Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches by Eliza Leslie Published: 1840
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ADDITIONAL RECEIPTS.
FRENCH GREEN PEA SOUP.
This soup is made without meat. Put into a soup-pot four quarts of
shelled green peas, two large onions sliced, a handful of leaves
of sweet marjoram shred from the stalks, or a handful of sweet
basil; or a mixed handful of both--also, if you like it, a handful
of green mint. Add four quarts of water, and boil the whole slowly
till all the peas are entirely to pieces. Then take off the pot,
and mash the peas well against its sides to extract from them all
their flavour. Afterward strain off the liquid into a clean pot,
and add to it a tea-cup full of the juice of spinach, which you
must prepare, while the soup is boiling, by pounding some spinach
in a mortar. This will give the soup a fine green colour. Then put
in a quarter of a pound of the best fresh butter rolled whole in
flour; and add a pint and a half more of shelled young peas. If
you wish the soup very thick, you may allow a quart of the
additional peas. Season it with a very little salt and cayenne;
put it again over the fire, and boil it till the last peas are
quite soft, but not till they go to pieces.
Have ready in a tureen two or three slices of toasted bread cut
into small squares or dice, and pour the soup on it.
This soup, if properly made, will be found excellent,
notwithstanding the absence of meat. It is convenient for fast
days; and in the country, where vegetables can be obtained from
the garden, the expense will be very trifling. What is left may be
warmed for the next day.
GIBLET SOUP.
Take three pounds of shin of beef or of neck of mutton. Cut off
the meat and break the bones. Then put the meat with the bones
into a soup-pot, with a tea-spoonful of salt, and three quarts of
water. Add a bunch of sweet marjoram, one of sweet basil, and a
quarter of an ounce of black pepper-corns, all tied in a thin
muslin rag; a sliced onion, and six or eight turnips and carrots,
cut small. Let the whole boil slowly for two or three hours,
skimming it well. In the meantime, have ready two sets of goose-giblets,
or four of duck. They must he scalded, and well washed in
warm water. Cut off the bills and split the heads; and cut the
necks and gizzards into mouthfuls. Having taken the meat and bones
out of the soup, put in the giblets, with a head of celery
chopped. Boil it slowly an hour and a half; or more, taking care
to skim it. Make a thickening of an ounce and a half of butter,
and a large table-spoonful of flour, mixed together with a little
of the soup. Then stir it into the pot, adding a large table-spoonful
of mushroom catchup, and some small force-meat balls, or
little dumplings. Boil the soup half an hour longer. Then send it
to table with the giblets in the tureen.
GUMBO.
Take an equal quantity of young tender ochras, and of ripe
tomatas, (for instance, a quarter of a peck of each.) Chop the
ochras fine, and scald and peel the tomatas. Put them into a stew-pan
without any water. Add a lump of butter, and a very little
salt and pepper; and, if you choose, an onion minced fine. Let it
stew steadily for an hour. Then strain it, and send it to table as
soup in a tureen. It should be like a jelly, and is a favourite
New Orleans dish. Eat dry toast with it.
HAM OMELET.
Take six ounces of cold coiled ham, and mince it very fine, adding
a little pepper. Beat separately the whites and yolks of six eggs,
and then mix them together add to them gradually the minced ham.
Beat the whole very hard, and do not let it stand a moment after
it is thoroughly mixed. Have ready some boiling lard in a frying-pan,
and put in the omelet immediately. Fry it about ten minutes
or a quarter of an hour. When done, put it on a hot dish, trim off
the edges, and fold it over in a half moon. Send it to table hot,
and covered. It is eaten at breakfast.
If you wish a soft omelet, (not to fold over,) fry it a shorter
time, and serve it in a deep dish, to be helped with a spoon.
A similar omelet may be made of the lean of a cold smoked tongue.
BATTER PUDDING.
Take a quart of milk, and stir into it gradually eight table
spoonfuls of sifted flour, carefully pressing out all the lumps
with the back of the spoon. Beat eight eggs very light, and add
them by degrees to the milk and flour. Then stir the whole very
well together.
