Part 44

Boil together a cupful of sugar, one cupful of grated chocolate, one-half cupful of milk, one-quarter of a cupful of molasses. Boil, stirring often, until a little hardens in cold water. Remove from the fire, beat in a teaspoonful of vanilla, stir for a minute and turn into a buttered pan.

Chocolate fudge (No. 2)

Three pounds of light brown sugar, one-half pound of chocolate, one-half cupful of cream, one-quarter pound of butter, three tablespoonfuls of vanilla extract.

Put all into a porcelain kettle, or smooth iron pot, excepting the vanilla extract. Set on the back of the stove and let it melt slowly—two hours are none too long, if you value smooth, rich fudge. Then pull forward to boil about ten minutes. Try, at the end of seven or eight minutes, in ice-cold water, and if it “balls” in the fingers, take off and beat, adding the vanilla. Turn out into buttered tins, and score when cool enough.

Penotchie

Put over the fire in a saucepan three cupfuls of light brown sugar—not coffee sugar—with a cupful of milk and boil to the stage when dropped into cold water it makes a soft but firm ball in the fingers. Add, then, a teaspoonful of butter; take from the fire, flavor with a teaspoonful of vanilla and stir in a cupful of kernels of English walnuts, hickory nuts, or pecans, broken into pieces. Turn out upon a well-buttered shallow pan and mark into squares with a buttered knife.

This is sometimes known as “Penuchie,” sometimes as “Mexican Kisses.”

Molasses candy (No. 1)

Stir together three cupfuls of New Orleans molasses and a cupful of brown sugar. Add a gill of vinegar and put all over the fire in a porcelain-lined saucepan. Bring slowly to a boil and stir the syrup often as it cooks. Test the candy, from time to time, by dropping a bit into iced water. As soon as this bit hardens stir into the boiling syrup a heaping teaspoonful of butter; when this melts, add a teaspoonful of baking-soda dissolved in a tablespoonful of boiling water, and remove immediately from the fire. Pour into buttered tins and cut into diamond-shaped candies, or pull into ropes.

This is the good old-fashioned molasses candy of “candy pulls”—the frolics dear to our mothers’ girlish days. In my opinion it is sweeter to taste and to memory than chocolate creams or any other modern bonbon.

Molasses candy (No. 2)

Boil together a cupful of molasses, one of brown sugar, a tablespoonful of butter and a tablespoonful of vinegar. When a drop hardens in cold water remove from the fire, beat in a small teaspoonful of baking-soda, stir hard, and turn into buttered pans. As it hardens, cut into squares, or when hard break into bits.

Molasses “velvets”

One cupful of molasses, three cupfuls of sugar, one cupful of boiling water, three tablespoonfuls of vinegar, one-half teaspoonful of cream of tartar, one-half cupful of melted butter, one-fourth teaspoonful of soda. Pour the first four ingredients into a kettle placed over the front of the range. As soon as the boiling point is reached add cream of tartar. Boil until, when tried in cold water, the mixture will harden and crisp. Stir constantly during the last half hour of cooking. When nearly done add the butter and soda. Pour into a buttered pan and pull as you would plain molasses candy. Before pulling add one teaspoonful of vanilla, one-half teaspoonful of lemon extract, or any essence you may prefer.

Molasses taffy

Boil a pint of molasses for twenty minutes, then stir in two saltspoonfuls of baking-soda and boil for fifteen minutes more, or until a little dropped into cold water is brittle. You must stir the taffy constantly while boiling, or it will scorch. When it is done add a teaspoonful of vinegar and pour into buttered pans, or pull to a light brown.

Molasses walnut candy

Boil a quart of molasses for half an hour, then add a saltspoonful of baking-soda and boil until a little dropped into cold water becomes brittle. Stir in shelled and halved walnuts, and pour into a greased pan.

Molasses stick candy

Boil together a pint of molasses, two tablespoonfuls of butter, a pound of brown sugar and two tablespoonfuls of vinegar. When a little hardens in iced water remove from the fire, and, as it cools, pull into long light strips with floured finger-tips. Lay on waxed paper to harden.

