F. Morley Fletcher - "Wood Block Printing"

Various - "Georgian Poetry 1920 22"

Hermann Sudermann - "Dame Care"

J. J. Thomas - "Froudacity: West Indian Fables by J. A. Froude"

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





ORANGE CREAM.

Beat very light six eggs, omitting the whites of two. Have ready a
pint of orange juice, and stir it gradually into the beaten egg,
alternately with a pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Put into a
porcelain skillet the yellow rind of one orange, pared very thin;
pour the mixture upon it, and set it over a slow fire. Simmer it
steadily, stirring it all the time; but when nearly ready to boil,
take it off, remove the orange-peel, and put the mixture into
glasses to get cold.


CURDS AND WHEY.

Take a piece of rennet about three inches square, and wash it in
two or three cold waters to get off the salt; wipe it dry, and
fasten a string to one corner of it. Have ready in a deep dish or
pan, a quart of unskimmed milk that has been warmed but not
boiled. Put the rennet into it, leaving the string hanging out
over the side, that you may know where to find it. Cover the pan,
and set it by the fire-side or in some other warm place. When the
milk becomes a firm mass of curd, and the whey looks clear and
greenish, remove the rennet as gently as possible, pulling it out
by the string; and set the pan in ice, or in a very cold place.
Send to table with it a small pitcher of white wine, sugar and
nutmeg mixed together; or a bowl of sweetened cream, with nutmeg
grated over it.

You may keep rennet in white wine; cutting it in small pieces, and
putting it into a glass jar with wine enough to cover it well.
Either the wine or the rennet will be found good for turning milk;
but do not put in both together, or the curd will become so hard
and tough, as to be uneatable.

Rennets properly prepared and dried, are sold constantly in the
Philadelphia markets. The cost is trifling; and it is well to have
one always in the house, in case of being wanted to make whey for
sick persons. They will keep a year or more.


LEMON ICE CREAM.

Have ready two quarts of very rich thick cream, and take out a
pint. Stir gradually into the pint, a pound of the best loaf-sugar
powdered fine; and the grated rind and the juice of four ripe
lemons of the largest size, or of five or six smaller ones. If you
cannot procure the fruit, you may flavour the cream with essence
or oil of lemon; a tea-spoonful or more, according to its
strength. The strongest and best essence of lemon is the white or
whitish; when tinged with green, it is comparatively weak, having
been diluted with water; if quite green, a large tea-spoonful will
not communicate as much flavour as five or six drops of the white.
After you have mixed the pint of cream with the sugar and lemon,
beat it gradually and hard into the remaining cream, that is, the
three pints. Cover it, and let it stand to infuse from half an
hour to an hour. Then taste it, and if you think it necessary,
stir in a little more lemon juice or a little more sugar. Strain
it into the freezer through a fine strainer, (a tin one with small
close holes is best,) to get rid of the grated lemon-peel, which
if left in would prevent the cream from being smooth. Cover the
freezer, and stand it in the ice cream tub, which should be filled
with a mixture, in equal quantities, of coarse salt, and ice
broken up as small as possible, that it may lie close and compact
round the freezer, and thus add to its coldness. Snow, when it can
be procured, is still better than ice to mix with the salt. It
should be packed closely into the tub, and pressed down hard. Keep
turning the freezer about by the handle till the cream is frozen,
which it will generally be in two hours. Occasionally open the lid
and scrape down the cream from the sides with a long-handled tin
spoon. Take care that no salt gets in, or the cream will be
spoiled. When it is entirely frozen, take it out of the freezer
and put it into your mould; set it again in the tub, (which must
be filled with fresh ice and salt,) and leave it undisturbed till
you want it for immediate use. This second freezing, however,
should not continue longer than two hours, or the cream will
become inconveniently and unpleasantly hard, and have much of the
flavour frozen out of it. Place the mould in the ice tub, with the
head downwards, and cover the tub with pieces of old carpet while
the second freezing is going on. When it has arrived at the proper
consistence, and it is time to serve it up, dip a cloth in hot
water, and wrap it round the mould for a few moments, to loosen
the cream and make it come out easily; setting the mould on a
glass or china dish. If a pyramid or obelisk mould, lift it
carefully off the top. If the mould or form represents doves,
dolphins, lap-dogs, fruit baskets, &c. it will open down the
middle, and must be taken off in that manner. Serve it up
immediately lest it begin to melt. Send round sponge-cake with it,
and wine or cordials immediately after.

