Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches Part 45

ICE LEMONADE.

May be made in the above manner, but with a larger proportion of sugar.

The juice of pine-apples, strawberries, raspberries, currants and cherries, may be prepared and frozen according to the above receipts. They will freeze in a shorter time than if mixed with cream, but are very inferior in richness.

BLANC-MANGE.

Put into a bowl an ounce of isingla.s.s; (in warm weather you must take an ounce and a quarter;) pour on as much rose water as will cover the isingla.s.s, and set it on hot ashes to dissolve.

[Footnote: You may make the stock for blanc-mange without isingla.s.s, by boiling four calves' feet in two quarts of water till reduced one half, and till the meat is entirely to rags.

Strain it, and set it away till next day. Then clear it from the fat and sediment; cut it into pieces and boil it with the cream and the other ingredients. When you take it from the fire, and strain it into the pitcher, keep stirring it till it gets cold.]

Blanch a quarter of a pound of sh.e.l.led almonds, (half sweet and half bitter,) and beat them to a paste in a mortar, (one at a time,) moistening them all the while with a little rose water.

Stir the almonds by degrees into a quart of cream, alternately with half a pound of powdered white sugar; add a large tea-spoonful of beaten mace. Put in the melted isingla.s.s, and stir the whole very hard. Then put it into a porcelain skillet, and let it boil fast for a quarter of an hour. Then strain it into a pitcher, and pour it into your moulds, which must first be wetted with cold water. Let it stand in a cool place undisturbed, till it has entirely congealed, which will be in about five hours. Then wrap a cloth dipped in hot water round the moulds, loosen the blanc-mange round the edges with a knife, and turn it out into gla.s.s dishes.

It is best to make it the day before it is wanted.

Instead of using a figure-mould, you may set it to congeal in tea-cups or wine gla.s.ses.

Blanc-mange may be coloured green by mixing with the cream a little juice of spinage; cochineal which has been infused in a little brandy for half an hour, will colour it red; and saffron will give it a bright yellow tinge.

CARRAGEEN BLANC-MANGE.

This is made of a sea-weed resembling moss, that is found in large quant.i.ties on some parts of our coast, and is to be purchased in the cities at most of the druggists. Carrageen costs but little, and is considered extremely salutary for persons of delicate const.i.tutions. Its glutinous nature when boiled, renders it very suitable for blanc-mange.

From a quart of rich unskimmed milk take half a pint. Add to the half pint two ounces of bitter almonds, blanched and pounded; half a nutmeg; and a large stick of cinnamon, broken up; also eight or nine blades of mace. Set it in a closed pan over hot coals, and boil it half an hour. In the mean time, wash through two or three _cold_ waters half a handful of carrageen, (if you put in too much it will communicate an unpleasant taste to the blanc-mange,) and add it to the pint and a half of cold milk. Then when it is sufficiently flavoured, stir in the boiled milk, adding gradually half a pound of powdered sugar, and mix the whole very well. Set it over the fire, and keep it boiling hard five minutes from the time it has come to a boil. Then strain it into a pitcher; wet your moulds or cups with cold water, put the blanc-mange into them, and leave it undisturbed till it congeals.

After washing the sea-weed, you must drain it well, and shake the water from the sprigs. You may flavour the mixture (_after_ it is boiled and strained) with rose-water or peach-water, stirred in at the last.

ARROW ROOT BLANC-MANGE.

Take a tea-cup full of arrow root, put it into a large bowl, and dissolve it in a little cold water. When it is melted, pour off the water, and let the arrow root remain undisturbed. Boil in half a pint of unskimmed milk, (made very sweet with white sugar,) a beaten nutmeg, and eight or nine blades of mace, mixed with the juice and grated peel of a lemon. When it has boiled long enough to be highly flavoured, strain it into a pint and a half of very rich milk or cream, and add a quarter of a pound of sugar. Boil the whole for ten minutes; then strain it, boiling hot, over the arrow roof. Stir it well and frequently till cold; then put it into moulds and let it set to congeal.

JAUNE-MANGE.

Put two ounces of isingla.s.s into a pint of water, and boil it till it has dissolved. Then strain it into a porcelain skillet, and add to it half a pint of white wine; the grated peel and juice of two large deep-coloured oranges; half a pound of loaf-sugar; and the yolks only of eight eggs that have been well beaten. Mix the whole thoroughly; place it on hot coals and simmer it, stirring it all the time till it boils hard. Then take it off directly, strain it, and put it into moulds to congeal.

CALVES' FOOT JELLY.

The best calves' feet for jelly are those that have had the hair removed by scalding, but are not skinned; the skin containing a great deal of glutinous matter. In Philadelphia, unskinned calves'

feet are generally to be met with in the lower or Jersey market.

Boil a set of feet in four quarts of cold water; (if the feet have been skinned allow but three quarts;) they should boil slowly till the liquid is reduced to two quarts or one half the original quant.i.ty, and the meat has dropped in rags from the bone. Then strain the liquid; measure and set it away in a large earthen pan to get cold; and let it rest till next morning. Then, if you do not find it a firm cake of jelly, boil it over again with an ounce of isingla.s.s, and again set it away till cold and congealed.

Remove the sediment from the bottom of the cake of jelly, and carefully sc.r.a.pe off all the fat. The smallest bit of fat will eventually render it dull and cloudy. Press some clean blotting paper all over it to absorb what little grease may yet remain.

