Read the book: «The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary; Including a System of Modern Cookery, in all Its Various Branches, Adapted to the Use of Private Families», page 41

SALTING OF BUTTER. After the butter is well worked up and cleared from the milk, it is ready for salting. The tub in which it is to be preserved being perfectly clean, should be rubbed in the whole inside with common salt; and a little melted butter should be poured into the cavity between the bottom and the sides, before the butter is put in. Although common salt is generally employed on this occasion, yet the following composition not only preserves the butter more effectually from taint, but also makes it look better, taste sweeter, richer, and more marrowy, than if it had been cured with common salt only. Take of best common salt two parts, saltpetre one part, lump sugar one part, and beat them up together in a mortar, so that they may be completely blended. To every pound of butter, add one ounce of this composition: mix it well in the mass, and close it up for use. Butter prepared in this manner will keep good for three years, and cannot be distinguished from that which is recently salted; but it does not taste well till it has stood a fortnight or three weeks. To preserve butter for winter use, take some that is fresh and good in the month of August or September, and put it into an unglazed jar, in layers about two inches thick, till the jar is full, within three inches of the top. Make a strong brine of salt and water, boil and skim it; and when it is quite cold, pour a sufficient quantity over the butter, so that the brine may be an inch deep. Tie paper over it, and set it in a cool place. When wanted for use, cut it no deeper than the first layer till that is all used. Then cut the second in the same manner, and so on to the bottom of the tub or jar. By this means there will be no more than a part of one layer that is not covered with the brine. To make it eat like fresh butter, dip each piece into water when it is cut out of the jar; or work it over again in fresh buttermilk or milk, and make it into shapes like fresh butter. It will eat much better with toast, than most of the fresh butter that is made in winter. It is a false idea, that butter, to be preserved for winter use, requires a greater quantity of salt: experience has proved the contrary. Butter salted in the common way, and put in pots with brine over the top, retains its flavour, and is better preserved than by an additional quantity of salt. One more observation on the preservation of butter is necessary. It is universally allowed that cleanliness is indispensible, but it is not generally suspected, that butter from being made in vessels or troughs lined with lead, or in glazed earthenware pans, which glaze is principally composed of lead, is too apt to be contaminated by particles of that deleterious metal. If the butter is in the least degree rancid, this can hardly fail to take place, and it cannot be doubted, that during the decomposition of the salts, the glazing is acted on. It is better therefore to use tinned vessels for mixing the preservative with the butter, and to pack it either in wooden vessels, or in jars of the Vauxhall ware, which being vitrified throughout, do not require an inside glazing.

SAMPHIRE. This should be boiled in plenty of water, with a good deal of salt in it. Put it in when the water boils, and let it boil till quite tender. Serve it up with melted butter.

SANDWICHES. Properly prepared, these form an elegant and convenient luncheon; but they have got much out of fashion, from the bad manner in which they are commonly made. They have consisted of any offal or odd ends, that cannot be sent to table in any other form, merely laid between slices of bread and butter. Whatever kind of meat is used however, it must be carefully trimmed from every bit of skin and gristle, and nothing introduced but what is relishing and acceptable. Sandwiches may be made of any of the following materials. Cold meat, poultry, potted meat, potted shrimps or lobsters, potted cheese; grated ham, beef, or tongue; anchovy, sausages, cold pork; hard eggs, pounded with a little butter and cheese; forcemeats, and curry powder. Mustard, pepper, and salt, are to be added, as occasion requires.

SAVOURY BEEF. The tongue side of a round of beef is best adapted for the purpose; and if it weighs about fifteen pounds, let it hang two or three days. Then take three ounces of saltpetre, one ounce of coarse sugar, a quarter of an ounce of black pepper, some minced herbs, and three quarters of a pound of salt. Incorporate these ingredients by pounding them together in a mortar; and if approved, add a quarter of an ounce of ginger. Take out the bone, and rub the meat well with the above mixture, turning it and rubbing it every day for a fortnight. When it is to be dressed, put it into a pan with a quart of water. Cover the meat with about three pounds of mutton suet chopped, and an onion or two minced small. Put the whole into a pan, cover it with a flour crust, and bake it in a moderate oven for six hours. Instead of baking it may be covered with water, and stewed very gently for about five hours; and when sent to table, cover the top of it with finely chopped parsley. The gravy will be excellent for sauce or soup, or making of soy, or browning; and being impregnated with salt, it will keep several days. That the suet may not be wasted, when the dish comes from the oven, take out the beef, and strain the contents of the pan through a sieve. Clarify the fat when cold, and it will do for frying. The meat should not be cut till it is cold, and then with a sharp knife to prevent waste, and keep it smooth and even. This is a most excellent way of preparing savoury beef for sandwiches, and for other elegant and economical purposes.

