Chapter VI
.
_Gelatin._——This material has been mentioned in the chapter on meat. It is prepared for use in desserts in a number of forms, the granular being the most convenient. Gelatin has the property, first, of absorbing water, then of dissolving at the boiling temperature of water and becoming stiff again when cool. After dissolving, as it is cooling and just as it begins to thicken slightly, it can be beaten like white of egg. If beating is attempted while the liquid is warm, or again if it becomes too stiff, the result is not successful. This property makes it useful in the sponges and other fancy desserts where the light spongy texture is desirable.
[Illustration: FIG. 69.——A gelatin mold. _Courtesy of Dept. of Foods and Cookery, Teachers College._]
=Making desserts attractive.=——This is done by serving hot desserts in a dish around which a napkin may be folded; and cold desserts, especially those made with gelatin, may be molded in some attractive form and garnished. Figure 69 shows a very simple gelatin dessert garnished with candied cherries and a little angelica, the stem of a plant which has been sugared, and the whole surrounded with whipped cream. Whipping the cream and putting it around the base takes only a few minutes. As in salad, the garnish should be eatable and easily prepared.
=1. Boiled custard.=
_Ingredients._
Milk 1 pt. Sugar 2 tablespoonfuls Eggs 3 Vanilla 1/2 teaspoonful Salt 1/8 teaspoonful
_Method._
Put the milk, sugar, and salt in a double boiler to scald. Separate the eggs and set the whites in a cold place until wanted. Beat the yolks until lemon-colored. Pour a little of the scalded milk on the yolks of the eggs, stirring until well mixed. Set the double boiler back on the stove and pour the egg and milk mixture slowly into the rest of the scalded milk, stirring constantly until thickened enough to coat the spoon. Remove from the fire, add the flavoring, and turn into a dish to cool. Just before serving beat the whites to a very stiff froth and pile by spoonfuls on the custard. The whites may be sweetened with powdered sugar after beating if desired. Corn starch may be used, and fewer eggs.
=2. Baked custard.=
_Ingredients._
Milk 1 pt. Sugar 2 tablespoonfuls Salt 1/8 teaspoonful Eggs 2 Lemon _or_ Vanilla 1/2 teaspoonful
_Method._
Scald the milk, sugar, and salt together. Beat the eggs in a baking dish and pour the scalded milk over them. Add the flavoring and stir well. Set the baking dish in a pan of boiling water and bake in a moderate oven until a knife thrust into the custard will come out clean. Serve cold either plain, or with chocolate sauce. Nutmeg may be grated on top of the custard before baking, or caramel flavoring may be added in place of the vanilla.
=3. Chocolate sauce.=
_Ingredients._
Chocolate 1 square Sugar 1/4 cup Boiling water 1/2 cup Cream 1/2 cup
_Method._
Mix the chocolate, boiling water, and sugar together and stir over the fire until smooth and thick. Add the cream and serve hot.
=4. Caramel flavoring.=
_Ingredients._
Sugar 2 cups Boiling water 1 cup
_Method._
Pour the sugar into a saucepan and stir over the fire until it becomes a thick brown sirup. Pour the boiling water on this and leave on the fire, stirring occasionally until the sugar is all dissolved. This may be bottled and kept for some time.
=5. Shortcake.=
_Ingredients._
Flour 1 cup Baking powder 1 teaspoonful Salt 1/4 teaspoonful Butter 4 tablespoonfuls _or_ One half butter and one half lard. Milk 1/2 cup
_Method._
Mix dry ingredients and cut butter into this mixture with two knives. Stir in the milk and spread the mixture out on a buttered layer cake tin. Bake in a hot oven until brown. Wash and hull a box of strawberries, sprinkle with 1/2 cup of sugar, and crush with a spoon. When the shortcake is done remove from the pan, cut around the edge with a sharp knife and right through the center of the cake, making two layers of it. Spread the lower layer with butter and then with the crushed strawberry. Replace the top layer and serve hot. Fresh peaches, preserves, or a mixture of orange and banana may be used for this shortcake.
Another kind of strawberry cake is made of sponge cake, and served cold with whipped cream.
