Part 7

Moisten the sugar, which should be white and of the finest quality, with peppermint water, or flavour it with the essence of peppermint and moisten it with a little clear water. See that your utensils are very clean.

208.--Pine-apple Drops.

Take the pine-apple and rub the rind on a piece of rough sugar. The sugar thus impregnated you scrape off for use directly. Pound the pine-apple, and pass the pulp or juice through a fine hair sieve. Add the sugar just scraped off and as much more as you think it requires to make it sweet. Make it into a paste with clear water. Every precaution must be used, as it soon greases. No more should be made than you actually want for immediate use.

209.--Vanilla Drops.

2 pods of vanilla, 1 lb. of pounded sugar. Use the pods of vanilla in preference to the essence; the latter is apt to grease the paste. Cut the vanilla up very fine, put it in a mortar, and pound it well along with a portion of your sugar. When sufficiently smooth, sift it through a fine sieve. Finish as for the rest.

210.--Ginger Drops.

Take as much ginger as you wish to use, pound, and sift it through a fine lawn sieve; add it to as much sugar as you desire to flavour, and mix it with clear water. Some use the ginger sold at the shops already powdered; some, again, the essence of ginger, colouring the paste with saffron.

211.--Lemon Drops.

Rub off the yellow rind of some lemons on a piece of rough sugar; scrape it off, and mix it into your paste. Add sufficient to your sugar to give it a good flavour, and colour it a light yellow with saffron. Moisten with clear water, and mix as the rest.

212.--Orange Drops.

These are made the same as lemon drops.

213.--Pear Drops.

Made the same as above, and flavoured with the essence of jargonel pear.

214.--Lavender, Violet, Musk, and Millefleur Drops.

These are all made the same way as the above, being flavoured with the essences that give them their names.

215.--Pink Burnt Almonds.

Put 1 pint of clarified sugar in a round-bottomed pan on a clear fire, boil it to the degree called blown, mix in as much prepared cochineal as will make it a good colour, boil it again to the degree called blown, throw in the brown burnt almonds free from small; take the pan off the fire and stir the almonds well about in the sugar with the spatter until it is all upon them, which is very easily done if you are careful. You may repeat this two or three times, which will make the almonds very handsome.

216.--Philadelphia Caramels.

Take 10 lbs. of sugar, 2 quarts of rich cream, 1½ lb. of glucose, 1 lb. of fresh butter, 1 teaspoonful of cream of tartar, 1 lb. of cocoa paste, and ¼ of a lb. of white wax of paraffin. Boil these to the “crack,” pour upon a greased marble slab, between iron bars, and let it remain until cold, then cut it into small cubes and fold in wax-paper.

217.--Boston Chips.

These are made of sugar boiled to the hard crack, flavoured and tinted to suit your fancy; it is then poured upon a greased marble slab. As soon as it becomes sufficiently cold the edges are turned in and the batch is folded in a mass, placed upon the candy hook and pulled; it is then run through a machine the iron rollers of which are set very closely together, so that the candy comes through as thin as a wafer; it is then cut into strips to suit, or it may be wound around an oiled round stick and then slipped off, making a curl. Two or more colours may be joined together before it is run through the machine, thus making a parti-coloured ribbon.

218.--Engagement Favours.

Break up 1 lb. of loaf sugar into small particles, let it dissolve in a pan with ½ pint of water and 2 spoonfuls of lemon-juice; skim and boil to the ball, add pieces of lemon peel tied together with a string, boil until a sample is brittle; take out the lemon peel, pour out the sugar on an oiled slab, taking care to distribute it so that the whole mass cools at the same time. It is pulled, manipulated, and cut in the ordinary way. A small part of the sugar coloured red and boiled separately may be used to variegate the sweets, and should be worked in just before cutting.

219.--Almond Hardbake.

Oil a square or round tin with low edges, split some almonds in halves and place them in rows over the bottom with the split side downward until the surface is covered. Boil some raw sugar to the crack, pour it over them so as to cover the whole with a thin sheet of sugar.

Cocoanut cut in thin slices, currants, and other similar candies are made in the same way, except that the sugar is ground before it is poured over.

220.--To make Gum Paste.