SAVOURY JELLY. If to put over cold pies, make it of a small bare knuckle of veal, or of a scrag of mutton. If the pie be of fowl or rabbit, the carcases, necks, and heads, added to any piece of meat, will be sufficient, observing to give it a consistence by adding cow heel, or shanks of mutton. Put the meat into a stewpan that shuts very close, adding a slice of lean ham or bacon, a faggot of different herbs, two blades of mace, an onion or two, a small bit of lemon peel, a tea-spoonful of Jamaica pepper bruised, and the same of whole pepper, with three pints of water. As soon as it boils skim it well, let it simmer very slowly till it is quite strong, and then strain it. When cold take off the fat with a spoon first, and then, to remove every particle of grease, lay on it a clean piece of blotting paper. If not clear, after being cold, boil it a few minutes with the whites of two eggs, but do not add the sediment. Pour it through a clean sieve, with a napkin in it, which has been dipped in boiling water, to prevent waste.

SAVOURY PIES. Few articles of cookery are more generally approved than relishing pies, if properly made; and there are various things adapted to this purpose. Some eat best cold, and in that case, no suet should be put into the forcemeat that is used with them. If the pie is either made of meat that will take more dressing, to make it quite tender, than the baking of the crust will allow; or if it is to be served in an earthen pie-form, the following preparation must be observed. For instance, take three pounds of a veiny piece of beef, that has fat and lean; wash it, and season it with salt, pepper, mace, and allspice, in fine powder, rubbing them in well. Set it by the side of a slow fire, in a stewpot that will just hold it. Add about two ounces of butter, cover it quite close, and let it just simmer in its own steam till it begins to shrink. When it is cold, add more seasoning, forcemeat, and eggs. If in a dish, put some gravy to it before baking: if in a crust only, the gravy must not be added till after it is cold, and in a jelly. Forcemeat may be put both under and over the meat, if preferred to balls.

SAVOURY RICE. Wash and pick some rice quite clean, stew it very gently in a small quantity of veal or rich mutton broth, with an onion, a blade of mace, pepper and salt. When swelled, but not boiled to a mash, dry it on the shallow part of a sieve before the fire, and either serve it dry, or put it in the middle of a dish, and pour hot gravy round it.

SAVOURY VEAL PIE. Make a good puff-paste, and sheet your dish; cut the veal into pieces, season it with pepper, mace, and nutmeg, finely beat, and a little salt; lay it into the crust, with lambstones, sweetbreads, the yolks of hard eggs, an artichoke bottom boiled, and cut in dice, and the tops of asparagus; put in about half a pint of water, lay pieces of butter over the top, put on the lid, and ornament it to your fancy. In a quick oven about an hour and an half will bake it. Make a caudle for it thus: take half a pint of strong veal broth, a gill of white wine, and the yolks of three eggs; set this over the stove, and keep it stirring; put in some grated nutmeg, and a little salt; when it boils, if there is any scum, take it off; pour in a gill of cream, keep it stirring till it simmers, then take the lid of your pie off carefully, and pour the caudle over it, shake it round, lay on the lid as exact as you can, and send it to table. You may do lamb this way.

SAVOURY VEGETABLES. Wash a dish with the white of eggs. Make several divisions with mashed potatoes and yolks of eggs mixed together and put on the dish, and bake it of a nice colour. In the first division put stewed spinach, in the second mashed turnips, in the third slices of carrots, in the fourth some button onions stewed in gravy, or any other kind of vegetables to make a variety.

SAVOY BISCUITS. Take six eggs, separate the yolks and whites, mix the yolks with six ounces of sugar finely powdered, and the rind of a grated lemon. Beat them together for a quarter of an hour, then whisk the whites up in a broad dish till they are well frothed, and mix them with the yolks, adding five ounces of flour well dried. Stir the whole well together; then, with a piece of flat ivory, take out the batter, and draw it along clean white paper to the proper size of the biscuit. Sift some sugar over them, and bake them in a very hot oven. They must however be carefully watched, for they are soon done, and a few seconds over the proper time will scorch and spoil them.

