Part 29

TRIFLE.--This is a very nice and very elegant party dish, and is served in a large glass bowl. Put into the bottom of the bowl a pound of bitter almond maccaroons. Pour on sufficient madeira or sherry to dissolve them. Let them soak in it till soft and broken. Have ready a very rich custard, flavored with vanilla bean (broken up and boiled by itself in a little milk), and then strained into the quart of milk prepared for the custard, which should be of ten eggs, (_using only the yolks_) and sweetened with a quarter of a pound of powdered loaf sugar. It is best and easiest to _bake_ the custard. It will be very rich and soft with yolk of egg only. When the custard is cold lay it on the dissolved maccaroons. Then add a thick layer of very nice marmalade. Rub off the yellow rind of a large lemon or two on some pieces of loaf sugar, and add to it some powdered sugar mixed with the lemon juice. Whip to a strong froth a large quart (or more) of rich cream, gradually mixing with it the lemon and sugar. Lastly, pile up the frothed cream high on the glass bowl, and keep it on ice till it is sent to table. Instead of lemon you may flavor the whipt cream with rose-water; it will require, if not very strong, a wine-glassful. To give the cream a fine pink color, tie up some alkanet chips in a thin muslin bag; lay the bag to infuse in a tea-cup of plain cream, and then add the pink infusion to the quart of cream as you froth it.

BLANCMANGE.--The best and finest blancmange is made with a set of calves' feet, (singed but not skinned) boiled slowly in a gallon of water till the meat drops from the bone; then strain it, and set it away till next day, in a broad white-ware pan. Skim it well while boiling. Next day it should be a solid cake of clear jelly. Scrape off all the fat and sediment from the outside, cut the jelly into small bits, and melt it over again. Boil in a porcelain kettle a pint of cream, and when it has come to a boil, stir in six ounces of loaf sugar, and whatever you intend for flavoring; either the milk, in which a handful of bitter almonds has been boiled, (first being blanched and broken up) or a vanilla bean split and cut to pieces, and boiled in a little milk and strained. Or, it may be mixed with three ounces of chocolate, (Baker's prepared cocoa is the best) scraped fine. When the flavoring has had a boil with the sugar, stir into it, gradually, the melted jelly, and transfer it to white-ware moulds that have set in cold water, and are still damp. Stir it well, and when the blancmange is thickening, and becoming hard to stir, set the moulds on ice, or in pans of cold water in the cellar, and cease stirring. When quite congealed, dip the moulds in lukewarm water, and turn out the blancmange on glass dishes. You may color almond or vanilla blancmange a fine pink, by putting into the cream chips of alkanet root tied in a small thin muslin bag, to be removed as soon as the cream is highly colored. Or, it may be made green by the infusion of spinach juice, obtained by pounding in a marble mortar, and then boiling and straining.

Gelatine is now frequently used for blancmange and jelly, instead of calves' feet or isinglass. It has no advantage but that of being more speedily prepared than calves' feet, which must be boiled the day before. Four cakes of gelatine are equal to four calves' feet. Before using, they must be soaked for an hour or more in a pan of cold water, then boiled with the other ingredients. Some persons think they perceive an unpleasant taste in gelatine; perhaps they have heard of what it is made.

When calves' feet cannot be obtained, pigs' feet will do very well, if nobody knows it. Four feet of calves are equal to eight of pigs. They are very glutinous, and have no perceptible taste.

FINEST BLANCMANGE.--Break up a half pound of the best double-refined loaf sugar. On some of the pieces rub off the yellow rind of two large lemons, having rolled them under your hand to increase the juice. Then powder all the sugar, and mix with it, gradually, the juice of the lemons, a pint of rich cream, and a large half pint (not less) of sherry or madeira. Stir the mixture very hard till all the articles are thoroughly amalgamated. Then stir in, gradually, a _second_ pint of cream. Put into a small sauce-pan an ounce of the best Russia isinglass, with one jill (or two common-sized wineglasses) of cold water. Boil it till the isinglass is completely dissolved, stirring it several times down to the bottom. When the melted isinglass has become lukewarm, stir it gradually into the mixture, and then give the whole a hard stirring. Have ready some white-ware moulds that have just been dipped and rinsed in cold water. Fill them with the mixture, set them on ice, and in two or three hours the blancmange will be congealed. When it is perfectly firm, dip the moulds for a minute in lukewarm water, and turn out the blancmange on glass dishes. This, if accurately made, is the finest of blancmange. For company, you must have double, or treble, or four times the quantity of ingredients; each article in due proportion.

