Part 32

GELATINE JELLY.--Gelatine is used as a substitute for calves feet in making jelly. It is prepared in light yellowish sheets, and can be purchased at the druggists'. The chief advantage in gelatine is, that by keeping it in the house, you can always have it ready for use, and the jelly made with it may be commenced and finished the same day: while, if you use calves' feet, they must be boiled the day before. Also, you may chance to live in a place where calves' feet cannot at all times be procured, and then a box of gelatine, always at hand, may be found very convenient. The cost is about the same, whether the jelly is made of calves' feet or of gelatine. That of calves' feet will generally be the firmest, and will keep two or three days in a cold place or when set on ice; that of gelatine, if not used on the day that it is made, will sometimes melt and become liquid again. Its greatest recommendations are convenience and expedition. The following receipt for gelatine jelly will be found a very good one, if exactly followed.

Soak two ounces of gelatine, for twenty-five minutes, in as much cold water as will cover it. Then take it out, lay it in another vessel, pour on it two quarts of boiling water, and let it thoroughly dissolve. Afterwards set it to cool. Having rolled them under your hand on a table, pare off very thin the yellow rind of four lemons, and cut it into small bits. Break up, into little pieces, two large sticks of the best cinnamon (that of Ceylon is far preferable to any other) and a pound of the best double refined loaf-sugar. Mix together in a large bowl, the sugar, the lemon-rind, and the cinnamon; adding the juice of the lemons, the beaten white of an egg, and a pint of Malaga or any other good white wine. Add to these ingredients the dissolved gelatine, when it is cool but not yet cold. Mix the whole very well, put it into a porcelain kettle, or a very clean bell-metal one, and boil it fifteen minutes. Then pour it warm into a white flannel jelly-bag, and let it drip into a large glass bowl. On no account squeeze or press the bag, or the jelly will be dull and cloudy. After it has congealed in the bowl, set it on ice; but the sooner it goes to table the better. A warm damp day is unfavourable for making any sort of jelly.

You may flavour it with four or five oranges instead of lemons.

If you are averse to using wine in the jelly, substitute a pound of the best raisins, stemmed (but not seeded or stoned) and boiled whole with the other ingredients.

BISCUIT ICE CREAM.--This is the _biscuit glacé_ so popular in France. Take some pieces of broken loaf-sugar, and rub off on them the yellow rind of four lemons, or oranges. Then pulverize the sugar, and mix it with half a pound of loaf-sugar already powdered, and moistened with the juice of the lemons. Beat six eggs very light, and stir them gradually into a quart of cream, in turn with the sugar and lemon. Have ready some stale Naples biscuit or square sponge cakes grated very fine, and stir them gradually into the mixture, in sufficient quantity to make a thick batter, which must be beaten till perfectly smooth and free from lumps. Put it into a porcelain stew-pan, and give it one boil up, stirring it nearly all the time. Then put it into a freezer, and freeze it in the usual manner. Afterwards transfer it to a pyramid mould, and freeze it a second time for half an hour or more. When quite frozen, take it out of the mould upon a glass or china dish.

Instead of lemon or orange, you may flavour it with a vanilla bean boiled slowly in half a pint of cream, and then strained out, before you mix it with the other cream.

MACCAROON ICE CREAM.--From a quart of cream take half a pint, and boil in it slowly two ounces of bitter almonds, or peach kernels, previously blanched and broken up. Then, when it is highly flavoured with the almonds, strain the half pint and mix it with the remaining pint and a half of cream, to which add, by degrees, six eggs previously beaten till very light, and half a pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Crumble a sufficient quantity of the best almond maccaroons to make a thick batter when stirred gradually into the mixture of cream, sugar, and eggs, which must be beaten till perfectly smooth. Give it a boil, stirring it well while boiling. Then put it into a freezer, and freeze it as usual. Afterward transfer it to a pyramid mould and freeze it again. It will be found very fine if properly made.

