Part 24

Serve with egg sauce, custard or whipped cream, or with blueberry or grape juice.

=Orange Cream=

¼ oz. gelatine 1 cup water ½ tablespn. lemon juice with orange juice to make ¾ of a cup 2-3 tablespns. sugar ¾ cup cream, plain or whipped

Add lemon and orange juice to cooked gelatine, and sugar to cream, then pour gelatine into cream, mixing carefully if cream is whipped. Mold.

Pineapple may be used the same, or ⅔ pineapple and ⅓ orange juice.

=Prune Cream Mold=

¼ oz. gelatine 1 cup water pulp of ½ lb. (24 medium sized) prunes with water enough to make 2-2½ cups ½ teaspn. vanilla 1 cup cream, whipped 2 tablespns. sugar

=Pineapple Sponge=

¼ oz. gelatine 1 cup water 1 cup cream, plain ½ teaspn. vanilla 2 teaspns. lemon juice in cup, pineapple juice to fill the cup whites of 4 eggs ¾ cup sugar 1 tablespn. lemon juice

Beat whites of eggs stiff, add sugar and beat, chop in the lemon juice, then the cream and the pineapple juice, carefully, and lastly add the gelatine, not too warm, and put at once into molds. Some of the fruit cut fine may be used with the juice.

=Lemon Snow=

¼ oz. gelatine 1 cup water ⅔ cup lemon juice 1⅓ cup water whites of 3 eggs 1 cup sugar

Beat whites of eggs stiff, add the sugar, beating well, then the lemon juice and water, slowly, chopping in lightly, then add the gelatine, not very warm.

May serve with border of grated or shredded pineapple. Make pineapple, gooseberry, grape and other fruit snows in the same way.

=Sponge Pudding=

¼ oz. gelatine 1 cup water yolks 4 eggs 4 tablespns. (⅓ cup) lemon juice 5 tablespns. sugar whites 4 eggs 6 tablespns. sugar

Beat yolks of eggs in inner cup of double boiler and pour slowly over them the lemon juice and 5 tablespns. of sugar, hot, not boiling; cook like custard, cool; chop into whites of eggs which have been stiffly beaten with the 6 tablespns. of sugar, and add the gelatine, not very warm. Serve with unflavored, whipped cream or with grape juice.

=★ Gelatine Blanc Mange=

¼ oz. gelatine 4 cups rich milk 3-4 tablespns. sugar 1 teaspn. vanilla

Soak gelatine in warm water, drain and cook in part of the milk in the inner cup of a double boiler (let stand in the outer boiler until well heated, then boil carefully over the fire). When the gelatine is dissolved, remove from the fire, add sugar, then the cold milk and lastly, the vanilla. Mold. Serve with cream or any desired sauce.

=Cocoanut Blanc Mange=

Flavor milk with cocoanut and proceed as in gelatine blanc mange. Serve with rich blueberry juice, or with cream or custard.

=★ Rice Charlotte=

⅛ oz. gelatine ½ cup water ¼ cup rice 1½ cup milk 2-2½ tablespns. sugar ½ cup cream flavoring

After boiling rice in salted water 20 m. to ½ hr. drain and cook in milk in double boiler 1 hr. Add water to that drained from the rice to make ½ cup, which add with sugar, flavoring and gelatine to rice when partly cooled. Lastly, mix whipped cream in lightly and mold. Serve alone or with cream, plain or whipped, with orange egg cream sauce or fruit sauce and halves of nuts. When serving with fruit sauces omit flavorings.

If desired richer, 1 cup only of milk may be used for cooking rice, and 1 cup cream, whipped, added. A garnish of small molds of orange or other fruit jelly around the charlotte is very pretty.

=★ Whipped Cream Jelly--Miss Hughes=

¼ oz. gelatine 1 cup water 1¼ cup cream ⅓-½ cup sugar

Whip cream, not too much, add sugar, then gelatine. Tint delicately with pink or green when desired, and flavor with vanilla or rose or both or with orange and vanilla sometimes; but as a rule, it is preferred without flavoring. May be served with cake or wafers and berries.

=★ Maple Cream=

¼ oz. gelatine 1 cup water 1⅓ cup maple syrup 1⅓ cup cream

Add syrup to gelatine, then both to whipped cream. Mold and serve with wafers.

=Jellied Café au Lait=

¼ oz. gelatine 1 cup water 2 cups milk in which 1½-2 tablespns. of cereal coffee have been steeped

Serve with plain or whipped sweetened cream, flavored with vanilla if desired.