SAVOY CAKE. Put four eggs into a scale, and then take their weight in fine sugar, powdered and sifted, with the weight of seven eggs in flour well dried. Break the eggs, putting the yolks into one basin, and the whites into another. Mix with the yolks the sugar that has been weighed, a little grated lemon peel, and a little orange-flower water. Beat them well together for half an hour, then add the whites whipped to a froth, and mix in the flour by degrees, continuing to beat them all the time. Then put the batter into a tin well buttered, and bake it an hour and a half. This is a very delicate light cake for serving at table, or in a dessert, and is pretty when baked in a melon mould, or any other kind of shape. It may be iced at pleasure.

SAUCE FOR BOILED MEAT. The sauces usually sent to table with boiled meat, not poured over the dish, but put into boats, are the following. Gravy, parsley and butter, chervil, caper, oyster, liver and parsley, onion, celery, shalot, and curry. The ingredients for compound sauces should be so nicely proportioned, that no one may be predominant, but that there may be an equal union of the combined flavours. All sauces should be sent to table as hot as possible, for nothing is more unsightly than the surface of a sauce in a frozen state, or garnished with grease on the top.

SAUCE FOR BRAWN. Take a peck of bran, seven gallons of water, a pound of salt, a sprig of bay and rosemary. Boil the whole half an hour, strain it off, let it stand till it is cold, and then put it in the brawn.

SAUCE FOR CARP. Rub half a pound of butter with a tea-spoonful of flour, melt it in a little water, and add nearly a quarter of a pint of thick cream. Put in half an anchovy chopped fine, but not washed; set it over the fire, and as it boils up, add a large spoonful of real India soy. If that does not give it a fine colour, add a little more. Turn it into the sauce tureen, and put in some salt and half a lemon. Stir it well to keep it from curdling.

SAUCE FOR CHICKENS. An anchovy or two boned and chopped, some parsley and onion chopped, adding pepper, oil, vinegar, mustard, and walnut or mushroom ketchup. These mixed together will make a good sauce for cold chicken, partridge, or veal.

SAUCE FOR CHOPS. To make a relishing sauce for steaks or chops, pound an ounce of black pepper, and half an ounce of allspice, with an ounce of salt, and half an ounce of scraped horseradish, and the same of shalot peeled and quartered. Put these ingredients into a pint of mushroom ketchup, or walnut pickle; let them steep for a fortnight, and then strain off the liquor. A tea-spoonful or two mixed with the gravy usually sent up for chops and steaks, or added to thick melted butter, will be found an agreeable addition.

SAUCE FOR FISH. Simmer very gently a quarter of a pint of vinegar, and half a pint of soft water, with an onion, a little horseradish, and the following spices lightly bruised: four cloves, two blades of mace, and half a tea-spoonful of black pepper. When the onion becomes tender, chop it small, with two anchovies, and boil it for a few minutes with a spoonful of ketchup. Beat the yolks of three eggs, strain them, and mix the liquor with them by degrees. When well mixed, set the saucepan over a gentle fire, keeping the basin in one hand, into which toss the sauce to and fro, and shake the saucepan over the fire that the eggs may not curdle. The sauce must not be boiled, but made hot enough to give it the thickness of melted butter. – The following sauces for fish will be found excellent. – Lobster sauce. Take a lobster, bruise the body and spawn, that is in the inside, very fine, with the back of a spoon, mince the meat of the tail and claws small, melt your butter of a good thickness, put in the bruised part, and shake it well together, then put in the minced meat with a very little nutmeg grated, and a spoonful of white wine; let it just boil up, and pour it into boats, or over your fish. – Shrimp sauce. Put half a pint of shrimps, clean picked, into a gill of good gravy; let it boil up with a lump of butter rolled in flour, and a spoonful of red wine. – Oyster sauce. Take a pint of oysters that are tolerably large; put them into a saucepan with their own liquor, a blade of mace, a little whole pepper, and a bit of lemon peel; let them stew over the fire till the oysters are plump; pour all into a clean pan, and wash them carefully, one by one, out of the liquor; strain about a gill of the liquor through a fine sieve, add the same quantity of good gravy, cut half a pound of fresh butter in pieces, roll up some in flour, and then put all to your oysters; set it over a clear fire, shake it round often till it boils, and add a spoonful of white wine: let it just boil, and pour it into your bason or boat. – Anchovy sauce. Strip an anchovy, bruise it very fine, put it into half a pint of gravy, a quarter of a pound of butter rolled in flour, a spoonful of red wine, and a tea-spoonful of ketchup; boil all together till it is properly thick, and serve it up. – Another. Half a pint of water, two anchovies split, a clove, a bit of mace, a little lemon peel, a few peppercorns, and a large spoonful of red wine; boil all together, till your anchovy is dissolved; then strain it off, and thicken it with butter rolled in flour. This is the best sauce for skate, maid, or thornback.

