decorative break
Is made in the same manner as pound cake, only with a less proportion of flour, (fourteen ounces, or two ounces less than a pound) as it must be baked in little tins; and small cakes require less flour than large ones. Also, (besides a somewhat larger allowance of spice, liquor, &c.) add the juice and grated yellow rind of a lemon or two, and half a pound of sultana or seedless raisins, cut in half and dredged with flour. Butter your small cake tins, and fill to the edge with the batter. They will not run over the edge if well made, and baked with a proper fire, but they will rise high and fine in the centre. Ice them when beginning to cool, flavoring the icing with lemon or rose. Queen cakes madeexactlyas above are superlative.
decorative break
Make a mixture precisely as for queen cake, only omit the wine, brandy, and rose-water, and substitute the grated yellow rind and the juice of four large ripe oranges, stirred into the batter in turn with the egg and flour. Flavor the icing with orange juice.
decorative break
Are also made as above, substituting for the oranges the grated rind and juice of three lemons. To give a full taste, less lemon is required than orange.
decorative break
Many persons suppose that sponge cake must be very easy to make, because there is no butter in it. On the contrary, the want of butter renders it difficult to get light. A really good sponge cake is a very different thing from those numerous tough leathery compositions that go by that name, and being flavored with nothing, are not worthy of eatingas cake, and are neither palatable nor wholesome as diet, unless too fresh to have grown dry and hard. The best sponge cake we know of is made as follows, and even that should be eaten the day it is baked. Sift half a pound of flour, (arrow-root is still better,) in a shallow pan; beat twelve eggs till very thick, light, and smooth. You need not separate the yolks and whites, if you know the true way of adding the flour. Beat a pound of powdered loaf sugar, gradually, (a little at a time) into the beaten eggs, and add the juice and grated yellow rinds of two large lemons or oranges. Lastly stir in the flour or arrow root. It is all important that this should be done slowly and lightly, and without stirring down to the bottom of the pan. Hold the egg-beater perpendicularly or quite upright in one hand, and move it round on the surface of the beaten egg, while with the other hand you lightly and gradually sprinkle in the flour till all is in. If stirred in hard and fast it will render the cake porous and tough, and dry and hard when cold. Have ready either a large turban mould, or some small oblong or square tins. Butter them nicely, transfer to them thecake mixture, grate powdered sugar profusely over the surface to give it a gloss like a very thin crust, and set it immediately into a brisk oven. The small oblong cakes are called Naples biscuits, and require no icing. A large turban cake may be iced plain, without ornament.
Avery lightsponge cake, when sliced, will cut down rough and coarse grained, and it is desirable to have it so.
Lady Fingers—Are mixed in the same manner, and of the same ingredients as the foregoing receipt for the best sponge cake. When the mixture is finished, form the cakes by shaping the batter with a tea-spoon, upon sheets of soft white paper slightly damped, forming them like double ovals joined in the centre. Sift powdered sugar over them, and bake them in a quick oven till slightly browned. When cool, take them off the papers. They are sometimes iced.
decorative break
The addition of almonds makes this cake very superior to the usual sponge cake. Sift half a pound of fine flour or arrow root. Blanch in scalding water two ounces of shelled sweet almonds, and two ounces of bitter ones, renewing the hot water when expedient. When the skins are all off, wash the almonds in cold water, (mixing the sweet and bitter) and wipe them dry. Pound them to a fine smooth paste, (one at a time,) in a very clean marble mortar, adding, as you proceed, plenty of rose-water to prevent their oiling. Then set them in a cool place. Beat twelveeggs till very smooth and thick, and then beat into them, gradually, a pound of powdered loaf sugar, in turn with the pounded almonds. Lastly, add the flour, stirring it round slowly and lightly on the surface of the mixture, as in common sponge cake. Have ready adeepsquare pan. Butter it nicely. Put the mixture carefully into it, set it into the oven, and bake it till thoroughly done and risen very high. When cool, cover it with plain white icing, flavored with rose-water. With sweet almonds, always use a small portion of bitter ones. Without them,sweetalmonds have little or no taste, though they add to the richness of the cake.