=6. Steamed pudding.=
_Ingredients._
Suet chopped 1 cup Raisins, currants, and citron sliced 1 cup Egg 1 Sweet milk 1 cup Molasses 1/2 cup Soda 1 teaspoonful Salt 1/4 teaspoonful Flour 3-1/2 cups
_Method._
Skin, wash, and chop the suet, and dredge with flour. Wash, pick over and seed the dried fruit, slice the citron if it is used, and dredge all with flour. Stir together the milk and molasses, sift the dry ingredients with the flour, and stir the liquid into the flour slowly. Add the suet, beating the mass thoroughly, and last the fruit, sprinkling in both the suet and the fruit as you stir. Fill a greased mold 2/3 full, close tightly, and cook in a kettle of boiling water for three hours. Serve with a hard or foamy sauce.
_Laboratory management._——This can be made in class if each pupil will bring an empty baking powder or cocoa tin to school. A strip of greased cloth should be fastened around the edge of the cover. The recipe can be made in 1/4 cup proportions, and this amount can be cooked if the class period is two hours in length, but it is better to have the cooking finished at home. This is a seasonable exercise at Thanksgiving or Christmas.
=7. Brown Betty or apple scallop.=
_Ingredients._
Buttered crumbs Tart cooking apples Sugar Cinnamon A little water
TEACHER’S NOTE.——Individual shortcakes may be made by using a stiffer dough and rolling and cutting them like biscuits.
_Method._
Put a layer of buttered crumbs in a baking dish. Pare and slice tart cooking apples and put a layer into the dish. Sprinkle with sugar, cinnamon, and a little water. Add a layer of bread crumbs and repeat with apples, flavoring and cover the top with crumbs. Bake in a moderate oven until apples are cooked and crumbs brown. Any fruit such as peaches or blueberries may be used instead of apples. Serve hot with hard or foamy sauce or cold with cream and sugar, or the bread may be used in slices, buttered.
=8. Hard sauce.=
_Ingredients._
Butter 1/3 cup Powdered sugar 1 cup Lemon extract 1/3 teaspoonful _or_ Vanilla 2/3 teaspoonful Nutmeg
_Method._
Cream the butter; add sugar gradually, and flavoring. Grate nutmeg over the top. Chill before serving.
=9. Foamy sauce.=
_Ingredients._
Butter 1/2 cup Powdered sugar 1 cup Egg 1 Vanilla 1 teaspoonful
_Method._
Cream the butter, add gradually the sugar, the egg well beaten, and vanilla. Beat while heating over hot water.
=10. Tapioca cream.=
_Ingredients._
Pearl tapioca 1/2 cup _or_ Minute tapioca 1-1/2 tablespoonfuls Scalded milk 2 cups Eggs 2, _or_ 1 Sugar 1/3 cup Salt 1/4 teaspoonful Vanilla 1/2 teaspoonful
_Method._
Minute tapioca needs no soaking. If pearl tapioca is used, it must be soaked one hour in cold water to cover. Pick over and wash the tapioca, drain off the water and add tapioca to the milk and salt scalded in the double boiler, and cook until the tapioca is transparent, or about 1/2 hour. Beat eggs and add the sugar to them. Combine mixtures by pouring a little of the hot mixture in the egg and then stirring this into the mixture remaining in the double boiler. Stir over fire until it becomes thick. Add the flavoring and pour into a dish to cool.
=11. Apple tapioca.=
_Ingredients._
Minute tapioca 3/4 cup Lemon peel Boiling water 2-1/2 cups Salt 1/2 teaspoonful Tart apples 6 Sugar 1/2 cup
_Method._
Cook the tapioca in salt water until it becomes transparent. Core and pare the apples and place in the bottom of the baking dish. Fill the cavities with sugar and add a little lemon peel. Pour the tapioca over the apples and bake in a moderate oven until the apples are soft. Serve cold with sugar and cream.
=12. Lemon jelly.=
_Ingredients._
Shredded gelatin 1/2 box _or_ Granulated gelatin 2 tablespoonfuls Lemon juice 1/2 cup Cold water 1/2 cup Boiling water 2-1/2 cups Sugar 1 cup
_Method._
Soak the gelatin in cold water for 20 minutes. Add the boiling water and sugar and stir until it dissolves. Add the lemon juice and strain into a mold and set away to harden. When it is stiff loosen from the sides of the mold (a cloth wrung out of hot water may be needed). Turn on to a plate and serve with whipped cream or soft custard.
=13. Snow pudding.=
_Ingredients._
Granulated gelatin 1 tablespoonful Cold water 1/2 cup Boiling water 1 cup Sugar 1 cup Lemon juice 1/4 cup Eggs Whites of 3
_Method._
Mix as for lemon jelly. Set aside in a cool place, and as soon as it becomes sirupy stir occasionally until quite thick. Then beat with wire spoon or whisk until frothy. Fold in the beaten whites, and continue to beat lightly until quite stiff. Pile by spoonfuls on a plate and serve with boiled custard, or mold as in Fig. 69.