SAUCE FOR FISH PIES. Take equal quantities of white wine, not sweet; of vinegar, oyster liquor, and mushroom ketchup. Boil them up with an anchovy, strain the liquor, and pour it through a funnel into the pie after it is baked. Or chop an anchovy small, and boil it up with three spoonfuls of gravy, a quarter of a pint of cream, and a little butter and flour.

SAUCE FOR FOWLS. Cut up the livers, add slices of lemon in dice, scalded parsley, some hard eggs, and a little salt. Mix them with butter, boil them up, and pour the sauce over the fowls. This will be found an excellent sauce for rabbit or fowl, especially to hide the bad colour of fowls. Or boil some veal gravy, with pepper and salt, the juice of a Seville orange and a lemon, and a little port wine. Pour it into the dish, or send it up in a boat.

SAUCE FOR GOOSE. Mix a table-spoonful of made mustard, and half a tea-spoonful of cayenne, in a glass and a half of port wine. Heat and pour it hot into the inside of a roast goose when it is taken up, by a slit made in the apron. What is sauce for a goose will not make bad sauce for a duck. It must be understood that this is not adapted to green geese or ducklings.

SAUCE FOR HASHES. Chop the bones and fragments of the joint, put them into a stewpan, and cover them with boiling water. Add six peppercorns, the same of allspice, a handful of parsley, half a head of celery cut in pieces, and a small sprig of savoury, lemon thyme, or sweet marjoram. Cover it up, and let it simmer gently for half an hour. Slice half an ounce of onion, put it into a stewpan with an ounce of butter, and fry it over a quick fire for two or three minutes, till it takes a little colour. Thicken it with flour, and mix with it by degrees the gravy made from the bones. Let it boil very gently for a quarter of an hour, till it acquires the consistence of cream, and strain it through a fine sieve into a basin. Return it to the stewpan, season it a little, and cut in a few pickled onions, walnuts, or gherkins. Add a table-spoonful of ketchup or walnut pickle, or some capers and caper liquor, or a table-spoonful of ale, a little shalot, or tarragon vinegar. Cover the bottom of the dish with sippets of bread, to retain the gravy, and garnish with fried sippets. To hash meat in perfection, it should be laid in this gravy only just long enough to get properly warmed through.

SAUCE FOR LENT. Melt some butter in a saucepan, shake in a little flour, and brown it by degrees. Stir in half a pint of water, half a pint of ale, an onion, a piece of lemon peel, two cloves, a blade of mace, some whole pepper, a spoonful of ketchup, and an anchovy. Boil it all together a quarter of an hour, strain it, and it will make good sauce for various dishes.

SAUCE FOR LOBSTER. Bruise the yolks of two hard boiled eggs with the back of a wooden spoon, or pound them in a marble mortar, with a tea-spoonful of water, and the soft inside and the spawn of the lobster. Rub them quite smooth with a tea-spoonful of made mustard, two table-spoonfuls of salad oil, and five of vinegar. Season it with a very little cayenne, and some salt. Tarragon vinegar, or essence of anchovy, may be added occasionally.

SAUCE FOR MINCED VEAL.

Take the bones of cold roast or boiled veal, dredge them well with flour, and put them into a stewpan. Add a pint and a half of weak broth, a small onion, a little grated or finely minced lemon peel, half a tea-spoonful of salt, and a blade of pounded mace. Thicken it with a table-spoonful of flour rubbed into half an ounce of butter, stir it into the broth, and let it boil gently for about half an hour. Strain it through a tammis or sieve, and it is ready to put to the veal to warm up, which is to be done by placing the stewpan by the side of the fire. Squeeze in half a lemon, cover the bottom of the dish with sippets of toasted bread cut into triangles, and garnish the dish with slices of ham or bacon. A little basil wine gives an agreeable vegetable relish to minced veal.

SAUCE FOR PARTRIDGE.

Rub down in a mortar the yolks of two eggs boiled hard, an anchovy, two dessert-spoonfuls of oil, three of vinegar, a shalot, cayenne if approved, and a tea-spoonful of mustard. All should be pounded before the oil is added, and strained when done. Shalot vinegar is preferable to the shalot.