decorative break
In a shallow pan put a half pint of rich unskimmed milk, and cut up in it a half pound of the best fresh butter. Set it on the stove, or near the fire, to warm and soften, but do not let it melt or oil. When soft, stir it all through the milk with a broad knife, and then set it away to cool. Sift into a broad pan half a pound of the finest flour, and an additional quarter of a pound put on a plate by itself. Beat four eggs in a shallow pan till very thick and smooth, and mix them at once into the butter and sugar, adding the half pound of flour. Stir in a powdered nutmeg, and two wine-glasses of strong yeast, fresh from the brewer's, first removing the thin liquid or beer from the top. Stir the mixture very hard with a knife, and then add,gradually, half a pound of powdered white sugar. The buns will become heavy if the sugar is thrown in all at once. It is important that it should be added a little at a time. Then sprinkle in, by degrees, the extra quarter of a pound of sifted flour, and lastly add a wine-glass of strong rose-water. When all has been well stirred, butter (with fine fresh butter,) an oblong iron or block-tin pan, and carefully put the bun mixture into it. Cover it with a clean cloth, and set it near the fire to rise. It may require five hours; therefore buns wanted for tea should be made in the forenoon. When the batter has risen very high, and is covered with bubbles, put the pan immediately into a moderate but steady oven, and bake it. When cool, cut the buns into squares, and ice each one separately, if for company; the icing being flavored with lemon or orange juice. Otherwise, you may simply sift sugar over them. These buns were first introduced by Mrs. Goodfellow; and in her school were always excellently made, nothing being spared that was good, and the use of soda and other alkalis being unknown in the establishment—hartshorn in cakes would have horrified her.
decorative break
This cake must be flavored highly with bitter almonds; without them, sweet almonds have little or no taste, and are useless in lady cake. Blanch, in scalding water, three small ounces of shelled bitter almonds, and then laythem in a bowl of very cold water. Afterwards wipe them dry, and pound them (one at a time,) to a smooth paste in a clean marble mortar; adding, as you proceed, a wine-glass of rose-water to improve the flavor, and prevent their oiling, and becoming heavy and dark. When done, set them away in a cool place, on a saucer. Almonds are always lighter and better when blanched and pounded the day before. Cut up three quarters of a pound of the best fresh butter in a pound of powdered loaf sugar. Mix it in a deep earthen pan, and stir and beat it with a spaddle till it becomes very light and creamy. Then, gradually, stir in the pounded almonds. Take thewhites onlyof seventeen or eighteen fresh eggs, and beat them in a shallow pan to a stiff froth, till they stand alone. Then stir the beaten white of egg, gradually, into the pan of creamed butter and sugar, in turn with three small quarters of a pound (or a pint and a half,) of sifted flour of the very best quality. Stir the whole very hard at the last, and transfer it to a straight-sided tin pan, well greased with excellent fresh butter. Set the pan immediately into an oven, and bake it with a moderate but steady heat. When it has been baking rather more than two hours, probe it by sticking down to the bottom a twig from a corn broom, or a very narrow knife. If it comes out clean the cake is done; if clammy or daubed, keep it longer in the oven. A cake when quite done generally shrinks a little. When you take it out, set it to cool on an inverted sieve. Ice alady cake entirely with white, and ornament it with white flowers. It is now much in use at weddings, and if well made, and quite fresh, there is no cake better liked.
decorative break
Cut up half a pound of fine fresh butter, and warm it till soft in half a pint of rich milk. Sift a pound of fine flour into a broad pan; make a hole in the centre, and pour into it the milk and butter, having stirred them well together. Then, gradually, add a large quarter of a pound of powdered sugar, and a heaped tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon. Beat three eggs very smooth and thick, and stir them in, also a wine-glass and a half of strong fresh brewer's yeast, or two glasses of fresh baker's yeast. Then mix, (having sprinkled some over the top,) all the flour into the hole in the centre, so as to make a soft dough. When all is well mixed cover it, and set it to rise in a round straight-sided tin pan. Place it near the fire, and when quite light and cracked all over the surface, flour your pasteboard well, place the loaf upon it, and having prepared in a pint bowl a stiff mixture of ground cinnamon, fresh butter, and brown sugar, beaten together so as to stand alone, make numerous deep cuts or incisions all over the surface on the sides and top of the cake; fill them with the cinnamon mixture, and pinch each together so as to keep the seasoning from coming out. Glaze it all over with beatenwhite of egg a little sweetened. Then return the loaf to the pan, and bake it in a moderate oven till thoroughly done. When cool, cut it down in slices like a pound cake.
This dough may be divided into small round cakes, the size of a muffin, and baked on tin or iron sheets, sifting sugar over them when cool. It must have a high flavor of cinnamon.
decorative break
Cut up and peel some pieces of very ripe cocoa-nut. Lay them for a while in cold water. Then take them out and wipe them dry, and grate very fine as much as will weigh half a pound. Beat eight eggs till very light, thick, and smooth. Have ready half a pound of powdered loaf sugar, and stir it into the pan of beaten egg, alternately with the grated cocoa-nut; adding a handful of sifted flour, a powdered nutmeg, and a large glass of madeira or sherry, stirring the whole very hard. Butter an oblong tin pan. Put in the mixture, set it immediately into a quick oven, and bake it well. Set it to cool on an inverted sieve; cut it into squares, and ice each square, flavoring the icing with rose.
