A Handbook of Cookery for a Small House

Let the pears stew for about twenty minutes and then put in six apples, cut in eight pieces each, taking care not to core them before cutting but after. Stew gently for another twenty minutes. Add three bananas cut in rings just before dishing the compote. Serve cold in a glass dish. _175. Rice Pudding_ Cover the bottom of a pie-dish with rice about an inch thick, and add sugar to taste. Beat an egg in a cup and add it to the rice, mixing it all together. Fill the dish with cold milk and add a little grated nutmeg or several small pieces of lemon peel if preferred. Cook in a slow oven for not less than two and a half hours. _176. Stewed Prunes_ Put half a pound of prunes into a large pudding basin with cold water and rub them gently with the fingers till thoroughly cleansed. Leave them in the water for about ten minutes. Then turn the prunes with half a teacup of powdered sugar into a saucepan and just cover them with hot water. Cook from thirty to forty minutes. The juice should be perfectly clear when cooked and the prunes whole. _177. Christmas Pudding_ Take one and a half pounds of finely chopped beef suet, one quartern of best pastry white (_not_ self-raising) flour, three pounds of stoned raisins, two pounds of sultanas and two pounds of currants carefully washed and picked, one and a half pounds of the best mixed peel, ten well-beaten eggs, and four pounds of brown sugar. Stir all these ingredients together with a pint of ale and half a bottle of brandy. Stir fairly slack. This should make six very large puddings. Fill as many buttered pudding basins as required, taking care that each basin is full. Tie a wet cloth over each, and boil for twelve hours. Pour a little neat brandy over the top of each and these puddings will then keep for six months. Always boil again for four hours to make hot. _178. Coffee Cream_ Let a half pint of freshly made coffee cool