Scientific cooking with scientific methods

Use uncooked cherries if in cherry season; if not, cherries that are canned without sugar. Use two crusts. Bake half an hour in moderate oven. Mincemeat, 4 cups minced meat. 9 cups apples. 1% cups suet, very fine. 4 cups white sugar. 3 pints sweet cider. 1^ cup whisky. % cup sherry wine. Juice 3 lemons. Juice 3 oranges. 1 cup preserved cherries. 1 teaspoon white pepper. % teaspoon cloves. 4 teaspoons cinnamon. 1 teaspoon salt. % nutmeg. Vq pound citron. 3 pounds raisins. IY2 pounds currants. 1 cup preserved Damson plums. 1 cup almonds. Cook the raisins, currants, citron, apples, suet and sugar together slowly for one and one-half hours, then add almonds, spices, fruit juice, cider, whisky and wine. Stir thoroughly, add meat, and stir again until all are blended, adding the preserves with the fruit juice. Mince Pie. Mince pies are always baked with two crusts, and for special occasions they are much more delicious if the top crust is made of puff paste. They are especially fine served with vanilla ice-cream spread on top. Fresh tongue makes fine mincemeat. Mincemeat packed in jars will often need more cider added when you bake. Use boiled cider. CHAPTER XXIII. PASTRY DESSERTS. "Though we eat little flesh and drink no wine, let's be merry. We'll have tea and toast, custard for supper, and endless hosts of syllabubs and jellies and mince pies, and other such ladylike luxuries." — Shelley. Cheese Cakes. 1 cup sweet milk. Grated rind and juice 1 cup sour milk. 1 lemon. Yolks 4 eggs. ^4 cup blanched and 1 cup sugar. chopped almonds. Pinch salt. Scald in double boiler the sweet and sour milk. Strain through cheesecloth. To curd, add yolks of eggs slightly beaten, the sugar, lemon and salt. Line small patty tin with good paste. Fill with the mixture and sprinkle with chopped almonds. Bake until the mixture is firm to the touch. Banbury Tarts. 1 cup sugar. 1 egg. li/o cups raisins. 1 butter cracker. Juice and rind of 1 orange. Chop raisins, stir egg and sugar together, add rolled cracker, then orange juice and rind. Mix well with raisins. Roll pastry very thin. Cut into strips three and one-half inches long and three inches wide. Put into each piece two teaspoonfuls of the mixture. Moisten edges with cold water or lemon juice, and PASTRY DESSERTS. 223 fold over and press edges together with pastry jagger or fork. Bake twenty minutes in slow oven. Puff Paste Cheese Straws. Roll puff paste one-fourth inch thick, and sprinkle with grated cheese seasoned with salt and a little sprinkle of cayenne. Fold and press edges together, and pat and roll. Sprinkle again, pat and roll. Cut into strips five inches long and one-half inch wide. Bake until a nice brown. Parmesan cheese is the best for cheese stick, or you can use half Parmesan and half cream, or Edam, or pineapple. Cheese straws can be made from pieces of plain paste in the same way, but are not so good as the puff paste. Cocoanut Cakes. Vse puff or plain paste. Roll to one-fourth inch in thickness, cut into strips about size of lady-fingers, and bake on buttered tin sheet in hot oven. When nearly done remove and slightly cool, and brush over with whites of eggs beaten, and sprinkle with shredded cocoanut. Return to oven and finish baking. Meringues with Puff Paste.