To make pretty almond puddings.
TAKE a pound and a half of blanched almonds, beat them fine with a little rose-water, a pound of grated bread, a pound and a quarter of fine sugar, a quarter of an ounce of cinnamon, and a large nutmeg beat fine, half a pound of melted butter, mixed with the yolks of eggs, and four whites beat fine, a pint of sack, a pint and a half of cream, some rose or orange-flower water; boil the cream and tie a little bag of saffron, and dip in the cream to colour it. First beat your eggs very well, and mix with your batter; beat it up, then the spice, then the almonds, then the rose-water and wine by degrees, beating it all the time, then the sugar, and then the cream by degrees, keeping it stirring, and a quarter of a pound of vermicelli. Stir all together, have some hog's guts nice and clean, fill them only half full, and as you put in the ingredients here and there, put in a bit of citron; tie both ends of the gut tight, and boil them about a quarter of an hour. You may add currants for change.
To make fried toasts.
TAKE a penny loaf, cut it in slices a quarter of an inch thick round ways, toast them, and then take a pint of cream and three eggs, half a pint of sack, some nutmeg, and sweetened to your taste. Steep the toasts in it for three or four hours, then have ready some butter hot in a pan, and put in the toasts and fry them brown. lay them in a dish, melt a little butter, and then mix what is left; if none, put in some wine and sugar, and pour over them. They make a pretty plate or side dish for supper.
To stew a brace of carp.
SCRAPE them very clean, then gut them, wash them and the roes in a pint of good stale beer, to preserve all the blood, and boil the carp with a little salt in the water.
In the mean time strain the beer, and put it into a saucepan, with a pint of red wine, two or three blades of mace, some whole pepper, black and white, an onion stuck with cloves, half a nutmeg bruised, a bundle of sweet-herbs, a piece of lemon-peel as big as a sixpence, an anchovy, a little piece of horse-radish. Let these boil together softly for a quarter of an hour, covered close; then strain it, and add to it half the hard roe beat to pieces, two or three spoonfuls of catchup, a quarter of a pound of fresh butter. and a spoonful of mushroom pickle, let it boil, and keep stirring it till the sauce is thick and enough.