MRS. PEPYS’S DIARY

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 240, 30 December 1927, Page 4

MRS. PEPYS’S DIARY

MONDAY.—A letter by the post from Mistress Bassett, telling me how she hath a goodly store of apples, but the same not keeping well, so would she have me advise her how to make use of those at once. Do send her by return a recipe for apple chutney; this I think to suit her well. For it, peel, core and slice the apples, until 61b have been prepared. Then boil them with two quarts of vinegar, also 21b of brown sugar until they be of a pulp. Turn into a pan and add 21b of raisins, lib of sultanas, both finely chopped, also some finely chopped garlic, the quantity regulated by your taste. Of salt add 4oz, of mustard seed 2oz, of cayenne 4 an oz., and of powdered ginger loz. Cover your pan with a cloth and stir the contents daily for a week; then you may bottle your chutney and tie it down very tightly. This chutney should be kept some months before using for so will its flavour be greatly improved. TUESDAY.—Mr. Pepys’s Aunt Lattice, desiring that I shall also write of it here, doth send me a way of serving onions with roast fowl to make a welcome change as she thinks. This to select onions, of a good size, to peel them, to scoop out the insides, to fill them with veal forcemeat and to roast them in the oven, basting them with a little butter so that they do not harden, but become of a pretty brown. This I have promised to try at the first opportunity, and hope that others will copy me in so doing. WEDNESDAY.—For pleasing of Mr. Pepys do make, with my own hands, some brain cakes for eating at our supper this night. The manner of doing so is to blanch the brains in hot water until you can remove from them all veins, etc., then boil until tender, bruise, add a teaspoonful of fine flour, some grated nutmeg, pepper and salt, and one egg. Roll out fairly thin, cut into small cakes, and fry to a golden brown. Serve very hot indeed with creamed potatoes and a suitable vegetable. This, though a very tasty dish, not an expensive one. THURSDAY. —Here do I write out, for any who will trouble to use it, a recipe for a very nice biscuit, to be eaten hot for tea. The ingredients required being two eggs, well beaten, of milk one small cupful, of lard or butter, melted, one tablespoonful, of baking powder two teaspoonfuls and enough flour added to make a stiff biscuit. Roll out upon your board, cut into rounds of a medium thickness and bake in a hot oven. For those who desire to do so, these biscuits may be sweetened by adding two tablespoonfuls of white sugar. FRIDAY.—At my reading do discover a very good tip, as the vulgar say, for any who use lamps, and have reason to grumble at the way they smoke, if not carefully attended to# This is to soak the wick in strong vinegar, and to dry before using; it win then burn both sweet and P leas giving much satisfaction for tnu trifling trouble. Also, of my own knowledge, I would beg all not t grudge a new wick as soon as the oi“ one becometh clogged with oil, th burning of old wicks being a poor economy to my mind. SATURDAY.—To have in '‘eadinef* for eating at our supper u P on . 1 l UJ Lord’s Day, do make an excelled sweet, known as gateau de I>rur "‘ T ! and a monstrous improvement, to au. taste, upon prunes stewed and server in the ordinary way. Stew lib - prunes, that have been well wasnand soaked in the same water, un they are tender, then to take out an remove the stones. Meanwhile you dissolve a little red currant ) eJ L in the water in which the prunes vrer stewed, adding also sugar to >°“ f fancy and a little lemon juice ana * gelatine 3oz. Put back your P run into your syrup and simmer together. Next, fill a border rnouia* and when cold turn out and fill PP H# centre with whipped cream. Or, - you chose, you may fill little mo®*®” one for each person, and decora* same with your whipped cream- * is also worthy of note that a few dropof cochineal will serve well _jnste of the red currant jelly, as the is no more than to improve the cci . of ;your .gateau.