Part 6

Then have ready the same quantity of ripe currants. Squeeze them through a linen bag which has been wrung out of cold water. Prepare a pound of loaf-sugar for each pint of currant juice. Put the sugar into a preserving-kettle, and pour the currant-juice over it. When it has melted, set it on the fire, and boil and skim it for ten minutes. When no more scum rises, put in the raspberries. As soon as they are all scalded, take off the kettle, cover it, and set it away for two hours. Then put it again on the fire for about five minutes. Afterward set it again away for two hours, and then return it to the fire as before. This must be done three times in all, but on no account allow the raspberries to boil. If done with care, they will be whole and transparent.

When cold, put them up in glasses.

* * * * *

If you preserve white raspberries, do them in the juice of white currants.

* * * * *

Any other fruit may be done in jelly in the same manner.

ORANGE JELLY.

Peel twelve large sweet oranges, and cut them into small pieces. Put them into a linen bag, and squeeze out all the juice. Measure the juice, and if it does not amount to a pint, squeeze some more pieces of orange through the bag. Put a pound of double-refined loaf-sugar into a preserving kettle, and pour the juice over it. When the sugar has melted, put it over the fire. Dissolve two ounces of isinglass in a little hot water, and add it to the jelly just as it is beginning to boil. Let it boil hard twenty minutes. Then put it into glasses, and tie it up with brandy-paper.

Lemon-jelly may be made in this manner.

CLARIFIED SUGAR, FOR PRESERVES, AND OTHER USES.

To each pound of sugar allow half a pint of water, and half the white of an egg; thus four pounds of sugar will require a quart of water and the whites of two eggs. Mix the white of egg with the water, and beat it to a froth with rods. Take two thirds of the water, and pour it over the sugar. When it has melted, set it over the fire. When it rises and boils, pour in a little more of the water, and diminish the fire to abate the boiling and allow the scum to rise. Take it off, skim it well, and in five minutes set it on the fire again. When it boils a second time, add a little more water; and afterwards take it off and skim it again. Repeat this till it is quite clear, and no more scum rises. Then take it from the fire. Dip a fine napkin in warm water, wring it out, and then strain the syrup through it. Afterwards put your fruit into the syrup, and boil it till tender.

You may keep this syrup in bottles, and at any time you can put fruit into it; for instance, strawberries, raspberries plums, apricots &c. If only wanted for immediate use, you need not boil them, but send them to table in the syrup, with the advantage of their natural color and flavor.

FRUIT IN SUGAR COATS.

Prepare some of the best loaf-sugar powdered as fine as possible. Have ready some white of egg. Take some of the best and largest plums, cherries, strawberries, raspberries, apricots (peeled) or any other suitable fruit.

Dip the fruit, separately, in the white of egg, and then roll it all over in the powdered sugar, which will thus adhere to it, and form a coat. Then lay it on a dish (spreading it out so as not to touch) and set it in a cool oven to harden.

BURNT ALMONDS.

Take a pound of shelled sweet almonds, a pound of loaf-sugar, and half a pint of water. Melt the sugar in the water, and then set it over the fire. Put in the almonds, and stir them about till they are well dispersed through the sugar. Let them boil, and when you hear the almonds crack, they are sufficiently done. Take them off, and stir them till they are dry, and then put them into a wire sieve, and sift from them the loose sugar. Put this sugar again into the pan, with sufficient water to moisten it, and let it come to a boil. Then put in two spoonfuls of cochineal powder to color it red; add the almonds, and stir them over the fire till they are quite dry. Put them away in glass jars.

PEPPERMINT DROPS

Powder some fine loaf-sugar, add to it a little essence of peppermint (sufficient to give it a strong flavor) and enough of water to make it into a thick paste, which you must mix on a plate with the point of a broad knife. Then put the paste into a pan that has a lip or little spout at one side; melt it over the fire, and let it come to a boil. As soon as it boils, take it off and drop it from the lip of the pan into a clean broad tin pan or plate. Let the drops be all of the same size and shape. The tin pan that receives them must be very cold. As soon as the drops have hardened, loosen them from the tin, by slipping the point of a knife under each.

You may color them red with cochineal.

Keep them in a glass jar.

If the mixture congeals before all the drops are made, melt it again over the fire.

CHOCOLATE DROPS.

Scrape some of the best chocolate, and mix it with powdered white sugar. Moisten it with a little water, so as to make a paste. Work it on a plate with a knife. Then boil it in a pan with a lip, and pour it (a drop at a time) into a cold tin pan. While moist, sprinkle colored sugar-sand or non-pareils over the surface of each chocolate drop, which drop must be of a good shape, and about the size of a sixpence. When they are hardened, take them off the tin, by slipping under them the point of a knife.

