Cassell's Vegetarian Cookery Part 20

ICE, WATER FRUIT.--All sorts of water fruit ices can be made by mixing half a pint of juice, such as currant-juice, with twice that quant.i.ty of syrup, and freezing. Grated ripe pine-apple, pounded and bruised, ripe cherries and greengages, strawberry-juice, raspberry-juice, can be mixed with syrup and frozen. Sometimes a little lemon-juice can be added with advantage, and in the case of cherry ice and greengage ice a little noyeau added is an improvement.

CHAPTER XIII.

CAKES AND BREAD.

In vegetarian cookery there is no difference, as far as cake-making is concerned, between it and ordinary cookery. In making cakes we will confine our attention chiefly to general principles which, if once known, render cake-making of every description comparatively easy work. Those who wish for detailed _recipes_ for making almost every kind of cake known will find all that they require on a large scale in "Ca.s.sell's Dictionary of Cookery," and also everything necessary on a smaller scale in "Ca.s.sell's Shilling Cookery," which has already reached its hundred-thousandth edition.

Cakes may be divided into two cla.s.ses--those that contain fruit and those that do not. Plum cakes can be made very rich indeed, like a wedding cake, or so plain that it can scarcely be distinguished from a loaf of bread with a few currants in it. Again, cakes that contain no fruit can, at the same time, be made exceedingly rich, the richness chiefly depending upon the amount of b.u.t.ter and eggs that are used. We will first give a few directions with regard to making what may be termed plain cakes, _i.e._, cakes that contain no fruit at all. Perhaps the best model we can give to ill.u.s.trate the general principles will be that of a pound cake. The recipe is a very easy one to recollect, as a pound cake means one that is made from a pound of b.u.t.ter, a pound of sugar, a pound of eggs, and a pound of flour. There is one addition, however, which the good plain cook will probably not be up to, and which, so far as flavour is concerned, makes all the difference between Francatelli and "Jemima Ann"--we must rub some of the lumps of sugar on the outsides of either two oranges or two lemons. It is also a great improvement to add a small gla.s.s of brandy, and in every kind of cake we must add a pinch of salt.

In making cakes it is always necessary to be careful about the b.u.t.ter. It is best to put the b.u.t.ter in cold water before it is used, and, if salt b.u.t.ter, it should be washed in several waters to extract the salt. The next thing necessary is to beat the b.u.t.ter to a cream. To do this it must be worked about in a basin with a wooden spoon. The basin should be a strong one, and a wooden spoon is far preferable to a metal one. You simply beat the b.u.t.ter and spread it against the sides of the basin and knock it about till it loses its consistency. You cannot beat the b.u.t.ter to the consistency of ordinary cream, but to a state more resembling Devonshire clotted cream. Of course, when it is like this it is much more easily mixed with the other ingredients. In making a pound cake we should first of all beat the b.u.t.ter to a cream and then add flour, sugar, and eggs gradually. When the whole is thoroughly well mixed together, we must bake it in a tin, or mould, or hoop. We need say nothing about tins or moulds, but will confine ourselves to giving directions how to bake a cake in a hoop, for, as a rule, ordinary English cooks do not understand how to use them.

One great advantage of using a hoop is that when the cake is baked there is no fear of breaking it in turning it out. A very simple hoop can be made with an ordinary slip of tin, say six inches wide; as the tin will lap over, the cake can be made any size round you wish. It is a good plan to fasten a piece of copper wire round the outside of the tin. This can be twisted, and when the cake is baked and has got cold can be untwisted, and the tin will then open of its own accord. The tin must be lined with b.u.t.tered paper, and b.u.t.tered paper must be placed on a flat piece of tin at the bottom. When an "amateur hoop" is used like we have described, care must be taken that the cake does not come out at the bottom. The cake, especially when it is made with beaten-up eggs, like sponge cake, will rise, and unless precautions are taken the tin will rise with it, and the unset portion of the cake break loose round the edge at the bottom. To prevent this the tin must be kept down with a weight at the top. In a proper hoop made for the purpose there are appliances for fastening the hoop together itself and also for keeping it in its place, but if we use a strip of tin we must place something across the tin on the top and then put on a heavy weight. When this is done, you must remember to allow room for the cake to rise. A pound cake such as we have described can be made into a rich fruit cake by adding stoned raisins, currants, chopped candied peel, sultana raisins, or, better still, dried cherries. In making ordinary cakes, when currants are used, they should be first washed and then dried; if you use damp currants the cake will probably be heavy.