You may bake it in a large loaf; adding double portions of all the ingredients, and ornamenting the icing handsomely.
Sweet Potato Cake—Is made like the above cocoa-nut cake. The sweet potatos must be pared and gratedraw, till you have as much as weighshalf a pound. Then proceed as above, and with the same ingredients and proportions. You may boil and mash the sweet potatos; but be sure, afterwards, to pass them through a coarse sieve, or they may chance to clod and become heavy. If well made, and well flavored, this cake is very nice.
decorative break
The best time for making this cake is when ripe oranges are plenty. For one cake select four large deep-colored oranges, and roll each one under your hand upon a table to soften them, and increase the juice. Weigh a pound of the best loaf sugar. On some of the largest pieces rub off the yellow or outer rind of the oranges, omitting the white entirely. The white or inner rind of oranges or lemons should never be used for any thing. Cut the oranges, and squeeze their juice through a strainer into a large saucer or a small deep plate. Powder all the sugar, including that which has the orange zest upon it, and put it into a deep earthen pan, with a pound of the best fresh butter cut up among it. With a wooden spaddle stir the butter and sugar together, till very light and creamy. In a shallow pan beat twelve eggs, omitting thewhitesof three. Sift into a dish a small quart of the best and finest flour, and stir it gradually into the pan of butter and sugar and orange, in turn with the beaten egg, a little at a time of each. Stir the whole very hard; and when done, immediately transfer the batter to square tin pans,greased with the same fresh butter that was used for the cake. Many a fine cake has been spoiled, at last, by the poor economy of greasing the pans with salt butter. Fill the pans to the top. If the cake has been well made, and well beaten, there is no danger of the batter running over the edges. Put it, immediately, into a quick oven and bake it well, not allowing the heat to be lessened till the cake is quite done. When cool, cut it into squares. If you ice it, flavor the icing with orange juice.
Do not attempt to make this cake with yolk of egg only, by way of improving the yellow color. Without any whites, it will assuredly be tough and heavy. Cakes may be made light with white of egg only, but never with yellow of egg only.
If you use soda, saleratus, hartshorn, or any of the alkalis, they will entirely destroy the orange flavor, and communicate a bad taste of their own.
decorative break
Scald in a bowl of boiling water two ounces of shelled bitter almonds. As you peel off the skins throw each almond into a bowl of ice-cold water. When all are blanched, take them out, and wipe them dry on a clean napkin. Put them, one at a time, into a very clean marble mortar, and pound each one separately to a smooth paste, adding, as you pound them, a few drops of strong rose-water, till you have used up a large wine-glass full. As you removethe pounded almonds from the water, lay them lightly and loosely on a plate. When all are done, put them into a very cool place. In a deep earthen pan cut up a pound of fresh butter into a pound of powdered sugar, and with a wooden spaddle stir the butter and sugar together till perfectly light. Into another pan sift three quarters of a pound of fine flour, and in a broad shallow pan beat with small rods the whites only of eighteen eggs till they are stiff enough to stand alone. Then, gradually, and alternately, stir into the pan of beaten butter and sugar the flour, the beaten white of eggs, and the pounded almonds. Give the whole a hard stirring at the last. Transfer it to square tin pans greased with the same butter, and bake it well. When cool, cut it into square cakes, and send it to table on china plates, piled alternately with pieces of golden cake, handsomely arranged. If you ice silver cake, flavor the icing with strong rose-water.
These cakes, (gold or silver) if made as above, will be found delicious. The yolk of egg left from the silver cake may be used for soft custards. But yolk of egg alone, will not raise a cake; though white of egg will.
decorative break
Cut up a pound of fresh butter into two pounds of sifted flour, and rubbing the butter very fine, and mixing in a pound of powdered sugar, with a heaped tea-spoonful of mixed spice, nutmeg, mace, and cinnamon, and four tea-spoonfuls of carraway seeds. Moisten the whole with a large glass of white wine; and barely sufficient cold water to make a stiff dough. Mix it well with a broad knife, and roll it out into a sheet less than half an inch thick; then with the edge of a tumbler, or a tin cake-cutter, divide it into round small cakes. Bake them in oblong pans, (tin or iron) slightly buttered; and do not place them so closely as to touch. Bake them in a quick oven, till they are of a pale brown. These cakes are soon prepared, requiring neither eggs nor yeast.