Dip your pudding-cloth into boiling water, and then dredge it with
flour. Pour in the pudding, and tie it tightly, leaving room for
it to swell. Put it into a pot full of boiling water, and boil it
hard for two hours. Keep it in the pot till it is time to send it
to table. Serve it up with wine-sauce, butter and sugar, or
molasses and cold butter.
PEACH MANGOES.
Take free-stone peaches of the largest size, (when they are full
grown, but not quite ripe,) and lay them in salt and water for two
days, covered with a board to keep them down. Then take them out,
wipe them dry, cut them open, and extract the stones. Mix
together, to your taste, minced garlic, scraped horseradish,
bruised mustard seed, and cloves; and a little ginger-root soaked
in water to soften, and then sliced. Fill the cavity of the
peaches with this mixture. Then tie them round with packthread,
and put them into a stone jar till it is two-thirds full. Strew
among them some whole cloves, broken cinnamon, and a little
cochineal. Season some cold vinegar, (allowing to each quart a
jill of fresh made mustard, and a little ginger, and nutmeg,) and
having mixed this pickle well, fill up the jar with it.
BROILED TOMATAS.
Take large ripe tomatas; wipe them, and split them in half. Broil
them on a gridiron till brown, turning them when half done. Have
ready in a dish some butter seasoned with a little pepper. When
the tomatas are well broiled, put them into the dish, and press
each a little with the back of a spoon, so that the juice may run
into the butter and mix with it. This is to make the gravy. Send
them to table hot.
Tomatas are very good sliced, and fried in butter.
PRESERVED TOMATAS.
Take large fine tomatas, (not too ripe,) and scald them to make
the skins come off easily. Weigh them, and to each pound allow a
pound of the best brown sugar, and the grated peel of a large
lemon. Put all together into a preserving kettle, and having
boiled it slowly for three hours, (skimming it carefully,) add the
juice of the lemons, and boil it an hour longer. Then put the
whole into jars, and when cool cover and tie them up closely. This
is a cheap and excellent sweetmeat; but the lemon must on no
account be omitted. It may be improved by boiling a little ginger
with the other ingredients.
TOMATA HONEY.
To each pound of tomatas, allow the grated peel of a lemon and six
fresh peach-leaves. Boil them slowly till they are all to pieces;
then squeeze and strain them through a bag. To each pint of liquid
allow a pound of loaf-sugar, and the juice of one lemon. Boil them
together half an hour, or till they become a thick jelly. Then put
it into glasses, and lay double tissue paper closely over the top.
It will be scarcely distinguishable from real honey.
PRESERVED CUCUMBERS.
Your cucumbers should be well shaped, and all of the same size.
Spread the bottom and sides of a preserving kettle with a thick
layer of vine leaves. Then put in the cucumbers--with a little
alum broken small. Cover them thickly with vine leaves, and then
with a dish. Fill up the kettle with water, and let them hang over
a slow fire till nest morning, but do not allow the water to boil.
Next day, take them out, cool them, and repeat the process with
fresh vine leaves, till the cucumbers are a fine green. When cold
drain them, cut a small piece out of the flat side, and extract
the seeds. Wipe the cucumbers in a dry cloth, and season the
inside with a mixture of bruised mace and grated lemon-peel. Tie
on with a packthread the bit that was cut out.
Weigh them, and to every pound of cucumbers allow a pound of loaf-sugar.
Put the sugar into a preserving kettle, a half pint of
water to each pound, and the beaten white of an egg to every four
pounds. Boil and skim the sugar till quite clear, adding sliced
ginger and lemon parings to your taste. When cool, pour it over
the cucumbers, and let them lie in it two days, keeping them
covered with a plate, and a weight on it to press it down. Then
boil up the syrup again, adding one-half as much sugar, &c. as you
had at first; and at the last the juice and grated peel of two
lemons for every six cucumbers. The lemon must boil in the syrup
but ten minutes. Then strain the syrup all over the cucumbers, and
put them up in glass jars.
If they are not quite clear, boil them in a third syrup.
Small green melons may be preserved in this manner.
APPLE RICE PUDDING.
