The Virginia Housewife eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 154 pages of information about The Virginia Housewife.

The Virginia Housewife eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 154 pages of information about The Virginia Housewife.

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To boil rice.

Put two cups full of rice in a bowl of water, rub it well with the hand, and pour off the water; do this until the water ceases to be discoloured; then put the rice into two and a half cups of cold water; add a tea-spoonful of salt, cover the pot close, and set it on a brisk fire; let it boil ten minutes, pour off the greater part of the water, and remove the pot to a bed of coals, where it must remain a quarter of an hour to soak and dry.

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Rice journey, or johnny cake.

Boil a pint of rice quite soft, with a tea-spoonful of salt; mix with it while hot a large spoonful of butter, and spread it on a dish to cool; when perfectly cold, add a pint of rice flour and half a pint of milk—­beat them all together till well mingled.  Take the middle part of the head of a barrel, make it quite clean, wet it, and put on the mixture about an inch thick, smooth with a spoon, and baste it with a little milk; set the board aslant before clear coals; when sufficiently baked, slip a thread under the cake and turn it:  baste and bake that side in a similar manner, split it, and butter while hot.  Small homony boiled and mixed with rice flour, is better than all rice; and if baked very thin, and afterwards toasted and buttered, it is nearly as good as cassada bread.

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Puddings, &c.

OBSERVATIONS ON PUDDINGS AND CAKES.

The salt should always be washed from butter, when it is to be used in any thing that has sugar for an ingredient, and also from that which is melted to grease any kind of mould for baking—­otherwise, there will be a disagreeable salt taste on the outer side of the article baked.  Raisins should be stoned and cut in two, and have some flour sifted over them—­stir them gently in the flour, and take them out free from lumps; the small quantity that adheres to them, will prevent their sticking together, or falling in a mass to the bottom.  Eggs must be fresh, or they will not heal well:  it is better to separate the yelks from the whites always, though it is a more troublesome process; but for some things it is essential to do so:  when they are to be mixed with milk, let it cool after boiling, or the eggs will poach; and only set it on the fire a few minutes, to take off the raw taste of the eggs, stirring it all the time.  Currants require washing in many waters to cleanse them; they must be picked and well dried, or they will stick together.  Almonds should be put in hot water till the skins will slip off, which is called blanching; they must always be pounded with rose or orange flower water, to prevent their oiling.  When cream is used, put it in just before the mixture is ready; much beating will decompose it.  Before a pudding or cake is begun, every

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The Virginia Housewife from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.