Put any quantity of picked gum dragon into an upright earthen jar, cover it over with cold water and let it stand two or three days. Have ready some of the very finest icing sugar, take the gum into a coarse piece of canvas and let another person assist in twisting it round until the whole has passed through. Beat it well up in the mortar to make it tough and white, then add sugar by degrees, still beating it with the pestle. When it is stiff take it out and keep it in an earthen jar for use. When it is worked into ornaments it will require a little starch-powder to smooth and make it proper for use. If you want to colour any part of it, use vegetable colouring.

221.--To spin a Silver Web.

Take 1 pint of clarified sugar and 1 teaspoonful of lemon juice, boil it in a small pan to the degree called caramelled; the moment the sugar is ready take it off and put the bottom of the pan in cold water. As soon as the water is warmed take the pan out. This precaution will keep the sugar from discolouring. As this sugar is to represent silver you must be particularly careful not to boil it too high. Have ready a crocanth mould neatly oiled with sweet oil, then take a teaspoon and dip the shank of it into the sugar on one side of the pan, take up a little sugar and throw the spoon backwards and forwards in the mould, leaving as fine a thread as possible. Continue to do so until the mould is quite full. You must observe that there be no blotches and that the threads be as fine as hair; you may then take it out and cover it over a custard or any other sweet, and may, if you please, raise it by spinning light threads of sugar on the top.

222.--To spin a Gold Web.

Proceed with a gold web exactly the same as with the silver web, only boil the sugar a moment longer.

223.--A Spun Sugar Pyramid.

Provide four or five round moulds, the one larger than the other, oil them neatly, then boil your sugar as for silver web, only let it remain on the fire one minute longer, then take up sugar with the shank of the spoon and spin it as near the side of the mould as possible, but let no blotches appear; do this to the four moulds. As soon as cold take them out and fix one above another with hot sugar, then spin long lengths of sugar round until they form a complete pyramid. You may spin long threads of sugar to represent a feather, and place them on the top, or you may place a sprig of myrtle on the top and spin long lengths of sugar round it. The way to do it is to take the shank of your spoon, dip it into the cool sugar at the side of the pan, take hold of a bit of the sugar with your finger and thumb and pull it out to any length and fineness you please.

224.--To spin a Gold Sugar Crocanth.

Boil your sugar a minute longer than for the silver web, using the same precaution as before. Have ready your mould neatly oiled, then take a little sugar on the shank of your spoon, spin it quite close to the side of your mould (be careful you make no blotches), spin all round, and strengthen the sugar as much as you can. There must be no holes or blotches, but an even regular sugar, all parts as near alike as possible. When the sugar is perfectly cold turn it out carefully, and set it over a custard or any other sweet. You may use it plain or ornament it with gum paste, as you think proper.

225.--To spin a Gold Cup.

Provide a copper mould like a cup. It must be made in three parts, and must be perfectly smooth within; oil each neatly, and spin sugar in each, agreeable to the directions for the crocanth. If two persons can spin at the same time it will be much better. When the three moulds are perfectly covered with sugar, and cold, take each out and put them together in a proper manner with hot sugar. You may ornament the cup with gum paste, which will make it very beautiful.

NOTE.--In boiling sugar to spin, great care must be taken to have a clear fire, and only to boil a small quantity at a time in a small brass pan. If you have two or three sugars to spin you must use two or three pans. One person may be attending to the boiling while another is spinning. A teaspoonful of lemon juice must be put to a pint of clarified sugar. If the sugar is likely to boil over the top of the pan drop one drop of sweet oil from your finger into the sugar, which will stop it immediately.

226.--A Spun Sugar Bee-hive.

Mould twenty or thirty bees in gum paste, as near the colour and shape as possible, make a hole with a pin on each side of the mouth and let them dry; make some of the wings extend as if flying. Provide a large round crocanth mould as near the shape of a bee-hive as possible, then boil the sugar as formerly instructed. Spin the sugar hot close to the inside of the mould. It must be regularly spun and very strong, the threads very fine, and no blotches. When it is so, let it stand until quite cold, then turn it out of the mould on to a large dish and ornament as under.

227.--To Ornament a Bee-hive.

