SCHLESINGER L IBRARY HORACE C OX, "QUEEN" O FFICE, BKEAMS BUILDINGS, E.C. Frio* O ne 6hUUi>«. THE " QUEEN" COOKERY BOOKS. LISTF O "QUEEN" COOKERY BOOKS. .No. 1 Soups. tl 2. Ices. tl 3. Pickles a nd Preserves. n 4. Entrees. n 5. Meat a nd Game. fi 6. Sweets ( Part 1). w 7. (Part 2 ). w 8. Breakfast a nd Lunch Dishes. M 9. Salads, S andwiches, and Savouries. tl 10. Vegetables. tl 11. Bread, C akes, and Biscuits. n 12. Fish ( Part 1). n 13. „ ( Part 2) (Cold Fish) » 14 Household H ints. THE " QUEEN" COOKERY OOOKS. No. 1 1. BREAD, C AKES, AND BISCUITS. COLLECTED A ND DESCRIBED BY S. B EATY-POWNALL, Departmental E ditor " Housewife and Cuisine," Queen Newspaper, and Author of " A Book of Sauces." SBCOND E DITION. LONDON : HORACE C OX, "QCEEK" OFFICE, WINDSOR HOUSE BREAM'S BUILDINGS, E.C. 19lMi. I. L >3- W LONDON TPBINTED B HORACE OCX, WINDSOR HOUSE. BREAK'S BUII.D1NUS, EC. PREFACE. Little, i f any, originality is claimed for the following recipes, most of which have appeared in the Cookery columns of the Queen during the last eight or nine years, from whence they have been collected at the request of many readers of the Queen, to save reference to back numbers not always within reach. Additional recipes have, how ever, been given, to bring this little work as much up to date as possible; but all these, like the previous ones, have been carefully tested, and are all (as I know from practical experience) well within the capacity of any ordinary " good plain cook," gifted with fair intelligence and a little goodwill. I desire also to take this opportunity of acknow ledging my indebtedness to the various authors of standard foreign cookery books, and also to offer my grateful thanks to Mrs. A. B. Marshall, and several other well-known chefs, whose kindness has so materially helped and rendered possible my work in these last years. S. B eatt-Pownall. September, 1 906. Advertisements. DELIGHTS LINCOLN S HIRK FARM P RODUCE. WHITE C LOVER HONEY. Specially s elected from the best Apiaries, and de clared by connoisseurs to be the finest English Honey ever introduced to the public Eaoh jar bears over the cap a Red Ouarantee Label with the words, " Guaranteed Pure English Honey," without which, and the registered picture label, none is genuine. Sold in llb. and 21b. Glass Jars at Is. or 2s. by the usnal dealers, or a Is. Jar will be sent direct from the factory for stamps. Is. 3d. CHEESECAKE C URD in Jars, Is. and 28. Feek ORANGE Samples of the BUTTER, Cheesecake Curd in and Jars, Orange 6Jd. Butter and sent Is.on giving your own and Grocer's name and address, or jar of each DELIGHT mailed free for P.O. 3s. ed. Sole M akers and Proprietors: SPRING & C O., Ltd., Brlgg, Lincolnshire. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I . Pkar Bread 1 Household and Fancy Bread CHAPTER ...I I. ... ... 20- CHAPTEB I II. Kolls,c & 4» CHAPTER I V. Cakes 7 4 CHAPTER V . Biscuits a nd Small Cakes 119 CHAPTEE V I. Foreign C akes ... 151 CHAPTEE V II. Cake D ecoration, &o. ... ... ... ... ... -.. 181 Advertisements. By A ppointment to the KING and the Prince cf s D.. S F. MUSTARD. See t hat Colman's name is on the Tin. CORN F LOUR. For B lanc Manges, Custards, &c. Self-Rising F lour. For B read, Pastry, Cakes, Puddings, Scones, &c. 108, C ANNON STREET, LONDON, and CARROW WORKS NORWICH. j BREAD, C AKES, AND BISCUITS. CHAPTEE I . BREAD. Amongst t he subjects needing attention in the kitchens of this country, few deserve it better than bread. It must be admitted sorrowfully that, taken as a whole, both the British housewife and her cook are extravagant and ignorant. In most cases it may be also freely conceded that the former fault is the outcome of the latter ; we do not know how to make the best of the materials we have to deal with, and, consequently, frequently fail in obtaining their full value. It is safe to say that in most households the waste of bread is something almost incredible, and, strange to say, the lower in the social scale usually the greater is the waste. One factor in this is the universal craze for white bread. New, pure white flour is delicate, of course, but to obtain the purity of its colour a good deal of its nutritive value has had to be eliminated under the most B 2 B READ, CAKES, AND BISCUITS. favourable c ircumstances, whilst under unfavourable ones various more or less harmless additions are made to inferior flour to bring it to the fineness of texture and delicacy of appearance required. Taken at their best these adultera tions spell waste, for