Cassell's dictionary of cookery

Muffins, Pudding of.— Beat sis eggs for ten minutes, lay three muffins and two crumpets into a bowl, and pour over them three breakfastcupfuls of boiling milk, flavoured with lemonpeel, and sweetened with loaf sugar. Mix when cold, and add a glassful of brandy, two ounces of sweet almonds, blanched and chopped small, and the beaten eggs ; half a pound of stoned muscatels, or dried cherries, may be added, and the whole should be well stirred before being put into the buttered basin for boiling, or into a dish lined with puff paste, if the pudding is preferred baked. Time, one hour to bake or boU. Sufficient for five or six persons. Probable cost, 2s., exclusive of brandy. Muffins, Toasted. — To toast muffins slit them round the edge to the depth of an inch or more, but keep them attached in the centre while toasting. Pull open, and butter freely. Lay them on a very hot plate, and serve cut across. Mulberry. — The fruit of the mulberry is brought to the dessert, and recommends itself by its highly aromatic flavour and abundant subacid juice. It is wholesome, cooling, and rather laxative ; Kke the strawberry, it does not undergo the acetous fermentation, and therefore may safely be partaken of by gouty and rheumatic persons, The most forward THE MULBEKRY. mulberries attain maturity about the end of August, and there is a succession of ripening fruit on the same tree for about a month or six weeks. The ripening berries rapidly change from a reddish to a black colour, and should be gathered accordingly for immediate use. This delicate fruit will not keep good off the tree for above a day or two. Mulberry Juice.— The chief use of the fruit of the black mulberry is for the dessert ; but from its cooling and laxative properties its juice, diluted with water, is sometimes used as a beverage in fevers. It is also employed in the form of syrup for medicinal purposes, chiefly to colour other fluid medicines. The juice is also MUL (430 ) MUL made use of to give a dark tinge to liqueurs and confections. When properly prepared and fermented, the fruit yields a pleasant vinous liquor, widely known by the name of mulberry wine. In the cider countries the fruit is occasionally mixed with apples to form a beverage called mulberry cider. Mulberries, Preserved.— Simmer the mulberries in a jar, as directed in the recipe for Mulberry Syrup, and strain the juice. Put a pint of this into a preserving-pan, with two pounds and a half of sugar in small lumps ; stir until the sugar is dissolved. Keep it boiling for about five minutes, skimming carefully, then add two pounds of the fruit, without any bruised berries. Move them gently in the syrup, and let the pan stand by the side of the fire until the preserve is hot through, then boil very gently for half an hour, and put them by to cool until next day. This would be best done in an earthenware or enamelled pan, as the shifting from one vessel to another is likely to break the fruit. Boil again next day. The syrup, when cold, should be firm ; test it before the pots are filled. Mulberries are not often bought, as they are not produced plentifully in England. The preserve is refreshing and cooling, and the syrup, when mixed with water, is efficacious in cases of sore throat.