FARINA.--Farina is a very fine and delicate preparation, made from the inner part of the grain of new wheat. It is exceedingly nutritious, and excellent either for invalids or for persons in health. It is now much in use, and is to be had, in packages of a pound or half a pound, of the best grocers and druggists, and is highly recommended by physicians for gruel and panade. It also makes an excellent pudding, either boiled or baked, prepared in the same manner as any flour pudding. For boiling farina, nothing is so good as a _bain-marie_ or double kettle.

_For Farina Blancmange._--From a quart of rich milk take out a half pint. Put the half pint into a small sauce-pan, and add to it a handful of bitter almonds broken up; or a bunch of fresh peach leaves, or a vanilla bean split, cut up, and tied in a thin muslin bag. When this milk has boiled till very highly flavored, strain it into the pint and a half, and set it over the fire in a porcelain kettle or a _bain-marie_. When the milk has come to a boil, sprinkle in, gradually, a large half pint or more (or four large heaping table-spoonfuls) of farina, stirring it well--also sprinkling in and stirring, as if making thick mush. Let it boil slowly a quarter of an hour after the farina is all in. When done, remove it from the fire, and stir in two large table-spoonfuls of sugar, and a wineglass of rose-water, or one of white wine. Transfer it to a blancmange mould, (previously wet with cold water,) set it on ice, and turn it out when ready for dinner. Eat it with sauce of wine, sugar, and nutmeg.

FINE MARROW PUDDING.--Mince very small a quarter of a pound of nice beef marrow, and grate or crumble half a pound of almond sponge cake. Cut in half, a quarter of a pound of sultana or seedless raisins, chop two peels of candied citron, mix them with the raisins, and dredge both thickly with flour. Add a large heaped table-spoonful of loaf sugar, a small nutmeg grated, and a wineglass of mixed wine and brandy. Mix all these ingredients well, put them into a deep dish, lay a border of puff-paste all round the rim, and fill the dish up to the top with a nice custard made in the proportion of four eggs to a pint of well-sweetened milk, flavored with either bitter almonds, rose-water, peach-water, or vanilla. Bake this pudding half an hour. When cool, sift sugar over it.

OMELETTE SOUFFLÉ.--Break six eggs, separating the yolks and whites. Give them a slight stir, and strain the whites into one pan and the yolks into another. Add to the yolks three large table-spoonfuls of powdered loaf sugar, a heaped tea-spoonful of arrow-root flour, and twelve drops of strong orange-flower water, and beat it till very thick and smooth. Then beat the whites to a stiff froth, beginning slowly at first, but gradually beating faster. Then add the beaten yolk very gently to the whites. Have ready a silver or plated dish well-buttered. Use tin for want of better, but it will not look well, as the omelette has to be served up in the dish it was baked in. Place the dish with the mixture in a hot oven, and watch it while baking. When it has well risen, and seems very light, take it out of the oven for a moment; run a knife round it, sift some sugar over it, set it again in the oven, and when raised to its utmost take it out again, and serve it up as hot as possible, with a spoon on the plate beside it. When once broken, it will sink immediately. It is usual to send round the omelette soufflé at the very last of the pastry course; the cook not beginning to make it till the dinner has commenced. If not light when baked, give it up, and do not send it to table at all. It is safest for an inexperienced housewife to engage a French cook to come to the house with his own ingredients and utensils, and make and bake the omelette soufflé while there. Still though very fashionable, it is less delicious than many other desserts.