Keep them in glass jars.

After the chocolate has boiled, make the drops as fast as possible; for if it gets cold before they are all done, it will injure it much to boil it over again.

The confectioners use for these purposes small leaden moulds, greased with oil of almonds. Into these moulds they pour the mixture, so that every thing comes out of the same size and shape.

NOUGAT.

This is a very fine confection. Take three quarters of a pound of shelled sweet almonds, and one quarter of a pound of shelled bitter almonds. Blanch them by scalding them in boiling water. Then throw them into cold water, and take them out and wipe them. Cut them into small pieces (but do not pound them,) and mix them well together.

Take a pound of loaf-sugar broken small, and mix it with half a pint of cold water, and an ounce of isinglass melted in a very little hot water. Boil the sugar, and skim it well. When it is quite clear, throw in your almonds, having first squeezed over them the juice of two lemons. Stir the almonds well through the sugar; and as soon as they are properly mixed with it, take the kettle off the fire.

Have ready a mould or a square tin pan well greased with sweet-oil. Put your mixture into it, a little at a time; dispersing the almonds equally through the sugar, before it has time to get cold. But if it does chill before the almonds are well mixed in it, set it again over the fire to melt. Turn it frequently in the mould, to prevent its sticking. When it has become a hard cake, set the mould for a moment in warm water, and turn out the nougat.

In stirring it, you had better use a wooden spoon.

ORGEAT PASTE.

Take half a pound of shelled bitter almonds, and a pound and a half of shelled sweet almonds. Blanch them, and pound them in a mortar one or two at a time, pouring in frequently a little rose-water, which will preserve their whiteness and prevent them from being oily and heavy. Pound them to a fine smooth paste, and then mix them with a pound and a half of loaf-sugar finely powdered.

Put the mixture again into the mortar, a little at a time, and pound it awhile that the sugar and almonds may be thoroughly incorporated; adding still a little rose-water.

When done, put it away in small covered pots or glasses, and it will keep several months in a cool dry place. It makes a very fine drink.

When you want to use it, put a small piece into a tumbler of cold water, and stir it till dissolved.

LIQUEURS.

To filter cordials, cover the bottom of a sieve with clean blotting paper. Pour the liquor into it (having set a vessel underneath to receive it), and let it drip through the paper and through the sieve. Renew the paper frequently, and fasten it down with pins.

This process is slow, but it makes the liquor beautifully clear.

NOYAU.

Take six ounces of peach kernels, and one ounce of bitter almonds. Break them slightly. Put them into a jug with three pints of white French brandy. Let them infuse three weeks; shaking the jug every day. Then drain the liquor from the kernels, and strain it through a linen bag. Melt three quarters of a pound of the best loaf-sugar in a pint of rose-water. Mix it with the liquor, and filter it through a sieve, the bottom of which is to be covered on the inside with blotting paper. Let the vessel which is placed underneath to receive the liquor be entirely white, that you may be the better enabled to judge of its clearness. If it is not clear the first time, repeat the filtering. Then bottle it for use.

RASPBERRY CORDIAL.

Take a quart of raspberry-juice, and half a pint of cherry-juice, the fruit having been squeezed in a linen bag after the cherries have been stoned. Mix the juices together, and dissolve in them two pounds of loaf-sugar. Then add two quarts of French brandy; put it into a jug, and let it rest five weeks. Afterwards strain it, and bottle it for use.

ROSE CORDIAL.

Take a pound of the leaves of full-blown red roses. Put them into a quart of lukewarm water, and let them infuse for two days, in a covered vessel. Then squeeze them through a linen bag, to press out all the liquid, and take as much white brandy as you have of the decoction of roses. To a pint of the infusion add half a pound of loaf-sugar, and a very small quantity of coriander and cinnamon. Put it into a jug, and let it set for two weeks. Then filter it through blotting paper, and put it into bottles.

QUINCE CORDIAL.

Pare your quinces, and scrape them to the core. Put all the scrapings into a tureen, and see that there are no seeds among them. Let the scrapings remain covered in the tureen for two days. Then put them into a linen bag, and squeeze out all the juice. Measure it, and mix it with an equal quantity of white brandy. To each pint of the mixture add half a pound of loaf-sugar, and a little cinnamon and cloves. Put it into a jug, and let it infuse for two months. Then filter it through blotting paper, and bottle it. This cordial improves by age, and is excellent.

LEMON CORDIAL.

