CHAPTER XVIII.
DESSERTS AND EVENING PARTIES.

Ice-Cream.—One quart of milk. One and a half table-spoonfuls of arrow-root. The grated peel of two lemons. One quart of thick cream.

Wet the arrow-root with a little cold milk, and add it to the quart of milk when boiling hot; sweeten it very sweet with white sugar, put in the grated lemon-peel, boil the whole, and strain it into the quart of cream. When partly frozen, add the juice of the two lemons. Twice this quantity is enough for thirty-five persons. Find the quantity of sugar that suits you by measure, and then you can use this every time, without tasting. Some add whites of eggs; others think it just as good without. It must be made very sweet, as it loses much by freezing.

If you have no apparatus for freezing, (which is almost indispensable), put the cream into a tin pail with a very tight cover, mix equal quantities of snow and blown salt, (not the coarse salt), or of pounded ice and salt, in a tub, and put it as high as the pail, or freezer; turn the pail or freezer half round and back again with one hand, for half an hour, or longer, if you want it very nice. Three quarters of an hour steadily will make it good enough. While doing this, stop four or five times, and mix the frozen part with the rest, the last time very thoroughly, and then the lemon-juice must be put in. Then cover the freezer tight with snow and salt till it is wanted. The mixture must be perfectly cool before being put in the freezer. Renew the snow and salt while shaking, so as to have it kept tight to the sides of the freezer. A hole in the tub holding the freezing mixture, to let off the water, is a great advantage. In a tin pail it would take much longer to freeze than in the freezer, probably nearly twice as long. A long stick, like a coffee-stick, should be used in scraping the ice from the sides. Iron spoons will be affected by the lemon-juice, and give a bad taste.

In taking it out for use, first wipe off every particle of the freezing mixture dry, then with a knife loosen the sides, then invert the freezer upon the dish in which the ice is to be served, and apply two towels wrung out of hot water to the bottom part, and the whole will slide out in the shape of a cylinder. Freezers are now sold quite cheap, and such as freeze in a short time.

Strawberry Ice-Cream.—Rub a pint of ripe strawberries through a sieve, add a pint of cream, and four ounces of powdered sugar, and freeze it. Other fruits may be used thus.

Ice-Cream without Cream.—A vanilla bean or a lemon rind is first boiled in a quart of milk. Take out the bean or peel, and add the yelks of four eggs, beaten well. Heat it scalding hot, but do not boil it, stirring in white sugar till very sweet. When cold, freeze it.

Fruit Ice-Cream.—Make rich boiled custard, and mash into it the soft ripe fruit, or the grated or cooked hard fruit, or grated pine-apples. Rub all through a sieve, sweeten it very sweet, and freeze it. Quince, apple, pear, peach, strawberry, and raspberry are all very good for this purpose.

A Cream for stewed Fruit.—Boil two or three peach leaves, or a vanilla bean, in a quart of cream, or milk, till flavored. Strain and sweeten it, mix it with the yelks of four eggs, well beaten; then, while heating it, add the whites cut to a froth. When it thickens take it up. When cool, pour it over the fruit or preserves.

Currant, Raspberry, or Strawberry Whisk.—Put three gills of the juice of the fruit to ten ounces of crushed sugar, add the juice of a lemon, and a pint and a half of cream. Whisk it till quite thick, and serve it in jelly-glasses or a glass dish.

Lemonade Ice, and other Ices.—To a quart of lemonade, add the whites of six eggs, cut to a froth, and freeze it. The juices of any fruit, sweetened and watered, may be prepared in the same way, and are very fine.

Charlotte Russe.—One ounce of gelatine simmered in half a pint of milk or water, four ounces of sugar beat into the yelks of four eggs, and added to the gelatine when dissolved. Then add a pint of cream or new milk. Lastly, add the whites beat to a stiff froth, and beat all together. Line a mold with slices of sponge-cake and set it on ice, and when the cream is a little thickened, fill the mold; let it stand five or six hours, and then turn it into a dish.

Flummery.—Cut sponge-cake into thin slices, and line a deep dish. Make it moist with white wine; make a rich custard, using only the yelks of the eggs. When cool, turn it into the dish, and cut the whites to a stiff froth, and put on the top.

Chicken Salad.—Cut the white meat of chickens into small bits the size of peas. Chop the white parts of celery nearly as small.