decorative break
Make a mixture as for apees, omitting only the carraway seeds. Roll out the sheet of dough quite thin; cut it into round flat cakes with the edge of a tumbler, and bake them a few minutes, till lightly colored. Take them out of the oven and spread them thickly with very nice marmalade, or with ripe strawberries or raspberries, sweetened, and mashed without cooking. Have ready a stiff meringue of beaten white of egg and sugar. Pile it high over the marmalade on each cake. Heap it on with a spoon, so as quite to conceal the marmalade, and do not smooth it on the top. It should stand upunevenas the spoon left it. Set it again in the oven for a minute or two, to harden it.
decorative break
Mix together, all at once, in a deep pan, a pound of butter cut up in a pound of powdered sugar, a pound of sifted flour, and six eggs, previously beaten very light in a pan by themselves. Add a table-spoonful of powdered spice, (mixed nutmeg, mace, and cinnamon) and a glass of mixed wine and brandy; or else a glass of rose water; or the juice and grated yellow rind of a large lemon. Stir the whole very hard till all the ingredients are thoroughly mixed, and become a soft dough. Flour your hands and your pasteboard, and lay the dough upon it. Take off equal portions from the lump, and with your hands form them into round rolls, and make them into rings by joining together the two ends of each. Place the jumbles (not so near as to touch,) in tin pans slightly buttered, and bake them in a very brisk oven little more than five or six minutes, or enough to color them a light brown. If the oven is too cool, the jumbles will spread and run into each other. When cold, sift sugar over them.Jumblesmay be made with yolks of eggs only, if the whites are wanted for something else.
Cocoa-nut Jumbles—Are made as above, only with finely grated cocoa-nut instead of flour, and with white of egg instead of yolk.
Cocoa-nut Puffs.—Grate any quantity of cocoa-nut. Mix it with powdered sugar and a little beaten white of egg, and lay it in small heaps of equal size. On the top of each place a ripe strawberry, raspberry, or any small preservedfruit, flattening a slight hollow, to hold it without its rolling off.
decorative break
Take a pound of fresh butter, a pound of powdered white sugar, and two pounds of sifted flour. Mix the sugar with the flour, and rub the butter into it, crumbled fine. Add a heaped table-spoonful of mixed nutmeg and cinnamon. Putno water, but moisten it entirely with butter. A small glass of brandy is an improvement. Roll it out into a large thick sheet, and cut it into round cakes about the size of saucers. Bake them on flat tins, slightly buttered. This cake is very crumbly but very good, and of Scottish origin. It keeps well, and is often sent from thence, packed in boxes.
decorative break
For baking jelly cake you must have large flat tin pans rather larger than a dinner plate. But a very clean soap-stone griddle may be substituted, though more troublesome. Make a rich batter as for pound cake, and bake it in single cakes, (in the manner of buckwheat, or thicker) taking care to grease the tin or soap-stone withexcellentfresh butter. Have ready, enough of fruit jelly or marmalade, to spread a thick layer all over each cake when it cools. Pile one on another very evenly, till you have four, five, or half a dozen; and ice the surface of the whole. Cut it down in triangularpieces like a pie. Jelly cake is no longer made of sponge cake, which is going out of use for all purposes, as being too often dry, tough, and insipid, and frequently not so good as plain bread.
decorative break
The day before they are wanted, prepare three quarters of a pound of shelled sweet almonds, and a quarter of a pound of shelled bitter almonds; by scalding, blanching, and pounding them to a smooth paste in a marble mortar, (one or two at a time) adding, as you proceed, rose-water to prevent their oiling, and becoming dark and heavy. Having beaten to a stiff froth the whites of six eggs, and prepared a pound of powdered loaf sugar, beat the sugar into the egg a spoonful at a time. Then mix in gradually the pounded almonds, and add a grated nutmeg. Stir the whole very hard, and form the mixture into small round balls. Then flatten slightly the surface of each. Butter slightly some shallow tin pans. Place the macaroons not so close as to be in danger of touching; and glaze them lightly with a little beaten white of egg. Put them into a brisk oven, and bake them a light brown.
Ground-nut macaroons are made in the same manner.