Before you begin to boil the sugar take as many borders out of your gum paste moulds as will go round the bottom; also take out leaves for the top; run a husk round the sides to represent the matting of the hive, lay your borders and leaves on a marble slab, with a cloth over them to keep them moist. You may also twist a length of gum paste like a wreath and make it into a large ring; this must be dried; then fix on the ornaments with a little hot sugar and set the ring upright on the top. You may then spin long lengths of sugar very fine on to a tin plate. Take the bees and fix them with hot sugar on the top and sides of the hive; break the lengths of sugar in short pieces and fix them in the holes made in the bees. You may also form three entrances into the hive with the gum paste husk.

XI. COLOURING SUGAR.

228.--To prepare Sugar for Colouring.

Take good loaf sugar, get it ground well, put it through a hair sieve; what remains in the hair sieve put into a fine wire sieve and sift it, and the sugar which comes through the wire sieve will be rough sugar proper for colouring.

229.--To colour Sugar.

Divide the sugar into as many parts as you intend to colour, put each into a sheet of paper, then prepare your colours. Take a round-bottomed pan and put it on a warm stove, pour in your lot of sugar, stir it about with a dry whisk until the sugar is warm, add the colour, stir it well with the whisk to make the sugar all of that colour, then stir it about till the sugar is nearly dry, when you may spread it about on the sheet of paper. You may proceed in this manner with all the colours. The first colour used should be yellow, and the next green, which may be coloured in the yellow pan and with the same whisk. You must then wash both, and colour red, and after that orange. When the sugar is cold, sift it to take out any coupled, then bottle it separately. It will be found to be a useful article to ornament rout biscuits, creams, &c.

230.--Blue Colouring.

Take a fig of the best indigo, dip one side in warm water and rub it on a marble slab until you gain the strength you want; or if you wish for a quantity, put a fig into a small cup, drop a tablespoonful of water upon it, and let it stand half an hour; then pour off the water at the top, and you will have a fine smooth colour.

231.--Carmine Colouring.

Take carmine, No. 24 or 40, 1 dr., liquor potassæ 2½ drs., water 2 ozs., glycerine sufficient to make 4 ozs. Rub the carmine to a paste with liquor potassæ and add the water and glycerine. This is a splendid red, and works well with liquor acids.

232.--Green Colouring.

Take some strong saffron colour and a little of the fine melted blue; mix them well together, which will make a green colour. If you want a pale green, use more yellow; if a dark green, use more blue.

233. _Another Way._--Take a quantity of spinach, pick the leaves from the stalks, put them very tight down in a small pan, add a small quantity of water, cover them closely up, and set the pan on a warm stove for two hours; then turn the leaves into a coarse canvas, and let two persons twist it round until all the liquor is squeezed out; set it on a clear fire in a small pan, and let it boil one minute. When cold, bottle and cork it tight.

NOTE.--The vegetable colouring bought at shops which manufacture it specially for confectioners is the safest, cheapest, and best.

234.--Orange Colouring.

Take one tablespoonful of cochineal colour and the same quantity of the saffron liquor; mix them together and you will have an orange colour. If it be too red, add a little more yellow; if it be too yellow, add a little more red.

235.--Red Colouring.

Beat 1 oz. of cochineal fine in a mortar, to which put 1½ pint of soft water and ½ oz. of cream of tartar; simmer them in a pan for half an hour over a slow fire. Take it off, and throw in ½ oz. of roach alum to strike the colour. You may ascertain the strength by dipping in a piece of writing paper. If not sufficiently strong, simmer it again for a short time. When nearly cold, strain it through a strong piece of canvas, and before you bottle it add 2 ozs. of double refined sugar.

236.--Yellow Colouring.

Put the best saffron down tightly in a small jar, pour a little boiling water over it, cover it closely up, and set it in a warm place for half an hour, turning it two or three times in the water; then strain and bottle it for use.

XII. LOZENGES.

Lozenges are made of loaf sugar finely ground, gum arabic dissolved in water, also gum dragon. They are mixed together into a paste, cut round or oval with cutters, and dried. To make the best sort of lozenges, 1 lb. of gum arabic should be dissolved in 1 pint of water; but the proportion of gum and water in general use is 2½ lbs. of gum arabic in 1 quart and ½ pint of water, and 1 oz. of gum dragon in ½ pint of water.

