Courtney Ryley Cooper - "The White Desert"

St. John G. Ervine - "The Foolish Lovers"

Charles Kingsley - "Daily Thoughts"

J. Arthur Thomson - "The Outline of Science, Vol. 1 (of 4)"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches

E >> Eliza Leslie >> Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches




Strawberries, raspberries, grapes, currants or any small fruit may
in a similar manner be preserved in jelly.


TO STEW GOOSEBERRIES.

Top and tail them. Pour some boiling water on the gooseberries,
cover them up, and let them set about half an hour, or till the
skin is quite tender, but not till it bursts, as that will make
the juice run out into the water. Then pour off the water, and mix
with the gooseberries an equal quantity of sugar. Put them into a
porcelain stew-pan or skillet, and set it on hot coals, or on a
charcoal furnace. In a few minutes you may begin to mash them
against the side of the pan with a wooden spoon. Let them stew
about half an hour, stirring them frequently. They must be quite
cold before they are used for any thing.


GOOSEBERRY FOOL.

Having stewed two quarts of gooseberries in the above manner, stir
them as soon as they are cold into a quart of rich boiling milk.
Grate in a nutmeg, and covering the pan, let the gooseberries
simmer in the milk for five minutes. Then stir in the beaten yolks
of two or three eggs, and immediately remove it from the fire.
Keep on the cover a few minutes longer; then turn out the mixture
into a deep dish or a glass bowl, and set it away to get cold,
before it goes to table. Eat it with sponge-cake. It will probably
require additional sugar.

Gooseberries prepared in this manner make a very good pudding,
with the addition of a little grated bread. Use both whites and
yolks of the eggs. Stir the mixture well, and bake it in a deep
dish. Eat it cold, with sugar grated over it.


TO BOTTLE GOOSEBERRIES.

For this purpose the gooseberries must be large and full grown,
but quite green. Top and tail them, and put them into wide-mouthed
bottles as far up as the beginning of the neck. Cover the bottom
of a large boiler or kettle with saw-dust or straw. Stand the
bottles of gooseberries (slightly corked) upright in the boiler,
and pour round them cold water to each, as far up as the fruit.
Put a brisk fire under the boiler, and when the water boils up,
instantly take out the bottles and fill them up to the mouth with
boiling water, which you must have ready in a tea-kettle. Cork them
again slightly, and when quite cold put in the corks very tight
and seal them. Lay the bottles on their sides in a box of dry
sand, and turn them every day for four or five weeks. If properly
managed, the gooseberries will keep a year, and may be used at any
time, by stewing them with sugar.

You may bottle damsons in the same manner; also grapes.


PRESERVED RASPBERRIES.

Take a quantity of ripe raspberries, and set aside the half,
selecting for that purpose the largest and firmest. Then put the
remainder into your preserving pan, mash them, and set them over
the fire. As soon as they have come to a boil, take them out, let
them cool, and then squeeze them through a bag.

While they are cooling, prepare your sugar, which must be fine
loaf. Allow a pound of sugar to every quart of whole raspberries.
Having washed the kettle clean, put the sugar into it, allowing
half a pint of cold water to two pounds of sugar. When it has
melted in the water, put it on the fire, and boil it till the scum
ceases to rise, and it is a thick syrup; taking care to skim it
well. Then put in the whole raspberries, and boil them rapidly a
few minutes, but not long enough to cause them to burst. Take them
out with a skimmer full of holes, and spread them on a large dish
to cool. Then mix with the syrup the juice of those you boiled
first, and let it boil about ten or fifteen minutes. Lastly, put
in the whole fruit, and give it one more boil, seeing that it does
not break.

Put it warm into glass jars or tumblers, and when quite cold cover
it closely with paper dipped in brandy, tying another paper
tightly over it.

Strawberries may be done in the same manner; blackberries also.


RASPBERRY JAM.

Take fine raspberries that are perfectly ripe. Weigh them, and to
each pound of fruit allow three quarters of a pound of fine loaf-sugar.
Mash the raspberries, and break up the sugar. Then mix them
together, and put them into a preserving kettle over a good fire.
Stir them frequently and skim them. The jam will be done in half
an hour. Put it warm into glasses, and lay on the top a white
paper cut exactly to fit the inside, and dipped in brandy. Then
tie on another cover of very thick white paper.

Make blackberry jam in the same manner.


TO PRESERVE CRANBERRIES.