Wash half a pint of rice, and boil it till soft and dry. Pare,
core, and cut up six large juicy apples, and stew them in as
little water as possible. When they are quite, tender, take them
out, and mash them with six table-spoonfuls of brown sugar. When
the apples and rice are both cold, mix them together. Have ready
five eggs beaten very light, and add them gradually to the other
ingredients, with five or six drops of essence of lemon, and a
grated nutmeg. Or you may substitute for the essence, the grated
peel and the juice of one large lemon. Beat the whole very hard
after it is all mixed; tie it tightly in a cloth, (leaving but a
very small space for it to swell,) and stopping up the tying place
with a lump of flour moistened to paste with water. Put it into a
pot of boiling water, and boil it fast for half an hour. Send it
to table hot, and eat it with sweetened cream, or with beaten
butter and sugar.
BAKED APPLE DUMPLINGS.
Take large, fine, juicy apples, and pare and core them, leaving
them as whole as possible. Put them into a kettle with sufficient
water to cover them, and let them parboil a quarter of an hour.
Then take them out, and drain them on a sieve. Prepare a paste in
the proportion of a pound of butter to two pounds of flour, as for
plain pies. Roll it out into a sheet, and cut it into equal
portions according to your number of apples. Place an apple on
each, and fill up the hole from whence the core was extracted with
brown sugar moistened with lemon-juice, or with any sort of
marmalade. Then cover the apple with the paste, closing it neatly.
Place the dumplings side by side in buttered square pans, (not so
as to touch,) and bake them of a light brown. Serve them warm or
cool, and eat them with cream sauce.
They will be found very good.
INDIAN LOAF CAKE.
Mix a tea-cup full of powdered white sugar with a quart of rich
milk, and cut up in the milk two ounces of butter, adding a salt-spoonful
of salt. Put this mixture into a covered pan or skillet,
and set it on coals till it is scalding hot. Then take it off, and
scald with it as much yellow Indian meal (previously sifted) as
will make it of the consistence of thick boiled mush. Beat the
whole very hard for a quarter of an hour, and then set it away to
cool.
While it is cooling, beat three eggs very light, and stir them
gradually into the mixture when it is about as warm as new milk.
Add a tea-cup full of good strong yeast, and beat the whole
another quarter of an hour--for much of the goodness of this cake
depends on its being long and well beaten. Then have ready a
turban mould or earthen pan with a pipe in the centre, (to diffuse
the heat through the middle of the cake.) The pan must be very
well buttered, as Indian meal is apt to stick. Put in the mixture,
cover it, and set it in a warm place to rise. It should be light
in about four hours. Then bake it two hours in a moderate oven.
When done, turn it oat with the broad surface downwards, and send
it to table hot and whole. Cut it into slices, and eat it with
butter.
This will be found an excellent cake. If wanted for breakfast, mix
it, and set it to rise the night before. If properly made,
standing all night will not injure it. Like all Indian cakes, (of
which this is one of the best,) it should be eaten warm.
It will be much improved by adding to the mixture, a salt-spoon of
pearl-ash, or sal-aratus, dissolved in a little water.
PLAIN CIDER CAKE.
Sift into a large pan a pound and a half of flour, and rub into it
half a pound of butter. Mix in three-quarters of a pound of
powdered white sugar and melt a small tea-spoonful of sal-aratus
or pearl-ash in a pint of the best cider. Pour the cider into the
other ingredients while it is foaming, and stir the whole very
hard. Have ready a buttered square pan, put in the mixture, and
set It immediately in a rather brisk oven. Bake it an hour or
more, according to its thickness. This is a tea cake, and should
be eaten fresh. Cut it into squares, split and butter them.
TENNESSEE MUFFINS.
Sift three pints of yellow Indian meal, and put one-half into a
pan and scald it. Then set it away to get cold. Beat six: eggs,
whites and yolks separately. The yolks must be beaten till they
become very thick and smooth, and the whites till they are a stiff
froth, that stands alone. When the scalded meal is cold, mix it
into a batter with the beaten yolk of egg, the remainder of the
meal, a salt-spoonful of salt, and, if necessary, a little water.
