Into 1 lb. wholemeal flour rub 4 ozs. nutter or 5 ozs. butter. Mix to a stiff dough with cold water. Knead lightly but well. Shape into small buns about 1 inch thick. Bake for an hour in a moderate oven.
Scrub well and steam, either with or without peeling. If peeled, this should be done very thinly, as the greater part of the valuable potash salts lie just under the skin. BAKED.--Moderate-sized potatoes take from 45 to 60 minutes. If peeled before baking, cut in halves and put on a greased tin with a little nut-fat or butter on each. CHIPS.--Cut into long chips and try in deep oil or fat. A frying-basket and stew-pan are the most convenient utensils, but they take a great deal of fat. A frying-pan and egg-slice will answer the same purpose for small quantities. Success depends upon getting the fat the right temperature. It must be remembered that fat and oil do not bubble when they boil. They bubble just before boiling. As soon as they become quite still they boil. A very faint blue smoke now arises. When the fat actually smokes, it is burning and spoilt. If the chips are put in wet, or before the fat boils, they will be sodden and spoilt. A tiny piece of bread may be first put in to test. If this "fizzles" well, the fat is ready. When the chips are golden brown, lift them out with a slice and lay them on paper to drain. Then put in vegetable dish and serve quickly. They are spoilt if allowed to cool. MASHED.--Old potatoes are best mashed after steaming. They should be well beaten with a fork, and a little butter and milk, or nut-butter added. SAUTÉ.--Take cold steamed potatoes and cut into slices. Melt a small piece of fat or butter in a pan, and, when hot, put in potatoes. Sprinkle with chopped parsley. Shake over fire until brown. TO USE COLD POTATOES.--Chop in small pieces. Melt a very little fat in a pan. Put in potatoes, and as they get warm mash with a fork, and press down hard on the pan. Do not stir. At the end of 20 minutes the under side should be brown. Turn out in a roll and serve.
2 breakfast cups bread-crumbs, 2 medium Spanish onions, or 2 tomatoes, 2 breakfast cups ground nuts, nutter. Any shelled nuts may be used for this roast. Some prefer one kind only; others like them mixed. Almonds, pine-kernels, new Brazil nuts, and new walnuts are nice alone. Old hazel nuts and walnuts are nicer mixed with pine-kernels. A good mixture is one consisting of equal quantities of blanched almonds, walnuts, hazel nuts, and pine-kernels; where strict economy is a consideration, peanuts may be used. Put a few of each kind alternately into the food chopper and grind until you have enough to fill two cups. Mix with the same quantity breadcrumbs. Grate the onions, discard all tough pieces, using the soft pulp and juice only with which to mix the nuts and crumbs to a very stiff paste. If onions are disliked, skin and mash two tomatoes for the same purpose. Or one onion and one tomato may be used. Well grease a pie-dish, fill it with the mixture, spread a few pieces of nutter (or butter) on the top, and bake until brown. Another method.--For those who use eggs, the mixing may be done with a well-beaten egg. The mixture may also be formed into an oblong roast, greased, and baked on a tin. Serve with brown gravy or tomato sauce.
