Mary Eaton - The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary; Including a System of Modern Cookery, in all Its Various Branches, Adapted to the Use of Private Families

BISCUITS. To make hard biscuits, warm two ounces of butter in as much skimmed milk as will make a pound of flour into a very stiff paste. Beat it with a rolling pin, and work it very smooth. Roll it thin, and cut it into round biscuits. Prick them full of holes with a fork, and about six minutes will bake them. – For plain and very crisp biscuits, make a pound of flour, the yolk of an egg, and some milk, into a very stiff paste. Beat it well, and knead it quite smooth; roll the paste very thin, and cut it into biscuits. Bake them in a slow oven till quite dry and crisp. – To preserve biscuits for a long time sweet and good, no other art is necessary than packing them up in casks well caulked, and carefully lined with tin, so as to exclude the air. The biscuits should be laid as close as possible; and when it is necessary to open the cask, it must be speedily closed again with care. Sea bread may also be preserved on a long voyage, by being put into a bag which has been previously soaked in a quantity of liquid nitre, and dried. This has been found to preserve the biscuits from the fatal effects of the wevil, and other injurious insects, which are destructive to this necessary article of human sustenance.

BITTERS. Bruise an ounce of gentian root, and two drams of cardamom seeds together: add an ounce of lemon peel, and three drams of Seville orange peel. Pour on the ingredients a pint and half of boiling water, and let it stand an hour closely covered: then pour off the clear liquor, and a glass of it taken two or three times a day will be found an excellent bitter for the stomach. – Or slice an ounce of gentian root, and add half a dram of snakes' root bruised, half a dram of saffron, three quarters of a dram of cardamom seeds, and the same of cochineal bruised together, and the peel of three Seville oranges. Steep the ingredients in a pint of brandy fourteen days, shaking them together frequently; then strain the tincture through a piece of muslin, and a tea-spoonful in a glass of wine may be taken two or three times a day.

BLACK BUTTER. Boil a pound of moist sugar with three pounds of gooseberries, currants, raspberries, and cherries, till reduced to half the quantity. Put it into pots covered with brandy paper, and it will be found a pleasant sweetmeat.

BLACK CAPS. Divide and core some fine large apples, put them in a shallow pan, strew white sugar over, and bake them. Boil a glass of wine, the same of water, and sweeten it for sauce. Or, take off a slice from the stalk end of some apples, and core without paring them. Mix with grated lemon, and a few cloves in fine powder, as much sugar as will sweeten them. Stuff the holes as close as possible with this, and turn the flat end down on a stewpan; set them on a very slow fire, with some raisin wine and water. Cover them close, and now and then baste them with the liquor: when done enough, black the tops with a salamander.

BLACK INK. Infuse in a gallon of rain or soft water, a pound of blue galls bruised, and keep it stirring for three weeks. Then add four ounces of green copperas, four ounces of logwood chips, six ounces of gum arabac, and a glass of brandy. – To make ink of a superior quality, and fit for immediate use, prepare the following ingredients. Four ounces of blue galls, two ounces of chipped logwood, two of sulphate of iron, one ounce and a half of gum arabac, half an ounce of sulphate of copper, and half an ounce of brown sugar. Boil the galls and logwood in six pints of spring or distilled water, until nearly three pints of water are evaporated, then strain it through a piece of flannel. Powder the salts in a mortar, dissolve the gum in a little warm water, then mix the whole together, and shake it frequently for two or three days; during which time expose it to the air, and it will become blacker. Decant the liquor into stone bottles well corked, and it will be fit for use directly. Those who wish to avoid the trouble of such a process, will find an excellent substitute in Walkden's Ink Powder ready prepared, with directions how to use it. If a cup of sweet wort be added to two papers of the powder, it will give it the brightness of japan ink.

BLACK LEAD. The best preparation for cleaning cast-iron stoves is made of black lead, mixed with a little common gin, or the dregs of port wine, and laid on the stove with a piece of linen rag. Then with a clean brush, not too hard, and dipped in some dried black lead powder, rub the stove till it comes to a beautiful brightness. This will produce a much finer black varnish on the cast-iron, than either boiling the black lead with small beer and soap, or mixing it with white of egg, as is commonly practised.

BLACK PAPER, for drawing patterns, may easily be made in the following manner. Mix and smooth some lamp-black and sweet oil, with a piece of flannel. Cover a sheet or two of large writing paper with this mixture, then dab the paper dry with a rag of fine linen, and prepare it for future use by putting the black side on another sheet of paper, and fastening the corners together with a small pin. When wanted to draw, lay the pattern on the back of the black paper, and go over it with the point of a steel pencil. The black paper will then leave the impression of the pattern on the under sheet, on which you must now draw it with ink. If you draw patterns on cloth or muslin, do it with a pen dipped in a bit of stone blue, a bit of sugar, and a little water, mixed smooth in a tea cup, in which it will be always ready for use.

BLACK PUDDINGS. The pig's blood must be stirred with a little salt till it is cold. Put a full quart of it to a quart of whole grits, and let it stand all night. Soak the crumb of a quartern loaf in rather more than two quarts of new milk made hot. In the meantime prepare the guts by washing, turning and scraping, with salt and water, and changing the water several times. Chop fine a little winter savoury and thyme, a good quantity of pennyroyal, pepper and salt, a few cloves, some allspice, ginger and nutmeg. Mix these all together, with three pounds of beef suet, and six eggs well beaten and strained. Have ready some hog's fat cut into large bits; and as the skins are filling with the pudding, put in the fat at intervals. Tie up in links only half filled, and boil in a large kettle, pricking them as they swell, or they will burst. When boiled, lay them between clean cloths till cold, and hang them up in the kitchen. When to be used, scald them a few minutes in water; wipe, and put them into a Dutch oven. If there be not skins enough, put the stuffing into basins, and boil it covered with floured cloths. Slice and fry it when used. – Another way is, to soak all night a quart of bruised grits in as much boiling-hot milk as will swell them, and leave half a pint of liquid. Chop a quantity of pennyroyal, savoury and thyme; add salt and pepper, and allspice finely powdered. Mix the above with a quart of the blood, prepared as before directed; clean the skins thoroughly, half fill them with the stuffing, put in as much of the leaf fat of the pig as will make it pretty rich, and boil as before directed. A small quantity of leeks finely shred and well mixed, is a great improvement. – A superior article may be made as follows: boil a quart of half-grits in as much milk as will swell them to the utmost, drain them and add a quart of blood, a pint of rich cream, a pound of suet, some mace, nutmeg, allspice, and four cloves, all in fine powder. And two pounds of hog's leaf cut into dice, two leeks, a handful of parsley, ten leaves of sage, a large handful of pennyroyal, and a sprig of thyme and knotted marjoram, all finely minced; eight eggs well beaten, half a pound of bread crumbs scalded in a pint of milk, with pepper and salt. Soak and clean the skins in several waters, last of all in rose-water, and half fill them with the stuffing. Tie the skins in links, boil and prick them with a clean fork, to prevent their breaking, and cover them with a clean cloth till cold.