Part 22

Separate the whites and yolks of four eggs. With the yolks make a boiled custard (with a pint of milk, and sugar to taste). Set a third of a box of gelatine to soak a few minutes in a little cold water, then dissolve it with three-fourths of a cupful of boiling water. When the custard has cooled, add the gelatine water and the whites of the eggs beaten to a stiff froth; flavor with vanilla, stir all together, and put it into a mold or molds. It will settle into three layers, and is a very pretty pudding, tasting much like a _charlotte-russe_. A pretty effect can be obtained by using Coxe’s _pink_ gelatine.

TAPIOCA-PUDDING.

Pare and core (with a tube) six or seven apples; lay them in a buttered dish. Pour over a cupful of tapioca or sago one quart of boiling water; let it stand an hour; add two tea-cupfuls of sugar, a little lemon, vanilla, or wine; pour this over the apples, and bake an hour. Peaches (fresh or canned) may be substituted, and are an improvement.

TAPIOCA CREAM.

Soak a tea-cupful of tapioca overnight in milk. The next day, stir into it the yolks of three eggs well beaten and a cupful of sugar. Place a quart of milk on the fire, let it come to the boiling-point, and then stir in the tapioca, and let the whole cook until it has thickened; then take it off the fire, and stir in the whites of the eggs beaten to a froth. Flavor to taste. A small portion of the beaten whites of the eggs can be saved to decorate the top. Stir into the latter a little sugar, put it into a paper funnel, press it out over the top of the pudding according to fancy, and place it in the oven a few moments to color.

CABINET-PUDDING (_Mrs. Pope_).

Butter a mold well; line the bottom with raisins and with citron cut into fancy shapes; cover this with pieces of cake, then more raisins and citron, alternating with the cake, until the mold is full to within an inch and a half of the top. Mix in a bowl three table-spoonfuls of sugar and the yolks of three eggs until they are a cream; then mix in slowly a pint of milk just brought to the boiling-point. Pour this over the cake, etc., in the mold. Put this into a pan of cold water, so that the water may cover one-third of the mold. Set it over the fire until the water boils; then put the whole into the oven to bake an hour. Serve with wine-sauce.

BATTER-PUDDINGS BAKED.

Ingredients: One quart of sifted flour, butter the size of an egg, one pint of milk, half a tea-spoonful of salt, four eggs.

Scald the milk, and melt the butter in it. When partly cooled, stir in the yolks of the eggs well beaten, then the salt and flour. When quite cold, stir in lightly the whites of the eggs beaten to a stiff froth. Bake in rather large patty-pans. Serve immediately with a sauce. The puddings should be light puffs. Strawberry-sauce is especially nice with these puddings.

ROLY-POLY PUDDING BOILED.

Make a biscuit-dough and roll it out into a square about a fourth of an inch thick. Spread over it (leaving an inch uncovered at the edges) almost any kind of fruit, or berries, such as strawberries, raspberries, etc., sweetened, or preserves. Roll it tight. Sew it in a cloth, giving room for it to swell. Boil or steam it an hour. Serve with almost any kind of pudding sauce. A nice roly-poly pudding may be made with sponge-cake baked in sheets, spread with preserves or jelly, rolled, sprinkled on top with sugar, and served with wine-sauce.

BAKED BERRY ROLLS.

Roll biscuit-dough thin, in the form of a large square, or into small squares. Spread over with berries. Roll the crust, and put the rolls into a dripping-pan close together until full; then put into the pan water, sugar, and pieces of butter. Bake them. Serve any of the pudding sauces.

SWEDISH PUDDING.

Ingredients: One half-pound of flour, one half-pound of butter, half-pound of sugar, eight eggs, a little salt.

Rub the sugar and butter to a cream; add the yolks well beaten, the salt, flour, and, lastly, the whites of the eggs beaten to a stiff froth. Put the batter three-fourths of an inch deep into tea-cups. Cook by steaming them in a steamer about half an hour. The batter will fill the cups. Turn them out on a hot platter. Serve immediately with a clear brandy-sauce in the bottom of the dish. Half the above amount will be sufficient for a small family.

CHERRY-PUDDING (_Mrs. Bonner_).

Ingredients: Two eggs, one cupful of sweet milk, three tea-spoonfuls of yeast powder, flour to make a stiff batter, as many cherries or fruit of any kind as can be stirred in.