We next come to the very large class of puddings in which suet is used. The ordinary plum pudding is a case in point. The best substitute for suet, of course, is butter or oil; a plum pudding, however, made without suet, would undoubtedly be heavy, and, to avoid this, we must use butter, bread-crumbs, and baking-powder. It would be impossible to give any exact quantity, as so much depends upon the other ingredients. Some people use bread-crumbs only in making plum pudding, and no flour, in which case, of course, a very considerable number of eggs must be used or else the pudding will break to pieces. In the case, however, of oil being used as a substitute for butter, it is of the utmost importance that the oil be pure and fresh. We here have to overcome a deeply-rooted English prejudice. Pure oil is absolutely tasteless, and it has often been remarked by high-class authorities that really pure butter ought to be the same. We fear, however, that purity in food is the exception rather than the rule, as at no period of this country's history has the crime of adulteration been so rampant as in the present day. Adulteration has been said to be another form of competition. Too often adulteration is a deliberate form of robbery. Steps have been taken in recent years to put a stop to this universal system of fraud, more especially in connection with butter. Were more Acts passed similar to the "Margarine Act" we believe that this country would be richer and happier, and without doubt more healthy. In that large class of puddings known as custard pudding, cabinet pudding, there is no difference whatever in vegetarian cookery. It would be quite impossible to make any of these puddings without eggs, and when eggs are used we may take for granted that butter is allowed also. We have, throughout, called particular attention to the importance of appearances. In the case of all puddings made with eggs and baked in a dish, it is a very great improvement to reserve one or two whites of egg, and to beat these to a stiff froth, with a little white powdered sugar. When the pudding is baked, cover it with this snow-white froth, and let it set by placing it in a slack oven for two or three minutes. Whether the pudding is served hot or cold, the result is the same. An otherwise plain and somewhat common-looking dish is transformed into an elegant one, the only extra expense being a little trouble. We may sum up our instructions to cooks in the words: "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might."
Cheese, butter, bread, pepper. Cut thin slices of cheese and put them with a little butter into a saucepan. When well melted pour over hot well-buttered toast. Dust with pepper. Put into a very hot oven for a few minutes and serve.
9 ozs. fine wholemeal, 1 egg, a bare 1/2 pint milk and water, butter size of walnut. Put butter in a qr. qtn. tin (a small square-cornered tin price 6-1/2d. at most ironmongers) and let it remain in hot oven until it boils. Well whisk egg, and add to it the milk and water. Sift into this liquid the wholemeal, stirring all the time. Pour this batter into the hot buttered tin. Bake in a very hot oven for 50 minutes, then move to a cooler part for another 50 minutes. When done, turn out and stand on end to cool.
Mix any quantity of cold boiled rice with some chopped parsley and well-beaten egg. Beat the mixture well, form into small fritters, roll in egg and bread-crumbs or white flour, and fry to a golden brown. Serve with egg sauce.
Apples, castor sugar, grated lemon rind, butter or nutter, bread-crumbs or Granose flakes. Bread-crumbs make the more substantial, granose flakes the more dainty, charlotte. Use juicy apples. "Mealy" apples make a bad charlotte. If they must be used, a tablespoon or more, according to size, of water must be poured over the charlotte. Peel, core, and slice apples. Grease a pie-dish. Put in a thin layer of crumbs. On this dot a few small pieces nutter. Over this put a generous layer of chopped apple. Sprinkle with sugar and grated lemon rind. Repeat the process until the dish is full. Top with crumbs. Bake from 20 minutes to half an hour. When done, turn out on to dish, being careful not to break. Sprinkle a little castor sugar over. Serve hot or cold. Boiled custard may be served with it.
Cut moderately thin slices of white bread. Put into a moderate oven and bake until a golden colour. Granose biscuits warmed in the oven until crisp serve the same purpose as twice-baked bread, i.e., a cereal food in which the starch has been dextrinised by cooking. But the biscuits being soft and flaky can be enjoyed by those for whom the twice-baked bread would be too hard.
Put into a basin a pint of cold water, and beat it for a few minutes in order to aerate it as much as possible. Stir gently, but quickly, into this as much fine wholemeal as will make a batter the consistency of thick cream. It should just drop off the spoon. Drop this batter into very hot greased gem pans. Bake for half an hour in a hot oven. When done, stand on end to cool. They may appear to be a little hard on first taking out of the oven, but when cool they should be soft, light and spongy. When properly made, the uninitiated generally refuse to believe that they do not contain eggs or baking-powder. There are proper gem pans, made of cast iron (from 1s.) for baking this bread, and the best results are obtained by using them. But with a favourable oven I have got pretty good results from the ordinary baking-tins with depressions, the kind used for baking small cakes. But these are a thinner make and apt to produce a tough crust.