Prepare a dressing thus: rub the yelks of hard-boiled eggs smooth, to each yelk put half a tea-spoonful of liquid mustard, the same quantity of salt, a table-spoonful of oil mixed in very slowly and thoroughly, and half a wine-glass of vinegar. Mix the chicken and celery in a large bowl, and pour over this dressing.

The dressing must not be put on till just before it is used. Bread and butter and crackers are served with it.

Wine Jelly.—Two ounces of American isinglass or gelatine. One quart of boiling water. A pint and a half of white wine. The whites of three eggs.

Soak the gelatine in cold water half an hour. Then take it from the water, and pour on the quart of boiling water. When cooled, add the grated rind of one lemon, and the juice of two, and a pound and a half of loaf-sugar. Then beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, and stir them in, and let the whole boil till the egg is well mixed, but do not stir while it boils. Strain through a jelly-bag, and then add the wine.

In cold weather, a pint more of water may be added. This jelly can be colored by beet-juice, saffron, or indigo, for fancy dishes.

An Apple Lemon Pudding.—Six spoonfuls of grated, or of cooked and strained, apple. Three lemons, pulp, rind, and juice, all grated. Half a pound of melted butter. Sugar to the taste. Seven eggs well beaten.

Mix, and bake with or without paste. It can be made still plainer by using nine spoonfuls of apple, one lemon, two thirds of a cup full of butter, and three eggs.

Wheat Flour Blanc-Mange.—Wet up six table-spoonfuls of flour to a thin paste with cold milk, and stir it into a pint of boiling milk. Flavor with lemon-peel or peach-leaves boiled in the milk. Add a pinch of salt, cool it in a mold, and eat with sweetened cream and sweetmeats.

Orange Marmalade.—Take two lemons and a dozen oranges; grate the yellow rinds of all the oranges but five, and set it aside. Make a clear sirup of an equal weight of sugar. Clear the oranges of rind and seeds, put them with the grated rinds into the sirup, and boil about twenty minutes till it is a transparent mass.

A simple Lemon Jelly, (easily made.)—One ounce of gelatine. A pound and a half of loaf-sugar. Three lemons, pulp, skin, and juice, grated.

Pour a quart of boiling water upon the isinglass, add the rest, mix and strain it, then add a glass of wine, and pour it to cool in some regular form. If the lemons are not fresh, add a little cream of tartar or tartaric acid.

Cranberry.—Pour boiling water on them, and then you can easily separate the good and the bad. Boil them in a very little water till soft, then sweeten to your taste. If you wish a jelly, take a portion and strain through a fine sieve.

Apple Ice, (very fine.)—Take finely-flavored apples, grate them fine, and then make them very sweet, and freeze them. It is very delicious.

Pears, peaches, or quinces also are nice, either grated fine or stewed and run through a sieve, then sweetened very sweet, and frozen. The flavor is much better preserved when grated than when cooked.

Whip Syllabub.—One pint of cream. Sifted white sugar to your taste. Half a tumbler of white wine. The grated rind and juice of one lemon. Beat all to a stiff froth.

Apple Snow.—Put six very tart apples in cold water over a slow fire. When soft, take away the skins and cores and mix in a pint of sifted white sugar; beat the whites of six eggs to a stiff froth, and then add them to the apples and sugar. Put it in a dessert-dish and ornament with myrtle and box.

Iced Fruit.—Take fine bunches of currants on the stalk, dip them in well-beaten whites of eggs, lay them on a sieve and sift white sugar over them, and set them in a warm place to dry.

Ornamental Froth.—The whites of four eggs in a stiff froth, put into the sirup of preserved raspberries or strawberries, beaten well together, and turned over ice-cream or blanc-mange. Make white froth to combine with the colored in fanciful ways. It can be put on the top of boiling milk, and hardened to keep its form.

To clarify Isinglass.—Dissolve an ounce of isinglass in a cup of boiling water, take off the scum, and drain through a coarse cloth. Jellies, candies, and blanc-mange should be done in brass and stirred with silver.

Blanc-Mange.—Two and a half sheets of gelatine broken into one quart of milk; put in a warm place and stir till it dissolves. An ounce and a half of clarified isinglass stirred into the milk. Sugar to your taste. A tea-spoonful of fine salt. Flavor with lemon, or orange, or rose-water. Let it boil, stirring it well, then strain it into molds.

Three ounces of almonds pounded to a paste and added while boiling is an improvement. Or filberts or hickory-nuts can be skinned and used thus. It can be flavored by boiling in it a vanilla bean or a stick of cinnamon. (Save the bean to use again.)