SAUCE FOR POULTRY. Wash and pick some chervil very carefully, put a tea-spoonful of salt into half a pint of boiling water, boil the chervil about ten minutes, drain it on a sieve, mince it quite fine, and bruise it to a pulp. Mix it by degrees with some good melted butter, and send it up in a sauce boat. This makes a fine sauce for either fish or fowl. The flavour of chervil is a strong concentration of the combined taste of parsley and fennel, but is more aromatic and agreeable than either.

SAUCE FOR QUAILS. Shred two or three shalots, and boil them a few minutes in a gill of water, and half a gill of vinegar. Add to this a quarter of a pint of good gravy, and a piece of butter rolled in flour. Shake it over the fire till it thickens, and then serve it in the dish with roast quails, or any other small birds.

SAUCE ROBART. This is a favourite sauce for rump steaks, and is made in the following manner. Put a piece of butter, the size of an egg, into a saucepan; and while browning over the fire, throw in a handful of sliced onions cut small. Fry them brown, but do not let them burn. Add half a spoonful of flour, shake the onions in it, and give it another fry. Then put four spoonfuls of gravy, some pepper and salt, and boil it gently ten minutes. Skim off the fat, add a tea-spoonful of made mustard, a spoonful of vinegar, and the juice of half a lemon. Boil it all together, and pour it round the steaks, which should be of a fine yellow brown, and garnished with fried parsley and lemon.

SAUCE FOR STEAKS. When the steaks are taken out of the fryingpan, keep back a spoonful of the fat, or put in an ounce of butter. Add flour to thicken it, and rub it well over the fire till it is a little browned. Then add as much boiling water as will reduce it to the consistence of cream, and a table-spoonful of ketchup or walnut pickle. Let it boil a few minutes, and pour it through a sieve upon the steaks. To this may be added a sliced onion, or a minced shalot, with a glass of port wine. Broiled mushrooms are favourite relishes to beef steaks. Garnish with finely scraped horseradish, pickled walnuts, or gherkins.

SAUCE FOR VEAL. Mince any kind of sweet herbs with the yolks of two or three hard eggs. Boil them together with some currants, a little grated bread, pounded cinnamon, sugar, and two whole cloves. Pour the sauce into the dish intended for the veal, with two or three slices of orange.

SAUCE FOR WILD FOWL. Simmer a tea-cupful of port wine, the same quantity of good meat gravy, a little shalot, a little pepper and salt, a grate of nutmeg, and a bit of mace, for ten minutes. Put in a piece of butter, and flour; give it all one boil, and pour it through the birds. In general they are not stuffed as tame fowl, but may be done so if approved.

SAUSAGES. Chop fat and lean pork together, season it with sage, pepper, salt, and two or three berries of allspice. Half fill some hog's guts that have been soaked and made extremely clean; or the meat may be kept in a very small pan closely covered, and so rolled and dusted with a very little flour before it is fried. The sausages must be pricked with a fork before they are dressed, or they will burst in the frying. Serve them on stewed red cabbage, or mashed potatoes put in a form, and browned with a salamander. – The following is the way of making excellent sausages to eat cold. Season some fat and lean pork with salt, saltpetre, black pepper, and allspice, all in fine powder. Rub the mixture into the meat, and let it lie in pickle for six days. Then cut it small, and mix with it some shred shalot or garlic, as fine as possible. Have ready an ox-gut that has been scoured, salted, and well soaked, and fill it with the above stuffing. Tie up the ends, and hang it to smoke as you would hams, but first wrap it in a fold or two of old muslin. It must be high dried. Some choose to boil it, but others eat it without boiling. The skin should be tied in different places, so as to make each link about eight or nine inches long.

SAUSAGES WITH APPLES. Fry some sliced apples with the sausages, till they are of a light brown. Lay the sausages in the middle of the dish, and the apples round them. Or fry them without apples, and serve them up on fried bread, with mashed potatoes. Or put the sausages into boiling water, simmer them about five minutes, and serve them up with poached eggs, or roasted potatoes.