ORANGE WATER ICE.--To four pounds of the best double refined loaf-sugar, allow a quart of water, and four dozen large ripe deep-coloured oranges. Having rolled the oranges on the table under your hand to increase the quantity of juice, wash and wipe them dry. Take pieces of the sugar and rub them on half the oranges till you have taken off on the sugar their yellow rind or zest. Then put that sugar with the remainder into a porcelain kettle, and pour on it a quart of water into which has been beaten the white of one egg. When the sugar is quite melted, set the kettle on the fire, and boil and skim it till the scum ceases to rise, and the orange-zest is entirely dissolved. Then stir in gradually the juice of the oranges, and when all is in, take it directly off the fire, lest the flavour of the juice should be weakened by boiling. Let it cool, stirring it well. Lastly, put it into a freezer surrounded by pounded ice and salt, and stir it hard for the first ten minutes. Take off the lid and repeat the stirring every five minutes till the freezing is accomplished. Turn it out into a glass bowl; having first washed off the ice and salt from the outside of the freezer, lest some of it should chance to get into the inside. Serve it on saucers.

After it has congealed in the freezer, you may transfer it to a pyramid or pine-apple mould, and freeze it a second time, which will require half an hour or more. Of course, while in the mould, it must remain undisturbed. Before you turn it out, hold round the outside of the mould a cloth dipped in cold water.

LEMON-WATER ICE.--May be made in the above manner, only that you must allow an additional pound of sugar, and use the zest or yellow rind of _all_ the lemons.

STRAWBERRY-WATER ICE.--To each pound of loaf-sugar allow half a pint of water, and three quarts of ripe strawberries. Having broken up the sugar, put it into a preserving-kettle, and pour on it the water in the above proportion. To make the syrup very clear, you may allow to each pint of water half the white of an egg beaten into the water. When the sugar has melted, and been well stirred in the water, put the kettle over the fire, and boil and skim it till the scum ceases to rise. Have ready the strawberry juice, having put the strawberries into a linen bag, and squeezed the liquid into a deep pan. As soon as you take the kettle of syrup from the fire, stir into it the strawberry juice. Then put it into a freezer, surrounded with ice broken small, and mixed with salt; twirl it round by the handles for ten minutes, and then let it freeze, frequently stirring it hard. When done, turn it out into a glass bowl, and serve it on saucers. Or you may give it a second freezing in a pyramid mould.

RASPBERRY-WATER ICE.--Is made exactly as above. You may heighten the colour of these ices by adding to the juice a little cochineal, which it is very convenient to keep in the house ready prepared. To do this, mix together an ounce of cochineal (pounded to a fine powder), a quarter of an ounce of powdered alum, and a quarter of an ounce of cream of tartar, adding a salt-spoonful of pearl-ash, and three ounces of powdered loaf-sugar. Boil them all together for ten minutes or more. Then pat the mixture into a clean new bottle, cork it tightly, and stir a little of it into any liquid you wish to colour of a fine red. With this you may give a red colour to calves' feet jelly, or blancmange, or to icing for cakes.

GRAPE-WATER ICE--Is made as above, first mashing the grapes with a wooden beetle, before you put them into the bag for squeezing the juice. Currants for water ice must also be mashed before squeezing in the bag.

PINE-APPLE WATER ICE.--Having pared and sliced a sufficient number of very ripe pine-apples, cut the slices into small bits, put them into a deep dish or a tureen, sprinkle among them powdered loaf-sugar, cover them and let them set several hours in a cool place. Then have ready a syrup made of loaf-sugar, dissolved in a little water (allowing to every two pounds of sugar a pint of water beaten with half the white of an egg), and boiled and skimmed till quite clear. Get as much pine-apple juice as you can, by squeezing through a sieve the bits of pine-apple (after they have stood some hours in the tureen), measure it, and to each pint of the boiled syrup allow a pint of juice. Mix them together while the syrup is warm from the fire. Then put it into a freezer, and proceed in the usual manner.

PEACH-WATER ICE.--Take soft, ripe, juicy, freestone peaches, pare them, stone them, and cut them in pieces. Put the pieces into a linen bag and squeeze the juice into a deep pan. Crack the stones, scald and blanch the kernels, break them in half, and, having made a syrup as in the above receipts, allowing half a pint of water to each pound of loaf-sugar, boil the kernels in the syrup, taking them out when the syrup is done. This infusion of the kernels will add greatly to the flavour. Then measure the peach-juice, allowing a pint of it to each pint of syrup, and mix them together while the syrup is hot. Then freeze it.

