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 Sex Clubs
Recreational Sex, Fantasies
and Cultures of Desire
Chris Haywood
Sex Clubs
 Chris Haywood

Sex Clubs
Recreational Sex, Fantasies and Cultures of Desire
Chris Haywood
Media, Culture and Heritage
Newcastle University
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK

ISBN 978-3-031-14049-5    ISBN 978-3-031-14050-1 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14050-1

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2022
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
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electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
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Switzerland AG.
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“The first rule of sex club is…”
For Vicky and Sophia Lelah Sandra Haywood.
 Acknowledgements

As always, thank you to Mairtin Mac an Ghaill, who in the space of a few
words, can make you see differently. Always an inspiration—his criticality
continues to prompt me to reflect and remind me of how much I don’t
know. A big thank you to Jonathan Allan, Andrea Waling and Frank
Karioris for their support and advice. Also, for their patience as I tried to
navigate being joint editor of the Journal of Bodies, Sexualities and
Masculinities and this book. Thank you to Serena Petrella and Ryan Scoats
for your thoughtful and honest feedback. Thank you to my Swedish
friends Thomas Johansson and Jesper Andreasson for also being patient!
As always, Michael Kehler has been there to tell me when he was never
going to see me. Thank you to Professor Tewkesbury, who took time out
to spend an afternoon with me in Kentucky—hearing your commitment
and your pursuit of knowledge was a motivation! Gareth Longstaff has
been brilliant, sharing his thoughts and excellent insights. Thank you to
Nicola Gibson, Karen Robb, Rachel Clarke and my PhD students past and
present for your patience and understanding. A special thank you to the
School of Arts and Cultures research fund, and the Humanities and Social
Sciences bid preparation fund at Newcastle University that helped to sup-
port this work.
To Jade, Dave and Poppy, who have been understanding to the nth
degree—I love you so much. To Nicky and Ian for their help and support
and their special wine drinking and singing skills. A special thanks to Lelah
and Tony for making this book possible. Also, thanks to the lads at
Northumberland Recycling for keeping me grounded on sexual matters.
And to Elycia, always thought about and loved. During the writing of this

ix
x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

book, I lost my mum. I won’t sugarcoat it because sometimes she was a

cantankerous, stubborn Daily Mail reading Boris lover. But I could tell her
anything, and no matter what I did or whatever happened, she was always
holding my hand. Although I feel that she still does, I wish I could tell her,
just once more, how much I miss her, and how much I love her. And from
one strong woman to another. To Vicky, who not only grounded my wild
and ridiculous ideas but provided a critical and thoughtful reflection on
the theoretical and conceptual approach that I have been trying to develop.
And not just because you excel at your Excel skills (this book would have
never been written without you). You are fierce, clever and beautiful; I am
truly indebted. Lastly, I want to thank little Sophia for keeping me smiling
as I wrote much of this book in the evening, listening to you singing and
chatting away as you fell asleep. However, this is a book that I will prob-
ably never let you read until you are old enough (probably not until you’re
sixty-five, if I’m honest).
 Contents

1 Welcome
 to the Erotic Oasis  1
Introduction   1
Welcome to the Club   2
Seeking Erotic Encounters: What Is This Book About?   5
Inside the Erotic Oasis: Looking Through the Book  10
Visiting the Playrooms: Moments of (P)leisure  12
Towards the End of the Night  16
Bibliography  19

2 Secret Sex Clubs 23

Introduction  23
Sex Clubs and Recreational Sex  25
The Control and Regulation of Clubs  29
This Book and Its Methodological Approach  33
Sex Clubs: Where Are They? What Are They? Who Is Attending?  38
Where Do We Find Sex Clubs? Geographies of (P)Leisure  38
Recreational Sex and Playrooms  39
Who Visits Sex Clubs?  41
Sexual Identities and Sexual Practices  43
Preferred Sexual Practices  44
Conclusion  51
References  52

xi
xii Contents

3 Cultures
 of Desire: Erotic Hierarchies and Affective
Atmospheres 57
Introduction  57
Sex Clubs and Public Intimacy  58
The Playrooms  63
Complicating Hedonism: Erotic Hierarchies  68
Affective Atmospheres: Feeling the Place  72
Conclusion: Cultures of Desire  78
Bibliography  79

4 ‘Greedy
 Girls’: Women and the Insatiable Abject 83
Preface  83
Introduction  85
Greedy Girl: ‘I Want It How I Want It’  88
The Desirable Abject: The Pleasure of Fucking with Men  92
Black Women and Radical Passivity  97
Women Desiring Pleasure: Beyond Feminism and Post-feminism 101
Conclusion 104
Bibliography 105

5 Sex
 Clubs, Dark Rooms and Post-Masculinity Erotics109
Introduction 109
Beyond Respectable Masculinities 111
Masculinity Rules, Consent and Same-Sex Practices 115
‘Leaving Behind Men as Studs’ 118
New Erotic Configurations and Post-Masculinity 123
Conclusion 130
Bibliography 130

6 ‘You
 Lot Are So Hot’: Race, Black Men and Commodity
Fantasies135
Introduction 135
Black Bulls: ‘I Want a Black Man Who Knows What He Is Doing’  139
The Desire for a Black Masculinity 141
Folding in Masculinities: Cuckolds, Hotwifing and Wittoling 148
Conclusion: Black Men’s Pleasure 154
Bibliography 156
 Contents  xiii

7 Erotic
 Outlaws: Tactile Looks, Women Desiring Women
and Transgender Bodies159
Introduction 159
Collapsing Heteronormativity: Towards a Conjoining of Bodies 163
Sex Beyond the Heteronormative: Female on Female 168
Violent Transgression 174
Conclusion 180
Bibliography 181

