PUDDINGS, ETC. (continued 2)

ANOTHER WAY.—Boil a vanilla bean in half a pint of milk till the flavour is well-extracted. Then take out the bean, wipe it dry, and put it away. It may be used a second time for a slight vanilla flavouring. Scrape down a quarter of a pound of excellent chocolate, or of Baker’s prepared cocoa, and mix with it the vanilla-milk. Put it into a chocolate pot or a sauce-pan, and pour on it a pint and a half of rich milk. Set it over the fire, or on a bed of hot coals, and boil it slowly; stirring it till the chocolate is entirely dissolved and thoroughly incorporated with the milk. Beat six eggs very light, and stir them, gradually, into the mixture; continuing to stir, lest it should curdle. When the egg is all in, and it begins to boil up, take it off, and when cool enough transfer it to glasses, or to a bowl.

PISTACHIO CREAM.—Take half a pound of pistachio nuts. Throw them into scalding water, and peel off the skins. Put the nuts (not more than two at a time) into a marble mortar, and pound them to a smooth paste, adding frequently, as you proceed, a few drops of rose-water. Sweeten a quart of cream with half a pound of powdered loaf-sugar, and stir into it, gradually, the pistachio paste. Set the mixture over the fire; and let it just come to a boil. Then take it out; stir in two table-spoonfuls of rose-water or peach-water, and set on ice to cool. Either serve it up liquid in a glass bowl, or put it into a freezer, and freeze it as ice-cream. If you freeze it, you must substitute for the rose-water or peach-water, a table-spoonful of extract of roses, or the same quantity of extract of bitter almonds. The process of freezing diminishes the strength of every sort of flavouring; and of sweetening also.

If you serve it up as frozen, stick it all over with slips of pistachio nut, peeled and sliced.

ALMOND CREAM.—Take a pound of shelled sweet almonds, and two ounces or more of shelled bitter almonds, or peach-kernels. Blanch them in scalding water, throwing them as you proceed into a bowl of cold water. Then pound them (one at a time) in a mortar, till each becomes a smooth paste; pouring in, as you proceed, a little rose-water to make the almonds white and light, and transferring the paste to a plate as you go on. Then when they are all done, mix the almonds with a quart of rich cream, and a quarter of a pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Add half a dozen blades of mace; put the mixture into a porcelain kettle, and boil it, slowly, stirring it frequently down to the bottom. Having given it one boil up, remove it from the fire, take out the mace, and when it has cooled a little, put the cream into glass cups, grating nutmeg over each. Serve it up quite cold. You may ornament each cup of this cream with white of egg, beaten to a stiff froth, and heaped on the top.

COCOA-NUT CREAM may be made as above; substituting for the almonds a pound of cocoa-nut grated finely. When it has boiled, and is taken from the fire, stir into the cream a wine-glass of rose-water.

A similar cream may be made with pounded pistachio nuts.

Pecan nuts, blanched and pounded, (adding occasionally a little cold water to take off the oiliness,) may be boiled as above, with cream, sugar, and spice.

All these creams may be frozen, and served up as ice-cream.

VANILLA CREAM.—Boil a vanilla bean in half a pint of rich milk, till the milk is highly flavoured with the vanilla. Then (having taken out the bean) strain the milk into a pint of thick cream. Beat the yolks of five eggs till very light, and then mix gradually with the beaten egg a quarter of a pound of powdered loaf-sugar, beating it in very hard. Set the cream over hot coals, and add to it by degrees the egg and sugar. Stir it continually till it is on the point of coming to a boil. It must be very thick and smooth. Cover the bottom and sides of a glass bowl or dish, with three quarters of a pound of lady-cake, cut into nice even slices. Pour on the mixture, and then set the bowl on ice or snow till wanted.

For lady-cake, you may substitute finger-biscuit, or slices of almond sponge-cake.

You may ornament the bowl by beating to a stiff froth the whites of two or three of the eggs, and heaping it on the top.

ICED JELLY.—Make calves’ feet jelly in the usual way. Then put it into a freezer, and freeze it as you would ice-cream. Serve it up in a glass bowl or in jelly-glasses. You cannot mould it this way; but the taste of jelly when broken up is much more lively than when moulded; also it sparkles and looks handsomer.

CURRANT ICE.—Pick a sufficiency of ripe currants from their stems. Then squeeze the currants through a linen bag, and to each quart of the juice allow a pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Mix them together, and when the sugar is thoroughly melted, put it into a freezer, and freeze it in the manner of ice-cream. Serve it up in glass bowls. It will be found delicious in warm weather.

