Young's Demonstrative Translation of Scientific Secrets Part 36

578. EXCELLENT PASTE

Excellent paste for fruit or meat pies may be made with two-thirds of wheat flower, one-third of the flour of boiled potatoes, and some b.u.t.ter or dripping; the whole being brought to a proper consistence with warm water, and a small quant.i.ty of yeast added when lightness is desired. This will also make very pleasant cakes for breakfast, and may be made with or without spices, fruit, &c.

Picnic Biscuits.--Take two ounces of fresh b.u.t.ter, and well work it with a pound of flour. Mix thoroughly with it half a salt-spoonful of pure carbonate of soda; two ounces of sugar; mingle thoroughly with the flour; make up the paste with spoonsful of milk--it will require scarcely a quarter of a pint. Knead smooth, roll a quarter of an inch thick, cut in rounds about the size of the top of a small wine-gla.s.s; roll these out thin, p.r.i.c.k them well, lay them on lightly floured tins, and bake in a gentle oven until crisp; when cold put into dry canisters. Thin cream used instead of milk, in the paste, will enrich the biscuits. Caraway seeds or ginger can be added, to vary these at pleasure.

579. BLACK CAKE

Beat separately the whites and yolks of three eggs. Mix half a pound of b.u.t.ter with one pound of flour, one tumbler of milk, one tumbler of mola.s.ses, one pound of sugar. Then put in the eggs and one and one-half teaspoonful of soda. Wine, currants, raisins and citron to your taste.

580. MAIZE CAKE

Take six eggs, a paper of Oswego corn starch, one pound of loaf sugar, half pound of b.u.t.ter, half teacup of milk, half a teaspoon of soda, one teaspoon of cream of tartar, the grated rind of the lemon; dissolve the soda in half the milk, and add it the last thing. Bake in an oven as quick as you can make it without burning. It is a very delicate cake to bake well. Use flat pans, a little deeper than Spanish bun pans, and put paper over the top.

581. COMPOSITION CAKE

Take three pounds of flour, half pound of b.u.t.ter, one and three- quarter pounds of sugar, three eggs--beat the eggs--add half a pint of yeast to them, half a pint of new milk, three spoonsful of rose- water, and a little cinnamon and cloves; put the b.u.t.ter in the flour and half the sugar, the other half mix with the eggs; make a hole in the flour, pour the ingredients into it; set it to lighten in the morning by the fire; after it is made out into rolls, you may put it into tins, and set it before the fire for an hour or two; when sufficiently risen, bake it in rather a slow oven.

582. GINGER BISCUITS AND CAKES

Work into small crumbs three ounces of b.u.t.ter, two pounds of flour, add three ounces of powdered sugar and two of ginger, in fine powder; knead into a stiff paste, with new milk, roll thin, cut out with a cutter; bake in a slow oven until crisp through; keep of a pale colour.

583. TO SILVER IRON WITH SILVER FOIL

This is the method now adopted all over Canada and the United States for silvering iron for carriages, cutters, &c. You may get the silver foil, (which is sometimes called silver plate,) of any thickness you please; and by so doing, have the iron plated either light or heavy. If you get small iron rods plated they will cost you from four to five cents per inch: you may do it yourself for one-quarter the price.

Directions in full.--First polish the iron you are about to plate, then wet it with soldering fluid, (receipt No. 21,) then give it a coat of solder, (receipt No. 22;) this is done by laying a piece of solder on the iron, and spreading it over with a heated soldering iron; or it is sometimes done by having the solder melted, and then dipping the iron to be silvered into it. After the iron is coated by either of these methods, with solder, some workmen propose to then place it in the fire for a few moments, that the coating of solder may be thereby made smoother. The next thing to be done is to dampen with soldering fluid, then lay on your silver foil, and rub it over with a soldering iron heated to such a degree as to melt the solder, and thereby fasten the plate at once to the iron; or rather to the solder on the iron; or else as some workmen prefer, have your soldering iron only hot enough to slightly stick the foil to the solder, and then place the article in the fire until the solder melts, and thereby the foil becomes firmly united with the iron.

Whichever of these methods you adopt, as soon as the silver is united to the iron, you must then at once proceed to polish it, which is done by taking a piece of coa.r.s.e cloth, dipping it in whiting, previously dampened with alcohol, and rubbing it over the surface until it is well polished. If at any time, as sometimes will happen, the plate of silver becomes stained so that you cannot polish it, wet it with the fluid, put another plate of silver foil over it, and proceed to fasten it to the iron as you did with the first plate,then polish it with the whiting, &c. Some merely spit on the whiting instead of dampening it with the alcohol, but it is not so speedy a method. A friend of mine prefers heating the iron, then applying the soldering fluid, then the coat of solder, and then laying on the silver foil, and pressing on by means of a cloth, which he does by taking a piece of cloth about four inches wide and eight or ten inches long, catching one end in each hand and pressing and rubbing it from side to side, and round the article until the silver foil is firmly united, and then polishing as mentioned above.

Some prefer plating the iron first with tin foil, then covering the tin with silver foil, and it is a good plan. A very good plan, if it is plane work (not carved) you are doing, is to take a piece of board one or two inches wide, and six or eight inches long, and lay it over the cloth you are polishing with, which gives you a greater purchase. I never knew this receipt to be sold for less than from $24 to $60.

TO ALL WHO HAVE PURCHASED THIS WORK

You are now in possession of about all the latest and most useful receipts that are in the country; many of which are now being sold, frequently, for from $5 to $10 and $20 each; and if you will now be wise, do that which will be to your own interest, allow no man to see this work, but keep the receipts profoundly secret, except as you sell them. You may dispose of enough of them, written off, every year you have the book, to amount to twenty times the price of it.