The Country Housewife's Family Companion - Part 1



Of the several Sorts of Wheat usually sown in England for making Bread.

HERE are various sorts of wheats sown in England, for making bread with 
their meals: As the White, the Red, and the Yellow Lamas sorts, that are 
justly accounted the best of wheats: The Dame, the Pirky, and the White-
Cone, are likewise very valuable wheats: But the West-Country Grey, and 
Blue-Ball wheats, or what they call, in some other countries, the Dugdale 
or Bold-Rivet, and French wheats, are deemed the coarsest of all others. 
Now most of these are sown in Hertfordshire; and although the Bearded Blue 
and Grey Ball wheats are of the cheapest and coarser sorts, yet their 
meals are much made use of by the common baker, as well as private 
families, in the city of Wells, and in many other places of the West; and 
in lesser quantities elsewhere: Which leads me to make observations on 
their different meals, and bread made of them in several parts of England.

   Why some Gentlemen, Yeomen, and Farmers grind their own Wheat for their 
Family Uses.--There are many gentlemen, yeomen, and farmers, who occupy 
arable land, that think they have a great opportunity to save the penny, 
in the management of their offald wheat: For that these, if their farms 
are of the larger sort, must make what we in Hertfordshire call peggings, 
in large quantities, being what comes from the underline or blighted, or 
other wheat ears, most of which contain in them very thin little kernels, 
that will easily part from their chaff; and it is chiefly such ears that 
break off from their straw in threshing: And then it also is, that in 
making use of the knee fan, and wheat ridder sieve, these ears are fanned 
and sifted to the top of the wheat kernels; from whence they are taken off 
by the hand, and reserved till a good parcel are got together for being 
threshed over again; and the produce is that which we (when clean'd) call 
peggings, and are what we grind alone, or in a mixture with a better sort. 
Thus many yeomen and farmers eat the worser bread, as butchers and 
poulterers do their staler and worser meats, and by so doing sell the 
largest and best wheat at market; for he who mixes such small kernels with 
bigger stands the chance of losing a groat or six-pence in a bushel. It is 
true, that such underline small kernels make more bran and less flower 
than better wheat does; yet this is thought by some to be the lesser evil: 
Others are of a contrary opinion, and therefore I shall shew

   Why Others refuse to grind their own Wheat, and buy Meal for their 
Family Uses.--There are several reasons to be assigned for this. First, it 
is the practice of some farmers to refuse grinding their own wheat, for 
buying what we call middling, which is a wheat meal, between the finest 
and the coarsest sorts; because, say they, we will not grind the worst 
wheat for our family, but the worst and best shall be sold together; and 
for so doing some will put a peck of peggings or thin offald wheat in the 
middle of a five bushel sack of good market wheat: Others, contrary to 
this, when they fling their threshed wheat out of its chaff, many light 
kernels fall short, which is a lean offald corn; these, when discharged of 
the seeds of weeds, they mix with larger body'd wheat, and sell all 
together. By this means they avoid grinding their lean worst corn, that 
seldom produces more than three bushels of meal from five bushels of such 
wheat, and instead thereof buy a coarse meal called randan, which is a 
third and the worst sort that millers separate. The first and finest meal 
that is grinded in Hertfordshire, called houshold, is all or most of it 
sold in London; so that little else is sold at our country shops but 
middling and randan meals. In the next place I am to inform my reader, 
that sometimes a bushel of our best wheat has weighed sixty or more 
pounds; and I and many others have sold five bushels of such wheat for as 
much money as five bushels of randan meal has cost: Whereas, if we grind 
our own good wheat, five bushels of the best sort generally make four 
bushels and an half, or more, of meal, and the bran we reckon pays for 
grinding. But notwithstanding this, some gentlemen, yeomen, and farmers, 
think it most to their interest to have five bushels of this randan wheat 
meal, which they buy at the same market they sell their wheat at, and 
bring it home by the return of their waggon or cart; for that, in so 
doing, they know they are out of the danger of being imposed on by any 
dishonest miller, in whose power it may be to return a due weight of 
flower, and yet bite the farmer, it being possible for such a miller to 
take out some of the finest and heartiest flower, and put coarse in its 
place; or to grind bad wheat, and keep the better sort. The same in other 
shapes; he may, if he is not an honest man, greatly damage that gentleman, 
yeoman, or farmer, who constantly grinds all the wheat he uses at his 
mill. It is a common computation, that in the cleaning of five and twenty 
bushels of wheat, there will be a bushel or more of offald thin kernels 
separated from the larger body'd sort, which, as I said, is by some yeomen 
and farmers mix'd amongst four and twenty bushels of the better wheat, 
because they think that in this quantity the bushel of offald will not be 
easily perceived by the buyer. However, it is my opinion, that where one 
yeoman or farmer sells all his wheat and buys meal, there are six that 
grind what they use for their families. For my own part, I must own I have 
sold my wheat and bought meal; but as I now grind my wheat grist with a 
reputable eminent miller, at Oak-Mill, near Hempstead, I am satisfed of 
his fair-dealing, and think myself so well used to have five bushels of 
wheat ground for only one shilling charge, that I grind all, and buy none. 
Yet I know a great farmer living near Redbourne, in Hertfordshire, that 
thinks it better œconomy to sell all his best wheat by itself, and his 
worst wheat by itself, and buys a sack of meal every week for his twenty 
in family. By all which a person may perceive, whether it best answers his 
interest, to sell all his wheat and buy all his flower, or grind his own 
wheat for his family uses.

   How a private Family may preserve their whole Wheat sweet in Sacks for 
some Time.--I knew a little farmer, that kept only two horses at plow and 
cart, who preserved his threshed wheat in sacks, sweet and sound, a year 
together, in a chamber, for taking the advantage of a rising market; and 
to do this, he would once in a summer screen all this his sack wheat, to 
get the dust out of it; for it is the dust that heats the grain, while it 
stands thus undisturbed, causing it to ferment, and breed either the 
wevil, maggot, or mite, or else a mustiness and stink in it. Wherefore if 
whole wheat or wheat meal is dry, it is better kept in sacks, in a 
chamber, than near a fire-side, because the fire draws out its moisture, 
and sours it: Nor ought they to be kept in damp places, for here they will 
be apt to matt and cake, and spoil. The best way therefore, as I said, is 
to keep both wheat and flower in a chamber, at all times of the year: If 
in sacks, a thick stick should remain thrust down in the middle of it, 
with the mouth of the sack left open. And in case you mistrust the wheat 
or flower to suffer, tie up the sack's mouth, turn it topsy-turvy, and the 
removal will much contribute to the keeping of it sweet; for by such 
turning the wheat or flower lies in a looser body than it did before, as 
the position of their particles becomes thus altered; so it prevents in a 
great degree their heating, fermenting, and spoiling, and the surer, if 
such a sack of wheat or flower is thus turned once every two or three 
weeks: for it has been proved, that when a sack of wheat or flower has 
received a little damage, by standing too near a fire, or in a chamber too 
long undisturbed, that by now and then turning the sack topsy-turvy, it 
has recovered it. One set a sack of flower too near a fire, and was forced 
to give it to the hogs.--Or take this serviceable account in the following 
manner, viz. This subject affects mostly three sorts of country 
housewives; the yeomens, the farmers, and the labouring-men's wives: The 
two first, because it sometimes happens, that the yeoman and farmer are 
obliged to house their wheat in a damp condition; and as housekeeping 
requires a constant supply of bread, there is no waiting twelve months, or 
half twelve months, till such wheat gets dry in a stack, cock, or mow: So 
the labouring-man's family, who get part of their bread in leased wheat, 
requires likewise a present supply.--In which case, it concerns these 
three sorts of housewives to dry a sack of wheat more or less with the 
greatest expedition; and that it may be so done, such wheat should be 
placed by the fire-side, by setting a sack of it at a convenient distance 
from it. If it is a brick or other damp floor, the sack should stand four, 
six, or more inches above ground, on a stool or otherwise, if the place 
will admit of it, that it may get the sooner dry. This done, thrust a 
stick down the middle of the sack, of the length and thickness of a common 
broomstick, which let remain, turning it about twice or more in a week, 
for giving air to the wheat, and preventing its heating and musting, 
always keeping the mouth of the sack open. And that this piece of good 
housewifery may be performed the more effectual, my advice is, that every 
time our housewife bakes, and as soon as the bread is drawn, she take the 
stick out of the sack, and heat it in the oven, and when it is hot, that 
she thrust it down again into the middle of the sack, as before. This is 
done to draw the moisture of the wheat to the stick, for contributing to 
its quicker drying. And I add, that so much stress is laid on this way of 
drying a sack of wheat, that in damp seasons, it is, by some farmers, 
practised in order to obtain the greater price for it at market. But then 
they take care to shoot all the wheat out of the sack on the floor before-
hand, to mix it all alike, lest that part, which stood next the fire, be 
dryer than the rest.

   How to preserve Wheat-Meal sweet in Sacks.--This I shall shew by the 
case of a widow, who constantly bought her wheat-meal of a miller, and 
being few in family, asked him, How she should keep it dry and sweet, in 
the sack he brought it in, till she used it? To this the miller answered--
Let it stand in a dry place, and turn the sack bottom upwards now and 
then, and he would engage it would keep sound many months.--Accordingly, I 
know that this widow and other Hertfordshire housewives observe to do the 
same; for that it keeps the meal from lying so close as to cake, heat, or 
breed mites, because by such transposition it has a little removal, and 
lies higher and hollower than it did before. And for a further security of 
this advantage, make use of the broomstick, as I have before directed, for 
by such alteration both whole wheat and wheat-meal may be much longer 
preserved sweet and sound, than if it stood in sacks without being managed 
in this manner.

   How Wheat-Meal by various Means becomes damaged by Insects.--There are 
great quantities of bad meals sold at shops, occasioned by several means. 
First, By the nasty stinking wevil, which is a dark brown coloured insect, 
about the bigness of a large flea, and is mostly bred in damp wheats, or 
gets into heaps of dry sound wheat from contiguous infected lofts or 
grainaries; for these sort of vermin are travellers, and as they stale or 
dung, or both, amongst the kernels of wheat, they heat it, and thereby 
increase their breed in infinite numbers, especially in summer time; so 
that such wevilly wheat is really of a very unwholsome nature, and gives 
the bread, made of its meal, an ill taste, where they have been in vast 
numbers, notwithstanding what the miller does in sifting the wheat before 
it is grinded, to get them out. And what is more, such damp wheat, or 
infected wheat, is very apt to breed the mite in the meal. Secondly, In 
some old lofts and grainaries, that are boarded on all their sides, small 
worms are bred in wheat, hoarded at a cheap time in the same, and kept 
two, three, or more years against a rising market.--I know a yeoman, whose 
wheat was so infected with these insects in 1744, that he pulled down all 
his beechen side-boards, and put up new oaken ones in their room, as 
believing the first occasioned the breed of these vermin, which greatly 
increased, and would in time have eaten up all the kernels. But by doing 
this, and screening the wheat, he got most of them out. And what was 
somewhat strange, the wheat when first laid in here was thoroughly dry; so 
that this increase must be owing either to some worms, lodged in the 
crevices, bred perhaps from some former damp wheat, or else from the 
corrupt rottenness of the boards. Thirdly, Meal is frequently damaged by 
long keeping, for by this the mite is very apt to breed, and when once 
they have bred in it, they mightily increase in a little time; insomuch 
that they have been often seen to swarm in the meal, and even on the 
outside of the sacks. Fourthly, Meal is damaged when it comes from wheat 
that grew amongst the weeds of crow-garlick, mellilot, and much mayweed, 
&c. for these are of a most stinking nature, and grow in many inclosed 
Chiltern-felds, in such abundance, as makes some farmers despair of ever 
clearing their ground of them. All which is wrote, to give our country 
housewife warning to examine well the meal or flower before she buys it; 
and in this case it is necessary for her to employ her seeing, feeling, 
and tasting, the better to prevent those impositions, which the unwary and 
ignorant buyer is frequently brought under.

