Part 27

2 eggs, beaten stiff. 1 large cup of sugar. 5 tablespoonfuls boiling milk. ½ teaspoonful arrow-root or corn-starch, wet with cold milk. 1 teaspoonful nutmeg, or mace. 1 tablespoonful butter.

Rub the butter into the sugar, add the beaten eggs, and work all to a creamy froth. Wet the corn-starch and put in next with the spice—finally, pour in by the spoonful the boiling milk, beating well all the time. Set within a saucepan of boiling water five minutes, stirring all the while, but do not let the sauce boil.

This is a good sauce for bread and other simple puddings.

CABINET PUDDING SAUCE. ✠

Yolks of four eggs, whipped very light. 1 lemon—juice and half the grated peel. 1 good glass of wine. 1 teaspoonful of cinnamon. 1 cup of sugar. 1 tablespoonful of butter.

Rub the butter into the sugar, add the yolks, lemon, and spice. Beat ten minutes and put in the wine, still stirring hard. Set within a saucepan of boiling water, and beat while it heats, but do not let it boil.

Pour over the pudding.

FRUIT PUDDING SAUCE. ✠

½ cup butter. 2½ cups sugar. 1 dessert spoonful corn-starch wet in a little cold milk. 1 lemon—juice and half the grated peel. 1 glass of wine. 1 cup boiling water.

Cream the butter and sugar well; pour the corn-starch into the boiling water and stir over a clear fire until it is well thickened; put all together in a bowl and beat five minutes before returning to the saucepan. Heat once, almost to the boiling point, add the wine, and serve.

CUSTARD SAUCE.

1 pint of milk. 2 eggs, beaten very light. ½ wineglass of brandy. 1 cup powdered sugar, stirred into the eggs. Nutmeg to taste. 1 teaspoonful vanilla.

Heat the milk to boiling, and add by degrees to the beaten eggs and sugar; put in the nutmeg, and set within a saucepan of boiling water. Stir until it begins to thicken. Take it off and add the brandy gradually. Set, until it is wanted, within a pan of boiling water.

Pour over the pudding when it comes from the mould.

JELLY SAUCE. ✠

½ cup currant jelly. 1 tablespoonful butter, melted. ½ dessert spoonful arrowroot or corn-starch; wet with cold water. 1 glass pale Sherry. 3 tablespoonfuls boiling water.

Stir the arrowroot into the boiling water and heat, stirring all the time, until it thickens; add the butter, and set aside until almost cool, when beat in, spoonful by spoonful, the jelly to a smooth pink paste. Pour in the wine, stir hard, and heat in a tin vessel, set within another of boiling water, until very hot.

Pour over and around Neapolitan, bread-and-marmalade puddings, cake fritters, and Queen’s toast.

SWEETENED CREAM (_cold._)

1 pint of cream. 4 tablespoonfuls powdered sugar. 1 teaspoonful of nutmeg. 1 teaspoonful vanilla.

Mix all well together, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Eat with jam puddings, queen of all puddings, Alice’s pudding, and peach roley-poley.

CREAM SAUCE (_hot._) ✠

1 pint cream. 4 tablespoonfuls powdered sugar. Whites of two eggs, beaten stiff. Extract of vanilla or bitter almonds, one teaspoonful. 1 teaspoonful nutmeg.

Heat the cream slowly in a vessel set in a saucepan of boiling water, stirring often. When scalding, but not boiling hot, remove it from the fire, put in the sugar and nutmeg; stir three or four minutes and add the whites. Mix thoroughly and flavor, setting the bowl containing it in a pan of hot water until the pudding is served, stirring now and then.

JELLY SAUCE. (_No. 2_). ✠

½ cup currant jelly. 2 tablespoonfuls melted butter. 1 lemon—juice and half the grated peel. ½ teaspoonful nutmeg. 2 glasses wine, and a tablespoonful powdered sugar.

