Part 31

PINK CHAMPAGNE JELLY.--Beat up the white of an egg to a stiff froth, and then stir it hard into three wine-glasses of filtered water. Put twelve ounces of the best double-refined loaf-sugar (powdered fine and sifted) into a skillet lined with porcelain. Pour on it the white of egg and water, and stir it till dissolved. Then add twelve grains of cochineal powder. Set it over a moderate fire, and boil it and skim it till the scum ceases to rise. Then strain it through a very fine sieve. Have ready an ounce and a half of isinglass that has been boiled in a little water till quite dissolved. Strain it, and while the boiled sugar is lukewarm mix it with the isinglass, adding a pint of pink champagne and the juice of a large lemon. Run it through a linen bag into a mould. When it has congealed so as to be quite firm, wrap a wet cloth round the outside of the mould, and turn out the jelly into a glass dish; or serve it broken up, in jelly glasses, or glass cups.

Jelly may be made in a similar manner of Madeira, marasquin, or noyau.

A CHARLOTTE RUSSE.--Boil in half a pint of milk a split vanilla bean, till all the flavour is extracted. Then strain the milk, and when it is cold stir into it the yolks of four beaten eggs, and a quarter of a pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Simmer this custard five minutes over hot coals, but do not let it come to a boil. Then set it away to cool. Having boiled an ounce of the best Russian isinglass in a pint of water till it is entirely dissolved and the water reduced to one-half, strain it into the custard, stir it hard, and set it aside to get quite cold.

Whip to a stiff froth a quart of rich cream, taking it off in spoonfuls as you do it, and putting it to drain on an inverted sieve. When the custard is quite cold, (but not yet set or congealing,) stir the whipt cream gradually into it.

Take a circular mould of the shape of a drum, the sides being straight. Cut to fit it two round slices from the top and bottom of an almond sponge-cake; glaze them with white of egg, and lay one on at the bottom of the mould, reserving the other for the top. You can get the mould at a tinner's.

Having thus covered the bottom, line the sides of the mould with more of the sponge-cake, cut into long squares and glazed all over with white of egg. They must be placed so as to stand up all round--each wrapping a little over the other so as to leave not the smallest vacancy between; and they must be cut exactly the height of the mould, and trimmed evenly. Then fill up with the custard and cream when it is just beginning to congeal; and cover the top with the other round slice of cake.

Set the mould in a tub of pounded ice mixed with coarse salt; and let it remain forty minutes, or near an hour. Then turn out the Charlotte on a china dish. Have ready an icing, made in the usual manner of beaten white of egg and powdered sugar, flavoured with essence of lemon. Spread it smoothly over the top of the Charlotte, which when the icing is dry will be ready to serve. They are introduced at large parties, and it is usual to have two or four of them.

A CHARLOTTE POLONAISE.--Boil over a slow fire a pint and a half of cream. While it is boiling have ready six yolks of eggs, beaten up with two table-spoonfuls of powdered arrow-root, or fine flour. Stir this gradually into the boiling cream, taking care to have it perfectly smooth and free from lumps. Ten minutes will suffice for the egg and cream to boil together. Then divide the mixture by putting it into two separate sauce-pans.

Then mix with it, in one of the pans, six ounces of chocolate scraped fine, two ounces of powdered loaf-sugar, and a quarter of a pound of maccaroons, broken up. When it has come to a hard boil, take it off, stir it well, pour it into a bowl, and set it away to cool.

Have ready, for the other sauce-pan of cream and egg, a dozen bitter almonds, and four ounces of shelled sweet almonds or pistachio nuts, all blanched and pounded in a mortar with rose-water to a smooth paste, and mixed with an ounce of citron also pounded. Add four ounces of powdered sugar; and to colour it green, two large spoonfuls of spinach juice that has been strained through a sieve. Stir this mixture into the other half of the cream, and let it come to a boil. Then put it aside to cool.

Cut a large sponge-cake into slices half an inch thick. Spread one slice thickly with the chocolate cream, and cover another slice with the almond cream. Do this alternately (piling them evenly on a china dish) till all the ingredients are used up. You may arrange it in the original form of the sponge-cake before it was cut, or in a pyramid. Have ready the whites of the six eggs whipped to a stiff froth, with which have been gradually mixed six ounces of powdered sugar, and twelve drops of oil of lemon. With a spoon heap this meringue (as the French call it) all over the pile of cake, &c., and then sift powdered sugar over it. Set it in a very slow oven till the outside becomes a light brown colour.

