Christmas Cookery

Otago Witness, Issue 2285, 16 December 1897, Page 16

Christmas Cookery

ROAST TURKEY. Pluck very carefully, singe with paper, wipe well with a clean coarse cloth. Draw, wash well inside and wipe dry. Cut off the neck, and draw the skin over well, break the leg bone below the knee, draw out the thigh sinews and flatten the breast bone. Stuff with forcemeat, truss neatly, roast with buttered paper over the breast, basting well. About fifteen minutes before serving remove the paper, dredge the turkey lightly with flour, and baste with a little melted butter. When well frothed and brown serve on a hot dish, garnishing with fried sausages or minced meat made into balls or cakeß Send to table with a tureen of brown gravy and one of bread sauce.

BREAD SAUCE.

A pint of milk, fib stale bread grated or broken small, loz butter, an onion, pounded mace, salt and cayenne. Peel and quarter the onion, and simmer in the milk until quite tender. Strain the milk over the bread, cover it up and leave for an hour. Beat up with a fork, season, add the butter, boil up once and serve .

CHRISTMAS SPICE CAKE

Take 3£lb flour, 21b currants, lib raisins, 21b sugar, fib butter, £lb lard, 4oz baking powder, 4oz. candied peel, one nutmeg, one teaspoonful of ginger, loz salt, four eggs, and three gills of milk. These quantities will mix six small loaves, or four large ones.

FRUIT CUSTARD IN GLASSES.

Put equal quantities of ripe red currants and raspberries into a jar which has been placed iti readiness in a pan of boiling water, and let them remain until the juice flows freely, and has all been extracted. Strain a pint of the liquid very carefully into an enamelled saucepan, then add to it a sweetening of sugar and four well- beaten eggs, and stir constantly and evenly with a small wooden spoon until the custard becomes as thick as good cream ; remove it from the fire at once, strain it again through a very fine strainer, and when cold, pour it into custard glasses. Arrange these neatly on a fancy dish paper, lay a finger biscuit acioss the top of each glass, and serve with more biscuits on a separate dish.

CHRISTMAS CAKE

ROAST SUCKING PIG. Sprinkle inside with fine salt an hour before putting in the oven ; cut off the feet at the first joint, fill very full of stuffing, with plenty of powdered sage and a little minced onion in it ; tie the legs, rub all over with butter to keep from blistering ; baste -very often. It will require about two and a-half hours to roast. Make gravy as for other roasts. DUCKS. Wipe the inside with a clean cloth, stuff it like a goose, but with half the quantity of stuffing, and truss ; dredge it with flour, and let it roast from half an hour to three-quarters— a little longer according to the size, with a pretty brisk fire towards the end. Serve up with rich brown gravy, green peas or French beans, and potatoes. Green sage leaves are better for a duck if you can get them. Young ducks take from 20 minutes to about half an hour. STEWED CALF'S FOOT. This is very nourishing and very easy of digestion. Procure a wellprepared calf's calf, joint it and place in a stewpan, cover with water and bring to the boil, then drain dry. Replace the foot in the stewpan, cover with milk and water, add an onion, half a head of celery, and a small strip of lemon peel. Simmer slowly, and when the meat is perfectly tender so that the bone can be removed place it on a dish. Strain and thicken the gravy, add pepper and salt, with just a suspicion of powdered mace ; pour over and serve. Garnish the dish with slices of lemon, and strew a little chopped parsley over all. TRIFLE OR TIPSY CAKE. Whip a pint of cream ; as the froth rises lay it on a reversed sieve to drain. Take two dozen finger biscuits ; spread a little raspberry jam on the flat side of 12 of them, and press the other 12 upon them. Airange these around a trifle dish, put £lb ratarins, and tour penny sponge cakes at the bottom of the dish ; pour over them a glassful of sherry or Madeira and a glassful of brandy, and let them soak till they have absot bed all the liquor. Pour a pint of rich cold custard over the oaked biscuits and pile the whipped cream on the top. MINCE [MILAx. Mix well together £lb raisins stoned and chopped small, Jib currants washed, chopped beef suet ;10 apples, peeled, cored, and chopped ; one grated nutmeg, a teaspoonful of allspice, and Jib candied peel chopped. Pour a glass of brandy over them. They should be stirred from time to time. Mince meat is best made a few days before it is wanted.

.MINCE PIES.

