Part 23
To make an even sheet, professional cooks pass the cake batter through the _méringue_ bag on a large sheet of foolscap paper in rows which touch each other, and which run together smoothly when baking; or, without the _méringue_ bag, it may be spread over the sheet as evenly as possible. When baked, an oval piece is cut to fit the bottom of the _charlotte_ pan, then even-sized parallelograms are cut to fit around the sides. Fill with cream made as follows: Whip one pint of cream flavored with vanilla to a stiff froth, and add to it the well-beaten whites of two eggs, and one half-pound of pulverized sugar; mix it all lightly and carefully together. Fill the _charlotte_ pan, or pans, and put them into the ice-chest to set.
This is the best and simplest manner of making a _charlotte-russe_. Many take the trouble to add gelatine, which is unnecessary. Professor Blot made the filling of his _charlotte-russe_ of sweetened and flavored whipped cream only. It will harden without difficulty if placed upon the ice, and it is very delicate; yet the whites of eggs are an improvement. If there is only enough cake at hand to fit the sides of the pan, put a paper in the bottom of the mold cut to fit it, and the _charlotte_ can be served without a top.
These _charlottes_ are very prettily decorated on top with icing squeezed through a small-sized funnel; or, you may pour a transparent icing over the whole, and make the decoration over this with the common icing. Sometimes they are made in little molds, one _charlotte_ for each plate, and, again, a large _charlotte_ is decorated with a circle of strawberries around it.
Cream is much more easily frothed when placed on ice and thoroughly chilled before whipping; when whipping it, place the froth on a sieve, and all that drops through can be returned to the bowl to be rewhipped. Sometimes professional cooks work the froth with an egg-whisk to make it finer grained.
AMBROSIA.
Slice peeled oranges. Make alternate layers of orange slices, sugar, and grated cocoa-nut, until a glass dish is filled, having grated cocoa-nut on top; now pour a little sherry wine over the top, to run through the mixtures. It is as often served without the wine.
DESSERTS OF RICE.
TO BOIL RICE.
Always cook rice with plenty of salt; it is insipid without it. It is sometimes cooked in a steamer, with milk, without stirring it; although it is more quickly cooked by soaking it an hour or two, and then throwing it into salted boiling water in the brightest of saucepans. To half a pound of the rice use about five pints of water. Let it simmer about twenty minutes. Handle it carefully, not to break the kernels.
RICE-PUDDING.
This receipt makes one of the plainest and best puddings ever eaten. It is a success where every grain of rice seems lying in a creamy bed.
Ingredients: One cupful of boiled rice (better if just cooked, and still hot), three cupfuls of milk, three-quarters of a cupful of sugar, a table-spoonful of corn starch, two eggs; add flavoring.
Dissolve the corn starch first with a little milk, and then stir in the remainder of the milk; add the yolks of the eggs and the sugar beaten together. Now put this over the fire (there is less risk of burning in a custard-kettle), and when hot add the hot rice. It will seem as if there were too much milk for the rice; but there is not. Stir it carefully until it begins to thicken like boiled custard, then take it off the fire, and add the flavoring, say, extract of lemon. Put it into a pudding-dish, and place it in the oven. Now beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, and add a little sugar and flavoring. Take the pudding from the oven when colored a little, spread the froth over the top, and return it to the oven for a few minutes to give the froth a delicate coloring.
RICE-CONES.
Mold boiled rice, when hot, in cups which have been previously dipped in cold water; when cold, turn them out on a flat dish, arranging them uniformly; then with a tea-spoon scoop out a little of the rice from the top of each cone, and put in its place any kind of jelly. Just before serving, pour in the bottom of the dish hot brandy-sauce. For a change, it is well to boil a stick of cinnamon in the rice to flavor it.
RICE-CAKE, WITH PEACHES.
When some rice is cooked in a steamer with milk, and is still hot, add a little butter, sugar, and one or two eggs. Butter a plain pudding-mold, strew the butter with bread-crumbs, and put in a layer of rice half an inch thick; then a layer of peaches, and continue alternate layers of each until the mold is full. Bake this for about fifteen or twenty minutes in an oven; when done, turn the cake out of the mold, and pour in the bottom of the dish a boiled custard-sauce flavored with wine, or any thing preferred.
RICE-CAKE, WITH PINE-APPLE.