Serve it up cold, ornamented according to your taste.

If you find the chocolate cream too thin, add more maccaroons. If the almond cream is too thin, mix in more pounded citron. If either of the mixtures is too thick, dilute it with more cream.

This is superior to a Charlotte Russe.

APPLE COMPOTE.--Take large ripe pippin apples. Pare, core, and weigh them, and to each pound allow a pound of fine loaf-sugar and two lemons. Parboil the apples, and then set them out to cool. Pare off very nicely with a penknife the yellow rind of the lemons, taking care not to break it; and then with scissors trim the edges to an even width all along. Put the lemon-rind to boil in a little sauce-pan by itself, till it becomes tender, and then set it to cool. Allow half a pint of water to each pound of sugar; and when it is melted, set it on the fire in the preserving kettle, put in the apples, and boil them slowly till they are clear and tender all through, but not till they break; skimming the syrup carefully. After you have taken out the apples, add the lemon-juice, put in the lemon-peel, and boil it till quite transparent. When the whole is cold, put the apples with the syrup into glass dishes, and dispose the wreaths of lemon-peel fancifully about them.

SOUR MILK.--To recover milk that has turned sour, stir in powdered carbonate of magnesia, of which allow a heaped tea-spoonful to each quart of milk.

APPENDIX,

CONTAINING NEW RECEIPTS.

ORANGE CAKE.--Take four ripe oranges, and roll them under your hand on the table. Break up a pound of the best loaf-sugar, and on some of the pieces rub off the yellow rind of the oranges. Then cut the oranges, and squeeze their juice through a strainer. Powder the sugar, and mix the orange-juice with it; reserving a little of the juice to flavour the icing. Wash, and squeeze in a pan of cold water, a pound of the best _fresh_ butter, till you have extracted whatever milk and salt may have been in it, as they will impede the lightness of the cake. Cut up the butter in the pan of sugar and orange, and stir it hard till perfectly light, white, and creamy. Sift into a pan fourteen ounces (two ounces less than a pound) of fine flour. Beat ten eggs till they are as thick and smooth as a fine boiled custard. Then stir them, by degrees, into the butter and sugar, alternately with the flour, a little of each at a time. Continue to beat the whole very hard for some time after all the ingredients are in; as this cake requires a great deal of beating. Have ready a large square, shallow pan, well buttered. Put in the mixture, and set it immediately into a brisk oven. It must be thoroughly baked, otherwise it will be heavy, streaked, and unfit to eat. The time of baking must of course be in proportion to its thickness, but it requires a much longer time than pound-cake, queen-cake, or Spanish buns. When it shrinks from the sides of the pan, and looks as if done, try it by sticking in the middle of it, down to the bottom, a twig from a corn-broom, or something similar. If the twig comes out dry and clean, the cake is done; but if the twig remains moist and clammy, let the cake remain longer in the oven. When it is quite done, make an icing of beaten white of egg, and powdered loaf-sugar, mixed with a spoonful or more of orange juice. Dredge the cake with flour, then wipe off the flour and spread on the icing thick and evenly, scoring it in large squares. Before you put it into baskets, cut the cake into squares about the usual size of a Spanish bun. It should be eaten fresh, being best the day it is baked.

This cake will be found very fine. It is, of course, best when oranges are ripe and in perfection, as the orange flavour should be very high. We recommend that at the first trial of this receipt, the batter shall be baked in small tins, such as are used for queen-cake, or Naples biscuit, as there will thus be less risk of its being well baked than if done in a larger pan. When they seem to be done, one of the little cakes can be taken out and broken open, and if more baking is found necessary, the others can thus be continued longer in the oven. After some experience, an orange cake may be baked, like a pound cake, in a large tin pan with a tube in the centre; or in a turban mould, and handsomely iced and ornamented when done. A fine orange cake will, when cut, perfume the table.

Lemon cake may be made and baked in a similar manner, adding also a little lemon juice to the icing.