8 Conclusion185
Introduction 185
Conclusion: Leaving with the Lights on 188
Bibliography 191

Index193
 List of Tables

Table 2.1 Number of sex clubs per UK region 39

Table 2.2 Sex clubs’ facilities 40
Table 2.3 Club visitors by relationships status and age 42
Table 2.4 Club visitors by ethnicity 43
Table 2.5 Club visitors by sexuality 44
Table 2.6 Preferred sexual practices of those leaving reviews on clubs 45
Table 2.7 Availability of condoms in clubs 46
Table 2.8 UK regions with the highest and lowest number of
club visitors 49

xv
 CHAPTER 1

Welcome to the Erotic Oasis

Introduction
I wasn’t sure whether it was the incessant fucking on the bed or the sheer
desperation of men to be involved in the fucking that first grabbed my
attention. I knew that what hit me second was the dank smell of sweat and
sex that I breathed in as I moved in closer to the bed to get a better look
at what was happening. The woman thrusting herself onto the man kneel-
ing behind her and the two men on either side reaching out for her breasts
brought my senses back to me. Here I was in a northern English civil par-
ish, in a building that had once been a thriving pub in a coal mining com-
munity, watching a woman losing her balance trying to switch between
putting one man into her mouth and then another. I had walked up from
the bus terminal no more than 90 minutes before, passing a young couple
pushing a pushchair with their fish and chips in a white bag hanging from
the handle. No less than three hours ago, I had been talking to my mum
about how to get her heating, with a boiler over 25 years old, working.
Earlier still, I had been staring up at the sandwich board in the local café,
wondering whether the sweetcorn and chicken or the bacon and tomato
had more calories. Somewhere in the past 12 hours, I had moved from the
banality of the everyday to the exuberant and rapacious twisting and
searching of hands, clits, teeth, cocks, nipples, arses and lips. It was at that
moment in the sex club, where desire appeared to be exceeding itself,
when the underpinning argument for this book began to emerge. The sex

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 1

Switzerland AG 2022
C. Haywood, Sex Clubs,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14050-1_1
2 C. HAYWOOD

club, a place outside of the everyday order yet fundamentally a part of it,
is a cultural space that both disrupts and reinforces contemporary sexual
norms and values, and in doing so ‘…provides analytical openings for con-
sidering sexuality as degrees of variation, experimentation and transforma-
tion’ (Paasonen 2018, p. 5).

Welcome to the Club

One of the difficulties of exploring sex clubs is that they are both every-
where and nowhere. It is argued that within 60 miles of every town in
England there is a sex club. These are not strip clubs, lap dancing clubs,
gay bars or other sex entertainment venues. No sex workers are knowingly
employed. These are clubs where men and women meet to have consen-
sual sex with each other (Woods and Binson 2003). Traditionally, such
clubs are often labelled ‘swingers’ clubs’, but, as we shall see, that label
somewhat ironically (hetero)normalizes the diversity of predilections and
practices that the clubs accommodate. Since the 1990s, a number of
opportunities for recreational sex have emerged that have often come
under the umbrella of sex clubs. An online search of sex clubs will bring
up a whole range of events and encounters that have resulted in the term
‘sex club’ being applied to strip bars, exotic dancing, privately organized
sex parties, orgies at private parties or in hotel rooms, hired premises for
events and meets, weekends away and holiday escapes, swinger conven-
tions or festivals, caravan meets, franchised parties and events that tour the
country, and saunas and spas that have rooms for sexual encounters. A
more robust definition is provided in Chap. 2, but broadly speaking, the
sex clubs being referred to here are those clubs where the opportunity for
recreational sex is the club’s primary business. These are clubs where the
address remains fixed and accessible to the general public. Sex clubs are
also places where money is made and they should have some form of
entrance pricing structure. Despite the devastating financial impact of the
COVID-19 pandemic, the number of sex clubs in the UK has increased
from around 2005 from 7 to over 41 and continues to be a growing part
of the sex leisure cultural economy (Attwood and Smith 2013).
Despite their prominent online marketing and their episodic spectacu-
larizing in the media, sex clubs are quite difficult to find. If you look
closely, you will find them in rural locations on the edge of suburbia, sand-
wiched between tyre-fitting garages and plastics companies on industrial
parks or backing onto the streets of local sink estates. Housed in factory
 1 WELCOME TO THE EROTIC OASIS 3

