Soyer's standard cookery

Take six ounces of flour and sift it on a sheet of paper, then half a pound of sifted castor sugar, five ounces of butter, melted, but not hot. Break six eggs in a bowl, and place the bowl in some boiling water in a separate pan placed over gentle heat. Beat the eggs and butter for twenty minutes or so with a whisk to a nice consistency. Take the bowl off the fire, and beat the contents a little again. Add flour and butter, mix lightly with a wooden spoon, but not to stir it up to a cream. Flavor according to taste. Take any kind of mold or tin you like, well butter it, and dredge with castor sugar. Three parts fill it with the paste and place in the paper bag. Allow thirty-five minutes in a moderate oven (300° Fahr.). Any Kind of Cake, plain, madeira, sultana, raisin, etc. — can be cooked in the loose paper bag, on grid, in fairly hot oven (300° Fahr.). Allow one and a quarter hours, according to size. Petit Nid. Peel and core half a dozen cooking apples. Empty the contents of a sixpenny bottle of fruit syrup (for preference pineapple) into a thickly-buttered bag. Add the apples, seal bag, and place on grid, simmer very gently until cooked, but take care that they do not get broken. Line a paper souffle case with puff paste, place carefully in a well-greased bag, put the apples in this, and twist long strips of citron and angelica round them. Place four ounces of butter in a clean bowl, sift in eight ounces of sugar, and whip to a cream. Then add the well-whisked yolks of four eggs, and season to taste with grated nutmeg. Place on the fire, and stir gently until very hot, then add the whites of the eggs whisked to a stiff froth. Stir these in lightly, then pour over the apples; place in the bag, put it in the oven without loss of time, and bake to a golden hue. Dust thickly with sifted sugar, and serve either hot or cold. Plenty of citron or angelica must be used to give the idea of a nest. Pommes a la Duchesse. Take from eight to ten large apples; wash and dry them. Then core with a proper apple-corer. Place a bit of cinnamon stick in each apple, and pour over them a tablespoonful of rum. Place them in a buttered bag and bake on a grid. When quite done remove the cinnamon and fill the center of each apple with a little strawberry, raspberry, or apricot jam. Cover the whole with very stiffly-whipped cream. Ornament with chopped pistachio nuts and pine kernels, and serve at once, or leave upon ice till needed. Sweet, not sour, apples should be selected. They should be placed on a clean dish and allowed to cool before the jam and cream are added. Pudding a la Munich.