=Coffee Bavarian=

¼ oz. gelatine 1 cup water 3 cups strong cereal coffee 1 cup milk ⅔ cup sugar 4 eggs ½-1 teaspn. vanilla

Strain coffee through cloth, mix with milk, sugar and eggs; cook like custard. Cool partly before adding vanilla; add gelatine and mold. Serve with unsweetened cream with cake or wafers.

=Coffee Bavarian and Blanc Mange or Jellied Custard=

May be molded in layers and served with a sweetened and vanilla flavored meringue or with whipped cream in roses.

=★ Jellied Custard=

¼ oz. gelatine 1 cup water 3 cups rich milk 2 eggs 4-6 tablespns. sugar

Cook custard, flavor if desired, add gelatine, mold. Serve with blueberry, grape or any suitable fruit juice, or with unsweetened cream, plain or whipped. Or, cook milk and yolks of eggs together, cool, add gelatine, and pour into whites beaten with sugar, chopping quickly together. Or, use ½ cup cream, whipped, instead of whites of eggs and 2½ cups of milk only.

=Jellied Custard with Meringue=

¼ oz. gelatine 1 cup water 3 cups rich milk 4 yolks of eggs 4-6 tablespns. sugar flavoring

Cook custard and cool; add vanilla and gelatine, mold. Just before serving, beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth with 2 or 3 tablespns. of sugar (powdered preferable). Add 1½-2½ tablespns. lemon juice, and heap by spoonfuls around the base of the mold. Serve at once. If preferred, 1 cup of milk may be used to cook the gelatine in after soaking, instead of water.

=Marshmallow Pudding=

¼ oz. gelatine 1 cup water whites 3 eggs ½-¾ cup sugar ½ teaspn. vanilla

Beat whites of eggs very stiff, add sugar gradually, beating, then vanilla, lastly the warm gelatine, chopping in quickly. Mold in shallow pan. Just before serving unmold and with hot, dry knife cut into cubes. Serve with cream, custard or fruit juice or use as garnish for other dishes.

=Cream of Tomato and Carrot Jelly=

¼ oz. gelatine 3 cups rich milk 1 cup strained tomato 2 teaspns. salt 2 level teaspns. sugar ¾ cup carrot

Soak gelatine in warm water, drain, cook in milk; add the tomato, sugar and salt with cooked carrot which has been rubbed through a fine colander, mold. Serve garnished with spinach or chervil as a cold entrée, with nuts and wafers. Or, mold in small molds and use as a garnish for other dishes. May flavor milk with onion or onion and garlic, straining them out after cooking gelatine.

=★ Tomato Jelly=

¼ oz. gelatine 1 cup water 2 tablespns. lemon juice with strained tomato to make 3 cups 1-1½ tablespn. sugar 3 tablespns. chopped onion ¾ teaspn. celery seed, crushed, or ¾ cup dried celery tops, or 1 teaspn. celery salt 2-2½ teaspns. salt 1 tablespn. chopped parsley

Simmer all ingredients (except gelatine and parsley) together for 20 m., strain, add parsley and cooked gelatine and pour into mold. Individual molds may be served on lettuce, spinach or endive with or without improved mayonnaise dressing.

=★ Tomato Aspic=

¼ oz. gelatine 1 cup water 3 cups tomato juice 1 tablespn. sugar 2½ tablespns. lemon juice ¾-1 tablespn. salt ¾ teaspn. celery salt, tied in bit of muslin

Drain juice from stewed tomatoes without pressing the pulp through; add other ingredients. Simmer all together 10-15 m.; strain, add water to make 3 cups, mix with cooked gelatine and mold.

Green peas, sprays of parsley, sliced celery, or trumese or nutmese in dice (singly or in combinations) may be put in with jelly, in layers, the same as fruit, in fruit and mint jelly. Serve garnished as a cold entrée for luncheon or for supper or for one course at dinner. Mold in small molds sometimes and use as a garnish.

=Aspic--Light=

¼ oz. gelatine 1 cup water 2¾-3 cups light stock (tinted green if desired)

If preferred pour hot stock over 2 yolks of eggs and cook and add to gelatine. May be molded in small molds for garnishing.

A mold of jellied bouillon or stock surrounded with halves of nuts or delicate wafers or both, may be served in place of soup.

=Bouillon for Jelly=

1½-2½ level tablespns. raw nut butter ⅔ cup chopped onion 1 cup strained tomato 2¼ level tablespns. browned flour 2-3 cloves of garlic crushed 1½ level tablespn. salt water

Mix browned flour, salt, nut butter and tomato, add water, onion and garlic. Cook ½-1 hour and strain. Add water for 3 pts. If cleared (p. 77), there will be 1 qt. only. Use in proportion of 4 cups to the ¼ oz. of gelatine.

