The housekeeper's guide to preserved meats, fruits, vegetables, &c

MILK, CONDENSED.— Condensed milk is now used in very large quantities in this country. Considering how great the difficulty is of obtaining really pure milk, especially in ’arge towns, condensed milk is a great boon to housekeepers. It is a thick, creamy substance, somewhat resembles honey in appearance, and contains a considerable quantity of sugar. Condensed milk is very useful in making all kinds of sweets. A mixture of condensed milk and ordinary milk forms an excellent substitute for cream when sugar is to be added to any dish. Condensed milk also contains a considerable amount of nourishment. For instance, I will take that very popular and simple pudding so well adapted for children known as baked rice-pudding. Take, say, a pint or rather more of ordinary milk, add to it a tablespoonful of Swiss milk, and let it boil in a saucepan with the lice. Let it boil gently till almost the whole of the milk is absorbed and the rice has become tender. Of course, this is a matter of taste. Some persons prefer baked rice-pudding very milky, and others like it almost solid. As a rule, the amount of sugar contained in the Swiss milk is sufficient to sweeten the pudding. If it be liked very sweet more sugar can be added. When the rice is tender put the whole into a pie-dish and bake it for some time in the oven, after having grated a little nutmeg over the surface. Should the rice-pudding be required very rich, one or more whole eggs may be added, or, still better, only the yolks of eggs. Swiss milk will be found a great improvement to custards. In making ordinary custards five eggs are generally added to a pint of milk, though four are as a rule amply sufficient. Before adding the eggs dissolve in the milk a tablespoonful of condensed milk, and boil three or four bay -leaves in it. Take out the bay -leaves, add the eggs, and place the whole in a jug. Place the jug in a saucepan of boiling water, and keep stirring till the custard is sufficiently thick, then take the jug out of the boiling water, but continue stirring. Now plunge the jug into some cold water, and continue stirring till the custard begins to get tolerably cool. If you take the jug out of the boiling water and cease stirring at once the custard will very often get lumpy. Condensed milk forms a very nice cream, so to speak, to be eaten with strawberries, raspberries, and other fruit. Take some ordinary milk, and add sufficient condensed milk to make it the consistency of ordinary cream. Of course, owing to the sugar in the condensed milk, the fruit will require very little sugar to be added, as would be the case were ordinary cream used. Condensed milk is now largely used throughout London for the purpose of making ices. Of course when icevendors who sell ice in the streets at a penny a glass assure their customers that it is made from pure cream it is obvious to any one that it would be impossible that this could be done for the money. No cream whatever is used, as a rule, but milk and Swiss milk instead. Ices are by no means the expensive luxury that some persons imagine. The mere fact that a very palatable ice can be sold in the streets at a penny a glass and a living obtained by the profit ought to teach people this. A small freezing apparatus is almost the only expense to which housekeepers need go in having ices made at home.