Chocolate Macaroons.—Scrape down, very fine, half a pound of Baker's prepared cocoa. Beat to a stiff froth the white of four eggs, and beat into the white of egg a pound of powdered loafsugar, in turn with the chocolate, adding a little sifted flour if the mixture appears too thin. Grease the bottom of some oblong tin pans, very slightly, with sweet oil. Having formed the mixture into small thick cakes, lay them (not close,) in the pan, and bake them a few minutes. Sift sugar over them while warm.
decorative break
Having beaten to a stiff froth, till it stands alone, the whites of eight eggs, mix with it, gradually, three quarters of a pound of finely powdered loaf sugar, beating it in very hard, a spoonful at a time, and as you proceed flavoring it with extract of vanilla, rose, or lemon juice. If the meringue is not thoroughly beaten and very stiff, the kisses will lose their shape and run in baking. Try one first, and if that runs, beat a while longer before you bake the whole. Pile portions of the meringue on sheets of letter paper, placing each heap far apart. Smooth and shape them with a broad knife dipped in cold water. Make them about the size and form of half eggs, with the flat part downwards. Arrange them on a smooth hickory board, and set it in a quick oven, (leaving the door open) and watch them well. A few minutes will color them a pale brown, and that is all they require. Then take them out, and set them to cool. When cool, slip a knife carefully under each, and remove them from the paper. Then with your knife hollow the meringue from the base of each kiss and scrape upwards toward the top, being careful not to break through the outside or crust. Fill up this vacancy with any sort of stiff jelly. Then clap two halves together, and unite them at the base, by moistening the edges with a little of the meringue that was left. Handle them very carefully throughout.
Large kisses, of twice or thrice the usual size, are introduced at parties, filled with ice cream, or flavored calf's foot jelly.
It is very customary now to finish a fine charlotte russe with a thick layer of this jelly at the top.
decorative break
Cut up in a deep pan half a pound of the best fresh butter, with a half pound of excellent brown sugar; and stir it to cream with a spaddle. Add a pint of West India molasses, mixed with half a pint of warm milk; four table-spoonfuls of ginger; a heaped table-spoonful of mixed powdered cinnamon and powdered mace and nutmeg; and a glass of brandy. Sift in a pound and a half of fine flour. Beat six eggs till very light and thick, and mix them, alternately, into the pan of butter, sugar, molasses, &c. At the last, mix in the yellow rind (grated fine) of two large oranges and the juice. Stir the whole very hard. Melt in one cup a very small level tea-spoonful of soda, and in another a small level salt-spoon of tartaric acid. Dissolve them both in lukewarm water, and see that both are quite melted. First stir the sodainto the mixture, and then put in the tartaric acid. On no account exceed the quantity of the two alkalis, as if too much is used, they will destroy entirely the flavoring, and communicate a very disagreeable taste instead. Few cakes are the better for any of the alkaline powders, and many sorts are entirely spoiled by them. Even in gingerbread they should be used very sparingly, rather less than more of the prescribed quantity. Having buttered, (with the same butter) a large round or oblong pan, put in the mixture, and bake it in a moderate oven till thoroughly done, keeping up a steady heat, but watching that it does not burn. There is no gingerbread superior to this, if well made. Instead of lemon or orange, cut in half a pound of seedless raisins, dredge them well with flour, and stir them, gradually, into the mixture.
This is also called Franklin gingerbread.
decorative break
Cut a pound of the best fresh butter into two pounds or two quarts of sifted flour, and half a pound of fine brown sugar. Add four heaped table-spoonfuls of ground ginger; a heaped table-spoonful of powdered cinnamon, and the same quantity of mixed nutmeg and mace. Mix all the ingredients thoroughly together; adding, gradually, a large pint of West India molasses, and the grated yellow rind and juice of a lemon or orange. Stir it very hard with a spaddle. Flour your hands, break offpieces of the dough, and knead each piece a little; then flatten them on the top. Make them the size of a quarter dollar. Or, (flouring your pasteboard) roll out the dough, and cut out the ginger-nuts with the edge of a small wine-glass. Bake them on buttered tins, having first glazed them with a thin mixture of molasses and water. The same dough may be baked in long straight sticks, divided by lines deeply marked with a knife.
There are many other gingerbreads; but any of the soft sorts may be made with little variation from the foregoing directions for Lafayette gingerbread; and of the hard sort of ginger-nut preparation, the above is the basis of the rest. If the receipts are liberally and exactly followed, it will be found that to those two none are superior.
decorative break
For this pie take six fine fat tame pigeons, carefully cleaned and picked. Lay them in cold water for an hour, changing the water twice during that time. This is to remove what is called "the taste of the nest." Have ready the yolks of six hard-boiled eggs, seasoned with powdered nutmeg. Place a bit of fresh butter rolled in flour, in the inside of each pigeon, with its liver cut up, and with a yolk of egg seasoned with powdered mace. Lay a nice tender beef steak, or thin veal cutlet, in the bottom of a large deep dish, that has been lined with puff-paste. Butter the steak, and dredge it with flour. There must be meat enough to cover well the bottom of the pie dish. Lay the pigeons upon it, with the breast downward, (their heads and feet cut off, and their livers cut up, and put inside with the stuffing.) Fill up the dish with water. Roll out and put on the lid of the pie, which you may ornament with paste leaves or flowers, according to your taste. For company, pigeon pies are expected to look handsome. It is no longer fashionable to have the feet of the pigeons sticking out of the slit in the top of the paste.
