Roxbury Tea Cake

On bread-making day take a pound or a quart of very light wheaten bread-dough, just before the loaves are put into the oven. Lay it in an earthen pan, and mix in, gradually, and alternately, three well-beaten eggs; a half-pint of powdered white sugar; half a pint of rich milk or cream; half a pint or a half-pound of fresh butter; and a tea-spoonful of mixed spice, powdered mace, nutmeg and cinnamon; with a wine-glass of rose-water. Mix the whole thoroughly, beating and stirring it well. Lastly, add a yeast powder; dissolving in one cup the portion of soda in a little lukewarm water, and mixing it into the dough; and melting in another cup the tartaric acid, and then stirring that in. Sprinkle some flour on your paste-board, and make the dough into small round cakes. Having pricked the tops with a fork, lay them in a buttered pan, set them immediately into the oven, and bake them brown. Eat them fresh, the day they are baked. You may bake the dough all in one loaf.

This cake will be improved by the addition of some raisins of the best quality, seeded and cut in half; and well-dredged with flour to prevent their sinking into a clod.

For a larger quantity, you must have two quarts of risen bread-dough; six eggs; a pint of powdered sugar; a pint of milk; a pound of fresh butter; and a table-spoonful of mixed spice; two wine-glasses of rose-water; and two yeast powders, or a full tea-spoonful of soda, and somewhat less than a tea-spoon of tartaric acid.

Alpisteras. (Spanish Cakes.)

To one pound of fine flour, (well sifted and dried,) add half a pound of powdered loaf-sugar, (also sifted,) and mix them well together. In a shallow pan beat your eggs very light, and then gradually wet with them the mixed flour and sugar, adding a wine-glass of rose-water, or orange-flower water, or else the juice of two large oranges or lemons. Work the whole into a stiff dough, and knead it well. Roll it out into a very thin sheet, and cut it into squares of about five inches in size each way. Divide each square (half way down) into slips, so as to resemble a hand with fingers. Then curl or bend up the slips or fingers; or twist and twirl them so as to look like bunches of ribbons. Have ready, in a pot over the fire, a large portion of boiling lard. Put the alpisteras carefully into it, a few at a time, and fry them a light brown. Take them up on a perforated skimmer, draining back the lard into the pot. Spread them to cool on a large dish; and when cool, sift powdered sugar over them.

Pisto Omelette

This is a favourite omelette in Spain. Mince together cold turkey or chicken, and an equal quantity of cold ham or tongue; adding a chopped onion or two, and sufficient sweet marjoram and sweet basil to season it well: also a little cayenne. No salt, as the ham will render it quite salt enough. . Have ready sufficient well-beaten eggs to make it into a good omelette mixture; and stir the whole very hard at the last. Have ready over the fire, a broad pan of boiling lard. Put in the mixture with a ladle, and fry it in flat cakes. Serve it up hot.

Guisada Or Spanish Stew

Take hare, rabbit, partridges, pheasants, or chickens. Cut them up as in carving; and save the giblets. Do not wash the pieces, but dry them in a cloth. Put them into a pan in which there is a sufficiency of hot sweet oil, (adding a sliced onion,) and fry them brown. Then transfer them (with the gravy) to an earthen stew-pan or pipkin. Add some bits of cold ham cut thin and small, and a bunch of sweet herbs chopped fine; also a little cayenne. Pour in wine and broth in equal portions, sufficient to cover the pieces well; adding the giblets. Let it simmer gently, till thoroughly done, carefully skimming off all the grease, and stirring the meat up from the bottom with a wooden spoon. Serve it hot in a covered dish.

It will be improved by the juice of one or two oranges, squeezed in toward the last.