The batter must be quite thick. At the last, stir in, lightly and
slowly, the beaten white of egg. Grease your muffin rings, and set
them in an oven of the proper heat; put in the batter immediately,
as standing will injure it.
Send them to table hot; pull them open, and eat them with butter.
HOE CAKE.
Beat the whites of three eggs to a stiff froth, and sift into a
pan a quart of wheat flour, adding a salt-spoon of salt. Make a
hole in the middle, and mix in the white of egg so as to form a
thick batter, and then add two table-spoonfuls of the best fresh
yeast. Cover it, and let it stand all night. In the morning, take
a hoe-iron (such as are made purposely for cakes) and prop it
before the fire till, it is well heated. Then flour a tea-saucer,
and filling it with batter, shake it about, and clap it to the
hoe, (which must be previously greased,) and the batter will
adhere, till it is baked. Repeat this with each cake. Keep them
hot, and eat them with butter.
MILK TOAST.
Boil a pint of rich milk, and then take it off, and stir into it a
quarter of a pound of fresh butter, mixed with a small table-spoonful
of flour. Then let it again come to a boil. Have ready
two deep plates with half a dozen slices of toast in each. Pour
the milk over them hot, and keep them covered till they go to
table. Milk toast is generally eaten at breakfast.
POTATO YEAST.
Pare half a dozen middle-sized potatoes, and boil them in a quart
of soft water, mixed with a handful of hops, till quite soft. Then
mash the potatoes smooth, not leaving in a single lump. Mix with
them a handful of wheat flour. Set a sieve over the pan in which
you have the flour and mashed potatoes, and strain into them the
hop-water in which they were boiled. Then stir the mixture very
hard, and afterwards pass it through a cullender to clear it of
lumps. Let it stand till it is nearly cold. Then stir in four
table-spoonfuls of strong yeast, and let it stand to ferment. When
the foam has sunk down in the middle, (which will not be for
several hours,) it is done working. Then put it into a stone jug
and cork it. Set it in a cool place.
This yeast will be found extremely good for raising home-made
bread.
Yeast when it becomes sour may be made fit to use by stirring into
it a little sal-aratus, or pearl-ash, allowing a small tea-spoonful
to a pint of yeast. This will remove the acidity, and improve the
bread in lightness. The pearl-ash must be previously melted in a
little lukewarm water.
CREAM CHEESE.
The cheese so called (of which numbers are brought to Philadelphia
market) is not in reality made of cream, but of milk warm from the
cow, and therefore unskimmed.
Having strained into a tub a bucket of new milk, turn it in the
usual way with rennet water. When it has completely come, take a
clean linen cloth and press it down upon the firm curd, so as to
make the whey rise up over it. As the whey rises, dip it off with
a saucer or a skimming dish. Then carefully put the curd (as whole
as possible) into a cheese hoop, or mould, which for this purpose
should be about half a foot deep, and as large round as a dinner
plate--first spreading a clean wet cloth under the curd, and
folding it (the cloth) over the top. Lay a large brick on it, or
something of equivalent weight, and let the whey drain gradually
out through the holes at the bottom of the mould. It must not be
pressed hard, as when finished a cream cheese should be only about
the consistence of firm butter. The curd will sink gradually in
the mould till the whole mass will be about two or three inches
thick. Let it remain in the mould six hours, by which time the
whey should cease to exude from it. Otherwise, it must be left in
somewhat longer.
When you take out the cheese, rub it all over with a little lard,
and sprinkle it slightly with fine salt. Set it in a dry dark
place, and in four or five days it will be fit for use. When once
cut, it should (if the weather is warm) be eaten immediately; but
if uncut, it will keep a week in a cold place, provided it is
turned three or four times a day. Send it to table whole on a
large plate, and cut it when there into wedge-shaped pieces as you
would a pie. It is usually eaten at tea or supper, and is by most
persons considered a delicacy.
ALMOND BREAD.
Blanch, and pound in a mortar, half a pound of shelled sweet
almonds till they are a smooth paste, adding rose-water as you
pound them. They should be done the day before they are wanted.
