Chambers's cookery for young housewives

OYSTER PATTIES. 1 oz. butter. 1 oz. flour. 2 dozen oysters with their liquor. Salt. Cayenne pepper. The juice of half a lemon. 1 table-spoonful cream. Puff paste. Roll the paste to half an inch in thickness, cut it in rounds about three inches in diameter, mark on the tops with a smaller round, and bake in a brisk oven. Melt the butter in a saucepan; add to it the flour, and when these are thoroughly mixed, pour on to them the liquor from the oysters, and enough milk to make up a gill; stir till they boil, and the flour is thoroughly cooked. Beard the oysters; cut them in halves, and add them to the contents of the saucepan, with salt, Cayenne pepper, and lemon-juice to taste; lastly add the cream and mix well. Take the patty-cases, remove the small rounds from the top, and take out all the loose paste from the inside, leaving the cases hollow; fill them with the oyster mixture; put the lids on again, and serve hot on a hot dish with a folded napkin on it; garnish with curled parsley. PUDDINGS, CUSTARDS, JELLIES, &c. Care should be taken in making puddings to have the suet and eggs perfectly fresh. After cutting the suet into slices, and picking it free from fibrous matter, chop and roll it well — indeed, so thoroughly that it may be so incorporated with the flour as to be invisible. Break each egg separately in a tea-cup, for one bad egg would spoil all in the dish. The cloths used for puddings should be tolerably fine. Let them PLUM PUDDING — CURRANT PUDDING. be carefully washed after using, and laid by in a dry state, ready for the next occasion. Before putting the pudding into the cloth, dip the cloth in boiling water, wring it, spread it over a basin, and dredge it with flour ; then put in the pudding, gather up the corners of the cloth, and tie it, leaving a little room for the pudding to swell. Every pudding should be boiled in plenty of water, so as to allow it room to move freely, and it must be kept constantly boiling, and covered with water. It is a general saying that a pudding cannot be too well boiled, and it is certain that there is much more danger of boiling it too short than too long a time. When preferred, the pudding may be boiled in a basin. The basin should be first well greased, and after the pudding is put in, a floured cloth must be tied over it to keep the water out ; then plunge the pudding into a pan of boiling water, and boil as above directed. When the pudding is taken from the pot, let it stand for a few seconds, remove the cloth, and lay the face of the dish upon the pudding ; turn the whole upside down, lift off the basin, and leave the pudding standing. A lb. suet. ■z lb. raisins, i lb. currants, i nutmeg grated. 4 eggs. A gill brandy, i lb. almonds. PLUM PUDDING. 1 lb. stale bread crumbs. 2 oz. flour. A lb. brown sugar. 2 lb. apples chopped. i lb. candied peel. 1 teaspoonful ground ginger. J teaspoonful salt. Chop the suet finely, stone the raisins, clean and pick the currants, blanch and chop the almonds, cut the candied peel in thin shreds, peel, core, and chop the apples. ' Mix all very 'veil together. Turn into a well-greased basin, cover with a cloth, and boil for four hours. Serve with brandy or sweet sauce. CUR11ANT PUDDING. i lb. suet. A lb. bread crumbs, j lb. flour. Milk. } lb. currants. Cinnamon. Nutmeg. Salt.