Our viands

pans or tins, and let stand for twenty-four hours (or twelve only in very hot weather) to allow the cream to rise. It is then placed, still in the same pan, upon a hot dresser or gas stove (not too hot), and let warm gently till just on the point of boiling; then removed and set aside till cold, when the cream may be taken off and used as cream, or it may be turned into butter with the hand or by gentle churning. Devonshire cream is always sold by the pint, equal to a pound, at the same price as butter.' Cream of this kind is also made and largely consumed in Cornwall, and the Cornish hostess is quite insulted if you ask for Devonshire cream. One way of eating it in Cornwall I have not met with elsewhere, it is spread thickly on bread, and then a little treacle is allowed to flow over it, this is called Cornish thunder and lightning. One very general use of cream and butter in former times was in the manufacture of melted butter, which at present too often consists of a sort of water-gruel made of flour-and-water, with a little bit of butter added, a sauce to be scrupulously avoided, but which, when made as follows, is a delicious adjunct to vegetables and poultry : ' Take a good lump of fresh butter and roll it in flour, place it in a lined saucepan with half a pint of good rich cream, stir it gently over a slow fire, always the same way, till it begins to simmer. Milk may be substituted for the cream, but the sauce will not be so good.' One of the most delicious of the many dishes manu- factured from eggs and cream is the custard, which, either boiled or baked, is a dainty generally irresistible. The custards of our grandmothers, however, little resembled those set before us at the present day; they were composed 128 OUR VIANDS solely of the yolks of many eggs, pure rich cream, a little sugar, and a flavouring of ratafia, or bay leaves and brandy, and were not indebted to custard powders, corn-flour, or other artificial thickening matter. They were used freely as a covering to tipsy-cakes and trifles which were genuinely tipsy with wine and spirits, and not merely soaked with milk and water, for our ancestors were by no means teetotallers, and could stand an amount of wine, as their receipts show, which would prostrate their 'degenerate' descendants. At present the chief use of cream in cookery is for making creams and ice-creams, which latter do not appear in old recipes, as probably the artificial method of freezing was then unknown, and hot dishes seem to have been preferred to cold.