Page:The English housekeeper, 6th.djvu/275

Rh then beat it a few minutes with a rolling pin. Clarified dripping is not so good, but more economical.

The more tender the steak, the better, of course, the pudding. Cut it into pieces half the size of your hand, season with salt, pepper, and grated nutmeg. Spread a thin crust in a buttered bason, or mould; or a thicker one in a cloth: put the meat in, and a little water, also a wine-glassful of walnut, the same of oyster catsup, or 6 oysters, and a table-spoonful of lemon pickle; cover it with the top crust, fasten the edges firmly, and tie it up tightly. Finely minced onion may be added. A piece of kidney will enrich the gravy. A beef pudding of 2 lbs. of meat ought to boil gently four hours.

Hare, rabbit, and chicken, make good puddings, the same as beef; slices of ham or bacon are an improvement to the two latter. Boil hare pudding as long as beef. Dumplings.—Chop beef small, season well, and put it into dumplings, the same as apple dumplings, and boil one hour.—Sausage meat, or whole sausages, skinned, may be boiled in paste, and are very good.

Chop 6 oz. suet very fine, put it into a basin with 6 oz. flour, 2 oz. bread-crumbs, and a tea-spoonful of salt, stir well together, and pour in, by degrees, enough milk, or milk and water, to make it into a light pudding; put it into a floured cloth, and boil two hours. For dumplings, mix the above stiffer, make it into 6 dumplings, and tie them separately in a cloth; boil them one hour. 1 or 2 eggs are an improvement. 6 oz. of currants to the above quantity, make currant dumplings.

Cut the meat into chops or steaks, put them in a deep dish, season with pepper and salt, and fill up the dish with a batter, made of three eggs, and 4 large table-spoonsful of flour, to a pint of milk; then bake it.—Or: bake the meat