Boil or steam it two hours. Serve with fruit sauce, made as in receipt for “fruit sauces” of the same kind of fruit of which the pudding is made.

A CORN-STARCH PUDDING.

Many kinds of puddings can be made with this receipt by adding different flavorings. I consider it a great success; besides, it is very easily and quickly made. It may or may not be served with a boiled custard made with the yolks of the eggs.

Ingredients: One pint of rich milk, two table-spoonfuls of corn starch, a scant half-cupful of sugar, whites of three or four eggs, a little salt, flavoring.

Beat the eggs to a stiff froth. Dissolve the corn starch in a little of the milk. Stir the sugar into the remainder of the milk, which place on the fire. When it begins to boil, add the dissolved corn starch. Stir constantly for a few moments, when it will become a smooth paste; now stir in the beaten whites of the eggs, and let it remain a little longer to cook the eggs. It can be flavored with vanilla, and put into a form; yet it is still better as a

COCOA-NUT PUDDING.

When the preceding pudding is just finished, add half a cocoa-nut grated; put it into a mold. Serve with whipped-cream around it, or a sauce of boiled custard made with the yolks of the eggs. As only half of a cocoa-nut is used for this pudding, sprinkle sugar on the other half, and spread it on something, when it will keep a month. In that time perhaps another pudding of the same kind may be wanted. Fresh cocoa-nut is better and cheaper than the desiccated cocoa-nut. It requires the whole of a twenty-five cent package of the desiccated cocoa-nut, and only half of a fresh one, which costs but ten cents.

CHOCOLATE-PUDDING.

With still the same receipt for a corn-starch pudding, first flavor the whole with vanilla; now take out a third of the pudding; flavor the remainder in the kettle with a bar of chocolate, softened, mashed, and dissolved with a little milk. Put half of the chocolate-pudding in the bottom of a mold (which has been wet in cold water); smooth the top; next make a layer with the white pudding (the third taken out); smooth it also; next the remainder of the chocolate-pudding. Serve with whipped cream, or a boiled custard made with the yolks of the eggs and flavored with vanilla, around it; or, the one-third portion of pudding may be flavored with half a bar of chocolate, and placed in the centre of the two layers of white, as in the picture; or one can use the same receipt for a corn-starch pudding, and flavor it with chopped pine-apple, strawberries, or, in winter, with dried cherries swollen in water; or it may be flavored with chocolate, with the white centre part of cocoa-nut.

COCOA-NUT PUDDINGS, IN PAPER CASES.

Melt over the fire butter the size of an egg, with a cupful of sugar, and a table-spoonful of water. Pour them into a dish when they have boiled a couple of minutes, and let them cool; mix with them half of a cocoa-nut grated, a table-spoonful of small cuts of citron, the grated rind and juice of half a lemon, and the yolks of four eggs beaten separately; add the whites (beaten to a stiff froth) the last thing. Fill little paper cases (see page 6), and bake immediately. They may be served hot or cold. Of course it may all be baked in one dish; but it makes a very dainty course to serve one of these cases placed on a plate for each person.

EGG SOUFFLÉ, IN PAPER CASES.

Make a boiled custard of cream with half a pint of milk, yolks of two eggs, three table-spoonfuls of sugar, a heaping tea-spoonful of flour, a very little butter, salt, and a flavoring of vanilla, or any thing else, as preferred. When it has just thickened a little, take it off the fire, and let it partly cool. Add then two raw yolks of eggs and four whites beaten to a stiff froth. Butter the paper cases, fill them with this preparation, and bake them ten or fifteen minutes in a moderate oven.

SNOW-PUDDING (_Miss Amelia Foote_).

Cover one-third of a package of gelatine with a little cold water, and, when softened, stir into it a pint of boiling water; add one cupful of sugar, or sugar to taste, and either the juice of two lemons, or half a tea-cupful of wine: when cold, and beginning to thicken, add the well-beaten whites of three eggs. Beat all lightly and smoothly together, pour the mixture into a mold, and set it away until hard. Serve in the centre of a platter, with a boiled custard poured around, made with the yolks of three eggs, one pint of milk, and half a cupful of sugar.

BOILED CUSTARD (No. 1).

I will venture a receipt for boiled custard (perhaps it should be granted that every one knows how to make it), as it is so often used in making many kinds of dessert, and as an excellent sauce for several puddings.