Prepare rice as above. Cut the pine-apple into dice, and boil them in sirup (water and sugar boiled ten or fifteen minutes); drain and mix them in the rice. Butter a plain pudding-mold or basin, and strew it with bread-crumbs; put in the rice and pine-apple, and bake it; when done, turn it out of the mold, and pour around it a sauce made as follows: Peel three large apples, and cook them in one pint of sirup sweetened to taste. When the apples are quite soft, strain them through a sieve, and mix this sirup with that in which the pine-apple was cooked; boil, or reduce it until it coats the spoon.
GROUND RICE-PUDDING, WITH CHOCOLATE SAUCE.
Steam one quarter of a pound of ground rice and one pint of cream a quarter of an hour, then flavor it with vanilla; add one ounce of butter, the yolks of four eggs, let it cool, and beat it for half an hour; beat up the whites of the eggs to a froth, which mix in gently. Steam it a quarter of an hour. Serve it with half a pint of boiled custard, having one ounce of soaked and mashed chocolate stirred well into it, poured into the bottom of the dish.
ORANGE SNOW-BALLS (_Mrs. Acton_).
Boil some rice for ten minutes, drain, and let it cool. Pare some oranges, taking off all the thick white skin; spread the rice in as many portions as there are oranges, on some pudding or dumpling cloths. Tie the fruit (surrounded by the rice) separately in these, and boil the balls for an hour; turn them carefully on a dish, sprinkle over plenty of sifted sugar. Serve with any kind of sauce or sweetened cream.
APPLE SNOW-BALLS.
Pare and core some large apples without dividing them. Prepare the rice as in the foregoing receipt; inclose the apples separately in it, and boil them three-quarters of an hour.
_Sauce._--A little butter and sugar mixed to a cream; a spoonful of corn starch cooked in two cupfuls of boiling water; flavoring of cinnamon. To mix, see Sweet Sauces.
RICE SOUFFLÉ.
Ingredients: Half a cupful of rice, one even cupful of sugar, one pint of milk, butter the size of a butter-nut, half a lemon, five eggs.
Throw the rice into boiling salted water, and let it boil for ten minutes. Then put it into a stew-pan with the milk, butter and sugar, and set this to simmer very slowly for about half an hour, when the rice should be very soft (or the pan can be placed in a vessel of boiling water, or in a steamer). If it is placed directly on the range, much care should be taken not to let it burn. Now work the rice, etc., with a wooden spoon until it is a smooth paste; add the yolks of the eggs beaten to a perfect froth, and a lump of loaf sugar (mashed) which has absorbed all the oil out of the rind of the whole lemon (called zest); add also the juice of half of the lemon. If the rice is now too firm, add a little cream also. When cold, stir into this the whites of the eggs beaten to the stiffest possible froth, and put the mixture into a flat pudding-dish, or into little paper cases (see page 61). Sprinkle granulated sugar over the top or tops. Bake in the oven about ten minutes. Serve immediately, or the _soufflé_ will fall. Ground rice may be used instead of whole rice. It should be rubbed smooth with a little cold milk, and then added to the remainder of the milk and the butter on the fire, and stirred until it thickens. It is then taken off the fire, sweetened, and flavored; the beaten yolks and then the beaten whites are stirred in quickly, and the sugar is sprinkled over the top, when all is put into the oven.
RICE CROQUETTES.
Ingredients: To half a pound of rice, one quart of milk, one tea-cupful of sugar, a very little butter, yolks of one or two eggs beaten, flavoring, and a little salt.
Soak the rice three or four hours in water; drain, and put into a basin with the milk and salt. Set the basin in the steamer, and cook until thoroughly done. Then stir in carefully the sugar, the yolks of one or two eggs, very little butter, and flavor with extract of lemon or vanilla. If fresh lemon is used, add a little zest. When cool enough to handle, form into small balls; press the thumb into the centre of each; insert a little marmalade, or jelly of any kind, and close the rice well over them. Roll in beaten eggs (sweetened a little), and bread-crumbs. Fry in boiling-hot lard.
RICE PANCAKES, WITH PRESERVES.
Make the pancakes (see page 70), and while hot spread them with butter, and with almost any kind of preserve or jelly; roll them, cut off the ends, arrange them tastefully on a hot platter, sprinkle sugar over the tops, and serve immediately.
WINE JELLIES.
WINE JELLY.
