Part 8

=Boiled Custards.=

Put a quart of milk into a tin pail or a pitcher that holds two quarts; set it into a kettle of hot water. Tin is better than earthen, because it heats so much quicker. Put in a few sticks of cinnamon, or three peach leaves. When the milk foams up as if nearly boiling, stir in six eggs which have been beaten, with two spoonfuls of white sugar; stir it every instant, until it appears to thicken a little. Then take out the pail, and pour the custard immediately into a cold pitcher, because the heat of the pail will cook the part of the custard that touches it, too much, so that it will curdle. This is a very easy way of making custards, and none can be better. But in order to have them good, you must attend to nothing else until they are finished. You may make them as rich as you choose. A pint of milk, a pint of cream, and eight eggs will make them rich enough for any epicure. So, on the other hand, they are very good with three or four eggs only to a quart of milk, and no cream.

=Another (good, and very simple).=

Boil a quart of milk in the way directed in the preceding receipt, excepting one gill; beat three or four eggs with three spoonfuls of fine sugar; wet three teaspoonfuls of arrow-root in the reserved gill of milk, then mix the beaten eggs and arrow-root together, and add a little salt. When the milk in the pail boils, stir them in, and continue to stir a minute or two, till the custard thickens. Then take the pail to the table and pour the custard into china cups (as glass will crack), or else into a cold pitcher. Use what seasoning you please. The old fashion of using cinnamon is economical and very good. Boil some pieces of cinnamon a few minutes only, in two or three spoonfuls of water. Put some of this into the custard, and put what is left into a vial for another time.

The Sandwich Island arrow-root is as good as the Bermuda for such purposes, and costs a third less.

=Another (still more economical).=

Put a quart of milk, excepting two gills, to boil in a kettle of water; with the reserved milk mix three large spoonfuls of flour till it is entirely smooth; add a little salt, and when the milk boils stir it in. Let the mixture remain in the boiling kettle half an hour, or if most convenient, still longer, while you attend to other things; but remember to stir it often. Beat one or two eggs with two or three spoonfuls of sugar, and stir in. Then take the pail to the table, and when the custard has stood a few minutes to cool, add any essence you prefer.

=Baked Custards.=

Boil the milk with a stick of cinnamon in it, then set it off from the fire, and while it cools a very little, beat (for a quart of milk) five or six eggs, with three large spoonfuls of fine sugar; then stir the milk and eggs together, and pour into custard-cups, or into a single dish that is large enough. If you bake in a brick oven, it is a good way to set custard, in cups, into it, after the bread and other things have been baked. They will become hard in a few hours, and be very delicate. If you bake in a stove, or range oven, it is best to use a dish, and bake it in a very moderate heat, else it will turn, in part, to whey.

DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING ICES.

Mix equal quantities of coarse salt and ice chopped small; set the freezer containing the cream into a firkin, and put in the ice and salt; let it come up well around the freezer. Turn and shake the freezer steadily at first, and nearly all the time until the cream is entirely frozen. Scrape the cream down often from the sides with a knife. When the ice and salt melt, do not pour off any of it, unless there is danger of its getting into the freezer; it takes half an hour to freeze a quart of cream; and sometimes longer. A tin pail which will hold twice the measure of the cream, answers a good purpose, if you do not own a freezer. In winter, use snow instead of ice.

Several nice receipts for ice-creams will be given under this head, but a common custard, made of rich milk, two or three eggs, and a little arrow-root, and seasoned with lemon or vanilla, makes an excellent ice-cream.

=A rich Ice-cream.=

Squeeze a dozen lemons, and strain the juice upon as much fine sugar as it will absorb; pour three quarts of cream into it very slowly, stirring very fast all the time.

=Another.=

A quart of new milk, a quart of cream, a pint of sugar, three eggs, a large spoonful of arrow-root or ground rice, a piece of cinnamon. Boil the milk with the cinnamon in it; when it boils up, stir in the arrow-root or ground rice, wet with a little milk; set it off the fire, stir in the cream, the sugar and eggs. The eggs should be beaten a good deal, and then beaten several minutes in the cream before being put into the boiled milk; add vanilla or lemon as you prefer.