It is considered better made of the yolks only of the eggs (some whites may be used, however). A dessert-spoonful of sugar is enough for each egg, and five yolks are quite sufficient for a quart of milk. Beat the yolks and the sugar together to a froth, and stir in the milk; put it into a custard-boiler, or, if one has none, into a small tin pail. Place this in a kettle of boiling water; stir the mixture constantly until it is a little thickened. If it is well stirred, the custard will be a smooth cream; if allowed to remain a few moments too long in the boiling water after it begins to thicken, it will curdle and be spoiled. Do not flavor it with any of the essences, wines, or brandy, until after it is cooked; if either a vanilla-bean or peach-leaves are used, cook them with the custard.

If the whole eggs are preferred, for economy’s sake, to be used (and they make very good custard), allow four eggs to a quart of milk, and four dessert-spoonfuls of sugar. If the milk is first boiled before it is added to the other ingredients, there will be less danger of the custard curdling.

BOILED CUSTARD (_Miss Eliza Brown_), No. 2.

Beat the yolks of three eggs very lightly; stir into them two small table-spoonfuls of corn starch, dissolved in a little milk, and one tea-cupful of sugar. Bring two quarts of milk to a boil, then take it off the fire; pour it into the eggs, etc., a little at first; return it to the fire, and stir it until it thickens, not allowing it to boil; let it remain long enough to well cook the starch. Now stir in lightly the whites of four eggs beaten to a stiff froth, allowing the custard to remain a half-minute on the fire to set the eggs. Flavor with vanilla or chocolate, or with both.

APPLE MÉRINGUE (_Mrs. Shaw_).

Boil tart apples after they are pared and cored; rub the pulp through a colander, and sweeten it to taste. To a pint of the soft pulp stir in lightly the whites of three eggs, beaten to a stiff froth. Flavor with grated rind and juice of lemon, or with lemon or vanilla extract. Serve it with cream. It is a decided improvement to put this into a pudding-dish and cover it with the beaten whites of two or three eggs, sweetened and flavored. Color it in the oven. Serve with cream or custard.

BAKED APPLES.

Pare and core large, juicy pippins, without cutting them to pieces; fill the cavities with sugar, and a little lemon-juice or extract, and some thin slices of the yellow part of the lemon-rind; put them into a pan with a little water in the bottom; sprinkle sugar over the tops, baste them often, and, when done, set them away to cool. Serve them with cream, or they may be served with whipped cream, flavored with sugar and essence of lemon, poured over so as to nearly conceal them; or serve them with a boiled custard poured over them.

FRIAR’S OMELET (_Mrs. Treat_).

Stew six or seven good-sized apples as for apple-sauce; stir in, when cooked and still warm, butter the size of a pigeon’s egg, and one cupful of sugar; when cold, stir in three well-beaten eggs and a little lemon-juice. Now put a small piece of butter into a sauté pan, and when hot throw in a cupful of bread-crumbs; stir them over the fire until they assume a light-brown color. Butter a mold, and sprinkle on the bottom and sides as many of these bread-crumbs as will adhere; fill in the apple preparation, sprinkle bread-crumbs on top, bake it for fifteen or twenty minutes, and turn it out on a good-sized platter. It can be eaten with or without a sweet sauce.

FLOATING ISLANDS.

Separate the whites and yolks of four eggs; with the yolks make a boiled custard with, say, a large pint of milk, four table-spoonfuls of sugar, and a flavoring of vanilla, essence of lemon, sherry-wine, peach-leaves, or any of the usual flavorings. Beat the whites to a stiff froth, sweetening and flavoring them a little also. Wet a long spoon, turn it around in the beaten egg, taking out a piece of oblong shape; poach it, turning it around in boiling water, or milk, which is better. When the custard is cold, pour it into a glass dish, and place these poached whites on top; or make a circle of the whites in a platter, and pour the custard between.

TIPSY-PUDDING.

Soak a sponge-cake baked in a form (or, in fact, dry pieces of cake of any kind can be used) in sherry-wine. When saturated enough, so that it will not fall to pieces, pour over it a boiled custard (No. 1), flavored with any thing preferred. If placed in a glass dish, decorate with the beaten whites of the eggs poached, and with dots of jelly. If served in a common platter, squeeze the beaten whites (sweetened and flavored) through a funnel in any fancy shapes over the pudding, and put it into the oven to receive a delicate color.

LEMON-PUDDING.