The cranberries must be large and ripe. Wash them, and to six
quarts of cranberries allow nine pounds of the best brown sugar.
Take three quarts of the cranberries, and put them into a stew-pan
with a pint and a half of water. Cover the pan, and boil or stew
them, till they are all to pieces. Then squeeze the juice through
a jelly-bag. Put the sugar into a preserving kettle, pour the
cranberry juice over it and let it stand till it is all melted,
stirring it up frequently. Then place the kettle over the fire,
and put in the remaining three quarts of whole cranberries. Let
them boil till they are tender, clear, and of a bright colour,
skimming them frequently. When done, put them, warm into jars with
the syrup, which should be like a thick jelly.


RED CURRANT JELLY.

The currants should be perfectly ripe and gathered on a dry day.
Strip them from the stalks, and put them into a stone jar. Cover
the jar, and set it up to the neck in a kettle of boiling water.
Keep the water boiling round the jar till the currants are all
broken, stirring them up occasionally. Then put them into a jelly-bag,
and squeeze out all the juice. To each pint of juice allow a
pound and a quarter of the best loaf-sugar. Put the sugar into a
porcelain kettle, pour the juice over it, and stir it frequently
till it is all melted. Then set the kettle over a moderate fire,
and let it boil twenty minutes, or till you find that the jelly
congeals in the spoon when, you hold it in the air; skim it
carefully all the time. When the jelly is done, pour it warm into
tumblers, and cover each with two rounds of white tissue paper,
cut to fit exactly the inside of the glass.

Jelly of gooseberries, plums, raspberries, strawberries,
barberries, blackberries, grapes, and other small fruit may all be
made in this manner.


WHITE CURRANT JELLY.

The currants should be quite ripe, and gathered on a dry day.
Having stripped them from the stalks, put them into a close stone
jar, and set it in a kettle of boiling water. As soon as the
currants begin to break, take them out and strain them through a
linen cloth. To each pint of juice allow a pound and a quarter of
the best double refined loaf-sugar; break it small, and put it
into a porcelain preserving pan with barely sufficient water to
melt it; not quite half a pint to a pound and a quarter of sugar;
it must be either clear spring water or river water filtered. Stir
up the sugar while it is dissolving, and when all is melted, put
it over a brisk fire, and boil and skim it till clear and thick.
When the scum ceases to rise, put in the white currant juice and
boil it fast for ten minutes. Then put it warm into tumblers, and
when it is cold, cover it with double white tissue paper.

In making this jelly, use only a silver spoon, and carefully
observe all the above precautions, that it may be transparent and
delicate. If it is not quite clear and bright when done boiling,
you may run it again through a jelly-bag.

White raspberry jelly may be prepared in the same manner. A very
nice sweetmeat is made of white raspberries preserved whole, by
putting them in white currant jelly during the ten minutes that
you are boiling the juice with the syrup. You may also preserve
red raspberries whole, by boiling them in red currant jelly.


BLACK CURRANT JELLY.

Take large ripe black currants; strip them from the stalks, and
mash them with the back of a ladle. Then put them into a
preserving kettle with a tumbler of water to each quart of
currants; cover it closely, set it over a moderate fire, and when
the currants have come to a boil, take them out, and squeeze them
through a jelly-bag. To each pint of juice you may allow about a
pound of loaf-sugar, and (having washed the preserving kettle
perfectly clean) put in the sugar with the juice; stir them
together till well mixed and dissolved, and then boil it not
longer than ten minutes; as the juice of black currants being very
thick will come to a jelly very soon, and if boiled too long will
be tough and ropy.

Black currant jelly is excellent for sore throats; and if eaten
freely on the first symptoms of the disease, will frequently
check, it without any other remedy. It would be well for all
families to keep it in the house.


GRAPE JELLY.

Take ripe juicy grapes, pick them from the steins; put them into a
large earthen pan, and mash them with the back of a wooden ladle,
or with a potato beetle. Put them into a kettle, (without any
water,) cover them, closely, and let them boil for a quarter of an
hour; stirring them up occasionally from the bottom. Then squeeze
them through a jelly-bag, and to each pint of juice allow a pound
of loaf-sugar. Dissolve the sugar in the grape juice; then put it
over a quick fire in a preserving kettle, and boil and skim it
twenty minutes. When it is a clear thick jelly, take it off, put
it warm into tumblers, and cover them with double tissue paper cut
to fit the inside.

In the same manner you may make an excellent jelly for common use,
of ripe fox grapes and the best brown sugar; mixing with the sugar
before it goes on the fire, a little beaten white of egg; allowing
two whites to three pounds of sugar.


GRAPES.