PLUM-WATER ICE.—Take some fine ripe plums. Wash them; cut them in half, and stone them. Crack the stones, and take out the kernels. Weigh the plums, and to every pound allow a pound and a half of loaf-sugar, and the white of an egg beaten to a stiff froth. Mix, in a preserving kettle, the white of egg with the sugar, which should be finely powdered; and allow to each pound and a half of sugar, half a pint of water. Having stirred it well, set on the fire, (but not till all the sugar is melted,) add the plum-kernels, and boil and skim it. When the scum ceases to rise, take the syrup off the fire, pour it into a white-ware vessel, and remove the kernels. While you are boiling the sugar, put the plums into another vessel and boil them by themselves to draw out the juice. Then put them into a linen bag, and squeeze all the juice into a deep pan or pitcher placed beneath. Afterwards mix the plum-juice with the syrup; stirring them thoroughly together; and put it into a freezer. Freeze it well, and when done, serve it in a glass bowl, and eat it in saucers.

DAMSON-WATER ICE may be made as above; except that you boil the damsons whole and make no use of the kernels. When the damsons have all burst open, put them into a linen bag; squeeze it well, mix the juice with the syrup which you have previously prepared, and freeze it. The juice of damsons is much thicker and richer than that of plums; but it requires still more sugar.

CHERRY-WATER ICE is made nearly as above; except that the cherries must be stoned, but not boiled. Put them raw into the bag, and squeeze them. The cherries should be of the best and most juicy red sort, and thoroughly ripe.

STRAWBERRY ICE is made of ripe strawberries put into a linen bag, and the juice squeezed out. Then measure it, and to each pint of juice allow half a pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Having mixed thoroughly the juice and the sugar, put it into a freezer and freeze it. In this manner ices (without cream) may be made of currant and raspberry juice, mixed raw with sugar.

GOOSEBERRY-WATER ICE.—Having stewed the gooseberries, squeeze out the juice through a linen bag. To every pint, allow a pound of loaf-sugar. Mix it well, and freeze it.

PEACH ICE-CREAM.—Take fine soft free-stone peaches, perfectly ripe. Pare them, and remove the stones. Crack about half the stones, and extract the kernels, which must be blanched by putting them into a bowl, and pouring on boiling water to loosen the skins. Then break them up, or pound them slightly; put them into a little sauce-pan, and boil the kernels in a small quantity of rich milk, till it is highly flavoured with them; keeping the sauce-pan covered. Strain out the kernels, and set the milk to cool. Cut up the peaches in a large, broad, shallow pan, or a flat dish, and chop them very small. Mix with the chopped peaches sufficient powdered loaf-sugar to make them very sweet, and then mash them to a smooth jam with a silver spoon. Measure the peach jam; and to each quart allow a pint of cream, and a pint of rich unskimmed milk. Mix the whole well together, and put it into the freezer; adding when the mixture is about half-frozen, the milk in which you boiled the kernels, and which will greatly improve the peach-flavour. When well frozen, turn out the cream and serve it in a glass bowl. If you wish to have it in a shape, transfer it to a mould, and give it a second freezing. Before you turn it out, wash the outside of the mould all over with cold water, or wrap a wet cloth round it. Then open it, and the ice-cream will come out easily.

Apricot ice-cream may be made as above.

CHOCOLATE ICE-CREAM.—Scrape down half a pound of the best chocolate or of Baker’s prepared cocoa. Put it into a sauce-pan, and pour on it a pint of boiling milk. Stir, and mix it well, and smoothly. Then set it over the fire, and let it come to a boil. Mix together in a pan, a quarter of a pound of powdered loaf-sugar, and a pint of rich cream. In another pan beat very light the yolks of nine eggs. Afterwards gradually stir the beaten egg into the cream and sugar, and then put the mixture into a sauce-pan; stir in, by degrees, the chocolate; set it over the fire, and simmer it till it is just ready to come to a boil. Strain it through a sieve, transfer it to a freezer, and freeze it in the usual manner of ice-cream.

BISCUIT ICE-CREAM.—Take some pieces of broken loaf-sugar, and rub off on them the yellow rind of four lemons. Then pulverize the sugar and mix it with half a pound of loaf-sugar already powdered. Have ready eight small Naples biscuits or sponge-cakes, grated fine; stir them, in turn with the sugar, into a quart of cream. Give the whole one boil up. Then put it into a freezer, and freeze it in the usual manner. Afterwards transfer it to a pyramid mould, and freeze it a second time.

Similar ice-cream may be made with maccaroons broken small and dissolved in the cream, from whence half a pint must be previously taken and boiled with a handful of broken up bitter almonds. Afterwards strain this, and mix it with the rest.