Beat the yolks of two eggs in a pudding-dish; add two cupfuls of sugar. Dissolve four table-spoonfuls of corn starch in a little cold water. Stir into it two tea-cupfuls of boiling water. Put in the juice of two lemons, with some of the grated peel. Mix all together with a tea-spoonful of butter. Bake it about fifteen minutes. When done, spread over the top the beaten whites of the eggs sweetened, and let it color a moment in the oven. To be eaten hot or cold.

BLANC-MANGE.

Put half a paper of gelatine, two ounces of sugar, half of the very thin rind of a lemon, and eight bitter almonds, blanched and bruised, into a pint of milk, and let it stand an hour. Place it over the fire, and let it come merely to the scalding-point, stirring it well to dissolve the gelatine.

Strain it into a bowl, add a pint of cream, and a little wine or brandy, to taste. Stir it occasionally, to prevent the cream from settling on the surface. Turn it, avoiding the settlings, into molds, to harden; or, in place of almonds, a stick of cinnamon may be substituted; or infuse a few more almonds, and omit the wine or brandy; or, the blanc-mange may be flavored with maraschino, or any other liqueur. I prefer blanc-mange made with corn starch, as the same ingredients necessary for a blanc-mange proper are better made into Bavarian creams.

CORN-STARCH PUDDING.

Ingredients: One and one-half pints of rich milk, one large heaping table-spoonful of corn starch, one scant cupful of sugar, four eggs, omitting two whites, a little salt, and flavoring.

Bring the milk and the sugar almost to a boil, then add the corn starch (stirred smooth with a little milk), and a pinch of salt. Stir it at the back of the range for five minutes, not allowing it to boil. Then take it off the fire; when a little cooled, stir in the eggs, and when well and smoothly mixed, place the kettle again on the fire for only a few moments, to be sure that the eggs are slightly cooked. Now stir in the flavoring, if it is an extract. Zest (sugar rubbed on fresh lemon-peel) is an exceedingly delicate flavoring. The vanilla powder boiled in the milk is better than the extract.

It makes a pretty dish to pour this into cups or little molds, and, when cold and solid, to arrange them in a circle or, according to taste, on a platter, with strawberry, grape, or any kind of fruit sauce, or whipped cream poured into the bottom of the dish; or, mold it in a circular form, and pile up any kind of berries in the centre, with or without whipped cream. For an invalid I prefer the other receipt for “a corn-starch pudding.”

The common rule for corn-starch pudding is one quart of milk, three eggs, three table-spoonfuls of corn starch, one even cupful of sugar; add flavoring and a little salt.

BREAD-PUDDING.

Soak some crumbled bread in milk. Put a layer of this (rather moist) in the bottom of a pudding-dish; sprinkle over some raisins and a little cinnamon powder, then another layer of soaked bread-crumbs, raisins, and cinnamon powder. Now beat up three eggs (to about a quart of soaked bread-crumbs) with two heaping table-spoonfuls of sugar; mix into it a quarter of a cupful of rum, brandy, or wine, and pour it all over the pudding in the dish. Bake about twenty minutes.

BREAD-AND-BUTTER PUDDING.

Strew layers of English currants between slices of buttered bread (crust cut off). Pour over them a boiled custard flavored with nutmeg or any other flavoring desired. Set them into the oven to soak, and bake about fifteen minutes.

FRIED BREAD-PUDDING.

Cut the crust from slices of bread. Cut them into pieces of the same shape and size. Soak them a few moments in custard--_i.e._, some milk, one or two eggs, and sugar to taste, and a flavoring of cinnamon. _Sauté_ them in hot lard to a delicate brown. Serve with brandy-sauce, or almost any kind of sweet sauce.

INDIAN-CORN PUDDING.

Scald a quart of milk, and stir in seven table-spoonfuls of sifted corn-meal, a tea-spoonful of salt, one tea-cupful of molasses, a table-spoonful of ginger. Bake three hours.

BAVARIAN CREAMS.

There is not a more delicious dessert than that of Bavarian cream. These creams are exceedingly easy to make, and, as they are prepared some time before dinner, they have the advantage of being out of the way when cooking this meal. They are a cheap country dessert, where one has plenty of cream, yet are not so very expensive in the city, as it only requires a pint of common cream to make a quart and a half of Bavarian cream.