Pare off very thin the yellow rind of some fine lemons. Cut the lemons in half, and squeeze out all the juice. To each pint of the juice, allow half a pound of loaf-sugar. Mix the juice, the peel, and the sugar together; cover it, and let it set twenty-four hours. Then mix it with an equal quantity of white brandy, put it into a jug, and let it set a month. Then strain it through a linen bag; and afterwards filter it through blotting paper, before you bottle it.

PART THE EIGHTH.

MISCELLANEOUS RECEIPTS.

FRENCH COFFEE.

Let the coffee be roasted immediately before you want to use it, as it loses much of its strength by keeping. Its color, when done, should be a fine bright brown; but by no means allow it to scorch. A cylindrical coffee-roaster that can be turned by a handle, and sets before the fire, is far preferable to a pot or a pan. Grind the coffee while warm.

If you intend to make half a dozen cups of coffee for drinking, measure six cups of water of the same size, and put the water into the coffee-pot. Set it on hot coals, and when the water boils, put in two or three chips of isinglass, or the white of an egg. Then throw in six large tea-spoonfuls of ground coffee. Stir it several times while boiling, and set it several times back from the fire to diminish the boiling gradually. When it has boiled sufficiently, remove it entirely from the coals, pour in a cup of cold water, and then put it in a corner and let it settle for half an hour. Afterwards pour it off from the grounds into another pot (which must first be scalded), and set it close to the fire, but do not let it boil again.

If you intend to serve it up with hot cream, you must make the coffee stronger. While the coffee is clearing, boil your cream or milk, and pour some of it hot into each cup of coffee.

COFFEE WITHOUT BOILING.

Coffee made without boiling is much stronger, more economical, and less troublesome than the usual way; but it requires a pot of a particular construction. The best sort of pot for this purpose is called in French a Grecque (Greek). It must be made of the best block-tin, and of a tall cylindrical shape, with the spout very near the bottom. The receptacle for the coffee-powder fits into the upper part of the coffee-pot, and must be taken out when washed. The bottom of this receiver is pierced with very small holes, and there are two other strainers, made of movable plates of tin, also covered with fine holes. These two strainers fit into the receiver. The powdered coffee is to be placed between them, so that it may filter through the lower strainer, and also through the holes at the bottom of the receiver. Having scalded the pot, put the coffee into the receiver between the two movable strainers, and pour in some water which must be boiling hard at the time. The coffee will then drain through into the lower part of the pot where the spout is, and will clear itself in passing through the holes. Shut down the lid, place the pot near the fire, and the coffee will be ready for use as soon as it has done draining through.

Allow a large tea-spoonful of the powder for each cup that you intend to have.

This mode of preparing coffee is very expeditious, and requires neither isinglass nor white of egg.

CHOCOLATE.

Never boil chocolate in milk, as that spoils the flavor; and do not scrape it, but merely cut it into pieces. To an ounce of chocolate allow a cup of boiling water.

Having first scalded the pot, put in the chocolate, pour the water on it, and boil it till one third has evaporated. Then supply that third with cream or milk, and take it immediately from the fire.

You need not stir it more than two or three times.

FINE LEMONADE.

Allow a whole lemon and four or five lumps of loaf-sugar to half a pint of cold water. Roll the lemons hard on a table to make them more juicy. Cut them in half, and squeeze them over the sugar. Then pour on the water, and stir till the sugar is dissolved. Take out whatever seeds may have fallen in. In warm weather, put a lump of ice into each glass.

PUNCH.

Take three large lemons, and roll them very hard on the table to make them more juicy. Then pare them as thin as possible. Cut out the pulp, and throw away the seeds and the white part of the rind. Put the yellow rind and the pulp into a pint of boiling water; set it on the fire, and let it boil two or three minutes. Take it off, and throw in a tea-spoonful of raw green tea of the best sort, and let it infuse about five minutes. Then strain it through linen. Stir into it three quarters of a pound of loaf-sugar, and a pint of brandy, or any other suitable liquor. Set it again over the fire, and when it is just ready to boil, remove it, and pour it into a china bowl or pitcher.

CONVENIENT LEMONADE.

Take four ounces of powdered tartaric acid, and two drachms of essential oil of lemon. Mix them together, and keep them in a well-corked phial. A table-spoonful mixed with sugar and water, will make six or eight glasses of lemonade.

It will keep about a month, but not longer, as it will then lose its strength.

FRENCH MUSTARD.

Put on a plate an ounce of the very best mustard powder, with a salt-spoon of salt, a few leaves of tarragon, and a clove of garlic minced fine. Pour on by degrees sufficient vinegar to dilute it to the proper consistence (about a wine-glassful), and mix it well with a wooden spoon. Do not use it in less than twenty-four hours after it is mixed.

