The molds for chocolate may either be made of tin or copper, and of different devices, such as men, animals, fish, culinary or other utensils, etc.; also some square ones for half-pound cakes, having divisions on the bottom which are relieved. These cause the hollow impressions on the cakes.
The Bayonne or Spanish chocolate is in general the most esteemed. The reason of its superior quality is attributed by some to the hardness of the Pyrenean stone which they employ in making it, which does not absorb the oil from the nuts. They do not use any pestle and mortar, but levigate their nuts on the stone, which is fixed on a slope; and in the second pounding or rolling the paste is pressed closely on the stone, so as to extract the oil, which runs into a pan containing the quantity of sugar intended to be used, and is placed underneath to receive it; the oil of the cacao and sugar are then well mixed together with a spatula, again mixed with the paste on the stone, and finished.
Cinnamon, Mace or Clove Chocolate.—These are made in the same manner as Vanilla chocolate, using about an ounce and a half or two ounces of either sort of spice, in powder, to that quantity, or add a sufficiency of either of these essential oils to flavor.
Chocolate Drops, with Nonpareils.—Have some warm chocolate, as for pistachios; some add a little butter or oil to it to make it work more free; make it into balls about the size of a small marble, by rolling a little in the hand, or else put some of the paste on a flat piece of wood, on which you form, and take them off with a knife. Place them on sheets of white paper about an inch apart. When the sheet is covered, take it by the corners and lift it up and down, letting it touch the table each time, which will flatten them. Cover the surface entirely with white nonpareils, and shake off the surplus ones. When the drops are cold they can be taken off the paper easily. The bottom of the drops should be about as broad as a sixpence. Some of them may be left quite plain.
Good chocolate should be of a clear red-brown. As the color is paler or darker, so is the article the more or less good. The surface should be smooth and shining. If this gloss comes off by touching, it indicates an inferior quality, and is probably adulterated. When broken, it ought to be compact and close, and not appear crumbly. It should melt gently in the mouth when eaten, leaving no roughness or astringency, but rather a cooling sensation on the tongue. The latter is a certain sign of its being genuine.
Chocolate Harlequin Pistachios.—Warm some sweet chocolate by pounding it in a hot mortar; when it is reduced to a malleable paste, take a little of it and wrap round a blanched pistachio nut, roll it in the hand to form it as neat as you can, throw it in some nonpareils of various colors; let it be covered all over. Dispose of the whole in the same manner; fold them in colored or fancy papers, with mottoes; the ends should be cut like fringe. Almonds may be done the same way, using vanilla chocolate, if preferred.
Stomachic Chocolate.—Four ounces of chocolate prepared without sugar; vanilla, one ounce; cinnamon in powder, one ounce; ambergris, forty-eight grains; sugar, three ounces; warm your paste by pounding in the heated mortar, or on the stone; add your aromatics in powder to the sugar, and mix it well with the paste; keep it close in tin-boxes. About a dozen grains of this is to be put into the chocolate pot when it is made, which gives it an agreeable and delightful flavor, and renders it highly stomachic. It may also be used for flavoring the chocolate tablets.
Vanilla Chocolate.—Ten pounds of prepared nuts, ten pounds of sugar, vanilla two ounces and a half, cinnamon one ounce, one drachm of mace, and two drachms of cloves, or the vanilla may be used solely.
Prepare your nuts according to the directions already given. Cut the vanilla in small bits; pound it fine with part of the sugar, and mix it with the paste; boil about one half of the sugar to the blow before you mix it to the chocolate, otherwise it will eat hard. Proceed as before, and either put in small molds or divide it in tablets, which you wrap in tinfoil. This is in general termed eatable chocolate.