for the children’s table. Serve in the dish in which it is baked.

APPLE BATTER PUDDING. ✠

1 pint rich milk.
2 cups flour.
4 eggs.
1 teaspoonful salt.
¼ teaspoonful soda, dissolved in hot water.

Peel and core eight apples carefully, and range them closely together in a deep dish. Beat the batter very light and pour over them. Unless the apples are very ripe and sweet (for tart apples), fill the centre of each with white sugar. Bake an hour, and eat hot with sweet sauce.

APPLE AND PLUM PUDDING.

¾ lb. fine tart apples, pared and chopped.
¾ lb. sugar.
¾ lb. flour.
½ lb. beef suet, rubbed fine.
¾ lb. raisins, seeded and chopped.
6 eggs.
1 teaspoonful nutmeg and the same powdered cloves.
1 teaspoonful salt.
½ glass brown Sherry and the same of brandy.

Stir the beaten yolks and sugar very light, add the suet and apples with the spice; then the raisins, well dredged with flour; next the flour, and when this is all in, the liquor; lastly the whites beaten _very_ stiff. Bake in two buttered moulds, in a moderate oven, an hour and a half at least. Eat hot, with sauce.

You may boil this pudding if you like.

APPLE AND TAPIOCA PUDDING. ✠

1 teacupful tapioca.
6 apples—juicy and well-flavored pippins—pared and cored.
1 quart water.
1 teaspoonful salt.

Cover the tapioca with three cups of lukewarm water, and set it in a tolerably warm place to soak five or six hours, stirring now and then. Pack your apples in a deep dish, adding a cup of lukewarm water; cover closely and steam in a moderate oven until soft all through, turning them as they cook at bottom. If the dish is more than a quarter full of liquid, turn some of it out before you pour the soaked tapioca over all. Unless your apples are _very_ sweet fill the centre with sugar and stick a clove in each, just before you cover with the tapioca. Indeed, I always do this. It softens the hard acid of the fruit. Bake, after the tapioca goes in, one hour.

Eat warm, with sweet hard sauce.

BAKED APPLE DUMPLINGS. ✠

1 quart flour.
2 tablespoonfuls lard—or half butter is better.
2 cups of milk.
1 teaspoonful soda, dissolved in hot water.
2 teaspoonfuls cream-tartar sifted into the dry flour.
1 saltspoonful salt.

Chop the shortening into the flour after you have sifted this and the cream-tartar together; put in the soda and wet up quickly—just stiff enough to roll into a paste less than half an inch thick. Cut into squares, and lay in the centre of each a juicy, tart apple, pared and cored; bring the corners of the square neatly together and pinch them slightly. Lay in a buttered baking-pan, the joined edges downward, and bake to a fine brown. When done, brush over with beaten egg, and set back in the oven to glaze for two or three minutes. Sift powdered sugar over them, and eat hot with rich sweet sauce.

I greatly prefer the above simple crust for all kinds of dumplings, to the rich paste which becomes heavy so soon as it begins to cool. It is also more quickly and easily made, and far more wholesome than pastry.

TAPIOCA PUDDING. ✠

1 cup tapioca.
1 quart milk.
5 eggs—whites and yolks beaten separately.
2 tablespoonfuls butter, melted.
2 tablespoonfuls sugar.

Soak the tapioca, in enough cold water to cover it, two hours; drain off the water, if it be not all absorbed; soak two hours longer in the milk, which should be slightly warmed. When the tapioca is quite soft, beat the sugar and butter together; add the yolks, the milk and tapioca, lastly the whites. Stir very well, and bake in a buttered dish. Eat warm with sweet sauce.

You may make a sago pudding in the same way.

CORN-STARCH PUDDING. ✠

4 tablespoonfuls corn-starch.
1 quart milk.
4 eggs—whites and yolks separate.
¾ cup sugar.
Nutmeg and cinnamon.
1 tablespoonful butter.

Dissolve the corn-starch in a little cold milk, and having heated the rest of the milk to boiling, stir this in and boil three minutes, stirring all the time. Remove from the fire, and while still very hot, put in the butter. Set away until cold; beat the eggs very light—the sugar and seasoning with them, and stir into the corn-starch, beating thoroughly to a smooth custard. Turn into a buttered dish, and bake half an hour. Eat cold, with powdered sugar sifted over it.

CORN-STARCH MÉRINGUE. ✠

5 eggs.
1 quart of milk.
¾ cup sugar.
4 teaspoonfuls corn-starch.
½ cup fruit-jelly or jam.

