Part 49

_Directions for making._ Make a pit in five pounds of flour; then pour in the treacle, and all the other ingredients, creaming the butter; then mix them altogether into a dough; work it well; then put in three quarters of an ounce of tartaric acid, and put the dough into a buttered pan, and bake for two hours in a cool oven. To know when it is ready, plunge a fork into it, and if it comes out sticky, put the cake in the oven again; if not it is ready. This is a good and simple test, which may be resorted to in baking bread and all kinds of cakes.

2118. Pic-Nic Biscuits.

Take two ounces of fresh butter, and well work it with a pound of flour. Mix thoroughly with it half a saltspoonful of pure carbonate of soda, two ounces of sugar; mingle thoroughly with the flour, make up the paste with spoonfuls of milk; it will require scarcely a quarter of a pint. Knead smooth, roll a quarter of an inch thick, cut in rounds about the size of the top of a small wineglass; roll these out thin, prick them well, lay them on lightly floured tins, and bake in a gentle oven until crisp. When cold put into dry canisters. Thin cream used instead of milk, in the mixture will enrich the biscuits. To obtain variety caraway seeds or ginger can be added at pleasure.

[A DUEL IS FOLLY PLAYING AT MURDER.]

2119. Ginger Biscuits and Cakes.

Work into small crumbs three ounces of butter, two pounds of flour, and three ounces of powdered sugar and two of ginger, in fine powder; knead into a stiff paste, with new milk; roll thin, cut out with a cutter: bake in a slow oven until crisp through; keep of a pale colour. Additional sugar may be used when a sweeter biscuit is desired. For good ginger cakes, butter six ounces, sugar eight, for each pound of flour; wet the ingredients into a paste with eggs: a little lemon-peel grated will give an agreeable flavour.

2120. Sugar Biscuits.

Cut the butter into the flour. Add the sugar and caraway seeds. Pour in the brandy, and then the milk. Lastly, put in the soda. Stir all well with a knife, and mix it thoroughly, till it becomes a lump of dough. Flour your pasteboard, and lay the dough on it. Knead it very well. Divide it into eight or ten pieces, and knead each piece separately. Then put them all together, and knead them very well into one lump. Cut the dough in half, and lay it out into sheets, about half an inch thick. Beat the sheets of dough very hard on both sides with the rolling pin. Cut them out into round cakes with the edge of a tumbler. Butter tins and lay the cakes on them. Bake them of a very pale brown. If done too much they will lose their taste. Let the oven be hotter at the top than at the bottom. These cakes kept in a stone jar, closely covered from the air, will continue perfectly good for several months.

2121. Lemon Sponge.

For a quart mould--dissolve two ounces of isinglass in a pint and three quarters of water; strain it, and add three quarters of a pound of sifted loaf sugar, the juice of six lemons and the rind of one; boil the whole for a few minutes, strain it again, and let it stand till quite cold and just beginning to stiffen; then beat the whites of two eggs, and put them to it, and whisk till it is quite white; put it into a mould, which must be first wetted with cold water. Salad oil is much better than water for preparing the mould for turning out jelly, blancmange, &c., but great care must be taken not to pour the jelly into the mould till _quite cool_, or the oil will float on the top, and after it is turned out it must be carefully wiped over with a clean cloth. This plan only requires to be tried once to be invariably adopted.

2122. Almond Custards.

Blanch and pound fine, with half a gill of rose water, six ounces of sweet and half an ounce of bitter almonds; boil a pint of milk, with a few coriander seeds, a little cinnamon, and some lemon-peel; sweeten it with two ounces and a half of sugar, rub the almonds through a fine sieve, with a pint of cream; strain the milk to the yolks of eight eggs, and the whites of three well beaten; stir it over a fire till it is of a good thickness, take it off the fire, and stir it till nearly cold, to prevent its curdling.

2123. Arrowroot Blancmange.

A teacupful of arrowroot to a pint of milk; boil the milk with twelve sweet and six bitter almonds, blanched and beaten; sweeten with loaf sugar, and strain it; break the arrowroot with a little of the milk as smooth as possible; pour the boiling milk upon it by degrees, stir the while; put it back into the pan and boil a few minutes, still stirring: dip the shape in cold water before you put it in, and turn it out when cold.

2124. Red Currant Jelly.

With three parts of fine ripe red currants mix one of white currants; put them into a clean preserving-pan, and stir them gently over a clear fire until the juice flows from them freely; then turn them in a fine hair sieve, and let them drain well, but without pressure. Pass the juice through a folded muslin, or a jelly bag; weigh it, and then boil it _fast_ for a quarter of an hour; add for each pound, eight ounces of sugar coarsely powdered, stir this to it off the fire until it is dissolved, give the jelly eight minutes more of quick boiling, and pour it out. It will be firm, and of excellent colour and flavour. Be sure to clean off the scum as it rises, both before and after the sugar is put in, or the preserve will not be clear. Juice of red currants, three pounds; juice of white currants, one pound: fifteen minutes. Sugar, two pounds: eight minutes. An excellent jelly may be made with equal parts of the juice of red and of white currants, and of raspberries, with the same proportion of sugar and degree of boiling as mentioned in the foregoing receipt.

