1 cup whole-wheat meal, 1 cup flour, 1 teaspoonful ground ginger, 1 teaspoonful mixed spice, 1 cup Sultanas or stoned raisins, 2 tablespoons "Nutter," 1/2 teaspoonful baking soda, 2 tablespoonfuls syrup or treacle, or 1 of each; 1 egg, a very little sour milk. Rub "Nutter" or butter into flour, mix all dry things. Beat up egg, and add, with just enough sour or butter-milk to mix. Turn into greased pudding-bowl, and steam for about 2 hours. This should be a very light, wholesome cake, and is especially useful when one has not an oven. It may be varied to advantage, as by using Banana flour in place of the other, chopped dates or fruitarian cake in place of raisins, &c. A handy holiday cake.
Take the flesh of a washed Capon or Turkey cold, mince it so small as you can, then grate or scrape among the flesh two or three ounces of Parmasants or old Holland Cheese, season it with beaten Cloves, Nutmeg, Mace, and Salt, then take the bottoms and tops of foure or five new Rowles, dry them before the fire, or in an Oven, then put them into a faire silver Dish set it upon the fire, wet your bread in a Ladle full of strong Broth, and a Ladle-full of Gravy of Mutton then strow on your minced meat all of an equall thicknesse in each place, then stick twelve or eighteen peices of Marrow as bigge as Walnuts, and pour on an handfull of pure Gravy of Mutton then cover your Dish close, and as it stews adde now and then some Gravy of Mutton there to, thrust your Knife sometimes to the bottome, to keep the bread from sticking to the Dish, let it so stew stil, till you are ready to Dish it away, and when you serve it, if need require, ad more Gravy of Mutton, wring the juyce of two or three Oranges, wipe your Dishes brims, and serve it to the Table in the same Dish.
Singe fowl over free flame. Cut off head just below bill. Untie feet, break bone and loosen sinews just below joint; pull out sinews and cut off feet. Cut out oil sac. Lay breast down, slit skin down backbone toward head; loosen windpipe and crop and pull out. Push back skin from neck and cut off neck close to body. Make slit below end of breastbone, put in fingers, loosen intestines from backbone, take firm grasp of gizzard and draw all out. Cut around vent so that intestines are unbroken. Remove heart and lungs. Remove kidneys. See that inside looks clean, let cold water run through, then wipe inside and out with wet cloth. Cut through thick fleshy part of gizzard and remove inside heavy skin without breaking, then cut away gristly part so that only thick, fleshy part is used.
ROAST POULTRY
After poultry is cleaned and washed inside and out with cold water, fill inside with dressing. Have at least a yard fine twine in trussing needle. Turn wings across back so that the pinions touch. Run needle through thick part of wing under bone, through body and wing on other side; return in same way, but passing needle in over bone, tie firmly, leaving several inches of twine. Press legs up against body, run needle through thigh, body and second thigh, return, going round bone in same way; tie firmly. Run needle through ends of legs, return, passing needle through rump; if opening is badly torn, one or two stitches may be needed; or if steel skewers are used put one through wings of fowl and other through opposite thigh. Then wind twine in figure eight from one handle of skewer to other. Rub all over with soft butter and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place on rack in roasting pan and put into very hot oven. Make basting mixture with 1/2 cup each of butter and water; keep hot and baste every 10 or 15 minutes. Roast 3 hours for 8 pound turkey, 1 to 2 hours for chicken and ducks. Keep oven very hot. If bird is very large and heavy, cover breasts and legs with several thicknesses of paper to keep from burning.
The fowls for this purpose should be young and fine. You may either boil or roast them. They must be quite cold. Having removed all the skin and fat, and disjointed the fowls cut the meat from the bones into very small pieces, not exceeding an inch. Wash and split two large fine heads of celery, and cut the white part into pieces also about an inch long; and having mixed the chicken and celery together, put them into a deep china dish, cover it and set it away. It is best not to prepare the dressing till just before the salad is to be eaten, that it may be as fresh as possible. Have ready the yolks of eight hard-boiled eggs. Put them into a flat dish, and mash them to a paste with the back of a wooden spoon. Add to the egg a small tea-spoonful of fine salt, the same quantity of cayenne pepper, half a jill of made mustard, a jill or a wine-glass and a half of vinegar, and rather more than two wine-glasses of sweet oil. Mix all these ingredients thoroughly; stirring them a long time till they are quite smooth. The dressing should not be put on till a few minutes before the salad is sent in; as by lying in it the chicken and celery will become tough and hard. After you pour it on, mix the whole well together with a silver fork. Chicken salad should be accompanied with plates of bread and butter, and a plate of crackers. It is a supper dish, and is brought in with terrapin, oysters, &c. Cold turkey is excellent prepared as above. An inferior salad may be made with cold fillet of veal, instead of chickens. Cold boiled lobster is very fine cut up and drest in this manner, only substituting for celery, lettuce cut up and mixed with the lobster.
Take two cents' worth of cochineal. Lay it on a flat plate and bruise it with the blade of a knife. Put it into half a teacupful of alcohol. Let it stand a quarter of an hour, and then filter it through fine muslin. Always ready for immediate use. Cork the bottle tight. Strawberry or cranberry juice makes a fine coloring for frosting, sweet puddings and confectionery.
Break up the bones and cover with cold water; add a slice of onion, a bay-leaf, and a sprig of parsley, and cook all day, adding water when necessary, and skimming. Cool, take off the grease, heat again, and strain. Serve with small, even squares of chicken meat in it, or a little cooked rice and salt. Many people like a small pinch of cinnamon in turkey soup.
Take half a dozen pigeons; stuff each one with a dressing the same as for turkey; loosen the joints with a knife, but do not separate them. Put them in a stewpan with water enough to cover them, let them cook until nearly tender, then season them with salt and pepper and butter. Thicken the gravy with flour, remove and cool. Butter a pudding dish, line the sides with a rich crust. Have ready some hard-boiled eggs cut in slices. Put in a layer of egg and birds and gravy until the dish is full. Cover with a crust and bake.
Clean the turkey, and lard the breast. Throw fifty large chestnuts into boiling water for a few minutes; then take them up, and rub off the thin, dark skin. Cover them with boiling water, and simmer for one hour; take them up, and mash fine. Chop one pound of veal and half a pound of salt pork very fine. Add half of the chestnuts to this, and add, also, half a teaspoonful of pepper, two table-spoonfuls of salt and one cupful of stock or water. Stuff the turkey with this. Truss, and roast as already directed. Serve with a chestnut sauce. The remaining half of the chestnuts are for this sauce.
Boil two large potatoes and strain the water into a pitcher, dissolve two-thirds cake of yeast in a cup. Put potatoes in a pan with a cup of sugar; large lump of butter, and teaspoon of salt. The heat of potatoes will melt the sugar and butter. Mash with large masher to a cream; pour in rest of potato water, add pint of flour and mix together. Then cover and set in a warm place all night. In the morning add more flour, mix quickly and put currants or raisins in as you turn the dough. This will keep them from settling in the bottom of the bread. Put in hot pans and bake in a hot oven. This makes a delicious holiday bread. Eat with butter, hot or cold.