the buyer is paying for a superior article, and only getting one of inferior quality all round ; and one which, moreover, will very likely upset all one's arrangements, for recipes based on the use of the best materials will not work out correctly when inferior stuff is used, and to this fact many culinary failures are due. But granted this is the worst of harmless adulteration, adul teration of a less innocuous kind leads to far more serious trouble, so much so in fact that the bread supply and its purity and quality are points it behoves every mother to study pretty closely. There a re divers kinds of flour (beginning at the top of the scale), from the delicate Hungarian or Vienna flour, and " best pastry whites " (as the very whitest and lightest flour is called in this country), down through " seconds " or " household," to wholemeal and bran flour. Now, granted that these are all pure, they all have their uses. The first kinds are used for pastry, delicate cakes, and other articles more valued as tempting to the palate than for their nutritious properties ; for bread, " household " or " seconds " flour is far more wholesome, containing as it does a great deal of the bran, or " middlings," as it is technically called, which is really of importance from an hygienic point of view. Lastly, there was a rough kind of flour produced by grinding up the wheat entirely, husk, bran, and corn, just as it came, but this produced too rough a flour to suit modern taste and its use has been gradually aban doned, until improvements brought in, as a substitute, the well known "wholemeal" flour, which consists of coarsely ground wheat from which only the very coarsest parts of the husk have been omitted. Ordinary brown bread is usually made from this, though sometimes seconds BREAD. 3 are m ixed with a certain proportion of actual coarse bran. This bread, though not always found perfectly digestible, has yet a very decided medical value, and is often recom mended by doctors as a useful change. It is considered a valuable assistant in cxses of constipation. (Besides these there are " bran bread " (made by mixing certain propor tions of bran with good and rather fine wheatineal), Ho vis (sometimes called "germ" bread), Bermaline, Cytos, and innumerable other brands of bread, the foundation of which is the varying preparation of the meal, more or less of the bran, pollard, &c, having been left in or added to the fine flour.) As against this opinion it is, however, fair to add that some noted authorities on the chemistry of baking are by no means so favourably impressed by the value of these wholemeal or blended flours, which they assert do not keep so well as bread made from pure white flour will do, becom ing heavy, " sad," indigestible, and even musty from keeping. But having put both sides of the question forward it may be safely asserted that, whatever the flour used, home made bread is, as a rule, both nicer to the palate and more digestible than the average baker's bread, and that the absolute purity of the flour, being unfortunately very diffi cult of attainment, is more likely to be obtained in the ordinary " seconds " than in the super-whitened flour, which is somewhat apt to owe a good deal of its purity to art rather than to nature. That really good bought bread cannot be obtained I by no means assert, for there are well-known bakers whose bread is widely renowned for its excellence, both of flavour and keeping powers; but those accustomed to such broad will allow that its use indisposes one to the enjoyment of bread made by less conscientious and capable bakers. In this I speak from experience, having for years gone to one bakery when in town, and having found that bread procured elsewhere, in the country, &c, was notice ably different and less palatable. Home-made bread has at all events the merit of relative purity, for you know pretty B 2 4 B READ, CAKES, AND BISCUITS. exactly w hat you put into it. A little experience soon teaches one to discern the quality of flour. Of colour it is, of course, easy enough to judge, for brown flour argues the presence of some portion of the bran, and if this admixture is denied by the seller then the flour is made from inferior wheat. From these alternatives there is no getting away. To test its quality take a good pinch between your finger and thumb and press it well together. If the flour feels light and loose it is good. If there is the slightest touch of lumpiness or clamminess, reject it ; it is not in good order.