n making biscuits and cakes where butter is not used, the different
utensils should be kept free from all kinds of grease, or it is next to
impossible to have good ones.

In buttering the insides of cake-moulds, the butter should be nicely
clarified, and when nearly cold, laid on quite smooth, with a small
brush kept for that purpose.

Sugar and flour should be quite dry, and a drum sieve is recommended for
the sugar. The old way of beating the yelks and whites of eggs separate
(except in very few cases), is not only useless, but a waste of time.
They should be well incorporated with the other ingredients, and, in
some instances, they cannot be beaten too much.

[378-*] Take fine brown Holland, and make a bag in the form of a cone,
about five inches over at the top. Cut a small hole at the bottom, and
tie in a small pipe of a tapering form, about two inches long; and the
bore must be large or small, according to the size of the biscuits or
cakes to be made. When the various mixtures are put in, lay the pipe
close to the paper, and press it out in rows.

Some use a bullock's bladder for the purpose.

[379-*] A wide-mouthed earthen pan, made quite hot in the oven, or on a
fire, will be a good substitute.

[391-*] If you do not mind the expense, the cake will be much lighter
if, instead of the milk, you put four eggs.

OBSERVATIONS ON PUDDINGS AND PIES.

The quality of the various articles employed in the composition of
puddings and pies varies so much, that two puddings, made exactly
according to the same receipt, will be so different[392-*] one would
hardly suppose they were made by the same person, and certainly not with
precisely the same quantities of the (apparently) same ingredients.
Flour fresh ground, pure new milk, fresh laid eggs, fresh butter, fresh
suet, &c. will make a very different composition, than when kept till
each article is half spoiled.

Plum puddings, when boiled, if hung up in a cool place in the cloth they
are boiled in, will keep good some months; when wanted, take them out of
the cloth, and put them into a clean cloth, and as soon as warmed
through, they are ready.

MEM.--In composing these receipts, the quantities of eggs, butter, &c.
are considerably less than are ordered in other cookery books; but quite
sufficient for the purpose of making the puddings light and
wholesome;--we have diminished the expense, without impoverishing the
preparations; and the rational epicure wi