BLANC MANGE
Arrowroot blanc mange
Put half a pint of milk into a double boiler, and when it reaches the scalding point stir into it three heaping teaspoonfuls of arrowroot which have been dissolved in a gill of cold water. Stir until thick and smooth; remove from the fire, flavor with a half-teaspoonful of vanilla, and pour into a bowl to cool. Set in the ice-box until needed. Serve with powdered sugar and cream.
Vanilla blanc mange
Soak a half-package of gelatine in enough water to cover it, and at the end of two hours stir into it a half cupful of sugar. Add this to a pint of scalding milk, and stir until the gelatine is dissolved; remove from the fire, strain and flavor with a teaspoonful of vanilla. Pour into wet molds to form. When firm, serve with sweetened whipped cream.
Chocolate blanc mange (No. 1)
Soak a package of gelatine in a half-pint of cold milk for two hours. Stir a pinch of soda into a quart of rich milk, and bring to the scalding point in double boiler. Beat the yolks of two eggs light with a small cupful of granulated sugar. Stir the soaked gelatine into the hot milk, and when it dissolves pour the hot liquid gradually upon the yolks and sugar; then whip in five tablespoonfuls of grated chocolate wet to a paste with a little cold milk. Put all into a double boiler and cook, stirring all the time, until the boiling point is just reached. Remove at once from the fire, turn into a bowl, whip in the stiffened whites of the eggs, and a teaspoonful of vanilla. Pour into a mold wet with cold water and set in a cool place to form. When ready to serve, wring a cloth out in hot water, wrap it for a moment about the mold, and turn the contents out upon a chilled glass dish. Eat with powdered sugar and rich, sweet cream.
Chocolate blanc mange (No. 2)
Heat a pint of milk and add to it a pinch of soda. Into the milk stir a half-cupful of sugar, and, when this is dissolved, two generous tablespoonfuls of corn-starch wet with cold milk. Cook until smooth and very thick; add two heaping tablespoonfuls of grated chocolate, and cook for a minute before removing from the fire. Stir into the pudding a teaspoonful of vanilla, turn into a mold wet with cold water, and set in a cold place to form.
Snow pudding
Soak a half-package of gelatine for two hours in enough water to cover it. At the end of the two hours add to the gelatine a cupful of granulated sugar and the juice of a lemon, and pour upon these two cupfuls of boiling water. Stir until the gelatine is dissolved, strain and set aside to cool. Beat the whites of three eggs to a stiff meringue, and when the jelly is cold and begins to thicken, whip into it this meringue. Beat from fifteen to twenty minutes, or until the mixture is like a stiff white foam. Wet a mold with cold water, pour the jelly into this, and set in the ice. When you are ready to serve the pudding, turn it out upon a chilled dish, and eat with sugar and cream, or with soft custard.
Banana blanc mange
Soak a tablespoonful of gelatine for an hour in a teacupful of water. Bring a cupful and a half of milk to the boiling point, add a pinch of baking-soda, and stir in a half cupful of sugar and the soaked gelatine. Boil for five minutes, stirring steadily. Line a jelly-mold with sliced bananas and pour the lukewarm blanc mange carefully in upon these. Set in the ice to form. Turn out and eat with whipped cream.
Peach sponge
Soak a half-box of gelatine for two hours. Peel and slice a dozen peaches, add to them a cupful and a half of sugar and a half cupful of water, and stew until the fruit is broken to pieces. Now stir in the soaked gelatine. When this is dissolved rub all through a coarse sieve, add a tablespoonful of lemon juice, and when the mixture is cool and beginning to thicken whip in the stiffened whites of four eggs. Beat steadily for fifteen minutes, and turn into a mold to form. Serve very cold with whipped cream.
Italian cream
Soak half a box of gelatine in a cupful of cold water for an hour. Heat four cupfuls of milk in a double boiler, and when hot stir into them the yolks of four eggs beaten light with half a cupful of sugar. Stir over the fire for two minutes, add the gelatine and keep stirring until dissolved. Take from the fire, flavor with a teaspoonful of vanilla and set aside to cool. Beat the whites of the eggs stiff, and add them to the custard when it is cold, but before it has begun to form. Turn into a mold wet with cold water and set aside to form firm.
Pink pudding
Soak a package of gelatine for an hour in a cupful of cold water. Mash a pint of ripe strawberries and turn upon them a cupful of granulated sugar. Pour a pint of boiling water upon the gelatine, and stir over the fire until dissolved; add the sugar and mashed berries, and strain through coarse muslin. When the jelly is very cold whip the whites of five eggs to a stiff meringue and beat the jelly into them. Turn into a mold and set in ice to form. Serve with whipped cream.
