Domestic Cookery, Useful Receipts, and Hints to Young Housekeepers Part 17

Ice Custard with Vanilla.

Boil three pints of rich milk with as much vanilla as will give it a good flavor; sweeten it to your taste; have ready four eggs well beaten, pour the boiling milk on them, and keep stirring till cool; when put it to freeze.

Custard with Raisins.

Stone and cut a tea-cup of raisins, put them in a quart of milk; when it boils stir in five eggs well beaten, with two table-spoonsful of sugar, and a little lemon peel; keep stirring till it boils again, then take it off the fire, and stir till nearly cold; when put it in cups, or in a large bowl; beat the whites of three eggs with sugar, and when quite cold put them on the top of the custard.

To Boil Custard in Water.

Beat the eggs, sugar and seasoning together, and put it in a pitcher or nice stone jar; put in the milk and stir it well together; set the pitcher in a pot of boiling water, and stir till it is cooked, when take the pitcher out and stir till nearly cool. Custard should never be boiled or baked two much--a minute too long will sometimes spoil it.

Whips.

Grate the peel of a lemon in a pint of cream, sweeten it with loaf sugar, and whip it well; beat the whites of three eggs and mix with it; put apple jelly, seasoned with lemon, in the bottom of your gla.s.ses, and as the froth rises put it on the top of the jelly.

Trifle.

Put slices of sponge cake or Naples biscuit in the bottom of a deep gla.s.s dish; on this put slices of preserved citron, or apples preserved with lemon; pour over this a boiled custard, and on the top put a whip made by the foregoing receipt.

Floating Island.

Beat the whites of five eggs till the beater will stand up in them; then add, a little at a time, four spoonsful of powdered loaf-sugar, and currant jelly, or preserved syrup of any kind; put rich milk in the bottom of a gla.s.s, or china bowl, and put the island on the top. In making floating island, you should allow the whites of six eggs to six persons. You can have very good custards at the same time with the yelks of the eggs.

Apple Float.

To a quart of apples, slightly stewed and well mashed, put the whites of three eggs, well beaten, and four table-spoons heaping full of loaf sugar, heat them together for fifteen minutes, and eat with rich milk and nutmeg.

Carrageen or Irish Moss Blancmange.

Wash in three waters half an ounce of Carrageen moss; drain and put it in two quarts of new milk, let it boil for a few minutes, strain it in a pitcher, wet the moulds, and pour it in while hot; let it stand till it becomes thick, when it may be eaten with sugar and cream, seasoned with peach or rose water, or with a lemon rolled in the sugar. Some prefer seasoning the blancmange before putting it in the moulds. It will keep in a cool place two days, and is better to be made the day before it is eaten.

To Keep Suet for several Months.

Chop the suet you wish to preserve until summer as fine as for mince pies or puddings, then add a table-spoonful of salt to three table-spoonsful of suet; mix all well together, and put it in jars. Keep it tied up close, as exposure to the air makes it strong. It should be soaked an hour before you wish to use it, to remove the salt taste.

Skim Curds.

Put to boil a gallon of sweet milk; when it fairly boils, pour in a quart of b.u.t.ter-milk; in a few minutes the curd will rise, which skim off and set by, to cool for dessert; season it as you help to it at table, with cream and sugar to the taste.

Whey Skim Curds.

Boil the whey, and put in a pint of sour b.u.t.ter-milk; when the curds rise to the top take them off, and set them in a cold place; they make a nice dessert to eat with sugar, cream and nutmeg.

Cheese Curds.

Put to boil a gallon of skim milk, stir into it two spoonsful of rennet wine; when it turns, dip up the curds and set them away to cool; eat them with sweetened cream and nutmeg.

Rennet Wine for cold Custards or Curds.

Rub the salt from a nicely dried rennet, and cut it up; put it in a bottle, and fill it up with good wine. If care is taken to keep it filled up, it will last for several years, to make cold custard and cheese curds.

To Preserve Milk to use at Sea.

To every quart of new milk put a pound of loaf-sugar; let it boil very slowly in an iron pot, over clear coals, till it is as thick as thin cream--stirring it all the time, pour it out in a pitcher, and stir till it is cold; put in bottles, cork it tight, and put sealing wax over the corks; it must be shaken before it is used.

SYRUPS, ICES, &c.

Lemon Syrup.

Clarify a pound of loaf or Havana sugar, or if you wish to make a large quant.i.ty, allow half a pint of water to every pound of sugar, and boil it, skimming it when the sc.u.m arises, until it is of the consistency of honey; then to every pound of sugar, add an ounce of tartaric acid. If you do not find it sour enough, after it has stood two or three days, add more of the acid. If you like the taste of oil of lemon, add a few drops. A small quant.i.ty of the syrup prepared in this way, poured into cold water, makes a refreshing drink in warm weather.

Lemon Syrup for Seasoning.

Pare the lemons very thin, and put the peel to boil in a quart of water; cover it, to keep in the flavor; put two pounds of loaf sugar to the peel of a dozen lemons, and boil it till it becomes a rich syrup; keep it corked up in a bottle, to season ice cream.

Syrup of Lemon Juice.

Dissolve three pounds of loaf-sugar in three quarts of water, squeeze and strain lemons enough to make a quart of juice; boil it slowly with the water and sugar, and take off the sc.u.m as it rises; when it is quite clear, strain and bottle it. It will supply the place of fresh lemons when they cannot be had.

Pine Apple Syrup.

Pare the pine apples, cut them in pieces, and to three pounds of pine apple put a quart of water; cover it and let it boil till very soft, when mash and strain it; to a pint of this juice put a pound of sugar, boil it till it is a rich syrup, and keep it corked up in bottles to season ice cream.

Almond Cream.