Sultanas and currants should always be at hand, ready and cleaned. To clean them, first dredge them and then rub them in a towel, closed to form a sort of purse. Now, turn them into a sieve or colander, which shake vigorously, that the flour and the detached stems may be eliminated; then examine them, one by one, to make sure that no stems remain.
Currants should be examined with very particular care, as small stones often get in among them.
Put the currants and the sultanas aside, each in a box or a drawer.
[2354—ESSENCES AND FLAVOURINGS]
The various essences used in pastry are bought ready-made. The flavourings consist of those products treated by infusion, such as vanilla; of grated or infused products, such as lemon and orange rinds; and liqueurs in general.
Fruit juices only become flavours when a liqueur in keeping with the fruit from which they were extracted has been added to them.
[2355—GILDING PREPARATION]
This consists of beaten eggs. Its purpose is to ensure the colouration of certain cakes, whereon it is smeared by means of a brush. In some cases this [gilding] may be combined with a little water, as, for instance, when the heat of the oven is too [695] ]fierce, and cakes are required of a light colour. In some cases, especially in that of small, dry cakes, it consists entirely of egg-yolks diluted with a few drops of water.