Soak a small loaf of bread; press out every drop of water, work into this one cup of suet shaved very fine, the yolks of six eggs, one cup of currants, one cup of raisins seeded, one-half cup of citron shredded fine, three-quarters cup of syrup, one wineglass of brandy, one cup of sifted flour and the stiffly-beaten whites of eggs last. Boil four hours in greased melon mold.
Make a force-meat of grated bread-crumbs, minced suet, sweet marjoram, grated lemon-peel, nutmeg, pepper, salt, and beaten yolk of egg. You may add some grated cold ham. Light some writing paper, and singe the hairs from the skin of the turkey. Reserve the neck, liver, and gizzard for the gravy. Stuff the craw of the turkey with the force-meat, of which there should be enough made to form into balls for frying, laying them round the turkey when it is dished. Dredge it with flour, and roast it before a clear brisk fire, basting it with cold lard. Towards the last, set the turkey nearer to the fire, dredge it again very lightly with flour, and baste it with butter. It will require, according to its size, from two to three hours roasting. Make the gravy of the giblets cut in pieces, seasoned, and stewed for two hours in a very little water; thicken it with a spoonful of browned flour, and stir into it the gravy from the dripping-pan, having first skimmed off the fat. A turkey should be accompanied by ham or tongue. Serve up with it mushroom-sauce. Have stewed cranberries on the table to eat with it. Do not help any one to the legs, or drum-sticks as they are called. Turkeys are sometimes stuffed entirely with sausage-meat. Small cakes of this meat should then be fried, and laid round it. To bone a turkey, you must begin with a very sharp knife at the top of the wings, and scrape the flesh loose from the bone without dividing or cutting it to pieces. If done carefully and dexterously, the whole mass of flesh may be separated from the bone, so that you can take hold of the head and draw out the entire skeleton at once. A large quantity of force-meat having been prepared, stuff it hard into the turkey, restoring it by doing so to its natural form, filling out the body, breast, wings and legs, so as to resemble their original shape when the bones were in. Roast or bake it; pouring a glass of port wine into the gravy. A boned turkey is frequently served up cold, covered with lumps of currant jelly; slices of which are laid round the dish. Any sort of poultry or game may be boned and stuffed in the same manner, A cold turkey that has not been boned is sometimes sent to table larded all over the breast with slips of fat bacon, drawn through the flesh with a larding needle, and arranged in regular form.
Pieces of cold turkey or chicken may be warmed up with a little butter in a frying pan; place it on a warm platter, surround it with pieces of small thick slices of bread or biscuit halved, first dipping them in hot salted water; then place the platter in a warm oven with the door open. Have already made the following gravy to pour over all:-- Into the frying pan put a large spoonful of butter, one or two cupfuls of milk, and any gravy that may be left over. Bring it to a boil; then add sufficient flour, wet in a little cold milk or water, to make it the consistency of cream. Season with salt, pepper and add a little of the dark meat chopped very fine. Let the sauce cook a few moments, then pour over the biscuit and fowl. This will be found a really nice dish.
One cupful of finely-chopped beef suet, two cupfuls of fine bread crumbs, one heaping cupful of sugar, one cupful of seeded raisins, one cupful of well-washed currants, one cupful of chopped blanched almonds, half a cupful of citron, sliced thin, a teaspoonful of salt, one of cloves, two of cinnamon, half a grated nutmeg and four well-beaten eggs. Dissolve a level teaspoonful of soda in a tablespoonful of warm water. Flour the fruit thoroughly from a pint of flour; then mix the remainder as follows: In a large bowl put the well-beaten eggs, sugar, spices and salt in one cupful of milk. Stir in the fruit, chopped nuts, bread crumbs and suet, one after the other, until all are used, putting in the dissolved soda last and adding enough flour to make the fruit stick together, which will take all the pint. Boil or steam four hours. Serve with wine or brandy or any well-flavored sauce.
Take twenty-five large fine oysters, and chop them. Mix with them half a pint of grated bread-crumbs, half a handful of chopped parsley, a quarter of a pound of butter, two table-spoonfuls, of cream or rich milk, and the beaten yolks of three eggs. When it is thoroughly mixed, stuff the craw of the turkey with it, and sew up the skin. Then dredge it with flour, put it into a large pot or kettle, and cover it well with cold water. Place it over the fire, and let it boil slowly for half an hour, taking off the scum as it rises. Then remove the pot from over the fire, and set it on hot coals to stew slowly for two hours, or two hours and a half, according to its size, Just before you send it to table, place it again over the fire to get well heated. When you boil a turkey, skewer the liver and gizzard to the sides, under the wings. Send it to table with oyster-sauce in a small tureen. In making the stuffing, you may substitute for the grated bread, chestnuts boiled, peeled, and minced or mashed. Serve up chestnut- sauce, made by peeling some boiled chestnuts and putting them whole into melted butter, Some persons, to make them white, boil their turkeys tied up in a large cloth sprinkled with flour. With a turkey, there should be on the table a ham, or a smoked tongue.