Heat the butter a little more than blood-warm; beat the jelly to a smooth batter and add gradually the butter, the lemon, and nutmeg. Warm almost to a boil, stirring all the while; beat hard, put in the sugar, lastly the wine. Set in a vessel of hot water stirring now and then, until it is wanted. Keep it covered to hinder the escape of the wine flavor. Stir well before pouring out.

This is a very fine sauce, particularly for cabinet and Neopolitan puddings.

CUSTARDS, BLANC-MANGE, JELLIES, AND CREAMS.

A good rule for custard is five eggs to a quart of milk, and a tablespoonful of sugar to each egg, although a good plain custard can be made with an egg for each cup of milk and four tablespoonfuls of sugar to the quart. Creams and custards that are to be frozen must have at least one-third more sugar than those which are not to undergo this process.

In heating the milk for custard, do not let it quite boil before adding the yolks. My plan, which has proved a safe one thus far, is to take the scalding milk from the fire, and instead of pouring the beaten eggs into it, to put a spoonful or two of the milk to _them_, beating well all the while, adding more and more milk as I mix, until there is no longer danger of sudden curdling. Then, return all to the fire and boil gently until the mixture is of the right consistency. From ten to fifteen minutes should thicken a quart. Stir constantly. A pinch of soda added in hot weather will prevent the milk from curdling.

_Always boil milk and custard in a vessel set within another of boiling water._ If you have not a custard or farina kettle, improvise one by setting a tin pail inside of a pot of hot water, taking care it does not float, also that the water is not so deep as to bubble over the top. Custards are better and lighter if the yolks and whites are beaten separately, the latter stirred in at the last.

BOILED CUSTARD. ✠

1 quart of milk. Yolks of five eggs and the whites of seven—(two for the méringue). 6 tablespoonfuls sugar. Vanilla flavoring—1 teaspoonful to the pint.

Heat the milk almost to boiling; beat the yolks light and stir in the sugar. Add the milk in the manner described in “general directions” at head of this section; stir in five whites whipped stiff; return to the fire and stir until thick, but not until it breaks. Season it with vanilla, pour into glass cups; whip the whites of two eggs to a méringue with a heaping tablespoonful of powdered sugar, and when the custard is cold, pile a little of this upon the top of each cup. You may lay a preserved strawberry or cherry, or a bit of melon sweetmeat, or a little bright jelly upon each.

ALMOND CUSTARDS.

1 pint milk (half cream). ¼ lb. almonds, blanched and pounded to a paste, a few at a time in a Wedgewood mortar, adding gradually— 2 tablespoonfuls of rose-water. Yolks of three eggs and whites of four—(two for méringue). 4 tablespoonfuls sugar. 1 teaspoonful extract bitter almond in méringue.

Scald the milk, add the beaten yolks, the sugar, the almond paste, and the whites of two eggs. Boil, stirring constantly until it thickens. Stir up well when almost cold and pour into cups. Make a méringue of the whites of two eggs and two tablespoonfuls powdered sugar, flavored with bitter almond, and heap upon each cup.

QUAKING CUSTARD. ✠

3 cups milk. Yolks of four eggs—reserving the whites for méringue. ½ package Cooper’s or Coxe’s gelatine. 6 tablespoonfuls sugar. Vanilla or lemon flavoring. Juice of a lemon in méringue.

Soak the gelatine in a cup of the cold milk two hours. Then heat the rest of the milk to boiling, add that in which the gelatine is, and stir over the fire until the latter is quite dissolved. Take from the fire, and let it stand five minutes before putting in the beaten yolks and sugar. Heat slowly until it begins to thicken perceptibly, not boil—say seven or eight minutes, stirring constantly. When nearly cold, having stirred it every few minutes during the time, flavor it, wash out your mould in cold water, and without wiping it, pour in the custard and set on the ice or in a cold place to harden. When quite firm, turn into a cold dish, loosening it by wrapping about the mould a cloth wrung out in hot water, or dipping the mould for an instant in warm, not boiling water. Have ready the whites whipped to a froth with three tablespoonfuls powdered sugar and juice of a lemon. Heap neatly about the base of the moulded custard, like snow-drifts. If you like, you may dot this with minute bits of currant jelly.