SCALDS. When a burn or scald is trifling, and occasions no blister, it is sufficient to put a compress of several folds of soft linen upon it, dipped in cold water, and to renew it every quarter of an hour till the pain is entirely removed. When a burn or scald blisters, a compress of fine linen spread over with soft pomatum should be applied to it, and changed twice a day. If the skin is burnt through, and the flesh under it injured, the same pomatum may be applied; but instead of a compress of linen, it should be spread upon a piece of soft lint, applied directly over it, and this cover with a slip of simple adhesive plaster. For an extensive burn or scald, skilful advice should immediately be obtained, as it always endangers the life of the sufferer. A linen rag dipped in laudanum, or spread thick with honey, will be sufficient in ordinary cases. The pomatum proper, where any serious injury has been sustained, is made in the following manner. Take an ounce of the ointment called nutritum, the yolk of a small egg, or the half of a large one, and mix them well together. The nutritum may easily be made by rubbing two drains of cerus, or white lead, with half an ounce of vinegar, and three ounces of common oil, and mixing them well together. If the ingredients for making nutritum are not at hand, to make the pomatum, one part of wax should be melted with eight parts of oil, and the yolk of an egg added to two ounces of this mixture. A still more simple application, and sooner prepared, is to beat up a whole egg with two spoonfuls of sweet oil, free from any rankness. When the pain of the burn and all its other symptoms have nearly subsided, it will be sufficient to apply the following plaster. Boil together to a proper consistence, half a pound of oil of roses, a quarter of a pound of red lead, and two ounces of vinegar. Dissolve in the mixture three quarters of an ounce of yellow wax, and one dram of camphor, stirring the whole well together. Take it off the fire, and spread it upon sheets or slips of paper, of any size that may be most convenient. For an adhesive plaster, melt four ounces of white wax, and add one or two spoonfuls of oil. Dip into this mixture, slips of moderately thin linen, and let them dry; or spread it thin and evenly over them. – The following is a highly esteemed method of curing scalds or burns. Take half a pound of alum in powder, dissolve it in a quart of water; bathe the burn or scald with a linen rag wet in this mixture; then bind the wet rag thereon with a slip of linen, and moisten the bandage with the alum water frequently, without removing it, in the course of two or three days. A workman who fell into a copper of boiling liquor, where he remained three minutes before taken out, was immediately put into a tub containing a saturated solution of alum in water, where he was kept two hours; his sores were then dressed with cloths and bandages, wet in the above mixture, and kept constantly moistened for twenty-four hours, and in a few days he was able to return to business. – The application of vinegar to burns and scalds is to be strongly recommended. It possesses active powers, and is a great antiseptic and corrector of putrescence and mortification. The progressive tendency of burns of the unfavourable kind, or ill-treated, is to putrescence and mortification. Where the outward skin is not broken, it may be freely used every hour or two; where the skin is broken, and if it gives pain, it must be gently used. But equal parts of vinegar and water, in a tepid state, used freely every three or four hours, are generally the best application, and the best rule to be directed by. – House-leek, either applied by itself, or mixed with cream, gives present relief in burns, and other external inflammations.

SCALD HEAD. This disorder is chiefly incident to children, and is seated in the roots of the hair. It is frequently cured by changing the nurse, weaning the child, and removing it to a dry and airy situation. If the itching of the head becomes very troublesome, it may be allayed by gently rubbing it with equal parts of the oil of sweet almonds, and the juice expressed from the leaves of the common burdock, simmered together till they form a soapy liniment, adding a few grains only of pearlash. If this treatment be not sufficient, cut off the hair, or apply an adhesive plaster made of bees' wax, pitch, and mutton suet. After it is removed, the head should be washed with warm soapy water, and the whole body cleansed in a lukewarm bath.

SCALDED CODLINS. Wrap each in a vine leaf, and pack them close in a nice saucepan: when full, pour in as much water as will cover them. Set the saucepan over a gentle fire, and let them simmer slowly till done enough to take the thin skin off when cold. Place them in a dish, with or without milk, cream or custard: if the latter, there should be no ratafia. Dust some fine sugar over the apples.

SCALDED CREAM. Let the milk stand twenty-four hours in winter, and twelve at least in summer. Place the milk pan on a hot hearth, or in a wide brass kettle of water, large enough to receive the pan. It must remain on the fire till quite hot, but on no account boil, or there will be a skim instead of cream upon the milk. When it is done enough, the undulations on the surface will begin to look thick, and a ring will appear round the pan, the size of the bottom. The time required to scald cream depends on the size of the pan, and the heat of the fire; but the slower it is done the better. When the cream is scalded, remove the pan into the dairy, and skim it the next day. In cold weather it may stand thirty-six hours, and never less than two meals. In the west of England, butter is usually made of cream thus prepared; and if made properly it is very firm.