CHEAP CUSTARD.—­A very cheap custard can be made by adding to one pint of boiled milk one well-beaten-up egg and one good-sized teaspoonful of corn-flour.  The milk should be first sweetened, and can be flavoured very cheaply by rubbing a few lumps of sugar on the outside of a lemon, or by having a few bay-leaves boiled in it.  A rich yellow colour can be obtained by using a small quantity of yellow vegetable colouring extract, which, like the green colouring, is sold in bottles by all grocers.  These bottles are very cheap, as they last a long time.  They simply give any kind of pudding a rich colouring without imparting any flavour whatever, and in this respect are very superior to saffron.

APPLE CUSTARD.—­Good apple custard can only be made by using apples of a good flavour.  When apples are in season, this dish can be made fairly cheaply, but it does not do to use those high-priced imported apples.  Peel and take out the cores of about four pounds of apples, and let these simmer till they are quite tender in rather more than a pint of water.  Add about one pound of sugar, or rather less if the apples are sweet; add a little powdered cinnamon, and mix all this with eight eggs, well beaten up; stir the mixture very carefully in a saucepan, or better still in a good-sized jug placed in a saucepan, till it begins to thicken.  This custard is best served in glasses, and a little cinnamon sugar can be shaken over the top.  Nutmeg may be used instead of cinnamon, and by many is thought superior.

CHEESE-CAKES.—­Cheese-cakes can be sent to table in two forms, the one some rich kind of custard or cream placed in little round pieces of pastry, or we can have a so-called cheese-cake baked in a pie-dish, the edges only of which are lined with puff paste.  We can also have cheese-cakes very rich and cheese-cakes very plain.  The origin of the name cheese-cake is that originally they were made from curds used in making cheese.  Probably most people consider that the cheese-cakes made from curds are superior, and in the North of England, and especially in Yorkshire, where curds are exposed for sale in the windows at so much a pound, very delicious cheese-cakes can be made, but considerable difficulty will be experienced if we attempt to make home-made curds from London milk.  Curds are made by taking any quantity of milk and letting it nearly boil, then throw in a little rennet or a glass of sherry.  The curds must be well strained.

CHEESE-CAKES FROM CURDS.—­Take half a pound of curds and press the curds in a napkin to extract the moisture.  Take also six ounces of lump sugar, and rub the sugar on the outside of a couple of oranges or lemons.  Dissolve this sugar in two ounces of butter made hot in a tin in the oven; mix this with the curds, with two ounces of powdered ratafias and a little grated nutmeg—­about half a nutmeg to this quantity will be required; add also six yolks of eggs.  Mix this well together, and fill the tartlet cases, made from puff paste, and