units, renovated pubs or reclaimed retail premises, their presence is often

underplayed via careful signage or unnoticeable entrances. By day, a sex
club might be mistaken for a hotel, a recently closed pub or a factory lock-
­up. As such, they often appear emblazoned by the ordinary; remarkable
and unique places erased in their pursuit of discretion. Whereas gay- and
lesbian-friendly pubs and clubs often publicly pitch their visibility, clubs
providing opportunities for recreational heterosexuality remain in sight
but out of view. As such, the cultural camouflage of the banal operates as
a form of crypsis, a passive concealment through the resemblance to the
everyday. This crypsis is a powerful draw for a clientele who tends to value
discretion and anonymity for those attending the club. At the same time,
the sex club is promoted as a safe space where people who visit the club
become immersed in a place that is often described as a place to be ‘free’
and no longer constrained by the obligations of heterosexual monogamy.
It is suggested that such ‘immersions in enclavized and secure contexts
contrasts with the stress of people’s daily lives’ (Carù and Cova 2007,
p. 7). In some ways, the (in)visibility of heterosexual sex clubs coalesces
with cultural narratives of heterosexuality that position it as natural and
‘asexual’ (Phillips 2006, p. 167). In most places, heterosexuality is an
implicit, unspoken assumption never to be named, or, as Jeyasingham
(2008, p. 148) points out, ‘Heterosexuality is apparently not conscious of
itself, it just is’. Sex clubs, in contrast, promise erotic encounters that are
disconnected from heteronormativity, and in turn, become conspicu-
ously sexual.
When visiting a club for the first time, there is a heightened awareness
of surroundings, of people, of self, and a nagging doubt as to whether this
is the right place or the right door. The palpable self-awareness of visiting
somewhere for sex connects with a key aspect of the sexualization of cul-
ture thesis where ‘the boundaries between the public and the private are
changing in our culture’ (Attwood 2014, p.xv). More specifically, Attwood
draws upon McNair and argues that there are new forms of public inti-
macy which are linked to new forms of ‘self-revelation and exposure’
(McNair 2002, p. 81). Walking through the door is exposure at a new
level. The reception area is where membership is arranged/shown,
entrance is paid and, if new, a tour of the club is organized. Depending on
the club, and often connected to its legal status, patrons are generally
asked to provide a photo ID and become a member. This is often the case,
as clubs often promote themselves as private members’ clubs. In Auge’s
(1995) terms, the reception is a ‘non-place’, a place of transition and
4 C. HAYWOOD

passing through and a place of disclosure. In the club, patrons can bathe
in relative anonymity, as questions of identity tend to be off-limits. But not
here. Not in the bright lights of the reception, not in front of the club PC
where names, house numbers, email addresses and phone numbers are
collected. Not where identity documents are checked against faces and
utility bills photocopied. Access to the club and, importantly, the right to
enter the club is established at this point. This is a moment of disclosure.
Visitors often wait to sign in with nervous smiles or over-eager laughs. The
reception becomes a place of awkward unspoken mutual awareness of an
overt and non-negotiable desiring of sexual subjectivity. Perry writes: ‘It
seems to me that we heterosexuals have very little understanding of sexu-
ality. We never have to think about it!’ (Perry 2000, p. 81). Yet here, in the
non-place of the reception, heterosexuals have to declare their desire for
sex outside the contours of monogamous, reproductive-focused sex, not
only to themselves but to others around them. At this moment, at the
reception, heterosexuality becomes sexual; heterosexuals have become
desiring sexual subjects that are no longer swathed in the safe desexualized
space of heteronormativity.
The cashier first takes the money. This is a place where sexual value can
be measured by its pricing structure, with men paying around £30, cou-
ples £20 and single women £15 for entry. Those who are most valued by
the club pay less. On different nights, depending on the nature of the
event, the pricing structure changes. On receipt of a small deposit, you are
issued with a locker key and a towel (that is never quite big enough to fit
around the waist). The cashier asks loudly, ‘Have you been to a club
before?’ I deliberately answer ‘No’. ‘Don’t worry, love, Dave will be here
in a minute to tell you what’s what and show you around. We’re all here
to have a good time. Do you want to pass your bottles through?’ I pass my
carrier bag through the hatch and the cashier momentarily disappears
around the corner. Sex clubs often operate without an alcohol licence, and
the bar area is where ‘bring your own’ drinks can be stored and poured.
Bottles with sticky white labels with locker numbers written in felt-tip are
lined up behind the bar. As I hang around in reception waiting for Dave,
a couple comes through the door. I stand at the side, by the coffee table
and an A4 sign that details the club’s policies as pop music pumps out
from above. ‘Be presentable, Smile, Be confident, Don’t bring domestics,
Talk to people, Don’t be a dick, Play, Don’t be jealous, Have fun, Cum
again’. I look closely at number one: ‘Cum again. Every night is different.
Some chilled and sensual, some filthy and rammed. The more you visit us
 1 WELCOME TO THE EROTIC OASIS 5

the more experiences you’ll have’. The list of rules provides an example of
how clubs appear to market themselves as a space of unlimited pleasure
and a realization of fantasies.
Once in the club, patrons are sometimes met with a social set-up remi-
niscent of a working-class social club, with some clubs providing finger
buffets, holding raffles or having pool tables or karaoke. Some clubs have
pole dancing stages that lead to men and women attempting to demon-
strate their flair, some more successfully than others. There is usually a bar
area where those ‘bring your own’ drinks (depending on the premise
licence) are stored and poured. Those working the bar often ask for locker
key numbers from casually dressed men, and women are often ‘dressed
down’ in more revealing clothing. However, in the warmth of the dimmed
lights, comfy chairs and over-familiar pop music, the sociability contains a
cold functionality. The agenda here is quite clear. Amongst the cliques and
patrons that have met each other numerous times (almost weekly), and
close-­knit friends sit together in ways that make it difficult for others to
join them, men and women stand-by alone. Amid, men and women, care-
fully avoiding being seen, survey the room, watching and waiting for the
evening to progress; couples, sitting apart from each other, awkwardly
talking to one another across tables that are too large. Along with single
people standing with plastic cups held at face height, peering through to
people-watch. This is the place where teasing sex happens. For some, the
club is a meeting place for pre-arranged play; for others, the temptation
and the promise of fantastic sex, exciting encounters and lived-out fanta-
sies have drawn them to this place. Early in the evening, very little hap-
pens. Men tend to walk around and check in on the rest of the club,
looking for action. Everyone knows that sexual encounters will take place
soon and they wait and watch for the first couple or the first single woman
to seek out the playrooms. There is a waiting, an anticipation that some-
thing is going to happen. And something will happen.