   How to know good from bad Meals.--As there are great quantities of 
wheat-meals infected by mites, &c. and yet are sold out of mills, 
storehouses, and shops, both by wholesale and retail; it concerns our 
country housewife to make a nice inspection before she buys her meal. 
Therefore in the first place, by her sight, she may, perhaps, discover two 
sorts of damage in it; the mites, and a mixture of pollard. If by mites, 
they are to be perceived by their stirring the meal; for these creatures, 
although so small, as hardly to be seen by the naked eye, yet when they 
are in great numbers, they will move the top part of the meal, and when 
they swarm, if the flower is dented by the fingers, they will presently 
level it.--Secondly, For a confrmation of this, she may, by feeling, be 
the more sensible of the coarseness or fineness of the flower or meal, and 
thereby be able to make the truer estimation of its value; for if it is 
very mity, it will feel coarse, because the bodies of these insects are 
larger than the particles of fine meal. The same if pollard or the 
smallest of bran is amongst it.--A miller that brought a sack of sale-meal 
to a country shop, as soon as the woman opened it, and had seen and felt 
it, said, What have you brought me pollard instead of flower? No, says the 
miller, but if it is too coarse now, I will bring you finer next time to 
make amends.--Which leads me to observe, that as the whiter wheat is now 
generally sown, the smallest pollard is not so soon perceived in its meal, 
as that of the red or yellow Lamas, or brown pirky wheat, because, the 
whiter the skin, the less its bran is discovered in its flower. Thirdly, 
The damage of wheat-meal may be sometimes best found out by smelling it. 
Whools, or wevils, or maggots, may be screened and sifted from the flower, 
and good may be mixt with bad to lessen the taste and smell of them; but 
when such meal is tried by a nice observing nose, it may be discovered 
before it is bought. The same when mites are got into meal, and cannot be 
perceived by the eye nor felt by the finger, yet the nose may decide the 
matter; for if mites have done the flower some damage, it will smell 
disagreeably frousy, and be worth the less. So when flower is tainted by 
nasty stinking weeds that grew amongst its wheat, it is better known by 
smelling than by either seeing or feeling.

   How a common Baker, living within four Miles of London, improved his 
best Wheat-Meal.--As I said, red Lamas is accounted the most ancient best 
sort of wheat in England, by producing a meal and price exceeding all 
others, for its whiteness, fineness, and palatableness; but it is apt to 
grind tougher than either white, or pirky, or Dugdale, or other wheats. 
Now as Dugdale wheat grinds shortest, and produces a sweet but coarse 
flower, and as it always sells for sixpence more or less in a bushel than 
Lamas wheat, a great common baker, living about four miles out of London, 
generally took this method to increase his profit, and yet made his Lamas 
wheat-flower rather better than worse. He usually bought five sacks of 
meal at a time, four of Lamas and one of Dugdale, which he mixed, and they 
agreed so well together, that the customer could not perceive any 
difference between a loaf of bread made with all Lamas wheat flower, and 
that made with a mixture of Dugdale wheat flower. But the chief benefit of 
such a mixture lies in this; that a loaf of bread made with these meals 
will keep moist two days or more, longer than if it was made with intire 
Lamas wheat meal. And therefore not only this baker, but many others in 
London and elsewhere follow this practice; not altogether because they get 
something by the lower price of the Dugdale meal, but because it adds a 
sweet pleasant moisture to the loaf of bread, and thereby much lessens the 
stale harshness that in hot weather especially is apt to bring the finer 
Lamas flower loaf under. And now I am writing on Dugdale or bold Rivet 
wheat, I have farther to add, that it is thought by some farmers true 
husbandry to sow an acre or more of this sort of wheat wholly for their 
family uses, that they may be the better enabled to sell the more Lamas or 
other dearer wheats, as thinking this coarse sort good enough for 
themselves; and also because this is a greater yielder than any other 
wheat, will withstand blights when others suffer by them, and be fit to 
grind with Lamas wheat, in case a wet harvest happens, and it is housed 
damp.

   The Nature of grown Wheat, and how it comes to be such.--What we call 
grown wheat, in Hertfordshire, is that which is damaged in the field by 
extraordinary wet weather: That is to say, when wheat is almost ripe and 
ready to reap, the straw and ears being then in their greatest magnitude, 
are by long rains apt to bend, and sometimes fall flat to the ground; then 
it commonly is, that for want of a free air and sun the kernels grow and 
sprout before the wheat is fit to be reaped. Secondly, It also sometimes 
happens, after the wheat is reaped, and lies to dry on the ground, for 
being bound up in sheaves, that rains fall for several days together, and 
cause the kernels to grow in the ear. Lastly, It has likewise been many 
times the case, almost throughout England, to have such a wet harvest, 
that though the wheat was bound up full dry in sheaves, and stood erect in 
shocks, yet rains have fell so heavy, and continued so long, that the 
kernels have grown in the ear. Now if wheat is grown by any of these three 
ways, the flower is damaged, and will never be so good as that produced 
from wheat which was never sprouted in the ear, because all bread, cake, 
and pye-crust, made of it, will be of a pudding consistence, if a peculiar 
art is not employed in the curing of it. This has been frequently 
experienced, in such a degree, that the bread has spread about in the oven 
pancake like, and the knife that cut the loaf, has brought away with it a 
sort of batter-crumb, that stuck to it, and was of a sweetish but fulsome 
taste. Hence it is that mealmen refuse to buy such grown wheat if they can 
get better, or if they do buy it, it must be at sixpence or a shilling a 
bushel less than dryer sounder wheat sells for. In short, if wheat is once 
grown and sprouted in the ear, whether it be got into the barn or mow dry 
or not dry, the flower of it will never make a right palatable stiff loaf, 
if it is kneaded in the common way with only yeast, warm water, and salt. 
And what seems very surprising to me is, that no author that I ever yet 
read or heard of, has so much as touched on this important article, 
although in some wet harvests it affects almost all the people of the 
nation; for that the bread, the cake, the pudding, the pye, and several 
other things, made of such grown wheat-meal, gives them little or more a 
disagreeable taste. But this I do not so much wonder at, if books of this 
nature are wrote in a London chamber; for then, in course, their authors 
must be deprived of that necessary country knowledge, as is requisite for 
enabling them to write those full and genuine instructions, which are 
perfectly wanted to assist a country housewife, in carrying on a true 
œconomy in managing her domestic affairs in the cheapest and most 
housewifely manner, for her family's greater advantage. But to return to 
my subject of grown wheat, I shall, for preventing the ill effects of it, 
propose the following remedies, viz.

   How to cure damaged grown Wheat-Meal.--This may be done in a great 
degree, if any of these three ways are rightly put in practice. The first 
is, that instead of making use of warm water to knead this grown meal 
with, as the common way is, it should be mixed with it scalding hot; for 
by using it in such a degree of heat, the liquor astringes the flower, 
binds the dough, and tends very much towards making it into a stiff loaf, 
cake, pudding, pye, &c. Hence it is that the true housewife, to make her 
raised paste at any time, always mixes a scalding or very hot water with 
her flower, to make it stiff enough to become a standing crust. But if 
skim or new milk was scalded, or rather boiled, and made use of instead of 
water, it would bind the grown wheat-meal, and make its loaf of bread 
lighter and whiter. You should also observe, that in this case of making 
use of scalding water or milk to knead the dough, you do not mix your 
yeast with it; if you do, it will scald the yeast, and prevent its 
fermenting and raising the dough. Therefore after you have sprinkled over 
your salt on the flower, then mix your scalding water or milk with it, and 
your yeast with water only warm. This done, knead all together into a 
pretty stiff dough, and after it has lain some time to ferment and rise, 
mould it into loaves, and bake them three hours. Secondly, Such grown 
wheat-meal is helped by mixing a peck of barley-meal with three of that, 
and made into a dough with scalding or warm water, or with milk, yeast, 
and salt, as aforesaid; for that such barley-meal, being of a dry short 
nature, will be serviceable in binding the grown wheat-meal, and 
preventing in some degree its baking into a clammy spreading condition. 
Lastly, such grown wheat-meal is cured in the surest manner of all other 
ways, by dissolving some allum in very hot water, and mixing the liquor 
with it by itself, without the yeast, and when they are a little mixed, 
then stir your yeast into some warm water, and incorporate this also with 
the flower; then knead all well together, and mould it into loaves, &c. 
for baking; but observe that in this last case, no salt must be made use 
of, because the allum will fully supply it. One or more of these 
directions may be of great service to those who are ignorant of them, and 
who consume much bread in their large families; when wheat has sprouted in 
the ear by great and long rains, as it did in 1716. A wet season (as I am 
informed) that caused laid wheat, in many places, to throw out sprouts as 
long as a child's finger; nor was standing wheat then free of this 
calamity, for most of it sprouted little or much, and so it has done in 
several years since, though in a lesser degree. Also observe, that 
although I mention scalding water to be made use of in stiffening the meal 
of grown wheat; the water, or milk, or whey, should be first boiled, and 
then put over and mixed with the meal while it is scalding hot, because 
boiling improves it, always remembering to work and knead this sort of 
dough stiff; for by so doing, the loaves will stand the firmer and tighter 
in the oven.

   The Practice of a Hertfordshire Housewife for improving the Meal of 
grown Wheat.--This is practised both by rich and poor, as a good piece of 
housewifery, when wheat kernels have much sprouted in the field by too 
much moisture; for then, if the meal is used alone, it makes a clammy, 
lumpy, pudding sort of bread, that is very apt to spread in the oven, 
insomuch that when a loaf of such bread has been made and baked by an 
ignorant lazy housewife, it has been so soft as to become almost fit to be 
eaten with a spoon. Now to prevent this, our Hertfordshire good housewife, 
whether rich or poor, commonly endeavours to mix some meal of the last 
year's dry sound wheat, with such meal of grown wheat; and they always 
find that such management very much helps to cure the grown wheat-meal.

   Meals made use of in some of the Northern Counties.--Here they make 
vast consumptions of oatmeal, having but little wheat growing in these 
parts, and with this they make cakes that supply bread, by mixing oatmeal 
with water and a little salt, which they let stand together twenty or more 
hours, and then knead it into a dough or batter, and bake it like pancakes 
on a stone that has a fire under it; and when they have prepared a good 
parcel, they lay them on racks to dry, for in this manner they become 
hard, and will keep hard, sweet, and sound a long time. At the great and 
popular town of Manchester, their sacks of oatmeal stand for sale in their 
market, as our sacks of wheat do at Hempstead, and some other of the 
Southern markets. And so attached are many of their people to the eating 
of oatcake or brown bread, that when they come up with their waggons of 
wheat and cheese to Hempstead market, they bring their own coarse heavy 
bread, to prevent their being forced to eat our Hertfordshire wheaten 
bread, saying--They do not like such a corky, bitter sort;--for you must 
know that in these Northern Counties, their yeast is mostly saved from 
strong mild ale, and not from strong hopped beer. The same gust have the 
more Northern people for their oatmeal-cake-bread, which most of them like 
to that degree, as to slight wheaten bread.--In some parts of Yorkshire 
they eat a blackish rye bread, and when the rye is got in wettish, to 
improve its flower, they heat a brick and put it amongst the dough before 
it is made into loaves, in order to draw out the ill quality of it, and so 
prevent the rowing of it; here they employ leaven in common to make their 
bread, and as their kneading-tub has always part of this leavened dough 
sticking to it, it contributes towards leavening and fermenting the next 
dough.--Others in the county of York make an oatmeal dough with fine 
oatmeal-water, yeast and salt, as we do wheaten bread, and broil or bake 
it.--Others mix wheat flower with a little salt and butter-milk, and thus 
make a good cake broiled on a gridiron; and tho' perhaps a little sourish, 
yet it eats well.


Of the Nature and Uses of good and bad Yeast or Barm,
as it relates to baking of Bread.

YEAST or barm is an ingredient so necessary, that without it neither 
brewing nor baking can be rightly performed. In the first, 'tis true, 
yeast may be made use of to poison human bodies, when too much of it (as 
is too commonly practised) is beat, ding'd or whip'd into ale or beer, for 
a week together, in cold weather, to work it, and to make it so strong as 
to save one or two bushels of malt in eight; as I have amply made appear 
in my treatise on brewing, intitled, The London and Country Brewer, sold 
by Mr. Astley, bookseller, at the Rose in Pater-noster-Row, London. But in 
baking there is so little a quantity of yeast employed (being mixed with 
much water to make bread with) that it is cured by the heat of the oven, 
which divests it of any ill quality it may naturally have in it. Yet there 
are many curious persons so nice in this point, that they endeavour to 
have their bread made with as little yeast in it as possible.

   How to make a little Yeast go a great Way in making Bread, and how to 
make Grounds of Barrels supply Yeast.-- Wheat flower, coarse sugar and 
salt are great promoters of fermentation, insomuch that if these three 
ingredients, in a proper quantity, are mixed with a little yeast, it will 
raise a brisk fermentation fit to mix with water and flower, and make a 
dough for bread, instead of all good solid yeast. And so will the same 
composition do, if mixed with only grounds of barrels, provided the 
grounds are thick and sweet. Thus if stale yeast is mixed with only sugar 
and hot water, and set near a fire, in about half an hour it will ferment 
and be like new yeast.

   A second Account of making Grounds of Barrels serve for baking Bread, 
instead of good Yeast, in cold Weather.--If grounds of barrels, or bottoms 
of strong or small beer vessels, are upon necessity to be made use of, for 
want of good yeast, to make bread; our country housewife may mix some 
sugar, salt, and flower with them, and then set the mixture within the 
heat of the fire (especially if ale grounds are made use of) and it will 
rise and ferment, and the sooner if you mix some warm wort or beer with 
them, provided the grounds are not sour, or otherways decayed. And thus 
poor thin yeast may be also made to ferment and bake with, instead of good 
yeast. Others put brandy and sugar to grounds of barrels or decayed yeast, 
and it will cause it to ferment quickly.

