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Curds and cream.

Turn one quart of milk as for the slip—­let it stand until just before it is to be served:  then take it up with a skimming dish, and lay it on a sieve—­when the whey has drained off, put the curds in a dish, and surround them with cream—­use sugar and nutmeg.  These are Arcadian dishes; very delicious, cheap, and easily prepared.

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Blanc mange.

Break one ounce of isinglass into very small pieces; wash it well, and pour on a pint of boiling water; next morning, add a quart of milk, boil it till the isinglass is dissolved, strain it, put in two ounces sweet almonds, blanched and pounded; sweeten it, and put it in the mould—­when stiff, turn them into a deep dish, and put raspberry cream around them.  For a change, stick thin slips of blanched almonds all over the blanc mange, and dress round with syllabub, nicely frothed.  Some moulds require colouring—­for an ear of corn, mix the yelk of an egg with a little of the blanc mange; fill the grains of the corn with it—­and when quite set, pour in the white, but take care it is not warm enough to melt the yellow:  for a bunch of asparagus, colour a little with spinach juice, to fill the green tops of the heads.  Fruit must be made the natural colour of what it represents.  Cochineal and alkanet root pounded and dissolved in brandy, make good colouring; but blanc mange should never be served, without raspberry cream or syllabub to eat with it.

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To make A hen’s nest.

Get five small eggs, make a hole at one end, and empty the shells—­fill them with blanc mange:  when stiff and cold, take off the shells, pare the yellow rind very thin from six lemons, boil them in water till tender, then cut them in thin strips to resemble straw, and preserve them with sugar; fill a small deep dish half full of nice jelly—­when it is set, put the straw on in form of a nest, and lay the eggs in it.  It is a beautiful dish for a dessert or supper.

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Little Dishes for a Second Course, or Supper.

Pheasants A-la-daub.

Roast two pheasants in the nicest manner—­get a deep dish, the size and form of the one you intend to serve the pheasants in—­it must be as deep as a tureen; put in savoury jelly about an inch and a half at the bottom; when that is set, and the pheasants cold, lay them on the jelly with their breasts down; fill the dish with jelly up to their backs; take care it is not warm enough to melt the other, and that the birds are not displaced—­just before it is to be served, set it a moment in hot water to loosen it; put the dish on the top, and turn it out carefully.

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Partridges A-la-daub.