The "ideal" cookery book

Peel the pears, halve them, and remove the cores and leave the stalks on. Put them into a lined saucepan with the above ingredients, and let them simmer very gently until tender, which will be in 3 or 4 hours. As each one is done, carefully lift out without breaking on to a glass dish. Boil up the syrup 2 or 3 minutes, cool a little and pour over the pears. Add a few drops of cochineal to improve the colour. Do not let the fruit boil, but gently simmer. 62. Harrogate Pudding. Take about a pound of any kind of red fruit and stew it (with sugar to taste) in a pan until tender. Line a basin or mould with slices of bread about half-aninch thick. Strain the fruit into the mould and cover with bread. Pour as much juice over the whole as will completely saturate the bread. Put a heavy plate on the top for at least 2 hours. Turn out on to a dish and pour any remaining juice round. SV. SAUCES. i. Apple Sauce. Pare, core, and slice 6 apples, put them in a pan with i-oz. butter, i-oz. moist sugar, J teaspoonful grated nutmeg, and r teacupful of cold water. Boil till the apples are reduced to a pulp, beat with fork and serve. 2. Bread Sauce. (A Quick Way of making it). Put about J-pint milk into a pan, with some stale bread broken in, let it boil and then beat with a fork. If not stiff enough, add more bread. Season with pepper and salt, and serve. 3. Melted Butter. 2 tablespoonsful flour. i pint water. Butter size of walnut. Put the flour in a basin, and mix with a little cold water, then pour boiling water on, stirring well all the time. Put all in a pan, and boil till thick enough. If it is lumpy, strain and put in a sauce-boat, with the butter in the middle. 5° 4. Egg Sauce. Make same as for Melted Butter, adding i or 2 hardboiled eggs finely chopped. If Parsley Sauce is required add parsley instead of eggs. 5. White Sauce. 2 tablespoonsful flour. 1 pint milk. Mix the flour with a little milk, and then add the rest of milk. Put in a pan and boil until it is the thickness required. Strain if necessary. This is used for fowls, rabbits, &c. 6. Mint Sauce. Chop some mint very finely, and place in a sauce-boat. Add a dessertspoonful of sugar, and enough vinegar to cover it well. Do not make this sauce long before it is required, as the mint will turn yellow. 7. Onion Sauce. Peel the onions, and boil till tender, squeeze the water from them and chop them. Add them to white sauce (recipe given), boil all up once and serve. V. CAKES. A few hints about Cakes. Unless otherwise specified the general rule in making cakes is to cream the butter and sugar together, then add the eggs, then flour and baking powder (mix the baking powder with the flour) and then add fruit or other ingredients and beat well. If fruit is to be added do not make the cake very soft, or currants, &c., will be liable to sink, but they are less likely to do so if previously rubbed in flour. Always grease cake tins with lard as the cakes will be less liable to burn than if the tins are rubbed with butter. Do not open the oven door for at least twenty minutes after cakes are put in, and then do it very gently as a sudden action will tend to make a cake sink in the middle. i. Madeira Cake. J-lb. butter. 3 eggs. 2 teaspoonsful baking powder. £-lb. castor sugar, ^-lb. flour. Uittle milk if necessary.