   A Method practised by a frugal Housewife to keep her Yeast sweet and 
sound against baking time, in hot Weather.--This foresighted frugal 
housewife, if she brewed in hot weather, would, when her drink had done 
working, and the yeast settled, pour off the thin or liquid part, and 
reserve only the thick part, which she would dry in the sun and air, and 
then, after mixing some salt with it, would make it into rolers a foot 
long, and thus keep it sweet and sound a month or more together.

   A second Way to preserve Yeast sweet and sound in hot Weather.--In 
summer time I knew a frugal housewife plaister a board over with thick 
yeast, and let it dry on, which being kept in a dry place, was preserved a 
long while sweet; and when wanted, she scraped some off. This, mixed with 
warm water, would ferment into a serviceable yeast; but if it was backward 
in fermenting, she added some salt and sugar to the warm water.

   How to preserve Yeast with cold Water.--There is a way to preserve 
yeast sweet some time, if you put cold water on it; but then the yeast 
should be thick and solid, and after the water has stood on it three or 
four days, it should be poured off, and fresh added. This is one way to 
preserve yeast sweet; but then it is apt to waste the spirit of it, and 
make it the less lively. Others put sugar, salt, flower and brandy to it, 
for causing a fermentation.

   How to preserve Yeast sweet in a Pitcher.--This is practised by many of 
our country housewives, who after their strong or small drink has fully 
done working, and the yeast settled in the tub or pan that receives it 
from the vessel, will pour off the thin beer part, and put the solid part 
into a pitcher, which if tied over with the skin of a hog's flair or 
bladder, and kept in a cool place, may be preserved sweet, for making 
bread with the same, a month or more.

   How to preserve Yeast in Bottles.--This is done by puting [sic:putting] 
solid yeast into a stone or glass bottle, that has a wider mouth than 
common bottles have; then cork the bottle, and put it into a cool cellar, 
or more securely, into a ditch, pond, or river; and the coldness of the 
cellar or water will prevent its fermenting, and preserve it sweet a long 
time. So that a housewife need not be at a loss for yeast to bake with, if 
she will but get one or more of these bottles, and thus save her yeast 
from one baking to another. And observe, that whenever she puts such a 
bottle of yeast into a ditch, pond, river, or well, she should be sure to 
place it as near as she can to the shady side of it. For this reason a 
well is a better conservatory than a cellar, ditch, pond, or river, 
because the bottle of yeast is here entirely kept in the shade, and in the 
greatest coolness. Others will put yeast into a stone bottle, and keep it 
in a hole in the ground, as the best way of all others.

   How an old Woman, that kept a public House in Hertfordshire, made it 
her common Practice to increase the Quantity of her Yeast.--This woman 
generally brewed once a week throughout the year, and not only sold her 
own yeast, but would buy that made by her private neighbours, in order to 
adulterate both for profit sake. And to do it in a manner that could not 
be easily perceived nor discovered, she mixed flower and the grounds of 
barrels with her good yeast, and sold it for four-pence a quart, to bake 
and brew with.

   Of the Cheapness and Dearness of Yeast or Barm.--The want of yeast, in 
many parts of England, obliges many persons to desist from baking their 
own bread, to their loss; and this even in some towns, where in warm 
weather it is cheaply and easily had for three-pence or four-pence a 
quart, and yet in hard and long frosts it is sometimes sold for six-pence, 
a shilling, two shillings, and I have known it sold for two shillings and 
six-pence a quart, in the great frost of 1740. Which is enough, I should 
think, to put our housewives upon a prevention of such an extravagant 
expence, which they may do, if they will but observe what I have written 
of saving yeast before-hand.

   How a Tradesman in Hertfordshire brewed ten Bushels of Pale Malt in the 
Hard Frost of 1740, chiefly for making an extraordinary Profit of the 
Yeast produced from the same.--This fact was performed in the hard frost, 
1740; which occasioned yeast to sell at the before-mentioned prices in 
many country towns within forty miles of London. And it was the 
extraordinary price of two shillings per quart, that yeast sold for in the 
months of January and February, that tempted an acquaintance of mine, then 
living at Barkhamstead St. Peter, in Hertfordshire, to brew ten bushels of 
pale leisure-dried malt, which by his care and skill produced him ten 
gallons of yeast, which he sold at two shillings per quart, and thus made 
four pounds of the bare yeast; for he was an excellent private brewer (not 
one of them that regard a serviceable secret like a Tale of Tom Thumb) who 
made a trial first to prove its effect, and as he found it, judged it. 
This person was noted for having a most silky, fine, palatable ale 
generally by him, of which, though a tradesman, he was no niggard; and 
that his malt-drink might excell the common sort in goodness, he did not 
grudge the charge of buying three pounds of hops, when others bought but 
two, because he boiled them only thirty minutes or less; but his wort he 
usually boiled longer, till it broke into particles as big as large lice: 
Or, to speak plainer, till the hops sunk, and the wort boiled curdled 
clear. Then it is, that such strong beer or ale (if the fermentation is 
rightly carried on) will yield a very large quantity of yeast.

   To make a bitter Yeast fresh.--There are two or more ways of doing 
this; one is, as I said, by pouring cold water on it, and after its lying 
twenty-four, or more hours, it must be pour'd off, which may be easily 
done if the yeast is solid, for cold water will not mix with yeast like 
beer.--But the common bakers way is, to put long bran on a linen cloth, 
and your bitter yeast on that, which you are to wash out from the bran 
with hot water.--Or you may soak a birch broom in yeast, and though the 
yeast be bitter, the air will dry and freshen it against the next baking, 
when it may be washed in warm water.----N.B. By the wash of the bran, the 
bitter part of the yeast lodges in it, and thus makes the wheat-meal go 
the further in making bread.

   Good neighbours Yeast.--I call this good neighbours yeast, that is to 
say, where there is a good neighbourhood, when one brews, she lends her 
yeast to a neighbour for baking or brewing. And when the other brews, she 
does the same. Thus a good housewife need not be at much expence in buying 
yeast; as it is practised at a little innship called Maintmore, in Bucks, 
where there are about half a score houses, and where their neighbourhood 
so well agrees together, that this is their constant practice to lend one 
another yeast alternately. And thus they prevent their being at any 
extraordinary expence and trouble of buying it at a greater distance.


Of Leaven, and Leavened Bread.

AS many are ignorant what leaven is, I shall in the first place give an 
account of it. And that it may be the more known, I shall here observe the 
method a days-man's (as we call them in Hertfordshire) or labourer's wife 
took to make and keep her leaven from one baking to another. Her family 
was a husband and five children, seven in all, which obliged her about 
every ten days end to bake one bushel of flower; and as her money was 
short, and yeast sometimes scarce and dear, she always took care to save a 
piece of her leavened dough, at each baking, about the bigness of her 
fist, and making a little hole in the middle of it with her finger, ram'd 
it full of salt, and in a ball shape she let it lie covered over with salt 
in her salt-box till the next baking; by which time it got dry and hard 
enough to break into crumbles, for mixing them with half a pint of yeast 
and warm water. This, when put into the middle of the flower, as it lay in 
a tub or kneading-trough, was stirred with some of the meal, and left to 
ferment and rise, which in warm weather it would do in an hour or two's 
time. Not that time is a true indication when it has fermented or risen 
enough; for to know this, she would look now and then, and when she saw 
the place cracked over where the leaven lay, she knew it was enough, and 
accordingly mixed the rest of the flower, and kneaded all into a moderate 
stiffiness; for if it was kneaded too soft, the bread would be apt to 
spread in the oven, be light, and crumble; and if too stiff kneaded, it 
may be baked till it is too close, heavy, and hard.

   How to make Leaven and leavened Bread for a private Family.--Leaven, as 
I said, is a piece of dough saved from the last leavened dough, and 
preserved with salt, as before mentioned, and is thus chiefly prepared for 
saveing yeast; for by this means half the usual quantity of yeast 
suffices, and yet causes the bread to eat pleasanter, to be hollower, and 
is wholsomer than if the dough was made with all yeast. On which accounts 
the French and other foreigners commonly make their bread with some leaven 
in it: For which purpose, the leavened piece should be kept dry enough to 
be broke small into salt warm water, well stirred about, till all is 
dissolved and thoroughly mixed. Then drain it through a sieve, to keep 
back any grouty part. This being done, make a large hole in the middle 
part of the flower, and pour into it this liquid leaven, which you are to 
incorporate so well, as to make this part of a hasty-pudding consistence; 
then cover with dry meal, and let all lie together all night to ferment 
and rise. Next morning add some yeast with some more warm water, and 
sprinkle salt over the whole parcel of flower according to discretion, 
which mix and knead together till the whole is made into a stiffish dough, 
and moulded into loaves; always remembering, with a pocket meat fork, or 
something else, to prick holes in the top part of each loaf, for this lets 
out the air when the bread begins to be hot in the oven, that otherwise 
would cause the upper crust to be puffed up and crack.

   An Account given this Author by a -----Woman, who, when she was single, 
lived with a Country common Baker, that made use of the Spunge, otherwise 
Leaven, and employed Allum in making his Bread.--This woman says, that her 
master, who was a common baker just set up, used to bake four bushels of 
flower at a time, twice every week and always (both in summer and winter) 
saved a piece of his leavened dough about the bigness of a man's two 
fists, in which he put as much salt as would fill an egg-shell when the 
salt was wrapt up in this dough, he kept it cover'd all over in salt 
against he wanted it, and generally made use of that leaven which was 
about a week old; for she says, that he thought it better at that age than 
used sooner. Then, when he wanted it, he dissolved it with two ounces of 
allum in warm water, and with this liquid he mixed a pint of yeast, which 
he put into a cavity or hollow made in the meal, and covered all with dry 
meal; here it lay fermenting an hour or two, and when enough, he kneaded 
the whole quantity of meal, with what more warm water was necessary, into 
loaves, and baked them.--Allum, she says, saves salt, for by using it in 
this quantity, the baker employed no more salt in two bushels of meal than 
what was contained in the leaven. She says also, that allum saves yeast, 
because it helps to hollow the bread, yet binds and keeps the dough from 
spreading too much, and adds a whiter colour to the bread, than if salt 
was made use of in its stead. She further says, that she has heard that 
some great bakers have laid their spunge overnight; when this is done, the 
leaven must be put the deeper into the meal. (However, it is objected by 
some, that where allum is made use of, it brings on a staleness of the 
loaf of bread sooner than if yeast was made use of in its stead; makes it 
eat harsh, and causes it to crumble more than ordinary.) And that 'tis 
true her master thus made use of allum; she says, she has weighed it 
several times for this purpose. And why I am the more particular in my 
account of it is, because I never met with any common baker, but what 
denied he ever made use of allum in making his bread. This common baker 
began at first with baking only eight bushels of wheat-meal a week; but 
since is become a baker of great trade.

   A Cheshire Servant Maid's Account of her making leavened Bread.--She 
told me in November 1746, that in the part of Cheshire where she had lived 
they eat barley-bread, or bread made with half rye and half wheat-meal, 
which they there call mobbum bread; but in other parts of Cheshire, 
towards Manchester, she says, they eat sour cake, that is to say, oatcake-
bread. Her way to make barley or mobbum bread was to save a salted piece 
of leavened dough against next baking, and then crumble it into warm 
water, with which she mixed her flower, and made it just into a dough over 
night, and let it lie till next morning, when she kneaded it for good. She 
said, they make use of no yeast, unless they think the leaven not strong 
enough to ferment the dough of itself,--but to make leaven the first time, 
knead a piece of dough with salt, as long as it will take up any, then 
hang it up, or leave it covered in salt; and to make it better, you may 
add a little yeast to the dough, or instead thereof some grounds of ale, 
or an egg. The staler the leaven the closer will be the bread, and the 
sooner sour, and if the dough is not well kneaded, it will be streaky.

Of making common Wheaten-Bread for a private Family in Hertfordshire.

THE common way of making wheaten bread for a private family in 
Hertfordshire, is done by heating water a little more than lukewarm in 
summer, but hotter in winter, and as a bushel of flower or meal lies in 
the kneading-kiver, or trough, or tub, our country housewife sprinkles a 
handful of salt over it, and stirs it in; then she mixes a pint of yeast 
with some of the flower, and lets it lie a little while to rise; next she 
lades her warm water over the whole mass, and kneads away. Others mix the 
yeast with the hot water, and pour it over the flower, and then knead all 
into a dough moderately stiff; and as they begin this when the fuel is put 
into the oven, they get the bread ready against it is hot, which will be 
in about an hour's time; and to know when it is enough, there are many 
ovens that have a little stone fixed in the brick work, at the farthest 
end, opposite the oven's mouth, which when cold is of a blackish colour, 
but when it appears whitish, it is a mark or indication for knowing the 
oven is hot enough. Others regard the sparkles of the fire that fly up, on 
rubbing the bottom of the oven. If these then spread briskly about, they 
reckon the oven is hot enough to be swept, and the loaves put in and stopt 
up. The good housewife also observes not to heat her water too hot, 
knowing that if she does, it will cause the bread to be too heavy and 
close. Others, for this purpose, boil their water, or skim milk, or whey, 
and let it cool till it is a little more than blood-warm, as believing 
this adds to the goodness of the bread. But the common baker says, That 
country women do not understand making and baking bread in the best 
manner, because they generally, on putting their yeast, salt, and water to 
the meal, mix all together as fast as possible, and after letting the 
dough lie but little (as some of the worse housewives do) they mould it 
into loaves, and directly put it into the oven, without giving the dough 
its due time to ferment, swell, and rise: But the good housewife makes her 
dough ready before she begins to light the fire in the oven, that it may 
have the longer time to lie before it is moulded into loaves.


