COCOA-NUT CHEESE-CAKES. (ENTREMETS.)
(Jamaica Receipt.)
Break carefully the shell of the nut, that the liquid it contains may not escape.[[127]] Take out the kernel, pare thinly off the dark skin, and grate the nut on a delicately clean grater; put it, with its weight of pounded sugar, and its own milk, or a couple of spoonsful or rather more of water, into a silver or block-tin saucepan, or a very small copper stewpan perfectly tinned, and keep it gently stirred over a quite clear fire until it is tender: it will sometimes require an hour’s stewing to make it so. When a little cooled, add to the nut, and beat well with it, some eggs properly whisked and strained, and the grated rind of half a lemon. Line some pattypans with fine paste, put in the mixture, and bake the cheese-cakes from thirteen to fifteen minutes.
[127]. This, as we have elsewhere stated, is best secured by boring the shell before it is broken. The milk of the nut should never be used unless it be very fresh.
Grated cocoa-nut, 6 oz.; sugar, 6 oz.; the milk of the nut, or of water, 2 large tablespoonsful: 1/2 to 1 hour. Eggs, 5; lemon-rind, 1/2 of 1: 13 to 15 minutes.
Obs.—We have found the cheese-cakes made with these proportions very excellent indeed, but should the mixture be considered too sweet, another egg or two can be added, and a little brandy also. With a spoonful or two more of liquid too, the nut would become tender in a shorter time.