Seeking Erotic Encounters: What Is This

Book About?
Perhaps, before going any further, it is important to explain what this
book is not about. This is not a book about swinging, polyamory or con-
sensual non-monogamy (CNM); it is a book about sex clubs. With nearly
half of recorded club attendees not in a partnered relationship, suggesting
that this is a book about sex between partners is disingenuous. Furthermore,
whilst this book does contain discussions about encounters between those
6 C. HAYWOOD

in partnered relationships, it recognizes that conflating cultures of desire

within the sex club with consensual non-monogamy, not only heteronor-
malizes or monogamizes sex clubs it also underplays the diversity and the
multiple ways in which non-normative intimacies are experienced and
practised. Also, this book is not simply about the exploration of different
subjectivities and sexual identifications. Instead, it is about how, in the
context of the sex club, such subjectivities and identifications take shape or
are enabled by the club context. More specifically, this book is interested
in the club ethos, its spatiality, its atmospheres and the different cultural
practices enabled by the club. Furthermore, this is not a book that pro-
vides a guide to surviving sex clubs, or a sex club book for dummies,
though there are some useful insights into the protocol and the rules of
sexual engagement and some cautionary tales of embarrassment and awk-
wardness. Finally, the rationale of this book is to provide readers with a
knowledge of cultural practices and an understanding of the politics of
desire—to make visible an emerging place of heterosexual recreational sex
that has, until now, remained relatively unexplored.
One of the most compelling aspects of sex club research that informs
this book is how the space of the club impacts upon, shapes and reconfig-
ures sexual experiences. In the first instance, clubs pose a challenge to how
heterosexuality is symbolically anchored in the private sphere, augmented
by gendered roles, domesticity, marriage, reproduction and romance; het-
erosexuality depends upon a privatized intimacy (Browne 2011). Hubbard,
in their earlier work, highlighted the importance of the ‘spatialized bound-
aries of moral and immoral forms of heterosexuality’ (2000, p. 200) and
pointed out that confinement is a key dynamic in this process of ordering.
In this way, sex should be part of ‘family life, marriage and even long term
committed partnerships and companionship become the context for deep,
emotionally rewarding relationships “situated within life projects”’
(Bernstein 2007). The spatial re-location of heterosexually through an
erotically charged intimacy ties in with a recreational view of sex where
‘…sex as a means of deriving physical pleasure and sensual ecstasy, gener-
ally eschewing the traditional view that sex should be a relationship
enhancing and/or child-producing endeavor confined to monogamous,
married, adult partners’ (Wright 2012, p. 120). Importantly, this discon-
nection of sex from procreation and family life has resulted in increasing
cultural anxiety, as there is an assumption that sex outside marriage lacks
intimacy and responsibility and will result in the collapse of the networks
and structures of intimacy that hold societies together (Weeks 2007).
 1 WELCOME TO THE EROTIC OASIS 7

Thus, sex clubs are part of a new circuitry of desire that has developed
connecting sites of pleasure that have previously been incongruous and
mutually exclusive. As such, we are beginning to witness affectivities criss-
crossing an increasingly porous private and public divide. Whilst much of
this can be seen online, sex clubs have emerged as a physical space where
the contours and the spatial dimensions of heteronormativity are being
challenged. Or, as Risman (2019, p. 124) puts it, ‘What is controversial
now is that sex is being liberated from relationships altogether’.
Sex clubs sell fantasies. Perhaps more accurately, sex clubs sell the prom-
ise of the fulfilment of a fantasy. They are not unique in this, as sex and
consumption have been increasingly imbricated (Brents and Hausbeck
2007; Martin 2016; Crewe and Martin 2017). Embedded in discussions
of recreational sex is its relationship to the commodification of sexual prac-
tices and desire. As the research for this book progressed, it became
increasingly clear that the sexual was imbricated with commodification.
Constable (2009, p. 50) clarifies how we can understand the relationship
between commodification and sex.

By commodification, I refer to the ways in which intimacy or intimate rela-

tions can be treated, understood, or thought of as if they have entered the
market: are bought or sold; packaged and advertised; fetishized, commer-
cialized, or objectified; consumed or assigned values and prices; and linked
in many cases to transnational mobility and migration, echoing a global
capitalist flow of goods.

Attending a sex club involves the conversion of an economic transac-

tion into cultural significance, meaning and affect. It has been suggested
that the emergence of recreational sex is being combined with a focus on
self-reflexivity, consumption and the pursuit of fantasy. It’s a complex
interplay that is captured by Kaplan (2017, p. 107): ‘By being (or feeling)
sexually recreational, neo-liberal subjects not only consume sexual com-
modities but also associate themselves with the empowered, glamourous
world of those who have the power to affect and be affected’. Or, put dif-
ferently, sexual practices in the contemporary context have become a key
component of being ‘transfigured’ through consumption (Phoenix 2017).
Furthermore, it is becoming increasingly difficult to disconnect sexual
practices from consumer culture. Others have noted that the shift towards
the imbrication of consumption practices with sexual practices produces
particular alignments between the self and how sex is practised (Döring
8 C. HAYWOOD