Ingredients: One box of gelatine soaked in one pint of clear cold water, one pint of wine, the juice and the thin cuts of rinds of three lemons, one and three-quarter pounds of loaf-sugar, one quart of clear boiling water, the whites of two eggs (well beaten) and the shells, with a small stick of cinnamon.
Soak the gelatine in the pint of cold water an hour, then pour over it the quart of boiling water, stirring it well; now add the wine, sugar, eggs, lemon-juice (strained in a fine strainer), and the thinnest possible cuts from the peels of the lemons. These cuts take only the little globules of oil in the peel, which are exceedingly delicate in flavor, the white part being bitter. Add also the small stick of cinnamon, as it adds much to the flavor of the jelly. Put this into a porcelain kettle, let it boil rapidly about a quarter of a minute without stirring it; now, setting the kettle on the hearth, let it remain another half-minute to settle, then skim off carefully the scum which is at the top; pour it through the jelly-bag. It should be entirely clear: if, however, the first should not be so, return it to the bag.
Cold water should be poured into the molds, then emptied just before using. Jelly hardens much quicker on ice, or in the coolest place to be found.
Dip the molds into warm water a moment, before taking out the jelly. If allowed to remain a moment too long, the jelly might dissolve a little, injuring the form.
Many kinds of wines and liquors may be used. The above receipt is well proportioned for sherry, Madeira, or port; a smaller proportion of brandy, maraschino, noyau, or of punch would make sufficient flavoring; a larger portion of Champagne might be used, as it is not so strong.
ORANGE JELLY (_molded with Quarters of Oranges_).
Ingredients: Eight oranges, two lemons, three-quarters of a box of gelatine soaked in half a pint of cold water, three-quarters of a pound of loaf-sugar, one pint of boiling water, beaten whites and shells of two eggs.
Rub the loaf-sugar on the peels of two oranges and one lemon; squeeze the juice from six or seven oranges and two lemons, and strain it. Take off the peel carefully from two oranges, leaving only the transparent skin surrounding the quarters, and separate all the sections without breaking them. Soak the gelatine half an hour in half a pint of water; boil the other pint of water and the sugar together, skimming all the time until no more scum rises; then put in the sections of oranges, and when they have boiled about a minute take them out, and put them one side. Pour this sirup over the soaked gelatine, adding the orange and lemon juice, the beaten whites and the shells of two eggs. Put it on the fire, and let it boil about a quarter of a minute without stirring; then, placing it at the side of the fire, skim off carefully all the scum at the top, and pass it through the jelly-bag. When half of the jelly is in the mold, put it on the ice, and let it set hard enough to hold the orange sections, which place in a circular row around the edge of the mold; then add enough more jelly to cover the sections; when this has hardened, pour over the remainder of the jelly, which should have been kept in a warm place to prevent it from hardening. All the sections of orange may be put in with the first half of the jelly, as they will rise to the top, although they will not hold their places evenly. Or, if time is valuable, mold the jelly without the sections, and save them to garnish the jelly on the dish.
LEMON JELLY.
Ingredients: Half a box of gelatine soaked in half a pint of water, juice of five large lemons, two cupfuls of loaf-sugar, or sugar to taste, beaten white and shell of an egg, one and a half pints of boiling water.
Soak the gelatine in the half-pint of water half an hour. Rub several of the pieces of the sugar on the peel of the lemon, to soak the oil on the surface. Pour a pint and a half of boiling water on the soaked gelatine, and add lemon-juice, sugar, and egg; let it come to a boil, then set it at the side of the range a few moments; skim carefully, and pass through the jelly-bag into molds.
MACEDOINE OF FRUITS.
This is made with any kind of jelly; however, jelly made with Champagne or sherry is preferable. Any of the delicate fruits of the season, such as grapes, cherries, peaches, strawberries, raspberries, mulberries, currants (on their stems), plums, and orange sections, or preserved fruits, such as brandied cherries, peaches, etc., are tastefully imbedded in the jelly, so as to show their forms and colors to best advantage. A fine bunch of Hamburg or of Malaga grapes is exceedingly pretty, incorporated whole into a clear Champagne jelly; it should be suspended with a small thread in the centre of the jelly-mold, and the jelly poured in when quite cold, although not set. The bunches of grapes are in this way much more easily imbedded than other fruits. In the latter case, the mold is placed on ice; a little jelly is poured in, and, when set, some fruits are arranged in a circle, or according to taste; more jelly poured in, and left to harden again; more fruit added, and thus continued until the mold is full.