Heat the milk to boiling, and stir in the corn-starch, which has previously been dissolved in a little cold milk. Boil fifteen minutes, stirring all the while. Remove from the fire, and while still hot, add gradually the yolks of the eggs beaten up with the sugar and seasoned with vanilla, lemon, or bitter almond. Pour this into a buttered pudding-dish and bake fifteen minutes, or until the custard begins to “set.” Without withdrawing it further than the door of the oven, spread lightly and _quickly_ upon this a méringue of the whites whipped up stiff with a half-cup jelly—added gradually. Use crab-apple jelly, if bitter almond has been put into the custard; currant, for vanilla; strawberry or other sweet conserve, if you season the custard with lemon. Bake, covered, for five minutes. Then remove the lid, and brown the méringue _very_ slightly.

Eat cold, with powdered sugar sifted thickly over the top.

ARROW-ROOT PUDDING

Is made according to either of the foregoing receipts, substituting arrow-root for corn-starch. Farina pudding also.

BREAD PUDDING. ✠

1 quart of milk.
2 cups of fine bread crumbs—_always_ stale and dry.
4 eggs.
2 tablespoonfuls melted butter.
Nutmeg to taste.
¼ teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water.

Beat the yolks very light, and having soaked the bread-crumbs well in the milk, stir these together; then the butter and seasoning, with the soda; lastly the whites. Bake to a fine brown, and eat hot with pudding-sauce.

This, if well mixed and baked, is quite a different dish from the traditional and much-despised bread-pudding of stingy housekeepers and boarding-house landladies. “Which,” says an English Josh. Billings, “nothing can be more promiskus than a boarding-house bread-pudding.” Try mine instead, putting all the sugar into the sauce, and enough there, and you will cease to sneer.

You may boil this pudding, if you like, in a floured cloth or buttered mould.

FRUIT BREAD PUDDING. ✠

1 quart milk.
5 eggs.
2 tablespoonfuls melted butter.
2 tablespoonfuls (heaping) sugar.
¼ lb. raisins, seeded and chopped.
¼ lb. currants, well washed and picked over.
Handful of shred citron, and 1 teaspoonful soda, dissolved in
hot water.
2 _scant_ cups fine bread-crumbs, from a stale loaf.

Beat the yolks light with the sugar, add the bread-crumbs when they have been well soaked in the milk, and stir until smooth. Next put in the fruit, well dredged with flour, the soda, and finally the whites, whipped to a stiff froth.

This will require longer and steadier baking than if the fruit were not in. Cover it if it threatens to harden too soon on top. Send to table hot in the dish in which it was baked, or turn out very carefully upon a hot plate. Eat warm, with pudding-sauce.

BREAD-AND-BUTTER PUDDING.

4 eggs.
3 cups milk.
¾ cup sugar.
Vanilla or other extract.
Nutmeg to taste.
Bread and butter.

Cut thin slices of bread (stale), spread thickly with butter, and sprinkle with sugar. Fit them neatly and closely into a buttered pudding-dish until it is half full. Lay a small, heavy plate upon them to prevent them from floating, and saturate them gradually with a hot custard made of the milk, heated almost to boiling, then taken from the fire, and the beaten eggs and sugar stirred in with the seasoning. Let the bread soak in this fifteen minutes or so, adding by degrees all the custard. Just before you put the pudding in the oven, take up the plate gently. If the bread still rise to the top, keep down with a silver fork or spoon, laid upon it from the side of the dish, until the custard thickens, when slip it out. Eat cold.

BREAD-AND-MARMALADE PUDDING ✠

Is made precisely as above, except that each slice is spread with marmalade or jam besides the butter.

Either of these puddings is good boiled.

ALICE’S PUDDING. ✠

1 quart of milk.
4 eggs.
1 cup very fine dry bread-crumbs.
½ cup strawberry or other sweet jam.
½ cup sugar.

Butter a pudding-dish; sprinkle the bottom with bread-crumbs; pour over these half a cup jam, and cover this well with the rest of the crumbs, wet with a very little milk. Heat the quart of milk until _near_ boiling, take it from the fire and add, gradually, the beaten yolks and sugar, stirring in the beaten whites lightly at the last. Heat this by degrees, stirring constantly until it begins to thicken; put it, spoonful by spoonful, upon the layer of bread-crumbs, taking care not to disturb these, and when all is in, bake until well “set” and very slightly browned.

Eat cold. Cream is a delicious accompaniment to it.

THE QUEEN OF PUDDINGS. ✠

1½ cup white sugar.
2 cups fine dry bread-crumbs.
5 eggs.
1 tablespoonful of butter.
Vanilla, rose-water, or lemon seasoning.
1 quart fresh rich milk, and one half cup jelly or jam.