If you have no moulds, but intend serving it up in a large bowl or
in glasses, it must still be frozen twice over; otherwise it can
have no smoothness, delicacy, or consistence, but will be rough
and coarse, and feel in the mouth like broken icicles. The second
freezing (if you have no mould) must be done in the freezer, which
should be washed out, and set again in the tub with fresh ice and
salt. Cover it closely, and let the cream stand in it untouched,
but not less than two hours. When you put it into glasses, heap it
high on the top.

Begin to make ice cream about five or six hours before it is
wanted for use. If you commence it too early, it may probably be
injured by having to remain too long in the second freezing, as it
must not be turned out till a few moments before it is served up.
In damp weather it requires a longer time to freeze.

If cream is scarce, mix with it an equal quantity of rich milk,
and then add, for each quart, two table-spoonfuls of powdered
arrow-root rubbed smooth in a little cold milk. Orange ice cream
is made in the same manner as lemon.


STRAWBERRY ICE CREAM.

Take two quarts of ripe strawberries; hull them, and put them into
a deep dish, strewing among them half a pound of powdered loaf-sugar.
Cover them, and let them stand an hour or two. Then mash
them through a sieve till you have pressed out all the juice, and
stir into it half a pound more of powdered sugar, or enough to
make it very sweet, and like a thick syrup. Then mix it by degrees
with two quarts of rich cream, beating it in very hard. Put it
into a freezer, and proceed as in the foregoing receipt. In two
hours, remove it to a mould, or take it out and return it again to
the freezer with fresh salt and ice, that it may be frozen a
second time. In two hours more, it should be ready to turn out.


RASPBERRY ICE CREAM.

Is made according to the preceding receipt.


PINE-APPLE ICE CREAM.

To each quart of cream allow a large ripe pine-apple, and a pound
of powdered loaf-sugar. Pare the pine-apple, slice it very thin,
and mince it small. Lay it in a deep dish and strew the sugar
among it. Cover the dish, and let the pine-apple lie in the sugar
for two or three hours. Then strain it through a sieve, mashing
and pressing out all the juice. Stir the juice gradually into the
cream, beating it hard. Put it into the freezer, and let it be
twice frozen before it is served up.


VANILLA ICE CREAM.

Split up half a vanilla bean, and boil it slowly in half a pint of
milk till all the flavour is drawn out, which you may know by
tasting it. Then mix into the milk half a pound of powdered loaf-sugar,
and stir it very hard into a quart of rich cream. Put it
into the freezer, and proceed as directed in the receipt for Lemon
Ice Cream; freezing it twice.


ALMOND ICE CREAM.

Take six ounces of bitter almonds, (sweet ones will not do,)
blanch them, and pound them in a mortar, adding by degrees a
little rose water. Then boil them gently in a pint of cream till
you find that it is highly flavoured with them. Then pour the
cream into a bowl, stir in a pound of powdered loaf-sugar, cover
it, and set it away to cool gradually; when it is cold, strain it
and then stir it gradually and hard into three pints of cream. Put
it into the freezer, and proceed as directed in the first ice
cream receipt. Freeze it twice. It will be found very fine.

Send round always with ice cream, sponge cake or Savoy biscuits.
Afterwards wine, and cordials, or liqueurs as they are now
generally called.


ICE ORANGEADE.