Prepare a pound of loaf-sugar finely powdered, a tea-spoonful of
mixed spice, (mace, nutmeg, and cinnamon,) and three-quarters of a
pound of sifted flour. Take fourteen eggs, and separate the whites
from the yolks. Leave out seven of the whites, and beat the other
seven to a stiff froth. Beat the yolks till very thick and smooth,
and then beat the sugar gradually into them, adding the spice.
Next stir in the white of egg, then the flour, and lastly the
almonds. You may add twelve drops of essence of lemon.
Put the mixture into a square tin pan, (well buttered,) or into a
copper or tin turban-mould, and set it immediately in a brisk
oven. Ice it when cool. It is best if eaten fresh. You may add a
few bitter almonds to the sweet ones.
CUSTARD CAKES.
Mix together a pound of sifted flour and a quarter of a pound of
powdered loaf-sugar. Divide into four a pound of fresh butter; mix
one-fourth of it with the flour, and make it into a dough. Then
roll it out, and put in the three remaining divisions of the
butter at three more rollings. Set the paste in a cool place till
the custard is ready. For the custard, beat very light the yolk
only of eight eggs, and then stir them gradually into a pint of
rich cream, adding three ounces of powdered white sugar, a grated
nutmeg, and ratafia, peach-water, or essence of lemon, to your
taste. Put the mixture into a deep dish; set it in an iron baking
pan or a Dutch oven half full of boiling water, and bake it a
quarter of an hour. Then put it to cool.
In the mean time roll out the paste into a thin sheet; cut it into
little round cakes about the size of a dollar, and bake them on
flat tins. When they are done, spread some of the cakes thickly
with the custard, and lay others on the top of them, making them
fit closely in the manner of lids.
You may bake the paste in patty-pans like shells, and put in the
custard after they come out of the oven. If the custard is baked
in the paste, it will be clammy and heavy at the bottom.
They are sometimes called cream cakes or cream tarts.
HONEY GINGER CAKE.
Rub together a pound of sifted flour and three-quarters of a pound
of fresh butter. Mix in, a tea-cup of fine brown sugar, two large
table-spoonfuls of strong ginger, and (If you like them) two
table-spoonfuls of carraway seeds. Having beaten five eggs, add
them to the mixture alternately with a pint of strained honey;
stirring in towards the last a small tea-spoonful of pearl-ash,
that has been melted in a very little water.
Having beaten or stirred the mixture long enough to make it
perfectly light, transfer it to a square iron or block-tin pan,
(which must be well buttered,) put it into a moderate oven, and
bake it an hour or more, in proportion to its thickness.
When cool, cut it into squares. It is best if eaten fresh, but it
will keep very well a week.
ROCK CAKE.
Blanch three-quarters of a pound of shelled sweet almonds, and
bruise them fine in a mortar, but not to a smooth paste as for
maccaroons. Add, as you pound them, a little rose-water. Beat to a
stiff froth the whites of four eggs, and then beat in gradually a
pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Add a few drops of oil of lemon.
Then mix in the pounded almonds. Flour your hands, and make the
mixture into little cones or pointed cakes. Spread sheets of damp,
thin, white paper on buttered sheets of tin, and put the rock
cakes on it, rather far apart. Sprinkle each with powdered loaf-sugar.
Bake them of a pale brown, in a brisk oven. They will be
done in a few minutes.
When cold, take them off the papers.
FROZEN CUSTARD.
Slice a vanilla bean, and boil it slowly in half a pint of
milk/till all the strength is extracted and the milk highly
flavoured with the vanilla. Then strain its and set it aside. Mix
a quart of cream and a pint of milk, or, if you cannot procure
cream, take three pints of rich milk, and put them into a skillet
or sauce-pan. Set it on hot coals, and boil it. When it has come
to a boil, mix a table-spoonful of flour in three table-spoonfuls
of milk, and stir it info the boiling liquid. Afterwards add two
eggs, (which have been beaten up with two table-spoonfuls of
milk,) pouring them slowly into the mixture. Take care to stir it
all the time it is boiling. Five minutes after, stir in gradually
half a pound of powdered loaf-sugar, and then the decoction of
vanilla. Having stirred it hard a few moments, take it off the
fire, and set it to cool. When quite cold, put it into a mould and
freeze it, as you would ice-cream, for which it frequently passes.