Do not heat the jelly a second time; merely keep it in a warm place, awaiting that on the ice to harden.
FANCY JELLIES.
Jelly is sometimes formed in a mold with a cylindrical tube in the centre; the open space in the centre is then filled with whipped cream. Then, to be still more fanciful, the whipped cream may be dotted with strawberries, or any kind of preserved fruits, such as cherries, grapes, cuts of peaches, etc., etc.
Then there is ribbon jelly, or jelly made in two colors, in this way: Half of a Champagne or sherry jelly is colored quite red with a few drops of prepared cochineal; a little pale jelly is poured into the mold, and, when set, a layer of the red jelly is poured carefully over it, and so continued until the mold is filled with alternate layers of the two colors.
Italian jelly is pretty also. The mold is half filled with jelly, and, when set, a chain of cakes of _blanc-mange_ (made rather firm, hardened in a thin layer, and cut of equal sizes with a pepper-box cover or a small tin cutter) is arranged; then the remainder of the jelly is added to the mold.
Whipped jelly makes a pretty change. When it is set a little, put it into a bowl; whip it with an egg-whisk until it is full of air-bubbles. Fill the mold, and put on ice.
WHAT TO DO WITH PARTS OF JELLY LEFT OVER IN WINTER.
Add lemon-juice; beat the jelly until it becomes entirely white, which will take some time, and put it into a mold again.
CALF’S-FOOT JELLY.
I have made calf’s-foot jelly twice, and never intend to make it again. I would not have made it the second time, except for the purpose of succeeding, and getting a reliable receipt for this book. At the first attempt, I happened to have company who had heard that I pretended to be a cook. The jelly was opaque, tasteless, and split in two. Here is a successful receipt. It requires almost every thing known in the cooking calender; but do not attempt it with less, and after a trial use gelatine only for jellies.
Ingredients: Four calf’s feet boiled in a gallon of water, seven eggs, one and a half pounds of sugar, one pint of sherry wine, a stick of cinnamon, three cloves, and half a box of gelatine.
Split the calf’s feet, break the bones, and place them on the fire at the back of the range, with a gallon of cold water, to boil gently for five hours. Skim the water often, which should be reduced to rather less than two quarts; then strain the jelly into a pan, and, when perfectly firm, remove the fat and sediment.
Add to the jelly the beaten whites and crushed shells of seven eggs, one and a half pounds of sugar, a pint of sherry wine, a stick of cinnamon, three cloves, and half a box of gelatine soaked in a little water, and whip this well together; set it over the fire, and when it has just begun to boil throw in the juice of six lemons, and one or two table-spoonfuls of clear, cold water; take the kettle off the fire, let it remain at the side in rather a hot place about ten minutes, then skim off carefully all the scum from the top. Put into the jelly-bag the thin cuts from the peels of four lemons, not cutting the white or under skin, as that is bitter; then pour in the jelly, having the apparatus near the fire to prevent the jelly hardening before it has all passed through.
WHIPPED JELLY, WITH FRUITS.
Prepare about two cupfuls of preserved fruits--for instance, pine-apples, peaches, greengages, and cherries; keep the cherries whole, but cut the others into dice; moisten them all with sherry.
Prepare about a quart of Champagne, sherry, or brandy jelly, and when strained pour it into a basin, which place on the ice, or on ice and salt; whip it now gently with the egg-whisk, adding the juice of two lemons; when it begins to set, and is quite frothy (not too much so, however), stir in the fruits; place all into a mold, and surround it with ice.
CAKE.
_Rules for Cake._--Have every thing ready before mixing the material--_i. e._, the ingredients all measured and prepared, and the tins buttered. The sooner the cake is mixed (after the ingredients are ready) and put into the oven, the better. Sift the flour, and have it dry. Mix baking-powder or cream of tartar, if used, well into the flour, passing it through the sieve several times, if particular. Roll the sugar; mix sugar and butter together to a cream. The eggs must then be _very, very well_ beaten separately. If one person makes the cake, beat the yolks first. If soda is used, dissolve it in the milk, or, if no milk is used, in a little lukewarm water; add it the last thing, unless fruit is used, when it should always be rolled in flour, and added the last thing. Cake, to be light, should be baked slowly at first, until the batter is evenly heated all through. Many leave the oven door slightly open for the first ten or fifteen minutes. The prepared flour is especially good for cake.