Moorfowl, pheasants, partridges, or quails, may be made into pies in the above manner. It is usual, for partridge pies, to peel two fine sweet oranges; and having divided them into quarters, carefully remove the strings and seeds, and put the oranges into the birds without any other stuffing. Instead of beef steak or veal cutlet, lay a thin slice of cold ham in the bottom of the pie-dish.
This receipt, and the following, were accidentally omitted in their proper places.
decorative break
Skin a pair of fine fowls, and cut them up. Save out the necks, backs, feet, livers, and gizzards, and the ends of the pinions; and seasoning them with a little pepper and salt add some trimmings or spare bits of fresh beef or veal, and stew them in a small sauce-pan with a little water, to make the gravy. Let them stew till all to rags, and then strain offthe liquid; and while hot, stir into it a beaten egg and a bit of fresh butter, dredged with flour. In the mean time make a nice puff-paste, and roll it out rather thick; divide it in two circular sheets. Line with one sheet the bottom and sides of a deep pie dish, and put in the best pieces of chicken. Lay among them four hard-boiled eggs, sliced or quartered. Season well with powdered mace or nutmeg. The gravy being strained, pour that into the pie, and finish at the top with a layer of butter divided into small pieces, and dredge with flour. This is what the old English cookery books mean when they say—"Close the pie with alear."
A chicken pie will be improved by the addition of a dozen or more large fresh oysters, stewed. If you add oysters, take off the lid or upper crust as soon as the pie is baked, and put in the oystersthen; if put in at the beginning, they will bake too long. Replace the lid nicely, and send the pie to table hot.
The lid should have in the top a cross slit with a nice paste flower in it. To make a paste flower roll out a straight narrow slip of paste, about four or five inches wide. Roll it up with your fingers as if you were rolling up a ribbon. Then with a sharp knife cut four clefts in the upper half, and when baked, it will spread apart as like the leaves of a flower.
decorative chapter break
No sweetmeats can either look well or taste well unless the fruit and the sugar are of the best quality. As in all other branches of cookery, it is false economy to provide bad or low-priced ingredients. It has of late years been difficult to obtainverygood sugar at any price, so much is adulterated with flour or ground starch. In the common powdered sugar the flour is so palpable that we are surprised at its having any sale at all; and the large quantity required to produce any perceptible sweetness renders it totally unfit for sweetmeats, or indeed for any thing else. The best brown sugar is better than this, having clarified it with white of egg. To do this, allow to every pound of sugar the beaten white of an egg, and a half pint of clear cold water. Having poured the water on the sugar, let it stand to melt before it goes on the fire. Then add the white of egg and put in on to boil. When it boils, carefully take off the scum as it rises, and add when it is boiling hard another jill or quarter pint of water for each pound of sugar. Remove it from the fire when the scum ceases to rise, and let it stand for a quarter of an hour to settle. Strain, and bottle it for use. The best brown sugarthus preparedwill make a good syrup; and good marmalade, when white sugar of the best quality is not to be obtained. But for the nicest sweetmeats use always, if you can, the best double-refined loaf.
In warm weather there is nothing better for a preserving fire than a portable charcoal furnace placed out in the open air; as in a room with the doors or windows shut the vapor of charcoal is deadly, and never fails to produce suffocation. Of whatever the fire is made, it should be clear and steady without smoke or blaze. Never use copper or bell-metal for either preserving or pickling. For all such purposes employ only iron, lined with what is called porcelain or enamel, but is in reality a thick strong white earthen, first made at Delft, in Holland. This lining will crack if the kettle is placed over a blaze, which it should never be. All sweetmeats should be boiled with the lid off. If covered, the steam having no means of escaping, returns upon them, and causes them to look dark and unsightly. When done, put the sweetmeats warm into jars or glasses, and leave them open a few hours that the watery particles may evaporate, but have them all pasted and closely covered before night. Do nothing to render your preserves hard, or firm, as it is called. It is better to have them soft and tender. The old custom of steeping them for days in salt and water, and then boiling them in something else to remove the salt, is now considered foolish, and is seldom practised.
Put up jellies and small sweetmeats in common tumblers, laying on the surface of each a double cover of white tissue paper cut exactly to fit, and then put on another cover of thick white paper pleated and notched where it descends below theedge, using always gum tragacanth paste, which you should keep always in the house, as it requires no boiling; and if in making it, a bit of corrosive sublimate (not larger than a cherry-stone) is dissolved with the ounce of gum tragacanth and the half pint of warm water, in a yellow or white-ware mug, andstirred only with a stick, the paste will never spoil, and if kept covered, will be found superior to all others. No metal must touch this cement, as it will then turn black and spoil.
