Remove the cover, insert a thermometer, and cook the mass to three hundred and thirty-five degrees. Thereupon stir in one tablespoonful of butter, remove the mass from the fire, add one teaspoonful of salt, and baking soda the size of a large pea. Thoroughly mix the mass, and pour it between candy-bars on a well oiled marble slab. As the confection sets, mark it off in squares, and be sure to run the knife under the whole sheet to free it from the marble. Unless the sheet is so freed from the marble it will be sure to stick so that it can be handled only with difficulty. When the mass is cooled, it will easily break into the squares into which it has been marked. For preserving, pack the tablets in tin boxes.
For those who do not like so much red pepper, the quantity may be regulated to suit. The amount of onion used may also be increased or diminished as the taste of the candy-maker dictates.
XIX
ORIENTAL PASTE
This confection is easily made from purely vegetable ingredients, and has the pleasing consistency and flavor of the Turkish pastes. The gelatine that is used comes from an aquatic plant—instead of from the usual source. It can now be obtained in specialty stores and in some of the grocery stores of the larger cities.
Cut one-half of an ounce of Japanese gelatine into fine pieces, and pour over it two cupsful of warm water. Ordinary gelatine can not be substituted. Let it stand for at least two hours. The results will be much better if the soaking is allowed to take a whole night. Set this gelatine water on the fire and stir it until it comes to a boil and the gelatine is wholly dissolved.
Mix one pound of sugar and one-half of a pound of glucose; into them strain the gelatine. Set the resulting mixture on the fire and cook it until it is very stringy as it drops from the paddle. When stirring, scrape the bottom of the kettle well as the mixture sticks very easily.
Run a half pound of figs through a grinder. When the gelatine mass is cooked, as above, remove it from the fire, add a few drops of oil of lemon or a teaspoonful of lemon extract, and thoroughly mix in the figs. Dust a marble slab with confectioner's sugar, place candy bars in position, and pour the mass between them so as to form about one-half inch thick. If the candy is allowed to cool a little before it is poured out, and is carefully stirred, the figs will not separate and come to the top. Dust the top with the sugar and let it remain over night.