FLAVOURED CURDS AND WHEY.—To turn two quarts of milk, take a piece of dried rennet about the size of the palm of your hand; wash it well through several cold waters to get the salt entirely off, and then wipe it dry. Put it into a small bowl, and pour on it half a tumbler (a quarter of a pint) of lukewarm water. The water must on no account be hot, as to scald rennet weakens it and diminishes its power of converting milk into curd. Cover the bowl; and let it stand to infuse at least four hours. A longer time will do no harm; therefore, if you intend making the curd early in the day, you may put the rennet in soak over night. For lemon-flavouring—to two quarts of milk allow two lemons, using only the yellow rind or surface of the skin, and grating it as finely as possible. Reserve the juice of the lemons for some other purpose. Mix the grated rind with the rennet-water, first removing the piece of rennet that has been soaking in it. Have ready in a large china or glass bowl two quarts of rich milk, and stir into it the rennet-water and lemon-rind. Cover the bowl, and set it in a moderately warm place till the curd has become a firm, smooth, unbroken mass, and the whey looks clear and greenish. Then set the bowl on ice, and keep it there till wanted for the table. Accompany it with a small pitcher of rich cream, and a little bowl of powdered loaf-sugar and nutmeg. Send it round on saucers. It is a delicious article for summer dessert, or for a summer tea-table.

To flavour curds and whey with vanilla—boil a vanilla bean slowly in half a pint of milk, keeping the saucepan closely covered. When the milk is highly flavoured with the vanilla, strain it; and when cold, mix it with the milk you intend for the curds. Afterwards add the rennet-water. Or you may use instead of the bean, extract of vanilla, allowing four table-spoonfuls to two quarts of milk. Oliver’s extract of vanilla is of excellent quality, and may be obtained in small bottles at most of the drug stores in Philadelphia.

To give curds and whey a peach-flavour—stir into the milk some peach-water, as soon as you have added the rennet-water; allowing two table-spoonfuls of the peach-water to each quart of milk. If you have no peach-water, take a handful of peach-kernels, (saved from the stones,) pound them, and boil them slowly in half a pint of milk till it tastes strongly of them. Then strain the milk, and when cold, mix it with the rest, and add the rennet-water. A handful of fresh peach-leaves boiled long and slowly in a small portion of milk will produce a similar flavour.

For a rose taste, stir into two quarts of milk a tea-spoonful of extract of roses; or more if it is not very strong; or add four table-spoonfuls of rose-water.

Curds and whey that has not been previously flavoured, should be sent to table with a small pitcher containing white wine, loaf-sugar, and powdered nutmeg.

RENNETS.—Milk turned into a curd with wine, is by no means so good as that which is done with rennet-water alone. The curd and whey do not separate so completely: the curd is less firm, and the whey less clear; the latter being thick and white, instead of thin and greenish as it ought to be. Neither is it so light and wholesome as when turned with rennet.

Rennets of the best quality can be had at all seasons in Philadelphia market; particularly in the lower part, called the Jersey market. They are sold at twelve, eighteen, or twenty-five cents, according to their size, and will keep a year or two; but have most strength when fresh. You may prepare excellent rennets yourself at a very trifling expense, by previously bespeaking them of a veal butcher; a rennet being the stomach of a calf. Its form is a bag. As soon as you get the rennet, empty out all its contents, and wipe it very clean, inside and out; then rinse it with cold water; but do not wash it much, as washing will weaken its power of turning milk into curd. When you have made it quite clean, lay the rennet in a broad pan, strew it over on both sides with plenty of fine salt; cover it, and let it rest five days. When you take it out of the pan, do not wipe or wash it, for it must be stretched and dried with the salt on. For this purpose hold it open like a bag, and slip within it a long, thick, smooth rod, bent into the form of a large loop; wide at the top, and so narrow at the bottom as to meet together. Stretch the rennet tightly and smoothly over this bent rod, on which it will be double, and when you have brought the two ends of the rod together at the bottom, and tied them fast, the form will somewhat resemble that of a boy’s kite. Hang it up in a dry place, and cut out a bit as you want it. A piece about two inches square will turn one quart of milk, a piece of four inches two quarts. Having first washed off all the salt in several cold waters, and wiped the bit of rennet dry; pour on it sufficient lukewarm water to cover it well. Let it stand several hours; then pour the rennet-water into the milk you intend for the curd, and set it in a warm place. When the curd is entirely formed, set the vessel on ice.

Rennet may be used with good effect before it has quite dried.

HINTS ON CALVES’ FOOT JELLY.—In making calves’ foot jelly, if you intend it for moulds, put in two or three pieces of isinglass when you are boiling the ingredients. If you wish it a deep rich colour, put into the bottom of the straining-bag a large tea-spoonful of brown sugar, before you pour in the jelly. After all the jelly has run through the bag, (which must on no account be squeezed,) let it, gradually, become perfectly cold before you remove it to a colder place to congeal.