Keep your sweetmeats always in a dry place. But if after a while you see a coat of mould on the surface, you need not throw them away, till you have tried to recover them by carefully removing every particle of mould, filling up the jars with fresh sugar, and setting them, one by one, in a bottle of water, and in this way boiling them over again. But if they have an unpleasant smell, and you see insects about them, of course they must be thrown away. To purify jars, clean and scrape them, and wash them thoroughly with ley and water, or with a solution of soda—afterwards exposing them to the sun and air for a week or more.
Jellies.—We have already given directions for various fruit jellies in the chapter on Fine Desserts. They are all made nearly in the same manner, using the juice of the fruit, and sufficient sugar to make it congeal and to keep it. Jellies should always be bright and transparent, andtherefore require the best and ripest of fruit and the finest of loaf sugar.
decorative break
Marmalade or jams are the easiest sweetmeats to make, and are useful for all sweetmeat purposes. They are all made nearly in the same manner; and to be very good, and to keep well, at least a pound of fine sugar should be allowed to every pound of fruit—the fruit being quite ripe, freshly gathered, and of the best kind.
For Peach Marmalade—Take fine, juicy free-stone peaches. Pare them; cut them in half; remove the stones, and let them be saved and the kernels extracted to use as bitter almonds. Cut up the peaches, and allow for each pound a pound of sugar. Lay the peaches (with all the sugar among them,) in a large pan or tureen, and let them rest for three or four hours. Boil the peaches and sugar together in a porcelain kettle (without a cover) for half an hour, skimming and stirring well. When it becomes a thick smooth mass it is finished. Put it up in glass jars, and leave it uncovered till cool; but not longer. The flavor will be much improved by boiling with the peaches and sugar one or two handfuls of the kernels, blanched and pounded; or else a bunch of fresh peach leaves, to be removed afterward.
Quince Marmaladeis made in the same manner—first carefully removing all the blemishes. Allow a pound of sugar to a pound of quinces.They must boil longer than peaches. All marmalades must be cooked till the form of the fruit is quite indistinguishable, and till it mashes into a thick smooth mass. Quinces should be allowed to remain on the trees till after the first frost, which greatly improves them. Persimmons and wild grapes are not eatable till they are touched by the frost.
Tomato Marmalade.—Make this when lemons are ripe and plenty. To every two pounds of tomatos allow two pounds of sugar, and the grated yellow rind and the juice of one lemon. The worst way of using lemons for any purpose is to merely slice them. Depend on the slices for flavoring, and they are wasted; the taste being scarcely perceptible. They should always be first rolled under your hand, which increases the yield of juice. Then grate off from the outside theyellowrind only (the white part of the rind is worse than useless,) and having cut the lemon, squeeze the juice through a tin strainer to exclude the seeds, which otherwise would be troublesome to pick out. The yellow rind and the juice are all you need want of a lemon for any purpose of flavoring. Scald the tomatos to make them peel easily, and mix the sugar thoroughly with them. Boil them slowly for an hour in a porcelain kettle, skimming carefully, and stirring well after each skimming. Then add the lemon grate and the juice, and boil the marmalade another half hour, or till it is a thick smooth mass.
Pumpkin Marmalade.—Take a fine ripe high-colored pumpkin. Cut it up. Empty it very clean of the seeds and strings; take off a thick paring. Slice the pieces small and thin, and weigh them. To each pound of pumpkin allow a pound of powdered sugar, and the grated peel and the juice of one large lemon. Pumpkin sweetmeats require a high lemon flavoring. Boil the pumpkin alone, till quite soft. Then mash it in a cullender till the water is pressed out, and the pumpkin left dry. Afterwards put it into a porcelain kettle, mix with it the sugar and lemon, and boil it again till it becomes a thick jam. Cantaloupe marmalade is made in the same way with lemon and sugar—also marmalade of ripe figs.
Plum Marmalade.—Choose plums that are fully ripe. Allow to each pound a pound and a half of sugar. Scald them till the skins peel off easily, and extract all the stones. Lay them in the sugar for two or three hours or more, and then boil them till they become a thick smooth mass. Green-gages the same.
Raspberry Jam.—To every quart of fine ripe raspberries allow a pound of best loaf sugar, powdered. Put them together into a broad white-ware pan, and let them rest for two or three hours. Then boil them in an uncovered porcelain kettle, taking off the scum carefully. When no more scum rises, mash them, and boil them to a smooth thick marmalade. When cold, put it up in half pint tumblers, and cover them with rounds of double tissuepaper, cut exactly to fit, and then with thick white paper dipped in brandy.
