Hilda's diary of a Cape housekeeper

Fish Scallop. — Break up some boiled fish into small pieces, have ready about the same proportion of fine breadcrumbs (of these 1 always keep some ready grated in an air-tight bottle for emergencies). Season the fish with pepper, salt, a dash of nutmeg, a spoonful of chopped parsley, and a few drops of anchovy sauce, and moisten with a little melted butter and some of the fish-jelly which sometimes collects in the dish the fish has stood in. Butter some patty-pans or scallop-shells. Divide the mixture into equal quantities for each shell or tin ; put some bread-crumbs into each tin, then the fish mixture, and cover that again with crumbs, and on the top of each shell or tin when so filled put a little pat of butter. Bake in a quick oven to a light brown ; lay the shells on a napkin on a hot dish and garnish with parsley. A Supper Dish made from Cold Meat. — The cold meat was ? converted into the following. (For this any remains of cold meat, fowl, lamb, or beef will do.) Mince the meat finely and flavour with lemon-peel, Oct. A GOOD SPONGE-CAKE pepper, a dash of nutmeg, and a suspicion of finelychopped onion ; add a few pats of butter. Pour boiling water over 2 ozs. macaroni, and let it get quite soft, and boil for a few minutes. Now put a layer of mince at the bottom of a pie-dish into which you have put a small piece of butter ; then a layer of macaroni cut into pieces ; then a layer of ripe tomatoes (as they are not in season now, I had this time to use canned tomatoes), with a sprinkling of salt, cayenne, or black pepper, and a pinch of sugar. Repeat this process layer on layer till the dish is full, and bake in a quick oven. Then, very fortunately for dessert, I had in the house a good pineapple and a newly-made sponge-cake, from the recipe given below, some oranges and some little biscuits, so we did very well. Eggs are very plentiful in October, and every house-- keeper knows the value of a good sponge-cake ! This recipe seldom fails. A Good Sponge-cake. — Seven eggs, their weight in sugar, and the weight of 3 in flour (I am told potato-flour, for which is a recipe in Mrs. Acton’s People's Cookery, makes the lightest sponge-cakes), juice of i lemon, and a pinch of salt. Carefully break the eggs, and whisk the whites and yolks separately. Use castor-sugar (if it is not at hand, roll the sugar on your pastry-board till fine) ; the flour should be slightly warmed ; have the mould ready, well buttered and dusted with finely-pounded biscuit. Mix the sugar with the stiffly- whisked whites, next add the yolks, and then the flour and lemon-juice. Pour the mixture into the mould, and bake in a moderate oven one hour, putting a buttered paper over the mould. Put the cake for baking at the bottom of the stove-oven, and don't FISH PIE. PASTRY Oct. open the door for half-an-hour or more after putting it in. Be careful not to slam the oven-door, or the cake will go down. I have read somewhere that the way confectioners get a smooth outside to their sponge-cakes is by (after greasing the mould) dusting the inside of the mould with fine sugar and flour in equal quantities, before pouring in the mixture. Fish Pie. — Remains of cold fish. 2 onions fried in dripping. Pepper. Salt. Mustard. I oz. butter. Tomato sauce. Mashed potatoes. Eggs.