You may flavour it with a tea-spoonful of strong oil of lemon,
stirred in just before you take it from the fire, or with a
quarter of a pound of shelled bitter almonds, blanched, pounded in
a mortar with a little water, and then boiled in half a pint of
milk, till the flavour Is extracted.
CHERRY CORDIAL.
Take a bushel of fine ripe cherries, either red or black, or
mixed; stone them, put them into a clean wooden vessel, and mash
them with a mallet or beetle. Then boil them about five minutes,
and strain the juice. To each quart of juice allow a quart of
water, a pound of sugar, and a quart of brandy. Boil in the water
(before you mix it with the juice) two ounces of cloves, and four
ounces of cinnamon; then strain out the spice. Put the mixture
into a stone jug, or a demijohn, and cork it tightly. Bottle it in
two or three months.
COMMON ICE CREAM.
Split into pieces a vanilla bean, and boil it in a very little
milk till the flavour is well extracted; then strain it. Mix two
table-spoonfuls of arrow-root powder, or the same quantity of fine
powdered starch, with just sufficient cold milk to make it a thin
paste; rubbing it till quite smooth. Boil together a pint of cream
and a pint of rich milk; and while boiling stir in the preparation
of arrow-root, and the milk in which the vanilla has been boiled.
When it has boiled hard, take it off, stir in half a pound of
powdered loaf-sugar, and let it come to a boil again. Then strain
it, and put it into a freezer placed in a tub that has a hole in
the 'bottom to let-out the water; and surround the freezer on all
sides with ice broken finely, and mixed with coarse salt. Beat the
cream hard for half an hour. Then let it rest; occasionally taking
off the cover, and scraping down with a long spoon the cream that
slicks to the sides. When it is well frozen, transfer it to a
mould; surround it with fresh salt and ice, and then freeze it
over again.
If you wish to flavour it with lemon instead of vanilla, take a
large lump of the sugar before you powder it, and rub it on the
outside of a large lemon till the yellow is all rubbed off upon
the sugar. Then, when the sugar is all powdered, mix with it the
juice.
For strawberry ice cream, mix with the powdered sugar the juice of
a quart of ripe strawberries squeezed through a linen.
PINK CHAMPAGNE JELLY.
Beat half the white of an egg to a stiff froth, and then stir it
hard into three wine-glasses of filtered water. Put twelve ounces
of the best double-refined loaf-sugar (powdered fine and sifted)
into a skillet lined with porcelain. Pour on it the white of egg
and water, and stir it till dissolved. Then add twelve grains of
cochineal powder. Set it over a moderate fire, and boil it and
skim it till the scum ceases to rise. Then strain it through a
very fine sieve. Have ready an ounce and a half of isinglass that
has been boiled in a little water till quite dissolved. Strain it,
and while the boiled sugar is lukewarm mix it with the isinglass,
adding a pint of pink champagne and the juice of a large lemon.
Run it through a linen bag into a mould. When it has congealed so
as to be quite firm, wrap a wet cloth round the outside of the
mould, and turn out the jelly into a glass dish; or serve it
broken up, in jelly glasses, or glass cups. Jelly may be made in a
similar manner of Madeira, marasquin, or noyau.
A CHARLOTTE RUSSE.
Boil in half a pint of milk a split vanilla bean, till all the
flavour is extracted. Then strain the milk, and when it is cold
stir into it the yolks of four beaten eggs, and a quarter of a
pound of powdered loaf-sugar.
Simmer this custard five minutes over hot coals, but do not let it
come to a boil. Then set it away to cool. Having boiled an ounce
of the best Russian isinglass in a pint of water till it is
entirely dissolved and the water reduced to one-half, strain it
into the custard, stir it hard, and set it aside to get quite
cold.
Whip to a stiff froth a quart of rich cream, taking it off in
spoonfuls as you do it, and putting it to drain on an inverted
sieve. When the custard is quite cold, (but not yet set or
congealing,) stir the whipt cream gradually into it.
