Mrs. Beeton's Dictionary of Every-Day Cookery: The "All About It" Books

should be well beaten, and the flour, ham, butter, pepper, and salt. Mix all these ingredients well together, and moisten with sufficient milk to make the pudding of the consistency of thick batter; put it into a pint buttered mould, tie it down tightly with a floured cloth, place it in _boiling water_, and let it boil for 2 hours; turn it out of the mould on to a hot dish, and pour plain melted butter _round_, but not over, the pudding. Green peas pudding may be made in exactly the same manner, substituting peas for the asparagus. _Time._—2 hours. _Average cost_, 1_s._ 6_d._ per pint. _Seasonable_ in May, June, and July. ASPARAGUS SOUP. _Ingredients._—100 heads of asparagus, 2 quarts of medium stock (see STOCK), 1 pint of water, salt. _Mode._—Scrape the asparagus, but do not cut off any of the stems, and boil it in a pint of water salted, _until the heads are nearly done_. Then drain the asparagus, cut off the green heads very neatly, and put them on one side until the soup is ready. If the stock is not made, add the stems of asparagus to the rest of the vegetables; if, however, the stock is ready, boil the stems a little longer in the same water that they were first cooked in. Then strain them off, add the asparagus water to the stock, and when all is boiling drop in the green heads (or peas as they are called), and simmer for 2 or 3 minutes. If the soup boils long after the asparagus is put in, the appearance of the vegetable would be quite spoiled. A small quantity of sherry, added after the soup is put into the tureen, would improve this soup very much. Sometimes a French roll is cut up and served in it. _Time._—_To nearly cook_ the asparagus, 12 minutes. _Average cost_, 1_s._ 9_d._ per quart. _Sufficient_ for 6 or 8 persons. _Seasonable_ from May to August. ASPIC, or Ornamental Savoury Jelly. _Ingredients._—4 lbs. of knuckle of veal, 1 cow-heel, 3 or 4 slices of ham, any poultry trimmings, 2