A FINE CHARLOTTE RUSSE.--For this purpose you must have a circular or drum-shaped tin mould, or a pair or more of them. The mould should be without a bottom. They can be procured at a tin-store, and are useful for other purposes. The day before you want the Charlotte russe, make a stiff plain jelly by boiling a set of calves' feet (four) in a gallon of water till the meat drops from the bone. It should boil slowly till the liquid is reduced to less than two quarts. Then, having strained it, measure into a pan three pints of the liquid, cover it, and set it away to congeal. Next morning, it should be a solid cake, from which you must carefully scrape off all the fat and sediment. Boil a vanilla bean in half a pint of milk, till the milk is very highly flavoured with the vanilla. Then strain it, and set it away to get cold. Take three pints of rich cream, put it into a shallow pan, set it on ice, and beat it to a stiff froth with rods or a whisk; or churn it to a foam with a little tin churn. Next, add to the cream the vanilla milk, and beat both together. Melt the jelly in a pan over the fire. Beat very light the yolks of six eggs, and then stir gradually into the beaten egg half a pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Next, add, by degrees, the melted jelly to the egg and sugar, stirring very hard. Keep the vessel sitting on ice, and continue stirring till the mixture is firm enough to retain the mark of the spoon. Then stir in the cream as quickly as possible. Have ready the tin mould, lined with the long thin cakes called lady-fingers, or finger biscuits, brushed over with beaten white of egg. They must be laid closely across each other on the bottom of a dish, and be so arranged as to stand up in a circle round the sides of the mould, each wrapping a little over the other. Then carefully put in the mixture, and cover the top with lady-fingers laid closely across. After the whole is nicely arranged, set it on ice till wanted. When you wish to turn out the Charlotte russe, (which must be done with great care,) wrap round the outside of the mould a coarse towel dipped in cold water, and lift it off from the charlotte.

Instead of lady-fingers you may use sponge-cake for the shape or form. Cut two circular slices from a large sponge-cake, one for the bottom, and one for the top of the charlotte, and for the wall or sides arrange tall, square slices of the cake, all of them standing up so as to wrap a little over each other. All the cake must be glazed with beaten white of egg.

A still easier way is to make an almond sponge-cake, and bake it in a drum-shaped mould or pan, or an oval one with straight or upright sides. When cold, cut off the top in one thin slice, and carefully cut out or hollow the middle, so as to make a space to contain the mixture of the charlotte, leaving bottom and sides standing. They must be left thin. Then, when the mixture is ready and quite cold, fill up the cake with it. It must be set on a china or glass dish, and kept on ice till wanted. It will require no turning out; and there is no risk of its breaking. The pieces that come out of the almond-cake when it is hollowed to receive the charlotte mixture, can be used for some other purpose, for instance, to mix with other cakes in a basket, or to dissolve at the bottom of a trifle.

COFFEE CUSTARD--For this purpose the coffee should be cold drawn. Take a large half pint of fresh ground coffee, which should be of the best quality, and roasted that day. Put it into a grecque or French coffee pot, such as are made with strainers inside, and have a second cover below the lid. Lay the coffee on the upper strainer, pour on it half a pint of _cold_ water, and press it down with the inner cover. Put on the outer or top-lid of the coffee-pot, and stop the mouth of the spout with a roll or wad of soft white paper, or with a closely-fitting cork, to prevent any of the aroma escaping.

When the coffee liquid has all filtered down through both the upper and lower strainers, pour it off into a bowl, and return it to the upper strainer to filter down a second time. It will then be beautifully clear, and very strong, notwithstanding that it has been made with cold water.

Have ready a custard-mixture made of eight well-beaten eggs, stirred gradually into a pint of cold rich milk or cream; and three or four table-spoonfuls of powdered loaf-sugar. Stir the cold liquid coffee gradually into it. Put it into cups. Set them in an iron oven or bake-pan with boiling water round them, reaching rather more than half-way up the sides of the cups. Bake them ten minutes or more. Then set them on ice, and send them to table quite cold.