=Another (simple, but very good).=

Heat a quart of milk quite hot, but do not let it boil; add the yolks of four eggs, beaten, with a large coffee-cup of fine sugar, and flavor with lemon or vanilla.

FRUIT ICES.

=Apricot.=

Pare, stone, and scald twelve ripe apricots; then bruise them in a marble mortar. Then stir half a pound of fine sugar into a pint of cream; add the apricots and strain through a hair sieve. Freeze and put it into moulds.

Peaches would be a good substitute for the apricots, using, if they are large, nine, instead of twelve.

=Strawberry or Raspberry.=

Bruise a pint of raspberries, or strawberries, with two large spoonfuls of fine sugar; add a quart of cream, and strain through a sieve, and freeze it. If you have no cream, boil a spoonful of arrow-root in a quart of milk, and, if you like, beat up one egg and stir into it.

=Currant.=

Take a gill of fresh currant juice, make it very sweet, and stir in half a pint of cream and freeze it. In the winter, or when fresh currants are not to be had, beat a teaspoonful and a half of currant jelly with the juice of one lemon, sweetened, and put to it half a pint of cream.

=Lemon.=

Having squeezed your lemons, add sugar enough to the juice to make it quite sweet, and about a third as much water as to make lemonade; strain it, and then freeze it.

=Imperial Cream.=

Boil a quart of cream with the thin rind of a lemon; then stir it till nearly cold; have ready, in the dish in which it is to be served, the juice of three lemons, strained, with as much sugar as will sweeten the cream; pour the cream into the dish, from a teapot or pitcher, holding it high and moving it about so as to mix thoroughly with the juice. It should be made six hours before being served. Eat with sweetmeats, apple island, or apple-pie.

=Snow Cream.=

To a quart of cream add the whites of three eggs, cut to a stiff froth, four spoonfuls of sweet wine, sugar to your taste, and a little essence of lemon, or the grated rind; whip it to a froth, and serve in a glass dish.

If you have not a whisk such as is made expressly to whip cream, it can be easily, though not as quickly done, with a spoon. After the materials are mixed, beat them, not over and over like the yolks of eggs, but back and forth, keeping the spoon below the surface; and as fast as the froth forms, take it off and lay it into the dish, or glasses, for the table. It will not return to the liquid state. If it were to stand several days it would become crisped in the form in which it was left.

=Wine Custard.=

Beat the yolks of three eggs with two spoonfuls of crushed sugar, and cut the whites to a stiff froth; put them into the dish which is to go to the table, and add a quart of milk, and a few drops of peach or rose-water, and when these are well mixed, stir in a spoonful and a half of rennet wine. In cold weather, the milk should be warmed a little; in warm weather it is not necessary. It should be immediately set where it will not be disturbed. It will harden soon, perhaps in five minutes. This depends somewhat on the strength of the rennet, and the measure of wine necessary to harden a quart of milk will depend on this. Sometimes a spoonful will prove enough. There is no way to judge but by trying, as in using rennet for making cheese. The strength of this article varies exceedingly.

It is a very good, and more economical way to warm the milk a little, sweeten it, and add nothing but the rennet wine, and grate nutmeg over the top. Soda biscuit or butter crackers are good with wine custard.

=Stained Froth.=

Take the whites of three or four eggs, and cut them to a stiff froth, then beat into them the syrup of damsons, blood-peaches, or any highly colored preserve. This makes an elegant addition to a dish of soft custard. Some persons, when making custards, lay the white of eggs, cut in this way, upon the top of the boiling milk for a minute or two. This hardens it, and it is taken off upon a dish, and when the custard glasses are filled, a piece of it is laid upon the top of each.

TO PRESERVE FRUIT AND MAKE JELLIES.

A kettle should be kept on purpose. Brass, if very bright, will do. If acid fruit is preserved in a brass kettle which is not bright, it becomes poisonous. Bell-metal is better than brass, and the iron ware lined with porcelain, best of all.