Rub the butter into a cup of sugar; beat the yolks very light, and stir these together to a cream. The bread-crumbs, soaked in milk, come next, then the seasoning. Bake this in a buttered pudding-dish—a large one and but two-thirds full—until the custard is “set.” Draw to the mouth of the oven, spread over with jam or other nice fruit-conserve. Cover this with a méringue made of the whipped whites and half a cup of sugar. Shut the oven and bake until the méringue begins to color.

Eat cold, with cream.

You may, in strawberry season, substitute the fresh fruit for preserves. It is then truly delightful.

CRACKER PUDDING. ✠

1 quart milk.
1 cup powdered cracker.
5 eggs.
2 tablespoonfuls melted butter.
½ teaspoonful soda—dissolved in boiling water.

Heat the milk slightly, and pouring it over the cracker, let them stand together fifteen minutes. Stir into this first the beaten yolks, then the butter and soda; beat all smooth and add the whipped whites.

Eat hot, with pudding sauce.

DORCHESTER CRACKER PLUM PUDDING.

2 quarts milk.
6 Boston crackers—split and buttered.
8 eggs—beaten very light.
2 cups sugar. Nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon to taste.
1 teaspoonful of salt.
1 lb. raisins, seeded and cut in two.

Make a custard of the milk, eggs, and sugar, seasoned with the spices, by heating the milk _almost_ to boiling, then taking it from the fire and adding gradually the yolks, sugar, seasoning, and whites. Do not boil it again. Butter a pudding-dish; put a layer of crackers in the bottom, moistening with a few spoonfuls of the hot custard. On this lay some of the raisins—a thick stratum; cover with crackers—the buttered side downward; moisten with the custard, and proceed in this order until your crackers and fruit are used up. Pour in custard until only the top of the upper layer is visible, but not enough to float them; cover closely and set in the cellar over night. In the morning add the rest of the custard, at intervals of five or six minutes between the cupfuls.

Bake two hours in a moderate oven. Cover with paper if it should seem likely to harden too fast.

Eat hot, with sauce.

CRACKER SUET PUDDING. ✠

¼ lb. beef suet, freed from strings, and powdered.
1 cup fine cracker-crumbs.
2 tablespoonfuls sugar.
4 eggs.
3 cups milk.
Pinch of soda.
1 teaspoonful salt.

Beat the yolks with the sugar; add to these the milk in which the cracker has been soaked for half an hour; work into a smooth paste before putting in the suet and soda. Whip the whites in last, and bake nearly, if not quite an hour. Cover, should the crust form too rapidly. Eat hot, with wine sauce.

You may also steam or boil this pudding.

FRUIT CRACKER PUDDING.

1 cup powdered cracker soaked in one pint of milk.
¼ lb. beef suet, cleared from strings and powdered.
½ lb. raisins, seeded and cut in two.
¼ lb. currants, washed and dried.
3 oz. almonds.
5 eggs.
½ cup sugar.
1 teaspoonful nutmeg, and same of cinnamon. Rose-water to taste.

Blanch the almonds and cut with a sharp knife into thin shavings. Beat the yolks with the sugar until light and thick; mix in the cracker and milk; the suet and the fruit well dredged; the spice and rose-water; then the whipped whites, finally the almonds.

Bake in a buttered mould one hour and a half. Turn out and eat with wine sauce.

_Or,_

Boil in a well-buttered mould. In this case, blanch, but do not cut the almonds, and do not stone the raisins. Butter the mould so thickly that you can stick the almonds to the sides in regular rows, alternately with rows of whole raisins. Put in the mixture gently, not to disturb these; cover the mould and boil or steam three hours. Treated in this way, it makes a pretty-looking pudding. It is palatable in any shape.

CRACKER AND JAM PUDDING.

3 eggs.
½ cup cracker-crumbs.
½ cup sugar.
1 tablespoonful butter.
1 teacup milk.
½ lemon—juice and grated rind.
3 tablespoonfuls jam.

Soak the cracker in the milk; rub the butter and sugar together, adding the lemon, and beating to a cream; then stir in the beaten yolks; next the cracker and milk; lastly, the whites. Butter a deep dish, and put the jam, which should be pretty stiff, at the bottom. Fill up with the mixture, and bake about half an hour.

Eat cold, with sugar sifted over the top.

RICE PUDDING (_Plain._) ✠

1 coffee-cup rice.
2 quarts milk.
8 tablespoonfuls sugar.
1 teaspoonful salt.
Butter the size of an egg—melted.
Nutmeg and cinnamon to taste.

