tablespoonfuls of flour, the whites of three eggs, beaten stiff. Soak
the cocoanut, if desiccated, in milk enough to cover it; then beat the
whites of the eggs, add gradually the sugar, cocoanut and flour; with
your fingers make, by rolling the mixture, into cone shapes. Place
them on buttered sheets of tin covered with buttered letter paper and
bake in a moderate heat about fifteen or twenty minutes. They should
cool before removing from the tins.
DRIED PRESERVES.
Any of the fruits that have been preserved in syrup may be converted
into dry preserves, by first draining them from the syrup and then
drying them slowly on the stove, strewing them thickly with powdered
sugar. They should be turned every few hours, sifting over them more
sugar.
CANDIES WITHOUT COOKING.
Very many candies made by confectioners are made without boiling,
which makes them very desirable, and they are equal to the best
"French Creams." The secret lies in the sugar used, which is the XXX
powdered or confectioners' sugar. Ordinary powdered sugar, when rubbed
between the thumb and finger has a decided grain, but the
confectioners' sugar is fine as flour. The candies made after this
process are better the day after.
FRENCH VANILLA CREAM.
Break into a bowl the whites of one or more eggs, as the quantity you
wish to make will require; add to it an equal quantity of cold water,
then stir in XXX powdered or confectioners' sugar until you have it
stiff enough to mold into shape with the fingers. Flavor with vanilla
to taste. After it is formed in balls, cubes or lozenge shapes, lay
them upon plates or waxed paper and set them aside to dry. This cream
can be worked in candies similar to the French cooked cream.
CHOCOLATE CREAM DROPS.
These are made or molded into cone-shape forms with the fingers, from
the uncooked "French Cream," similar to that which is cooked. After
forming into these little balls or cones, lay them on oiled paper
until the next day, to harden, or make them in the morning and leave
them until afternoon. Then melt some chocolate (the best
confectioners') in a basin set in another basin of boiling water; when
melted, and the creams are hard enough to handle, take one at a time
on a fork and drop into the melted chocolate, roll it until well
covered, then slip from the fork upon oiled or waxed paper, and set
them aside to harden.
FRUIT AND NUT CREAMS.
Raisins seeded, currants, figs and citron, chopped fine, and mixed
with the uncooked "French Cream," while soft, before the sugar is all
mixed in, makes a delicious variety. Nuts also may be mixed with this
cream, stirring into it chopped almonds, hickory nuts, butternuts, or
English walnuts, then forming them into balls, bars or squares.
Several kinds of nuts may be mixed together.
ORANGE DROPS.
Grate the rind of one orange and squeeze the juice, taking care to
reject the seeds; add to this a pinch of tartaric acid; then stir in
confectioners' sugar until it is stiff enough to form into balls the
size of a small marble. This is delicious candy.
The same process for lemon drops, using lemons in place of orange.
Color a faint yellow.
COCOANUT CREAMS.
Make the uncooked cream as in the foregoing recipe. Take the cream
while soft, add fresh grated cocoanut to taste; add sufficient
confectioners' sugar to mold into balls and then roll the balls in the
fresh grated cocoanut. These may be colored pink with a few drops of
cochineal syrup, also brown by adding a few spoonfuls of grated
chocolate; then rolling them in grated cocoanut; the three colors are
very pretty together. The coconut cream may be made into a flat cake
and cut into squares or strips.
With this uncooked cream, all the recipes given for the cooked "French
Cream," may be used: English walnut creams, variegated creams, etc.
COFFEE, TEA, BEVERAGES.
Boiling water is a very important desideratum in the making of a cup
of good coffee or tea, but the average housewife is very apt to
overlook this fact. Do not boil the water more than three or four
minutes; longer boiling ruins the water for coffee or tea making, as
most of its natural properties escape by evaporation, leaving a very
insipid liquid composed mostly of lime and iron, that would ruin the
best coffee, and give the tea a dark, dead look, which ought to be the
reverse.
Water left in the tea-kettle over night _must never be used for
preparing the breakfast coffee_; no matter how excellent your coffee
or tea may be, it will be ruined by the addition of water that has
been boiled more than once.
THE HEALING PROPERTIES OF TEA AND COFFEE.
The medical properties of these two beverages are considerable. Tea is
used advantageously in inflammatory diseases and as a cure for the
headache. Coffee is supposed to act as a preventative of gravel and
gout, and to its influence is ascribed the rarity of those diseases in
Prance and Turkey. Both tea and coffee powerfully counteract the
effects of opium and intoxicating liquors: though, when taken in
excess, and without nourishing food, they themselves produce,
temporarily at least, some of the more disagreeable consequences
incident to the use of ardent spirits. In general, however, none but
persons possessing great mobility of the nervous system, or enfeebled
or effeminate constitutions, are injuriously affected by the moderate
use of tea and coffee in connection with food.