=Light Stock for Jelly=

¼ cup raw nut butter 1 cup chopped onion 1 level tablespn. celery seed or salt ¾ level teaspn. sage 2-2½ bay leaves 1¼ level tablespn. salt ⅛ level teaspn. thyme water

Simmer ½-1 hour, strain and clear (p. 77). 3½-4 cups after clearing. Use in proportion of 3¾ cups to the ¼ oz. of gelatine.

=Dark Stock for Jelly=

¼ cup raw nut butter or meal 1 cup chopped onion 3 cloves of garlic crushed ½ cup strained tomato 1 level teaspn. celery salt ½ level teaspn. sage ⅛-¼ level teaspn. thyme 1½ level tablespn. salt 1 level tablespn. browned flour water

Mix dry ingredients, add tomato with nut butter which has been stirred smooth with water, then onion, garlic and water. Cook ½-1 hour; strain and add water for 3 pts. This may be used uncleared, but if cleared (p. 77) there will be 1 qt. only. Use in proportion of 4 cups to the ¼ oz. of gelatine.

=Aspic for Garnishing=

¼ oz. gelatine 1 cup water 2 tablespns. lemon juice cleared bouillon with it to make 1 cup

Pour into shallow mold to desired depth. Unmold and cut with hot dry knife into dice or fancy shapes just before serving.

=Jellied Broth--Dark=

¼ oz. gelatine 1 cup water 1 qt. dark stock, uncleared

Mold in small cups and serve in soup plates or on small plates, surrounded with soup crackers and halves of nuts with fringed celery.

=Gelatine of Trumese=

Cut trumese (some nutmese also if wished) into ½-¾ in. dice. Mold with light aspic, using sprays of parsley and small button mushrooms if wished.

May serve on a bed of green, with improved mayonnaise roses.

=Jellied Cream Trumese (Salad if Desired)=

¼ oz. gelatine 1 cup broth--light stock without celery and bay leaves ¾-⅞ cup cream 4-5 oz., (9 tablespns.--¾-1 cup) trumese salt if necessary

Add minced trumese to gelatine cooked in broth and when partly cooled, chop into whipped cream. Mold in large or small molds. Mold may be garnished with celery tops and served with wafers and stalks of celery, or garnished with fringed celery or ripe olives and parsley, the celery or olives with wafers to be served with mold.

Or, the one or individual molds may be served with improved or cream mayonnaise dressing with ripe olives or celery and wafers.

=The Medical Use of Agar Agar=

Quite recently the use of agar agar as a remedy for constipation has been discovered. “Life and Health” says: “Agar Agar, a vegetable gelatine prepared from East Indian seaweeds, has been given an official recommendation by the Council of Pharmacy as a remedy for constipation.”

One physician suggests cutting it into small pieces and eating it with cream as a porridge. It may also be served with fruit juices and other liquids.

The liquid should be poured over it a few minutes before serving, to moisten it sufficiently for mastication. A druggist said, however, that it might be chewed dry.

PIES

Pies are not necessarily unwholesome articles of diet. They may be just good rich unleavened bread and fruit. Perhaps the greatest objection to pies occasionally, is the length of time it takes to make them, for paste that will make a tender crust cannot be rolled out in a hurry. It is better to have something else for dessert when one has not time to make a good pie.

Suggestions

Always use pastry flour (winter wheat) for pie crust. Bread flour requires more shortening, creeps together when rolled and does not make a nice, tender crust when you have done your best with it.

Always use pastry (never bread) flour for thickening cream or lemon pies. If cream pies are not to be used the day they are baked less flour will be required. Lemon pies should be used the day they are baked.

Apple and all fruit pies require a little flour in the filling, for the flavor as well as to absorb the juice. A little salt develops the flavors of fruits. Mix the flour, sugar and salt together and put enough of it over the under crust to cover it well in order to prevent the crust from soaking and to allow the sugar to cook up through the fruit.

Berry pies may have most of the sugar mixture stirred with them before putting into the crust. A little browned flour may sometimes be added to the mixture for apple pies.

Do not peel rhubarb for pies.

To keep the juice from running out, wet strips of pliable cloth 2 or 3 in. wide (bias better) and wrap around the edge of pies where the crusts join, so that half is on the top crust and half under the edge, and press close all around. Milk or hot or cold water may be used; leave the strips quite wet; remove from pies while hot; they may be used several times.