Take some large close bunches of fine grapes, (they must not be
too ripe,) and allow to each bunch a quarter of a pound of bruised
sugar candy. Put the grapes and the sugar candy into large jars,
(about two-thirds full,) and fill them up with French brandy. Tie
them up closely, and keep them in a dry place. Morella cherries
may be done in the same manner.

Foreign grapes are kept in bunches, laid lightly in earthen jars
of dry saw-dust.


TO KEEP WILD GRAPES.

Gather the small black wild grapes late in the season, after they
have been ripened by a frost. Pick them from the stems, and put
them into stone jars, (two-thirds full,) with layers of brown
sugar, and fill them up with cold molasses. They will keep all
winter; and they make good common pies. If they incline to ferment
in the jars, give them a bail with additional sugar.


TO PRESERVE STRAWBERRIES.

Strawberries for preserving should be large and ripe. They will
keep best if gathered in dry weather, when there has been no rain
for at least two days. Having hulled, or topped and tailed them
all, select the largest and firmest, and spread them out
separately on flat dishes; having first weighed them, and allowed
to each pound of strawberries a pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Sift
half the sugar over them. Then take the inferior strawberries that
were left, and those that, are over ripe; mix with them an equal
quantity of powdered sugar, and mash them. Put them into a basin
covered with a plate, and set them over the fire in a pan of
boiling water, till they become a thick juice; then strain it
through a bag and mix with it the other half of the sugar that you
have allotted to the strawberries, which are to be done whole. Put
it into a porcelain kettle, and boil and skim it till the scum
ceases to rise; then put in the whole strawberries with the sugar
in which they have been lying, and all the juice that may have
exuded from them. Set them over the fire in the syrup, just long
enough to heat them a little; and in a few minutes take them out,
one by one, with a tea-spoon, and spread them on dishes to cool;
not allowing them to touch each other. Then take off what scum may
arise from the additional sugar. Repeat this several times, taking
out the strawberries and cooling them till they become quite
clear. They must not be allowed to boil; and if they seem likely
to break, they should be instantly and finally taken from the
fire. When quite cold, put them with the syrup into tumblers, or
into white queen's-ware pots. If intended to keep a long time it
will be well to put at the top a layer of apple jelly.


TO PRESERVE CHERRIES.

Take large ripe morella cherries; weigh them, and to each pound
allow a pound of loaf-sugar. Stone the cherries, (opening them
with a sharp quill,) and save the juice that comes from them in
the process. As you stone them, throw them into a large pan or
tureen, and strew about half the sugar over them, and let them lie
in it an hour or two after they are all stoned. Then put them into
a preserving kettle with the remainder of the sugar, and boil and
skim them till the fruit is clear and the syrup thick.


CHERRIES PRESERVED WHOLE.

The large carnation cherries are the best for this purpose. They
should be quite ripe. Prick every one in several places with a
needle, and leave on the stalks cut short. To each pound of
cherries allow a pound and a quarter of the best loaf-sugar.
Spread them on large dishes, and strew over them a thick layer of
the sugar powdered fine; about a quarter of a pound of sugar to
each pound of cherries. Or you may put them into a large tureen,
and disperse the sugar among them, cover them, and let them set
all night. In the morning get some ripe red currants; pick them,
from the stalks, and squeeze them through a linen cloth till you
have just sufficient juice to moisten the remaining sugar, which
you must have ready in a preserving kettle. When the sugar has
melted in the currant juice, put it over the fire, and when it has
been well boiled and skimmed, put in the cherries and simmer them
half an hour, or till they are so clear that you can see the
stones through them. Then take them up one at a time, and spread
them out to cool. Taste one, and if the sugar does not seem, to
have sufficiently penetrated it, return them to the syrup and boil
them a little longer, but do not allow them to break. If you are
willing to take the trouble, you may put them out to cool three or
four times while simmering. This will make them more transparent,
and prevent them from bursting.


CHERRY JELLY.

Take fine juicy red cherries, and stone them. Save half the
stones, crack them, and extract the kernels. Put the cherries and
the kernels into a preserving kettle over a slow fire, and let
them boil gently in their juice for half an hour. Then transfer
them to a jelly-bag, and squeeze out the juice. Measure it, and to
each pint allow a pound of fine loaf-sugar. Dissolve the sugar in
the juice, and then boil and skim it for twenty or thirty minutes.
Put it up in tumblers covered with tissue paper.


CHERRY JAM.

To each pound of cherries allow three quarters of a pound of the
best brown sugar. Stone them, and as you do so throw the sugar
gradually into the pan with them. Cover them and let them set all
night. Next day, boil them slowly till the cherries and sugar form
a thick smooth mass. Put it up in queen's-ware jars.