When cream is thoroughly chilled, it is much more readily whipped. A pint can be whipped in a few minutes with a little tin tube cream-whipper. If no whipper is at hand, beat the cream with a fork, and skim off the whipped cream as it rises. It is always better not to cook gelatine; it should be soaked in a little water near the fire for an hour or two, when it will be entirely dissolved, and then it should be stirred into the custard while it is still hot. In making the Bavarian creams, do not add the whipped cream to the ingredients with the gelatine until they are quite cold and are beginning to set, or they would otherwise dissolve the cream. The ingredients will set very soon if placed on ice. The pine-apple Bavarian is especially nice, and can be made with the canned pine-apple if the fresh pine-apple can not be obtained; however, there is not much choice, as they are all delicious.

The Bavarian creams all make good _charlottes-russe_, the peach Bavarian making an especially delicious one. Sometimes these mixtures are frozen, and put into _charlotte_ molds; the cake is formed in molds a trifle larger. When the cream is frozen, it is inserted into the cake just before serving. When freezing the mixture, the whipped cream is not added until the custard or ingredients with the gelatine are partly frozen.

BAVARIAN CREAM, WITH VANILLA (_Mrs. Blair_).

Whip one pint of cream to a stiff froth, laying it on a sieve. Boil another pint of cream or rich milk, with a vanilla bean, and two table-spoonfuls of sugar, until it is well flavored; then take it off the fire and add half a box of Nelson’s or Coxe’s gelatine soaked for an hour in half a cupful of water, in a warm place near the range; when slightly cooled, stir in the yolks of four eggs well beaten. When it has become quite cold, and begins to thicken, stir it without ceasing a few minutes until it is very smooth, then stir in the whipped cream lightly until it is well mixed. Put it into a mold or molds, and set it on ice, or in some cool place.

BAVARIAN CREAM, WITH CHOCOLATE,

is made as the preceding cream, adding two sticks of chocolate, soaked and smoothed, to the yolks of the eggs.

BAVARIAN CREAM, WITH STRAWBERRIES.

After picking two pounds and a half of strawberries, squeeze them through a colander, and add six ounces of sugar to the juice; when the sugar is dissolved, add half a box of gelatine soaked as before described. Place it on the ice, stir it smooth when it begins to set, then stir in a pint of cream whipped; put it into a mold or molds, and serve with fresh strawberries around it.

BAVARIAN CREAM, WITH ALMONDS.

Take three ounces of sweet and one ounce of bitter almonds, blanch and skin them, and put them into a pan on a moderate fire, stirring them continually. As soon as they have acquired a fine yellow color, take them off the fire, and when cold pound them into fine pieces. Then add a pint of cream or rich milk (nearly boiling), and two or three table-spoonfuls of sugar, and half a package of gelatine, which has been soaked as before described. Put it upon the ice, and when about to thicken stir it until it is very smooth, then stir in lightly a pint of cream whipped, and put it into a mold.

BAVARIAN CREAM, WITH PEACHES.

Cut eighteen fine peaches into small pieces, and boil them with half a pound of sugar. When they are reduced to a marmalade, squeeze them through a sieve or colander. Then add half a package of dissolved gelatine, and a glassful of good cream. Stir it well, to make it smooth when it is about to set, then add the pint of cream whipped, and mold it. It makes a still prettier dish to serve halves or quarters of fresh peaches half frozen, around the cream.

BAVARIAN CREAM, WITH PINE-APPLE.

Cut a pine-apple into fine pieces; boil it with one half-pound, or a coffee-cupful of sugar; pass the marmalade through a sieve or colander; turn off part of the juice; add half a package of dissolved gelatine. Stir, and add the pint of cream whipped, as before described. Mold it.

BAVARIAN CREAM, WITH COFFEE.

Throw three heaping table-spoonfuls of fresh roasted and ground Mocha coffee into a pint of boiling rich milk. Make a strong infusion, strain it, and add to it the whipped yolks of four eggs well beaten, with an even cupful of sugar. Stir the custard over the fire until it begins to thicken; take it off the fire, and add to it, while still hot, half a box of gelatine which has been standing an hour on the hearth to dissolve in a little cold water. When just beginning to set, stir it well to make it smooth, then add the pint of cream whipped. Mold it.

CHARLOTTE-RUSSE.

The sponge-cake may be made with four eggs, one cupful of sugar, one and one-half cupfuls of flour, and two even tea-spoonfuls of yeast powder, or as described for sponge jelly-cake (see page 300).