Take a pint and a half of orange juice, and mix it with half a
pint of clear or filtered water. Stir in half a pound of powdered
loaf-sugar. Pare very thin the yellow rind of six deep-coloured
oranges, cut in pieces, and lay it at the bottom of a bowl or
tureen. Pour the orange juice and sugar upon it; cover it, and let
it infuse an hour. Then strain the liquid into a freezer, and
proceed as for ice cream. When it is frozen, put it into a mould,
(it will look best in the form of a pine-apple,) and freeze it a
second time. Serve it in glass cups, with any sort of very nice
sweet cakes.


ICE LEMONADE.

May be made in the above manner, but with a larger proportion of
sugar.

The juice of pine-apples, strawberries, raspberries, currants and
cherries, may be prepared and frozen according to the above
receipts. They will freeze in a shorter time than if mixed with
cream, but are very inferior in richness.


BLANC-MANGE.

Put into a bowl an ounce of isinglass; (in warm weather you must
take an ounce and a quarter;) pour on as much rose water as will
cover the isinglass, and set it on hot ashes to dissolve.
[Footnote: You may make the stock for blanc-mange without
isinglass, by boiling four calves' feet in two quarts of water
till reduced one half, and till the meat is entirely to rags.
Strain it, and set it away till next day. Then clear it from the
fat and sediment; cut it into pieces and boil it with the cream
and the other ingredients. When you take it from the fire, and
strain it into the pitcher, keep stirring it till it gets cold.]
Blanch a quarter of a pound of shelled almonds, (half sweet and
half bitter,) and beat them to a paste in a mortar, (one at a
time,) moistening them all the while with a little rose water.
Stir the almonds by degrees into a quart of cream, alternately
with half a pound of powdered white sugar; add a large tea-spoonful
of beaten mace. Put in the melted isinglass, and stir the
whole very hard. Then put it into a porcelain skillet, and let it
boil fast for a quarter of an hour. Then strain it into a pitcher,
and pour it into your moulds, which must first be wetted with cold
water. Let it stand in a cool place undisturbed, till it has
entirely congealed, which will be in about five hours. Then wrap a
cloth dipped in hot water round the moulds, loosen the blanc-mange
round the edges with a knife, and turn it out into glass dishes.
It is best to make it the day before it is wanted.

Instead of using a figure-mould, you may set it to congeal in tea-cups
or wine glasses.

Blanc-mange may be coloured green by mixing with the cream a
little juice of spinage; cochineal which has been infused in a
little brandy for half an hour, will colour it red; and saffron
will give it a bright yellow tinge.


CARRAGEEN BLANC-MANGE.

This is made of a sea-weed resembling moss, that is found in large
quantities on some parts of our coast, and is to be purchased in
the cities at most of the druggists. Carrageen costs but little,
and is considered extremely salutary for persons of delicate
constitutions. Its glutinous nature when boiled, renders it very
suitable for blanc-mange.

From a quart of rich unskimmed milk take half a pint. Add to the
half pint two ounces of bitter almonds, blanched and pounded; half
a nutmeg; and a large stick of cinnamon, broken up; also eight or
nine blades of mace. Set it in a closed pan over hot coals, and
boil it half an hour. In the mean time, wash through two or three
_cold_ waters half a handful of carrageen, (if you put in too
much it will communicate an unpleasant taste to the blanc-mange,)
and add it to the pint and a half of cold milk. Then when it is
sufficiently flavoured, stir in the boiled milk, adding gradually
half a pound of powdered sugar, and mix the whole very well. Set
it over the fire, and keep it boiling hard five minutes from the
time it has come to a boil. Then strain it into a pitcher; wet
your moulds or cups with cold water, put the blanc-mange into
them, and leave it undisturbed till it congeals.

After washing the sea-weed, you must drain it well, and shake the
water from the sprigs. You may flavour the mixture (_after_
it is boiled and strained) with rose-water or peach-water, stirred
in at the last.


ARROW ROOT BLANC-MANGE.