Wash and pick over the rice, and soak in one pint of the milk two hours. Then add the rest of the milk, the sugar, salt, butter and spice. Bake two hours, and eat cold.

RICE AND TAPIOCA PUDDING. ✠

½ cup rice.
½ cup tapioca.
¾ cup sugar.
3 pints milk.
Cinnamon to taste.

Soak the tapioca in a cup of the milk three hours; wash the rice in several waters, and soak in another cup of milk as long as you do the tapioca. Sweeten the remaining quart of milk; put all the ingredients together, and bake two hours in a slow oven. Eat cold.

RICE PUDDING WITH EGGS. ✠

1 quart milk.
4 eggs.
½ cup rice.
¾ cup sugar.
1 tablespoonful butter.
Handful of raisins, seeded and cut in two.

Soak the rice in a pint of the milk an hour, then set the saucepan containing it where it will slowly heat to a boil. Boil five minutes; remove and let it cool. Beat the yolks, add the sugar and butter, the rice and the milk in which it was cooked, with the pint of unboiled; the beaten whites, and finally the raisins. Grate nutmeg on the top, and bake three-quarters of an hour, or until the custard is well set and of a light brown. Eat cold.

RICE-FLOUR PUDDING.

2 quarts of milk.
½ lb. rice flour.
1 cup sugar.
6 eggs.
1 tablespoonful butter.
1 small teaspoonful nutmeg.
2 teaspoonfuls vanilla or rose-water.
1 lemon—juice of the whole, and half the grated rind.

Heat the milk to a boil, and stir in the rice-flour wet to a smooth paste with a little cold milk; boil until well thickened, stirring all the time. Take from the fire, and while still hot stir in the butter, the yolks beaten light with the sugar, the lemon, nutmeg, and the whites of three eggs. Mix well, and bake in a buttered dish three-quarters of an hour. Just before you take it up, draw to the mouth of the oven and cover with a méringue of the remaining whites, beaten stiff with two tablespoonfuls powdered sugar, and flavored with vanilla or rose-water. Bake until the méringue begins to brown. Sift sugar on the top and eat cold.

BATTER PUDDING. ✠

1 pint of milk.
4 eggs—whites and yolks beaten separately.
2 even cups flour.
1 teaspoonful salt.
1 pinch of soda.

Bake in a buttered dish three-quarters of an hour. Serve in the pudding-dish as soon as it is drawn from the oven, and eat with rich sauce.

_Or,_

You may boil it in a buttered mould or floured bag, flouring it _very_ thickly. Boil two hours, taking care the boiling does not cease for a moment until the pudding is done.

BATTER PUDDING (_No. 2._)

1 quart milk.
10 tablespoonfuls flour.
7 eggs.
1 teaspoonful salt.
½ teaspoonful soda, dissolved in hot water.
1 teaspoonful cream-tartar, sifted into the flour.

Wet the flour gradually with the milk to a very smooth paste; next add the beaten yolks, then the salt and soda, lastly the whites, whipped to a stiff froth. Bake in a buttered dish for an hour, and serve at once. Eat hot, with sauce.

If you boil it, leave plenty of room to swell in the bag, and boil two hours.

COTTAGE PUDDING. ✠

1 cup of sugar.
1 tablespoonful of butter.
2 eggs.
1 cup sweet milk.
3 cups flour, or enough to make a tolerably stiff batter.
½ teaspoonful of soda.
1 teaspoonful cream-tartar, sifted with the flour.
1 teaspoonful salt.

Rub the butter and sugar together, beat in the yolks, then the milk and soda, the salt, and the beaten whites, alternately with the flour. Bake in a buttered mould; turn out upon a dish; cut in slices, and eat with liquid sauce.

This is a simple but very nice pudding.

GERMAN PUFFS. ✠

3 cups flour.
3 cups milk.
3 eggs—whites and yolks beaten separately and _very_ light.
3 teaspoonfuls melted butter.
1 saltspoonful salt.

Pour in nine well-buttered cups of same size as that used for measuring, and bake to a fine brown. Eat as soon as done, with sauce.

CUP PUDDINGS.

4 eggs.
The weight of the eggs in sugar and in flour.
Half their weight in butter.
2 tablespoonfuls milk.
¼ teaspoonful soda, dissolved in hot water.

Rub the sugar and butter together; beat the yolks light, and add then the milk and soda; lastly the flour and beaten whites alternately. Fill six small cups, well buttered, and bake twenty minutes, or until a nice brown. Eat warm.

LEMON PUDDING. ✠

1 cup of sugar.
4 eggs.
2 tablespoonfuls corn-starch.
2 lemons—juice of both and rind of one.
1 pint milk.
1 tablespoonful butter.