The chief art in making nice preserves, and such as will keep, consists in the proper preparation of the syrup, and in boiling them _just long enough_. English housekeepers think it necessary to do them very slowly, and they boil their sweetmeats almost all day, in a jar set into a kettle of water. Brown sugar should be clarified. The crushed and granulated sugars are usually so pure as not to require being clarified. Loaf sugar is the best of any. Clean brown sugar makes very good sweetmeats for family use; but the best of sugar is, for most fruits, necessary, to make such as will be elegant, and keep long.

Sweetmeats should be boiled very gently lest the syrup should burn, and also that the fruit may become thoroughly penetrated with the sugar. Furious boiling breaks small and tender fruits. Too long boiling makes sweetmeats dark, and some kinds are rendered hard and tough.

Preserves keep best in glass jars, which have also this advantage, that you can see whether or not fermentation has commenced, without opening them. If stone jars are used, those with narrow mouths are best, as the air is most easily excluded from them; and small sized ones, containing only enough for once or twice, are best, as the frequent opening of a large jar, injures its entire contents, by the repeated admission of the air. When sweetmeats are cold, cover them close, and if not to be used soon, paste a paper over the top, and with a feather, brush over the paper with white of egg. When you have occasion to open them, if a thick, leather-looking mould covers them, they are in a good state, as nothing so effectually shuts out the air; but if they are specked here and there with mould, taste them, and if they are injured, it should be carefully removed, and the jar set into a kettle of water (not hot at first, lest it should crack) and boiled. If the taste shows them to be uninjured, this mould may be the beginning of a leather-mould; therefore wait a few days, and look at them again, and scald them if necessary. A very good way of scalding them, and perhaps the easiest, is to put the jar (if it is of stone ware) into a brick oven as soon as the bread is drawn, and let it stand three or four hours. If the oven is quite warm a shorter time will do. This, or setting the jar into a kettle of water, as mentioned above, is much better than to scald them in the ordinary way, as they are exposed to the air when poured into the preserving kettle, and also when returned to the jar.

In making jellies, the sugar should be heated and should not be added, until the fruit-juice boils; and for this reason,--that the process is completed in much less time than if they are put together cold. Thus the diminution of the quantity, which long boiling occasions, is avoided, and the color of the jelly is much finer. Sometimes ladies complain that, for some inexplicable reason, they cannot make their currant jelly harden. The true reason was doubtless this,--that while making it, it was suffered to stop boiling for a few minutes. Let it boil gently but steadily, until by taking a little of it into a cold silver spoon, you perceive that it quickly hardens around the edges. A practised eye will readily judge by the movement of the liquid as it boils. Put jelly in little jars, cups, or tumblers; when it is cold, paste paper over the top and brush it over with white of egg. When _this_ is used, the old method of putting brandy papers upon jelly is unnecessary. _Particular attention is requested to these suggestions in regard to making jellies._

=To make Syrup for Preserves.=

Put a large teacup of water for every pound of sugar. As it begins to heat, stir it often. When it rises towards the top of the kettle, put in a cup of water; repeat this process two or three times, then set the kettle aside. If the sugar is perfectly pure, there will be no scum on the top. If there is scum, after it has stood a few minutes, take it off carefully. If the syrup then looks clear, it is not necessary to strain it.

To clarify sugar, put into every two pounds a beaten white of an egg. Five whites will do for a dozen pounds. Proportion the sugar and water as directed above, and after it has boiled enough take it from the fire, and let it stand ten minutes, then take the scum very carefully from the top, and pour off the syrup so gently as not to disturb the sediment. Have the kettle washed, return the syrup, and add the fruit. Some persons always strain the syrup through a flannel bag, but if the above directions are observed, it is not necessary. To use a flannel bag, always wring it very dry in hot water. This prevents a waste of the article strained. The bag should be soft, and not fulled up.

=To preserve Apples.=

Weigh equal quantities of Newtown pippins, and the best of sugar; allow one sliced lemon for every pound. Make a syrup, and then put in the apples. Boil them until they are tender; then lay them into the jars and boil the syrup until it will become a jelly. No other apple can be preserved without breaking. This keeps its shape, and is very beautiful. Quarter the apples, or take out the core and leave them whole, as you prefer. Other sour hard apples are very good preserved, but none keep as well, or are as handsome as the Newtown pippins.