This is a pleasing dish to the eye and taste,

FLOATING ISLAND. ✠

1 quart of milk. 5 eggs—whites and yolks beaten separately. 4 tablespoonfuls (heaping) white sugar. 2 teaspoonfuls extract bitter almond or vanilla. ½ cup currant jelly.

Beat the yolks well, stir in the sugar, and add the hot, not boiling milk, a little at a time. Boil until it begins to thicken. When cool, flavor and pour into a glass dish, first stirring it up well. Heap upon it a méringue of the whites into which you have beaten, gradually, half a cup of currant, cranberry, or other bright tart jelly. Dot with bits of jelly cut into rings or stars, or straight slips laid on in a pattern.

SPANISH CREAM. ✠

½ box of gelatine. 1 quart of milk. Yolks of three eggs. 1 small cup of sugar.

Soak the gelatine an hour in the milk; put on the fire and stir well as it warms. Beat the yolks very light with the sugar, add to the scalding milk, and heat to boiling point, stirring all the while. Strain through thin muslin or tarlatan, and when almost cold, put into a mould wet with cold water. Flavor with vanilla or lemon.

BAVARIAN CREAM (_Very fine._) ✠

1 quart sweet cream. Yolks only of four eggs. ½ oz. of gelatine or isinglass. 1 cup (small) of sugar. 2 teaspoonfuls vanilla or bitter almond extract.

Soak the gelatine in just enough cold water to cover it, for an hour. Drain, and stir into a pint of the cream made boiling hot. Beat the yolks smooth with the sugar, and add the boiling mixture, beaten in a little at a time. Heat until it begins to thicken, but do not actually boil; remove it from the fire, flavor, and while it is still hot stir in the other pint of cream, whipped or churned in a syllabub churn to a stiff froth. Beat in this “whip,” a spoonful at a time, into the custard until it is the consistency of sponge-cake batter. Dip a mould in cold water, pour in the mixture, and set on the ice to form.

SNOW CUSTARD. ✠

½ package Coxe’s gelatine. 3 eggs. 1 pint milk. 2 cups of sugar. Juice of one lemon.

Soak the gelatine one hour in a teacupful of cold water. To this, at the end of this time, add one pint boiling water. Stir until the gelatine is thoroughly dissolved; add two-thirds of the sugar and the lemon-juice. Beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, and when the gelatine is quite cold, whip it into the whites, a spoonful at a time, for an hour. Whip steadily and evenly, and when all is stiff, pour into a mould, previously wet with cold water, and set in a cold place. In four or five hours turn into a glass dish.

Make a custard of the milk, eggs, and remainder of the sugar, flavor with vanilla or bitter almond, and when the méringue is turned out of the mould, pour this around the base.

BAKED CUSTARD. ✠

1 quart of milk. 5 eggs, beaten light—whites and yolks separately. 5 tablespoonfuls sugar, mixed with the yolks. Nutmeg and vanilla.

Scald but not boil the milk; add by degrees to the beaten yolks, and when well mixed, stir in the whites. Flavor, and pour into a deep dish, or custard-cups of white stone-china. Set these in a pan of hot water, grate nutmeg upon each, and bake until firm. Eat cold from the cups.

FRENCH TAPIOCA CUSTARD. ✠

5 dessert spoonfuls tapioca. 1 quart of milk. 1 pint of cold water. 3 eggs. 1 teaspoonful vanilla, or other essence. 1 heaping cup of sugar. A pinch of salt.