Take at circular mould of the shape of a drum, the sides being
straight. Cut to fit it two round slices from the top and bottom
of an almond sponge-cake; glaze them with white of egg, and lay
one on at the bottom of the mould, reserving the other for the
top.
Having thus covered the bottom, line the sides of the mould with,
more of the sponge-cake, cut into long squares and glazed all over
with white of egg. They must be placed so as to stand up all
round--each wrapping a little over the other so as to leave not
the smallest vacancy between; and they must be cut exactly the
height of the mould, and trimmed evenly. Then fill up with the
custard and cream when it is just beginning to congeal; and cover
the top with the other round slice of cake.
Set the mould in a tub of pounded ice mixed with coarse salt; and
let it remain forty minutes, or near an hour. Then turn out the
Charlotte on a china dish. Have ready an icing, made in the usual
manner of beaten white of egg and powdered sugar, flavoured with
essence of lemon. Spread it smoothly over the top of the
Charlotte, which when the icing is dry will be ready, to serve.
They are introduced at large parties, and it is usual to have two
or four of them.
A CHARLOTTE POLONAISE.
Boil over a slow fire a pint and a half of cream. While it is
boiling have ready six yolks of eggs, beaten up with two table-spoonfuls
of powdered arrow-root, or fine flour. Stir this
gradually into the boiling cream, taking care to have it perfectly
smooth and free from lumps. Ten minutes will suffice for the egg
and cream to boil together. Then divide the mixture by putting it
into two separate sauce-pans.
Then mix with it, in one of the pans, six ounces of chocolate
scraped fine, two ounces of powdered loaf-sugar, and a quarter of
a pound of maccaroons, broken up. When it has come to a hard boil,
take it off, stir it well, pour it into a bowl, and set it away to
cool.
Have ready, for the other sauce-pan of cream and egg, a dozen
bitter almonds, and four ounces of shelled sweet almonds or
pistachio nuts, all blanched and pounded in a mortar with rose-water
to a smooth paste, and mixed with an ounce of citron also
pounded. Add four ounces of powdered sugar; and to colour it
green, two large spoonfuls of spinach juice that has been strained
through a sieve. Stir this mixture into the other half of the
cream, and let it come to a boil. Then put it aside to cool.
Cut a large sponge-cake into slices half an inch thick. Spread one
slice thickly with the chocolate cream, and cover another slice
with the almond cream. Do this alternately (piling them evenly on
a china dish) till all the ingredients are used up. You may
arrange it in the original form of the sponge-cake before it was
cut, or in a pyramid. Have ready the whites of the six eggs
whipped to a stiff froth, with which have been gradually mixed six
ounces of powdered sugar, and twelve drops of oil of lemon. With a
spoon heap this meringue (as the French call it) all over the pile
of cake, &c., and then sift powdered sugar over it. Set it in a
very slow oven till the outside becomes a light brown colour.
Serve it up cold, ornamented according to your taste.
If you find the chocolate cream too thin, add more maccaroons. If
the almond cream is too thin, mix in more pounded citron. If
either of the mixtures is too thick, dilute it with more cream.
This is superior to a Charlotte Russe.
APPLE COMPOTE.
Take large ripe pippin apples. Pare, core, and weigh them, and to
each pound allow a pound of fine loaf-sugar and two lemons.
Parboil the apples, and then set them out to cool. Pare off very
nicely with a penknife the yellow rind of the lemons, taking care
not to break it; and then with scissors trim the edges to an even
width all along. Put the lemon-rind to boil in a little sauce-pan
by itself, till it Becomes tender, and then set it to cool. Allow
half a pint of water to each pound of sugar; and when it is
melted, set it on the fire in the preserving kettle, put in the
apples, and boil them slowly till they are clear and tender all
through, but not till they break; skimming the syrup carefully.
After you have taken out the apples, add the lemon-juice, put in
the lemon-peel, and boil it till quite transparent. When the whole
is cold, put the apples with the syrup into glass dishes, and
dispose the wreaths of lemon-peel fancifully about them.
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