To make Bread with a Mixture of Wheat and Barley Meal, so as to make it 
answer the greatest Advantage of a Family.

GRIND of each a like quantity together (though some mix half a bushel of 
wheat with a bushel of barley) because these for this purpose are better 
grinded together than alone, by reason the barley being thus mixed with 
the wheat, is grinded the finer; for if the barley, which is the bigger-
bodied corn, was to be grinded by itself, they seldom grind it very fine; 
but when incorporated with wheat, the miller knows it is for family use, 
and will grind it accordingly. Now to make the best use of this mixed 
flower, take skim milk, warm it, then add yeast to it, and mix this and 
the meal together, in the usual manner of making of dough with all wheat-
meal, water, and yeast; but milk with yeast makes these meals into what we 
call a lively dough, that causes the bread to be hollower, sweeter, and 
whiter, than if water is only mixed with the yeast. Again, yeast is often 
times bitterish; when so, the bitterness is much lessened by the help of 
skim milk, for if only water with yeast was employed to make this barley 
and wheat mixture, the bread would be apt to be heavy and rough tasted, 
and bitter yeast has a predominant disagreeable taste. Thus, with these 
two Meals, a good sort of houshold-bread may be made.

   How a Yeoman's Wife made a Barley Bread, with which she brought up her 
Family in Hertfordshire.--This yeoman lived about three miles from me, was 
owner of a farm that employed five horses, and brought up his numerous 
family with bread made of all barley-meal, which being of a shorter nature 
than wheat-meal, his wife usually mixed new milk with some warm water, in 
order the better to hold this short meal together, make the bread appear 
whiter, eat the sweeter, and keep the longer; for if skim milk was made 
use of; the dough would require the more squeezing and kneading, and keep 
the less time from souring; and because barley-meal is of such a short 
nature, there must be the more yeast or leaven (or both) mixed with it, to 
make it into a right dough. This woman also, in making her pye-crust, made 
it of barley-meal and wheat-meal mixed together, because she thought this 
mixture made shorter and better crust, than if all wheat-meal was made use 
of.

   What chiefly occasions Bread to crumble, and what helps very much to 
prevent it.--It is well known to our right country housewives, that if the 
meal is over-watered, or over yeasted, the bread will crumble too much; 
but when the dough is made of a right mixture of these three ingredients, 
and is kneaded till it is hollow and stiffish, it is then work'd right; if 
otherwise, there is often what we call sluts-pennies among the bread, that 
will appear and eat like kernels: Or there will be little lumps of dry 
flower, both which are occasioned merely by wrong management, and causes 
the bread to be offensive both to the palate and stomach.

   How in making Bread its Loaves are prevented from crumbling.--A woman 
that came out of Staffordshire, to live near me in Buckinghamshire, said, 
She knew a common baker in her country that always made use of cold water 
as well as warm water in the kneading of his dough to make his loaves of 
bread, for preventing their crumbling too much. To do which, after he had 
mixed his yeast with warm water, and had a little kneaded his dough, he 
now and then poured a dish of cold water over it, and proceeded to knead 
his dough till he had worked it enough. This, he said, would keep the 
bread from crumbling too much. And it is this same method that this woman 
always followed, when she kneaded her dough, and made bread for her 
numerous family.

   The Damage of letting Bread lie too long in an Oven.--It is a rule 
among our country housewives, that if loaves of bread stand longer than 
three hours in a well heated oven, they will fall and be lumpy, like as a 
toast toasted beyond its due time will be too hard.

   Of making Bean and Pea Bread.--The bean flower makes a rank hearty 
bread, even the rankest in taste of all others made in England, and which 
cannot be made into loaves so well as other bread, because it will crack 
and be brittle, therefore it is commonly made into cakes in some parts of 
the North; its meal is of a yellowish colour, and so is its bread. Pea 
bread is much sweeter; yet in some parts of the North they grind beans and 
make bread of them, and sometimes they mix bean flower with barley meal 
for bread.

   Of making Bread with Oats and Tills.--Tills is a grain that will grow 
well on poor chalky and gravelly soils, and is about one third part lesser 
than common pease. Tills being ground into flour, and mixed with fine 
oatmeal, make a coarse hearty bread; but tills of themselves make a bad 
bread, and thetches worse.

   What occasions bread to be ropy and musty, &c.--Wells and ponds, that 
lie in the reach and influence of the sea and salt-water rivers, have 
their waters generally of a brackish nature and taste, insomuch, that 
without great care is taken in managing the dough, the bread will soon 
become ropy. So if bread is made from dough that is over water'd, it will 
be apt to rope and soon grow mouldy; the same if bread is kept in a damp 
cellar too long. I had once a lazy maid servant that would not knead her 
dough enough, and then the bread crumbled, and would not keep sweet long; 
but another, that kneaded her dough well, and work'd it stiff into loaves, 
made as good bread as the other did bad. In short, if bread is kept in too 
moist a place too long, it will rope, or hoar, or mould. And if it is kept 
in a very dry place too long, it will eat hard, and be apt to crumble. A 
place between both extremes is best.

   What the Laplanders and Norwegians eat for bread, &c.--In the month of 
April 1748, a Sweedish gentleman, Professor of Natural History in the 
University of Obo in Finland, and one of the Royal Society of Stockholm, 
was at Gaddesden, above a fortnight together, to see my ways of husbandry, 
and among other things he told me, that the Laplanders, who are under the 
Sweedish government, are never troubled with the scurvy; because their 
bread is dried fish, and other diet accordingly; which causes their bodies 
to be so lightsome, that a Laplander will walk over their white mossy land 
a long way in a day without tiring, will lay his leg on his shoulders, and 
that a Laplander of eighty years of age, would tire the youngest, stoutest 
Englishman in walking. He also informed me, that in some parts of Norway, 
the inhabitants dry and grind the inner bark of the fir-tree, for making 
bread of its powder or meal. In Sweden many also dry and grind the buck-
bean and marsh-trefoil-root after they have got out its bitterness by 
scalding water, and then make it into bread.

   The Management of a Bushel of Barley-Meal by a Labourer's Wife.--This 
woman having four children, her husband, that is a day-labourer at 
threshing, hedging, &c. bought a bushel of barley of me on the 27th of 
October, 1746, to grind into meal, and by sifting it she got a peck and 
half of the finest part of it, which she baked into bread; and for the 
next baking, she sifted the remaining Meal, as she did the first, through 
her hair brewing sieve, and got out a peck and half more, which being 
somewhat coarser than the first, she mixed a pottle of wheat meal with it, 
and made it into bread; and after this she had a peck of coarse branny 
stuff left, that helped to make good wash for her hog. This she did to 
make the penny go the farther, although wheat was then but four shillings 
per bushel, and barley eighteen-pence. And to make her barley bread in the 
best manner, she mixed milk and water, or made use of all skim milk in the 
kneading of her barley dough, because the milk, she says, holds it better 
together than all water, makes the bread whiter and eat sweeter. Barley 
meal, she says, requires the same quantity of salt, but rather more yeast 
than wheat-meal does. And as to the degree of heat the water or milk 
should be in, the same will serve for barley meal as for wheat-meal; 
lukewarm in summer, and hotter in winter. But there is this nicety, she 
says, to be observed in making bread of all barley meal; the dough of it 
must not be kneaded stiff, for if is, and put into the oven stiff, the 
loaf will crack, and be so hard, as hardly to be cut. The knowing 
housewives therefore work this barley-dough till it is tender and soft, 
and then make it into loaves, which when baked about three hours, will 
come out in good order.--The use of barley-meal in making bread was very 
much in practice amongst the poor people in Hertfordshire and elsewhere, 
in the great frost of 1740, which began about Christmas-Day, and held near 
a quarter of a year, which so cut off the wheat in the field, that the 
last year's wheat sold for seven or eight shillings a bushel, which 
necessitated many to make use of barley-meal, not only for bread, but in 
several other shapes, as I shall give an account of in the following 
manner, viz.

   Bread said to be made in Fingal in Ireland.--It is reported that they 
here grind wheat, rye, and pease, to make their bread of, or beans instead 
of pease, saying, barley-bread slips through them too soon.

   N.B. In my next and second book, I shall give my readers an account, 
how to make a loaf of bread with barley-meal and another ingredient, that 
has deceived persons who thought themselves good judges of bread, and made 
them think it really wheaten bread, tho' there was no wheaten flower 
amongst it, and yet it eats better than a loaf made with all wheaten 
coarse flower. It is a very valuable receipt, that has escaped the notice 
of all authors.

 Of the several Uses of Barley-Meal, and Fat, in making Pye-Crust, 
Pancakes, Puddings, &c.

A VERY cheap Way to save Butter or Fat in making Pye-Crust, with a Mixture 
of Barley and Wheat Meal.--The flower or meal of barley and wheat made use 
of in equal quantities, makes good pye-crust, thus;--Warm skim milk, and 
mix a little yeast with it, just enough to enliven it, then work this into 
the two meals, for making it into a standing paste for any sort of pye, 
and it will keep the crust a little hollow and from burning, make it 
appear whitish, and eat short and sweet, somewhat like a common wig, to 
the saving of butter or fat; but if sugar was added to the paste, it would 
then eat like a wig. And although crust is made in this cheap manner, some 
think it better than if made with all wheat meal, because this would eat 
dryer and harder. This cheap way has escaped the knowledge of all authors 
before me.

   Mary Weeden, a poor Woman, her Way to make Fat go the farthest in 
making Paste of Barley-Meal for Pyes or Pasties.--The flower or meal of 
barley always requires a little fat to be mixed with it, because it is too 
harsh and short of itself with only water, to make crust for apple or 
other pyes or pasties. A poor woman that uses to make apple or other pyes 
with barley-meal, for her family, refuses to melt her fat over the fire in 
water as the usual way is, but mixes her hogslard or butter with the meal, 
by putting bits of it in several parts of the whole; then she pours her 
hot water over the same, which melts and disperses the lard or butter 
throughout the barley flower, by the time it is thoroughly kneaded 
together; but observe, that this woman's way is not to be practised when 
the fat is in a hard body, as dripping-fat and suet commonly is; for in 
this case such hard fat must be melted in water over a fire, till both are 
boiling hot. And though I have mentioned this poor woman's method of 
mixing soft fat cold, in bits with the barley-meal, it is out of the 
common practice; and she only does it because she thinks this way prevents 
the waste of her fat better than if she melted it in water over a fire. 
And in thus preparing her barley-meal paste, for apple or other pyes or 
pasties, her allowance is, a quarter of a pound of lard, or other soft 
fat, to half a peck of barley-meal.

   The cheapest Way of all others to save the Expence of Fat in making of 
Pye or Pasty Crust for a Poor Man's Family.--This is a most save-all way, 
and what some poor people are glad to make use of to hitch out the penny, 
when they cannot afford to buy fat; then it is that they boil skim milk, 
and while it is boiling hot, they mix wheat flower with it, by stirring in 
a spoonful at a time, till it is brought into a stiffish consistence, and 
cool enough to work into dough or paste, chiefly for making a crust for 
turnover, or flap-apple, or meat patties; and if the flower is good, and 
the management accordingly, it will make a short, white, and sweet sort, 
even as good as if only a very little fat was melted in water and mixed 
with flower.

   A Barley-Meal boiled Pudding, as made by the Country Housewife of a 
poor Family.--She stirs the meal with water, a little salt, and a little 
yeast, and when well mixed, she puts it into a pudding-bag and boils it; 
when enough, she cuts it into thin slices in a platter, and directly puts 
between the slices, hogslard sprinkled with a little salt, or melted 
dripping without salt, and it will eat puffy and palatable, and give a 
dinner to a poor family, without any thing else. But where milk can be 
afforded instead of water, it will make the barley-meal pudding so much 
the better.

   A Barley-Meal baked Pudding as made by the Country Housewife, a 
Farmer's Wife.--This pudding is made with such cheap, wholesome, and 
palatable ingredients, that it may justly be called a right country 
housewife's pudding, as being composed with those things that stand the 
yeoman or farmer in but little, because they are commonly ready provided 
in the house, and of his own produce. Our housewife, in doing this, stirs 
her barley-meal with water, a little pepper, salt, and apples, cut small; 
these being well mixed, she puts it into a pudding-pan, with a piece of 
pickled pork in the middle of it, and when baked, it will prove an 
agreeable nourishing dinner to her family.

