British Westerners Association

NAPLES BISCUITS

3/4 lb. flour
1 lb. sugar
6 eggs, beaten
1 tsp. rose water

Put three-quarters of a pound of fine flour to a pound of fine sifted sugar; sift both together three times, then add six eggs beaten well, and a spoonful of rose-water; when the oven is nearly hot, bake them, but not too wet.

From The Cook's Own Book: Being a Complete Culinary Encyclopedia by "a Boston Housekeeper" (Mrs. N. K. M. Lee) Boston 1832.

Comment: Rose-water was a common ingredient in fancy cooking of the 19th century, made by soaking large amounts of rose petals in a small amount of water over a period of days or even weeks. It is most commonly found today in markets catering to fans of Middle Eastern cuisine. If completely unobtainable a possible substitute would be a quarter-teaspoon or so of vanilla or almond extract.

BACON SPARE-RIB

1 spare-rib of pork
Flour
Butter
Sage leaves, powdered
Pepper

A bacon spare-rib usually weighs about eight or nine pounds, and will take from two to three hours to roast it thoroughly; not exactly according to its weight, but the thickness of the meat upon it, which varies very much. Lay the thick end nearest to the fire.
A proper bald spare-rib of eight pounds weight (so called because almost all the meat is pared off), with a steady fire, will be done in an hour and a quarter. There is so little meat on a bald spare-rib, that if you have a large, fierce fire, it will be burned before it is warm through. Joint it nicely, and crack the ribs across as you do ribs of lamb.

When you put it down to roast, dust on some flour, and baste it with a little butter; dry a dozen sage leaves, and rub them through a hair-sieve, and put them into the top of a pepper-box; and about a quarter of an hour before the meat is done, baste it with butter; dust the pulverized sage over it.

--Make it a general rule never to pour gravy over any thing that is roasted; by so doing, the dredging, &c., is washed off, and it eats insipid.

1 chicken, cut up
1/2 lb. salt pork
Salt
Pepper
Flour
1 cup milk, or half milk, half cream
1 tbs. flour
1 tbs. butter
Parsley, chopped

Cut up half a pound of fat salt pork in a frying-pan, and fry until the grease is extracted, but not until it browns. Wash and cut up a young chicken (broiling size), soak in salt and water for half an hour; wipe dry, season with pepper and dredge with flour; then fry in the hot fat until each piece is a rich brown on both sides. Take up, drain, and set aside in a hot covered dish.

Pour into the gravy left in the frying-pan a cup of milk--half cream is better; thicken with a spoonful of flour and a table-spoonful of butter; add some chopped parsley, boil up, and pour over the hot chicken. This is a standard dish in the Old Dominion, and tastes nowhere else as it does when eaten on Virginia soil. The cream-gravy is often omitted, and the chicken served up dry, with bunches of fried parsley dropped upon it.

TIPSY BREAD

1 loaf bread, crust cut off, cut in thin slices
Raspberry, strawberry or other jam
Sherry
Sugar
Almonds
Fresh custard (not yet set)

Pare off the crust, and cut into thin round slices of four or five inches, the crumb of a twopenny or threepenny roll; spread over each bit raspberry or strawberry jam, and place the slices one over the other pretty high in a glass dish, and pour over them as much sherry, sweetened with sugar, and the bread will soak in; stick round the sides, and over the top, blanched sweet almonds, cut like straws, and pour a custard round it. It may be made the day before, or two or three hours before dinner, and with the crumb of loaf bread.