CITRON CAKE--Cut a pound of candied citron into slips. Spread it on a large dish. Sprinkle it thickly with sifted flour till it is entirely white with it, tumbling the citron about with your hands till every piece is well covered with flour. Then sift into a pan fourteen ounces (two ounces less than a pound) of flour. Beat together in a deep pan, till perfectly light, a pound of fresh butter cut up in a pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Then add, by degrees, a glass of wine, a glass of brandy, and a table-spoonful of powdered mace and cinnamon mixed, and a powdered nutmeg. Have ready twelve eggs beaten in a shallow pan till very smooth and thick. Stir the beaten egg into the beaten butter and sugar, alternately with the flour and citron, a little at a time of each. Then, at the last, stir the whole very hard. Butter a large tin pan (one with a tube in the centre will be best), put in the mixture, set it directly in a moderate oven, and bake it at least four hours. Put it on an inverted sieve to cool.

When the cake is cool, ice and ornament it.

Common pound cakes are now very much out of use. They are considered old-fashioned.

BOSTON CREAM CAKES--From a quart of rich milk or cream take half a pint, and put it into a small saucepan, with a vanilla bean, and a stick of the best Ceylon cinnamon, broken in pieces. Cover the saucepan closely, and let it boil till the milk is highly flavoured with the vanilla and cinnamon. Then strain it, take out the vanilla bean, wipe it, and put it away, as it will do for the same purpose a second time. Mix the flavoured milk with the other pint and a half, and let it get quite cold. Beat very light _the yolks only_ of twelve eggs, and stir them into the milk alternately with a quarter of a pound, or more, of powdered white sugar. Put this custard mixture into a tin pan, set it in a Dutch oven or something similar, pour round the pan some boiling water, enough to reach half-way up its sides, and bake the custard ten minutes. Instead of vanilla, you may flavour the custard by boiling, in the half pint of milk, a handful of bitter almonds or peach kernels, blanched and broken in half, and stirring into the custard when it has done baking, but is still hot, a wine glass of rose water. As rose water loses most of its taste by cooking, it is best, when practicable, to add it after the article is taken from the fire.

In the mean time let another mixture be prepared as follows. Sift half a pound of fine flour, cut up half a pound of fresh butter in a pint of rich milk, and set it on a stove or near the fire till the butter is soft but not melted. Then stir it well and take it off. Beat eight whole eggs very light, and stir them gradually into the milk and butter, in turn with the flour. Take care to have this batter very smooth, and quite free from lumps. Having beaten and stirred it thoroughly, put it in equal portions into deep pattypans with plain unscolloped sides, filling them but little more than half, so as to allow space for the cakes to rise in baking. The pattypans must be previously buttered. When the mixture is in, sprinkle powdered loaf-sugar over the top of each. Set them immediately into a brisk oven, and bake them about a quarter of an hour, or twenty minutes. They must be well browned. When done, take them out, and open in the side of each (while quite hot) a slit or cut, large enough to admit a portion of the custard that has been made for them. Put in with a spoon as much of this custard as will amply fill the cavity or hollow in the middle of each cake. Then close the slit nicely, by pinching and smoothing it with your thumb and finger, and set the cakes to cool. They should be eaten fresh. In summer they will not keep till next day unless they are set on ice. If properly made, they will be found delicious.

CONNECTICUT LOAF CAKE.--For this cake you must prepare, the day before, three pounds of sifted flour, two pounds of powdered white sugar, four nutmegs, and a quarter of an ounce of mace powdered fine; two pounds of stoned raisins, two pounds of currants, picked, washed, and dried (or you may substitute for the currants two additional pounds of raisins), and half a pound of citron cut large. The raisins, currants, and citron must be spread on a large dish, and dredged thickly over with flour, which must be mixed well among them with your hands, so as to coat them all completely. This is to prevent their sinking in a clod to the bottom while the cake is baking, and should always be done with whatever fruit is used in either cakes or puddings. Put the spice into half a pint of white wine, cover it, and let it infuse all night. Next morning, have ready two pounds of the best fresh butter, cut small; six eggs well beaten; a pint of warm new milk; and half a pint of fresh strong yeast, procured, if possible, from a brewer or baker. Rub half the butter into the flour, adding half the sugar; wet it with the milk, and add half of the eggs, and the wine, and the yeast. Stir and mix it thoroughly. Then cover it and set it to rise. It should be perfectly light by evening. Then add the remainder of the butter and the sugar, and the rest of the egg. Mix it well, and set it again to rise till early next morning. Then add gradually the fruit, setting it again to rise for two or three hours. When it is perfectly light for the last time, butter a large deep pan, and put in the mixture. The oven must first be made _very hot_, and then allowed to cool down so as to bake rather slowly. If too hot, it will scorch and crust the cake on the outside, so as to prevent the heat from penetrating any farther, and the inside will then be soddened and heavy. A common-sized loaf-cake may remain in the oven from three to four hours.

