Chambers's cookery for young housewives

Mix the flour, sugar, dripping, and currants well together. Warm the milk, pour it on to the soda and tartaric acid, stir until they effervesce, and mix quickly with the egg and dry ingredients. Turn at once into a greased tin, and bake for about an hour. OAT CAKES. 1 lb. oatmeal. I 4 teaspoonfuls melted fat. Warm water. I 1 teaspoonful salt. Mix the oatmeal, salt, and dripping with warm water to make a dough. Knead until smooth. Spread some oatmeal on a board, press the dough into a round cake, about half an inch thick, and then roll out thin. Divide into cakes ; bake on a hot girdle until they are firm. Take them off, rub them with meal, and toast before the fire till they curl up. SHREWSBURY CAKES. i lb. butter. i 1 lb. flour. J lb. powdered sugar. | 2 eggs. 1 teaspoonful cinnamon or 1 table-spoonful caraway seeds. Beat the butter and sugar together until they are of the consistency of thick cream. Then add the eggs well beaten, and the flour. Mix thoroughly well, and if desired add flavourings, or roll out plain to about half an inch in thickness. Cut into squares or any fancy shapes, place on a greased paper on a tin, and bake in a quick oven to a pale brown colour. Let cool on the tin, and then dust well with powdered sugar. GINGER CAKES — WAFER BISCUITS — PICKLES. GINGER CAKES. 2 lb. butter. i lb. sugar (powdered). 1 egg. 1 lb. flour. 1 oz. ground ginger. Milk. Mix well together the flour, sugar, ginger, and butter. Heat the egg to a froth, and add it with enough milk to form a sti fl paste. Roll very thin on a floured board, cut into shapes, and bake in slow oven. WAFER BISCUITS. 1 lb. flour. | A teaspoonful salt. 1 teaspoonful sugar. I 2 oz. butter. 1 teacupful water. Put the butter, salt, and sugar into a basin, pour over them the boiling water, and as soon as the butter is melted add the flour and mix to a stiff dough. Beat it well with a rolling-pin. Roll it very thin, cut into shapes, and bake in a quick oven. The biscuits should be of a pale-brown colour. PICKLES. In the preparation of pickles the greatest care must be taken as to the utensils used. Avoid, if possible, using any metal, except iron, or preferably silver, as the acid of the vinegar will act upon the lead used in tinning saucepans, and also upon copper or brass, producing upon the latter two the rust known as verdigris, which is poisonous. Porcelainlined saucepans are liable to be cracked if used for heating vinegar. It is probably inattention to these details which so often causes pickles to disagree with delicate digestions. In preparing pickles the best and strongest vinegars should be used. When it is necessary to heat the vinegar, put it into an iron saucepan, or into a stone jar placed in a saucepan with hot water around it. As soon as the vinegar reaches boiling-point, remove it from the fire, as the heating process very much diminishes both the strength and flavour of the vinegar. Pickles, like preserves, must be carefully excluded from the air, and stored in a dry place to ensure their keeping for any length of time. Pickles should be kept in stone jars PICKLED CABBAGE — MISCELLANEOUS PREPARATIONS. 131