   Barley-Meal palatable Pancakes; how to make them for a Yeoman's, a 
Farmer's, or poor Man's family.--Cut apples very small, and stir them into 
the barley-meal with some milk and salt, and a little powder'd ginger, for 
the ginger hollows the pancakes, gives them a good relish, and warms the 
stomach. Then fry this mixture into pancakes with pot-fat, lard, or 
dripping-fat, and without any sauce they will eat hollow and palatable. By 
all these ways of using barley-meal, a poor man is not obliged to lay out 
his money in wheaten flower, or wheaten bread, and yet by these good 
managements his family may enjoy a hot bellyful of wholesome food, prevent 
his having a score to pay off on a Saturday night, and give him a shilling 
in his pocket, which for want of such frugal housewifery he would be 
obliged to lay out; for according to the old proverb, A penny saved is a 
penny got.

   The several Ways of preparing Barley-Meal, for subsisting a poor Man's 
Family in the hard Frost of 1740.--In this frost a peck of fine barley-
meal was sold at our country shops for one shilling, because wheat-meal 
was as dear again. This necessitated some poor men's wives to make it go 
as far as possible, and to this end one of them made no bread of it, but 
only mixed water with some of the barley-meal, and kneaded it into paste 
or dough for making cakes with the same; this being done, she broiled 
these cakes on a gridiron, and they served her family instead of bread.--
At other times she made her barley-meal into hasty-pudding, and now and 
then made it into a boiled pudding, saying, that her family had rather eat 
barley-meal under these preparations, than the coarse wheaten bread of the 
shops. And this woman told me, that her husband grew fat chiefly by this 
barley-meal food (for her husband is one of my day-labourers) and further, 
that most of the poor men's families in her neighbourhood made use of 
barley-meal for the greatest part of their subsistence.

   Barley-Meal Bread with Turneps, Rye, &c.-- In the great frost of 1740, 
some of our poor boiled turnips to a mash, and put them and their liquor 
into a bushel of barley-meal, and then made it into dough, and made one 
loaf more than if there had been no turnips used; but the bread eat 
sweetish and disagreeable.--Barley-meal and rye-flower make good bread, 
because the rye is moist, and the barley dry and short.--Half a peck of 
rye-flower and a peck of wheat-meal makes good bread; or half one and half 
the other.--In the great frost of 1709, barley-meal was sold for 8s. per 
bushel.

 

Pancakes and Fritters made with Wheat-Flower, their several Ways of 
Preparation, and their Uses in Farmers, Yeomens, or Gentlemens Families, 
in Harvest, and at other Times of the Year.

How commodiously Pancakes answer the Farmers, the Yeomens, and Gentlemens 
Interest.

Pancakes are one of the cheapest and more serviceable dishes of a farmer's 
family in particular; because all the ingredients of the common ones are 
of his own produce, are ready at hand upon all occasions, saves firing, 
are soon cook'd, are conveniently portable, and supply both meat and 
bread; insomuch that in harvest, and at other times, they become a 
pleasant part of a family subsistence, to the saving of much expence and 
trouble in a year, by causing the less consumption of fleshmeat, &c. This 
piece of frugal œconomy likewise affects the yeoman's and gentleman's 
family; for altho' the master and mistress of these can afford to eat 
better than the plain sort of pancakes, yet their servants may be often 
supplied with them as a changeable, light, and pleasant diet, for either 
breakfast, dinner, or supper. And that a proper sort may be made for both 
masters and servants uses, I shall be the more particular in giving 
various receipts for the same as followeth, viz.

   The Hertfordshire plain cheap Pancakes for Farmers Families, &c.--Are 
made with wheaten flower, milk, eggs, and powder'd ginger. To a pottle of 
wheat-flower they put two quarts of new milk, four eggs, and some powdered 
ginger; these they stir together into a batter consistence, and fry them 
in hogslard; when one side of the pancake is fried enough, our housewife, 
or her maid-servant, turns it in a clever manner, by giving it only a toss 
with the frying-pan, and when this is dexterously done, it is the best way 
of turning them. Thus she goes on frying pancake after pancake, and as she 
lays them one upon another, in a platter or dish, she sprinkles some 
coarse sugar for their sauce; but takes what care she can that the family 
eats them hot, for the hotter they eat them, the less danger there is of 
rising in their stomachs, if the lard should be rankish. But whether they 
eat them cold or hot, if the ingredients are fresh and good, they are 
agreeable victuals; and though I mention sprinkling of sugar over the 
pancakes after they are fry'd, as sauce to them, yet some think it the 
better way to mix sugar in the batter, for mixing it the more regular to 
the taste.

   How a Woman made three Pancakes that dined herself and three Men.--This 
housewifely woman, that lives in our neighbourhood, made her batter for 
her pancakes thus: In the first place, she pared, cored, and chop'd her 
apples very small, then prepared her batter with wheat-meal, four eggs, 
milk, and powder'd ginger; these being all mixed, she put some of the 
batter into a large frying-pan, with a good quantity of hogslard, and 
though she laid her batter in thinnish, the pancake came out thick, 
because all the several ingredients contributed to it. And when she had 
fry'd three of these pancakes, herself and three men eat them without any 
sauce, saying, They had a dinner to their satisfaction.

   How Small-Beer or Ale Pancakes are made.--These are sometimes made, not 
only by the poorer sort of people, but also by farmers and yeomens wives, 
when milk cannot easily be had; for although most farmers and yeomen keep 
cows, they are not always in milk, as being in calf, or that they go, what 
we in Hertfordshire call, guess or dry: In this case milk may be supplied 
by the use of small-beer, or better with ale; but whenever either of these 
are wanted, it should be of the mildest newest sort, and free from the 
bitter taste of hops. Then mix this liquor with wheat-flower, a few beaten 
eggs, sugar, and ginger, and fry it into pancakes with lard or other fat. 
I must own, that a pancake made with malt liquor is not so palatable as 
one made with milk; but where the bellyful is mostly consulted, it will do 
well enough. And here I take the opportunity to observe, that all authors 
whatsoever, in their writings on country housewifery, have in no little 
degree been wanting to answer one main end of their title-page. For as I 
take it, the chief art of good housewifery lies in bringing much into a 
little compass; or for explaining this better, to make a little cost 
answer the end of a great expence; which to do, I shall make it my 
endeavour in the greater part of this work to shew in the cheapest, 
plainest, and most practical manner. And that the more curious and abler 
persons may have their choice, I shall add how the richer and more 
palatable sorts of things may be made to their satisfaction.

   How Water Pancakes are made by poor People.--This pancake is made by 
many poor, day-labouring mens wives, who when they cannot afford to make 
better, make this; by stirring wheat flower with water instead of milk, 
for if they can get milk, they generally think it put to a better use when 
they make milk porridge of it for their family. The flower and water being 
stirred into a batter consistence, with a sprinkling of salt and powder'd 
ginger, they fry the pancakes in lard, or other fat, and without any sugar 
they and their family make a good meal of them.

   How Pancakes are made for rich People.--Rich pancakes are made by some 
to eat as the finishing part of a dinner; to make such, they melt three 
quarters of a pound of butter with a pint or more of cream; when this is 
done, stir into it as much flower as will make a common batter for 
thickness; fry with butter or lard, and turn each pancake on the back of a 
pewter plate; strew fine sugar over them, and they'll be rich pancakes 
indeed: But for a farther choice of rich pancakes, I shall add the 
receipts of several authors.--One author by an old receipt directs, that 
to make good pancakes, three eggs should be beat till they are very thin; 
this done, beat them up again with an addition of water, powder'd cloves, 
mace, cinnamon, nutmeg, and a little salt, next thicken them with fine 
flower, and fry them with lard or sweet butter into a thin substance till 
they are brown, then strew some white sugar over them, and they are ready 
for eating. Upon which this ancient author remarks and says, there be 
some, who in pancakes mix new milk or cream; this, says he, makes them 
tough, cloying, and not crisp, nor so pleasant and savoury as clear water 
makes them.--Another author says, make use of eight eggs to a pottle of 
flower, powder'd ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, and some salt: Make, says 
he, these into thin batter with milk, and beat the whole well together 
with half a pint of sack; then put the pan on the fire with a little 
butter or other fat, and when hot, rub it with a cloth; the pan being thus 
cleaned, put in a sufficient quantity of fat to melt, and your batter on 
that, very thinly spread, which in frying must be supplied with little 
bits of butter, lard, or suet; toss the pancake to turn it, and fry it 
crisp and brown.--Says another author, for making pancakes in the thinnest 
manner, mix eight eggs with a quart of cream, six spoonfuls of flower, six 
of sack, one of rose-water, a pound of butter, and two grated nutmegs; the 
butter must be melted with the cream, and the whole mixed together into a 
batter. Observe also to butter the fryingpan for the first pancake, but 
not afterwards, and spread the batter as thin as possible each time you 
fry. This pancake, says he, being so very thin, needs no turning, for if 
one side of it is brown, it is enough, and this quantity of batter will 
make above thirty pancakes; and as they are fry'd, strew fine sugar over 
each pancake and lay one upon another for eating; or (says he further) if 
you think fit, you may beat up the eggs with a pint or a quart of water 
instead of cream, which when mixed with the other ingredients, will make 
good thin pancakes; but you must take care you do not burn them in frying. 
Also, that if you make this sort of batter early in a morning, to stand 
till dinner time, it will make the better pancakes.

   Apple Pancakes for Gentry.--For this, after you have pared your apples, 
cut them in round slices, first taking out the core part; these fry in 
fresh butter; next beat up twelve or sixteen eggs in milk, or better in a 
quart of cream, which mix with ginger and nutmeg powder'd each two drams, 
powder'd sugar six ounces; then pour this batter on the fry'd apples, and 
fry altogether: Sprinkle with sugar, and they'll be good eating. Others 
mince the apples, and then mix them with batter.

   A quick and plain Way to make Apple Fritters.--In Hertfordshire, to 
make these, we cut large apples in thin slices, and only dip them in 
batter, and fry them in lard or dripping.

   A quick and plain Way to make pickled Pork Pancakes.--To do this, we 
make no more to do in Hertfordshire, than to cut thin slices of pickled 
pork, and dipping them all over in batter, we put them among batter in the 
fryingpan, and fry them in large pancakes.

   The Dugdale Flower Pancake.--This is a wheaten pancake, because it is 
made with wheat-flower, tho' with one of the coarsest of English wheat. 
Yet it is well known to many yeomen and farmers, who sow this Dugdale or 
Rivet-Wheat, that if the flower of it is sifted fine, it makes the best of 
pancakes, because its flower or meal is of a sweet short nature.

   To make fine Pancakes fry'd without Butter or Lard, according to an old 
but good Receipt.--Take a pint of cream and six eggs, beat them very well 
together, put in a quarter of a pound of sugar, and one nutmeg, and as 
much flower as will thicken it like ordinary pancake batter. Your pan must 
be heated reasonably hot, and wiped with a clear cloth. This done, put in 
your batter as thick or thin as you please.

   To make Rice Pancakes.--The same author says, boil a pound of rice in 
three quarts of water till it is very tender, then let it stand covered in 
a pot a while, and it will become a sort of jelly; next scald a quart of 
milk and put it scalding hot to the rice jelly, when this is done, mix 20 
eggs, well beaten, with three quarters of a pound of butter first melted 
over a fire, and stir all these together with salt, and as much flower as 
will hold them frying in butter. This mixture is best done over night.

   The Hertfordshire Bacon Pancake, or what some call Bacon-Fraise, for 
Plowmen and others.--Cut the best part of bacon into thin pieces, about 
two inches square, then with milk, flower, and eggs make a batter; when 
the eggs are well beaten, mix all of them together, and then put into your 
fryingpan hogslard or good dripping, which when thoroughly hot, lay in 
your bacon batter according to discretion, and as the pancake fries, cast 
some of the fat on it;--when it is enough on one side, turn it. This 
pancake needs no spice nor sugar, and serves well to fill our plowmens and 
others bellies instead of intire flesh.

   The Hertfordshire Apple Fritter.--Beat the yolks of four eggs and the 
whites of two well together, which mix with a pint of milk, seven 
spoonfuls of flower, a quartern of brandy, some grated nutmeg, ginger, and 
salt; next slice some apples very thin, dip each of them in your batter, 
and fry them in lard over a quick fire. Or you may mince the apples.

   The Hertfordshire plain Fritter.--To make these, our housewife makes 
use of six eggs well beaten, and mix'd with two quarts of milk, a quart of 
flower, and good store of powder'd ginger, because ginger makes the 
fritters hollow and hot. She also mixes some coarse sugar with her batter, 
by which there needs little or no sugar afterwards to eat them with. 
Batter fries hollower in fritters than in pancakes; but then it employs 
more time and fat in dressing them.

