CHARLOTTE RUSSE.—
Split, cut up, and boil a large vanilla bean in half a pint of rich milk, till it is highly flavored, and reduced to one-half. Then strain out the vanilla through a strainer so fine as to avoid all the seeds. Mix the strained milk with half a pint of rich cream. Beat five eggs till very smooth and thick. Strain them, and add them gradually to the cream when it is entirely cold, to make a rich custard. Set this custard over the fire (stirring it all the time) till it simmers; but take it off before it comes to a boil, or it will curdle. Set it on ice. Have ready in another sauce-pan an ounce of the best Russia isinglass, boiled in half a pint of water, till it is all dissolved into a thick jelly. When both are cold, (but not hard) mix the custard and the isinglass together, and add four table-spoonfuls of powdered loaf sugar. Then take a large lump of loaf sugar, and rub off on it the yellow rind of two large lemons. Scrape off the lemon-grate with a tea-spoon, and add it to the mixture, with the lump of sugar powdered and crushed fine. Mix together the strained juice of the lemons, and two glasses of madeira; dissolve in them the lemon-flavored sugar, and mix it with a pint of rich cream that has been whipped with a whisk to a strong froth. Add the whipped cream gradually to the custard, starring very hard at the time, and also after the whole is mixed. Then set it on ice.
Cover the bottom of a flat oval dish with a slice of almond sponge cake, cut to fit. Prepare a sufficient number of oblong slices of the cake, (all of the same size and shape) to go all round; with one extra slice, in case they should not quite hold out. Dip every one in a plate of beaten white of egg to make them adhere. Stand each of them up on one end, round the large oval slice that lies at the bottom. Make them follow each other evenly and neatly, (every one lapping a little way over its predecessor) till you have a handsome wall of slices, cemented all round by the white of egg. Fill it quite full with the custard mixture. Cover the top with another oval slice of cake, cemented with a little white of egg to the upper edge of the wall. Make a nice icing in the usual way, of powdered sugar beaten into frothed white of egg, and flavored with lemon, orange, or rose. Spread this icing thickly and smoothly over the cake that covers the top of the charlotte, and ornament it with a handsome pattern of sugar flowers. There is no charlotte russe superior to this.
Another Charlotte Russe.—Have a very nice circular lady cake. It should be iced all over, and ornamented with sugar flowers. Take off the top nicely, and without breaking or defacing, and hollow out the inside, leaving the sides and bottom standing. The cake taken from the inside may be cut in regular pieces and used at tea, or for other purposes. Make a very fine boiled custard, according to the preceding receipt. Fill with it the empty cake, as if filling a mould. Then put on the lid, set the whole on ice, and when wanted serve it up on a glass or china dish.
A charlotte that requires no cooking may be very easily made by hollowing a nice circular almond sponge cake, and filling it with layers of small preserves, and piling on the top whipped cream finely flavored.
For the walls of a charlotte russe you may use the oblong sponge cakes, called Naples biscuits, or those denominated lady fingers, dipping them first in beaten white of egg, standing them on end, and arranging them so as to lap over each other in forming the wall. Arrange some of them handsomely to cover the top of the custard.
ICE CREAM.—
Pewter freezers for ice cream are better than those of block tin; as in them the freezing goes on more gradually and thoroughly, and it does not melt so soon, besides being smoother when done. The ice tub should be large enough to allow ample space all round (six inches, at least,) the freezer as it stands in the centre, and should have a plug at the bottom (beneath the freezer) for letting out the water that drips from the ice; that a large coarse woolen cloth should be folded, and laid under it and around it. The ice should be broken up into small bits, and mixed with coarse salt, in the proportion of a pound of salt to five pounds of ice. Fill the tub within three inches of the top; pounding and pressing down hard the mixed ice and salt. Have ready all the ingredients. To every quart of real rich cream mix in a pint of milk, (not more) and half a pound of fine loaf sugar. The following are the most usual flavorings, all the fruit being made very sweet. Ripe strawberries or raspberries, mashed through a sieve till all the juice is extracted; ripe juicy freestone peaches, pared, and cut in half, the kernels being taken from the stones, are pounded, and mashed with the fruit through a cullender; all the juice that can be mashed out of a sliced pine-apple, the grated yellow rind and the juice of lemons or oranges, allowing two to each quart of cream, and mixing the juice with plenty of sugar before it is put to the cream. A handful of shelled bitter almonds blanched, broken, and boiled by themselves in half a pint of milk till all the almond flavor is extracted, and then strain the bitter almond milk into the cream. For vanilla flavor, split and cut up a vanilla bean, boil it by itself in a half pint of milk, and when highly flavored, strain the vanilla milk into the cream. For chocolate ice cream, scrape down a quarter of a pound of Baker's prepared cocoa, and melt it in just water enough to cover it; then sweeten and mix it gradually into a quart of rich milk, (boiling at the time) and then boil and stir it till strong and smooth. Ice cream is spoiled by the addition of eggs. Besides giving it a yellowish color, eggs convert it into mere frozen custard, particularly if instead of using real cream, it is made of milk thickened with arrow-root or flour. For company at least, ice cream should be made in the best and most liberal manner, or else do not attempt it. Mean ice cream is a very mean thing.