Household cookery

Curd Cheese Cakes 2 oz. butter. 2 oz. sugar. I oz. currants. i egg. I stale sponge cake. i pint milk. Juice of I large lemon. Some scraps of pastry. A little grated nutmeg. Warm the milk, add lemon-juice (strained), stir well. Strain the whey from the curds, put curds in a bowl, add currants, sponge-cake crumbs, sugar, butter, nutmeg, and a few drops of lemon essence. Line some patty-pans with the pastry, put in a large spoonful of the mixture. Bake in a quick oven till nicely browned. Apricot Tartlets \ lb. butter. \ tea-spoonful baking-powder. J lb. sugar. Apricots (tinned). \ lb. flour. Rough puff pastry (p. 49). 2 large eggs. Method, — Roll the pastry out thinly, cut into rounds, and line some small patty-tins with it. Beat butter and sugar to a cream ; add yolks of eggs slowly, beating all the time, then a table-spoonful of apricot syrup ; stir in carefully the flour and baking-powder. Put a large tea-spoonful of this mixture into the patty-tins. Bake in a moderate oven from 20 to 30 minutes. When baked, put half an apricot on top of each tartlet. Beat whites of eggs to a stifl" froth, and decorate each tartlet with it. Put back into the oven to harden and slightly brown. Hints on making Puddings There are many different kinds of puddings, which can be made both nourishing and digestible at a small cost. These form a pleasant addition to the dinner, or principal meal of the day. The simplest kinds of puddings are those made from farinaceous foods, such as rice, sago, tapioca, with the addition of milk, as milk provides the flesh-forming and mineral substances of which grain foods are deficient. These puddings are nourishing and wholesome. The proportions used for milk puddings are 2 oz. of grain to each pint of milk. If skim milk is used, a little shredded suet or butter should be added ; this makes up for the deficiency of the cream. Milk puddings should be cooked in a slow oven. Suet Puddings, — The foundation of all suet puddings consists of flour, or flour and bread-crumbs, and suet. The suet must be skinned, shredded, and finely chopped before it is mixed with the flour and bread-crumbs. The name given to these puddings is taken from the ingredient or flavouring added. Thus, marmalade added would make marmalade pudding ; figs, fig pudding ; raisins, raisin pudding, and so on. Rules for Making, — i. Half weight of suet to flour and bread-crumbs. Where less than half weight is used, bakingpowder is required (i tea-spoonful to each pound of flour). 2. All dry ingredients should be well mixed before any liquid is added. 3. Sufficient liquid should be added to form a thick batter. 4. Basin or pudding-mould should be well greased. Custard Puddings. — For these puddings a sweetened and flavoured custard of eggs and milk must be poured over a foundation of stale bread or cake spread with a little jam. They may be either steamed or baked. In any case the mould must be well greased. Rules for Boiling, — i. The water must completely cover the pudding and be kept boiling all the time. 2. A cloth must be used, and the pudding tied firmly in ; or over the top of the basin. 3. Keep on the pan-lid, and add more boiling water as the water in the pan boils down. Rules for Steaming. — i. The water must only come three parts of the way up the basin.