Another method is to make a small opening in the upper crust and insert a little roll of paper, like a chimney, to allow the steam to escape.

It is a good plan, also, to put the upper crust on to the pie as loose as possible; lift it and make wrinkles in it all around, back from the edge of the pie, before pressing the two crusts together; this will keep the steam and juice in the pie instead of forcing them out.

One way to make the edges stay together is to wet the edge of the lower crust and sprinkle flour over it (shaking off what does not adhere) just before filling and putting on the upper crust.

If with all your care the juice begins to run out, either at the edge or through the openings in the crust, remove the pie at once from the oven and let it stand on the hearth or table until it stops boiling. (If necessary, put a little dry flour in the space). Return to the oven and by slow cooking it may not run out again; if it does, take it out again, but do not leave it out until the fruit is perfectly cooked. It would be too bad to waste all the labor of making a pie by serving it underdone.

Make pies without under crust when preferred. Put a strip of paste around the edge of a shallow pudding dish or deep pie pan, fill dish with prepared fruit, sugar and flour, cover with a lid of paste, press on to the strip and bake.

Fillings of squash, pumpkin or sweet potato pies may be baked on pie pans, in custard cups or in pudding dishes, without a crust, and with or without a meringue.

Serve fruit pies the day they are baked. Those that are unavoidably left over, put into the oven and just heat through before serving, to make like fresh pies.

Apple pies may be put together at night, kept in the ice box and baked the next morning.

For custard or other deep pies, cut the crust with the shears about ½ inch larger than the pan, moisten the under side of the edge slightly and pinch it up with floured thumb and finger so that it will stand up above the edge of the pan. The crust may be pinched up before trimming and cut around the edge of the pan with a knife. It is a good plan to set the prepared crust in the ice box long enough to become firm before filling.

Crust may be put on to several pans when making pies one day and baked when desired.

Several crusts can be baked at a time, then just heated before using.

To bake before filling without blistering, put pastry on to one pan, set another of the same size into it and bake between the two.

Another way is to cover the pastry with paraffine paper and fill to the depth of ½ in. with flour. The partially browned flour may be used in soups and gravies afterwards.

Fill pastry-lined patty pans with raw rice, cover with an upper crust and bake when baked patty cases are desired. The rice will not be injured and the crusts will keep their shape.

Sometimes with two-crust pies, sprinkle sugar over the top of the crust when done and leave in the oven for two minutes.

Lattice work of strips of crust put on in diamonds or squares makes an attractive finish for such lemon and orange pies as will hold the strips up, as well as for cranberry and mince pies.

Beat whites of eggs for meringue with woven wire spoon or silver fork until stiff; add ½-1 tablespn. of sugar to each white and beat till very stiff, add flavoring, pile in rocky form on to hot pie, bringing meringue well out over the crust; brown delicately on top grate of moderate oven. As soon as the tips are tinted the meringue is done. Overbaking makes it tough and causes it to draw away from the edges. Having the pie hot when the meringue is put on helps to cook it more evenly and keeps it from becoming watery next to the pie.

When but one white is to be used for a meringue, do not beat it quite so stiff and use a little more sugar so that it will spread over the top of the pie well.

Tiny dots of beaten jelly may be placed with a pastry tube in the depressions of the meringue of lemon pies, after baking.

In cutting pies with a meringue, cut just through the meringue first with a thin bladed knife dipped in cold water; afterwards cut to the bottom.

Pies should always be left so that a current of air will pass under them while cooling to keep the crust from soaking.

=★ Pastry for one Large Pie=

2½ cups flour, salt large ⅓ cup of cooking oil 1-1½ teaspn. lemon juice ice water

Have all ingredients as nearly ice cold as possible. Dip the flour lightly into the cup with a spoon, do not shake it down. Mix salt with flour; pour oil over and chop it in with a spoon; do not mix much. Put the lemon juice in a cup, add water to make ¼ of a cup, and pour over the flour and oil mixture, adding enough more water to make a rather soft dough; chop all together with a spoon, press into a mass without kneading, roll out without mixing on a well floured board, with a well floured rolling pin. A little more oil will be required when lemon juice is not used.

Nut or olive oil may be substituted for cooking oil, with a slightly smaller proportion of olive oil. Olive oil does not, of course, harmonize as well in flavor with all fillings as the others.

⅓ farina may be used in crust, with less shortening.

In mixing crust for several pies at once, not quite so large a quantity will be required for each.