Take a tea-cup full of arrow root, put it into a large bowl, and
dissolve it in a little cold water. When it is melted, pour off
the water, and let the arrow root remain undisturbed. Boil in half
a pint of unskimmed milk, (made very sweet with white sugar,) a
beaten nutmeg, and eight or nine blades of mace, mixed with the
juice and grated peel of a lemon. When it has boiled long enough
to be highly flavoured, strain it into a pint and a half of very
rich milk or cream, and add a quarter of a pound of sugar. Boil
the whole for ten minutes; then strain it, boiling hot, over the
arrow roof. Stir it well and frequently till cold; then put it
into moulds and let it set to congeal.


JAUNE-MANGE.

Put two ounces of isinglass into a pint of water, and boil it till
it has dissolved. Then strain it into a porcelain skillet, and add
to it half a pint of white wine; the grated peel and juice of two
large deep-coloured oranges; half a pound of loaf-sugar; and the
yolks only of eight eggs that have been well beaten. Mix the whole
thoroughly; place it on hot coals and simmer it, stirring it all
the time till it boils hard. Then take it off directly, strain it,
and put it into moulds to congeal.


CALVES' FOOT JELLY.

The best calves' feet for jelly are those that have had the hair
removed by scalding, but are not skinned; the skin containing a
great deal of glutinous matter. In Philadelphia, unskinned calves'
feet are generally to be met with in the lower or Jersey market.

Boil a set of feet in four quarts of cold water; (if the feet have
been skinned allow but three quarts;) they should boil slowly till
the liquid is reduced to two quarts or one half the original
quantity, and the meat has dropped in rags from the bone. Then
strain the liquid; measure and set it away in a large earthen pan
to get cold; and let it rest till next morning. Then, if you do
not find it a firm cake of jelly, boil it over again with an ounce
of isinglass, and again set it away till cold and congealed.
Remove the sediment from the bottom of the cake of jelly, and
carefully scrape off all the fat. The smallest bit of fat will
eventually render it dull and cloudy. Press some clean blotting
paper all over it to absorb what little grease may yet remain.
Then cut the cake of jelly into pieces, and put it into a
porcelain kettle to melt over the fire. To each quart allow a
pound of broken up loaf-sugar, a pint of Madeira wine, and a large
glass of brandy; three large sticks of the best Ceylon cinnamon
broken up, (if common cinnamon, use four sticks,) the grated peel
and juice of four large lemons; and lastly, the whites of four
eggs strained, but not beaten. In breaking the eggs, take care to
separate them so nicely that none of the yellow gets into the
white; as the smallest portion of yolk of egg will prevent the
jelly from being perfectly clear. Mix all the ingredients well
together, and put them to the jelly in the kettle. Set it on the
fire, and boil it hard for twenty minutes, but do not stir it.
Then throw in a tea-cup of cold water, and boil it five minutes
longer; then take the kettle off the fire, and set it aside,
keeping it closely covered for half an hour; this will improve its
clearness. Take a large white flannel jelly-bag; suspend it by the
strings to a wooden frame made for such purposes, or to the legs
of a table. Pour in the mixture boiling hot, and when it is all
in, close up the mouth of the bag that none of the flavour may
evaporate. Hang it over a deep white dish or bowl, and let it drip
slowly; but on no account squeeze the bag, as that will certainly
make the jelly dull and cloudy. If it is not clear the first time,
empty the bag, wash it, put in the jelly that has dripped into the
dish, and pass it through again. Repeat this till it is clear. You
may put it into moulds to congeal, setting them in a cold place.
When it is quite firm, wrap a cloth that has been dipped in hot
water, round the moulds to make the jelly turn out easily. But it
will look much better, and the taste will be more lively, if you
break it up after it has congealed, and put it into a glass bowl,
or heap it in jelly glasses Unless it is broken, its sparkling
clearness shows to little advantage.

