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

making things intended to be eaten, it will always be found that the larger the quantity made the better the result. Take the huge pieces of beef met with at large hotels, weighing twenty or thirty pounds. How far superior is a joint of this kind to the single rib met with in families consisting of two persons ! So too in brewing beer, what chance has an ordinary farmer’s wife, who brews probably in the copper, in competing with Bass or Allsopp, whose vats would more than contain the whole farmhouse itself? Gooseberry jam is very nice for making tipsy cake. Tipsy cake is a very economical as well as a nice way of using up the remains of stale cakes, such as pound cake, sponge cake, etc. When sponge cakes become dry they are not worth eating. Proceed therefore as follows : Cut the cake into slices, and spread each slice with a layer of gooseberry jam. Almost any other kind of jam, however, will do equally well. Pile the sponge cakes up in a glass dish into such a shape as circumstances will permit. Then soak them in any kind of wine. The wine, if very dry, should be first sweetened with a little sugar. Sherry is a very good wine for this purpose, but for ordinary occasions, and especially when the tipsy cake is intended for children, it is equally nice, and far more economical, to use a “children’s” wine, such as rich raisin wine, or still better, cowslip wine — indeed cowslip wine is quite as good as sherry for making tipsy cake. 1 would ask those who have not tried it to make the experiment. Now pour some custard over the whole, then take some almonds and blanch them (see Almonds, to Blanch), cut them into thin strips, and stick these strips all over the cake, so as to make it resemble a hedgehog or porcupine. Tipsy cake is always a very popular dish with young children, and a very nice plain imitation tipsy cake can be made as follows : Take some stale bread and smear it over with gooseberry jam, or any other kind of jam ; pile it up in a dish, and soak it with some cowslip wine or raisin wine sweetened with a little sugar. Then pour a custard over the whole. A very cheap custard can be made by using half a pint of milk, an egg, a little arrowroot or cornflour, to render it the necessary thickness, and a few drops of yellow vegetable colouring matter. This will cause the custard to appear as if it had been made from at least four eggs. This is an admirable and cheap dish for children. Gooseberry jam can also be used for putting in open tarts and tartlets. It is of very good consistency, and can be piled up in a way which few other jams will permit. Like damson jam, it is well adapted for making roly-poly pudding.