Swiss Meringue.—Instead of squeezing the mixture out and spreading it in oblong cakes, make a crown of it, then another and another, four in all, dust and bake in the same way; place them on a dish, one above the other, and fill the middle of the dish with cream as above. Serve cold. The mixture may also be placed on paper by the spoonful, but they are not as sightly as by means of the pastry-bag.
Zephyrs.—Proceed as for meringues as far as mixing the sugar with the whites of eggs, when mix also with both a few drops of cochineal. Put the mixture in the pastry-bag, with tin tube No. 1 at the end of it. Squeeze the mixture out and spread it on paper in a baking-pan, in different shapes: dentilated, convoluted, overlapping, waved, etc., according to fancy, about three inches and a half long. Bake in same oven as meringues, and serve when cold, as they are.
Nougat.—Throw a pound of sweet almonds into boiling water for five minutes; skin them well, and when cool cut them in four or five pieces lengthwise; then melt a pound of fine white sugar with two spoonfuls of water, in a copper or crockery pan, and on a good fire, stirring all the time with a wooden spoon; when well melted, put the almonds in; keep stirring about five minutes longer, take from the fire, add a little of the rind of a lemon well grated, oil the mould, put it on the corner of the range in a warm but not too hot place; put the almonds and sugar in the mould, and little by little take off when of a brown color, turn on a plate, remove the mould, and serve.
Pancakes.—Make a thin paste with one pound of flour, four eggs, two tablespoonfuls of sweet-oil, one of French brandy, a little salt, the necessary quantity of lukewarm water and milk, about half of each; let it remain thus two or three hours at least; then put about an ounce of lard, butter, or oil in a frying-pan, and set it on a brisk fire; when hot, put some of the paste in it with a ladle, spread the paste so as to cover the bottom of the pan; fry on both sides, place it on a dish, dust it with fine white sugar on both sides, and serve warm.
Buckwheat and other pancakes are made in the same way.
Waffles.—Make a thin paste with eight ounces of flour, six ounces of pulverized sugar, two eggs, a few drops of essence to flavor, half a liquor-glass of brandy or rum, and milk. Warm and butter both sides of the mould, put some of the paste into it, close it gently, set it on the fire, turn over to heat both sides equally, dust them with sugar when done, and serve either warm or cold. It takes hardly a minute for each with a good fire.
BREAD.
It is next to an impossibility to bake bread in a small oven; half the time the bread is too much or not enough baked. In cities, where good baker's bread can be bought, it comes as cheap as it can be made at home, if not cheaper, and saves a great deal of time and labor. It is not difficult to make good bread with good flour. There are several ways of making and of using yeast. Some are better than others; but many, though differently manipulated, bring about the same results. The only difficulty is the baking of it. Bakers can almost always bake bread properly, having large brick ovens. If they do not bake their bread enough, which is generally the case, it is not because they cannot, but because under-baked bread is heavier, and people, especially the poorer class, buy it in preference to the other; judging by the weight, they think they have more of it for a certain sum of money. Under-baked bread is difficult of digestion. (See Food.)
The best bread is made with the best wheat-flour, all that can be said by anybody to the contrary notwithstanding. Rye, corn, and barley bread are excellent, and may be partaken of by those whose constitution, occupation, etc., allow it. In every thing, bread included, the people, or what may be called "the million," are wiser than soi-disant philosophers; and if oat-meal or Indian-meal were better than wheat-flour, they would be dearer. To describe or discuss the innumerable methods of making bread would require several volumes. We have perused carefully hundreds of them; they nearly all differ theoretically, but practically, when practical (which is not always the case), they amount to about the same thing. We think that the only difficulty, if difficulty there be, is in the use of the yeast, the making of the same, and the baking. Chemical processes for rising will never equal the processes of nature and time. Many bakers do not use the yeast properly, their bread being sour or musty; some sweeten their bread, to disguise an inferior quality of flour, or as an antidote to sourness or mustiness.