POTATO FLOUR.

Potato flour is excellent for sponge-cake, and other things which require extraordinary lightness. It is also good for young children, and for convalescent sick persons.

Take the best and most mealy potatoes; pare them, and wash them through several waters. Then rasp or grate them over a tureen half full of cold water. Continue to grate the potatoes till the lower half of the tureen is filled with the pulp, so that the water may rise to the top. The mealy part of the potatoes will sink to the bottom, while the remainder or the useless part will rise to the surface. When nothing more rises, pour off the water carefully, and dry the flour which you find at the bottom. When quite dry, pound it in a mortar to a fine powder, and sift it through a sieve.

Potato flour is much lighter than that of wheat.

COLD PICKLES.

Season some of the best vinegar with a little garlic, a little tarragon, and a little sweet-oil. Put it into a glass jar, and keep it well covered. You may throw into it the green seeds of nasturtians, morella cherries, little onions, small young carrots when but a finger long, radish pods, and various other things. Keep the jar well closed, and the pickles will be as good and keep as long as if they had been boiled.

Nasturtians and cherries will keep in plain vinegar without any seasoning.

CORNICHONS, OR FRENCH CUCUMBER PICKLES.

Take ten pounds of very small cucumbers. Brush them all over to clean them well, and cut off the stems. Put them into an earthen pan with two handfuls of salt. Let them rest twenty-four hours, and then drain them. When they are well drained, put them back into the same pan, and pour in a quantity of boiling hot white wine vinegar, sufficient to cover them. Then cover the pan carefully with a lid or dish, and let the cucumbers set in the vinegar twenty-four hours. They will then be yellow. Pour the vinegar from them, and cover them with vine-leaves. Boil the vinegar again, and when it boils throw it over the cucumbers, stirring them well.

When the vinegar is cold, pour it from the cucumbers, and boil it again. Then pour it over them, and proceed in this manner four or five times, till they become of a fine green. Keep them in the interval always covered with a layer of vine-leaves, fresh each time, and also with a cloth kept down by a large dish. This, by keeping in the steam, will assist them in greening.

Then drain them on a sieve, and put them into glass jars.

Afterwards, boil some fresh white wine vinegar, first mixing in it the following seasoning. To every quart of vinegar allow half an ounce of mace, half an ounce of sliced ginger, half an ounce of whole black pepper, six cloves, a few sprigs of tarragon, and half a clove of garlic.

Boil the vinegar with these ingredients for five minutes, and then pour it hot on the pickles. Tie them up carefully. They may be used in a week.

The generality of French pickles, are made in a manner similar to those of England and America.

FINE COLOGNE WATER.

Procure at an apothecary's the following oils and have them all put into the same phial:--Oil of lemon, 2 drams; oil of rosemary, 2 drams; oil of lavender, 1 dram; oil of bergamot, 2 drams; oil of cinnamon, 10 drops; oil of cloves, 10 drops; oil of roses, 2 drops; tincture of musk, 8 drops.

Put 2 pint of highly rectified spirits of wine into a bottle, and pour the oils into it. Shake it hard for a few minutes, having corked it tightly. It will be fit for immediate use, but it improves by keeping.

If you wish it stronger, double the quantity of all the oils, but have only a pint of spirits of wine.

THE END.

Transcriber's Note

The following typographical errors were corrected:

Page Error v Green Peas Soup ib changed to Green Peas Soup ib. v Garlic Butter ib changed to Garlic Butter ib. vi Hazlenut changed to Hazelnut viii French Cakes changed to French Paste ix Chocolate Drops ib changed to Chocolate Drops ib. 16 our pounds changed to four pounds 21 marmelade changed to marmalade 31 rolled in flour changed to rolled in flour, 31 en minutes changed to ten minutes 32 SIRLOIN OF BEEF changed to SIRLOIN OF BEEF. 33 hem round changed to them round 34 pen-knife, changed to pen-knife. 67 same manner changed to same manner. 70 of brandy changed to of brandy. 73 warm water changed to warm water. 82 Ham Omelet changed to Ham Omelet. 92 over its inside changed to over its inside. 103 sieve or cullender changed to sieve or cullender. 110 through the sieve, changed to through the sieve.

The following words were inconsistently spelled or hyphenated.

bread-crumbs / breadcrumbs sauce-pan / saucepan sponge-cake / spunge-cake spongy / spungy sweet-herbs / sweet herbs

End of Project Gutenberg's Domestic French Cookery, 4th ed., by Sulpice Barue