After the clear jelly has done dripping, you may return the
ingredients to the kettle, and warm them over again for about five
minutes. Then put them into the bag (which you may now squeeze
hard) till all the liquid is pressed out of it into a second dish
or bowl. This last jelly cannot, of course, be clear, but it will
taste very well, and may be eaten in the family.

A pound of the best raisins picked and washed, and boiled with the
other ingredients, is thought by many persons greatly to improve
the richness and flavour or calves' feet jelly. They must be put
in whole, and can be afterwards used for a pudding.

Similar jelly may be made of pigs' or sheep's feet; but it is not
so nice and delicate as that of calves.

By boiling two sets, or eight calves' feet in five quarts of
Water, you may be sure of having the jelly very firm. In damp
weather it is sometimes very difficult to get it to congeal if you
use but one set of feet; there is the same risk if the weather is
hot. In winter it maybe made several days before it is to be
eaten. In summer it will keep in ice for two days; perhaps longer.


TO PRESERVE CREAM.

Take four quarts of new cream; it must he of the richest quality,
and have no milk mixed with it. Put it into a preserving kettle,
and simmer it gently over the fire; carefully taking off whatever
scum may rise to the top, till nothing more appears. Then stir,
gradually, into it four pounds of double-refined loaf-sugar that
has been finely powdered and sifted. Let the cream and sugar boil
briskly together half an hour; skimming it, if necessary, and
afterwards stirring it as long as it continues on the fire. Put it
into small bottles; and when it is cold, cork it, and secure the
corks with melted rosin. This cream, if properly prepared, will
keep perfectly good during a long sea voyage.


ITALIAN CREAM.

Put two pints of cream into two bowls. With one bowl mix six
ounces of powdered loaf-sugar, the juice of two large lemons, and
two glasses of white wine. Then add the other pint of cream, and
stir the whole very hard. Boil two ounces, of isinglass with, four
small tea-cups full of water, till it is reduced to one half. Then
stir the isinglass lukewarm, into the other ingredients, and put
them into a glass dish to congeal.


CHOCOLATE CREAM.

Melt six ounces of scraped chocolate and four ounces of white
sugar in half a pint of boiling; water. Stir in an ounce of
dissolved isinglass. When the whole has boiled, pour it into a
mould.


COLOURING FOR CONFECTIONARY.

RED.

Take twenty grains of cochineal, and fifteen grains of cream of
tartar finely powdered; add to them a piece of alum the size of a
cherry stone, and boil them with a jill of soft water, in an
earthen vessel, slowly, for half an hour. Then strain it through
muslin, and keep it tightly-corked in a phial.


COCHINEAL FOR PRESENT USE.

Take two cents' worth of cochineal. Lay it on a flat plate, and
bruise it with the blade of a knife. Put it into half a tea-cup of
white brandy. Let it stand a quarter of an hour, and then filter
it through fine muslin.


YELLOW COLOURING.

Take a little saffron, put it into an earthen vessel with a very
small quantity of cold soft water, and let it steep till the
colour of the infusion is a bright yellow. Then strain it. The
yellow seeds of lilies will answer nearly the saffron's purpose.


GREEN.

Take fresh spinach or beet leaves, and pound them in a marble
mortar. If you want it for immediate use, take off the green froth
as it rises, and mix it with the article you intend to colour. If
you wish to keep it a few days, take the juice when you have
pressed out a tea-cup full, and adding to it a piece of alum the
size of a pea, give it a boil in a sauce-pan.


WHITE

Blanch some almonds, soak them in cold water, and then pound them
to a smooth paste in a marble mortar; adding at intervals a little
rose water. Thick cream will communicate a white colour.

These preparations may be used for jellies, ice creams, blanc-mange,
syllabubs, icing for cakes; and for various articles of
confectionary.




CAKES, ETC.


GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

Unless you are provided with proper and convenient utensils and
materials, the difficulty of preparing cakes will be great, and in
most instances a failure; involving disappointment, waste of time,
and useless expense. Accuracy in proportioning the ingredients is
indispensable; and therefore scales and weights, and a set of tin
measures (at least from a quart down to a jill) are of the utmost
importance. A large sieve for flour is also necessary; and smaller
ones for sugar and spice. There should be a marble mortar, or one
of lignum vitae, (the hardest of all wood;) those of iron (however
well, tinned) are apt to discolour the articles pounded in them.
Spice may be ground in a mill kept, exclusively for that purpose.
Every kitchen should be provided with spice-boxes. You should have
a large grater for lemon, cocoa-nut, &c., and a small one for
nutmeg. Butter and sugar cannot be stirred together conveniently
without a spaddle or spattle, which is a round stick flattened at
one end; and a deep earthen pan with sides nearly straight. For
beating eggs, you should have hickory rods or a wire whip, and
broad shallow earthen pans. Neither the eggs, nor the butter and
sugar should be beaten, in tin, as the coldness of the metal will
prevent them from becoming light.

For baking large cakes, the pans (whether of block tin or earthen)
should have straight sides; if the aides slope inward, there will
be much difficulty in icing the cake. Pans with a hollow tube
going up from the centre, are supposed to diffuse the heat more
equally through the middle of the cake. Buns and some other cakes
should be baked in square shallow pans of block tin or iron.
Little tins for queen cakes, &c. are most convenient when of a
round or oval shape. All baking pans, whether large or small,
should be well greased with butter or lard before the mixture is
put into them, and should be filled but little more than half. You
should have at least two dozen little tins, that a second supply
may be ready for the oven, the moment the first is taken out. You
will also want tin cutters for cakes that are rolled out in dough.

All the utensils should be cleaned and put away as soon as they
are done with. They should be all kept together, and, if possible,
not used for any other purposes. [Footnote: All the utensils
necessary for cake and pastry-making, (and for the other branches
of cooking,) may be purchased in Philadelphia; at Gideon Cox's
household store in Market street, No. 335, two doors below Ninth.
Every thing of the sort will be found there in great variety, of
good quality, and at reasonable prices.]

As it is always desirable that, cake-making should be commenced at
an early hour, it is well on the day previous to ascertain if all
the materials are in the house; that there may be no unnecessary
delay from sending or waiting for them in the morning.
Wastefulness is to be avoided in every thing; but it is utterly
impossible that cakes can be good (or indeed any thing else)
without a liberal allowance of good materials. Cakes are
frequently rendered hard, heavy, and uneatable by a misplaced
economy in eggs and butter; or tasteless and insipid for want of
their due seasoning of spice, lemon, &c.

Use no flour but the best superfine; if the flour is of inferior.
quality, the cakes will he heavy, ill-coloured, and unfit to eat.
Even the best flour should always be sifted. No butter that is not
fresh and good; should ever be put into cakes; for it will give
them a disagreeable taste which can never be disguised by the
other ingredients. Even when of excellent quality, the butter will
be improved by washing it in cold, water, and squeezing and
pressing it. Except for gingerbread, use only white sugar, (for
the finest cakes the best loaf,) and have it pulverized by
pounding it in a mortar, or crushing it on the paste-board with the
rolling-pin. It should then be sifted. In mixing butter and sugar,
sift the sugar into a deep pan, cut up the butter in it, set it in
a warm place to soften, and then stir it very hard with the
spaddle, till it becomes quite light, and of the consistence of
cream. In preparing eggs, break them one at a time, into a saucer,
that, in case there should be a bad one among them, it may not
spoil the others. Put them into a broad shallow pan, and beat them
with rods or with a wire whisk, not merely till they froth, but
long afterwards, till the froth subsides, and they become thick
and smooth like boiled custard. White of egg by itself may be
beaten with small rods, or with a three-pronged fork, or a broad
knife. It is a very easy process, and should be continued till the
liquid is all converted into a stiff froth so firm that it will
not drop from the rods when held up. In damp weather it is
sometimes difficult to get the froth stiff.

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