COFFEE.
One full coffeecupful of ground coffee, stirred with one egg and part
of the shell, adding a half cupful of _cold_ water. Put it into the
coffee boiler, and pour on to it a quart of boiling water; as it
rises and begins to boil, stir it down with a silver spoon or fork.
Boil hard for ten or twelve minutes. Remove from the fire and pour out
a cupful of coffee, then pour back into the coffeepot. Place it on the
back of the stove or range where it will keep hot (and not boil); it
will settle in about five minutes. Send to the table _hot_. Serve with
good cream and lump sugar. Three-quarters of a pound of Java and a
quarter of a pound of Mocha make the best mixture of coffee.
VIENNA COFFEE.
Equal parts of Mocha and Java coffee; allow one heaping tablespoonful
of coffee to each person and two extra to make good strength. Mix one
egg with grounds; pour on coffee half as much boiling water as will be
needed; let it froth, then stir down grounds, and let boil five
minutes; then let it stand where it will keep hot, but not boil, for
five or ten minutes, and add rest of water. To one pint of cream add
the white of an egg, well beaten; this is to be put in cups with
sugar, and hot coffee added.
FILTERED OR DRIP COFFEE.
For each person allow a large tablespoonful of finely ground coffee,
and to every tablespoonful allow a cupful of boiling water; the coffee
to be one part Mocha to two of Java.
Have a small iron ring made to fit the top of the coffeepot inside,
and to this ring sew a small muslin bag (the muslin for the purpose
must not be too thin). Fit the bag into the pot, pour some boiling
water in it, and, when the pot is well warmed, put the ground coffee
into the bag; pour over as much boiling water as is required, close
the lid, and, when all the water has filtered through, remove the bag,
and send the coffee to table. Making it in this manner prevents the
necessity of pouring the coffee from one vessel to another, which
cools and spoils it. The water should be poured on the coffee
gradually so that the infusion may be stronger; and the bag must be
well made that none of the grounds may escape through the seams and so
make the coffee thick and muddy.
Patented coffeepots on this principle can be purchased at most
house-furnishing stores.
ICED COFFEE.
Make more coffee than usual at breakfast time and stronger. When cold
put on ice. Serve with cracked ice in each tumbler.
SUBSTITUTE FOR CREAM IN COFFEE.
Beat the white of an egg, put to it a small lump of butter and pour
the coffee into it gradually, stirring it so that it will not curdle.
It is difficult to distinguish this from fresh cream.
Many drop a tiny piece of sweet butter into their cup of hot coffee as
a substitute for cream.
TO MAKE TEA.
Allow two teaspoonfuls of tea to one large cupful of boiling water.
Scald the teapot, put in the tea, pour on about a cupful of _boiling_
water, set it on the fire in a warm place, where it will not boil, but
keep very hot, to almost boiling; let it steep or "draw" ten or twelve
minutes. Now fill up with as much boiling water as is required. Send
_hot_ to the table. It is better to use a china or porcelain teapot,
but if you do use metal let it be tin, new, bright and clean; never
use it when the tin is worn off and the iron exposed. If you do you
are drinking tea-ate of iron.
To make tea to perfection, boiling water must be poured on the leaves
directly it boils. Water which has been boiling more than five
minutes, or which has previously boiled, should on no account be used.
If the water does not boil, or if it be allowed to overboil, the
leaves of the tea will be only half-opened and the tea itself will be
quite spoiled. The water should be allowed to remain on the leaves
from ten to fifteen minutes.
A Chinese being interviewed for the _Cook_ says: Drink your tea plain.
Don't add milk or sugar. Tea-brokers and tea-tasters never do;
epicures never do; the Chinese never do. Milk contains fibrin, albumen
or some other stuff, and the tea a delicate amount of tannin. Mixing
the two makes the liquid turbid. This turbidity, if I remember the
cyclopædia aright, is tannate of fibrin, or leather. People who put
milk in tea are therefore drinking boots and shoes in mild disguise.
ICED TEA.
Is now served to a considerable extent during the summer months. It is
of course used without milk, and the addition of sugar serves only to
destroy the finer tea flavor. It may be prepared some hours in
advance, and should be made stronger than when served hot. It is
bottled and placed in the ice chest till required. Use the black or
green teas, or both, mixed, as fancied.
CHOCOLATE.