Brown mange
Soak a half-box of gelatine in a cupful of milk for three hours. Stir into it a cupful of granulated sugar, and pour upon it a scant quart of scalding—not boiling—milk. Add a half-cake of grated chocolate wet to a paste with milk. Stir over the fire just long enough to dissolve the gelatine and melt the chocolate, but do not let the milk boil. Pour the hot milk gradually upon the stiffened whites of four eggs. Turn the mixture into a bowl and set this in a pan of ice while you beat the contents long and steadily—until the jelly begins to stiffen. Turn into a glass bowl and set on the ice to form. When cold and firm, send to the table with great spoonfuls of whipped cream upon the top of the brown “mange.”
Rose mange
A pretty blanc mange may be made according to the foregoing recipe by omitting the chocolate and using in its place just enough juice from preserved strawberries to color the mixture a delicate pink. When the whipped cream is added dot the white surface with a few of the preserved berries.
Strawberry sponge
Soak one-half package of gelatine in one-half cupful of cold water for two hours. Mash one quart of fine strawberries and add one-half cupful of sugar and the juice of two lemons. Boil one-half cupful of sugar in a cupful of water gently for twenty minutes. Rub the strawberries through a sieve. Add the gelatine to the boiling syrup and take from the fire at once. Then add the strawberries, pour the mixture into a dish set in cracked ice and beat thoroughly for five minutes. Add the beaten whites of four eggs and beat until the mixture begins to thicken. Pour into molds and set away until firm.
Cider jelly
Soak one package of gelatine in a cupful of cold water for two hours. Add three cupfuls of sugar and the juice of three lemons; also the grated rind of one lemon. Dissolve this in one quart of boiling water. Then add one pint of good sweet cider, strain, pour into molds and let it stand on ice for several hours.
Junket
Milk is indispensable for family desserts, forming as it does the basis of tender custards and velvety creams. One of the most delicious of the metamorphoses to which it is susceptible is when, by the addition of a rennet tablet, it is changed into a tender and smooth junket. The tablet is preferable to liquid rennet, being more easily carried and more easily kept.
Flavor a quart and a pint of fresh milk with two teaspoonfuls of vanilla, and then mix with it two tablespoonfuls of rennet. Stir for a moment and put into a warm room to form. As soon as the milk has “set,” put the dish containing it in the ice-chest until it is time to send it to the table. Eat with sugar and cream. This dessert should not be made more than two hours before it is to be served, as long standing causes the milk to separate and form into curds and whey.
Vanilla junket
Dissolve one rennet tablet in a tablespoonful of cold water. Stir this into a quart of milk that is just lukewarm and has been flavored with a teaspoonful of vanilla extract. Set in a warm room until firm, then put into the ice-chest until needed. This dessert should not be made more than two hours before the meal for which it is intended, as long standing causes it to break and separate. Eat with sugar and cream.
Coffee junket (very nice)
Dissolve a rennet tablet in a tablespoonful of water. Into a pint and a half of milk stir a gill of very strong black coffee, liberally sweetened. Add the dissolved rennet and turn into a glass bowl. Leave in a cool room until formed, then set on the ice immediately. Eat with sweetened whipped cream.
Charlotte Russe (No. 1)
Cut a stale sponge cake into slices and line a glass bowl with them. Into a pint of chilled cream stir half a cupful of powdered sugar and whip until stiff. At the last, beat in two teaspoonfuls of extract of vanilla. Fill the bowl with the whipped cream and set in the ice-chest until wanted.
Charlotte Russe (No. 2)
Soak a quarter of a box of gelatine in a half cupful of milk for two hours. Stir a half-cupful of sugar into a pint of cream and whip the cream until stiff; then flavor with a teaspoonful of vanilla. Into the soaked gelatine beat the stiffened whites of three eggs and the sweetened and flavored whipped cream. Beat hard for a minute. Line a glass bowl with thin slices of sponge cake, and heap the white mixture in the middle.
Banana Charlotte
In a double boiler heat a cupful of cream, to which you have added a pinch of soda. Sweeten slightly, and thicken with a heaping teaspoonful of corn-starch dissolved in a gill of cold milk. Keep warm over hot water—stirring occasionally to prevent lumping—while you nearly fill a bowl with alternate layers of sliced bananas and very thin slices of sponge cake—the latter moistened slightly with milk. When the bowl is three-quarters full pour over the contents the thickened cream and set aside to get very cold. Fill the bowl with sweetened whipped cream, heap it high and serve.
Pound cake trifle
Cut a pound cake and spread each slice thickly with raspberry jam. Lay on a flat dish, and heap on each slice a great spoonful of meringue made by whipping the whites of four eggs stiff, then adding sugar and currant jelly to taste, and beating into a pink mass. Serve with cream.
