Use good and ripe apricots. It is a mistake to believe that jam or marmalade can be obtained with any kind of fruit. Take off the stones, put them on the fire without water and while they boil, stir with a ladle to reduce them to pulp. When they have boiled for about half an hour, rub them through a sieve to separate the pulp of the fruit from the skins that are to be thrown away, then put them back on the fire with granulated sugar in the proportion of eight tenths, that is to say eight pounds of sugar for ten pounds of apricot pulp. Stir often with the ladle until the mixture acquires the firmness of marmalade, which will be known by putting from time to time a teaspoonful in a plate and seeing that it flows slowly.
When ready, remove from the fire, let it cool, and then put in vases well covered and with a film of paraffine or tissue paper dipped in alcohol, so that the air may not pass in.
The ingredients are quinces, peeled and with the core removed, and granulated sugar, in theproportion of eight tenths of quinces to five tenths of sugar, or a little more than one and a half quinces for one part of sugar.
Dissolve the sugar on the fire with half a glass of water, boil a little, then remove from the fire and put aside.
Cut the quinces—peeled and coreless—in very thin slices and put them on the fire with a glass of water, supposing the quantity to be about two pounds. Keep covered, but stir once in a while with the ladle, trying to break the slices and reduce them to a paste. When the quinces are made tender through cooking, pour in the thick syrup of sugar already prepared, mix and stir and let the mixture boil with the cover removed until the preserve is ready, which will be known when it begins to fall like shreds when taken up with the ladle.
Let it cool and put in well covered jars.
Although it is in America that there is a greater consumption of ice cream, it is in Italy that it was first made, and in various European capitals it is the Italiangelatierewho prepares the frozen delicacy. A few Italian recipes ofgelatiwill then be acceptable, we believe, as a conclusion to this little work.
Make a cream with:
Water, five ounces.Sugar, two ounces.The yolks of four eggs.A taste of vanilla.
Put it on the fire stirring continually and when it begins to stick to the ladle remove from the fire and whip to a stiff froth. Then mix about five ounces of ordinary whipped cream, put in a mold and pack in salt and ice.
Keep in ice for about three hours.
This dose will be sufficient for seven or eight persons.
Granulated sugar, ¾ lb.Water, a pint.Lemons, three (good sized).
Boil the sugar in the water, with some little pieces of lemon peel, for about ten minutes, in an uncovered kettle. When this syrup is cold, squeeze the lemons one at the time, tasting the mixture to regulate the degree of acidity. Then strain and put in the freezer packed with salt and ice.
Ripe strawberries, ¾ lb.Granulated sugar, ¾ lb.Water, one pint.A big lemon.An orange.
Boil the sugar in the water for ten minutes in an uncovered kettle. Rub through a sieve the strawberries and the juice of the lemon and the orange: add the syrup after straining, mix everything and pour the mixture in the freezer.
Four big oranges.One lemon.One pint of water.Sugar, ¾ lb.
Squeeze the oranges and the lemon and strain the juice.
Boil the sugar in the water for ten minutes, put in the juice when cold, strain again and put in the freezer.
Milk, one quart.Sugar, six ounces.Pistaches, two ounces.
Skin the pistaches in warm water and grind them very fine with a tablespoonful of the sugar, then put in a saucepan with the yolks and the sugar, mixing everything together. Add the milk and put the mixture on the fire stirring with the ladle and when it is condensed like cream, let it cool and put in the freezer.
To make this ice a special ice cream mold is necessary, or a tin receptacle that can be closed hermetically.
Take several varieties of fruits of the season, ripe and of good quality, that is to say, strawberries, cherries, plums, apricots, a big peach, a good sized pear, a piece of good cantaloupe. Peel, skin and remove stones and cores of all these fruits. Then cut them into very thin slices, throwing away the cores and stones.
When the fruit is prepared in this manner, weigh it, and sprinkle over one fifth of its weight of powdered sugar, squeezing also onelemon. Mix everything and let the mixture rest for half an hour.
Put a sheet of paper in the bottom of the mold that is to be filled with the fruit pressed together, close, and pack in salt and ice, keeping it for two hours or a little less.
This is not thetutti fruttiice cream as is known in America, but amacédoineof fruits, that comes very pleasant to the taste in the summer months.
NUMBERS REFER TO RECIPES