TO DRY CHERRIES.

Choose the finest and largest red cherries for this purpose. Store
them, and spread them on large dishes in the sun, till they become
quite dry, taking them in as soon as the sun is off, or if the sky
becomes cloudy. Put them up in stone jars, strewing among them
some of the best brown sugar.

The common practice of drying cherries with the stones in, (to
save trouble,) renders them so inconvenient to eat, that they are
of little use, when done in that manner.

With the stones extracted, dried cherries will be found very good
for common pies.


BARBERRY JELLY.

Take ripe barberries, and having stripped them from the stalks,
mash them, and boil them in their juice for a quarter of an hour.
Then squeeze them through a bag: allow to each pint of juice, a
pound of loaf-sugar; and having melted the sugar in the juice,
boil them together twenty or twenty-five minutes, skimming
carefully. Put it up in tumblers with tissue paper.

FROSTED FRUIT.

Take large ripe cherries, plums, apricots, or grapes, and cut off
half the stalk. Have ready in one dish some beaten white of egg,
and in another some fine loaf-sugar, powdered and sifted. Dip the
fruit first into the white of egg, and then roll it one by one in
the powdered sugar. Lay a sheet of white paper on the bottom of a
reversed sieve, set it on a stove or in some other warm place, and
spread the fruit on the paper till the icing is hardened.


PEACH LEATHER.

To six pounds of ripe peaches, (pared and quartered,) allow three
pounds of the best brown sugar. Mix them together, and put them,
into a preserving kettle, with barely water enough to keep them
from burning. Pound and mash them a while with a wooden beetle.
Then boil and skim them for three hours or more, stirring them
nearly all the time. When done, spread them thinly on large
dishes, and set them in the sun for three or four days; Finish the
drying by loosening the peach leather on the dishes, and setting
them in the oven after the bread is taken out, letting them remain
till the oven is cold. Roll up the peach leather and put it away
in a box.

Apple leather may be made in the same manner.


RHUBARB JAM.

Peel the rhubarb stalks and cut them into small square pieces.
Then weigh them, and to each pound allow three quarters of a pound
of powdered loaf-sugar. Put the sugar and the rhubarb into a
large, deep, white pan, in alternate layers, the top layer to be
of sugar--cover it, and let it stand all night. In the morning,
put it into a preserving kettle, and boil it slowly till the whole
is dissolved into a thick mass, stirring it frequently, and
skimming it before every stirring. Put it warm into glass jars,
and tie it up with brandy paper.




PASTRY, PUDDINGS, ETC


THE BEST PLAIN PASTE.

All paste should be made in a very cool place, as heat renders it
heavy. It is far more difficult to get it light in summer than in
winter. A marble slab is much better to roll it on than a paste-board.
It will be improved in lightness by washing the butter in
very cold water, and squeezing and pressing out all the salt, as
salt is injurious to paste. In New York and in the Eastern states,
it is customary, in the dairies, to put more salt in what is
called fresh butter, than in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and
Delaware. This butter, therefore, should always undergo the
process of washing and squeezing before it is used for pastry or
cakes. None but the very best butter should be taken for those
purposes; as any unpleasant taste is always increased by baking.
Potted butter never makes good paste. As pastry is by no means an
article of absolute necessity, it is better not to have it at all,
than to make it badly, and of inferior ingredients; few things
being more unwholesome than hard, heavy dough. The flour for paste
should always be superfine.

You may bake paste in deep dishes or in soup plates. For shells
that are to be baked empty, and afterwards filled with stewed
fruit or sweetmeats, deep plates of block tin with broad edges are
best. If you use patty-pans, the more flat they are the better.
Paste always rises higher and is more perfectly light and flaky,
when unconfined at the sides while baking. That it may be easily
taken out, the dishes or tins should be well buttered.