SUNDERLANDS.--Warm a quart of rich milk, and cut up in it half a pound of the best fresh butter to soften in the milk, but not to oil. Beat eight eggs till very light and thick, and then stir them gradually into the pan of milk and butter, in turn with eight large table-spoonfuls of sifted flour. Beat all very hard together, and then transfer the batter to white tea-cups, slightly buttered, not filling them quite full. Set them immediately into a brisk oven, and bake them about twenty minutes, or till they are slightly browned, and have puffed up very light. As soon as they are cool enough to handle without burning your fingers, turn them out of the cups on a dish, cut a slit in the top of each, and, taking a tea-spoon, fill them quite full of any sort of jelly or marmalade; or if more convenient, with ripe strawberries or raspberries, sweetened with powdered sugar, and mashed smoothly. When filled with fruit, close the slit neatly with your fingers; and on the top of each lay a large strawberry or raspberry, having first dredged the sunderland with sugar.

_Cream Cakes_--Are made in the above manner, but baked in patty-pans. When baked take them out, cut a slit in the _side_ of each; and having prepared an ample quantity of rich boiled custard, made with yolk of egg, and highly flavored (_after it has boiled_,) with lemon, orange, vanilla, rose-water or peach-water, fill the cakes full of the custard, closing the opening well by pinching it together. Sift powdered sugar over them, and send them to table on a large china dish.

CREAM TART.--Make a fine puff-paste of equal quantities of fresh butter and sifted flour; mixing into the pan of flour a heaped table-spoonful of powdered sugar, and wetting it with a beaten egg. Rub one quarter of the butter into the pan of flour. Divide the remainder of butter into six, and roll it into the flour at six turns till it is all in. Have, ready grated, the yellow rind and the juice of a large lemon or orange mixed with a quarter of a pound of powdered loaf sugar; or a flavoring of a split-up vanilla bean; or a dozen bitter almonds broken up, and boiled in a very little milk. Mix the flavoring with a pint of rich cream, and the well-beaten whites of three eggs. Take small deep pans, line them all through with the paste rolled out very thin, and cut square. Fill them with the cream, and turn the square pieces of paste a little over it at the top, so as to form corners. Bake the tarts in a brisk oven, and when cold, grate nutmeg over the surface.

Are these the cream tarts of the Arabian Nights?

ORANGE COCOA-NUT.--Break up a fine ripe cocoa-nut, and after peeling off the brown skin, lay the pieces in cold water for a while. Then wipe them dry with a clean towel, and grate them into a deep dish. Mix in, plenty of powdered white sugar. Take some fine large oranges, very ripe and juicy. Peel off all the rind, and slice the oranges rather thick. Cover the bottom of a large glass bowl with sliced orange, (the first layer being double, where the bowl is small) and strew among the slices sufficient sugar. Then put in a thick layer of the grated cocoa-nut, next another layer of orange--again a layer of cocoa-nut, and so on, alternately, till the bowl is filled, finishing with cocoa-nut heaped high. This is a handsome and delicious article for a supper-table, and a nice _impromptu_ addition to the dessert at a dinner; and soon prepared, as it requires no cooking. When the fruit is in season, a dessert for a small company may consist entirely of orange cocoa-nut, raspberry charlotte, and cream strawberries.

Never send oranges whole to table. To ladies they are unmanageable in company.

_Creamed Strawberries._--Take fine large ripe strawberries. Hull or stem them, and set them on ice till just before they are wanted. Divide them into saucerfulls. If you have glass saucers, they will make a better show than china. Put some powdered white sugar in the bottom of each saucer. Fill them with strawberries, and then strew on a liberal allowance of sugar, for American strawberries (however fine in appearance) are seldom sweet. Have ready sufficient whipped cream, that has been frothed with rods or with a tin cream-churn. Pile high a portion of the whipt cream on each saucer of strawberries.

Strawberries are sometimes eaten with wine and sugar, when cream is not convenient. With _milk_ they curdle, and are unwholesome--besides tasting poorly.

_Creamed Pine-apple._--Cut into four pieces two large ripe pine-apples. Stand them up successively in a deep dish, and grate them from the rind. When all is grated, transfer it to a large glass bowl, and make it very sweet by mixing in powdered white loaf sugar. Whip to a stiff froth a sufficiency of rich cream, adding to it some sugar, and heap it high upon the grated pine-apple.

