Graniti are also made of various kinds of light punches by adding to a quart of the usual punch recipe a quart of sweetened water. Any summer beverage made from fruit juice can be turned into a granito, by half freezing, in either of the following ways:
To Freeze Graniti.—Mix the beverage you intend to freeze, for instance, we will say, a pint of very strong, clear, bright coffee and half a pint of syrup à lissé. Put them into the freezer and turn; as it becomes frozen up the sides, scrape it down with a spoon, and remember, as soon as it resembles snowy water (not white, of course) it is frozen enough. It must be just liquid enough to pour out.
There is a second way of freezing graniti by which they can be put on the table in the vessel in which they were frozen. Place the mixture in wide-mouthed water-bottles, twirl them round in ice and salt, and, as the contents become frozen on the inside of the bottle, scrape down with a narrow wooden stick or spatula. When frozen in perfection the bottle should seem half filled with tiny crystals.
Claret Granito.—To one pint of orangeade add a bottle of claret. Half freeze.
Sherry Granito.—To one quart of lemonade add a bottle of sherry, and freeze.
The housekeeper who lives far from a large city will need materials for many of the recipes given in these papers and others which she will meet with in books on high-class cooking. Many of these can be sent for by mail, and all, of course, by express; but it will often not seem worth while to send perhaps for one small bottle that we may lack. For this reason I give a few directions for preparing very tolerable imitations of liqueurs, which, however, unless it were a question of economy, it might not be worth while doing if within reach of stores.
Curaçoa.—Pare a dozen and a half of dead-ripe oranges so thin that you can see the knife pass under the rind; pound one dram of finest cinnamon and half a dram of mace; put them to steep for fifteen days in a gallon of pure alcohol, shaking it every day. Make a clarified syrup of four pounds of sugar and one quart of water well boiled and skimmed; add this to the curaçoa. Rub up in a mortar one dram of potash with a teaspoonful of the liqueur; when well mixed add it, and then do the same with a dram of alum. Shake well, and in an hour or two filter through thin muslin. It will be ready for use in a a week.
Maraschino.—Bruise two ounces of cherry kernels and one of bitter almonds; put them in a deep jar with the thin outer rind of twelve oranges and five lemons. Steep in one gallon of English gin or alcohol. Let the whole stand a fortnight, then filter and bottle.
Ratafia.—Blanch the kernels of uncooked peaches or apricots, and when you have two ounces pound them, and pour to them a quart of gin or alcohol and the thin yellow rind of two lemons. Sweeten with a pound of white sugar-candy, and leave the whole for two months; then filter and bottle for use.
Candied Orange and Lemon Peels.—These are invaluable both as decoration for certain desserts and for culinary purposes, and as they are not always to be found except in the larger cities, the method of preparing them is here given: Throw the peels into salt and water, all pulp being removed, but the white part must be left untouched; in fact, the thicker the peel the better for the purpose, thin-skinned oranges being of no use for candying. Let them remain in the salt and water from nine days to three weeks; then wash them, put them on the fire in cold water, and let them boil till perfectly tender, yet they must not be mushy. During the time they are boiling change the water until it no longer tastes salt. Lemon-peels may take from three to four hours’ boiling, orange-peels less; but remember, should the lemon-peel not be quite tender, it will harden when it goes into syrup, and instead of a rich sweetmeat there will be only woody chips. Drain the peels, and make a thin syrup of a pint of water to each pound of sugar. Let it boil five minutes; then throw in the peels; they must boil gently in this until they are clear and the syrup has become thick—almost boiled away, in fact. Now make another syrup, half a pint of water to two pounds of sugar; let it boil till clear and till there is a short hair from the fork. Now put in the peels (which must have been drained from the other syrup); remove from the fire; stir them round till the syrup looks whitish; then lift each piece out and lay it on a dish on which granulated sugar has been freely sprinkled.