SPONGE-CAKE.
This is the most perfect of sponge-cakes, when properly made.
Ingredients: Ten eggs, one pound of _pulverized_ sugar, half a pound of flour, juice of half a large lemon, with the rind grated.
After all the ingredients are quite ready--_i. e._, the flour and sugar sifted, the lemon-peel grated, the half lemon squeezed, and the tins buttered--the success of this cake is in the beating of the eggs. Two persons should beat them at least half an hour, one beating the whites, and the other the yolks and half of the sugar together. Next cut the yolks into the whites, then stir in lightly the remainder of the sugar, then the flour and lemon by degrees.[J]
The oven heat should be rather _moderate_ at first. Much of the success depends upon this, as the batter should be evenly heated throughout before it begins to rise. When baked, spread over the cakes a wafer thickness of icing (see page 304) slightly flavored with vanilla.
WHITE CAKE (_Miss Eliza Brown_).
I venture to say there is not to be found a better receipt for white cake than the following. The cake is mixed contrary to the usual rules for making cake, but it is the best mode for making it fine-grained and delicate.
Ingredients: Whites of six eggs, scant three-quarters of a cupful of butter, one and one-quarter cupfuls of pulverized sugar, two cupfuls of flour, juice of half a lemon, one-quarter of a tea-spoonful of soda.
If soda is used, mix it well with the flour, and pass it through the sieve several times to distribute it equally. Beat the butter to a light cream, and add the flour to it, stirring it in gradually with the ends of the fingers until it is a smooth paste. Beat the whites of the six eggs to a stiff froth, and mix in them the pulverized sugar; now stir the egg and sugar gradually into the flour and butter, adding also the lemon-juice, and mix it smoothly together with the egg-whisk. As soon as it is perfectly smooth, put it into the oven, the heat of which should be rather moderate at first. When done and still hot, spread over it a frosting made with the white of one egg, pulverized sugar (see page 304), and a flavoring of lemon. The frosting is a decided improvement, and, according to the receipt, only requires a few minutes to prepare.
This cake may be made with one tea-spoonful of baking-powder, or with prepared flour, or with the one-quarter tea-spoonful of soda and one-half tea-spoonful of cream of tartar, when the essence of lemon should be used instead of the lemon-juice.
JUMBLES (_Mrs. Wadsworth_).
Ingredients: Two cupfuls of sugar, three eggs (beaten separately); one cupful of butter, just enough flour to roll it out.
Mix quickly, and roll it thin. Cut out the cakes with a round cake-cutter, cutting them out again in the centre with the top of the pepper-glass of the caster. When they are in the pans, wet the tops, using a paste-brush or feather, with the white of an egg slightly beaten. Then sprinkle over very coarse-pounded lump-sugar; the sugar, in fact, in little lumps.
ALMOND JUMBLES.
Ingredients: One pound of sugar, one-half pound of butter, one pound of almonds blanched and chopped fine, two eggs, flour enough to mix stiff.
Roll thin. Moisten the top of each one with the white of eggs, and sprinkle with sugar. Bake quickly.
Some persons wet the jumbles with a brush or a little cloth saturated with sherry-wine after they are cooked, and then return them to the oven a few moments to dry.
COCOA-NUT CAKE (_Miss Emma Witt, of Cleveland_).
Ingredients: One-half coffee-cupful of butter, two small tea-spoonfuls of cream of tartar, two and one-half coffee-cupfuls of sugar, one small tea-spoonful of soda, four and one-half coffee-cupfuls of flour, two grated cocoa-nuts, one coffee-cupful of sweet milk, the whites of seven eggs.
Reserve a large handful of the grated cocoa-nut to sprinkle on the frosting. This cake looks most beautiful mixed with fruit-cake in a cake-basket.
FRUIT-CAKE (_Miss Abbie Carpenter, of Saratoga_).
Ingredients: One pound of flour, one pound of sugar, one and one-eighth pound of butter, one-half pound of candied citron, four pounds of currants, four pounds of raisins (stoned and chopped), nine eggs, one table-spoonful each of ground cloves, of cinnamon, of mace, and of nutmeg, and three gills of brandy.
This cake is perhaps not too large, as it will keep for years.
ENGLISH POUND-CAKE.