and Pöschl 2018; Fahs and Swank 2013). Alongside this, suggesting that
sexual practices are configured in ways that are closely linked to consump-
tion, recreational sex also points to sex having a different relationship to
the self. Attwood and Smith (2013) argue that sex has now become a key
part of how we make ourselves, suggesting that the meanings of sex and
how and why we do sex have changed. Sex has become embedded with
consumption that involves: ‘having the time to give to exercise one’s inter-
ests in sex [and] to engage in sex as a form of relaxation, entertainment,
self-realization, self-gratification and gratification of others, and personal
development’ (Attwood and Smith 2013, p. 330). It is suggested here
that the emergence of recreational sex results from and produces an
expanded relationship between the individual and the self. Sex, in this way,
becomes a lens of subjectivity where the relationship between the indi-
vidual and the self can be viewed, renewed and changed.
However, our understanding of our own subjectivity is a refraction
through the staging of desire, and the formation of fantasies. Sex clubs
provide the framing and erotic templates for how those fantasies are expe-
rienced and it is through the cultures of desire within the club that sexual
themes take shape and are lived out. Parker (1991, p. 79) describe sexual
culture as ‘systems of meaning, of knowledge, beliefs and practices, that
structure sexuality in different social contexts’. Sexual cultures have been
useful for making sense of a wide range of sexual practices, including BDSM
(Bennett 2018), Pup Play (Wignall 2018) and Chemsex (Mowlabocus
et al. 2016). However, this book focuses on cultures of desire rather than
sexual cultures. One of the reasons for this is that sexual cultures often refer
to something that is more stable and enduring. Instead, cultures of desire
make an appeal to the ‘here and now’, sometimes momentary encounters,
where people temporarily (dis)connect and then move on. It points to
encounters in the club as less about sexualities and more about the different
ways erotic pleasure becomes practiced. For example, sexual identities may
be publicly stated in one moment and then cast aside. At another moment,
the ‘sexual’ may become ambiguous, with encounters more aligned to the
erotic or the non-genitally focussed. In addition, cultures of desire are used
to capture the ways that erotic hierarchies and sexual capital become con-
figured through affective atmospheres. However, Parker’s later work
(1999) on cultures of desire aims to achieve something similar by suggest-
ing that gay identities within Brazil are not imported subjectivities that are
projected onto same-sex desire. Rather that cultures of desire are
inter-related with identities and collective cultures from a range of places.
Another random document with
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 ŒUFS AU PLAT.

A pewter or any other metal plate or dish which will bear the fire,
must be used for these. Just melt a slice of butter in it, then put in
some very fresh eggs broken as for poaching; strew a little pepper
and salt on the top of each, and place them over a gentle fire until
the whites are quite set, but keep them free from colour.
This is a very common mode of preparing eggs on the continent;
but there is generally a slight rawness of the surface of the yolks
which is in a measure removed by ladling the boiling butter over
them with a spoon as they are cooking, though a salamander held
above them for a minute would have a better effect. Four or five
minutes will dress them.
Obs.—We hope for an opportunity of inserting further receipts for
dishes of eggs at the end of this volume.
 MILK AND CREAM.

Without possessing a dairy, it is quite possible for families to have

always a sufficient provision of milk and cream for their consumption,
provided there be a clean cool larder or pantry where it can be kept.
It should be taken from persons who can be depended on for
supplying it pure, and if it can be obtained from a dairy near at hand
it will be an advantage, as in the summer it is less easy to preserve it
sweet when it has been conveyed from a distance. It should be
poured at once into well-scalded pans or basins kept exclusively for
it, and placed on a very clean and airy shelf, apart from all the other
contents of the larder. The fresh milk as it comes in should be set at
one end of the shelf, and that for use should be taken from the other,
so that none may become stale from being misplaced or overlooked.
The cream should be removed with a perforated skimmer (or
skimming-dish as it is called in dairy-counties) which has been
dipped into cold water to prevent the cream, when thick, from
adhering to it. Twelve hours in summer, and twenty-four in winter, will
be sufficient time for the milk to stand for “creaming,” though it may
often be kept longer with advantage. Between two and three pints of
really good milk will produce about a quarter of a pint of cream. In
frosty weather the pans for it should be warmed before it is poured
in. If boiled when first brought in, it will remain sweet much longer
than it otherwise would; but it will then be unfit to serve with tea;
though it may be heated afresh and sent to table with coffee; and
used also for puddings, and all other varieties of milk-diet.
 DEVONSHIRE, OR CLOTTED CREAM.

From the mode adopted in Devonshire, and in some other

counties, of scalding the milk in the following manner, the cream
becomes very rich and thick, and is easily converted into excellent
butter. It is strained into large shallow metal pans as soon as it is
brought into the dairy and left for twelve hours at least in summer,
and thirty-six in cold weather. It is then gently carried to a hot plate—
heated by a fire from below—and brought slowly to a quite scalding
heat but without being allowed to boil or even to simmer. When it is
ready to be removed, distinct rings appear on the surface, and small
bubbles of air. It must then be carried carefully back to the dairy, and
may be skimmed in twelve hours afterwards. The cream should be
well drained from the milk—which will be very poor—as this is done.
It may then be converted into excellent butter, merely by beating it
with the hand in a shallow wooden tub, which is, we are informed,
the usual manner of making it in small Devonshire dairies.
 DU LAIT A MADAME.

Boil a quart of new milk, and let it cool sufficiently to allow the
cream to be taken off; then rinse an earthen jar well in every part
with buttermilk, and while the boiled milk is still rather warm, pour it
in and add the cream gently on the top. Let it remain twenty-four
hours, turn it into a deep dish, mix it with pounded sugar, and it will
be ready to serve. This preparation is much eaten abroad during the
summer, and is considered very wholesome. The milk, by the
foregoing process, becomes a very soft curd, slightly, but not at all
unpleasantly, acid in flavour. A cover, or thick folded cloth, should be
placed on the jar after the milk is poured in, and it should be kept in a
moderately warm place. In very sultry weather less time may be
allowed for the milk to stand.
Obs.—We give this and the following receipt from an unpublished
work which we have in progress, being always desirous to make
such information as we possess generally useful as far as we can.
 CURDS AND WHEY.