PRESERVED LIMES, OR SMALL LEMONS.--Take limes, or small lemons that are quite ripe, and all about the same size. With a sharp penknife scoop a hole at the stalk end of each, and loosen the pulp all around the inside, taking care not to break or cut through the rind. In doing this, hold the lime over a bowl, and having extracted all the pulp and juice, (saving them in the bowl,) boil the empty limes half an hour or more in alum-water, till the rinds look clear and nearly transparent. Then drain them, and lay them for several hours in cold water, changing the water nearly every hour. At night, having changed the water once more, let the limes remain in it till next day, by which time all taste of the alum should be removed; but if it is not, give them a boil in some weak ginger tea. If you wish them very green, line the sides and bottom of a preserving-kettle with fresh vine-leaves, placed very thickly, put in the limes, and pour on as much clear cold water as will cover them, (spring or pump-water is best,) and fill up with a very thick layer of vine-leaves. Boil them slowly an hour or more. If they are not sufficiently green, repeat the process with fresh vine-leaves and fresh water. They must boil till a twig can pierce them.

After the limes have been greened, give the kettle a complete washing; or take another and proceed to make the syrup. Having weighed the limes, allow to every pound of them a pound of the best double refined loaf-sugar, and half a pint of very clear water. Break up the sugar and put it into the kettle. Then pour on to it the water, which must previously be mixed with some beaten white of egg, allowing the white of one egg to three pounds of sugar. Let the sugar dissolve in the water before you set it over the fire, stirring it well. Boil and skim the sugar, and when the scum ceases to rise, put in the limes, adding the juice that was saved from them, and which must first be strained from the pulp, seeds, &c. Boil the limes in the syrup till they are very tender and transparent. Then take them out carefully, and spread them on flat dishes. Put the syrup into a tureen, and leave it uncovered for two days.

In the mean time prepare a jelly for filling the limes. Get several dozen of fine ripe lemons. Roll them under your hand on the table, to increase the juice; cut them in half, and squeeze them through a strainer into a pitcher. To each pint of the juice allow a pound and a quarter of the best double refined loaf-sugar. Put the sugar, mixed with the lemon-juice, into a preserving-kettle, and when they are melted set it over the fire, and boil and skim it till it becomes a thick, firm jelly, which it should in twenty minutes. Try if it will congeal by taking out a little in a spoon, and placing it in the open air. If it congeals immediately, it is sufficiently done. If boiled too long it will liquefy, and will not congeal again without the assistance of isinglass. When the jelly is done, put it at once into a large bowl, and leave it uncovered.

The lemon-jelly, the syrup and the limes, being thoroughly done, and all grown cold, finish by filling the limes with the jelly; putting them, with the open part downwards, into wide-mouthed glass jars, and gently pouring on them the syrup. Cover the jars closely, and paste strong paper over the covers. Or seal the corks.

Very small, thin-skinned, ripe oranges, preserved in this manner, and filled with orange-jelly, are delicious.

If, instead of having it liquid, you wish the syrup to crystallize or candy round the fruit, put no water to the sugar, but boil it slowly a long time, with the juice only, clarified by beaten white of egg mixed with the sugar in the proportion of one white to three pounds.

Before squeezing out the juice of the lemons intended to make the jelly, it will be well to pare off very thin the yellow rind; cut it into bits, and put it into a bottle of white wine or brandy, where it will keep soft and fresh, and the infusion will make a fine flavouring for cakes, puddings, &c. The rind of lemons should never be thrown away, as it is useful for so many nice purposes. Apple-sauce and apple-pies should always be flavoured with lemon-peel.