Chocolate caramels (No. 1)

Heat together over a slow fire two cupfuls of brown sugar, half a cupful of molasses, half a cupful of cream, four tablespoonfuls of butter, and half a cake of Baker’s unsweetened chocolate, grated. Cool until it is brittle when dropped into cold water; flavor with a teaspoonful of vanilla, turn into a greased pan, and when cool cut into squares with a knife.

Chocolate caramels (No. 2)

Boil together two pounds of granulated sugar, a quarter of a pound of grated chocolate, a half pint of milk, a quarter of a pound of butter. Cook until a bit hardens when dropped into cold water, flavor with vanilla, pour into greased tins and mark into squares.

Opera caramels

Stir into two cupfuls of granulated sugar just enough milk to dissolve it, add a quarter teaspoonful of cream of tartar and put over a slow fire. Stir constantly while boiling until a little dropped into cold water has the consistency of putty. Pour into a shallow pan and set aside to cool until so stiff that your finger pressed on it leaves a dent. Now beat until you have a soft, dough-like mass. Knead this, put upon a pastry board sprinkled with powdered sugar, and roll into a sheet a half inch thick. Cut into squares. If you wish to make vanilla caramels of these stir in the vanilla just before taking the mixture from the fire.

Chocolate creams

Beat the white of an egg light with a teaspoonful of sugar, add a teaspoonful of vanilla and enough confectioner’s sugar to make a mixture stiff enough to be rolled into balls. Beat very smooth, then form into balls the size of a small marble, and spread in a pan to get stiff and firm. Cover with a chocolate coating.

Chocolate coating for creams

Melt sweetened chocolate in a double boiler. Run a thick skewer into each cream ball and dip in the melted chocolate until thoroughly coated. Spread on buttered tins to dry; or, spread upon waxed paper.

Chocolate marshmallows

Buy two ounces of finely powdered white gum arabic and let it stand, covered with eight tablespoonfuls of cold water, for an hour. Put it then into a double boiler, and let it heat slowly until the gum is dissolved. Strain through a cheese-cloth, wash out the double boiler and return the gum arabic to this with seven ounces of powdered sugar and two tablespoonfuls of grated chocolate. Stir over the fire for about three-quarters of an hour. At the end of this time the mixture should be stiff. Take from the fire, beat rapidly for two minutes, put in a teaspoonful of vanilla, and pour into a pan which has been well dusted with corn-starch. When cold cut into squares.

Fondant for cream candies

To one pound of granulated sugar put into a granite saucepan, add a gill and a half of boiling water, and stir until the sugar is dissolved—no longer. Let the syrup boil about six minutes, and dip a fork into it. Try this, holding up the fork and watching the syrup on the point, until this has reached a stage where it spins a thread. Test it still further by dropping a little of the boiling sugar into iced water. When it can be made into a very soft ball with the fingers, turn it out on a large platter, which has been lightly buttered. Be careful not to stir the sugar when boiling, and do not scrape off the sugar that adheres to the side of the saucepan. As soon as the syrup in the dish is blood-warm, stir it with a wooden spoon, or paddle, until it begins to crumble. It should be a smooth white mass, and when it has come to this stage should be kneaded in the hands like dough. Pack it into a bowl, cover it with a thin cloth, slightly moistened, and set it away until needed.

Chop nuts and roll in this fondant, or roll in it whole. Citron cut into strips may be coated with it.

Cream dates

Stone dates, opening at one side only, fill with fondant, close gently into the original shape and sprinkle with sugar.

Butterscotch

Wet a pound of brown sugar with a cupful of water, into which two tablespoonfuls of vinegar have been stirred. Put into an agate saucepan. Cook for ten minutes, add four tablespoonfuls of butter and boil until a drop hardens in cold water. Pour into large buttered tins, and as it cools, mark off into squares.

Lemon butter

Boil together half a pound of brown sugar, a tablespoonful of vinegar and a gill of water for ten minutes, and add a heaping tablespoonful of butter. Boil until the candy becomes brittle when dropped into cold water, and take from the fire. Add to it the juice of a lemon and pour into a shallow, well-greased pan.

Hoarhound candy (made from fresh leaves)

Make a strong solution of hoarhound leaves; strain this, and put a quarter of a cupful of it over the fire with a pound of brown sugar and a very little water. Cook until a little dropped in cold water is brittle. Add a tablespoonful of vinegar, boil up once and turn into greased tins.