=Frozen mixtures.=——There are some interesting principles to note here. The freezing is accomplished by using a mixture of chopped ice and rock salt. Can you explain how this reduces the temperature?
Another interesting point is this: Have you ever seen a milk bottle on a cold winter morning with the paper cover or even the metal cap pushed up, the frozen milk standing high above the top of the bottle? What does this suggest to you in connection with the filling of the ice cream freezer?
It must be noted, too, that a larger amount of flavoring material is needed in a frozen dessert than in one that is not. The frozen custard, for instance, needs more vanilla than one prepared in the ordinary manner. Can you account for this?
=Method of freezing.=
There are many patterns of ice cream freezers that are well constructed and inexpensive. They are sold by the size, a 2 quart freezer giving you 2 quarts of the frozen cream. See that the crank is oiled and the whole apparatus clean. Have ready pounded ice and rock salt, usually in the proportion of 1 part salt to 3 of ice. Machines come for cutting the ice, but it is easy to pound it in a strong bag. Set the freezer can in place, put around it the ice and salt alternately, shaking down and packing firmly. Have the ice cream mixture cool, pour it in, having the can not more than 2/3 full. Put on the lid, cover with ice and salt, and begin to turn the crank. Open and stir down once or twice, being careful to keep out the salt. Take out the crank before the cream is too stiff. Pack the cream firmly down in the can. See that the melted water is removed from the pail, put in more ice and salt, and leave until the ice cream is firm.
_To mold ice cream or mousse._ Directions for packing in a mold are given under _strawberry mousse_.
=14. American ice cream.=
(_a_) _Ingredients._
Cream 1 quart Sugar 3/4 cup Vanilla 1 tablespoonful
_Method._
Mix ingredients and freeze.
(_b_) _Ingredients._
Milk 1 pint Flour 1 tablespoonful Egg 1 Sugar 1 cup Salt 1/4 teaspoonful Cream 1 quart Vanilla 1 tablespoonful
_Method._ As in French ice cream.
=15. French ice cream.=
_Ingredients._
Cream 1 quart Milk 1 quart Eggs 4 or 6 to 8 yolks Sugar 1-1/2 cups Vanilla 2 tablespoonfuls
_Method._
Make a custard of milk, eggs, sugar, and vanilla. Add cream, chill and freeze.
16. =Milk sherbet.=
_Ingredients._
Milk 4 cups Sugar 1-1/2 cups Lemons Juice of 3
_Method._
Mix juice and sugar, stirring constantly while slowly adding milk. If the mixture should curdle, this will disappear when frozen.
17. =Raspberry ice.=
_Ingredients._
Water 4 cups Sugar 1-2/3 cups Raspberry juice 2 cups Lemon juice 2 tablespoonfuls
_Method._
Make a sirup by boiling water and sugar twenty minutes, add raspberry juice, strain and freeze. Any fruit juice may be used for this sherbet.
18. =Strawberry mousse.=
_Ingredients._
Cream 1 quart Strawberries 1 box Sugar 1 cup Granulated gelatin 1-1/4 tablespoonfuls Cold water 2 tablespoonfuls Hot water 3 tablespoonfuls
_Method._
Wash and hull berries, sprinkle with sugar, and let stand one hour; mash and rub through a fine sieve, add the gelatin soaked in cold water and dissolved in hot water. Set in a pan of ice water and stir until it begins to thicken; then fold in the whipped cream, put into a mold, cover, pack in two parts ice to one of salt, and let stand four hours. Use a mold with a tight cover and seal the crack with a strip of cloth dipped in melted butter and bound around the mold while still wet.
EXERCISES
1. Explain the value of salads and desserts in the dietary.
2. What are the important points in a good salad?
3. Give a number of agreeable combinations of material in a salad.
4. What are the substitutes for olive oil?
5. Why should mayonnaise dressing be kept cold in the mixing?
6. Make a classification of the different types of dessert.
7. What is gelatin, and why is it useful in desserts?
8. What are the underlying principles of custard making?
9. Why is it important that the can in a freezer should not be filled to the top?
10. Why does chopped ice and salt freeze the mixture?
11. Estimate the cost of the following dishes for five people: Potato salad with boiled dressing; a baked custard; a Brown Betty; French ice cream; raspberry or lemon ice.
12. Explain what is meant by garnishing.
##