Soak the tapioca in the water five hours. Let the milk come to a boil; add the tapioca, the water in which it was boiled, and a good pinch of salt. Stir until boiling hot, and add gradually to the beaten yolks and sugar. Boil again (_always_ in a vessel set within another of hot water), stirring constantly. Let it cook until thick, but not too long, as the custard will break. Five minutes after it reaches the boil will suffice. Pour into a bowl, and stir gently into the mixture the whites of the eggs, beaten to a stiff froth. Flavor, and set aside in a glass dish until very cold.

Eat with an accompaniment of light cake and brandied, or canned peaches or pears. This will be found a very delightful dessert.

TAPIOCA BLANC-MANGE. ✠

½ lb. tapioca, soaked in a cup of cold water four hours. 1 pint rich new milk. ¾ cup of sugar. 2 teaspoonfuls bitter almond or vanilla essence. A little salt.

Heat the milk, and stir in the soaked tapioca. When it has dissolved, add the sugar. Boil slowly fifteen minutes, stirring all the time; take from the fire, and beat until nearly cold. Flavor and pour into a mould dipped in cold water. Turn out, and pour cold sweetened cream around it.

SAGO BLANC-MANGE.

May be made in the same way as tapioca.

CORN-STARCH BLANC-MANGE. ✠

1 quart of milk. 4 tablespoonfuls corn-starch, wet in a little cold water. 3 eggs, well beaten—whites and yolks separately. 1 cup of sugar. Vanilla, lemon, or other essence. 1 saltspoonful salt.

Heat the milk to boiling; stir in the corn-starch and salt, and boil together five minutes (in a farina-kettle), then add the yolks, beaten light, with the sugar; boil two minutes longer, stirring all the while; remove the mixture from the fire, and beat in the whipped whites while it is boiling hot. Pour into a mould wet with cold water, and set in a cold place. Eat with sugar and cream.

FARINA BLANC-MANGE

Is made according to the above receipt, but boiled fifteen minutes before the eggs are added. You may omit the eggs if you like, and only want a plain dessert.

ARROWROOT BLANC-MANGE. ✠

3 cups of new milk. 2½ tablespoonfuls of arrowroot, wet up with cold milk. ¾ cup of sugar. Vanilla, lemon, or bitter almond flavoring, with a little white wine.

Mix the arrowroot to a smooth batter with one cup of the milk. Heat the remainder to boiling; add the arrowroot, stirring constantly. When it begins to thicken put in the sugar, and cook ten minutes longer, still stirring it well from the sides and bottom. Take it off; beat well five minutes; flavor with the essence and a small wineglass of white wine. Give a hard final stir before putting it into a mould wet with cold water.

This is very nourishing for invalids and young children. For the latter you may omit the wine.

ALMOND BLANC-MANGE. ✠

1 quart of milk. 1 oz. Cooper’s gelatine. 3 ozs. of almonds, blanched and pounded in a mortar, with 1 tablespoonful of rose-water, added to prevent oiling. ¾ cup sugar.

Heat the milk to boiling, having previously soaked the gelatine in a cup of it for an hour. Turn in this when the milk is scalding hot; add the pounded almond-paste, and stir all together ten minutes before putting in the sugar. When the gelatine has dissolved, remove the blanc-mange from the vessel of boiling water in which you have cooked it, and strain through a thin muslin bag, pressing it well to get out the flavor of the almonds. There should be three or four bitter ones among them. Wet a mould with cold water, put in the blanc-mange, and set in a cold place until firm.

You may make blanc-mange without the almonds, although it will not be so nice—and substitute vanilla for the rose-water.

NEAPOLITAN BLANC-MANGE. ✠

Make according to the foregoing receipt, and, after straining, separate into four different portions, allowing about a cupful of the mixture for each. Have ready

1 great tablespoonful chocolate, wet with a very little boiling water, and rubbed to a smooth paste, for the brown coloring. Yolk of an egg beaten light for the yellow. 1 great tablespoonful of currant jelly for the pink.