Then cut the cake of jelly into pieces, and put it into a porcelain kettle to melt over the fire. To each quart allow a pound of broken up loaf-sugar, a pint of Madeira wine, and a large gla.s.s of brandy; three large sticks of the best Ceylon cinnamon broken up, (if common cinnamon, use four sticks,) the grated peel and juice of four large lemons; and lastly, the whites of four eggs strained, but not beaten. In breaking the eggs, take care to separate them so nicely that none of the yellow gets into the white; as the smallest portion of yolk of egg will prevent the jelly from being perfectly clear. Mix all the ingredients well together, and put them to the jelly in the kettle. Set it on the fire, and boil it hard for twenty minutes, but do not stir it.

Then throw in a tea-cup of cold water, and boil it five minutes longer; then take the kettle off the fire, and set it aside, keeping it closely covered for half an hour; this will improve its clearness. Take a large white flannel jelly-bag; suspend it by the strings to a wooden frame made for such purposes, or to the legs of a table. Pour in the mixture boiling hot, and when it is all in, close up the mouth of the bag that none of the flavour may evaporate. Hang it over a deep white dish or bowl, and let it drip slowly; but on no account squeeze the bag, as that will certainly make the jelly dull and cloudy. If it is not clear the first time, empty the bag, wash it, put in the jelly that has dripped into the dish, and pa.s.s it through again. Repeat this till it is clear. You may put it into moulds to congeal, setting them in a cold place.

When it is quite firm, wrap a cloth that has been dipped in hot water, round the moulds to make the jelly turn out easily. But it will look much better, and the taste will be more lively, if you break it up after it has congealed, and put it into a gla.s.s bowl, or heap it in jelly gla.s.ses Unless it is broken, its sparkling clearness shows to little advantage.

After the clear jelly has done dripping, you may return the ingredients to the kettle, and warm them over again for about five minutes. Then put them into the bag (which you may now squeeze hard) till all the liquid is pressed out of it into a second dish or bowl. This last jelly cannot, of course, be clear, but it will taste very well, and may be eaten in the family.

A pound of the best raisins picked and washed, and boiled with the other ingredients, is thought by many persons greatly to improve the richness and flavour or calves' feet jelly. They must be put in whole, and can be afterwards used for a pudding.

Similar jelly may be made of pigs' or sheep's feet; but it is not so nice and delicate as that of calves.

By boiling two sets, or eight calves' feet in five quarts of Water, you may be sure of having the jelly very firm. In damp weather it is sometimes very difficult to get it to congeal if you use but one set of feet; there is the same risk if the weather is hot. In winter it maybe made several days before it is to be eaten. In summer it will keep in ice for two days; perhaps longer.

TO PRESERVE CREAM.

Take four quarts of new cream; it must he of the richest quality, and have no milk mixed with it. Put it into a preserving kettle, and simmer it gently over the fire; carefully taking off whatever sc.u.m may rise to the top, till nothing more appears. Then stir, gradually, into it four pounds of double-refined loaf-sugar that has been finely powdered and sifted. Let the cream and sugar boil briskly together half an hour; skimming it, if necessary, and afterwards stirring it as long as it continues on the fire. Put it into small bottles; and when it is cold, cork it, and secure the corks with melted rosin. This cream, if properly prepared, will keep perfectly good during a long sea voyage.

ITALIAN CREAM.

Put two pints of cream into two bowls. With one bowl mix six ounces of powdered loaf-sugar, the juice of two large lemons, and two gla.s.ses of white wine. Then add the other pint of cream, and stir the whole very hard. Boil two ounces, of isingla.s.s with, four small tea-cups full of water, till it is reduced to one half. Then stir the isingla.s.s lukewarm, into the other ingredients, and put them into a gla.s.s dish to congeal.

CHOCOLATE CREAM.

Melt six ounces of sc.r.a.ped chocolate and four ounces of white sugar in half a pint of boiling; water. Stir in an ounce of dissolved isingla.s.s. When the whole has boiled, pour it into a mould.

COLOURING FOR CONFECTIONARY.

RED.

Take twenty grains of cochineal, and fifteen grains of cream of tartar finely powdered; add to them a piece of alum the size of a cherry stone, and boil them with a jill of soft water, in an earthen vessel, slowly, for half an hour. Then strain it through muslin, and keep it tightly-corked in a phial.

COCHINEAL FOR PRESENT USE.

Take two cents' worth of cochineal. Lay it on a flat plate, and bruise it with the blade of a knife. Put it into half a tea-cup of white brandy. Let it stand a quarter of an hour, and then filter it through fine muslin.

YELLOW COLOURING.

Take a little saffron, put it into an earthen vessel with a very small quant.i.ty of cold soft water, and let it steep till the colour of the infusion is a bright yellow. Then strain it. The yellow seeds of lilies will answer nearly the saffron's purpose.

GREEN.

Take fresh spinach or beet leaves, and pound them in a marble mortar. If you want it for immediate use, take off the green froth as it rises, and mix it with the article you intend to colour. If you wish to keep it a few days, take the juice when you have pressed out a tea-cup full, and adding to it a piece of alum the size of a pea, give it a boil in a sauce-pan.

WHITE