Keep crust that is left each time well covered in a cool place and when making pies again, chop or grind it and mix it with the flour before adding the oil. It will make the new crust more flaky.

“=Pie Flakes=”

Mix flour, salt and oil for a quantity of pies. Put into a large, close covered jar (or tin pail lined with waxed paper) and set in cold place. To make a pie, take out about 2⅓ cupfuls, add water and mix and roll as usual.

=Hot Water Crust=

Mix together equal quantities of oil and boiling water and pour over flour which has been mixed with salt.

This crust rolls out more easily than ice water crust but is not as tender and flaky. A slightly larger proportion of oil may be used, but if too rich, the crust cannot be handled at all.

=★ Cream Pastry=

Mix flour and salt and pour enough thick sweet or sour cream over to roll out well. The thicker the cream, the better the crust will be. Sour cream makes more crisp and tender crust than sweet and has not the least sour taste when baked.

=Butter Crust=

Rub together ½ cup (¼ lb.) butter and 2 cups (½ lb.) flour; wet with ice water to make of a rollable consistency, press into a mass and set in the ice box. When thoroughly chilled, roll ⅓-½ inch thick; spread with butter, sprinkle lightly with flour, roll up, cut across the roll and roll pieces out thin for the pie. Butter pastry is not tender even when much pains is taken with it and the flavor is not agreeable.

=Bread Pie Crust=

4 slices small loaf of bread boiling milk, salt 6 tablespns. oil 2-2½ cups flour

Dip slices of bread in boiling milk, cool, add oil, salt, and flour to roll. This makes two under crusts.

=Nut Meal Crust=

2 cups flour 1 cup home made peanut meal salt cream

Mix flour, meal and salt, pour enough moderately rich cream over to make a paste to roll out. A little oil may be added to the meal and flour, and water used in place of cream.

=★ Granella Crust=

For one good sized pie take about ½ cup of granella (less if fine, more if coarse, but it is better not to be too coarse nor too very fine). Mix a little salt with it and pour over it quickly, enough rich milk or thin cream to moisten it slightly, about ¼ cup, perhaps. (If too moist, the crust will be soggy.) Turn immediately on to the pan and spread and press it evenly with a spoon over the bottom and sides, dipping the spoon often into cold water. A teaspoon is best for the sides, and holding the forefinger of the left hand above the edge of the pan as you are pressing with the spoon makes the edge of the crust firmer and smoother. Do not let the crust come over the edge of the pan, because only that part which adheres to the filling will come out with the pieces of pie when served; the remainder will drop off and be wasted. For that reason the crust should be just as thin as it is possible to pat it out on the pan. Be careful to make the crust in the angle between the bottom and sides of the pan no thicker than in any other part. The novice usually fills that in rounding. A positive pressure of the teaspoon in pressing the paste up on the edge of the pan will remove the extra portion there.

In baking these crusts before filling, watch them that they do not get too brown, and handle them carefully.

I have been thus explicit because this is of all pie pastes the most important hygienically and in point of time. It is very quickly and easily made, in fact, it must be made quickly. If the crust stands long after the liquid is added, it does not spread well.

In making a large number of pies, mix each crust separately; you will save time. Zwieback crumbs may be used instead of granella and almond or cocoanut cream in place of dairy. The cream must be thin or the crust will not spread well.

=Granella Crust No. 2=

Allow scant ⅔ cup of granella to each pie. Measure up the quantity required. Mix the salt with it and pour oil over in the proportion of ½ tablespn. of oil to each pie. (¾ tablespn. melted butter may be used and no salt.) Rub all well together with the hands, take out enough for each pie at a time, wet with cold water and proceed as in the preceding recipe. This mixture will need to be quite wet to spread.

Zwieback crumbs may be used for this also.

=Fillings for Granella Pies=

The pulp of stewed prunes, peaches, apricots or dried apples, or other not too juicy materials, with or without a meringue or whipped cream, or a sprinkling of dry granella on the top.

Cooked fillings of cream or lemon pies are delightful in the baked crusts.

If you have not a pie knife, use two broad flat knives in serving a pie with granella crust.

=★ Apple Pie=

5 or 6 medium sized, tart, juicy apples ¼ teaspn. salt ⅓-¾ cup sugar 1 tablespn. flour crust

Prepare apples according to directions for apple sauce, p. 47, cut the quarters in two if large, then in halves crosswise. This will give irregular shaped pieces which when placed in the crust will allow spaces for the steam to come in contact with the fruit and cook it more quickly and thoroughly than when packed in slices.