   To make a better Sort of Fritter.--Mix cream and flower with six yolks 
of eggs and two whites, six spoonfuls of sack, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger 
powder'd, and a little salt. Beat these an hour together into a batter, 
and put your quantity of it into lard at discretion for frying it in 
fritters.--Some to make richer fritters still, grate Naples biskets in 
cream, and mixing this with some white wine, eggs, sugar, and spices, form 
a batter for frying it in lard.--Others beat eight yolks with four whites 
of eggs and a pint of cream, then stir in some powdered spices, two 
spoonfuls of ale-yeast, and a little salt with some wheat-flower; and set 
it all, so mixed, within the reach of the fire, to rise and swell; when it 
does, add four or five spoonfuls of sack, and beat all once or twice 
again. Thus the batter is made; into which put thin slices of apples, and 
lade what quantity of it you think fit into boiling lard, for frying it 
into fritters.--Others first make a hasty-pudding, and when coolish, beat 
it in a mortar with eggs, salt, and sugar, till it becomes a batter, and 
so dropt into lard and fry'd.

   Potatoe Fritters.--Mix potatoe pulp with milk, shred suet, currants, 
salt, and Jamaica spice, and fry it in fritters.--Or you may mix minced 
apples with the pulp of potatoes or parsnips, and milk, Jamaica pepper, 
and a little sack for fritters, and eat them with the sauce of lemon juice 
and butter. 

Of making Puddings with Wheat-Flower, in Harvest, and at other Times in 
the Year.

THE Hertfordshire Way of making Plumb-Pudding in Harvest Time.--Pudding is 
so necessary a part of an Englishman's food, that it and beef are 
accounted the victuals they most love. Pudding is so natural to our 
harvest-men, that without it they think they cannot make an agreeable 
dinner. Therefore in Hertfordshire our rule is, to make plumb-pudding 
during wheat harvest, which generally lasts a fortnight; and plain-pudding 
during the rest of the time. Now to make a plumb-pudding of the better 
sort for six harvest-mens dinners, our housewife makes use of a pottle of 
flower, a quart of skim or new milk, three eggs, half or three quarters of 
a pound of raisins, and half a pound of chopt suet. This being stirred and 
well mixed together, with a little salt, is to be tied up in a linen cloth 
or bag; but not too tight, that it may have room to swell. Boil it three 
or (better) four hours; and if they cannot dine on this with good boiled 
beef, or with pork, or with bacon and roots, or herbs, they deserve to 
want a dinner.

   A second Receit to make a cheaper Plumb-Pudding is this.--With a pottle 
of flower mix some plumbs, suet, skim milk, coarse sugar, and a little 
salt, and boil all in a pudding. The sugar will supply the eggs, for eggs 
in harvest time are not so plenty as in the former part of summer, because 
the hens now generally begin their moulting. But to make richer puddings 
at other times, do as follows.

   A Pudding to bake or boil.--Mix a quart of new milk with half a pound 
of currants, and half a pound of raisins, a pound of chop'd suet, five 
eggs, some nutmeg and salt: These stir with flower till it is of a thick 
pudding consistence, and either bake or boil it.

   A second Pudding to bake or boil.--Is to shred a pound of raisins and a 
pound of suet together; to this put a few spoonfuls of flower, and five or 
six eggs beaten up with some sugar, salt, cloves, and mace in powder: Bake 
this, or boil it four or five hours.

   A Pudding in haste.--This I was informed of by a woman in our 
neighbourhood, who having formerly been in service at London, was ordered 
by her mistress to make a pudding in haste. Upon this she asked where she 
should get milk, as thinking to make a hasty-pudding; but she was 
answered, there was no occasion for milk, and bid to fetch half a pound of 
rice and a quarter of a pound of currants, which when picked and washed 
was bound up in a cloth mixed, and just boiled; for it is enough if boiled 
a few wallops.

   Hasty-pudding, by Mr. Houghton--He says, to make a substantial hasty-
pudding, take a quart of milk, the grated crums of a penny loaf, and boil 
them together; then sift over it half a pound of flower, first dried 
before the fire, with a little salt; stir also into it some butter, and a 
quarter of a pound of currants.

   The common Farmers Hasty-pudding.--For this, they make use of new or 
skim milk, or milk and water. A pint of flower will require two quarts of 
milk. Boil the milk first, then take a pint of cold milk, and mix a little 
hot milk with it till it is blood warm; then mix the rest of the boiled 
milk and the flower'd milk together off the fire, and when so mixed, stir 
the whole over the fire, while it boils a quarter of an hour; then take it 
off, and add butter, or sugar, or both.

   A poor Woman's Pudding for her Family.--Two women, that lived in a 
house near me, made each of them a pudding. One put two eggs among other 
things into hers; the other made her pudding without any eggs, using only 
hot water wherein some bacon and turnips had been boiled, with a little 
salt and flower; and yet the latter proved to be the best pudding, as it 
was full of little holes, light, and better than the former; so great a 
difference there is in good housewifery and management!

   A rich baked Pudding.--Take a penny loaf and slice it into a quart of 
cream with a little rose-water, then break it small; next, take three 
ounces of almonds blanched, and beaten small with a little sugar, put in 
seven eggs beaten, some marrow, and two pippins sliced thin; mingle these 
all together, and bake the pudding.

   A boiled Plain-pudding.--Take a pint of new milk, or better so much 
cream, and mix five beaten eggs with it, three spoonfuls of wheat flower, 
sugar, salt, and nutmeg, a little of each; tie this mixture up in a cloth 
first butter'd, and put it into a pot of water as it boils, and in about 
half an hour's time it will be enough. The sauce, melted butter alone, or 
mixt with sugar.

   Rabisha's baked Hasty-pudding.--Set on three pints of cream, the crumb 
of two penny French loaves sliced and minced, put to this a grated nutmeg, 
a few cloves, mace, cinnamon, and ginger beaten; add thereto half a 
handful of flower, mingle it together, and stir it into your milk; when it 
boils, throw in a piece of butter; then having four or five eggs beaten, 
with the whites of half cast away, put them also into your pudding, with a 
handful of sugar, and a little rose-water; stir them together again, till 
they begin to boil and thicken, then pour it into the dish it is to be 
eaten out of, set it on a heap of coals, make a fire-shovel red hot, and 
hold it close over your pudding till it is brown on the top, then scrape 
loaf-sugar over it, and send it up.

   Rabisha's baked Rice-pudding.--Take three pints of milk, and a handful 
of rice beaten to powder; boil it, and keep it stirring till it is thick, 
which will be in a quarter of an hour, with a piece of butter and 
cinnamon, and mace in it, then put it into an earthen-pan and let it be 
cold; next add to it two handfuls of currants, some sugar, a little salt, 
and six eggs, leaving out three of their whites; beat the whole together, 
and after you have butter'd the bottom of your dish, lay your pudding into 
it, and garnish the brims of it with a paste; when baked, scrape on some 
sugar, and 'tis done.--Or, boil rice till it is full tender, and mix eggs, 
a little salt and nutmeg with it; this lay on a thin paste in a dish with 
bits of butter, and bake.

   A plainer Way to make a baked Rice-pudding.--Boil half a pound of 
powder'd rice in three pints of milk well, then take it off, and when 
almost cold beat up six eggs, and add these with half a pound of chopt 
suet or butter and a grated nutmeg, and bake it half an hour.--Or if you 
think fit you may put some fine puff-paste at the bottom of the dish.

   A Buckinghamshire Farmer's Way to victual his Family with Pudding, &c.--
This farmer rented a farm of eight score pounds a year, consisting of 
arable and meadow ground, kept eight horses, twelve cows, two taskers, two 
plowmen, a shepherd, and horse-keeper, besides several day-labourers; and 
as his family were but eight in number (for the farmer was a widower) his 
maid servant made every day one or two boiled puddings, which, with a 
piece of bacon, was the chiefest of their food all the year; for I do not 
remember I ever saw them dine on any thing else, except now and then a 
calf's pluck that the farmer bought at Leighton market in Bedfordshire. 
Now you must know, that as eggs and butter helped to pay his rent, he 
would seldom allow an egg to be put into the pudding, but obliged the maid 
to make it of a quart of skim milk and about a pottle of wheat flower, a 
little salt, and powder of ginger; which she stirred into the consistence 
of a hasty-pudding, and commonly boiled it in two bags, which she first 
flower'd to prevent their sticking; when they were boiled enough, they cut 
the pudding in slices, and poured melted butter on it or sugar'd milk.

   This Author's Servant-Maid's Way to make a Boiled-pudding.--It is also 
my way to have a plain pudding made most days in the year; and for doing 
it, my servant-maid mixes a pint of new milk with a quart of flower, one 
egg, a little salt, and powder of ginger. This, when she has flower'd her 
pudding-bag, she puts into it, and boils it an hour and a half, or two 
hours, against my plowman and boy come from plow; and when it is taken up, 
she for sauce mixes some sugar and milk together. And I assure my reader, 
that with such a pudding and a piece of pickled pork boiled, my family 
makes a dinner to their satisfaction; for where they eat one pound of 
bacon, they eat more than fifty of pickled pork, for reasons I shall 
hereafter assign.--Or to make a boiled pudding better than this, you may 
mix grated bread and minced suet together in equal quantities; upon which 
pour scalded milk, and let all lie under a cover about twenty minutes, 
then add a spoonful of sugar, ginger, nutmeg, and a little flower, and 
boil it in a pudding-bag an hour and a half, or two hours.

   Bread-pudding.--Take the crumb of the whitest bread, and cut it in thin 
slices, to the quantity of about half a pound, or grate it; then boil a 
pint of milk, and put it boiling hot on the bread, grate half a nutmeg 
into it, and when cold add three beaten eggs and a little sugar; stir all 
well together, with a handful of fine flower to hold it together, and boil 
it half or three quarters of an hour; for sauce melt butter, or mix butter 
and sugar together.

   Apple-pudding, the Hertfordshire Way.--This sort of pudding I have 
frequently made in my family, because in some years I have great 
quantities of apples, which more than ordinary pleases my people. To make 
it, my servant-maid boils a pint of milk with a quarter of a pound of lard 
or dripping, then mixes it with as much flower as will make it into a 
dough or paste, rolls it, and when the paste is cool and stiff enough, she 
puts on it sliced or minced apples, which she incloses in the paste; then 
puts it into a cloth, ties it up, and boils it two hours and a half at 
least; our sauce is melted butter with sugar, or sugar and milk.--But to 
make a richer apple-pudding, you may scald your apples and pulp them 
through a cullender; then mix them with cream, bisket, and eggs, a little 
nutmeg and sugar, which bake in a dish, with a sheet of puff-paste.

   Potatoe-pudding.--This is a most serviceable and most wholesome root, 
because it is of a nourishing satiating nature, and admits of being eaten 
in several shapes; as with bacon, pickled pork, salt beef, mutton, salt 
fish; in pyes, in puddings, with butter, or with milk, &c. &c. And as they 
are easily propagated, no farmer, labourer, yeoman, nor gentleman, should 
be without them, as they value their pockets; for potatoes with good 
management may be kept all the year, so that where there is ground enough 
to plant them on, there need be no want of this profitable vegetable to 
save expence, and this by many ways of using them. Here indeed I shall 
only shew their service in a pudding; but more by and bye. Boil, peel, and 
mash the potatoes; this done, mix two pounds of the pulp with half a pound 
of butter, four eggs, pepper, salt, and ginger, and when they are all 
beaten together into the consistence of a pudding, it may be either boiled 
or baked; when enough, eat it with melted butter.--Or, you may mix with 
potatoe-pulp, scraped carrot, sugar, butter, nutmeg, salt and eggs, which 
put in a dish with paste round it, and bake it half an hour in a quick 
oven.--Or, if you have a mind to make a potatoe-pudding richer, mix minced 
apples with potatoe-pulp, cream, fine sugar, powder'd cinnamon and cloves, 
and being beaten all together into a pudding consistence, put it in paste 
and bake it in a dish.--Or, buttered eggs may be mixed with potatoe-pulp 
and other ingredients for a baked pudding.--Or, thin little slices of 
pickled pork or bacon may be baked with potatoe-pulp for a pudding, with 
some other ingredients as abovesaid.--Or, a potatoe-pudding may be made 
with their pulp, whole oatmeal, currants, salt and pepper, and butter, 
baked in a dish or earthen-pan; for sauce, melted butter or cream, with 
slices of lemon, &c.

   To make a Black-cherry-pudding.--Beat an egg, and put it into a pint of 
milk; then mix about a quart of flower, and a pound of black Kerroon 
cherries, with the milk and egg; stir them together till it is of a pappy 
consistence, for being put into a pudding-bag, first wetted or flower'd, 
and boil it about an hour or an hour and a half; for sauce melt butter and 
sugar, or milk and sugar: If you have not Kerroon cherries, any other 
sort, if ripe and sweet, may do.--This pudding we commonly have made at 
times during the cherry season, and proves a pleasant eating to my 
family.--Which puts me in mind of what one of our country wenches said to 
her London mistress: Madam, says she, pray let us have a black-cherry-
pudding for dinner. A black-cherry-pudding! I never heard of such a thing 
in my life! that must be physick. No, Madam, says the girl, we have it 
often in the country, and it is a very good pudding indeed.