Rennet is generally prepared for dairy-use by butchers, and kept

in farmhouses hung in the chimney corners, where it will remain
good a long time. It is the inner stomach of the calf, from which the
curd is removed, and which is salted and stretched out to dry on
splinters of wood, or strong wooden skewers. It should be preserved
from dust and smoke (by a paper-bag or other means), and portions
of it cut off as wanted. Soak a small bit in half a teacupful of warm
water, and let it remain in it for an hour or two; then pour into a quart
of warm new milk a dessertspoonful of the rennet-liquor, and keep it
in a warm place until the whey appears separated from the curd, and
looks clear. The smaller the proportion of rennet used, the more soft
and delicate will be the curd. We write these directions from
recollection, having often had the dish thus prepared, but having no
memorandum at this moment of the precise proportions used. Less
than an inch square of the rennet would be sufficient, we think, for a
gallon of milk, if some hours were allowed for it to turn. When rennet-
whey, which is a most valuable beverage in many cases of illness, is
required for an invalid to drink, a bit of the rennet, after being quickly
and slightly rinsed, may be stirred at once into the warm milk, as the
curd becoming hard is then of no consequence. It must be kept
warm until the whey appears and is clear. It may then be strained,
and given to the patient to drink, or allowed to become cold before it
is taken. In feverish complaints it has often the most benign effect.
Devonshire junket is merely a dish or bowl of sweetened curds
and whey, covered with the thick cream of scalded milk, for which
see page 451.
 CHAPTER XXIII.

Sweet Dishes, or Entremets.

Jelly of two colours, with macedoire of fruit.

 TO PREPARE CALF’S FEET STOCK.

The feet are usually sent in from

the butcher’s ready to be
dressed, but as they are sold at
a very much cheaper rate when
the hair has not been cleared
from them, and as they may
then be depended on for
supplying the utmost amount of
nutriment which they contain, it
is often desirable to have them
White and Rose-coloured Jelly.
altogether prepared by the cook.
In former editions of this work
we directed that they should be “dipped into cold water, and
sprinkled with resin in fine powder; then covered with boiling water
and left for a minute or two untouched before they were scraped;”
and this method we had followed with entire success for a long time,
but we afterwards discovered that the resin was not necessary, and
that the feet could be quite as well prepared by mere scalding, or
being laid into water at the point of boiling, and kept in it for a few
minutes by the side of the fire. The hair, as we have already stated in
the first pages of Chapter IX. (Veal), must be very closely scraped
from them with a blunt-edged knife; and the hoofs must be removed
by being struck sharply down against the edge of a strong table or
sink, the leg-bone being held tightly in the hand. The feet must be
afterwards washed delicately clean before they are further used.
When this has been done, divide them at the joint, split the claws,
and take away the fat that is between them. Should the feet be large,
put a gallon of cold water to the four, but from a pint to a quart less if
they be of moderate size or small. Boil them gently down until the
flesh has parted entirely from the bones, and the liquor is reduced
nearly or quite half; strain, and let it stand until cold; remove every
particle of fat from the top before it is used, and be careful not to take
the sediment.
Calf’s feet (large), 4; water, 1 gallon: 6 to 7 hours.
 TO CLARIFY CALF’S FEET STOCK.

Break up a quart of the stock, put it into a clean stewpan with the
whites of five large or of six small eggs, two ounces of sugar, and the
strained juice of a small lemon; place it over a gentle fire, and do not
stir it after the scum begins to form; when it has boiled five or six
minutes, if the liquid part be clear, turn it into a jelly-bag, and pass it
through a second time should it not be perfectly transparent the first.
To consumptive patients, and others requiring restoratives, but
forbidden to take stimulants, the jelly thus prepared is often very
acceptable, and may be taken with impunity, when it would be highly
injurious made with wine. More white of egg is required to clarify it
than when sugar and acid are used in larger quantities, as both of
these assist the process. For blanc-mange omit the lemon-juice, and
mix with the clarified stock an equal proportion of cream (for an
invalid, new milk), with the usual flavouring, and weight of sugar; or
pour the boiling stock very gradually to some finely pounded
almonds, and express it from them as directed for Quince Blamange,
allowing from six to eight ounces to the pint.
Stock, 1 quart; whites of eggs, 5; sugar, 2 oz.; juice, 1 small
lemon: 5 to 8 minutes.
 TO CLARIFY ISINGLASS.

The finely-cut purified isinglass, which is now in general use,

requires no clarifying except for clear jellies: for all other dishes it is
sufficient to dissolve, skim, and pass it through a muslin strainer.
When two ounces are required for a dish, put two and a half into a
delicately clean pan, and pour on it a pint of spring water which has
been gradually mixed with a teaspoonful of beaten white of egg; stir
these thoroughly together, and let them heat slowly by the side of a
gentle fire, but do not allow the isinglass to stick to the pan. When
the scum is well risen, which it will be after two or three minutes’
simmering, clear it off, and continue the skimming until no more
appears; then, should the quantity of liquid be more than is needed,
reduce it by quick boiling to the proper point, strain it through a thin
muslin, and set it by for use: it will be perfectly transparent, and may
be mixed lukewarm with the clear and ready sweetened juice of
various fruits, or used with the necessary proportion of syrup, for
jellies flavoured with choice liqueurs. As the clarifying reduces the
strength of the isinglass—or rather as a portion of it is taken up by
the white of egg—an additional quarter to each ounce must be
allowed for this: if the scum be laid to drain on the back of a fine
sieve which has been wetted with hot water, a little very strong jelly
will drip from it.
Isinglass, 2-1/2 oz.; water, 1 pint; beaten white of egg, 1
teaspoonful.
Obs.—At many Italian warehouses a preparation is now sold
under the name of isinglass, which appears to us to be highly
purified gelatine of some other kind. It is converted without trouble
into a very transparent jelly, is free from flavour, and is less
expensive than the genuine Russian isinglass; but when taken for
any length of time as a restorative, its different nature becomes
perceptible. It answers well for the table occasionally; but it is not
suited to invalids.
 SPINACH GREEN, FOR COLOURING SWEET DISHES,
CONFECTIONARY, OR SOUPS.