Beat the chocolate into one portion, mixing it well; the jelly into another, the egg into a third, returning this and that flavored with chocolate, to the fire, and stirring until very hot, but not boiling. Leave the fourth uncolored. When quite cold and a little stiff, pour carefully into a wet mould—the white first; then the pink; next the yellow; and the chocolate last. Of course, when the blanc-mange is turned out, this order of colors will be reversed. Set in a cold place. Loosen, when firm, by dipping the mould for a moment in warm water, and working the top free from the edge with a few light touches of your fingers. This is a handsome dish and easily managed. Currant juice or cranberry color a finer pink than jelly, but are apt to thin the blanc-mange, unless used cautiously. A little vanilla improves the chocolate.

JAUNE-MANGE. ✠

1 oz. Coxe’s gelatine, soaked in half a cup cold water one hour. 1 cup of boiling water. Yolks of four eggs beaten very light. 1 orange, juice and half the grated peel. 1 lemon, juice and one-third the grated peel. 1 cup white wine or clear pale Sherry. 1 cup powdered sugar and a good pinch cinnamon.

Stir the soaked gelatine in the boiling water until dissolved; take from the fire and beat, a little at a time, into the yolks; return to the inner saucepan with the sugar, orange, lemon and cinnamon. Stir over a clear fire until it is boiling hot; put in the wine and strain through a hair-sieve or a piece of tarlatan. Set away in a mould wet with cold water.

The success of this dish depends much upon the stirring and the watchfulness of the cook. The mixture should not be allowed to boil at any moment.

VELVET BLANC-MANGE. ✠

2 cups of sweet cream. ½ oz. Cooper’s gelatine, soaked in a very little cold water one hour. ½ cup white sugar (powdered.) 1 teaspoonful extract of bitter almonds. 1 glass white wine.

Heat the cream to boiling, stir in the gelatine and sugar, and, so soon as they are dissolved, take from the fire. Beat ten minutes, or, what is better, churn in a syllabub-churn until very light; flavor, and add by degrees the wine, mixing it in well. Put into moulds wet with cold water.

CHOCOLATE BLANC-MANGE.

1 quart of milk. 1 oz. Cooper’s gelatine, soaked in a cup of the milk one hour. 4 heaping tablespoonfuls of grated chocolate, rubbed up with a little milk. 3 eggs, whites and yolks beaten separately. ¾ cup sugar and 2 teaspoonfuls of vanilla.

Heat the milk to boiling; pour in the gelatine and milk, and stir until it is dissolved; add the sugar to the beaten yolks and stir until smooth; beat the chocolate into this, and pour in, spoonful by spoonful, the scalding milk upon the mixture, stirring all the while until all is in. Return to the inner saucepan and heat gently, stirring faithfully until it almost boils. Remove from fire, turn into a bowl, and whip in lightly and briskly the beaten whites with the vanilla. Set to form in moulds wet with cold water.

CHARLOTTE RUSSE. ✠

1 lb. of lady’s-fingers. 1 quart of rich sweet cream. ¾ cup powdered sugar. 2 teaspoonfuls vanilla or other extract.

Split and trim the cakes, and fit neatly in the bottom and sides of two quart moulds. Whip the cream to a stiff froth in a syllabub-churn when you have sweetened and flavored it; fill the moulds, lay cakes closely together on the top, and set upon the ice until needed.

_Or,_

You may use for this purpose a loaf of sponge-cake, cutting strips from it for the sides and leaving the crust for the bottom and top, each in one piece.

A TIPSY CHARLOTTE. ✠

1 large stale sponge-cake. 1 pint rich sweet cream. 1 cup Sherry wine. ½ oz. Cooper’s gelatine, soaked in a cup of cold water two hours. 1 teaspoonful vanilla or bitter almond extract. 3 eggs, whites and yolks beaten together, but very light. 1 pint milk. 1 cup sugar.

Heat the cream almost to boiling; put in the soaked gelatine and half a cup of sugar, and stir until dissolved. Remove from the fire, flavor, and when cool, beat or churn to a standing froth. Cut off the top of the cake in one piece, and scoop out the middle, leaving the sides and bottom three-quarters of an inch thick. Over the inside of these pour the wine in spoonfuls, that all may be evenly moistened. Fill with the whipped cream, replace the top, which should also be moistened with wine and set in a cold place until needed.