Heat the milk to boiling, and stir in the corn-starch, wet with a few spoonfuls of cold water. Boil five minutes, stirring constantly. While hot, mix in the butter, and set it away to cool. Beat the yolks light, and add the sugar, mixing very thoroughly before putting in the lemon juice and grated rind. Beat this to a stiff cream, and add gradually to the corn-starch milk, when the latter is cold. Stir all smooth, put in a buttered dish, and bake. Eat cold.

LEMON MÉRINGUE PUDDING (_very nice._)

1 quart milk.
2 cups bread-crumbs.
4 eggs.
½ cup butter.
1 cup white sugar.
1 large lemon—juice and half the rind, grated.

Soak the bread in the milk; add the beaten yolks, with the butter and sugar rubbed to a cream, also the lemon. Bake in a buttered dish until firm and slightly brown. Draw to the door of the oven and cover with a méringue of the whites whipped to a froth with three tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar, and a little lemon-juice. Brown very slightly; sift powdered sugar over it, and eat cold.

You may make an orange pudding in the same way.

COCOANUT PUDDING.

½ lb. grated cocoanut.
½ cup stale sponge cake, crumbed fine.
1 cup sugar.
1 _large_ cup rich milk—cream, if you can get it.
6 eggs.
2 teaspoonfuls vanilla, or rose-water.

Cream the butter and sugar, and add the beaten yolks. When these are well mixed, put in the cocoanut; stir well before adding the milk, cake-crumbs, flavoring; and lastly, the whites of three eggs. Whip the other whites stiff with three tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar; flavor with vanilla, and just before taking the pudding from the oven, spread this méringue over the top, and close the oven until the icing is slightly browned.

Bake in all three-quarters of an hour.

ORANGE MARMALADE PUDDING. ✠

1 cup fine bread-crumbs.
½ cup sugar.
1 cup milk or cream.
4 eggs.
2 teaspoonfuls butter.
1 cup orange or other sweet marmalade.

Rub the butter and sugar together; add the yolks well beaten, the milk, bread-crumbs, and the whites whipped to a froth. Put a layer of this in the bottom of a well-buttered mould, spread thickly with some pretty stiff marmalade—orange is nicest—then another layer of the mixture, and so on until the mould is full, having the custard mixture at top. Bake in a moderate oven about an hour, turn out of the mould upon a dish and serve, with sweetened cream or custard.

MACARONI PUDDING. ✠

1 cup macaroni broken into inch lengths.
1 quart milk.
4 eggs.
½ lemon—juice and grated peel.
2 tablespoonfuls butter.
¾ cup sugar.

Simmer the macaroni in half the milk until tender. While hot stir in the butter, the yolks, well beaten up with the sugar, the lemon, and lastly the whipped whites. Bake in a buttered mould about half an hour, or until nicely browned.

VERMICELLI PUDDING

May be made according to the foregoing receipt.

NEAPOLITAN PUDDING.—(_Very fine._) ✠

1 large cup fine bread-crumbs soaked in milk.
¾ cup sugar.
1 lemon—juice and grated rind.
6 eggs.
½ lb. stale sponge-cake.
½ lb. macaroons—almond.
½ cup jelly or jam, and one small tumbler of Sherry wine.
½ cup milk poured upon the bread-crumbs.
1 tablespoonful melted butter.

Rub the butter and sugar together; put the beaten yolks in next; then the soaked bread-crumbs, the lemon, juice, and rind, and beat to a smooth, light paste before adding the whites. Butter your mould _very_ well, and put in the bottom a light layer of dry bread-crumbs; upon this one of macaroons, laid evenly and closely together. Wet this with wine, and cover with a layer of the mixture; then with slices of sponge-cake, spread thickly with jelly or jam; next macaroons, wet with wine, more custard, sponge-cake, and jam, and so on until the mould is full, putting a layer of the mixture at the top. Cover closely, and steam in the oven three-quarters of an hour; then remove the cover to brown the top. Turn out carefully into a dish, and pour over it a sauce made of currant jelly warmed, and beaten up with two tablespoonfuls melted butter and a glass of pale Sherry.

A plain round mould is best for the pudding, as much of its comeliness depends upon the manner in which the cake and macaroons are fitted in.

It is a pretty and good pudding, and will well repay the trifling trouble and care required to manage it properly.

It is also nice boiled in a buttered mould.

RHUBARB PUDDING.