PINE-APPLE MARMALADE.--Take the largest, ripest, and most perfect pine-apples. Pare them, and cut out whatever blemishes you may find. Weigh each pine-apple, balancing the other scale with an equal quantity of the best double refined loaf-sugar, finely powdered. Grate the pine-apples on a large dish, omitting the hard core in the centre of each. Put the grated pine-apples and the sugar into a preserving-kettle, mixing them thoroughly. Set it over a moderate fire, and boil and skim it well, at times stirring it up from the bottom. After the scum has ceased to appear, still stir, till the marmalade is done, which will generally be in half an hour after it has come to a boil; but if not clear, bright, and smooth in that time, continue to boil it longer. When done, put it into a tureen, and cover it closely, while it is growing cold. Afterwards, remove it into tumblers, covering the top of each with double white tissue-paper, cut round so as exactly to fit the inside. Lay this paper closely on the marmalade, and press it down round the edges. Then paste on covers of thick paper.

This preparation of pine-apples is far superior to the usual method of preserving it in slices. It will be found very fine for filling tart-shells, and for jelly-cake.

ORANGE DROPS.--Squeeze through a strainer the juice of a dozen or more ripe oranges. Have ready some of the best double refined loaf-sugar, powdered as fine as possible, and sifted. Mix gradually the sugar with the juice, till it is so thick you can scarcely stir it. Put it into a porcelain skillet. Set it on hot coals, or over a moderate fire, and stir it hard with a wooden spoon for five minutes after it begins to boil. Then take it off the fire, and with a silver spoon or the point of a broad knife, drop portions of the mixture upon a flat tin pan or a pewter dish, smoothing the drops, and making them of good shape and regular size, which should be about that of a cent. When cold they will easily come off the tin. They are delicious, if properly made. Never use extract or oil of orange for them, or for any thing else. It will make them taste like turpentine, and render them uneatable. Confectioners form these drops in moulds made for the purpose.

Lemon drops may be prepared in the same manner.

FINE LEMON SYRUP.--The best time for making lemon syrup is early in the spring. Lemons are then plenty, and the syrup mixed with ice-water, makes a pleasant beverage for summer. It is best and cheapest to buy lemons by the box. Before using them _for any purpose_, each lemon should be wiped well, and then rolled hard under your hand upon a table to soften them and increase the juice. Two dozen large ripe lemons will generally yield about a quart of juice if pressed with a wooden lemon-squeezer; but it is best to have a few extra ones at hand, in case they should be required. To a quart of juice allow six pounds of the best loaf-sugar, broken up; on pieces of which rub off the yellow rind or zest of the lemons. The white part of the skin is useless and injurious. Put all the sugar into a large porcelain preserving-kettle. Beat to a stiff froth the whites of two eggs, mix it gradually with a quart of clear soft water, and then add it to the sugar. Stir the sugar while it is melting in the water, and when all is dissolved, place the kettle over the fire, and boil and skim it till perfectly clear, and the scum ceases to rise, and the particles of lemon zest are no longer visible. Meanwhile, squeeze the lemons through a strainer into a large pitcher, till you have a quart of juice. When the sugar has boiled sufficiently, and is quite clear, stir in gradually the lemon-juice, cover the kettle and let it boil ten minutes longer. When cool put it into clean, clear glass bottles, either quite new ones or some that have already contained lemon syrup. The bottles should first be rinsed with brandy. Cork them tightly and seal the corks. Orange syrup may be made in a similar manner omitting to use the grated yellow rind of the oranges, (it being too pungent for this purpose,) and substituting for it a double quantity of the juice; for instance, allowing two quarts of juice to six pounds of sugar.

CROQUANT CAKE.--Take three quarters of a pound of almonds, (of which two ounces, or more, should be the bitter sort,) and blanch and slice them. Powder three quarters of a pound of fine white sugar. Sift three quarters of a pound of flour, and slice half a pound of citron. Mix together the almond and citron, on a flat dish, and sprinkle among them flour from the dredging-box, till they are white all over. Beat six eggs as light as possible, till they are very thick and smooth. Then mix them gradually with the sugar, almond, and citron, stirring very hard. Lastly, stir in, by degrees, the sifted flour. Butter a tin pan or pans, and put in the mixture about an inch deep. Bake it; and when cool, cut it into narrow slices about an inch wide, and five inches long. To make them keep a long time, lay them on shallow tins, and give them a second baking. Put the cakes into a stone jar, and they will keep a year or more, after this double baking.