Part 6 (1/2)
CURAcOA may be successfully imitated by pouring over eight ounces of the _thinly_ pared rind of very ripe oranges a pint of boiling water, cover, and let it cool; then add two quarts of brandy, or strong French spirit, cover closely, and let it stand fourteen days, shaking it every day.
Make a clarified syrup of two pounds of sugar into one pint of water, well boiled; strain the brandy into it, leaving it covered close another day. Rub up in a mortar one drachm of potash, with a teaspoonful of the liqueurs; when well blended, put this into the liqueur, and in the same way pound and add a drachm of alum, shake well, and in an hour or two filter through thin muslin. Ready for use in a week or two.
MARASCHINO.--Bruise slightly a dozen cherry kernels, put them in a deep jar with the outer rind of three oranges and two lemons, cover with two quarts of gin, then add syrup and leave it a fortnight, as for curacoa.
Stir syrup and spirit together, leave it another day, run it through a jelly bag, and bottle. Ready to use in ten days.
NOYEAU.--Blanch and pound two pounds of bitter almonds, or four of peach kernels; put to them a gallon of spirit or brandy, two pounds of white sugar candy--or sugar will do--a grated nutmeg, and a pod of vanilla; leave it three weeks covered close, then filter and bottle; but do not use it for three months. To be used with caution.
CHAPTER XIII.
FRENCH CANDY AT HOME.
THIS chapter I shall have to make one of recipes chiefly, for it treats of a branch of cooking not usually found in cookery books, or at least there is seldom anything on the art of confectionery beyond mola.s.ses or cream taffy and nougat. These, therefore, I shall not touch upon, but rather show you how to make the expensive French candies.
The great art of making these exquisite candies is in boiling the sugar, and it is an art easily acquired with patience.
Put into a marbleized saucepan (by long experience in sugar-boiling I find them less likely to burn even than bra.s.s, and I keep one for the purpose) one pound of sugar and half a pint of water; when it has boiled ten minutes begin to try it; have a bowl of water with a piece of ice near you, and drop it from the end of a spoon. When it falls to the bottom, and you can take it up and make it into a softish ball (not at all sticky) between your thumb and finger, it is at the right point; remove it from the fire to a cold place; when cool, if perfectly right, a thin jelly-like film will be over the surface, _not a sugary one_; if it is sugary, and you want your candy very creamy, you must add a few spoonfuls of water, return to the fire and boil again, going through the same process of trying it. You must be careful that there is not the least inclination to be brittle in the ball of candy you take from the water; if so, it is boiled a degree too high; put a little water to bring it back again, and try once more. A speck of cream of tartar is useful in checking a tendency in the syrup to go to sugar. When you have your sugar boiled just right set it to cool, and when you can bear your finger in it, begin to beat it with a spoon; in ten minutes it will be a white paste resembling lard, which you will find you can work like bread dough. This, then, is your foundation, called by French confectioners _fondant_; with your _fondant_ you can work marvels. But to begin with the simplest French candies.
Take a piece of _fondant_, flavor part of it with vanilla, part of it with lemon, color yellow (see coloring candies), and another part with raspberry, color pink; make these into b.a.l.l.s, grooved cones, or anything that strikes your fancy, let them stand till they harden, they are then ready for use.
Take another part of your _fondant_, have some English walnuts chopped, flavor with vanilla and color pink; work the walnuts into the paste as you would fruit into a loaf cake; when mixed, make a paper case an inch wide and deep, and three or four inches long; oil it; press the paste into it, and when firm turn it out and cut into cubes. Or, instead of walnuts, use chopped almonds, flavor with vanilla, and leave the _fondant_ white. This makes VANILLA ALMOND CREAM.
TUTTI FRUTTI CANDY.--Chop some almonds, citron, a _few_ currants, and seedless raisins; work into some _fondant_, flavor with rum and lemon, thus making Roman punch, or with vanilla or raspberry; press into the paper forms as you did the walnut cream. You see how you can ring the changes on these bars, varying the flavoring, inventing new combinations, etc.