CLOVE CAKES.--Rub a pound of fresh butter (cut up) into three pounds of sifted flour; adding, by degrees, a pound of fine brown sugar, half an ounce of cloves ground or powdered, and sufficient West India molasses to wet the whole into a stiff dough, mixing in at the last a small tea-spoonful of sal-aratus dissolved in tepid water. Roll the dough out into a sheet of paste, and cut out the cakes with a tin stamp, or with the edge of a tumbler. Put them in buttered pans, and bake them a quarter of an hour or more. They will continue good a long time, if kept dry, and are excellent to take to sea.

SOFT GINGERBREAD.--Beat to a cream half a pound of fresh butter cut up in a deep pan, among half a pound of brown sugar, and at the beginning set near the fire to soften it a little, but not to melt it. Add two large table-spoonfuls of ginger, a tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon, and a tea-spoonful of powdered cloves. Then stir into it, alternately, a pint of West India molasses, and three pints of sifted flour, and six well-beaten eggs. Lastly, dissolve a small tea-spoonful of pearl-ash in a pint of _sour_ milk, and stir it, while foaming, into the mixture. Put it immediately into shallow square tin pans, well buttered, and place it in an oven not too hot, or it will burn the outside, and leave the inside raw and heavy. This cake requires long beating, and much baking.

FINE COOKIES.--Sift into a pan five large tea-cupsful of flour, and rub into it one tea-cup of fresh butter; add two cups of powdered white sugar, and a handful or two of carraway seeds; wet it with an egg well beaten, and a little rose-water. Add, at the last, a small tea-spoonful of sal-aratus dissolved in a very little lukewarm water. Knead the whole well. Roll it out into a sheet. Cut it into cakes with a stamp or a tumbler edge; put them into a buttered pan, and bake them about fifteen minutes. Instead of carraway seeds, you may use currants, picked, washed, and dried.

INDIAN CUP CAKES.--Sift a pint and a half of yellow Indian meal, and mix it with half a pint wheat flour. Beat two eggs very light, and then stir them gradually into the meal, in turn with almost a quart of _sour_ milk. If you have no sour milk from the preceding day, you can turn some sweet milk sour by setting it in the sun. Lastly, dissolve a tea-spoonful of sal-aratus, or a very small tea-spoonful of pearl-ash in a little of the sour milk reserved for the purpose. The batter must be as thick as that for a pound-cake. More Indian meal may be necessary. Stir it at the last into the mixture, which, while foaming, must be put into buttered cups, or little tin pans, and set immediately into an oven, brisk but not too hot. When well baked, turn out the cakes, and send them warm to the breakfast-table. Eat them with butter.

BRAN BATTER-CAKES.--Mix a quart of bran with a handful of wheat flour, and a level tea-spoonful of salt. Pour in sufficient milk-warm water to make a thick batter. Add two table-spoonfuls of brewer's yeast, or three, if home-made; and stir it very hard. Cover it, and set it by the fire to rise. Half an hour before you begin to bake, you may add a salt-spoonful of soda, melted in a little warm water. Bake it like buckwheat cakes, on a griddle.

