Soyer's standard cookery

INGREDIENTS. — Two pounds of sour cooking-apples, four ounces of ground rice, four ounces of castor sugar, two ounces of butter, six eggs, one and a half pints of milk, four tablespoonfuls of moist sugar, or to taste, the rind of one lemon, thinly pared, two cloves, one inch of stick cinnamon. METHOD. — Cook the apples with four tablespoonfuls of water, the moist sugar, butter, lemon rind, cloves, and cinnamon in a jar placed in a saucepan of boiling water, and when soft rub them through a hair sieve. Meanwhile mix the ground rice smoothly with a little cold milk, boil the remainder, add the blended rice and milk, and simmer gently for fifteen minutes. Now add the sugar, let the mixture cool a little, then add each yolk of egg separately, give the whole a good beating, and lastly stir in very lightly the stiffly- whisked whites of eggs. Fill a well-buttered souffle dish with alternate layers of rice and apple puree, piling the last layer of rice in a pyramidal form. Dredge well with castor sugar, and bake in a moderate oven for about thirty minutes. Apricot Fritters. INGREDIENTS. — Twenty to twenty-four apricots (preserved fruit will do), castor sugar, ground cinnamon, frying fat. For the yeast batter: sixteen ounces of flour, half an ounce of yeast, three ounces of oiled butter, milk, one teaspoonful of castor sugar, two pinches of salt. METHOD. — Cream the yeast smoothly with a little tepid milk, add four ounces of flour, mix into a light dough, and let it rise in a warm place. When it has risen to nearly twice its original size add the salt, sugar, warm butter, flour, and as much tepid milk as is needed to form a light dough. Let it rise again, and meanwhile drain the apricots from the syrup. Cover the halves of the apricots completely with a thin coating of dough, place them on a well-buttered paper, let them remain near the fire for about half an hour, then fry in hot fat until nicely browned. Drain well, sprinkle with castor sugar and cinnamon, then serve. Banana Fritters. INGREDIENTS. — Twelve firm bananas, frying batter, castor sugar, frying-fat. METHOD. — Cut each banana lengthwise and across, thus forming four portions. Coat them completely with the prepared batter, fry them in hot fat until nicely browned, and drain well. Sprinkle with castor sugar, and serve. Beetroot Fritters. INGREDIENTS. — Two large cooked beetroots, six yolks of eggs, two tablespoonfuls of flour, sugar to taste, one teaspoonful of lemon rind, two good pinches of nutmeg, frying batter, fryingfat. METHOD. — Pass the beetroot through a fine sieve, sprinkle in the flour, add the yolks of eggs, lemon rind, and nutmeg, and sweeten to taste. Stir over a slow fire for ten minutes, and put aside until cold. Drop the mixture in dessertspoonfuls into the batter, drain slightly, and fry in hot fat until crisp and lightly browned. Drain well, and serve dredged with castor sugar. Another variety of fritters is prepared with cooked beetroots thickly sliced, coated with sweet or savory batter, and fried as directed above. Croquettes of Fruit. INGREDIENTS. — One and a half pounds of cooking cherries, damsons or plums, three pounds of savory biscuits or Genoese cake finely crumbled, eight ounces of sugar, two teaspoonfuls of finely-grated lemon rind, two good pinches of cinnamon, eggs and breadcrumbs, frying-fat.