12 oz. breadcrumbs, 1/2 lb. currants, 1/2 lb. raisins, 1/2 lb. sweet almonds, 1 doz. bitter almonds, 3/4 lb. moist sugar, 3 oz. of butter, 2 oz. candied peel, 8 eggs, 1 teaspoonful of spice, and 1 teacupful of apple sauce. Rub the butter into the breadcrumbs, wash, pick, and dry the fruit, stone the raisins, chop or grind the almonds, beat up the eggs, mixing all well together, at the last stir in the apple sauce. Boil the pudding in a buttered mould for 8 hours, and serve with white sauce.
1 pint of milk or cream, 2 oz. of lump sugar and 1 packet of Allinson custard powder. Put the contents of the packet into a basin and mix to a smooth, thin paste with about 2 tablespoonfuls of the milk; boil the remainder of milk with the sugar, and when quite boiling pour quickly into the basin, stirring thoroughly; stir occasionally until quite cold, then pour into custard glasses and grate a little nutmeg on the top, or put in a glass dish and serve with stewed or tinned fruits, or the custard can be used with Christmas or plum pudding instead of sauce. When the custard has been standing over night, it should be well stirred before using.
This is a plain pudding which can be eaten instead of Christmas pudding by those who are inclined to be dyspeptic 1/2 lb. of wholemeal breadcrumbs, 1/2 lb. of Allinson fine wheatmeal, 1/2 lb. of raisins, 2 oz. of small sago, 2 oz. of butter, 3 oz. of sugar, 2 eggs, 1 teaspoonful of cinnamon, and some milk. Wash and stone the raisins. Rub the butter into the wheatmeal. Mix together the raisins, butter, wheatmeal, cinnamon, sugar, and breadcrumbs. Boil the sago in 1/2 pint of milk until soft, adding as much water as the sago will absorb. Mix it with the other ingredients, beat up the eggs, add them, and mix all well. If the mixture is too dry add as much milk as is necessary to moisten all well. Fill a buttered pudding basin with the mixture, tie over with a pudding cloth, and steam 3 hours. Eat with a sweet white sauce.
2 cups ground suet 2 cups bread crumbs 2 cups flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 2 cups sugar 2 cups seeded raisins 2 cups currants 1 cup finely cut citron 1 cup finely cut figs 1 tablespoon finely cut orange peel 1 tablespoon finely cut lemon peel 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon ground ginger 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1/4 teaspoon ground mace 1 tablespoon salt 1 cup water or prune juice 1 cup grape or other fruit juice
Mix thoroughly all dry ingredients and add fruit; stir in water and fruit juice and mix thoroughly. Add more water if necessary to make stiff dough. Fill greased molds 2/3 full, and steam five or six hours. This pudding should be prepared and cooked a week or more before used. Before serving steam one hour and serve with hard, lemon or foamy sauce.
1/2 lb. raisins, 1/2 lb. sultanas, 1/2 lb. currants, 1/2 lb. cane sugar, 1/2 lb. flour, 1/4 lb. sweet almonds, 1/4 lb. grated carrot, 1/4 lb. grated apple, 1/4 lb. nutter, grated rind of 2 lemons, 1/2 a nutmeg. Well wash the raisins, sultanas and currants in hot water. Don't imagine that this will deprive them of their goodness. The latter is all inside the skin. What comes off from the outside is dirt, and a mixture of syrup and water through which they have been passed to improve their appearance. Rub the currants in a cloth to get off the stalks, pick the stalks from the sultanas, and stone the raisins. Put the currants and sultanas in a basin, just barely cover them with water, cover them with a plate, and put into a warm oven--until they have fully swollen, when the water should be all absorbed. (Currants treated in this way will not disagree with the most delicate child. They are abominations if not so treated.) Rub the nutter into the flour, or chop it as you would suet. Blanch the almonds by steeping them in boiling water for a few minutes: the skins may then be easily removed; chop very finely, or put through a mincer. Wash, core, and mince (but do not peel) the apples. Grate off the yellow part of the lemon rind. Mince or grate the carrots. Mix together the flour, nutter, sugar, lemon rind, almonds and nutmeg. Then add the raisins, sultanas and currants. Lastly, add the grated carrot and apple, taking care not to lose any of the juice. Don't add any other moisture. If the directions have been exactly followed, it will be moist enough. Put it into pudding-basins or tin moulds greased with nutter, and boil or steam for 8 hours.