Prepare the stalks as for pies; cover the bottom of a buttered pudding-dish with slices of bread and butter; cover with the rhubarb cut into short pieces; sprinkle abundantly with sugar; then put on another layer of bread and butter, and so on until your dish is full. Cover and steam, while baking, for half an hour. Remove the lid and bake ten minutes, or until browned.

Eat with hot sauce.

GOOSEBERRY PUDDING. ✠

1 pint ripe or nearly ripe gooseberries.
6 or 8 slices toasted stale bread.
1 cup milk.
½ cup sugar.
1 tablespoonful butter, melted.

Stew the gooseberries ten minutes—very slowly, not to break them. Cut your slices of bread to fit your pudding-dish, and toast to a light brown on both sides. (Cut off all the crust before toasting.) Dip each slice, while hot, in milk, and spread with the melted butter. Cover the bottom of the dish with them; put next a layer of the gooseberries, sprinkled thickly with sugar; more toast, more berries, and so on, until the dish is full. Cover closely and steam in a moderate oven twenty or twenty-five minutes. Turn out upon a hot dish and pour over it a good pudding-sauce.

This is considered a wholesome breakfast dish, and is certainly good. In this case omit the sauce, sift powdered sugar over the top, and eat with the same.

NEWARK PUDDING.

1 cup fine bread-crumbs soaked in a pint of the milk.
1 quart of milk.
5 eggs.
2 tablespoonfuls rice-flour.
½ lb. raisins seeded, cut in two, and dredged with flour.
Vanilla or bitter almond extract.
2 tablespoonfuls melted butter, and a half-teaspoonful soda.

Beat the yolks light; add the soaked bread-crumbs and milk; stir to a smooth batter, put in the rice-flour, wet up first with cold milk; the reserved pint of milk, the seasoning, butter, the fruit, lastly the whites whipped stiff. Bake an hour in a buttered mould; turn out and pour sauce over it, serving hard sauce also with it.

_Or,_

You may boil the mixture two hours in a floured cloth or buttered mould.

BAKED PLUM PUDDING.

1¼ lb. of flour.
1 lb. raisins seeded, cut in two, and dredged with flour.
½ lb. suet, freed from strings and powdered.
1 cup sugar.
2 oz. citron, shred fine.
5 eggs—whites and yolks beaten separately.
Nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves—one teaspoonful each.
Milk to make a thick batter of the flour. Begin with two cups, and
add more if necessary.

Beat the yolks and sugar together; add the suet and spice, then the flour, moistening the mixture gradually with milk until you can move the spoon in it. Dredge the fruit and put in by degrees; finally, stir in the beaten whites. Beat all very hard and long before baking in a buttered mould. It will require _at least_ an hour and a half in a moderate oven.

Turn out, and eat with rich sweet sauce.

BELLE’S DUMPLINGS.

1 quart _prepared_ flour.
2½ tablespoonfuls lard and butter mixed.
2 cups of milk, or enough to make a soft dough.

Roll out a quarter of an inch thick, cut into oblong pieces, rounded at the corners; put a great spoonful damson, cherry, or other tart preserve in the middle and roll into a dumpling. Bake three-quarters of an hour, brush over with beaten egg while hot, set back in the oven three minutes to glaze.

Eat hot with brandy or wine sauce.

_Or,_

You may make a roll-pudding of it by rolling out the paste into an oblong sheet, spreading thickly with the preserves, folding it up as one would a travelling-shawl to be put into a strap, pinching the ends together that the juice may not escape, and boiling in a floured cloth fitted to the shape of the “roley-poley.” Boil an hour and a half.

BOILED PUDDINGS.

You can boil puddings in a bowl, a mould, or a cloth. The mould should have a closely-fitting top, and be buttered well—top and all—before the batter or dough is put in. These moulds are usually made with hasps or other fastening. In lack of this, you had better tie down the cover securely. I once boiled a pudding in a tin pail, the top of which I made more secure by fitting it over a cloth floured on the inside, lest the pudding should stick. The experiment succeeded admirably, and I commend the suggestion to those who find, after the pudding is mixed, that their mould leaks, or the bowl that did duty as a substitute has been broken, and nothing said to “the mistress” about it. If you use a bowl, butter it, and tie a floured cloth tightly over the top. If a cloth, have it clean and sweet, and flour bountifully on the inside. In all, leave room for batter, bread, rice, and cracker puddings to swell. Tie the string very tightly about the mouth of the bag, which must be made with _felled_ seams at sides and bottom, the better to exclude the water.

The water must be boiling when the pudding goes in, and not stop boiling for one instant until it is done. If it is in a bag, this must be turned several times, _under water_, to prevent sticking or scorching to the sides of the pot. The bag must also be entirely covered, while the water should not quite reach to the top of a mould. If you use a basin, dip the cloth in boiling water before dredging with flour on the inside.