FONDANT PANACHe.--Take your _fondant_, divide it in three equal parts, color one pink and flavor as you choose, leave the other white and flavor also as you please; but it must agree with the pink, and both must agree with the next, which is chocolate. Melt a little unsweetened chocolate by setting it in a saucer over the boiling kettle, then take enough of it to make your third piece of _fondant_ a fine brown; now divide the white into two parts; make each an inch and a half wide, and as long as it will; do the same with the chocolate _fondant_; then take the pink, make it the same width and length, but of course, not being divided, it will be twice as thick; now b.u.t.ter slightly the back of a plate, or, better still, get a few sheets of waxed paper from the confectioner's; lay one strip of the chocolate on it, then a strip of white on that, then the pink, the other white, and lastly the chocolate again; then lightly press them to make them adhere, but not to squeeze them out of shape. You have now an oblong brick of parti-colored candy; leave it for a few hours to harden, then trim it neatly with a knife and cut it crosswise into slices half an inch think, lay on waxed paper to dry, turning once in a while, and pack away in boxes.
If your _fondant_ gets very hard while you work, stand it over hot water a few minutes.
Creamed candies are very fas.h.i.+onable just now, and, your _fondant_ once ready, are very easy to make.
CREAM WALNUTS.--Make ready some almonds, some walnuts in halves, some hazelnuts, or anything of the sort you fancy; let them be very dry. Take _fondant_ made from a pound of sugar, set it in a bowl in a saucepan of boiling water, stirring it till it is like cream. Then having flavored it with vanilla or lemon, drop in your nuts one by one, taking them out with the other hand on the end of a fork, resting it on the edge of your bowl to drain for a second, then drop the nut on to a waxed or b.u.t.tered paper neatly. If the nut shows through the cream it is too hot; take it out of the boiling water and beat till it is just thick enough to mask the nut entirely, then return it to the boiling water, as it cools very rapidly and becomes unmanageable, when it has to be warmed over again.
VERY FINE CHOCOLATE CREAMS are made as follows: Boil half a pound of sugar with three tablespoonfuls of thick cream till it makes a _soft_ ball in water, then let it cool. When cool beat it till it is very white, flavor with a few drops of vanilla and make it into b.a.l.l.s the size of a large pea; then take some unsweetened chocolate warmed, mix it with a piece of _fondant_ melted--there should be more chocolate than sugar--and when quite smooth and thick enough to mask the cream, drop them in from the end of a fork, take them out, and drop on to wax paper.
Another very fine candy to be made without heat, and therefore convenient for hot weather, is made as follows:
PUNCH DROPS.--Sift some powdered sugar. Have ready some fine white gum-arabic, put a tablespoonful with the sugar (say half a pound of sugar), and make it into a firm paste; if too wet, add more sugar, flavor with lemon and a tiny speck of tartaric acid or a very little lemon juice. Make the paste into small b.a.l.l.s, then take more sugar and make it into icing with a spoonful of Santa Cruz rum and half the white of an egg. Try if it hardens, if not, beat in more sugar and color it a bright pink, then dip each ball in the pink icing and harden on wax paper. These are very novel, beautiful to look at, and the flavors may vary to taste.
TO MAKE COCHINEAL COLORING WHICH IS QUITE HARMLESS.--Take one ounce of powdered cochineal, one ounce of cream of tartar, two drachms of alum, half a pint of water; boil the cochineal, water, and cream of tartar till reduced to one half, then add the alum, and put up in small bottles for use. Yellow is obtained by the infusion of Spanish saffron in a little water, or a still better one from the grated rind of a ripe orange put into muslin, and a little of the juice squeezed through it.
Be careful in boiling the sugar for _fondant_, not to stir it after it is dissolved; stirring causes it to become rough instead of creamy.
CHAPTER XIV.
A CHAPTER FOR PEOPLE OF VERY SMALL MEANS.
I AM sorry to say in these days this chapter may appeal to many, who are yet not to be called ”poor people,” who may have been well-to-do and only suffering from the pressure of the times, and for whose cultivated appet.i.tes the coa.r.s.e, substantial food of the laboring man (even if they could buy it) would not be eatable, who must have what they do have good, or starve. But, as some of the things for which I give recipes will seem over-economical for people who can afford to buy meat at least once a day, I advise those who have even fifty dollars a month income to skip it; reminding them, if they do not, ”that necessity knows no law.”