Pound quite to a pulp, in a marble or Wedgwood mortar, a handful

or two of young freshly-gathered spinach, then throw it into a hair
sieve, and press through all the juice which can be obtained from it;
pour this into a clean white jar, and place it in a pan of water that is
at the point of boiling, and which must be allowed only to just simmer
afterwards; in three or four minutes the juice will be poached or set:
take it then gently with a spoon, and lay it upon the back of a fine
sieve to drain. If wanted for immediate use, merely mix it in the
mortar with some finely-powdered sugar;[158] but if to be kept as a
store, pound it with as much as will render the whole tolerably dry,
boil it to candy-height over a very clear fire, pour it out in cakes, and
keep them in a tin box or canister. For this last preparation consult
the receipt for orange-flower candy.
158. For soup, dilute it first with a little of the boiling stock, and stir it to the
remainder.
 PREPARED APPLE OR QUINCE JUICE.

Pour into a clean earthen pan two quarts of spring water, and
throw into it as quickly as they can be pared, quartered, and
weighed, four pounds of nonsuches, pearmains, Ripstone pippins, or
any other good boiling apples of fine flavour. When all are done,
stew them gently until they are well broken, but not reduced quite to
pulp; turn them into a jelly-bag, or strain the juice from them without
pressure through a closely-woven cloth, which should be gathered
over the fruit, and tied, and suspended above a deep pan until the
juice ceases to drop from it: this, if not very clear, must be rendered
so before it is used for syrup or jelly, but for all other purposes once
straining it will be sufficient. Quinces are prepared in the same way,
and with the same proportions of fruit and water, but they must not
be too long boiled, or the juice will become red. We have found it
answer well to have them simmered until they are perfectly tender,
and then to leave them with their liquor in a bowl until the following
day, when the juice will be rich and clear. They should be thrown into
the water very quickly after they are pared and weighed, as the air
will soon discolour them. The juice will form a jelly much more easily
if the cores and pips be left in the fruit.
Water, 2 quarts; apples or quinces, 4 lbs.
 COCOA-NUT FLAVOURED MILK.

(For sweet dishes, &c.)

Pare the dark outer rind from a very fresh nut, and grate it on a
fine and exceedingly clean grater, to every three ounces pour a quart
of new milk, and simmer them very softly for three quarters of an
hour, or more, that a full flavour of the nut may be imparted to the
milk without its being much reduced: strain it through a fine sieve, or
cloth, with sufficient pressure to leave the nut almost dry: it may then
be used for blanc-mange, custards, rice, and other puddings, light
cakes and bread.
To each quart new milk, 3 oz. grated cocoa-nut: 3/4 to 1 hour.
Obs.—The milk of the nut when perfectly sweet and good, may be
added to the other with advantage. To obtain it, bore one end of the
shell with a gimlet, and catch the liquid in a cup; and to extricate the
kernel, break the shell with a hammer; this is better than sawing it
asunder.
 COMPÔTES OF FRUIT.

(Or Fruit stewed in Syrup.)