Put lib flour upon your pastry slab with"2oz butter ; rub well together with your hands ; make a hole in the centre, in which put the yolk of an egg, the juice of a lemon, and a wineglassful of water. Kneed into a soft flexible paste ; roll it out into a thin sheet, lay £lb butter in the centre, fold the paste over. Roll and fold aeain twice over. Lay it in a cold place a quarter of an hour. Give another roll, and it is ready for use. Cover the patty pans with paste, fill them with mince meat, and cover. Slightly butter your patty pans before covering them with paste. Mince pies, of course, abound at this season. Here is a recipe for lemon mince meat, which is chnnge from the old mince meat : — Boil four lemons until quite tender, then pound or chop while warm, adding 21b of pounded loaf sugar. Let this stand till next day, then add 21b suet, 21b currants, lib raisins chopped, a little brandy, and loz mixed spices, port wine to taste. STUFFING FOR TURKEYS AND FOWLS. The same stuffing is used for turkeys as for fowls, and consists of bread crumbs, suet, parsley (chopped fine), herbs, pepper, salt, and lemon peel to taste, bound with a li'tle milk and egg. For ducks the stuffing should be of sage, onions, bread crumbs (not much), a little butter, pepper, and salt. stewed bananas. Take a dozen bananas, put them in an enamelled pan, and pour over them half a pint of red wine, 4oz sugar, and the juice of a large lemon. Stew gently for 25 minutes; serve with whipped cream. CHICKEN BROTH. Cut chicken in quarters and lay it in salt and water for about an hour. Put it in a soup kettle with four quarts of cold water, and an onion cut in quarters, and bringing this gradually to a buil, keep it cooking gently for the time it takes to boil the liquid c mtained in the kettle to one-third its original quantity and the meat, is separated from the bones. Season the broth and set it back over the fire. Boil up and skim. Then add a cupful of rice previously soaked for half a day or overnight in a bowl of water. Cook slowly until the rice is tender. Stir a cupful of hot milk into two beaten eggs, then into the broth. Let all come barely to a boil. Add at the last a handful of finely-chopped parsley, pour into a Boup tureen, and serve with small squares of toasted bread. PLUM PUDDING. Shred Jib beef suet very finely ; mix with it fib flour, fib breadcrumbs, raisins stoned and chopped, £lb currants, £ll> sugar, the peel of a lemon finely shred, and half a nutmeg grated. Mix the dry ingredients thoroughly, and stir in with them six well-beaten eggs and as much milk as is required to make a stiff paste. Put the pudding into a buttered mould and tie it up— not too tightly, but leaving room for it to swell ; put it into a pan of boiling water, and keep it boiling quickly for five hours. SHORTBREAD. Rub together into a stiff short paste 2lb flour, lib butter, and 9oz sugar. Make into round cakes half an inch thick, pinch prettily round the edge, and sprinkle over the top with white comfits ; bake in a slow oven. SARDINE AND CUCUMBER SANDWICHES. These are excellent, and are perhaps the most delicate of any savory sandwiches. Take a small tin of sardines, drain off all the oil, remove skin and bone, and pound the fish very finely. Take thin slices of cucumber, season with pepper and salt. Cut the bread and butter into rounds the size of the cucumber. On each piece of bread and butter lay the cucumber, with a thin layer of the fish between. Press tightly together and serve on a napkin. ROAST GOOSE. Fill the body of the goose with equal quantities of chopped onion and breadcrumb, season with minced sage, pepper, and salt. Roast two hours, and serve with brown gravy and apple sauce. The giblets should be stewed in gravy, and afterwards made into a pie with one or two pounds of lean beef. " There's only one thing that I insist upon," said Miss Elderly, as she skipped airily about the house. " And what is that ? " "I want mistletoe placed over every doorway and on every chandelier." Cakes FOE the New Year. — In certain districts of Ireland among the peasanty, oaten bannocks with a hole in the middle are especially baked for gift cakes. In other Irish counties a cake is thrown outside the door on New Year's eve to keep out hunger during the ensuing year. Not Necessarily Useful. — " It is certainly very pretty," said Mrs Dinsmore, as she examined her daughter's handiwork ; " but I don't quite understand what it can be used for." " How utterly old-fashioned and absurd you are ! " replied Miss Dinsmore ; " it's a Christmas present for Charley."

Take lib fresh butter, l£lb flour, 2lb currants, lib mixed candied peel, 2oz sweet almonds, 10 eggs, a wineglassful (quarter of a pint) of brandy, loz allspice, Joz powdered cinnamon. Beat the butter to a cream, stir in the sugar and spices. Have the flour sifted, the currants well cleaned and dried, the peel cut into slices, and the eggs separated the yolks from the whites.

After the spices add the yolks of the eggs (not previously beaten), work them in thoroughly, then the whites, then add the orange, lemon, and citron peel, the currants and almonds (blanched and halved), lastly the flour and brandy. Bake in a hot oven for three or four hours.

CLARET CUP.

Put a bottle of claret, two glasses of sherry, brandy, or any wine into a large jug. Add to these the thin rind of a lemon, and two tablespoonfuls of pounded sugar. Let it stand for half an hour till the sugar is dissolved. Just before using pour in a bottle of sodawater.

PUFF PASTE

To each pound of flour allow lib of butter, or half butter, half lard, or clarified dripping. Mix a pinch of salt with the flour, and work it to a stiff paste with cold water. This paste should be as near as possible the consistency of the butter or fat used. Roll it out to the size of a large meat plate. Now press out any liquid there may be in the fat, working it with your bands to a ball, using a very little flour to facilitate the process. Lay this ball on the paste, and press it out to half the size of the latter ; now fold this over the butter, fand-layn the ..whole , away in a cool place for an hour ; then roll it out straight four times, fold it up again, and put it aside again for an hour. Repeat this rolling out and folding away twice more, letting it rest, as it is technically called, an hour between each time. It is then fit to use. The great secret of puff paste lies in the handling, or rather the rolling, for it should be handled as little as possible. It must be rolled evenly and . squarely, so as to get the butter or whatever fat is used spread fairly all over the paste, so that it rises equally.- If properly done, this recipe produces excellent results.

WHITE SAUCE

If properly made, white sauce is excelle it. Plac3 2oz butter in a stewpan, with a chopped onion, some chopped celery, and a sprig each of thyme and parsley. Simmer for 10 minutes, not allowing it to brown, then stir in 2oz flour till it is smooth. Add gradually a pint of milk, stirring constantly, and cook till the sauce leaves the aide of the pan. Season with pepper, salt and a little lemon ; strain and serve.