Strawberry Jam.—The strawberries must be quite ripe, and very fine. Allow to each quart a pound of powdered loaf sugar. Put them into a large white-ware pan; a layer of sugar and a layer of strawberries alternately, finishing with strawberries on the top. Let them rest in the sugar and juice three or four hours. Then boil and skim them till they become very thick and smooth. When cold, put them up in tumblers, with double tissue paper over the top. Blackberry jam is made in the same manner.
Gooseberry Jam.—Top and tail the gooseberries, which must be thoroughly ripe, and with thin skins. They require to every pound of fruit a pound and a half of sugar of the best sort. Mash them with a wooden beetle, and put them with all the sugar into an uncovered porcelain kettle, and boil and skim them. When half done add more sugar, and continue boiling till they are a very thick marmalade. When cold, cover the tumblers with brandy paper.
Pine-apple Marmalade.—Take the best and ripest pine-apples; remove the leaves, and split each pine-apple into four pieces, and cut out the core from the centre. Stand the pieces upright in a deep dish, and, with a large coarse grater grate down all thefleshof the fruit, as it is called. To every pint of grated pine-apple allow a pound of powdered loaf sugar, and put them together in a large tureen. Let them rest twohours. Then transfer the whole to a porcelain kettle. Leave it uncovered; and boil, skim, and stir, till it becomes a very thick marmalade. When cool, put it up in glass jars. It is a very nice sweetmeat, particularly for shells or tarts.
Grape Marmalade.—Take a sufficiency of fine grapes, thoroughly ripe. Having picked them from the stems, mash them with a wooden beetle, and then press them through a sieve. To every pint of the pulp allow a pound of powdered sugar, well mixed in; let it stand an hour or two. Then boil it, uncovered, in a porcelain kettle, skimming and stirring well, till it is very thick and smooth. When cool, put it up in small marmalade pots of white-ware with lids, and paste a band of thick white paper round each, at the small crack where the cover fits on. A good marmalade for the backwoods may be made of wild grapes and maple sugar.
Cherry Marmalade.—If you cannot procure morellas, (the best of all cherries for sweetmeats) use the large Virginia or carnation cherries. Black cherries are unfit for cooking. Stem and stone your cherries, saving all the juice you can. Allow a pound of powdered loaf sugar to every pint of cherries. Boil the fruit and the sugar together, uncovered, for an hour, skimming and stirring. When cool, put it in white-ware marmalade pots and paste the lids.
Orange Marmalade.—Quarter some large ripe oranges, and remove the rind, the seeds, and the strings or filaments, taking care to save allthe juice. Put the pulp, with the juice, into a porcelain kettle, and mix with it an equal quantity of strained honey, adding sufficient powdered loaf sugar to render it very thick and sweet. The honey alone will not make it sweet enough. Boil it uncovered, and skim it till very thick, smooth, and clear. Taste it, and if necessary add more sugar, and boil it longer. When cold, put it up in tumblers or white-ware marmalade pots, and cover it securely. This marmalade is exquisite, and very superior to any other.
Orange Milk.—Take four dozen large ripe juicy oranges, and roll them under your hand. Cut them in two; remove the seeds, and squeeze the juice into a large clean stone jar. Have ready four pounds of the best double-refined loaf sugar, dissolved in a gallon of French brandy. Pour it into the jar that contains the orange juice; stir the mixture well, and add the yellow rind of the oranges, pared so thin from the white as to be transparent, and divide it into bits. Cover the jar, and let it stand four days, stirring it frequently. Then take a gallon of new unskimmed milk, (the morning's milk of that day,) boil it alone, and when it comes to a hard boil pour it into the mixture of orange, sugar, and brandy. Cover it closely, and let it stand till quite cold. Then strain it into another vessel through a linen jelly bag. Bottle it immediately, and seal the corks. It improves by keeping. To use it, pour it out in half tumblers, and fill up with ice water, or serve it round undiluted in small cordialglasses, after ice-cream. It is much admired, and in orange countries may be made in large quantities. Lemon milk is made in the same manner, having a larger proportion of sugar.
Fruit in Syrups.—Make a syrup in the proportion of half a pint of water to every pound of sugar, and a pint of the juice of any sort of fine ripe fruit. Boil and skim it till very clear, but not till it congeals or jellies. Then bottle it, and cork the bottles. As the fresh fruit comes again into season, select the finest, largest, and ripest. For instance, half fill a white-ware preserve jar with fine fresh strawberries, and fill up from a bottle of strawberry syrup; or ripe raspberries with raspberry syrup; currants, with currant syrup, &c. Cover them closely till wanted for immediate use.