[REVENGE IS THE ONLY DEBT WHICH IS WRONG TO PAY.]

2125. White Currant Jelly.

White currant jelly is made in the same way as red currant jelly, only double refined sugar should be used, and it should not be boiled above ten minutes. White currant jelly should be put through a lawn sieve.

2126. Another Receipt for White Currant Jelly.

After the fruit is stripped from the stalks, put it into the pan, and when it boils, run it quickly through a sieve: take a pound of sugar to each pint of juice, and let it boil twenty minutes.

2127. Black Currant Jelly.

To each pound of picked fruit allow one gill of water; set them on the fire in the preserving-pan to scald, but do not let them boil; bruise them well with a silver fork, or wooden beater; take them oft and squeeze them through a hair sieve, and to every pint of juice allow a pound of loaf or raw sugar; boil it ten minutes.

2128. Apricot Jelly.

Divide two dozen ripe apricots into halves, pound half of the kernels in a gill of water, and a teaspoonful of lemon juice; reduce the fruit to a pulp, and mix the kernels with it; put the whole into a stewpan with a pound of sugar, boil thoroughly, skim till clear, and put into small pots.

2129. Ox-heel Jelly.

Ox-heel Jelly is made in the same way as Calves' Feet Jelly (_See par._ 2132).

2130. Arrowroot Jelly.

A tablespoonful of arrow-root, and cold water to form a paste; add a pint of boiling water; stir briskly, boil for a few minutes. A little sherry and sugar may be added. For infants, a drop or two of the essence of caraway seed or cinnamon is preferable.

2131. An Excellent Jelly.

(_For the Sick room._)--Take rice, sago, pearl-barley, hartshorn shavings, each one ounce; simmer with three pints of water to one, and strain it. When cold, it will be a jelly, which give, dissolved in wine, milk, or broth, in change with the other nourishment.

2132. Calves' Feet Jelly.

It is better to buy the feet of the butcher, than at the tripe-shop ready boiled, because the best portion of the jelly has been extracted. Slit them in two, and take every particle of fat from the claws; wash well in warm water, put them in a large stewpan, and cover with water; skim well, and let them boil gently for six or seven hours, until reduced to about two quarts, then strain and skim off any oily substance on the surface. It is best to boil the feet the day before making the jelly, as, when the liquor is cold, the oily part being at the top, and the other being firm, with pieces of blotting paper applied to it, you may remove every particle of the oily substance without wasting the liquor. Put the liquor in a stewpan to melt, with a pound of lump sugar, the peel of two lemons, and the juice of six, six whites and shells of eggs beat together, and a bottle of sherry or Madeira; whisk the whole together until it is on the boil, then put it by the side of the stove, and let it simmer a quarter of an hour; strain it through a jelly-bag: what is strained first must be poured into the bag again, until it is as bright and clear as distilled water; then put the jelly in moulds, to be cold and firm; if the weather is too warm, it requires some ice or some of Nelson's gelatine.

If required to be very stiff, half an ounce of isinglass may be added when the wine is put in. It may be flavoured by the juice of various fruits and spices, &c., and coloured with saffron, cochineal, the juice of beetroot, spinach juice, claret, &c. It is sometimes made with cherry brandy, red noyeau, curaçao, or essence of punch.

2133. Orange Marmalade.

Select the largest Seville oranges, as they usually contain the greatest quantity of juice, and take those that have clear skins, as the skins form the largest part of the marmalade. Weigh the oranges, and weigh also an equal quantity of loaf sugar. Peel the oranges, dividing the peel of each into quarters, and put them into a preserving-pan; cover them well with water, and set them on the fire to boil. In the meantime prepare your oranges; divide them into gores, then scrape with a teaspoon all the pulp from the white skin; or, instead of peeling the oranges, cut a hole in the orange and scoop out the pulp: remove carefully all the pips, of which there are innumerable small ones in the Seville orange, which will escape observation unless they are very minutely examined. Have a large basin near you with some cold water in it, to throw the pips and peels into--a pint is sufficient for a dozen oranges.