_Peaches and Cream._--Take fine juicy freestone peaches. Pare them, and cut them in slices. Put them, with their juice, into a large bowl, and make them very sweet with powdered loaf sugar. Set them on ice, and let them remain in the juice till wanted. Then send them to table with fresh sugar sifted over the top. Set near them pitchers of plain cream, not frothed.

If you cannot obtain cream, it is better to be satisfied with sugar alone, than to substitute milk, with peaches, or any other fruit.

LEMON TAFFY.--Put into a porcelain-lined preserving kettle three pounds of the best loaf sugar, and pour on it a pint and a half of very clear water. When it has entirely dissolved, set it over the fire, and add a table spoonful of fine cider vinegar to assist in clearing it as it boils. Boil and skim it well, and when no more scum rises add the juice of four large lemons or oranges. Let it boil till it will boil no longer, stirring it well. When done transfer it to square tin pans, that have been made very clean and bright, and that are slightly greased with sweet oil. Set the taffy away to cool, first marking it with a knife, while soft. Mark it in straight lines the broad or crossway of the pans. If marked lengthways, the pieces will be too long. When the taffy is cold, cut it according to the lines, in regular slips, like cocoa-nut candy. It is for a handsome supper party. Serve it up in glass dishes.

Orange taffy is made in the same manner. These candies should be kept in tin boxes.

_Cocoa-nut Candy_--Is made in the manner of taffy, using finely grated cocoa-nut, instead of lemon or orange.

CHARLOTTE RUSSE.--Split, cut up, and boil a large vanilla bean in half a pint of rich milk, till it is highly flavored, and reduced to one-half. Then strain out the vanilla through a strainer so fine as to avoid all the seeds. Mix the strained milk with half a pint of rich cream. Beat five eggs till very smooth and thick. Strain them, and add them gradually to the cream when it is entirely cold, to make a rich custard. Set this custard over the fire (stirring it all the time) till it simmers; but take it off before it comes to a boil, or it will curdle. Set it on ice. Have ready in another sauce-pan an ounce of the best Russia isinglass, boiled in half a pint of water, till it is all dissolved into a thick jelly. When both are cold, (but not hard) mix the custard and the isinglass together, and add four table-spoonfuls of powdered loaf sugar. Then take a large lump of loaf sugar, and rub off on it the yellow rind of two large lemons. Scrape off the lemon-grate with a tea-spoon, and add it to the mixture, with the lump of sugar powdered and crushed fine. Mix together the strained juice of the lemons, and two glasses of madeira; dissolve in them the lemon-flavored sugar, and mix it with a pint of rich cream that has been whipped with a whisk to a strong froth. Add the whipped cream gradually to the custard, starring very hard at the time, and also after the whole is mixed. Then set it on ice.

Cover the bottom of a flat oval dish with a slice of almond sponge cake, cut to fit. Prepare a sufficient number of oblong slices of the cake, (all of the same size and shape) to go all round; with one extra slice, in case they should not quite hold out. Dip every one in a plate of beaten white of egg to make them adhere. Stand each of them up on one end, round the large oval slice that lies at the bottom. Make them follow each other evenly and neatly, (every one lapping a little way over its predecessor) till you have a handsome wall of slices, cemented all round by the white of egg. Fill it quite full with the custard mixture. Cover the top with another oval slice of cake, cemented with a little white of egg to the upper edge of the wall. Make a nice icing in the usual way, of powdered sugar beaten into frothed white of egg, and flavored with lemon, orange, or rose. Spread this icing thickly and smoothly over the cake that covers the top of the charlotte, and ornament it with a handsome pattern of sugar flowers. There is no charlotte russe superior to this.

_Another Charlotte Russe._--Have a very nice circular lady cake. It should be iced all over, and ornamented with sugar flowers. Take off the top nicely, and without breaking or defacing, and hollow out the inside, leaving the sides and bottom standing. The cake taken from the inside may be cut in regular pieces and used at tea, or for other purposes. Make a very fine boiled custard, according to the preceding receipt. Fill with it the empty cake, as if filling a mould. Then put on the lid, set the whole on ice, and when wanted serve it up on a glass or china dish.

A charlotte that requires no cooking may be very easily made by hollowing a nice circular almond sponge cake, and filling it with layers of small preserves, and piling on the top whipped cream finely flavored.