Hoarhound candy (made from dried leaves)

Steep a heaping tablespoonful of dried hoarhound leaves in half a cupful of boiling water for one hour, then strain and squeeze. Add the liquid to two cupfuls of brown sugar, put over the fire in a saucepan, and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Put in a tablespoonful of vinegar and boil until the candy breaks when dropped into cold water. Drop from the point of the spoon upon buttered paper, or pour into a pan and cut into squares.

Wintergreen candy

Made as directed in last recipes, substituting wintergreen for hoarhound.

Walnut creams

Beat the whites of an egg very light with enough XXX sugar to make it very stiff. Now add cream, a few drops at a time, until the mixture is of the consistency of putty, working it with the hands until it is soft and smooth. Flavor with vanilla, or with lemon juice and the grated rind. Roll into small balls, flatten these, and press a half walnut on each side of every ball.

French cream almonds

Four cupfuls of granulated sugar; one cupful of boiling water; two tablespoonfuls of glucose.

Stir until mixed and dissolved, then cover, and boil until the syrup strings. Pour into a crock and allow it to stand undisturbed until cool enough for you to hold your finger in it. Stir with a wooden spoon until thick; pour upon a marble slab and knead all lumps out. Work in flavoring and coloring if desired. Mold into balls and press a blanched almond on the top of each ball.

Creamed English walnuts

For this use the large English walnuts, cracking them carefully so as not to break the kernels. Remove each half in one piece and free it from all bits of shell.

Heat over boiling water half a pound of fondant like that for which directions have been given in the recipe for chocolate creams. Flavor it with a teaspoonful of vanilla extract, stir it until it becomes creamy and dip into it with a pair of small sugar tongs the half of the walnut. Lift it out carefully and lay it on waxed paper until it is dry.

Or you may make a fondant of another kind by mixing the white of an egg with an equal quantity of cold water and stirring into it enough confectioner’s sugar of the variety known as “XXX” to make a dough-like paste that can be handled with the fingers. This may be flavored to taste with vanilla or bitter almond, or any other extract, and formed with the fingers into small balls. To each side of this may be pressed the flat surface of an English walnut kernel. They may then be laid on waxed paper in a box.

Peanut candy

Boil together two and one-half cupfuls of sugar and a gill of water, without stirring, until a little, when dropped into cold water, can be worked into a soft ball. Now add a tablespoonful of butter and boil until the candy hardens when dropped into cold water. Stir in a cupful of shelled, roasted and skinned peanuts, turn the mixture into a buttered pan and cut into squares.

Peanut molasses candy

Boil together a cupful, each, of molasses and brown sugar, a tablespoonful of vinegar and two of butter. When a little, dropped into cold water, is brittle, add a cupful of shelled, roasted and skinned peanuts, remove at once from the fire, add a teaspoonful (scant) of baking-soda, beat hard, and pour into buttered pans.

Nougat

Boil together a pound of sugar and a half cupful of cold water until it becomes brittle if dropped into cold water. Cover the bottom of a well-buttered shallow tin with nut kernels—hickory, walnut and pecans, blanched almonds, strips of cocoanut, bits of figs, dates and the like. Add a tablespoonful of lemon juice to the candy when it is done, and pour it over the fruit and nuts in the pan. Let it get cold and mark into squares and strips.

Creamed burnt almonds

Put two cupfuls of granulated sugar into a saucepan with two tablespoonfuls of water, set over the fire and stir continually with a wooden spoon. As soon as it is well melted, move it to one side of the fire, drop in the blanched almonds, and take them out at once with a perforated spoon, or candy dipper. Lay them on buttered dishes to harden.

Creamed grapes

Make a syrup of a pound of sugar and a gill of water. Boil without stirring until a drop put into iced water becomes brittle. Remove from the fire, set in an outer pan of boiling water, and add to the syrup a dessertspoonful of lemon juice. Run a stiff wire or the prong of a pickle fork through each grape, and dip them, one by one, in the hot syrup, then lay on waxed paper to dry.

Creamed popcorn

Make a syrup as for creamed grapes in the recipe given above, but omit the lemon juice. Drop into the syrup enough crisp popcorn to make it thick; take out this, after stirring for half a minute, by the great spoonful and lay on greased paper. As the mass hardens roll a spoonful of it into a ball, then roll this over and over in freshly popped and sugared corn, until the white kernels adhere to the sticky ball.

