Gomme des Dattes.—One pound of dates, two pounds of very white picked gum arabic, sugar two ounces. Make as jujubes.
Gomme des Jujubes—Jujube-Gum.—Jujubes one pound, very white and picked gum-arabic two pounds; powdered sugar two ounces. Pound the jujubes in a marble mortar with five pints of water; put the whole into a pan, and boil until reduced to three; strain the decoction through a cloth; beat up the white of an egg with a glass of water, and mix part of it with the decoction as it boils; throw in a little at a time of the remaining part, to check the ebullition. When it is all used, take off the scum; put it again on the fire to evaporate the water, adding at the same time the gum and sugar, powdered and passed through a horse-hair sieve. Stir it with the spatula until dissolved. When it is of the consistence of honey, place it in the bain-marie, and neither stir nor touch it, that it may be clear. When it has acquired body enough, so as not to stick to the back of the hand when applied to it, pour it into molds previously oiled with good olive oil, as for jujubes; place in the stove to finish drying; when dry, take it out and cut in small pieces.
Pate de jujube and white liquorice may be done in the same manner, using only half the quantity of sugar.
Lemon Paste.—Make as orange paste, using part of the juice and double the weight of sugar; or it may be made by using only the pounded peel with the same weight of sugar.
Orange Paste.—Squeeze the juice from Seville or sweet oranges, and boil the peels in three or four waters to take off part of their bitterness. In the first put a little salt. When they are quite tender remove the white pith or pulp, and pound them quite fine in a mortar, with part of the juice, using sufficient to make them into a paste, then pass it and the remaining portion of the juice through a sieve into a preserving-pan; put it on the fire, and reduce it to a marmalade, weigh it, and for each pound take three-quarters of a pound of loaf sugar; clarify and boil to the blow; mix it with the paste, evaporate over a gentle fire to a good consistence, and finish as apple. The rinds of the oranges may be pared off before they are squeezed, which, if boiled in one water, will be sufficient, as the pith of the peel is extremely bitter and indigestible, and the flavor or essential oil is contained only in the yellow porous part.
Pastes Formed with Gum—Pate de Guimauve—Marsh Mallow Paste.—Gum arabic three pounds, roots of fresh marsh-mallows eight ounces, one dozen of rennet apples, loaf sugar three pounds. Peel, core, and cut the apples in pieces. Cleanse the roots, and slice them lengthways in an oblique direction; add this to seven pints of water; soft or river water is the best when filtered; put it on the fire and boil for a quarter of an hour, or until reduced to six pints; pound and sift the gum through a hair sieve; strain the decoction into a pan with the gum; put it on a moderate fire, or into a bain-marie, stirring it until the gum is perfectly dissolved; then strain it through a coarse towel or tamis cloth, the ends being twisted by two persons; add it to the sugar, which has been previously clarified and boiled to the feather; dry it well over the fire, keeping it constantly stirred from the bottom. When it has acquired a thick consistence, take the whites of eighteen eggs, and whip them to a strong froth; add them to the paste, and dry until it does not stick to the hand when it is applied to it; add a little essence of neroli, or a large glassful of double orange-flower water, and evaporate again to the same consistence. Pour it on a marble slab well dusted with starch powder, flatten it with the hand; the next day cut it into strips, powder each strip, and put them in boxes. Powder the bottom, that they may not stick.
Pate de Blanche Reglisse—White Licorice Paste.—This is made the same as marsh-mallow paste, using licorice-root instead of mallow. It may be made without the eggs, and finished as jujubes.
Pate de Gomme Arabique—Arabic Paste.—Very white gum arabic two pounds, sugar two pounds, orange-flower water four ounces, the whites of twelve eggs. Pound and sift the gum, add it to the water, dissolve and evaporate it over a slow fire, stirring it constantly until it is reduced to the consistence of honey with the sugar in syrup. Whip the whites to a strong snow; add it to the paste with the orange-flower water, gradually; stir and finish as marsh-mallow paste, for which this is mostly substituted, and much used for coughs. It should be very white, light, and spongy.