Apple Jelly.—Boil tart peeled apples in a little water till glutinous; strain out the juice, and put a pound of white sugar to a pint of the juice. Flavor to your taste, boil till a good jelly, and then put it into molds.

Orange Jelly.—The juice of nine oranges and three lemons. The grated rind of one lemon, and one orange, pared thin. Two quarts of water, and four ounces of gelatine broken up and boiled in it to a jelly. Add the above, and sweeten to your taste. Then add the whites of eight eggs, well beaten to a stiff froth, and boil ten minutes; strain and put into molds, first dipped in cold water. When perfectly cold, dip the mold in warm water, and turn on to a glass dish.

Floating Island.—Beat the yelks of six eggs with the juice of four lemons, sweeten it to your taste, and stir it into a quart of boiling milk till it thickens, then pour it into a dish. Whip the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, and put it on the top of the cream.

A Dish of Snow.—Grate the white part of cocoa-nut, put it in a glass dish, and serve with oranges sliced and sugared, or with currant or cranberry jellies.

To clarify Sugar.—Take four pounds of sugar, and break it up. Whisk the white of an egg, and put it with a tumblerful of water into a preserving-pan, and add water gradually till you have two quarts, stirring well. When there is a good frothing, throw in the sugar, boil moderately, and skim it. If the sugar rises to run over, throw in a little cold water, and then skim it, as it is then still. Repeat this, and when no more scum rises, strain the sugar for use.

Candied Fruits.—Preserve the fruit, then dip it in sugar boiled to candy thickness, and then dry it. Grapes and some other fruits may be dipped in uncooked, and then dried, and they are fine.

Another Way.—Take it from the sirup, when preserved, dip it in powdered sugar, and set it on a sieve in an oven to dry.

To make an Ornamental Pyramid for a Table.—Boil loaf-sugar as for candy, and rub it over a stiff form made for the purpose, of stiff paper or pasteboard, which must be well buttered. Set it on a table, and begin at the bottom, and stick on to this frame with the sugar, a row of macaroons, kisses, or other ornamental articles, and continue till the whole is covered. When cold, draw out the pasteboard form, and set the pyramid in the centre of the table with a small bit of wax-candle burning with it, and it looks very beautifully.

CHAPTER XIX.
DRINKS AND ARTICLES FOR THE SICK AND YOUNG CHILDREN.

Drinks made of the juice of fruits and water are good for all who are in health. Various preparations of cocoa-nuts are so also. Tea is often made or adulterated with unhealthful articles. Coffee is usually drank so strong as to injure children and grown persons of delicate constitution. All alcoholic drinks are dangerous, because they are so generally mixed with harmful matter, and because they so often lead to excess, and then to ruin. The common-sense maxim is, when there is danger, choose the safest course. The Christian maxim is, “We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.”

Obedience to these two maxims would save thousands of young children and delicate persons from following the dangerous example of those “that are strong.”

To make Tea.—The safest tea is the black, as less stimulating than green; both excite the brain and nerves when strong. The chief direction is to have water boiling hot. First soak the tea in a very little hot water, and then add boiling water.

To make Coffee.—Roast it slowly in a tight vessel, and so it can be stirred often. To roast all equally a dark brown and have none burned, is the main thing. Keep it in a tight box, or, better, grind it fresh when used. Clear it by putting into it, when making, a fresh egg-shell crushed, or the white of an egg, or a small bit of fish-skin. Some filter, and some boil; and there are coffee-pots made for each method, and some that require nothing put in to clear the coffee. The aroma is retained just in proportion as the coffee is confined, both before making and also while making.

Fish-skin for Coffee.—Take it from codfish before cooking; have it nice and dry. Cut in inch squares, and take one for two quarts of coffee.

Cocoa.—The cracked is best. Put two table-spoonfuls of it into three pints of cold water. Boil an hour for first use, save the remnants and boil it again, as it is very strong. Do this several times. For ground cocoa use two table-spoonfuls to a quart, and boil half an hour. Boil the milk by itself, and add it liberally when taken up. For the shells of cocoa, use a heaping tea-cupful for a quart of water. Put them in over night and boil a long time.

Cream for Coffee and Tea.—Heat new milk, and let it stand till cool and all the cream rises; this is the best way for common use. To every pint of this add a pound and a quarter of loaf-sugar, and it will keep good a month or more, if corked tight in glass.