237.--Peppermint Lozenges.

Take some finely powdered loaf sugar, put it on a marble slab, make a bay in the centre, pour in some dissolved gum, and mix into a paste, flavour with the essence of peppermint, roll the paste on the marble slab until it is about an eighth of an inch thick. Use starch-powder to dust it with; this keeps it from sticking. Dust the surface with a little starch-powder and sugar, and rub it over with the palm of your hand. Cut out the lozenges and place them on wooden trays, and place them in the stove to dry. All lozenges are finished in the same way.

238.--Rose Lozenges.

Make the paste the same way as the preceding, and use essence of roses to flavour with; colour the paste with cochineal.

239.--Ginger Lozenges.

1 oz. of powdered ginger, 1 lb. of powdered sugar. Mix to a paste with dissolved gum; colour with yellow.

240.--Transparent Mint Lozenges.

These are made with the coarser grains of powdered loaf sugar. Pass the sugar through a hair sieve, then sift it through a fine sieve to take away the powder. Flavour with peppermint. Finish as the others.

241.--Cinnamon Lozenges.

Mix as the others; flavour with cinnamon in powder, adding a few drops of essential oil. Colour with coffee colour.

242.--Clove Lozenges.

1 oz. of cloves powdered and 2½ lbs. of sugar. Mix, and finish as for the others.

243.--Nutmeg Lozenges.

¼ oz. of oil of nutmeg, 2 lbs. of sugar. Mix as instructions for the others.

244.--Lavender Lozenges.

Mix as for others; flavour with English oil of lavender, and colour with a little cochineal and blue mixed.

245.--Vanilla Lozenges.

Use essence of vanilla or the stick pounded with sugar and sifted through a fine hair sieve.

246.--Brilliants.

Take either of the pastes for lozenges and cut into small fancy devices or ornaments.

XIII. ICE CREAMS.

The genuine recipe for making ice creams will be found below. The first operation is the thorough scalding of the cream, sugar, and eggs: this gives it greater body and richness.

247.--Vanilla Ice Cream.

Put into a perfectly bright and clean copper basin 2 lbs. of sugar, 4 eggs, 1 large fine bean of vanilla split and cut into small pieces, stir all well together with a large wire whisk, then add 4 quarts of rich cream, place it upon the fire and stir well and constantly until it is about to boil; then immediately remove it from the fire and strain it through a hair sieve into an earthen tureen or crock; let it stand till cool, pour it into your freezing-can already imbedded in broken ice and rock-salt, cover and turn the crank slowly and steadily until it can be turned no longer, open the can and remove the dasher, scrape the hardened cream from the sides with a long-handled spatula, and beat and work the cream until smooth. Close the can, draw off the water, and repack with fresh ice and salt and let it rest for an hour or two to harden and ripen.

Ice cream is often made from fresh unscalded cream beaten vigorously during the entire freezing process, this causes it to swell and increase in bulk from a fourth to a third, but what is gained in quantity is lost in quality, as it becomes very light and snowy in texture, having no body: it is simply a frozen froth. Ice cream should be firm, smooth, and satiny, yet melting on the tongue like the best quality of gilt-edged butter.

In flavouring ice creams with fruit juices or the pulp thereof, the latter must never be cooked or scalded with the cream under any circumstances; they must be added, mixed, and beaten into the cream after it is frozen.

The process given above for vanilla ice cream is the same for all cream ices.

248.--Bisque or Biscuit Glace.

Make a rich and highly flavoured vanilla ice cream and add for each quart ¼ of a lb. of almond macaroons dried crisp and reduced to a powder in a stone mortar. After the cream is frozen, add and work into it the macaroon powder, and finish as above directed for vanilla ice cream.

249.--Crushed Strawberry Ice Cream.

As for bisque, make a rich vanilla ice cream, and when it is well frozen add to it 1 pint of strawberries to each quart of cream. The berries must be full ripe and be crushed to a pulp with some fine sugar before adding and working them into the cream. Finish as for vanilla.

250.--Hokey Pokey.

