Take a quarter of a pound of dried cherries, and put them into a small stew-pan, with a dessertspoonful of black currant jelly, a small stick of cinnamon, with half a dozen cloves, and add rather less than half a pint of water, and let the whole simmer gently for about ten minutes, when you must take out the spices and send the rest to table. N.B.--If wine is not objected to in cooking, it is a very good plan to add claret instead of water.
Boiled salsify makes a very delicious salad. Take some white salsify, scrape it, and instantly throw it into vinegar and water, by which means you will keep it a pure white. Then, when you have all ready, throw it into boiling water, slightly salted, boil it till it is tender, throw it into cold water, and when cold take it out, drain it and dry it, cut it up into small half-inch pieces (or put it in whole, in sticks, into a salad-bowl), sprinkle a little chopped blanched parsley over the top, dress in the ordinary way with oil and white French vinegar, and be sure to use white pepper, not black, if white wine vinegar is objected to, the juice of a hard fresh lemon is equally good, if not better.
This is very useful in cases of illness, and is a most pleasant drink in hot weather, when it can be flavoured with lemon juice and sweetened a little. To 1 quart of water take 3 oz. of coarse oatmeal or Allinson breakfast oats. Let it simmer gently on the stove for about 2 hours. Then rub it through a fine sieve or gravy strainer; rub it well through, adding a little more hot water when rubbed dry, so as to get all the goodness out of the oatmeal. If it is thick when it has been rubbed through sufficiently, thin it down with water or hot milk--half oatmeal water and half milk is a good mixture. Nothing better can be given to adults or children in cases of colds or feverish attacks. It is nourishing and soothing, and in cases of diarrhoea remedial.
Butter a pint pudding mould and decorate it with preserved cherries, then fill the basin with layers of sliced sponge cakes and macaroons, scattering a few cherries between the layers. Make a pint of custard with Allinson custard powder, add to it 2 tablespoonfuls of raisin wine and pour over the cakes, &c., steam the pudding carefully for three-quarters of an hour, taking care not to let the water boil into it; serve with wine sauce.
Take half a pint of butter sauce, and sweeten it with a little sugar. It can be flavoured by rubbing a little sugar on the outside of a lemon, or with vanilla, essence of almonds, or any kind of sweet essence. A little wine, brandy, or, still better, rum, is a great improvement. Some persons add cream.
Take six oranges, two lemons, and half a pound of lump sugar; rub the sugar on the outside of three of the oranges, squeeze the juice of the six oranges into a basin with the juice of two lemons, strain, add the sugar and a pint of water. The liquid will be of an orange colour, owing to the rind of the orange rubbed on to the sugar. (If wine be allowed, add half a pint of golden sherry or Madeira.) Bring the liquid to boiling point and then thicken it with corn-flour, and pour it while hot into a mould or plain white basin; when cold, turn it out on to a piece of ornamental paper placed at the bottom of a dish; surround the bottom of the mould with thin slices of orange cut into quarters and the centre part pushed under the mould; place the small end of an orange on the top of the mould with some little leaves or spikes of green angelica placed round the edge.
