Virginia Cookery-book

Prepare raisins enough, of good quality, to fill a quart measure after the stems and seeds are removed; wash and dry a pint of dried currants; cut up a pint of citron into small bits ; peel, core, and also chop into small bits a pint of apples (pippins are best) and a light quart of beef suet, that must be perfectly fresh ; crumble up a full quart of nice stale light bread, and mix all the abovenamed articles together upon a dish, grating into them half a nutmeg, and sprinkling over a teaspoonful of salts Now break eight eggs into a large tray or bowl, and beat them till very light; when you have sifted a quart of flour take itom it enough to flour well the fruit that it may not fall to the bottom, just as is done in making fruit- cake. Now add to the eggs the fruit, suet, and breadcrumbs, stirring in just enough flour to make the whole stick together. This ought not to take more than the quart provided. Have ready a stout cotton cloth or bag, scald it in boiling water, and dust flour over the inside until a thin coating is formed ; put the pudding in, and tie up tightly, after leaving ample room for it to swell ; put it in a pot of boiling water to boil steadily for three hours. The dangers to be avoided are letting the pudding stick to the bottom of the pot, which may be prevented by reversing a plate and laying it beneath ; and, worse still, letting the string or bag give way, so that water is admitted. See that both bag and string are strong. French sauce, or cold creamed sauce, must be served with this pudding. Recipes for them are to be found under the proper heading. Following an English custom as old as the days of King Arthur, it has been always usual in Virginia, at Christmas, to send in the plum pudding to table aglow in alcoholic flames. This is done by pouring over it half a gill of pure alcohol or brandy, and putting a lighted match to it just as the waiter bears it into the dining-room. Bread-crumbd 1 heaping qt. Flour 1 light qt. Suet 1 ** Milk Jpt. Sugar i pt. Nutmeg i Raisins . . . 1 qt. Currants 1 pt. Citron 1 ** Apples 1 '* Wine or brandy 1 gill. Salt 1 teaspoonful. Plum Pudding, No. 2. For persons who do not like a mixture of fruits this recipe is preferred : Two pounds of raisins, one pound of butter, half a pound of bread-crumbs, one pound of flour, A cup of milk, a pinch of salt, a quarter of a pound of 0ugar, six eggs. Make and mix exactly as directed in the first recipe given. The lightness of the pudding is increased by using flour lightened with Horsford Powder or Royal Baking Powder, as may be convenient. Plum Pudding the Second Day. Cut as much cold plum pudding into slices half an inch thick as is needed for the number of persons to be dined, and lay them in a skillet carefully, so that they be broken as little as possible ; prepare a sauce of half a pound of brown sugar, the yolk of one egg, quarter of a pound of butter creamed, and a gill of sherry wine, grating in lastly a little nutmeg. Thoroughly incorporate these ingredients while yet cold ; then heat gradually, so as not to let the butter oil; then pour the sauce hot over the pudding about the time that the meat dinner is dished ; set the skillet on the back part of the stove, where it may simmer gently until called for. Serve up hot, and it is better than upon the first day. Baked Plum Pudding. Crumble up a quart loaf of stale bread; scald and simmer it in sweet milk; add a large spoonful of butter; then put it in a deep dish to cool ; beat up five eggs, and stir into them a teacupful of nice brown sugar ; then stir in a pound of seeded raisins ; have ready a greased pudding-mould or plain baking-dish ; put in the batter and bake. To be eaten with sauce. Plum Pudding. (Mis. Margaret Cabell.)