When the time is up, take mould, basin, or cloth from the boiling pot, and plunge _instantly_ into cold water; then turn out without the loss of a second. This will prevent sticking, and leave a clearer impression of the mould upon the contents.

Boiled puddings should be served as soon as they are done, as they soon become heavy.

Many of the baked puddings I have described are quite as good boiled. As a safe rule, _double the time of baking if you boil_.

BERRY PUDDING.

1 pint of milk.
2 eggs.
1 saltspoonful salt.
¼ teaspoonful soda, dissolved in hot water.
½ teaspoonful cream-tartar, sifted through a cup of flour, and
added to enough flour to make a thick batter.
1 pint blackberries, raspberries, currants, or huckleberries,
well dredged with flour—stirred in at the last.

HUCKLEBERRY PUDDING. ✠

1 pint milk.
2 eggs.
1 quart flour—or enough for thick batter.
1 gill baker’s yeast.
1 saltspoonful salt.
1 teaspoonful soda, dissolved in boiling water.
Nearly a quart of berries—well dredged with flour.

Make a batter of eggs, milk, flour, yeast, salt, and soda, and set it to rise in a warm place about four hours. When you are ready to boil it, stir in the dredged fruit quickly and lightly. Boil in a buttered mould or a floured cloth for two hours.

This will be found lighter and more wholesome than boiled pastry.

Eat hot with sweet sauce.

FRUIT VALISE PUDDING. ✠

1 quart flour.
1 tablespoonful lard, and same of butter.
1 teaspoonful soda, dissolved in hot water.
2 teaspoonful cream-tartar—sifted through the flour.
1 saltspoonful salt.
2 cups milk, or enough to make the flour into soft dough.
1 quart berries, chopped apples, sliced peaches, or other fruit;
jam, preserves, canned fruit, or marmalade may be substituted
for the berries.

Roll out the crust less than half an inch thick—indeed, a quarter of an inch will do—into an oblong sheet. Cover thickly with the fruit and sprinkle with sugar. Begin at one end and roll it up closely, the fruit inside. In putting this in, leave a narrow margin at the other end of the roll, which should be folded down closely like the flap of a pocket-book. Pinch the ends of the folded roll together, to prevent the escape of the fruit, and baste up in a bag, the same size and shape as the “valise.” Flour the bag well before putting in the pudding, having previously dipped it—the cloth—into hot water, and wring it out.

Boil an hour and a half. Serve hot with sauce, and cut crosswise in slices half an inch thick.

BOILED APPLE DUMPLINGS. (No. 1.) ✠

Make a paste according to the above receipt; cut in squares, and put in the centre of each an apple, pared and cored. Bring the corners together; enclose each dumpling in a small square cloth, tied up bag-wise, leaving room to swell. Each cloth should be dipped in hot water, wrung out and floured on the inside before the apple is put in.

Boil one hour.

APPLE DUMPLINGS. (No. 2.) ✠

1 quart flour.
¼ lb. suet.
1 teaspoonful salt.
½ teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water.
1 teaspoonful cream-tartar sifted in the flour.
Cold water enough to make into a tolerably stiff paste.

Roll out, cut into squares, put in the middle of each a fine, juicy apple, pared and cored. Fill the hole left by the core with marmalade, or with sugar wet with lemon-juice. Stick a clove in the sugar. Close the paste, tie up in the cloths, when you have wet them with hot water and floured them, and boil one hour.

A pleasing idea for dumpling cloths is to crochet them in a close stitch with stout tidy cotton. They are easily done, wash and wear well, and leave a very pretty pattern upon the paste when they are opened. Crochet them round, with a cord for drawing run into the outer edge.

BOILED FRUIT PUDDING.

Prepare a paste in accordance with either of the foregoing receipts, but roll into one sheet. Lay apples, peaches, or berries in the centre, paring and slicing the fruit; sprinkle with sugar, and close the paste over them as you would a dumpling. Dip a stout cloth in hot water, flour the inside, put in the pudding, tie tightly, and boil two hours and a half.

Eat hot with sauce.

RICE DUMPLINGS. ✠

1 lb. rice boiled without stirring, until soft, and at the top dry.
12 pippins, pared and cored.
Strawberry marmalade or crab-apple jelly.

Let the rice cool upon a sieve or coarse cloth, that it may dry at the same time. Dip your dumpling cloths in hot water; wring them out and flour well inside. Put a handful of the cold rice upon each, spreading it out into a smooth sheet. Lay in the centre an apple; fill the hole left by the core with marmalade or jelly; draw up the cloth carefully to enclose the apple with a coating of rice; tie, and boil one hour.