Allow half a cupful of grated chocolate to a pint of water and a pint
of milk. Rub the chocolate smooth in a little cold water and stir into
the boiling water. Boil twenty minutes, add the milk and boil ten
minutes more, stirring it often. Sweeten to your taste.
The French put two cupfuls of boiling water to each cupful of
chocolate. They throw in the chocolate just as the water commences to
boil. Stir it with a spoon as soon as it boils up, add two cupfuls of
good milk, and when it has boiled sufficiently, serve a spoonful of
thick whipped cream with each cup.
COCOA.
Six tablespoonfuls of cocoa to each pint of water, as much milk as
water, sugar to taste. Rub cocoa smooth in a little cold water; have
ready on the fire a pint of boiling water; stir in grated cocoa paste.
Boil twenty minutes, add milk and boil five minutes more, stirring
often. Sweeten in cups so as to suit different tastes.
BUTTERMILK AS A DRINK.
Buttermilk, so generally regarded as a waste product, has latterly
been coming somewhat into vogue, not only as a nutrient, but as a
therapeutic agent, and in an editorial article the _Canada Lancet_,
some time ago, highly extolled its virtues. Buttermilk may be roughly
described as milk which has lost most of its fat and a small
percentage of casein, and which has become sour by fermentation. Long
experience has demonstrated it to be an agent of superior
digestibility. It is, indeed, a true milk peptone--that is, milk
already partly digested, the coagulation of the coagulable portion
being loose and flaky, and not of that firm indigestible nature which
is the result of the action of the gastric juice upon cow's sweet
milk. It resembles koumiss in its nature, and, with the exception of
that article, it is the most grateful, refreshing and digestible of
the products of milk. It is a decided laxative to the bowels, a fact
which must be borne in mind in the treatment of typhoid fever, and
which may be turned to advantage in the treatment of habitual
constipation. It is a diuretic, and may be prescribed with advantage
in some kidney troubles. Owing to its acidity, combined with its
laxative properties, it is believed to exercise a general impression
on the liver. It is well adapted to many cases where it is customary
to recommend lime water and milk. It is invaluable in the treatment of
diabetes, either exclusively, or alternating with skimmed milk. In
some cases of gastric ulcer and cancer of the stomach, it is the only
food that can be retained.
_Medical journal._
CURRANT WINE. No. 1.
The currants should be quite ripe. Stem, mash and strain them, adding
a half pint of water and less than a pound of sugar to a quart of the
mashed fruit. Stir well up together and pour into a clean cask,
leaving the bung-hole open, or covered with a piece of lace. It should
stand for a month to ferment, when it will be ready for bottling; just
before bottling you may add a small quantity of brandy or whisky.
CURRANT WINE. No. 2.
To each quart of currant juice, add two quarts of soft water and three
pounds of brown sugar. Put into a jug or small keg, leaving the top
open until fermentation ceases and it looks clear. Draw off and cork
tightly.
_Long Island Recipe._
BLACKBERRY WINE. No. 1.
Cover your blackberries with cold water; crush the berries well with a
wooden masher; let them stand twenty-four hours; then strain, and to
one gallon of juice put three pounds of common brown sugar; put into
wide-mouthed jars for several days, carefully skimming off the scum
that will rise to the top; put in several sheets of brown paper and
let them remain in it three days; then skim again and pour through a
funnel into your cask. There let it remain undisturbed till March;
then strain again and bottle. These directions, if carefully followed
out, will insure you excellent wine.
_Orange County Recipe._
BLACKBERRY WINE NO. 2
Berries should be ripe and plump. Put into a large wood or stone
vessel with a tap; pour on sufficient boiling water to cover them;
when cool enough to bear your hand, bruise well until all the berries
are broken; cover up, let stand until berries begin to rise to top,
which will occur in three or four days. Then draw off the clear juice
in another vessel, and add one pound of sugar to every ten quarts of
the liquor, and stir thoroughly. Let stand six to ten days in first
vessel with top; then draw off through a jelly-bag. Steep four ounces
of isinglass in a pint of wine for twelve hours; boil it over a slow
fire till all dissolved, then place dissolved isinglass in a gallon of
blackberry juice, give them a boil together and pour all into the
vessel. Let stand a few days to ferment and settle; draw off and keep
in a cool place. Other berry wines may be made in the same manner.
GRAPE WINE.