Boil these in the water, and having strained off the glutinous matter which comes from them, add it to the other parts. When the peels have boiled till they are sufficiently tender to admit of a fork being stuck into them, scrape away all the pith from the inside of them; lay them in folds, and cut them into thin slices of about an inch long. Clarify the sugar; then throw the peels and pulp into it, stir it well, and let it boil for half an hour. Then remove it from the fire, and when it becomes cool, put it by in pots. Marmalade should be made at the end of March, or at the beginning of April, as Seville oranges are then in their best state.

2134. Apple Marmalade.

Peel and core two pounds of sub-acid apples--Wellingtons are excellent for the purpose--and put them in an enamelled saucepan with one pint of sweet cider, or half a pint of pure wine, and one pound of crushed sugar. Cook them by a gentle heat three hours, or longer, until the fruit is very soft, then squeeze it first through a cullender and then through a sieve. If not sufficiently sweet, add powdered sugar to taste, and put away in jars made air-tight by covering them with a piece of wet bladder.

2135. Plum, Green-gage, or Apricot Jam

After taking away the stones from the fruit, and cutting out any blemishes, put them over a slow fire, in a clean stewpan, with half a pint of water, and when scalded, rub them through a hair sieve. To every pound of pulp put one pound of sifted loaf sugar, put it into a preserving pan over a brisk fire, and when it boils skim it well, and throw in the kernels of the apricots and half an ounce of bitter almonds, blanched. Then boil it fast for a quarter of an hour longer, stirring it all the time. Store away in pots in the usual manner.

2136. Almond Flavour.

(ESSENCE OF PEACH KERNELS--QUINTESSENCE OF NOYEAU.)--Dissolve one ounce of essential oil of bitter almonds in one pint of spirit of wine. Use it as flavouring for cordials and pastry. _In large quantities is exceedingly poisonous_. A few drops only should be used to several pounds of syrups, pastry, &c. This and other flavourings may be bought in small bottles, ready for use, of grocers or oilmen.

2137. Syrup of Orange or Lemon Peel.

Of fresh outer rind of Seville orange or lemon-peel, three ounces, apothecaries' weight; boiling water, a pint and a half; infuse the peel for a night in a close vessel; then strain the liquor; let it stand to settle; and having poured it off clear from the sediment, dissolve in it two pounds of double refined loaf sugar, and make it into a syrup with a gentle heat.

[PRIDE COSTS MORE THAN HUNGER, THIRST, OR COLD.]

2138. Indian Syrup.

(A delicious summer drink.) Five pounds of lump sugar, two ounces of citric acid, a gallon of boiling water: when cold add half a drachm of essence of lemon and half a drachm of spirit of wine; stir it well and bottle it. About two tablespoonfuls to a glass of cold water.

2139. Apples in Syrup for Immediate Use.

Pare and core some hard round apples, throwing them into a basin of water as each is peeled. Clarify as much loaf sugar as will cover them; put the apples in water with the juice and rind of a lemon, and let them simmer till they are quite clear; great care must be taken not to break them. Place them on the dish they are to appear upon at table, and pour the syrup over.

2140. Pounding Almonds.

The almonds should be dried for a few days after being blanched. Set them in a warm place, strewn singly over a dish or tin. A little powdered lump sugar will assist the pounding. They may be first chopped small, and rolled with a rolling pin.--Almond Paste may be made in the same manner.

2141. Blanched Almonds.

Put the almonds into cold water, and heat them slowly to scalding; then take them out and peel them quickly, throwing them into cold water as they are done. Dry them in a cloth before serving.

2142. Freezing without Ice or Acids.

The use of ice in cooling depends upon the fact of its requiring a vast quantity of heat to convert it from a solid into a liquid state, or in other words, to melt it; and the heat so required is obtained from those objects with which it may be in contact. A pound of ice requires nearly as much heat to melt it as would be sufficient to make a pound of cold water boiling hot; hence its cooling power is extremely great. But ice does not begin to melt until the temperature is above the freezing point, and therefore it cannot be employed in freezing liquids, &c., but only in cooling them. If, however, any substance is mixed with ice which is capable of causing it to melt more rapidly, and at a lower temperature, a still more intense cooling effect is the result; such a substance is common salt, and the degree of cold produced by the mixture of one part of salt with two parts of snow or pounded ice is greater than thirty degrees below freezing.

In making ice-creams and dessert ices, the following articles are required:--Pewter ice-pots with tightly-fitting lids, furnished with handles; wooden ice-pails, to hold the rough ice and salt--the pails should be stoutly made, about the same depth as the ice pots, and nine or ten inches more in diameter, with a hole in the side, fitted with a good cork, in order that the water from the melted ice may be drawn off as required. In addition, a broad spatula, about four inches long, rounded at the end, and furnished with a long wooden handle, is necessary to scrape the frozen cream from the sides of the ice-pot, and for mixing the whole smoothly together. When making ices, place the mixture of cream and fruit to be frozen in the ice-pot, cover it with the lid, and put the pot in the ice-pail, which proceed to fill up with coarsely-pounded ice and salt, in the proportion of about one part of salt to three of ice; let the whole remain a few minutes (if covered by a blanket so much the better), then whirl the pot briskly by the handle for a few minutes, take off the lid, and with the spatula scrape the iced cream from the sides, mixing the whole smoothly; put on the lid, and whirl again, repeating all the operations every few minutes until the whole of the cream is well frozen.