For the walls of a charlotte russe you may use the oblong sponge cakes, called Naples biscuits, or those denominated lady fingers, dipping them first in beaten white of egg, standing them on end, and arranging them so as to lap over each other in forming the wall. Arrange some of them handsomely to cover the top of the custard.

ICE CREAM.--Pewter freezers for ice cream are better than those of block tin; as in them the freezing goes on more gradually and thoroughly, and it does not melt so soon, besides being smoother when done. The ice tub should be large enough to allow ample space all round (six inches, at least,) the freezer as it stands in the centre, and should have a plug at the bottom (beneath the freezer) for letting out the water that drips from the ice; that a large coarse woolen cloth should be folded, and laid under it and around it. The ice should be broken up into small bits, and mixed with coarse salt, in the proportion of a pound of salt to five pounds of ice. Fill the tub within three inches of the top; pounding and pressing down hard the mixed ice and salt. Have ready all the ingredients. To every quart of _real_ rich cream mix in a pint of milk, (not more) and half a pound of fine loaf sugar. The following are the most usual flavorings, all the fruit being made very sweet. Ripe strawberries or raspberries, mashed through a sieve till all the juice is extracted; ripe juicy freestone peaches, pared, and cut in half, the kernels being taken from the stones, are pounded, and mashed with the fruit through a cullender; all the juice that can be mashed out of a sliced pine-apple, the grated yellow rind and the juice of lemons or oranges, allowing two to each quart of cream, and mixing the juice with plenty of sugar before it is put to the cream. A handful of shelled bitter almonds blanched, broken, and boiled by themselves in half a pint of milk till all the almond flavor is extracted, and then strain the bitter almond milk into the cream. For vanilla flavor, split and cut up a vanilla bean, boil it by itself in a half pint of milk, and when highly flavored, strain the vanilla milk into the cream. For chocolate ice cream, scrape down a quarter of a pound of Baker's prepared cocoa, and melt it in just water enough to cover it; then sweeten and mix it gradually into a quart of rich milk, (boiling at the time) and then boil and stir it till strong and smooth. Ice cream is spoiled by the addition of eggs. Besides giving it a yellowish color, eggs convert it into mere frozen custard, particularly if instead of using real cream, it is made of milk thickened with arrow-root or flour. For company at least, ice cream should be made in the best and most liberal manner, or else do not attempt it. Mean ice cream is a very mean thing.

When all the ingredients are prepared and mixed, put the whole into the freezer, and set it in the ice tub; and having put on the lid tightly, take the freezer by the handle and turn it about very fast for five or six minutes. Then remove the lid carefully, and scrape down the cream from the sides with a spaddle or long-handled spoon. Repeat this frequently while it is freezing, taking care to keep the sides clear, stirring it well to the bottom, and keeping the tub well filled with salt and ice outside the freezer.

After the cream has been well frozen in the freezer, transfer it to moulds, pressing it in hard, so as to fill every part of the mould. Then set the mould in a fresh tub of ice and salt, (using as before the proportion of a pound of salt to five pounds of ice) and let it remain undisturbed in the mould for an hour, not turning it out till it is time to serve it up to the company. Then wrap a cloth, dipped in warm water, round the outside of the moulds, open them, and turn out the frozen cream on glass or china dishes, and serve it up immediately.

Unless ice cream is very highly flavored at the beginning, its taste will be much weakened in the process of freezing.

The most usual form of ice cream moulds are pyramids, dolphins, doves, and baskets of fruit. We have seen ice cream in the shape of a curly lap-dog, and very well represented.

If you eat what is called strawberry ice cream looking of an exquisite rose-pink color, there is no strawberry about it, either in tint or taste. It is produced by alkanet or cochineal. Real strawberries do not color so beautifully; neither do raspberries, or any other sort of red fruit. But genuine fruit syrups may be employed for this purpose, having at least the true taste. To make strawberry or raspberry syrup, prepare first what is called simple syrup, by melting a pound of the best double-refined loaf sugar in half a pint of cold water; and when melted, boiling them together, and skimming it perfectly clean. Then stir in as much fruit juice (mashed and strained,) as will give it a fine tinge, and let it have one more boiling up.