This article is not an ice cream proper, but a species of frozen custard made of milk, eggs, sugar, gelatine, and flavouring. Take 2 ozs. of gelatine, dissolve in ½ pint of milk or water, then to 4 quarts of milk and 8 eggs slightly beaten add 1½ lb. of sugar and the thin yellow rind of 2 lemons, and a pinch of salt; put the ingredients into a clean, bright basin, place on a moderate fire, and stir constantly till it begins to thicken, then remove quickly, and pour it into an earthen pan and continue to stir it till nearly cold, then add and stir in the dissolved gelatine; pour all into your freezer and freeze as for other ices. When frozen it may be put in small boxes about three inches long by two inches wide, or it may be wrapped in wax paper and kept ready for sale in an ice cave. The office of the gelatine is to solidify the compound and assist its “keeping” qualities.

251.--Cocoanut Ice.

Take grated white meat of 3 fine cocoanuts and the milk they have contained, to which add 3 quarts of filtered water; place on the fire and boil for ten minutes, then pour it into an earthen or stoneware crock, cover, and let it infuse till nearly cold, then strain and press off the liquid with a fine sieve; to this liquid add 1¼ lb. of pulverised sugar and the whites of 3 eggs; mix all thoroughly well together and pour it into the freezer already imbedded in ice and salt. Freeze and finish as other ices.

XIV. PRESERVING FRUITS.

The preserving of fruits has always been considered a principal branch of confectionery, and one which requires no small degree of attention and diligence. As you are instructed in the boiling of sugars in its several degrees, named in each recipe, should it be boiled lower the fruit will lose its colour, turn windy, and spoil; if it is boiled higher it will rock and cannot be got out of the jars. Another important point is to preserve such fruit only as is quite fresh picked, the flavour, which is a very essential consideration, being lost if the fruit be stale. Cleanliness in this branch, as in every other, must not be neglected. Preserving pans, &c., must resemble a looking-glass as much as possible. Fruits well preserved will keep in almost any place. It is better, however, to keep them neither in too dry nor in too damp a place. The jars must be well protected from air by covering each with writing-paper dipped in brandy, covered and tied over with wet bladder.

NOTE.--A wood skimmer must be made of ash or elm about 4 inches long, 3 inches broad, and 1 inch thick. There is a handle fixed on one side, which take hold of and lay the wood gently on the fruit where the scum is, then take it off and scrape off the scum, and so on until all is taken off.

252.--Large Strawberries.

Procure the largest Carolina or Hanoverian strawberries, pack two layers with care in a flat-bottomed preserving pan, then pour over them 1 pint of currant juice, cover them with smooth clarified sugar, and over it a sheet of paper, set them on a warm part of the stove until the syrup is new-milk warm, then take them off; next morning take them out one at a time with an egg-spoon and lay them on a fine splinter sieve set over a pan to drain; add to the syrup a little clarified sugar and boil it to the degree called “pearled,” put in the fruit with care and simmer them round; as soon as the syrup is off the degree called pearled, take them from the stove, skim, and put them with great care into a flat pudding pot, cover them up for two days, then lay them on a splinter sieve to drain, and add to the syrup 1 or 2 pints of clarified sugar as occasion may require, with the proportion of red currant juice, boil it to the degree called pearled, and put in your fruit with great care and simmer them very gently round the sides of the pan; as soon as the syrup is off the degree called pearled skim them and put them into jars, filling them within half an inch of the top. When cold cover them with writing-paper dipped in brandy and bladder them over.

253.--Strawberry Jam.

Take any quantity of scarlet strawberries, pass them through a fine splinter sieve, add to them 1 or 2 pints of red currant juice, according to the quantity of strawberries, put the same weight of sifted loaf sugar as fruit, boil them over a bright fire, keep stirring all the time with a spatter, and with it make a figure of eight in the pan to prevent the jam taking hold of the bottom; when it has boiled ten minutes take it off and take a little jam out with a scraper, which drop upon a plate; if it retains the mark of the scraper it is of a proper consistency and ready to put into jars, but should it run thin on the plate it must be boiled again until of the substance above named. It is necessary here to observe that all sorts of red fruit should be kept as short a time as possible on the fire, and for that reason let your fires be perfectly bright before you use them.

254.--Raspberry Jelly.