Serve with it, or pour around it, a custard made of the eggs, milk, and the other half cup of sugar.

CHOCOLATE CHARLOTTE RUSSE. ✠

½ oz. Cooper’s gelatine, soaked in a very little cold water. 3 tablespoonfuls grated chocolate rubbed smooth in a little milk. ½ cup powdered sugar. 4 eggs. ½ lb. sponge-cake. 1 teaspoonful vanilla. 1 pint cream.

Heat the cream to boiling, slowly, stirring frequently; add the sugar, chocolate, and gelatine, and, when these are dissolved, add, a spoonful at a time, to the beaten yolks. Set back in the saucepan of boiling water, and stir five minutes, until very hot, but do not let it boil. Take it off, flavor, and whip or churn to a standing froth, adding the beaten whites toward the last. Line a mould with cake, fill with the mixture, and set upon the ice.

FLUMMERY.

2 oz. almonds—a few bitter among them. 1 tablespoonful orange-flower or rose-water. 1 pint cream. 1 oz. Cooper’s gelatine, soaked one hour in one cup cold water. 1 cup milk. ½ cup sugar.

Blanch the almonds, and, when cold, pound them to a paste in a Wedgewood mortar, adding orange-flower or rose-water to prevent oiling. Heat the _milk_ to boiling, put in the gelatine, the sugar and almonds, and stir five minutes, or until they are thoroughly dissolved. Strain through thin muslin, pressing the cloth well. When cool, beat in the cream, a little at a time, with an egg-whip, or churn in a syllabub-churn until thick and stiff. Wet your mould, put in the mixture, and let it stand seven or eight hours in a cold place.

GELATINE CHARLOTTE RUSSE. (_Very nice._) ✠

1 pint of cream, whipped light. ½ oz. gelatine, dissolved in 1 gill of hot milk. Whites of 2 eggs, beaten to a stiff froth. 1 small teacup of powdered sugar. Flavor with bitter almond and vanilla.

Mix the cream, eggs, and sugar; flavor, and beat in the gelatine and milk last. It should be quite cold before it is added.

Line a mould with slices of sponge-cake, or with lady’s fingers, and fill with the mixture.

Set upon the ice to cool.

WHIPPED SYLLABUBS.

1 pint of cream, rich and sweet. ½ cup sugar, powdered. 1 glass of wine. Vanilla or other extract, 1 large teaspoonful.

Sweeten the cream, and, when the sugar is thoroughly dissolved, churn to a strong froth. Lastly, stir in wine and seasoning, carefully. Serve at once.

Heap in glasses, and eat with cake.

GOOSEBERRY FOOL.

1 quart of gooseberries, ripe. 1 tablespoonful butter. 1 cup of sugar. Yolks of four eggs. Méringue of whites, and 3 tablespoonfuls sugar.

Stew the gooseberries in just water enough to cover them. When soft and broken, rub them through a sieve to remove the skins. While still hot beat in the butter, sugar, and the whipped yolks of the eggs. Pile in a glass dish, or in small glasses, and heap upon the top a méringue of the whipped whites and sugar.

CREAM MÉRINGUES.

4 eggs (the whites only), whipped stiff, with 1 lb. powdered sugar. Lemon or vanilla flavoring. 1 teaspoonful arrowroot.

When _very_ stiff, heap in the shape of half an egg upon stiff letter-paper lining the bottom of your baking-pan. Have them half an inch apart. Do not shut the oven-door closely, but leave a space through which you can watch them. When they are a light yellow-brown, take them out and cool quickly. Slip a thin-bladed knife under each; scoop out the soft inside, and fill with cream whipped as for Charlotte Russe.

They are very fine. The oven should be very hot.

CALF’S-FOOT JELLY.