Mash the grapes and strain them through a cloth; put the skins in a
tub, after squeezing them, with barely enough water to cover them;
strain the juice thus obtained into the first portion; put three
pounds of sugar to one gallon of the mixture; let it stand in an open
tub to ferment, covered with a cloth, for a period of from three to
seven days; skim off what rises every morning. Put the juice in a cask
and leave it open for twenty-four hours; then bung it up, and put clay
over the bung to keep the air out. Let your wine remain in the cask
until March, when it should be drawn off and bottled.
FLORIDA ORANGE WINE.
Wipe the oranges with a wet cloth, peel off the yellow rind very thin,
squeeze the oranges, and strain the juice through a hair-sieve;
measure the juice after it is strained and for each gallon allow three
pounds of granulated sugar, the white and shell of one egg and
one-third of a gallon of cold water; put the sugar, the white and
shell of the egg (crushed small) and the water over the fire and stir
them every two minutes until the eggs begin to harden; then boil the
syrup until it looks clear under the froth, of egg which will form on
the surface; strain the syrup, pour it upon the orange rind and let it
stand over night; then next add the orange juice and again let it
stand over night; strain it the second day, and put it into a tight
cask with a small cake of compressed yeast to about ten gallons of
wine, and leave the bung out of the cask until the wine ceases to
ferment; the hissing noise continues so long as fermentation is in
progress; when fermentation ceases, close the cask by driving in the
bung, and let the wine stand about nine months before bottling it;
three months after it is bottled, it can be used. A glass of brandy
added to each gallon of wine after fermentation ceases is generally
considered an improvement.
There are seasons of the year when Florida oranges by the box are very
cheap, and this fine wine can be made at a small expense.
METHELIN, OR HONEY WINE.
This is a very ancient and popular drink in the north of Europe. To
some new honey, strained, add spring water; put a whole egg into it;
boil this liquor till the egg swims above the liquor; strain, pour it
in a cask. To every fifteen gallons add two ounces of white Jamaica
ginger, bruised, one ounce of cloves and mace, one and one-half ounces
of cinnamon, all bruised together and tied up in a muslin bag;
accelerate the fermentation with yeast; when worked sufficiently, bung
up; in six weeks draw off into bottles.
_Another Mead._--Boil the combs, from which the honey has been
drained, with sufficient water to make a tolerably sweet liquor;
ferment this with yeast and proceed as per previous formula.
_Sack Mead_ is made by adding a handful of hops and sufficient brandy
to the comb liquor.
BLACK CURRANT WINE.
Four quarts of whisky, four quarts of black currants, four pounds of
brown or white sugar, one tablespoonful of cloves, one tablespoonful
of cinnamon.
Crush the currants and let them stand in the whisky with the spices
for three weeks; then strain and add the sugar; set away again for
three weeks longer; then strain and bottle.
RAISIN WINE.
Take two pounds of raisins, seed and chop them, a lemon, a pound of
white sugar and about two gallons of boiling water. Pour into a stone
jar and stir daily for six or eight days. Strain, bottle and put in a
cool place for ten days or so, when the wine will be ready for use.
CHERRY BOUNCE.
To one gallon of wild cherries add enough good whisky to cover the
fruit. Let soak two or three weeks and then drain off the liquor. Mash
the cherries without breaking the stones and strain through a
jelly-bag; add this liquor to that already drained off. Make a with a
gill of water and a pound of white sugar to every two of liquor thus
prepared; stir in well and bottle, and tightly cork. A common way of
making cherry bounce is to put wild cherries and whisky together in a
jug and use the liquor as wanted.
BLACKBERRY CORDIAL.
Warm and squeeze the berries; add to one pint of juice one pound of
white sugar, one-half ounce of powdered cinnamon, one-fourth ounce of
mace, two teaspoonfuls of cloves. Boil all together for one-fourth of
an hour; strain the syrup, and to each pint add a glass of French
brandy. Two or three doses of a tablespoonful or less will check any
slight diarrhoea. When the attack is violent, give a tablespoonful
after each discharge until the complaint is in subjection. It will
arrest dysentery if given in season, and is a pleasant and safe
remedy. Excellent for children when teething.
HOP BEER.
Take five quarts of water, six ounces of hops, boil it three hours;
then strain the liquor, add to it five quarts of water, four ounces of
bruised ginger root; boil this again twenty minutes, strain and add
four pounds of sugar. When luke-warm put in a pint of yeast. Let it
ferment; in twenty-four hours it will be ready for bottling.
GINGER BEER.
Put into a kettle two ounces of powdered ginger root (or more if it is
not very strong), half an ounce of cream of tartar, two large lemons,
cut in slices, two pounds of broken loaf sugar and two gallons of soft
boiling water. Simmer them over a slow fire for half an hour. When the
liquor is nearly cold, stir into it a large tablespoonful of the best
yeast. After it has fermented, which will be in about twenty-four
hours, bottle for use.
