Eliza Leslie

“ Half an hour's boiling (or a little more) is generally sufficient.
When it is done, take out the pumpkin, spread it On a large dish, and strain the syrup through a bag. Put the pumpkin into your jars or glasses, pour the syrup over it, and tie it up with brandy paper.
If properly done, this is a very fine sweetmeat. The taste of the pumpkin will be lost in that of the lemon and sugar, and the syrup is particularly pleasant. It is eaten without cream, like preserved ginger. It may be laid on puff-paste shells, after they are baked. ”

“ If cranberries, gooseberries, dried peaches, or damsons, they should be stewed, and made very sweet. If apples, they should be stewed in a very little water, drained, and seasoned with nutmeg, rosewater and lemon. If currants, raspberries, or blackberries, they should be mashed with sugar, and put into the pudding raw.
Spread the fruit very thick, all over the sheet of paste, (which must not be rolled out too thin.) When it is covered all over with the fruit, roll it up, and close the dough at both ends, and down the last side. Tie the pudding in a cloth and boil it. ”

“ Stew your apple in as little water as possible, and not long enough for the pieces to break and lose their shape. Put them in a colander to drain, and mash them with the back of a spoon. If stewed too long, and in too much water, they will lose their flavour. When cold, mix with them the nutmeg, rose-water, and lemon-peel, and two ounces of sugar. Stir the other two ounces of sugar, with the butter or cream, and then mix it gradually with the apple.
Bake, it in puff-paste, in a soup-dish, about half an hour in a moderate oven. ”

“ Butter and sugar should be stirred till it looks like thick cream, and till it stands up in the pan.
It should be kept cool. If too warm, it will make the cakes heavy.
Large cakes should be baked in tin or earthen pans with straight sides, that are as nearly perpendicular as possible. They cut into handsomer slices, and if they are to be iced, it will be found very inconvenient to put on the icing, if the cake slopes in towards the bottom.
Before you ice a cake dredge it all over with flour, and then wipe the flour off. This will enable you to spread on the icing more evenly. ”

“ No others will make good jelly. Pare, core, and quarter them. Lay them in a preserving kettle, and put to them as much water only, as will cover them, and as much lemon-peel as you choose. Boil them till they are soft, but not till they break. Drain off the water through a colander, and mash the apples with the hack of a spoon. Put them into a jelly bag, set a deep dish or pan under it, and squeeze out the juice.
To every pint of juice, allow a pound of loaf-sugar, broken up, and the juice of two lemons. Put the apple-juice, the sugar, and the lemon-juice into the preserving kettle. ”

“ OYSTER PATTIES. Make some rich puff-paste, and bake it in very small tin patty pans. When cool, turn them out upon a large dish.
Stew some large fresh oysters with a few cloves, a little mace and nutmeg, some yolk of egg boiled hard and grated, a little butter, and as much of the oyster liquor as will cover them. When they have stewed a little while, take them out of the pan, and set them away to cool. When quite cold, lay two or three oysters in each shell of puff-paste. ”

“ There is frequently much difficulty in following directions in English and French Cookery Books, not only from their want of explicitness, but from the difference in the fuel, fire-places, and cooking utensils, generally used in Europe and America; and many of the European receipts are, so complicated and laborious, that our female cooks are afraid to undertake the arduous task of making any thing from them. ”

“ Cut out eight large leaves of paste, and lay them on the lid.
Bake the pie in a quick oven.
If you think the oysters will be too much done by baking them in the crust, you can substitute for them pieces of bread, to keep up the lid of the pie.
Put the oysters with their liquor and the seasoning, chopped egg, grated bread, &c. into a pan. Cover them closely, and let them just come to a boil, taking them off the fire, and stirring them frequently. ”

“ PART THE FIRST. PASTRY The eggs should not be beaten till after all the other ingredients are ready, as they will fail very soon. If the whites and yolks are to be beaten separately, do the whites first, as they will stand longer.
Eggs should be beaten in a broad shallow pan, spreading wide at the top. Butter and sugar should be stirred in a deep pan with straight sides. ”

“ Break every egg by itself, in a saucer, before you put it into the pan, that in case there should be any bad ones, they may not spoil the others.
Eggs are beaten most expeditiously with rods. A small quantity of white of egg may be beaten with a knife, or a three-pronged fork. ”

“ Lay a sheet of paste all over a soup-plate. Fill it with mince-meat, laying slips of citron on the top. Roll out a sheet of paste, for the lid of the pie. Put it on, and crimp the edges with a knife. Prick holes in the lid.
Bake the pies half an hour in a brisk oven.
Keep your mince meat in a jar tightly covered. Set it in a dry, cool place, and occasionally add more brandy to it.
Instead of the heart or tongue, you may, if you choose, use part of a round of fresh beef.
PLUM PUDDING One pound of raisins, stoned and cut in half. ”

“ They are drawn up in a style so plain and minute, as to be perfectly intelligible to servants, and persons of the most moderate capacity. All the ingredients, with their proper quantities, are enumerated in a list at the head of each receipt, a plan which will greatly facilitate the business of procuring and preparing the requisite articles. ”

“ But if done at home, and by a person that can be trusted, it will be proved, on trial, that any of these articles may be made in the best and most liberal manner at one half of the cost of the same articles supplied by a confectioner. And they will be found particularly useful to families that live in the country or in small towns, where nothing of the kind is to be purchased. ”

“ Spread it evenly with a broad knife, over the top of each queen-cake, ornamenting them, (while the icing is quite wet) with red and green nonpareils, or fine sugar-sand, dropped on, carefully, with the thumb and finger.
When the cakes are iced, set them in a warm place to dry; but not too near the fire, as that will cause the icing to crack. ”