Chocolate.—Put three table-spoonfuls when scraped to each pint, boil half an hour, and add boiled milk when used.

Delicious Milk-Lemonade.—Half a pint of sherry wine and as much lemon-juice, six ounces loaf-sugar, and a pint of water poured in when boiling. Add not quite a pint of cold milk, and strain the whole.

Strawberry and Raspberry Vinegar.—Mix four pounds of the fruit with three quarts of cider or wine vinegar, and let them stand three days. Drain the vinegar through a jelly-bag and add four more pounds of fruit, and in three days do the same. Then strain out the vinegar for summer drinks, effervescing with soda or only with water.

White Tea, and Boys’ Coffee for Children.—Children never love tea and coffee till they are trained to it. They always like these drinks. Put two tea-spoonfuls of sugar to half a cup of hot water, and add as much good milk. Or crumb toast or dry bread into a bowl with plenty of sugar, and add half milk to half boiling water.

Dangerous Use of Milk.—Milk is not only drink, but rich food. It therefore should not be used as drink with other food, as is water or tea and coffee. Persons often cause bilious difficulties by using milk in addition to ordinary food as the chief drink. It is a well-established fact that some grown persons as well as young children can not drink milk, and in some cases can not eat bread wet with milk, without trouble from it.

Simple Drinks.—Pour boiling water on mashed cranberries, or grated apples, or tamarinds, or mashed currants or raspberries, pour off the water, sweeten, and in summer cool with ice.

Pour boiling water on to bread toasted quite brown, or on to pounded parched corn, boil a minute, strain, and add sugar and cream, or milk.

Simple Wine Whey.—Mix equal quantities of milk and boiling water, add wine and sweeten.

Toast and Cider.—Take one third brisk cider and two thirds cold water, sweeten it, crumb in toasted bread, and grate on a little nutmeg. Acid jelly will do when cider is not at hand.

Panada.—Toast two or three crackers, pour on boiling water and let it simmer two or three minutes, add a well-beaten egg, sweeten and flavor with nutmeg.

Water-Gruel.—Scald half a tumblerful of fresh ground corn-meal, add a table-spoonful of flour made into a paste, boil twenty minutes or more, and add salt, sugar, and nutmeg. Oat-meal gruel is excellent made thus.

Beef-Tea.—Pepper and salt some good beef cut into small pieces, pour on boiling water and steep half an hour. A better way is to put the meat thus prepared into a bottle kept in boiling water for four or five hours.

Tomato Sirup.—Put a pound of sugar to a quart of juice, bottle it, and use for a beverage with water.

Sassafras Jelly.—Soak the pith of sassafras till a jelly, and add a little sugar.

Egg Tea, Egg Coffee, and Egg Milk.—Beat the yelk of an egg in some sugar and a little salt; add either cold tea or coffee or milk. Then beat the whites to a stiff froth and add. Flavor the milk with wine. Some do not like the taste of raw egg, and so the other articles may first be made boiling hot before the white is put in.

Oat-meal Gruel.—Four table-spoonfuls of grits, (unbolted Oat-meal,) a pinch of salt and a pint of boiling water. Skim, sweeten, and flavor. Or make a thin batter of fine Oat-meal, and pour into boiling water; then sweeten and flavor it.

Pearl Barley-Water.—Boil two and a half ounces of pearl barley ten minutes in half a-pint of water, strain it, add a quart of boiling water, boil it down to half the quantity, strain, sweeten, and flavor with sliced lemon or nutmeg.

Cream Tartar Beverage.—Put two even tea-spoonfuls cream tartar to a pint of boiling water, sweeten and flavor with lemon-peel.

Rennet Whey, (good for a weak stomach after severe illness.)—Soak rennet two inches square one hour, add half a gill of water and a pinch of salt; then pour it into a pint of warm (not hot) milk. Let it stand half an hour, then cut it, and after an hour drain off the liquid. Let it stand awhile, and drain off more whey.

Refreshing Drink for a Fever.—Mix sprigs of sage, balm, and sorrel with half a sliced lemon, the skin on. Pour on boiling water, sweeten and cork it.

CHAPTER XX.
THE PROVIDING AND CARE OF FAMILY STORES.

The art of keeping a good table consists not in loading on a variety at each meal, but rather in securing a successive variety, a table neatly and tastefully set, and every thing that is on it cooked in the best manner.