1 lb. fine wholemeal, 6 oz. raisins, 2 oz. Mapleton's nutter, water. Well wash the raisins, but do not stone them or the loaf will be heavy. If the stones are disliked, seedless raisins, or even sultanas, may be used, but the large raisins give rather better results. Rub the nutter into the flour, add the raisins, which should be well dried after washing, and mix with enough water to form a dough which almost, but not quite drops from the spoon. Put into a greased tin, which should be very hot, and bake in a hot oven at first. At the end of twenty minutes to half an hour the loaf should be slightly browned. Then move to a cooler shelf, and bake until done. Test with a knife as for ordinary cakes. For this loaf a small, deep, square-cornered tin is required (price 6-1/2d.), the same as for the egg loaf. 3 ozs. fresh dairy butter may be used in place of the 2 ozs. nutter.
Allow the juice of two medium-sized lemons to 1 quart of milk. Put the milk and strained lemon-juice into an enamelled pan or fireproof casserole and place over a gas ring or oil stove with the flame turned very low. Warm the milk, but do not allow it to boil. When the milk has curdled properly the curds are collected together, forming an "island" surrounded by the whey, which should be a clear liquid. Lay a piece of cheese-cloth over a colander and pour into it the curds and whey. Gather together the edges of the cloth and hang up the curds to drain for at least thirty minutes. Then return to the colander (still in cloth) and put a small plate or saucer (with a weight on top) on the cheese. It should be left under pressure for at least one hour. This cheese will keep two days in cold weather, but must be made fresh every day in warm weather. The milk used should be some hours old, as quite new milk will not curdle. The juice from one lemon at a time should be put into the milk, as the staler the milk the less juice will be needed. Too much juice will prevent curdling as effectually as too little. This cheese is greatly improved by the addition of fresh cream. Allow two tablespoonsful of cream to the cheese from one quart of milk. Mash the cheese with a fork and lightly beat the cream into it. Note. Cheese-cloth, sometimes known as cream-cloth, may be bought at most large drapers' shops at from 6d. to 8d. per yard. One yard cuts into four cloths large enough for straining the cheese from one quart of milk. Ordinary muslin is not so useful as it is liable to tear. Wash in warm water (no soap or soda), then scald well.
Take the weight of two eggs in castor sugar and flour. For a richer cake take the weight of two eggs in sugar and the weight of one only in flour. Well grease the cake-tin, and sprinkle with castor sugar until thoroughly covered, and shake out any that remains loose. Well whisk the eggs with a coiled wire beater. They must be quite stiff when done. Add the sugar, a teaspoon at a time, while whisking. Or separate the yolks and whites, beating the yolks and sugar together and whisking the whites on a plate with a knife before adding to the yolks. Lastly, dredge in the flour. Stir lightly, but do not beat, or the eggs will go down. Pour mixture into tin, and bake about one hour in a moderate oven.
Make barley broth as in No. 1. Then strain it through a wire strainer. Squeeze it well, so as to get the soup as thick as possible, but do not rub the barley through. Skin 1/2 lb. tomatoes, break in halves, and cook to a pulp very gently in a closed saucepan (don't add water). Add to the barley soup, boil up once, and serve. In cases of illness, especially where the patient is suffering from intestinal trouble, after preparing as above, strain through a fine muslin. It should also be prepared with distilled, or clean boiled rain-water.
1 small head celery, 1 large onion, 1 carrot, 1 turnip, 3 tablespoons coarsely chopped parsley, P.R. Barley malt meal, Mapleton's or P.R. almond or pine-kernel cream, 3 pints boiling water. Well wash the vegetables and slice them, and add them with the parsley to the boiling water. (The water should be distilled, if possible, and the cooking done in a large earthenware jar or casserole. See notes re casseroles in Chap. IV.) Simmer gently for 2 hours, or until quite soft. Then strain through a hair sieve. Do not rub the vegetables through the sieve to make a purée, simply strain and press all the juices out. The vegetable juices are all wanted, but not the fibre. To each pint of this vegetable broth allow 1 heaped tablespoon barley malt meal, 1 tablespoon nut cream, and 1/2 lb. tomatoes. Mix the meal to a thin paste with some of the cooled broth (from the pint). Put the rest of the pint in a saucepan or casserole and bring to the boil. Add the meal and boil for 10 minutes. Break up the tomatoes and cook slowly to a pulp (without water). Rub through a sieve. (The skin and pips are not to be forced through.) Add this pulp to the soup. Lastly mix the nut-cream to a thin cream by dripping slowly a little water or cool broth into it, stirring hard with a teaspoon all the time. Add this to the soup, re-heat, but do not boil, serve. This soup is rather irksome to make, but is intensely nourishing and easy of digestion. The pine-kernel cream is the more digestible of the two creams. Care should be taken not to cook these nut creams. If the soup is for an invalid care should also be taken that, while getting all the valuable vegetable juices, no skin or pips, etc., are included. The vegetable broth may be prepared a day in advance, but it will not keep for three days except in very cold weather. (When it is desired to keep soup it should be brought to the boil with the lid of the stockpot or casserole on, and put away without the lid being removed or the contents stirred.)
1 lb. flour, 7 ozs. nutter, 1/4 lb. sugar, rind of 1 lemon. Mix together nutter and sugar, add grated lemon rind, work in flour, and knead well. Press into sheets about 1/2 in. thick. Prick all over. Bake in a moderate oven for about 20 minutes. An easy way of baking for the inexpert cook who may find it difficult to avoid breaking the sheets, is to well grease a shallow jam-sandwich tin, sprinkle it well with castor sugar, as for sponge cakes, and press the short cake into it, well smoothing the top with a knife, and, lastly, pricking it.
1/4 oz. prepared agar-agar, 2 sticks chocolate, 1-1/2 pints milk, 1 tablespoon sugar, vanilla flavouring. Soak a vanilla pod in the cold milk for 2 hours. Soak the agar-agar in cold water for half an hour. Squeeze water out and pull to pieces. Put it into saucepan with 1 gill milk and 1/2 gill water. Stand on one side of stove and let simmer very gently until quite dissolved. Meanwhile, dissolve chocolate in rest of milk, adding the sugar. Pour the agar-agar into the boiling chocolate through a hot strainer. This is necessary as there is generally a little tough scum on the liquid. (If put through a cold strainer, the agar-agar will set as it goes through.) When jelly is quite cold, turn out and serve.
Flake brazil nuts or pine-kernels in a nut mill, or chop very finely by hand. Do not put them through the food-chopper, as this pulps them together, and the pudding will be heavy. Allow 1 heaped cup of flaked nuts to 2 level cups of flour. Mix to a paste with cold water. Roll out very lightly. Cover with chopped apple and sugar, or apples and sultanas, or jam. Roll up. Tie loosely in a floured pudding-cloth. Put into fast-boiling water and boil for 1 hour.
2 eggs, 1 oz. butter, 3 ozs. flour, 2 ozs. castor sugar, 2 tablespoons milk. Beat the butter and sugar to a cream. Separate the whites and yolks of the eggs. Beat the yolks, and add to sugar and butter. Add the flour, and lastly, stir in the whites, whisked to a froth, very gently. Have ready a hot, greased tin, pour in the mixture quickly, and bake in a very hot oven from 6 to 8 minutes. Warm some jam in a small saucepan. Slip the pudding out of the tin on to a paper sprinkled with castor sugar. Spread with jam quickly and roll up. Serve hot or cold.