Turn over with care; pour sweet sauce or rich sweetened cream over them, and send around more in a boat with them.

SUET DUMPLINGS (_plain._)

2 cups fine bread-crumbs, soaked in a very little milk.
1 cup beef suet, freed from strings, and powdered.
4 eggs, whites and yolks separated, and beaten very light.
1 tablespoonful sugar.
1 teaspoonful cream-tartar, sifted into the flour.
½ teaspoonful soda dissolved in boiling water
1 teaspoonful salt.
Enough milk to mix into a stiff paste.

Make into large balls with floured hands; put into dumpling cloths dipped into hot water and floured inside; leave room to swell, and tie the strings very tightly.

Boil three-quarters of an hour. Serve hot with wine sauce.

FRUIT SUET DUMPLINGS

Are made as above, with the addition of ½ lb. raisins, seeded, chopped, and dredged with flour, and ¼ lb. currants, washed, dried, and dredged.

Boil one hour and a quarter.

BOILED INDIAN MEAL PUDDING.

1 quart milk.
1 quart Indian meal.
3 eggs.
3 heaping tablespoonfuls sugar, and 1 teaspoonful salt.
½ lb. beef suet, chopped into powder.

Scald the milk, and while boiling hot stir in the meal and suet with the salt. When cold add the yolks, beaten light with the sugar, then the whites. Dip your bag in hot water, flour it, and fill half-full with the mixture, as it will swell very much. Boil five hours.

Eat very hot with butter and sugar.

CABINET PUDDING.

½ lb. flour.
¼ lb. butter.
5 eggs,
1½ lb. sugar.
½ lb. raisins, seeded and cut in three pieces each.
¼ lb. currants, washed and dried.
½ cup cream or milk.
½ lemon—juice and rind grated.

Cream the butter and sugar; add the beaten yolks, then the milk and the flour, alternately, with the whites. Lastly, stir in the fruit, well dredged with flour, turn into a buttered mould, and boil two hours and a half at least.

Serve hot, with cabinet pudding sauce over it. (_See Sweet Sauces._)

EVE’S PUDDING.

1 heaping cup of fine dry bread-crumbs.
½ lb. pared and chopped apples.
½ lb. raisins, seeded and chopped.
6 oz. currants, washed and dried.
6 eggs.
1 teaspoonful nutmeg, and same of allspice.
1 glass brandy.
1 cup sugar, and 1 teaspoonful salt.
½ lb. suet, chopped to powder.

Work the sugar into the beaten yolks; then the suet and crumbs, with the chopped apples; next the brandy and spice, then the whipped whites; lastly the fruit, well dredged with flour.

Boil in a buttered bowl or mould three hours. Eat hot with sauce.

THE QUEEN OF PLUM PUDDINGS.

1 lb. butter.
1 lb. of suet, freed from strings and chopped fine.
1 lb. of sugar.
2½ lbs. of flour.
2 lbs. of raisins, seeded, chopped, and dredged with flour.
2 lbs. of currants, picked over carefully after they are washed.
¼ lb. of citron, shred fine.
12 eggs, whites and yolks beaten separately.
1 pint of milk.
1 cup of brandy.
½ oz. of cloves.
½ oz. of mace.
2 grated nutmegs.

Cream the butter and sugar; beat in the yolks when you have whipped them smooth and light; next put in the milk; then the flour, alternately with the beaten whites; then the brandy and spice; lastly the fruit, well dredged with flour. Mix all thoroughly; wring out your pudding-cloth in hot water; flour well inside, pour in the mixture, and boil five hours.

I can confidently recommend this as the best plum pudding I have ever tasted, even when the friend at whose table I had first the pleasure of eating it imitated the example of “good King Arthur’s” economical spouse, and what we “couldn’t eat that night,” “next _day_ fried,” by heating a little butter in a frying-pan, and laying in slices of her pudding, warmed them into almost their original excellence. It will keep a long time—in a _locked_ closet or safe.

ORANGE ROLEY-POLEY. ✠

Make a light paste as for apple dumplings or valise pudding, roll in an oblong sheet, and lay oranges (sweet ones), peeled, sliced, and seeded, thickly all over it. Sprinkle with white sugar; scatter a teaspoonful or two of the grated yellow peel over all and roll up closely, folding down the end to secure the syrup. Boil in a pudding-cloth one hour and a half.

Eat with lemon sauce.

CHERRY OR CURRANT PYRAMID. ✠