550. Cheese Puffs

Strain cheese curd from the whey, and beat half a pint of it fine in a mortar, with three eggs, a spoonful and a half of flour, only one white of the eggs, a quarter of a nutmeg, orange flower water, and sugar to make it sweet. Put a little of this paste in very small round cakes on a tin plate. A quarter of an hour will bake them, if the oven is hot. Serve with pudding sauce.

551. To Make Pudding Paste

Beat one egg, mix it with half a pound of suet, well chopped, add one pound of flour; well mix, then add as much cold water as is requisite to bring it to a stiff paste; flour the pie-board and rolling-pin, and beat the paste till it puffs up; roll it out. to the size desired, and put in the fruit. If boiled in a basin, it should be well buttered, and the cloth well floured before tying it over. This paste is used for all kind of fresh fruit. A very small quantity of sugar should be put in with the fruit to draw the juice, but not much, or it will become so juicy as to burst the crust. A fruit pudding is lighter boiled in a cloth, but it should be well secured to prevent the juice from escaping. An hour and a half will boil a pudding of this size, if boiled in a cloth; if in a basin, allow another quarter of an hour or twenty minutes. The same paste will do for a roll pudding and meat puddings.

553. A Plain Family Plum Pudding

Beat up three eggs, six ounces of suet chopped, a pound of flour, a third part of a pound of raisins, and the same weight of currants; one ounce of candied orange or lemon peel, cut small, half a tea-spoonful of ground allspice, a little salt, two ounces of brown sugar: make a stiff batter with water, and mix the fruit and spice well in. If boiled in a basin, allow three hours and a half; if in a cloth, three hours.

554. A common Plum or Currant Pudding is nothing more than a suet pudding, with the addition of plums, or currants, and allspice.

555. Very Light Plum Pudding

Mix grated bread, suet, and stoned raisins, four ounces each, with two well-beaten eggs three or four spoonfuls of milk, and a little salt: boil four hours. Saucè, a spoonful of brandy, sugar, and nutmeg1, in melted butter.

556. National Plum Pudding

Mix suet, jar raisins, and currants, one pound each, four ounces of crumbs of bread, two table-epoonfuls of sugar, one table-spoonful of grated lemon peel, half a nutmeg, a small blade of mace, a tea-spoont'ul of ginger, and six well-beaten eggs. Boil it five hours. - N. B. If you want to keep plum puddings good for a long time, say some months, hang them in a cold place in the cloth in which they were boiled. When wanted to be used, take them out of the cloth, cover them with a clean one, and warm them through with hot water; they will then be fit for the table.

557. Potatoe Pudding

Boil mealy potatoes in their skins, according to the rule laid down, skin and mash them with a little milk, pepper, and salt: this will make a good pudding to bake under roast meat. With the addition of a bit of butter, an egg, milk, pepper, and salt, it makes an excellent batter for a meat pudding baked. Grease a baking dish; put a layer of potatoes, then a layer of meat cut in bits, and seasoned with pepper, salt, a little allspice, either with or without chopped onions; a little gravy of roast meat is a great improvement: then put another layer of potatoes, then meat, and cover with potatoes. Put a buttered paper over the top to prevent it from being burnt, and bake it an hour or an hour and a half.