SPRUCE BEER.
Allow an ounce of hops and a spoonful of ginger to a gallon of water.
When well boiled, strain it and put in a pint of molasses, or a pound
of brown sugar, and half an ounce or less of the essence of spruce;
when cool, add a teacupful of yeast, and put into a clean tight cask,
and let it ferment for a day or two, then bottle it for use. You can
boil the sprigs of spruce fir in place of the essence.
ROMAN PUNCH. No. 1.
Grate the yellow rind of four lemons and two oranges upon two pounds
of loaf sugar. Squeeze the juice of the lemons and oranges; cover it
and let it stand until next day. Strain it through a sieve, mix with
the sugar; add a bottle of champagne and the whites of eight eggs
beaten to a stiff froth. It may be frozen or not, as desired. For
winter use snow instead of ice.
ROMAN PUNCH. No. 2.
Make two quarts of lemonade, rich with pure juice lemon fruit; add one
tablespoonful of extract of lemon. Work well and freeze; just before
serving, add for each quart of ice half a pint of brandy and half a
pint of Jamaica rum. Mix well and serve in high glasses, as this makes
what is called a semi or half ice. It is usually served at dinners as
a _coup de milieu_.
DELICIOUS JUNKET.
Take two quarts of new milk, warm it on the stove to about blood heat,
pour it into a glass or china bowl and stir into it two tablespoonfuls
of prepared rennet, two tablespoonfuls of powdered loaf sugar, and a
small wine-glassful of pale brandy. Let it stand till cold and eat
with sugar and rich cream. Half the quantity can be made.
RASPBERRY SHRUB.
One quart of raspberry juice, half a pound of loaf sugar, dissolved, a
pint of Jamaica rum, or part rum and brandy. Mix thoroughly. Bottle
for use.
SASSAFRAS MEAD.
Mix gradually with two quarts of boiling water three pounds and a half
of the best brown sugar, a pint and a half of good West India
molasses, and a quarter of a pound of tartaric acid. Stir it well and
when cool, strain it into a large jug or pan, then mix in a
teaspoonful (not more) of essence of sassafras. Transfer it to clean
bottles (it will fill about half a dozen), cork it tightly and keep it
in a cool place. It will be fit for use next day. Put into a box or
boxes a quarter of a pound of carbonate of soda, to use with it. To
prepare a glass of sassafras mead for drinking, put a large
tablespoonful of the mead into half a tumbler full of ice-water, stir
into it a half teaspoonful of the soda and it will immediately foam up
to the top.
Sassafras mead will be found a cheap, wholesome and pleasant beverage
for warm weather. The essence of sassafras, tartaric acid and
carbonate of soda, can, of course, be obtained at the druggist's.
CREAM SODA WITHOUT THE FOUNTAIN.
Coffee-sugar, four pounds, three pints of water, three nutmegs,
grated, the whites of ten eggs, well beaten, gum arabic, one ounce,
twenty drops of oil of lemon, or extract equal to that amount. By
using oils or other fruits, you can make as many flavors from this as
you desire. Mix all and place over a gentle fire, and stir well about
thirty minutes; remove from the fire and strain, and divide into two
parts; into one-half put eight ounces of bicarbonate of soda, into the
other half put six ounces of tartaric acid. Shake well, and when cold
they are ready for use by pouring three or four spoonfuls from both
parts into separate glasses, each one-third full of water. Stir each
and pour together, and you have a nice glass of cream soda which you
can drink at your leisure, as the gum and eggs hold the gas.
WINE WHEY.
Sweeten one pint of milk to taste, and when boiling, throw in two
wine-glasses of sherry; when the curd forms, strain the whey through a
muslin bag into tumblers.
LEMON SYRUP.
Take the juice of twelve lemons; grate the rind of six in it, let it
stand over night; then take six pounds of white sugar and make a
thick syrup. When it is quite cool, strain the juice into it, and
squeeze as much oil from the grated rind as will suit the taste. Put
in bottles, securely corked, for future use. A tablespoonful in a
goblet of water will make a delicious drink on a hot day.
FOR A SUMMER DRAUGHT.
The juice of one lemon, a tumblerful of cold water, pounded sugar to
taste, half a small teaspoonful of carbonate of soda. Squeeze the
juice from the lemon; strain and add it to the water, with sufficient
pounded sugar to sweeten the whole nicely. When well mixed, put in the
soda, stir well and drink while the mixture is in an effervescing
state.
NOYEAU CORDIAL.