To make a nice plain paste,--sift three pints of superfine flour,
by rubbing it through a sieve into a deep pan. Divide a pound of
fresh butter into four quarters. Cut up one quarter into the
flour, and rub it fine with your hands. Mix in, gradually, as much
cold water as will make a tolerably stiff dough, and then knead it
slightly. Use as little water as possible or the paste will be
tough. Sprinkle a little flour on your paste-board, lay the lump
of dough upon it, and knead it a very short time. Flour it, and
roll it out into a very thin sheet, always rolling from you. Flour
your rolling-pin to prevent its sticking. Take a second quarter of
the butter, and with your thumb, spread it all over the sheet of
paste. If your hand is warm, use a knife instead of your thumb;
for if the butter oils, the paste will be heavy. When you have put
on the layer of butter, sprinkle it with a very little flour, and
with your hands roll up the paste as you would a sheet of paper.
Then flatten it with a rolling-pin, and roll it out a second time
into a thin sheet. Cover it with another layer of butter, as
before, and again roll it up into a scroll. Flatten it again, put
on the last layer of butter, flour it slightly, and again roll up
the sheet. Then cut the scroll into as many pieces as you want
sheets for your dishes or patty-pans. Roll out each piece almost
an inch thick. Flour your dishes, lay the paste lightly on them,
notch the edges, and bake it a light brown. The oven must be
moderate. If it is too hot, the paste will bake before it has
risen sufficiently. If too cold, it will scarcely rise at all, and
will be white and clammy. When you begin to make paste in this
manner, do not quit it till it is ready for the oven. It must
always be baked in a close oven where no air can reach it.

The best rolling-pins, are those that are straight, and as thick
at the ends as in the middle. They should be held by the handles,
and the longer the handles the more convenient. The common
rolling-pins that decrease in size towards the ends, are much less
effective, and more tedious, as they can roll so little at a time;
the extremities not pressing on the dough at all.

All, pastry is best when fresh. After the first day it loses much
of its lightness, and is therefore more unwholesome.


COMMON PIE CRUST.

Sift two quarts of superfine flour into a pan. Divide one pound of
fresh butter into two equal parts, and cut up one half in the
flour, rubbing it fine. Mix it with a very little cold water, and
make it into a round lump. Knead it a little. Then flour your
paste-board, and roll the dough out into a large thin sheet.
Spread it all over with the remainder of the butter. Flour it,
fold it up, and roll it out again. Then fold it again, or roll it
into a scroll. Cut it into as many pieces as you want sheets of
paste, and roll each not quite an inch thick. Butter your pie-dish.

This paste will do for family use, when covered pies are wanted.
Also for apple dumplings, pot-pies, &c.; though all boiled paste
is best when made of suet instead of butter. Short cakes may be
made of this, cut out with the edge of a tumbler. It should always
be eaten fresh.


SUET PASTE.

Having removed the skirt and stringy fibres from a pound of beef
suet, chop it as fine as possible. Sift two quarts of flour into a
deep pan, and rub into it one half of the suet. Make, it into a
round lump of dough, with cold water, and then knead it a little.
Lay the dough on your paste-board, roll it out very thin, and
cover it with the remaining half of the suet. Flour it, roll it
out thin again, and then roll it into a scroll. Cut it into as
many pieces as you want sheets of paste, and roll them out half an
inch thick.

Suet paste should always be boiled. It is good for plain puddings
that are made of apples, gooseberries, blackberries or other
fruit; and for dumplings. If you use it for pot-pie, roll it the
last time rather thicker than if wanted for any other purpose. If
properly made, it will be light and flaky, and the suet
imperceptible. If the suet is minced very fine, and thoroughly
incorporated with the flour, not the slightest lump will appear
when the paste comes to table.

The suet must not be melted before it is used; but merely minced
as fine as possible and mixed cold with the flour.

If for dumplings to eat with boiled mutton, the dough must be
rolled out thick, and cut out of the size you want them, with a
tin, or with the edge of a cup or tumbler.


DRIPPING PASTE.

To a pound of fresh beef-dripping, that has been nicely clarified,
allow two pounds and a quarter of flour. Put the flour into a
large pan, and mix the dripping with it, rubbing it into the flour
with your hands till it is thoroughly incorporated. Then make it
into a stiff dough with a little cold water, and roll it out
twice. This may be used for common meat pies.


LARD PASTE.

Lard for paste should never be used without an equal quantity of
butter. Take half a pound of nice lard, and half a pound of fresh
butter; rub them together into two pounds and a quarter of flour,
and mix it with a little cold water to a stiff dough. Roll it out
twice. Use it for common pies. Lard should always be kept in tin.


POTATO PASTE.

To two quarts of flour, allow fourteen good sized potatoes. Boil
the potatoes till they are thoroughly done throughout. Then peel,
and mash them very fine. Rub them through a cullender.

Having sifted the flour into a pan, add the potatoes gradually;
rubbing them well into the flour with your hands. Mix in
sufficient cold water to make a stiff dough. Roll it out evenly,
and you may use it for apple dumplings, boiled apple pudding,
beef-steak pudding, &c.

Potato paste must be sent to table quite hot; as soon as it cools
it becomes tough and heavy. It is unfit for baking; and even when
boiled is less light than suet paste.

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