   A Flower-pudding for a Farmer's Family to boil.--A pottle of flower 
will make two good bag-puddings, or they may be tied up in a cloth; and to 
make them they commonly take skim milk, which is near as good as new milk 
for stirring of puddings; to this pottle of flower three eggs are 
sufficient to beat and mix with the rest; when they are boiled enough, 
instead of melted butter, some farmers wives melt hogs-lard and lade it 
over the pudding for sauce, with a little salt strewed over it; or, 
instead of lard, they melt some sweet pot-fat-dripping. This sort of fat 
is preferred by some to butter, as being cheaper, heartier, and more ready 
at hand, when butter cannot be had.

   A Flower-pudding to bake.--Boil a pint or a quart of milk, and thicken 
it with flower; if you make use of a quart of milk, there should be half a 
pound of butter, four ounces of sugar, eight eggs, a little salt, and a 
grated nutmeg mixed; this put into a butter'd dish, may be baked in an 
hour's time.

 Of Apple-Pyes, and Apple-Pasties, for Harvest and other Times.

APPLE pyes and pasties are a main part of a prudent, frugal farmer's 
family-food, because the meal and apples that make them are commonly the 
produce of his land, and are ready at all times to be made use of in pyes 
or pasties, for giving his family an agreeable palatable repast; a covered 
or turn-over pasty for the field, and the round pye for the house; the 
first being of a make and size that better suits the hand and pocket than 
the round pye, and therefore are more commonly made in farmers families; 
for one, or a piece of one, being carried in the plowman's and plowboy's 
pocket, sustains their hunger till they come home to dinner, and 
oftentimes pleases them beyond some sort of more costly eatables; nor is 
it less wholesome than pleasant, for that the ingredients of the apple-pye 
are rather antidotes against, than promoters of the scurvy. In short, it 
is the apple pye and pasty, and apples made use of in some other shapes 
(particularly the famous Parsnip apple) that I take to be some of the 
cheapest and most agreeable food a farmer's family can make use of; but 
for displaying their value in a more elegant manner, I hope the following 
poem will not be unacceptable to my reader.

Of Apple-Pyes: A poem, by Mr. Welsted.

OF all the delicates which Britons try,
To please the palate, or delight the eye;
Of all the several kinds of sumptuous fare,
There's none that can with apple-pye compare,
For costly flavour, or substantial paste,
For outward beauty, or for inward taste.
When first this infant dish in fashion came,
Th' ingredients were but coarse, and rude the frame;
As yet, unpolish'd in the modern arts,
Our fathers eat brown bread instead of tarts:
Pyes were but indigested lumps of dough,
'Till time and just expence improv'd them so.
King Coll (as ancient annals tell)
Renown'd for fiddling and for eating well,
Pippins in homely cakes with honey stew'd,
Just as he bak'd (the proverb says) he brew'd.
Their greater art succeeding princes shew'd,
And model'd paste into a nearer mode;
Invention now grew lively, palate nice,
And sugar pointed out the way to spice.
But here for ages unimprov'd we stood,
And apple-pyes were still but homely food;
When god-like Edgar, of the Saxon line,
Polite of taste, and studious to refine,
In the dessert perfuming quinces cast,
And perfected with cream the rich repast:
Hence we proceed the outward parts to trim,
with crinkumcranks adorn the polish'd rim,
And each fresh pye the pleas'd spectator greets
With virgin fancies and with new conceits.
Dear Nelly, learn with care the pastry art,
And mind the easy precepts I impart;
Draw out your dough elaborately thin,
And cease not to fatigue your rolling-pin:
Of eggs and butter, see you mix enough;
For then the paste will swell into a puff,
Which will in crumbling sound your praise report,
And eat, as housewives speak, exceeding short:
Rang'd in thick order let your quincies lie;
They give a charming relish to the pye:
If you are wise, you'll not brown sugar slight,
The browner (if I form my judgment right)
A tincture of a bright vermil' will shed
And stain the pippin, like the quince, with red.
When this is done, there will be wanting still
The just reserve of cloves, and candy'd peel;
Nor can I blame you, if a drop you take
Of orange water, for perfuming sake;
But here the nicety of art is such,
There must not be too little, nor too much;
If with discretion you these costs employ,
They quicken appetite, if not they cloy.
Next in your mind this maxim firmly root,
Never o'er-charge your pye with costly fruit:
Oft let your bodkin thro' the lid be sent,
To give the kind imprison'd treasure vent;
Lest the fermenting liquors, mounting high
Within their brittle bounds, disdain to lie;
Insensibly by constant fretting waste,
And over-run the tenement of paste.
To chuse your baker, think and think again,
You'll scarce one honest baker find in ten:
Adust and bruis'd, I've often seen a pye
In rich disguise and costly ruin lie;
While the rent crust beheld its form o'erthrown,
Th' exhausted apples griev'd their moisture flown,
And syrup from their sides run trickling down.
O be not, be not tempted, lovely Nell,
While the hot piping odours strongly swell,
While the delicious fume creates a gust,
To lick th' o'erflowing juice, or bite the crust:
You'll rather stay (if my advice may rule)
Until the hot is temper'd by the cool;
Oh! first infuse the luscious store of cream,
And change the purple to a silver stream;
That smooth balsamick viand first produce,
To give a softness to the tarter juice.

   A Character of the famous Parsnip Apple, and its Uses.--From whence 
this apple is so called, I cannot tell; but this I know, that it is the 
very best of apples for pyes, pasties, and puddings in harvest time, and 
for eating (baked or raw) single as they are; they are always the first 
apples that are ripe with us, for they commonly begin to drop from the 
tree about the middle of August, some of them weighing four ounces apiece; 
and I think I can affirm it for truth, that I have had above twenty 
bushels in one season off one tree only; part of which I made use of for 
present spending, part for cyder, and the rest I hoarded, for these will 
keep till near Christmas. These apples are also of the greater value, for 
their agreeable quality of eating well in an apple pye or pasty without 
sugar; for when they are ripe, pared, and cored, my servant-maid bakes 
considerable numbers of two-corner'd pasties without any sugar, because 
they need no other sweetening than what a little water with their own 
juice affords; and yet in this manner of making them, our men commonly 
prefer eating such pasties alone, before bread and cheese: Hence it is 
that we say the Parsnip apple saves cheese. And for supper (in harvest 
time especially) these apples make almost a constant part of it, by being 
coddled or baked, till they are so tender, as to be easily mixed in messes 
of bread and milk. In short, the Parsnip apple is endowed with such 
excellent qualities, that they may truly be accounted a pleasant repast, 
from the lord's to the peasant's table, in the shape of pyes, pasties, 
apple-puddings, apple-dumplings, or baked, or coddled singly. This apple 
tree is not to be had in any of the nurseries near London, as I have been 
informed, when I was amongst them, by some of their own nursery men; for 
it is only in growth at Gaddesden, and at some miles round it. But as I 
keep only three sorts of nurseries always by me, one for the black large 
Kerroon cherry-trees, one for the Parsnip apple-trees, and one for the 
Bell-orange pear-trees, I am ready to furnish any gentleman with any of 
these sorts for one shilling each tree at my house: And I further add, 
that as these apples, either eaten raw, or better under some preparations, 
serve in some degree for meat and drink, no gentleman, farmer, yeoman, or 
labourer, ought to be without one or more of these trees, where they have 
ground convenient for planting them.--Next I shall likewise give an 
account of the excellent quality of the Bell-orange pear, as follows, viz.

   The Character of the famous Bell-orange Pear.--The tree of this pear I 
am owner of, and is so large a one, that it has borne above twenty bushels 
at once of pretty sizeable pears, which are always ripe in harvest; it is 
of an orange colour, grows in the shape of a bell, therefore is called the 
Bell-orange pear: And as it is thus early ripe, it gives our harvest-men a 
pleasure to eat them raw for they have a delicate taste, but are most of 
all agreeable in pyes or pasties, because these pears in these shapes 
taste somewhat like sweetmeats; and to say no more than they deserve, a 
pye may be made of them fit for the table of a potentate. I have made 
perry of these pears directly from the tree, and found it good liquor, if 
drank in a little time, for it will not keep a great while; and it has 
such a delicate smell, that if a person hold his nose over the bunghole, 
the scent is just like that of an orange. My maid bakes them loose in an 
earthen glazed pot, for being eaten with milk or with milk and bread. I 
have been in several of the nurseries about London, and inquired for the 
like fruit, but they own they have it not; nor do I know of any other tree 
of this sort in all our country, nor in all my several years travels: And 
the way I came by this was, by purchasing the farm I now live in, and hold 
in my own hands, which has enabled me to raise a nursery of these very 
sort of pear-trees, so that I am ready to furnish any gentleman at the 
price of one shilling each, and send them to any part of England, Wales, 
Scotland, Ireland, or to any of our plantations abroad. And I further say, 
and aver it from the truth of experience, that the juice of the black 
Kerroon cherry (which may be conserved till this pear or Parsnip-apple is 
ripe) mixed with that of the Parsnip-apple, or with the juice of this 
Orange-pear; will, with a little assistance, make a tawny colour'd wine, 
little inferior in my opinion to some foreign wine.

   The Character of the famous black Kerroon Cherry.--This famous 
serviceable cherry is accounted the best of the black sort in England, for 
its firmness, delicious juice, and smallness of kernel: I believe I have 
above fifty of these sort of improved cherry-trees growing in my plow and 
meadow felds, that seldom miss of producing great quantities of cherries, 
that we make use of in puddings and in two-corner pasties; but we reckon 
they eat better in the pasty than in a pye, because in cutting one of 
these through its middle, the liquor may be kept in to the last of its 
eating: Likewise, when this excellent black Kerroon cherry is eaten in a 
little time after gathering, the eater enjoys a most wholesome pleasant 
sort, that will bear a long carriage, and therefore are good market 
cherries.

   The Farmer's Wife's plain Way of making or raising Paste for Apple or 
Meat Pyes, Custards, or Pasties.--Her allowance is half or a whole pound 
of lard, or dripping-fat, or pork-fat, or any meat-fat is it is tried up, 
to half a peck of flower; which she boils in water, and as soon as it 
boils, she mixes it with the flower, and works it into as stiff a paste as 
possible; and when it is well kneaded, she wraps it up in a linen cloth, 
to keep warm for using it in a requisite heat; for such pye-crust should 
be raised while the paste is warm, because it cools in making, and 
stiffens the better: With this, apple-pyes, meat-pyes, custards, and 
several other pasties are made both cheap and palatable, for farmers 
uses.--Or, if you will make the crust somewhat better, melt three pounds 
of fresh butter in boiling water, as soon as it boils take it off the 
fire, and mix all with a peck of flower, and work it into a paste, for 
apple-pye, meat-pye, or any other that requires a standing crust.--Or take 
it this way, melt two pounds of butter in a saucepan with water, when it 
is melted skim off the butter, and with some of the water work it in the 
flower to a stiff paste; the flower should be half a peck; if not used 
quickly, wrap it in a cloth, and let it lay before the fire.

   A Puff-paste.--Take one pound of fresh butter, and one pound of flower; 
mix two ounces of the butter and two eggs with the flower, and make it 
into paste with cold water; then work the other part of the pound of 
butter into a stiff paste, and with a rolling-pin roll it thin; when so 
done, put bits of butter here and there in most parts of it, roll it 
again, then double it up, and make each end meet, and roll it again, till 
all the butter is thoroughly well incorporated. But to make this receit 
the plainer to my reader, observe what Rabisha says.--Take a pottle of 
flower and the whites of six eggs, make it into a paste with cold water, 
let it not be very stiff; when it is well wrought, roll it forth 
foursquare like a sheet of paper as thick as your finger; then take three 
pounds of butter, and beat it well with a rolling-pin, then lay it on in 
slices all over your paste about as thick as your finger, and strew a 
little flower over it; then roll up your sheet of paste like a collar with 
the butter within, squeeze and roll it at both ends broad and long-ways; 
then clap up the ends, and make them meet in the middle one over another, 
and fasten it down again with your rolling-pin, rolling it forth every way 
as thin as at first; then flower your board well underneath, and spread it 
over with butter, roll it up, and work it as before; thus do three or four 
times, till your three pounds of butter is made use of. In the Summer make 
this paste in the morning with the stiffest butter you can get, and lay it 
in a cold place till you make use of it. In Winter you must beat your 
butter well, otherwise it will be harder than your paste, and break holes 
through it.--Or, mix two pounds of flower with half a pound of butter, and 
the whites of three or four eggs well beaten with cold water, and work 
into a paste; then roll it thin, and by degrees roll in one pound of 
butter more; roll it again and again, adding flower each time for five or 
six times, till this quantity or more butter is well worked into the 
paste, for making a puff-paste for nice small pyes or tarts.-- Or, to make 
a good crust, you may use cold milk instead of cold water, with an 
addition of as much brandy as an egg-shell will hold, and fine sugar, with 
two pounds of butter, and three pounds of flower for pyes, tarts, &c. Thus 
having given my reader an account of making poor pastes and rich pastes, I 
proceed now to the making of apple-pyes, pasties, &c.

