Cassell's dictionary of cookery

Queen's Drops. — Beat half a pound of fresh butter to cream. Add eight ounces of finely-powdered sugar a quarter of a nutmeg, grated, and, gradually, four well-beaten eggs. Beat the mixture for five or six minutes, then add lightly eight ounces of dried flour and two ounces of picked and dried currants. Drop the batter from the end of a spoon upon a baking sheet spread with butter, in small balls the size of a pigeon's egg, and bake in a hot oven. When nearly cold, take the drops off the paper. Time to bake, ten to fifteen minutes. Probable cost. Is. 8d. Queen's Pudding. — Butter a plain mould or basin rather thickly with butter, flour it well, and stick raisins, slices of candied peel, or dried fruit over the inside in rows. Fill the basin with layers of bread and butter, and put between each layer sugar flavoured with lemonrind, blanched and sliced almonds, and candied peel. Pour over the whole a pint of milk which has been mixed with four well-beaten eggs. Cover the basin closely, and boil or steam the pudding. Time to boil the pudding, half an hour. Probable cost. Is. 2d. Sufficient, if made in a quart mould, for five or six persons. Queen's Sauce for Boiled Plum Puddings. — Take half a pint of good melted butter, sweeten it, and flavour with powdered cinnamon or grated lemon-rind. Stir into it a glassful of sherrj' or maderra and a glassful of rum shrub. Put the sauce into a tureen, grate a little nutmeg over the top, and it is ready for serving. Time, a few minutes to prepare. Sufficient for six or eight persons. Queen's Soup, or Soupe a la Reine. • — Skin and clean two fine fowls or three young chickens, carefully removing the dark spongy substance which is inside. Put them into a saucepan, with a bunch of parsley, and pour over them as much good white stock, nicely flavoured, as will cover them. Let them QUE (676) QUE simmer gently for an hour. Take them up, and pick off all the white flesh from the birds. Blanch and pound a dozen sweet almonds and two bitter ones. Beat them to a paste in a mortar, with a little water to keep them from oiling. Soak the crumb of a penny roll in the broth, and when it is quite moist, wring it in. a cloth, to squeeze the moisture from it. Chop the flesh of the chickens, and pound it to a paste, with the soaked roll, the hard-boiled yolks of two eggs, and the pounded almonds. Stir this mixture into the soup, and press the whole through a sieve. Heat it in a clean saucepan, and mix with it a pint and a half of thick cream which has been boiled separately. Stir it over the fire till it boils, and if not sufficiently thick, add a little arrowroot. Many cooks omit the yolks of eggs altogether, and use arrowroot instead. If no white stock is at hand, it may be made by putting into a saucepan three or four pounds of the knuckle of veal which has been soaked and broken up, with four ounces of undressed lean ham, three onions, a carrot, a turnip, four or five outer sticks of celery, two sprigs of lemon thyme, a bunch of parsley, a large blade of mace, half a tea-spoonful of peppercorns, and three quarts of cold water. Bring the liquor to the boil, skim carefully till no more scum rises, then draw the saucepan to the side, and let it simmer gently and without ceasing until it is reduced to rather less than two quarts.