We would especially recommend these delicate and very
agreeable preparations for trial to such of our readers as may be
unacquainted with them, as well as to those who may have a
distaste to the common “stewed fruit” of English cookery. If well
made they are peculiarly delicious and refreshing, preserving the
pure flavour of the fruit of which they are composed; while its acidity
is much softened by the small quantity of water added to form the
syrup in which it is boiled. They are also more economical than tarts
or puddings, and infinitely more wholesome. In the second course
pastry-crust can always be served with them, if desired, in the form
of ready baked leaves, round cakes, or any more fanciful shapes; or
a border of these may be fastened with a little white of egg and flour
round the edge of the dish in which the compôte is served; but rice,
or macaroni simply boiled, or a very plain pudding is a more usual
accompaniment.
Compôtes will remain good for two or three days in a cool store-
room, or somewhat longer, if gently boiled up for an instant a second
time; but they contain generally too small a proportion of sugar to
preserve them from mould or fermentation for many days. The syrup
should be enriched with a larger quantity when they are intended for
the desserts of formal dinners, as it will increase the transparency of
the fruit: the juice is always beautifully clear when the compôtes are
carefully prepared. They should be served in glass dishes, or in
compôtiers, which are of a form adapted to them.
Compôte of spring fruit.—(Rhubarb). Take a pound of the stalks
after they are pared, and cut them into short lengths; have ready a
quarter of a pint of water boiled gently for ten minutes with five
ounces of sugar, or with six should the fruit be very acid; put it in,
and simmer it for about ten minutes. Some kinds will be tender in
rather less time, some will require more.
 Obs.—Good sugar in lumps should be used for these dishes.
Lisbon sugar will answer for them very well on ordinary occasions,
but that which is refined will render them much more delicate.
Compôte of green currants.—Spring water, half-pint; sugar, five
ounces; boiled together ten minutes. One pint of green currants
stripped from the stalks; simmered five minutes.
Compôte of green gooseberries.—This is an excellent compôte if
made with fine sugar, and very good with any kind. Break five
ounces into small lumps and pour on them half a pint of water; boil
these gently for ten minutes, and clear off all the scum; then add to
them a pint of fresh gooseberries freed from the tops and stalks,
washed, and well drained. Simmer them gently from eight to ten
minutes, and serve them hot or cold. Increase the quantity for a large
dish.
Compôte of green apricots.—Wipe the down from a pound of quite
young apricots, and stew them very gently for nearly twenty minutes
in syrup made with eight ounces of sugar and three-quarters of a pint
of water, boiled together the usual time.
Compôte of red currants.—A quarter of a pint of water and five
ounces of sugar: ten minutes. One pint of currants freed from the
stalks to be just simmered in the syrup from five to seven minutes.
This receipt will serve equally for raspberries, or for a compôte of the
two fruits mixed together. Either of them will be found an admirable
accompaniment to a pudding of batter, custard, bread, or ground
rice, and also to various other kinds of puddings, as well as to whole
rice plainly boiled.
Compôte of Kentish or Flemish cherries.—Simmer five ounces of
sugar with half a pint of water for ten minutes; throw into the syrup a
pound of cherries weighed after they are stalked, and let them stew
gently for twenty minutes: it is a great improvement to stone the fruit,
but a larger quantity will then be required for a dish.
Compôte of Morella cherries.—Boil together for fifteen minutes, six
ounces of sugar with half a pint of water; add a pound and a quarter
of ripe Morella cherries, and simmer them very softly from five to
seven minutes: this is a delicious compôte. A larger proportion of
sugar will often be required for it, as the fruit is very acid in some
seasons, and when it is not fully ripe.
Compôte of damsons.—Four ounces of sugar and half a pint of
water to be boiled for ten minutes; one pound of damsons to be
added, and simmered gently from ten to twelve minutes.
Compôte of the green magnum-bonum or Mogul plum.—The
green Mogul plums are often brought abundantly into the market
when the fruit is thinned from the trees, and they make admirable
tarts or compôtes, possessing the fine slight bitter flavour of the
unripe apricot, to which they are quite equal. Measure a pint of the
plums without their stalks, and wash them very clean; then throw
them into a syrup made with seven ounces of sugar in lumps, and
half a pint of water, boiled together for eight or ten minutes. Give the
plums one quick boil, and then let them stew quite softly for about
five minutes, or until they are tender, which occasionally will be in
less time even. Take off the scum, and serve the compôte hot or
cold.
Compôte of the magnum-bonum, or other large plums.—Boil six
ounces of sugar with half a pint of water the usual time; take the
stalks from a pound of plums, and simmer them very softly for twenty
minutes. Increase the proportion of sugar if needed, and regulate the
time as may be necessary for the different varieties of fruit.
Compôte of bullaces.—The large, or shepherds’ bullace, is very
good stewed, but will require a considerable portion of sugar to
render it palatable, unless it be quite ripe. Make a syrup with half a
pound of sugar, and three-quarters of a pint of water, and boil in it
gently from fifteen to twenty minutes, a pint and a half of the bullaces
freed from their stalks.
Compôte of Siberian crabs.—To three-quarters of a pint of water
add six ounces of fine sugar, boil them for ten or twelve minutes, and
skim them well. Add a pound and a half of Siberian crabs without
their stalks, and keep them just at the point of boiling for twenty
minutes; they will then become tender without bursting. A few strips
of lemon-rind and a little of the juice are sometimes added to this
compôte.
 Obs.—In a dry warm summer, when fruit ripens freely, and is rich
in quality, the proportion of sugar directed for these compôtes would
generally be found sufficient; but in a cold or wet season it would
certainly, in many instances, require to be increased. The present
slight difference in the cost of sugars, renders it a poor economy to
use the raw for dishes of this class, instead of that which is well
refined. To make a clear syrup it should be broken into lumps, not
crushed to powder. Almost every kind of fruit may be converted into
a good compôte.
 COMPÔTE OF PEACHES.

Pare half a dozen ripe peaches, and stew them very softly from
eighteen to twenty minutes, keeping them often turned in a light
syrup, made with five ounces of sugar, and half a pint of water boiled
together for ten minutes. Dish the fruit; reduce the syrup by quick
boiling, pour it over the peaches, and serve them hot for a second-
course dish, or cold for rice-crust. They should be quite ripe, and will
be found delicious dressed thus. A little lemon-juice may be added to
the syrup, and the blanched kernels of two or three peach or apricot
stones.
Sugar, 5 oz.; water, 1/2 pint: 10 minutes. Peaches, 6: 18 to 20
minutes.
Obs.—Nectarines, without being pared, may be dressed in the
same way, but will require to be stewed somewhat longer, unless
they be quite ripe.
 ANOTHER RECEIPT FOR STEWED PEACHES.

Should the fruit be not perfectly ripe, throw it into boiling water and
keep it just simmering, until the skin can be easily stripped off. Have
ready half a pound of fine sugar boiled to a light syrup with three-
quarters of a pint of water; throw in the peaches, let them stew softly
until quite tender, and turn them often that they may be equally done;
after they are dished, add a little strained lemon-juice to the syrup,
and reduce it by a few minutes’ very quick boiling. The fruit is
sometimes pared, divided, and stoned, then gently stewed until it is
tender.
Sugar, 8 oz.; water, 3/4 pint: 10 to 12 minutes. Peaches, 6 or 7;
lemon-juice, 1 large teaspoonful.