Peach trifle
Boil together for five minutes one cupful of sugar and one cupful of water. Put into this one quart of pared peaches. Stir slowly until tender. When almost cold press them through a sieve. Line a deep glass dish with stale sponge cake dipped in sherry. Spread over this the cold peach pulp. Flavor one and a half cupfuls of thick sweet cream with two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar and one teaspoonful, each, of vanilla and lemon and whip until thick and solid. Pour this into the peaches and let it stand until very cold.
Raspberry trifle
Line the bottom of a deep glass dish with thin slices of sponge cake. Squeeze over it a little raspberry juice and cover with a thick layer of whole sweetened red raspberries. Over this another layer of the cake and another of the raspberries until the dish is filled three-quarters full. Pour over all this a plain boiled custard and serve very cold.
Rhubarb trifle
Cook soft two cupfuls of rhubarb, scraped and cut into inch lengths, using barely enough water to keep it from scorching. Soak a half-ounce of gelatine, and when ready for use strain into it the rhubarb rubbed through a sieve; add six or eight ounces of sugar and a cupful of cream; stir over the fire until well heated through, but do not let it boil, and pour into a wet mold. Set on ice. Serve with whipped cream.
Strawberry Charlotte
Mash a quart of ripe “capped” berries, and sweeten abundantly. Beat the whites of four eggs stiff, then whip in the berries strained through a sieve. Beat until smooth and stiff. Line a chilled dish with sponge cake, and fill with the pink “whip.” Dot the top thickly with ripe berries.
Rice blanc mange
Soak a quarter-box of gelatine in a quarter-cupful of water one hour; rub a quarter of a pound of rice flour in a little cold milk; add this to one quart of scalding milk; stir constantly for five minutes; add a cupful and a half of sugar and the soaked gelatin; stir for one minute, then add the grated rind of one lemon; strain this into a bowl. When a little cool mix in half a teaspoonful of bitter almond; turn into a mold that has been wet in cold water; stand in a cold place until ready to serve.
Tipsy pudding
Line a glass dish with thin slices of sponge cake. Moisten the slices with sherry or some other good wine. Put over this a layer of preserved fruit, another layer of cake and another of fruit, and so on until the dish is filled. Pour over the whole a quart of rich boiled custard.
Strawberry sillibub
Line a glass bowl with thin slices of sponge cake. Pour over the cake enough strawberry juice to dissolve the cake. Rub off on blocks of loaf sugar the yellow rind of two oranges, and dissolve the sugar in a pint of rich cream. Squeeze the juice of the oranges on some powdered loaf sugar, and add it gradually to the cream. Whip the mixture to a stiff froth, then heap it on the dissolved cake. Ornament the top with large strawberries, halved.
Orange jelly (No. 1)
For a quart of jelly allow three oranges with deep yellow skins and two lemons. Squeeze out and strain the juice. Soak half a package of gelatine in the juice, but before pressing the fruit grate carefully all the outside, so that no white mixes with the yellow rind. Cover the grated peel with a quart of cold water, softened by a pinch of baking-soda; bring gradually to the boil and simmer for five minutes. Add a teacupful of sugar to the soaked gelatine, then strain into it through a flannel bag, or fine sieve, the hot orange water, stirring all the while.
Wet a mold with cold water, put in the jelly and set on ice to form.
Orange jelly (No. 2)
Soak a half-box of gelatine in enough cold water to cover it. At the end of two hours stir into it a cupful of granulated sugar, put it into a saucepan and pour upon it three cupfuls of boiling water. Stir over the fire until the gelatine and sugar are dissolved, when add a cupful of strained orange juice and a dash of cinnamon. Do not allow the jelly to boil after the orange juice has been added, but remove at once; strain through flannel and turn into a mold wet with cold water. Set in a cold place to form.
Or a prettier fashion is to pour the liquid jelly into halved orange peels from which the pulp has been carefully removed, and which have lain in cold water for half an hour. When firm, the jelly should be eaten from these improvised bowls.
Coffee jelly
Soak one-half box of gelatine in one-half cupful of cold water. Put a cupful of sugar and one of water over the fire, and stir to a quick boil. Pour it over the gelatine and stir until it is dissolved. Add two cupfuls of strong, clear, black coffee, and strain. Turn into a wetted mold. Serve with whipped cream.
Tapioca jelly
Soak a half cupful of tapioca over night in a cupful of cold water. Put into a double boiler a pint of boiling water and dissolve in this a tablespoonful of granulated sugar. Now turn in the soaked tapioca and cook until clear. Remove from the fire and add two teaspoonfuls of lemon juice. Have ready jelly glasses wet with cold water, and turn the liquid jelly into these. Set in a cold place to form. Serve very cold with sweetened cream.