=Crab Apples.=

Weigh them, and put them into water enough to almost, but not quite, cover them. Take them out when they have boiled three or four minutes, and put into the water as many pounds of sugar as you have of fruit, and boil it till clear, then set it aside till it is cold; skim it, and return the fruit to the kettle, and put it again on the fire. The moment it actually boils take it off; lay the fruit into the jar with care, so as not to break it.

=Pine-apples.=

Take equal quantities of pine-apple and the best of loaf sugar. Slice the pine-apple, put nearly or all the sugar over it. Put it in a deep pan, and let it stand all night. In the morning take the apple out and boil the syrup. When it begins to simmer, put the apple in and boil fifteen or twenty minutes. Tie a piece of white ginger in a bit of muslin, and boil it in the syrup before adding the apple. After boiling the whole ten or fifteen minutes, take out the apple and boil the syrup ten minutes longer; then pour it over the pine-apple. The apples should be ripe, and yet perfectly sound. If the syrup does not taste enough of ginger, boil it with the ginger till it suits the taste.

=Pine-apples (without boiling).=

Select large, fresh pine-apples. Pare them with a very sharp knife, having a thin blade. Carefully remove the little prickly eyes. Slice the fruit round and round about half an inch thick. Weigh a pound and a quarter of best granulated sugar, to a pound of fruit; and put into a glass jar a layer of sugar, and then a layer of fruit till it is filled. Make the layers of sugar very thick, else you will have a quantity left when the fruit is all laid in. Cover the jar close, and set it in a very cold place. This will keep perfectly, and have the taste of freshly sugared pine-apples a year afterward.

=Blackberries.=

To a pound of the low, running blackberries, allow a pound of fine sugar. Put them together in the preserving kettle, the fruit first, and the sugar on the top. These berries are so juicy that no water will be necessary; but they must begin very slowly to stew, and boil gently an hour. If blackberries are well done at first, they will not need scalding afterwards.

The high blackberries are not good preserved, but make an excellent syrup for medicinal purposes.

=Currants.=

Weigh equal quantities of sugar, and fruit stripped from the stems. Boil the fruit ten minutes, stirring it often, and crushing it. Add the sugar, and boil another ten minutes. Measure the time from the minute boiling commences. This keeps till currants come again. Clean brown sugar does very well. If it is to be used up in the course of the autumn, ten or twelve ounces of sugar to a pound of fruit is enough.

=Cranberries.=

Pour scalding water upon them, as this will make it much more easy to separate the defective ones from the good, than if they are washed in cold water. Measure the fruit, and allow two quarts of sugar for five of fruit. Boil the cranberries till they are soft in half as much water as fruit. Stir them very often. When they are soft add the sugar, and boil gently as possible half an hour more. They are very liable to burn, and therefore should be carefully attended to. If you like cranberry sauce very sweet, allow a pound of sugar for a pound of fruit.

Cranberries keep very well in a firkin of water in the cellar, and if so kept, can be stewed fresh at any time during the winter.

=Damsons.=

Wash, drain, and weigh them, put them into the kettle, and add the same weight of sugar and (to six or eight pounds) a pint of water. Boil them gently but steadily an hour; press the top ones down carefully, several times. They will break some, and the pricking each one with a needle before stewing them, makes little, if any difference. But they break less than other small plums, and are more solid. The syrup gives an elegant color to a beaten white of egg, for ornamenting custards or delicate puddings.

Other small sized blue plums are preserved in the same way.

=Egg Plums.=

To make the most elegant of all plum sweetmeats, take the Duane, or the Egg plums, ripe, but not very ripe. The skin can usually be pulled off. If you cannot remove it without tearing the fruit pour on boiling water, and instantly pour it off, or lay them into a cullender, and dip boiling water over them once. Allow equal quantities of fruit and sugar, and make the syrup in the usual way. Then lay in a few plums at a time, and boil gently five minutes; lay them into a jar as you take them from the kettle, and when all are done, pour the boiling syrup over them. After two days, drain off the syrup, boil it, and pour it upon them again. Do this every two or three days till they look clear. Then, if you wish the syrup to be very thick, boil it half an hour, and when cold, pour it upon the plums.