With regard to the flour, it is cheapest in the end to use the best quality, and the flour should be dried and sifted. If you weigh the flour remember to dry and sift it before you weigh it, and not after. In using sugar get the best loaf; this should also be pounded and sifted.

In using eggs, of course each egg should be broken separately. Very often it is necessary to separate the yolks from the whites. This requires some little skill; you are less likely to break the yolk when you crack the egg boldly. Put the yolk from one half egg-sh.e.l.l into the other half, spilling as much of the white as you can. You will soon get the yolks separate.

Next, remember before mixing the eggs to remove the thread or string from them. When the whites are beaten separately, you must whisk them till they become a solid froth; no liquid should remain at the bottom of the basin.

The yolks should not be broken till they are wanted.

Lemon-peel is often used in making cakes, and in chopping it a little powdered sugar is a great a.s.sistance in preventing the peel sticking together. Remember only to use the _yellow_ part, not the white. The white part gives the cake a bitter flavour.

Sometimes milk or cream is used in cake-making. If Swiss milk is used as a subst.i.tute, remember that less sugar will be required.

When pounded almonds are used for cakes, the almonds must be blanched by being thrown, first into boiling water, and then into cold water. In pounding them, add a little rose-water or orange-flower water, or the white of an egg, to prevent the almonds getting oily.

Nearly all plain cakes, where only a few eggs are used, will be made lighter by the addition of a little baking-powder. A very good baking-powder is made by mixing an ounce of tartaric acid with an ounce and a half of bicarbonate of soda, and an ounce and a half of arrowroot. The baking powder should be kept very dry.

A very nice way of making home-made cakes is to use some dough, which can be procured from the baker's. Suppose you have a quartern of dough, put it in a basin, cover it over with a cloth, and put it in front of the fire to rise, then spread it on a floured pastry-board, slice it up, and work in half a pound of fresh b.u.t.ter, half a pound of moist sugar, six eggs, a teaspoonful of salt, and half an ounce of caraway seeds. When all the ingredients are thoroughly mixed, place them in two or more well-b.u.t.tered tins or hoops, and let them stand in front of the fire a little while before they are placed in the oven. Cakes can be flavoured with a variety of spices, such as cinnamon, mace, nutmeg, or powdered coriander seeds.

These last are always used to give a special flavour to hot cross buns.

BREAD.--Home-made bread is not so much used now as it was years back. Most housekeepers have found by experience that it is a waste both of time and money. There are very few houses among the middle cla.s.ses which possess an oven capable of competing with any chance of success with a baker's oven.

There are, however, many vegetarians who believe in what is called whole-meal bread. A good deal of the whole-meal bread sold as such has been found to be adulterated with substances very unwholesome to ordinary stomachs. We may mention saw-dust as one of the ingredients used for the purpose. Again, if you attempt to make whole-meal bread into loaves, you will find great difficulty in baking the loaves. This whole-meal is a very slow conductor of heat, and the result will probably be that the outside of the loaf will be very hard while the inside will be too underdone to be eaten. Consequently, should you wish to have home-made whole-meal bread, it is far best to bake it in the form of a tea-cake or flat-cake. We cannot do better, in conclusion, than quote what Sir Henry Thompson says on this subject:--"The following recipe," he says, "will be found successful, probably, after a trial or two, in producing excellent, light, friable, and most palatable bread: To two pounds of coa.r.s.ely ground or crushed whole-meal, add half a pound of fine flour and a sufficient quant.i.ty of baking powder and salt; when these are well mixed, rub in two ounces of b.u.t.ter, and make into dough with half milk and water, or with all milk if preferred. Make rapidly into flat cakes like 'tea-cakes,' and bake without delay in a quick oven, leaving them afterwards to finish thoroughly at a lower temperature. The b.u.t.ter and milk supply fatty matters, in which the wheat is somewhat deficient; all the saline and mineral matters of the husk are retained; and thus a more nutritive form of bread cannot be made.

Moreover, it retains the natural flavour of the wheat, in place of the insipidity which is characteristic of fine flour, although it is indisputable that bread produced from the latter, especially in Paris and Vienna, is unrivalled for delicacy, texture, and colour. Whole meal may be bought; but mills are now cheaply made for home use, and wheat may be ground to any degree of coa.r.s.eness desired."

CHAPTER XIV.

PIES AND PUDDINGS.

