Cassell's dictionary of cookery

Plum Beverage, French, for Invalids.— Take half a dozen fine French plums. Put them into a stewpan with a pint of boiling water, and let them simmer gently for twenty minutes. Pour them into a bowl. When cold take out the plums (which may be put aside for eating), sweeten the liquid according to taste, stir into it a table-spoonful of port, and it is ready for use. Probable cost, 6d. Sufficient for one person. Plum Buds, to Pickle.— Throw the buds into plenty of hot salt and water, and let them simmer gently until they are soft. Strain the liquid from them, and let them get quite cold. Boil as much white-wine vinegar as will cover them, and flavour according to taste with mace and white pepper. Pour the liquid over the buds, and let them lie in it eight or nine days. Afterwards boil them in the vinegar until they turn green. Pour them into bottles, and when cold cover closely, and store for use. Probable cost uncertain, plum buds being seldom offered for sale. Plum Buns made with Yeast. — Mix half a tea-spoonful of salt with three pounds of best flour. Rub into this three-quarters of a pound of fresh butter or good beef dripping. Put the mixture into a bowl, and make a hole in the centre. Moisten an ounce of German yeast smoothly and gradually with three-quarters of Ji pint of lukewarm water. If preferred, a quarter of a pint of good brewer's yeast may be substituted for the German yeast. Put the yeast into the hollow, and mix with it a little of the flour till it is like thin batter, then put it on the hearth for about an hour to sponge. Whisk two fresh eggs, and mix with them twelve ounces of moist sugar. Stir them into the yeast, and knead the dough thoroughly with a pint of warm milk. Cover with a cloth, and let the dough stand until it is lightly risen. It will require about an hour and a half. Add six ounces of well-washed and dried currants, mould the dough into buns ( 586 ) PLU about the size of a large egg, place them in rows upon a buttered baking-tin, with fully three inches between them, and set them before the fire for about ten minutes to rise. Bake in a brisk oven for about a quarter of an hour. Probable cost, 2s. 6d. Sufiicient for about three dozen buns. Plum Buns without Yeast, Plain.— Mix thoroughly a tea-spoonful of carbonate of soda with a tea-spoonful of tartaric acid. Rub this and half a tea-spoonful of salt into two pounds of flour. Work in a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, and add a quarter of a pound of moist sugar, a quarter of a pound of washed and dried currants, and, if liked, afew caraway seeds. Make a hole in the centre of the flour, and pour into this two eggs which have been well beaten and mixed with a pint of lukewarm milk. Stir all quickly with a knife, and when the dough is ready mould it into buns, place these on a buttered baking-tin, and bake in a brisk oven for a quarter of an hour or more. Probable cost, Is. 4d. Sufficient for about two dozen buns.