=Peaches.=

Select peaches that are ripe, but not soft. Pour boiling water upon them, and let it stand five or six minutes; then pour it off, and pull off the skins. This is the easiest way, and the most economical, as none of the peach is wasted with the skin. In a lot of peaches for preserving, there may be a few that you will have to pare; but most of them will part with the skin when scalded, except the cling-stones.

Weigh equal quantities of fruit (with the stones in), and fine sugar, and put them together in an earthen pan over night. The next day pour off the syrup, and boil it a few minutes; then set off the kettle and remove the scum. Return the kettle to the fire, and when it boils lay the peaches into it. Boil them very slowly three quarters of an hour, then lay them into the jars; boil the syrup fifteen minutes more, and pour over them.

The blood peaches are a beautiful fruit when preserved. The yellow cling-stone is handsome, but very inconvenient as the fruit adheres so closely to the stone. Almost any kind of peach is good, stewed in half a pound of clean brown sugar to a pound of stoned fruit, and will keep several weeks in the autumn.

=Pears.=

Weigh three quarters of a pound of sugar for a pound of pears. Boil the fruit whole, with the stems on in barely water enough to cover them, till they are tender, but not very soft. Then take them from the kettle, and put in the sugar, boil it ten or fifteen minutes, then set it off, and after removing the scum, put in the pears, and boil them till they begin to have a clear look. The difference in the size, and in the solidity of this fruit is so great that exact directions as to time cannot be given. When you have laid the pears into jars, boil the syrup another half hour, skim it if necessary, and then pour it upon the fruit. If you wish to give a more decided flavor to preserved pears, add peach water, or sliced lemons, when the syrup is boiling. Clean brown sugar does very well for preserving this fruit.

In selecting pears to preserve, choose such as are rather acid. The sweet ones are best baked. The _Iron pears_, if you will have patience to boil them long enough, make an excellent preserve. Divide them into halves or quarters if you choose. But they are often done whole. Boil them in just water enough, covered close, two or three hours. Make a syrup as directed above, and boil them in it an hour and a half.

=Quinces.=

Procure the apple, or orange quince. It is much less apt to be hard, when preserved, than the pear quince. Pare and core the fruit, and allow equal weights of fruit and fine sugar. Boil quinces in water enough to cover them, till they are tender; then take them out one by one with a silver spoon and lay them separately on a flat dish. Make a syrup and save all the water not used for it. When it is ready, return the fruit to the kettle, and boil it slowly three quarters of an hour, then lay it in jars, and pour the syrup over it. It is a good way to cut part of the quinces in halves, and preserve a part of them whole. Remove the cores with a fruit-corer, or if you have not this, use a common tap-borer; it answers the purpose very well.

=Quinces with Sweet Apples.=

To increase the quantity, without an addition of sugar, have as many large fair sweet apples pared, quartered, and cored, as will weigh one third as much as the quince. When the quince is boiled enough take it out, and put the sweet apples into the syrup, and boil them till they begin to look red and clear; an hour and a half will not be too long. Then put the quince and apple into the jars in alternate layers. The flavor of the quince will so entirely penetrate the apple, that the one cannot be distinguished from the other, and the sugar necessary to preserve the quince, will be sufficient for the apple.

=Quinces (without boiling the Syrup).=

Weigh twelve ounces of sugar for every pound of fruit. Boil the quinces in water enough to cover them, until they are so soft that care is necessary not to break them, in taking them out. Drain the pieces a little as you take them from the water, and put them into a jar in alternate layers with the sugar. Cover the jar close _as soon as it is filled_, and paste a paper over the top. Quinces done in this way are very elegant, about the color of oranges, and probably will not need scalding to keep them as long as you wish. If any tendency to fermentation appears, as may be the case by the following April or May, set the jar (if it is stone) into a brick oven after bread has been baked, and the quince will become a beautiful light red, and will keep almost any length of time, _and never become hard_.