In vegetarian cookery, as a rule, pies and puddings are made in the same way as in ordinary cookery, with the exception that we cannot use lard or dripping in making our pastry. Nor are we allowed to use suet in making crust for puddings. It would have been quite impossible to have given even one quarter of the recipes for the pies and puddings known, and we must refer those who wish for information on this subject to "Ca.s.sell's Shilling Cookery," where will be found a very complete list, but which would have occupied the whole of the s.p.a.ce which we have devoted to recipes where vegetarian cookery, as a rule, _differs_ from the ordinary.

We will, on the present occasion, confine our attention to the two points we have mentioned, viz., how to make pastry without lard or dripping, and pudding crust without suet. The first of these two points causes no difficulty whatever, as the best pastry, especially that known as puff paste, is invariably made with b.u.t.ter only as the fatty element; but there is one point we must not overlook.

Vegetarians are divided into two cla.s.ses: those who use the animal products--b.u.t.ter, milk, cream, and eggs--and those who do not. This latter cla.s.s contains, probably, the most respected members of the vegetarian body, as it will always be found that there is an involuntary homage paid by all men to consistency. How then are strict vegetarians to make pastry, b.u.t.ter being cla.s.sed with the forbidden fruit? We fear we cannot tell them how to make good puff paste; but "Necessity is the mother of invention,"

and naturally olive oil must supply the place of b.u.t.ter.

PASTRY WITHOUT b.u.t.tER.--We will describe how to make a small quant.i.ty, which is always best when we make experiments. Take half a pound of the best Vienna flour, and mix with it, while dry, about a salt-spoonful of baking-powder. Now add about a tablespoonful of olive oil, and work the oil and flour together with the fingers exactly as you work a small piece of b.u.t.ter into the flour at the commencement of making puff paste. Next add sufficient water to make the whole into an elastic paste; roll it out and let it set between two tins containing ice, similar to the method used in making high-cla.s.s pastry.

We have mentioned a tablespoonful of oil, but if ice is used more oil may be added.

We all know that oil will freeze at a much lower temperature than water, consequently the minute particles of oil become partially solid. Now take the paste, roll it out, and give it three turns; roll it out again, give it three more turns, and put it back in the ice; let it stand ten minutes or a quarter of an hour, and repeat this process three times. Be careful to flour the pastry each time before it is turned. By this means we get the pastry in thin layers, with minute air bubbles between them, and this will cause the pastry to rise. If you are making a pie, roll out the pastry the last time, cover the pie, and put it in the oven immediately, while the pastry is cold. Do not let the pastry stand, unless it be in a very cold place.

This pastry we have just described, made with oil, can also be utilised for puddings, in which latter case we would recommend the addition of a little more baking-powder, and to every pound of flour add two tablespoonfuls of very fine bread-crumbs. These must be dry, and rubbed through a fine sieve.

PASTRY WITH b.u.t.tER.--Good puff paste is made by taking equal quant.i.ties of b.u.t.ter and flour--say a pound of each--the yolk of one egg, a pinch of salt, while the water used is acidulated with lemon-juice. For the manipulation of this pastry we must refer those who do not know how to make it to other cookery books, or to the shilling one above mentioned. In making ordinary paste we must use less b.u.t.ter; and when we use considerably less b.u.t.ter, if we wish the pastry light, we shall require baking-powder.

The quant.i.ty depends very much upon the quality. Many persons make their own baking-powder, and we cannot recommend any better than the recipe given in the last chapter, viz., an ounce of tartaric acid, an ounce and a half of bicarbonate of soda, and an ounce and a half of arrowroot. A great deal, too, depends upon the quality of the flour. Vienna flour is much more expensive than ordinary flour, but incomparably superior. What limit we can a.s.sign to the quant.i.ty of b.u.t.ter used it is impossible to say. A quarter of a pound of b.u.t.ter to a pound of flour, and a teaspoonful of baking-powder, will make a fair crust. When less b.u.t.ter is used the result is not altogether satisfactory.

PUDDINGS.--We next come to the very large cla.s.s of puddings in which suet is used. The ordinary plum pudding is a case in point. The best subst.i.tute for suet, of course, is b.u.t.ter or oil; a plum pudding, however, made without suet, would undoubtedly be heavy, and, to avoid this, we must use b.u.t.ter, bread-crumbs, and baking-powder. It would be impossible to give any exact quant.i.ty, 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 subst.i.tute for b.u.t.ter, 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-cla.s.s authorities that really pure b.u.t.ter 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 compet.i.tion. 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 b.u.t.ter. Were more Acts pa.s.sed similar to the "Margarine Act" we believe that this country would be richer and happier, and without doubt more healthy.

In that large cla.s.s 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 b.u.t.ter 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."