   How a Farmer disgraced himself by having Apple-pasties made at a dear 
Rate, and how he might have had them made cheaper and better.--This farmer 
lives about three miles from Gaddesden, in a farm of about two hundred 
pounds a year rent; and being in low circumstances, endeavoured to save 
the penny in several managements of his kitchen; amongst the rest, he had 
his apple-pasties made with wheat-meal in the following manner: His apples 
he caused to be chop'd small with their cores and stalks (as they were 
gathered from the tree) in a tray or wooden bowl unpared; this being done, 
he had his paste made with water, and chopt suet, or fat, in the usual 
way, which he bought at a dear rate, having no hogslard or other fat of 
his own; and in this paste he wrapt up his chopt apples in form of 
pasties, and baked them to his disgrace, for he could hardly get a good 
servant to live with him, and those that did, grumbled much, and worked 
the worser for it. Now had this farmer caused his crust to be made with a 
mixture of half wheat and half barley meal, and not have pared his apples, 
but quartered them, and threw away the stalks and cores, and made use of 
skim milk and yeast, instead of water and fat, as I have before observed, 
he had pleased his servants better, and come cheaper and more creditably 
off; for the skim milk and yeast would have made the crust puffy and 
white, and eat well without sugar, if the apples were of the right sort, 
and in right order.

   How another Farmer has his Apple Pyes and Pasties made something better 
than the last Farmer.--A farmer near me has his apple-pasties made, by 
first paring the apples and taking away the stalks and tops of them, but 
chops the apples with all their cores very small, for by being so small 
chopt, they fill the apple-crust or coffin in every part of it, better 
than if they were quartered, and the cores thereby less perceived in 
eating.

   How a third Farmer has his Apple Pyes or Pasties made.--This farmer has 
his apples quartered, as thinking the fewer of them goes to fill a pye or 
pasty, and because the apples will bake redder than when chopt small.

   This Author's Way of having his Apple Pyes or Pasties made.--Once every 
week or ten days, from August to all the time that my hoarded apples last, 
my servant-maid bakes apple pyes or pastries with her bread, but does not 
pare her apples, only cores them, takes away their stalks, and cuts them 
in small bits with a knife; if the apples are not full ripe at using, or 
if they are of the sharp-tasted kind, as the Holland pippin, or the green 
French pippin, and such like, she then puts a little sugar amongst them; 
but when she makes use of the Parsnip apple, or the Gold-Rennet, or when 
she mixes the sweet apples with a few sharp apples, she puts no sugar 
amongst them.--By what has been said, may appear the great conveniency of 
having the Parsnip apple-tree, and the Gold-Rennet-tree (which are 
constant bearers) together with the sweet-apple-tree growing on a farm; 
for by having these apple-trees at command, much sugar may be saved, and 
yet good apple pyes and pasties may be made of them: It is my good fortune 
to have many apple-trees of various kinds growing in rows in my plowed 
felds and meadows, besides those in my orchard, and wood of my own 
planting, which in some plentiful years return me large quantities of 
apples for making cyder, and for kitchen uses. And here I am also to 
observe, that I have several trees of the sweet apple the best sort of 
which are of a pretty large size, and will keep to Lady-day or longer; 
which I find of great service in making apple pyes and pasties alone for 
servants, without any other sort of apples or sweets. But if you are for 
finer sorts, scald apples till tender; when you have so done, skin them, 
and beat them to a pulp; then beat some eggs, and mix the whole with 
grated bread, sugar, ginger and nutmeg, and some melted butter; butter 
your dish, and bake it in a moderate heated oven.--Or, pare pippins, 
quarter them, and near cover them with water; put two pounds of sugar to 
about a pottle measure of pippins, and boil these all together on a gentle 
fire close covered, with some beaten dill-seed, cinnamon, orange-peel, and 
rose-water; when cold, make it into pasties or tarts with a rich paste.

Of Victualling Harvest-men in Hertfordshire.

IN this county we hire harvest-men long before harvest, by way of 
security, that we may not be at a loss for them when we most want them; 
and give each man thirty or six and thirty shillings for his month's 
service, besides victualling and lodging them in the house all that time, 
for then they are ready early and late to do our work. Now in victualling 
these men there are variety of ways practised by country housewives; and 
she that can do it cheapest, and most satisfactory, is the best housewife. 
To this purpose, I, and many other farmers, single out some of our older 
ewes, that are what we call broken-mouth'd sheep (that is to say, such who 
by age have lost most of their teeth before) and timely put them into good 
grass, for their coming out fat time enough to kill in harvest. Or instead 
of ewes, others kill a fat barrow-hog of twenty or thirty stone weight 
(one or more) the offald of which we eat fresh, and the rest we salt down, 
as is my way every harvest. Others that occupy very large farms, and 
employ eight, twelve, or more harvest-men, have an old cow, or a small 
Welch runt fatted against this time. And if a farmer cannot dispense with 
the whole himself, he lets a neighbour or two have the rest; and when his 
neighbours kill the like, they furnish the same to him. In any of these 
cases we have the less meat to buy of the butcher, however, some beef we 
commonly take of him every week during the harvest, and suet with each lot 
or parcel, for making harvest-puddings; which is so necessary a part of 
our victuals, that the men think they cannot make a good dinner without 
either a plain or plumb one; and it is this last sort that most of our 
farmers have during wheat harvest, and the former sort afterwards. These 
with several other preparations of food, with strong beer and ale, are 
what we victual our month or harvest men with. And if we cannot get our 
harvest in by that time, by reason of rainy weather, we keep them longer, 
some even six weeks or two months, till our ricks and cocks of corn are 
all compleated and thatched. In short, it is our notion in Hertfordshire, 
that that gentleman, yeoman, or farmer, manages best, who victuals his 
harvest-men with beef, bacon, or pickled pork, beans, pease, puddings, 
pyes, pasties, cheese, milk, with other culinary preparations, and with 
well brew'd strong and small beer and ale; for such a one ranks the best 
chance of hiring the best hands, that will go on briskly with their work, 
and do a good deal of it in a day. Not that I write this as a general 
rule, for I know a certain farmer, that lives within three miles of me, 
who although he employs six month-men, besides his own servants, has 
bought but six stone of beef in a harvest; because he supplied this meat 
with the flesh of fatted old sheep and swine, &c. I also am sensible, that 
much further north, bacon, pork, and pudding are almost the whole feed of 
their harvest-men, as believing a bellyful is sufficient, and that the 
less variety of meats causes the men to eat the less, which may perhaps in 
these parts answer the end of preventing their buying beef, &c. But as 
such œconomy will not be agreeable to southern men, our housewife's art 
lies in furnishing variety of eatables, and yet to do it in the most 
frugal manner. And that it may be so done not only in harvest-time, but 
also at all other times throughout the year, is the main design of my 
writing this treatise of the Country Housewife.

   To preserve Beef or Mutton Suet sound and sweet all the Harvest Season 
and longer.--This I take to be a very material article and piece of good 
housewifery, as beef or mutton suet is extraordinarily necessary to be 
kept in readiness, throughout the harvest time, for mixing it, to make 
plumb and plain puddings, &c. and it is on this account that we southern 
farmers have always a parcel of beef suet weighed with every lot or parcel 
of beef we buy of the butcher, who by custom should allow a pound to every 
stone of eight pound. But for the best and most suet, some buy the 
surloin, that is weighed with the leg; or if we will pay a penny a pound 
extraordinary, we may have all the suet of a surloin alone. Now as such a 
quantity of suet cannot be made use of presently, it highly concerns a 
right country housewife to preserve it sound in the sweetest manner; which 
that she may effectually do, let her chop the suet as small as she can, 
and then sprinkle it with pepper and salt at discretion: This done, it 
must be potted down as close and as hard as she can well do it, and it 
will keep good not only the whole harvest, but near a year together. 
Whereas if such chopt suet was not well seasoned with pepper and salt, and 
laid loose or hollowish, it would surely stink in a little time. Observe 
also, that suet so potted should have a close covering over it, and be 
kept in some dry part of a house, for if it stands in too moist a place it 
will be apt to mould and hoar.

   The good Housewifery of a Farmer's Wife to furnish herself with a due 
Quantity of Suet against Harvest-Time.--In view of wanting suet in harvest-
time, this woman took care before-hand to provide for it; therefore as 
often as she bought beef or a loin of mutton, she chopt the fat and potted 
it down, with pepper and salt as aforesaid; knowing that in harvest-time, 
enough of good suet is difficult to be had, and because beef, mutton, and 
suet, sell cheaper before than in harvest; which the more encouraged her 
in time to provide this most necessary ingredient, which she kept thus 
managed in an earthen glazed pot, with only a wooden loose cover over it, 
placed in a dry part of the house.

   The best Way of salting Beef, to preserve it sweet and sound in 
Harvest, and at all other Times of the Year.--Beef in harvest-time is 
mostly eaten fresh, as best agreeing with the farmers and workmens 
interest; for by boiling a piece fresh with bacon or pickled pork, the one 
pleasantly relishes the other. And if the beef or mutton is lean, the fat 
bacon or pork helps it the better out; this is much observed by our 
country housewives, because it frequently falls to the farmer's lot, to 
have lean pieces amongst the meat he buys. And when there is so much 
bought in at once as requires salting, some will directly salt it down in 
a pot or tub. Others, who manage much better, will first sprinkle some 
salt over it, to extract and draw out the bloody juice (that it may take 
salt the freer, keep sweeter, safer, and longer, in the hot season of the 
year) and when it has lain a few hours under such a sprinkling of salt, 
will then salt it down for good. Or, take it this way, which is still a 
more sure way of proceeding: After the beef has been sprinkled with salt, 
and lain to drain out its bloody juice six or seven hours, wipe every 
piece dry, and rub them all over well with dry hot salt. This done, pack 
them close in a pot or tub one upon another.

   The Benefits of getting Roots, Herbs and other culinary Vegetables 
against Harvest-Time.--In our Chiltern country of Hertfordshire, several 
of our prudent housewives foresee the great conveniency of having broad 
beans, pease, carrots, turnips, potatoes, cabbages, onions, parsley, and 
other kitchen ware, ready for use against a want of them in harvest-time; 
for that some of these not only prove a sauce, but also help meat to go 
the further. And here I think it necessary to inform our country 
housewife, that she ought to have a bed of grass-onions ready all the 
summer time for her pot uses, even 'till Allholland-Tide. Now what I mean 
by grass-onions, are Welch onions; whose green large flaggy stalks will 
endure cutting many times in a year, and will last ten or twenty or more 
years, provided the bed is dressed once in three years with soot, ashes, 
or malt-dust, and not suffer'd to run to seed. This I yearly prove to my 
great conveniency, as being thus furnish'd with early and late onion-
stalks, when roots and stalks of others are not easily had; and for having 
these onions, its seed may be had at any of the London seed-shops, by 
asking for a pennyworth or two of Welch onion seed: But I have further to 
inform my reader, that this is the seed which produces the forward sort of 
young onions, which are drawn by May-Day to be eat with sallads; therefore 
this Welch onion seed may be sown for an early drawing of them, as well as 
for a durable crop to cut in flags. And as for broad beans, they serve, in 
some measure, as a second sort of meat as well as sauce, and are so 
necessary to a family in harvest-time, that that gentleman, yeoman, or 
farmer, who does not provide a sufficient crop of them against such an 
occasion, is very much wanting to his own interest; for it is this most 
cheap and serviceable vegetable which allays thirst, and so relishes fat 
bacon, or salt pork, that the men often eat it with a good stomach, to the 
saving of much expence in the consumption of beef and other meat; it is 
easy of carriage to the field, will keep hot some time, and prove a very 
wholesome nourishing eatable. Pease also are valuable, as a change of 
satiating diet, and are cooling and pleasant to the taste. In the harvest 
of 1748, as well as in former harvests, I fed my harvest men almost every 
other day with bacon and beans, or pickled pork and beans. Carrots, 
turnips, cabbage, and potatoes, are also good kitchen provision to be 
eaten with salt or fresh meat. Onions, sallary, leeks, parsley, thyme, and 
savory, are also necessary in harvest-time, because with these our country 
housewife cooks up her lean orts of beef, her pieces of bacon or pork, her 
offald cold turnips, carrots, cabbage, or potatoes. And if the meat is a 
little tainted, yet by her skillful management in the use of some of these 
roots and herbs, she may recover such meat, by causing it to be hashed or 
minced according to the art of good housewifery.