Popcorn balls

Make an old-fashioned molasses candy, and just before removing from the fire, stir in enough popcorn to thicken it. Take the mixture out by the spoonful and roll, as soon as it can be handled, into balls, then roll these over and over in kernels of popcorn until no more will adhere to the balls.

Sugared peanuts

Prepare as you would salted nuts, but substitute butter for oil, and fine sugar for salt, after you have rolled the nuts in the white of an egg, beaten light. Spread out upon white paper to dry in the sun, or in a moderate oven.

Orange straws

Select thick-skinned oranges, and cut the peel in strips a quarter inch wide. Have a pan of boiling water on the stove, and place as many pieces of the peel in the water as you can easily handle. Let it boil five minutes, drain, cover again with boiling water, boil five minutes more, drain again, once more cover with boiling water and boil five minutes, making fifteen in all. Drain thoroughly, then make a syrup of one teacupful of sugar to three tablespoonfuls of water; when this boils add the peel, and cook until this is absorbed (about twenty minutes); remove from the pan, and, while hot, roll each straw in granulated sugar which you have placed previously upon clean paper. Then put each straw on paper in a pan until the bottom of the pan is covered, and place in a warm oven until all are dry. Have the sugar to roll the straws in and all ingredients ready before beginning the cooking, as the straws must be handled very rapidly. They will keep for weeks and not become sticky. One cup of sugar will do for five oranges.

Candied orange peel

When peeling the orange cut the rind into quarters, then cut into long strips. Put into a pan, cover with cold water, bring to the boil and drain. To six oranges allow one and a half cupfuls of granulated sugar and a cupful of water; put these into a granite saucepan and bring to a hard boil. Add the orange peel and boil down quickly, taking care not to burn. When the liquid is almost cooked away take the saucepan off the stove and stir in a cupful of sugar. Stir until almost cold, pick apart with the fingers, and lay on a plate.

Candied pineapple

Peel, slice and weigh the pineapple, and allow a pound and a half of granulated sugar to each pound of fruit. Put the fruit and sugar together in a granite kettle and add just enough water to cover the fruit. Boil until the fruit is tender, remove and spread on a dish to cool while you boil the syrup until very thick. Now lay in the pineapple; cook and stir for five minutes more, and then spread the sliced fruit on platters until dry and “candied.”

Candied citron

Peel and core the citron and cut into strips. Weigh the fruit, and allow a pound of sugar to each pound of the citron strips. Make a syrup, allowing a cupful of water to each pound of sugar. Cook the citron in this until it is tender; remove and spread on dishes. Boil in the syrup enough ginger to give a slight flavor, and when the syrup is very thick stir in a little lemon juice. Now lay the strips of citron back in the syrup, and stir until candied and coated with sugar. Lay on a platter to cool and dry.

Marshmallows

Soak four ounces of pulverized gum arabic in a teacupful of cold water for two hours. Put into a double boiler with cold water in the outer vessel and bring gradually to the scalding point. When the gum is dissolved, strain through coarse muslin, return to the double boiler with a heaping cupful of powdered sugar, and stir steadily until the mixture is white and stiff. Remove from the fire, beat very hard for a minute and flavor with vanilla; beat a minute longer, and pour into tins, the insides of which have been rubbed with corn-starch. When the paste is cool cut it into squares of uniform size and turn each of these over and over in a mixture made of three parts corn-starch and one part powdered sugar. Keep packed in a tin box until wanted, as they soon dry if exposed to the air.

Peanut brittle

Boil together a cupful, each, of molasses and brown sugar, a tablespoonful of vinegar and two tablespoonfuls of butter. When a little dropped into cold water is brittle, add a cupful of blanched peanuts; remove at once from the fire, add a teaspoonful of baking-soda, beat hard, and pour into buttered pans.

Hickory nut candy

Prepare half a cupful of hickory nut kernels by chopping them. Boil together one cupful of “A” sugar, one-third of a cupful of water, and a piece of butter the size of a walnut until it makes a soft lump when tested in water. Remove from the fire and stir in the nuts. When it begins to look cloudy, pour by the spoonful into buttered tins. It will spread into flat cakes.