Great care and considerable labour are required in stirring, so that the whole cream may be smoothly frozen, and not in hard lumps. When finished, if it is required to be kept any time, the melted ice and salt should be allowed to escape, by removing the cork, and the pail filled up with fresh materials. It is scarcely necessary to add, that if any of the melted ice and salt is allowed to mix with the cream, the latter is spoiled. From the difficulty of obtaining ice in places distant from large towns, and in hot countries, and from the impracticability of keeping it any length of time, or, in fact, of keeping small quantities more than a few hours its use is much limited, and many have been the attempts to obtain an efficient substitute. For this purpose various salts have been employed, which, when dissolved in water, or in acids, absorb a sufficient amount of heat to freeze substances with which they may be placed in contact. We shall not attempt, in this article, to describe all the various freezing mixtures that have been devised, but speak only of those which have been found practically useful.

Many of the freezing mixtures which are to be found described in books are incorrectly so named, for although they themselves are below the freezing point, yet they are not sufficiently powerful to freeze any quantity of water, or other substances, when placed in a vessel within them. In order to be efficient as a freezing mixture, as distinguished from a cooling one, the materials used ought to be capable of producing by themselves an amount of cold more than thirty degrees below the freezing point of water, and this the ordinary mixtures will not do. Much more efficient and really freezing mixtures may be made by using acids to dissolve the salts. The cheapest, and perhaps the best, of these for ordinary use, is one which is frequently employed in France, both for making dessert ices, and cooling wines, &c. It consists of coarsely powdered Glauber salt (sulphate of sodium), on which is poured about two-thirds its weight of spirit of salts (hydrochloric acid).

The mixture should be made in a wooden vessel, as that is preferable to one made of metal, which conducts the external heat to the materials with great rapidity; and when the substance to be cooled is placed in the mixture, the whole should be covered with a blanket, a piece of old woollen carpet doubled or some other non-conducting material, to prevent the access of the external warmth; the vessel used for icing wines should not be too large, that there may be no waste of the freezing mixture. This combination produces a degree of cold thirty degrees below freezing; and if the materials are bought of any of the wholesale druggists or dry salters, it is exceedingly economical. It is open, however, to the very great objection, that the spirit of salt is an exceedingly corrosive liquid, and of a pungent, disagreeable odour: this almost precludes its use for any purpose except that of icing wines.

[FAIR AND SOFTLY GO SURE AND FAR.]

2143. Further Directions.

Actual quanties--one pound of chloride of ammonium, or sal ammoniac, finely powdered, is to be _intimately_ mixed with two pounds of nitrate of potasium or saltpetre, also in powder; this mixture we may call No. 1. No. 2 is formed by crushing three pounds of the best Scotch soda. In use, an equal bulk of both No. 1 and No. 2 is to be taken, stirred together, placed in the ice-pail, surrounding the ice-pot, and rather less cold water poured on than will dissolve the whole; if one quart of No. 1, and the same bulk of No. 2 are taken, it will require about one quart of water to dissolve them, and the temperature will fall, if the materials used are cool, to nearly thirty degrees below freezing. Those who fail, may trace their want of success to one or other of the following points:--the use of too small a quantity of the preparation,--the employment of a few ounces; whereas, in freezing ices, the ice-pot must be entirely surrounded with the freezing material: no one would attempt to freeze with four ounces of ice and salt. Again, too large a quantity of water may be used to dissolve the preparation, when all the excess of water has to be cooled down instead of the substance it is wished to freeze. All the materials used should be pure, and as cool as can be obtained. The ice-pail in which the mixture is made must be of some non-conducting material, as wood--which will prevent the access of warmth from the air; and the ice-pot, in which the liquor to be frozen is placed, should be of pewter, and surrounded nearly to its top by the freezing mixture. Bear in mind that the making of ice-cream, under any circumstances, is an operation requiring considerable dexterity and practice.

2144. To Make Dessert Ices, both Cream and Water.

2145. Strawberry Ice Cream.

Take one pint of strawberries, one pint of cream, nearly half a pound of powdered white sugar, the juice of a lemon; mash the fruit through a sieve, and take out the seeds: mix with the other articles, and freeze. A little new milk added makes the whole freeze more quickly.

2146. Raspberry Ice Cream.