A few more recipes from the Sussex County Magazine 1936 suitable for winter

HERE are two good Sussex recipes for cooking rabbits. There seems to be an enormous number of them about this year, and it is better that they should be in the hot pot than in the garden.

A Stew of Rabbits
Disjoint your rabbits, which should be young; dredge with flour and fry in butter to a light brown. Add half a pint of good stock, half a pint of ale or stout, half a cup of mushroom ketchup. Grate in a little nutmeg and lemon peel, add an onion stuck with cloves and stew for an hour.

Juggled (sic) Rabbit
Make a good stuffing with plenty of herbs and stuff your rabbit and truss it. Put it into a baking dish with some milk and cook slowly for three hours, basting very often. Add more milk if it all becomes absorbed.

Mushroom Catsup (Ketchup)
Take fresh gathered full grown mushrooms; put a layer of these at the bottom of a deep fireproof pot, sprinkle them with salt, then another layer of mushrooms and then more salt and so on, until your pot is full. Let it remain two or three hours, then pound the mushrooms in a mortar or crush them with your hands. Let them remain for a couple of days, mashing and stirring them well each day. Then put them into a stone jar and to each quart add an ounce and a half of whole pepper, and half an ounce of allspice; cover the jar closely and set it in a stew pan of boiling water and keep it boiling for two hours at least. Strain through a hair sieve and boil the liquid gently for another half-hour; then bottle and cork very securely.-M. K. SAMUELSON (English Folk Cookery Association, Sussex Branch).

Plum Heavies (another recipe)
One lb. flour, 4lb. butter, 2 ozs. lard, 1lb. sugar, 1lb. currants.
Mix and make into a soft dough with cold milk; roll out about half an inch thick and cut into rounds with a small pastry cutter. -(Miss) G. EAMES (Liss).

Black-eyed Susan
Flour, baking-powder, currants, skim milk.
Boil the mixture in a cloth and when cooked cut into three slices lengthwise and spread butter and sugar on the layers - put together and allow the pudding to remain in the oven for a few minutes before serving in order to let the butter and sugar melt. Before bring­ing the pudding to the table cut into suitable portions crosswise.-(Miss) G. EAMES (Liss).

Sussex Beef-Pudden
Make a good suet crust, using 8 oz. beef suet, chopped fine, to 16 oz. plain flour. Cut up 11/4 lb. steak into pieces about 2 in. by 1 in., and 1/4 lb. kidney into sugar lump dice. Mix with the meat, black pepper and salt to taste; one level tablespoon of flour, and moisten with water. Divide the crust into two pieces - two-thirds in one piece, and one third in the other. Roll the larger piece out 1 in. thick, and place the meat on it. Roll the smaller piece out to the same thickness, moisten the edges of both, placing the smaller crust on the top, and pinch the edges tightly together. Have ready a scalded and floured pudding cloth, into the centre of which place the "pudden." Gather the four corners of the cloth up together (as you would tie up a corn sack) and tie up very securely. Steam (not boil) for five hours.

This "pudden" (which has been made in my family for at least three generations) will not let the gravy out. One or two mushrooms may be added to taste.
Sparrow pudding may be made in exactly the same way, substituting fat pickled pork for the kidney. E.J.W. (Tunbridge Wells).

In these days when so many people are discussing diets it is rather interesting to find in my old Sussex cookery book a recipe for Diet Bread. It does not mention what the diet is meant to be good for, but the bread is very nice.

Diet Bread
Half pound of flour dried, half pound of sifted sugar, six eggs leaving out two whites, one ounce of caraway seeds. Mix all these and beat for half an hour, then put mixture into a shallow pan and bake it in an oven not too hot. The eggs and sugar to be beaten together first till they are white and very light.

Following this in the book is a very good pudding and a useful one this season when we have so many apples.

Apple, or Fitzherbert Pudding
Three-quarter pound of the pulp of sharp apples boiled, three ounces of butter clarified, three ounces of sugar, four eggs well beaten, a little nutmeg, lemon peel, orange flour water and grated bread. Mix well together and lay a thin puff paste in the bottom of your dish. M. K. SAMUELSON (English Folk Cookery Association.)

To Make a Pippen Pye
A correspondent has sent two recipes for Pippin Pies, and one for Mince Pie as these delicacies were made in Sussex in the reign of Queen Anne. They are taken from a document entitled "Phil Shoebridge's Book," dated 1708, and are printed here as they appear in the original..

Take the fairest & best Pippens, pare them & make a hole in the Top of them, & then prick in each hole a Clove or two, then put them into a Pie-dish, then break in whole sticks of Cinamon, & slices of Orange pills [peels], & on the top of every Pippen put a little piece of sweet Butter; then close up the Pye, & bake it as you do Pies of the like nature; when it is baked anoint the lid over with store of sweet butter, & then strew Sugar upon it a good thickness, & set it into the oven again for a little Space, as while the Meat is dishing up, & then serve it.

To Make Pippen Pies
Take two pound of Pippens, one pound of Currants, three quarters of beef Suet, one pound of Sugar, two pennyworth of Cina­mon; shred your Pippens very small with your suet & so make little Pies of them. They must be always eat warm.

Dripping Pudding
This is a great addition to any hot joint or poultry. It used to be made with plain flour; now we prefer self-raising. Take 1 lb. self-raising flour with a pinch of salt, mix with cold water into rather a stiff paste, roll into a well-floured cloth, tie round with string and plunge into boiling water. Cook for 35 minutes, take out before water stops boiling and remove cloth at once. Cut it into slices and put them in the dripping pan after the meat has been removed, first pouring off a little of the thin dripping (the meat should be well basted and sprinkled frequently with flour to improve the colour). When the pudding is nice and brown on both sides serve in a separate dish. M. E. WOOD (Steyning).