Maple nut candy

Butter a shallow tin and cover the bottom with butternut meats. Place on the cooler part of the stove one quart of maple sugar and one cupful of water. Cook slowly and test in water. When done, pour over the nut meats. Before it hardens, mark into squares.

Crystallized fruits

Make a syrup of a pound of sugar and a gill of water. Boil, without stirring, until a drop put into iced water becomes immediately brittle. Remove the saucepan from the fire and set it at once in an outer pan of boiling water. Add to the syrup the juice of a quarter of a lemon. Run the prongs of a sharp pickle fork through each piece of fruit to be candied, and dip it in the hot syrup. Lay on buttered or waxed paper to dry.

Stuffed dates

Remove the stones from dates and fill with a mixture made as follows:

Put into an agate saucepan one cupful of granulated sugar and a gill of cold water, with half a saltspoonful of cream of tartar. Stir just long enough to dissolve the sugar, then boil, without touching, until a drop put into cold water can be formed into a soft ball. Remove from the fire immediately, skim off every particle of crust, if there be any upon the surface of the syrup, and pour the syrup into a bowl. When so cool and thick that the finger leaves a dent when pressed upon it, stir with a wooden spoon to a smooth white paste. When too stiff to stir with a spoon, work the mixture with the hands. This filling will keep for weeks. When you wish to use it, set the cup containing it in a pan of hot water until soft enough to handle.

Slippery-elm cough candy

Soak a good handful of dried slippery-elm bark in a pint of water all night. In the morning bring it to a boil, strain and press to get out all the mucilaginous matter, and put the liquid thus obtained over a slow fire with two cupfuls of sugar. Wet the sugar well with lemon juice before adding it to the slippery-elm tea. Simmer, stirring until the sugar dissolves. When the candy “ropes” pour it out into broad buttered tins and mark into squares. You may pull it white if you like. It is palatable and excellent for colds and coughs.

AFTERNOON TEA

In every respectable English dwelling, be it palace or cottage, tea is served between four and five o’clock every afternoon in the year. The crone in the almshouse takes hers direct from the hob in winter, and in summer hobbles with her black teapot, a teaspoonful of the precious leaves in the bottom, to the common kitchen to have it filled. Her betters in name and in worldly gear assemble about the tea equipage in drawing room or library, or in the family “parlor.”

For the wealthy there are tea-tables of divers patterns, some with leaves that draw out to accommodate cups and saucers when set in array. The conventional afternoon tea-table is lower than that intended to hold bric-a-brac and books. The chair occupied by the mistress of the house or one of her daughters is low and broad, that she may sit at her ease while making and dispensing the beverage. The central figure upon the tray is a teakettle of silver, copper, brass or lacquered Japanese ware, with a spirit lamp beneath. When the water boils the tea is “masked,” _i. e._, a little is poured upon the dry leaves in the pot, a wadded “cozy” is fitted over the latter, and the tea is “drawn” for about two minutes before the rest of the water is added.

The cups are passed by a servant if none of the young people of the family or intimate friends are present to whom the graceful task can be delegated. The tone of the whole function is easy sociability.

This is especially marked in the English country house, where sportsmen, who have been out with the dogs and gamekeeper all day, are allowed to drift into the drawing-room, in splashed gaiters and knickerbockers, for a chat and a cup of hot tea before going off to dress for dinner.

As accompaniments to the tea we have a basket of light cakes or biscuits, thin bread and butter, now and then buttered scones or “tea cake.” Anything more elaborate mars the simplicity of the custom, perverting it into an “occasion.” It ceases to be afternoon tea, a rest station between the one o’clock luncheon and the seven or eight o’clock dinner. In some towns and cities—particularly in the lavish South—the effort to introduce this simplest of social functions has failed ignominiously, because—like dish-washing, toast-making and tea-making, speaking the truth and spelling correctly—the right way of doing it is too easy to learn. The “spread” of oysters, salads, cakes and creams, bouillon and bonbons, flummery and fruit, into which the imported custom degenerated, was as foreign to the true spirit of the original as the crush of elaborately dressed women and the sprinkle of uncomfortable men who attended the teas was to the cordial informality that should obtain with guests and entertainers.