Raspberry jelly
Stir into a quart of red raspberries a cupful of granulated sugar. At the end of an hour run the berries through a vegetable press, and strain the juice thus produced through a flannel bag. Have ready a half-box of gelatine soaked in a cupful of cold water for two hours, and pour over this a pint of boiling water. Strain and stir in the sweetened raspberry juice, then set aside to get cold. Wet a jelly mold, line with firm, ripe raspberries, and pour the cool half-firm jelly carefully into it. Set in a cold place to form. Eat with cream.
Rice jelly
Wash a cupful of rice and soak it for two hours in a cupful of water. Have ready on the range a quart of boiling water and turn the rice and the water in which it was soaked into this. Boil for three-quarters of an hour, then strain through a muslin bag. When cold and thick, serve with powdered sugar and cream. It is very nice and nourishing.
Banana soufflé (cold)
Put into a double boiler a pint of milk (half cream if you can get it), and add a pinch of baking-soda. Beat the yolks of three eggs light with five heaping tablespoonfuls of granulated sugar. Add to the beaten eggs and sugar a teaspoonful of corn-starch dissolved in a little cold milk. When the milk reaches the scalding point add the egg mixture and stir to a smooth custard, or one that will coat the spoon. Slice four bananas thin into the bottom of a deep pudding-dish, add to the hot custard a teaspoonful of vanilla and pour it over the bananas. Have the whites of the eggs whipped to a stiff meringue, with two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar; heap it on top of the custard and bake in a quick oven to a delicate brown. Serve very cold with whipped cream.
Cream puffs
Melt a half-pound of butter in a pint of scalding water, and when this boils stir in three-quarters of a pound of flour. Stir steadily for a minute, or until the flour does not stick to the sides of the saucepan. Remove from the fire. When the mixture is cool whip in, one at a time, eight eggs beaten very light. Set on the ice for an hour. Line pans with buttered paper and drop the mixture by even spoonfuls at regular intervals—far apart—upon this paper. Bake in a hot oven until the puffs are golden brown. When cold, cut a slit in the side of each and fill with a cream made by the following recipe:
Cream puff filling
Thicken a cupful of hot milk with three tablespoonfuls of flour wet to a paste with cold water. When it has boiled for a minute, and is free from lumps, remove from the fire and pour upon three eggs, well beaten with a half cupful of powdered sugar. Stir over the fire to a thick, smooth cream; remove, flavor with vanilla, and when cold fill the puffs.
Macaroons
Beat the whites of three eggs stiff with three-quarters of a pound of powdered sugar. Stir in half a pound of finely-crumbled almond paste; beat until smooth, and drop by the spoonful upon greased paper. Bake for ten minutes in a steady oven.
Tutti-frutti jelly of canned fruit
Make a good jelly, using the liquor from the canned fruit as seasoning. Strain while hot, and pour a little into a wet mold or bowl. When the jelly begins to form put a layer of chopped fruit upon the jelly, cover with more jelly (which you should have kept slightly warm). When this is firm, more fruit, and so on until materials are used up. When firm and cold, you can slice at pleasure.
Prune and nut jelly
Soak a cupful of prunes all night; drain and stew them until tender in three cupfuls of water. Before taking them from the fire add a cupful of sugar. Drain the prunes, keeping the syrup, chop them and stir into them two dozen blanched and chopped almonds. Soak two-thirds of a box of gelatine in a cupful of cold water for two hours, add a cupful of boiling water and the prune liquor. Stir over the fire until the gelatine is dissolved; then remove, add the juice of a lemon and two tablespoonfuls of sherry. Turn into a glass dish, and when partly congealed stir in the prunes and nuts. Every few minutes stir the jelly until it becomes firm enough to prevent the fruit from sinking to the bottom. Eat very cold with sweetened, whipped cream.
Wine jelly
Soak one-half box of gelatine in one-half cupful of cold water for an hour; put into a saucepan two cupfuls of boiling water, one cupful of sugar and some thin slices of lemon peel. When the sugar has dissolved add the gelatin and stir until that has dissolved; remove from the fire, and when partly cool add the juice of one lemon and three-quarters of a cupful of sherry wine. Pour into molds and set to cool.
Creamed figs
Wash the figs and put them in a saucepan with just enough water to cover them and with half a cup of granulated sugar. Simmer until the figs are tender when pierced with a fork. Take from the fire and spread on a plate to cool. Add a cup of sugar to the liquid and boil to a rather thick syrup. Take from the fire and pour over the figs. When very cold put into a glass dish and just before sending to the table, heap whipped cream on top. Eat with light cake.
Fig jelly
Prepare the figs by stewing. Chop very fine. Have ready half a box of soaked gelatin, put this over the fire in a cup of boiling water, add the sweetened fig syrup, stir until the gelatin is thoroughly dissolved, take from the fire, add a wineglassful of sherry and stir in the minced figs. Turn into a mold wet with cold water to form.