APPLE BREAD PUDDING.--Pare, core, and slice thin, a dozen or more fine juicy pippins, or bell-flowers, strewing among them some bits of the yellow rind of a large lemon that has been pared very thin, and squeezing over them the juice of the lemon. Or substitute a tea-spoonful of essence of lemon. Cover the bottom of a large deep dish with a thick layer of the sliced apples. Strew it thickly with brown sugar Then scatter on a few very small bits of the best fresh butter. Next strew over it a thin layer of grated bread-crumbs. Afterwards another thick layer of apple, followed by sugar, butter, and bread-crumbs as before. Continue this till you get the dish full, finishing with a thin layer of crumbs. Put the dish into a moderate oven, and bake the pudding well, ascertaining that the apples are thoroughly done and as soft as marmalade. Send it to table either hot or cold, and eat it with cream-sauce, or with butter, sugar, and nutmeg, stirred to a cream. This pudding is in some places called by the homely names of Brown Betty, or Pan Dowdy. It will require far less baking, if the apples are previously stewed soft, and afterwards mixed with the sugar and lemon. Then put it into the dish, in layers, interspersed (as above) with bits of butter, and layers of grated crumbs. It will be much improved by the addition of a grated nutmeg, mixed with the apples.

APPLE CUSTARDS.--Take fine juicy apples, sufficient when stewed to fill two soup plates. Pare, core, and slice them. Add a lump of butter, about the size of a walnut, and the grated peel of a lemon; and stew them with as little water as can possibly keep them from burning. They must be stewed till they are quite soft all through, but not broken. Then mash them well with the back of a spoon, and make them very sweet with fine brown sugar. Squeeze in the juice of a lemon, or add a wine-glass of rose-water. When the apple is quite cold, add a grated nutmeg, a table-spoonful of brandy, and a table-spoonful of cream, mixed with a table-spoonful of finely-grated bread crumbs, and the well-beaten yolk of an egg. Stir the whole very hard. Cover the bottom and sides of two soup plates with thin puff-paste, and put a thick paste round the edges, notching it handsomely. Then fill up with the mixture, and bake it about half an hour. Or you may bake it in cups, without any paste. If for cups, prepare double the above quantity of apple and other ingredients.

Peach custards may be made in a similar manner, of fine ripe free-stone peaches, pared, stoned, quartered, and stewed without any water. Omit the lemon, and add two eggs.

NEW ENGLAND PUMPKIN PIE.--Take a quart of stewed pumpkin. Put it into a sieve, and press and strain it as dry as possible. Then set it away to get cold. Beat eight eggs very light, and stir them gradually into the pumpkin, a little at a time, in turn with a quart of rich cream and a pound of sugar. Mix together a quarter of an ounce of powdered mace, two powdered nutmegs, and a table-spoonful of ground ginger, and stir them into the other ingredients. When all is mixed, stir the whole very hard. Cover the bottom of your pie-dishes with a thin paste, and fill them nearly to the top with the mixture. Cut out narrow stripes of paste with your jagging-iron, and lay them across the tops of your pies. Bake them from an hour to an hour and a quarter. Send them to table cool. They are best the day they are baked. Some persons prefer them without any paste beneath, the dishes being filled entirely with the mixture; and if they have broad edges, a border of thick puff-paste may be laid along the edge, and handsomely notched. We think this the best way; as paste that is baked under any mixture that has milk and eggs in it, is liable, in consequence of the moisture, to become clammy and heavy, and is therefore unwholesome.

WEST INDIA COCOA-NUT PUDDING.--Cut up and skin a large ripe cocoa-nut, and grate it fine. Then put the grated cocoa-nut into a clean cloth, and squeeze and press it till all the moisture is taken out. Spread it on a broad tin pan, and stand it up to dry, either in the sun or before the fire, stirring it up occasionally with your hands. When quite dry weigh a pound of it. Beat very light sixteen eggs (omitting the whites of four) and then beat into them, gradually, a pound of powdered loaf-sugar, and a wine glass of rose-water. Then give the whole a hard stirring. Put the mixture into deep dishes, and lay puff-paste round their edges handsomely notched. Bake them about half an hour. Send them to table cold with white sugar grated over the top.

YANKEE TEA CAKES.--Cut up half a pound of fresh butter in a pint of milk, and warm it a little, so as to soften but not melt the butter. Add, gradually, half a pound of powdered white sugar, in turn with three well-beaten eggs, and a pound of sifted flour, finishing with half a jill of strong fresh yeast. Set the mixture in a warm place to rise. It will most probably be five hours before it is light enough to bake, and it should therefore be made in the forenoon. When it has risen high, and the top is covered with bubbles, butter some cups, and bake it in them about twenty minutes. When done, turn the cakes out on large plates; send them to table hot, and split and butter them. To open these cakes, pull them apart with your fingers.