The Italian Cook Book, Maria Gentile [best classic literature txt] 📗

third time, then put on the fire the liquid so obtained and just before boiling put the sugar, mix, stir and boil for about twenty minutes. Let it cool, then bottle and keep in a cool place. The orgeat does not ferment and the thick liquid may be diluted in water, half an inch for a whole tumbler of iced water. PRESERVES 214 APRICOT MARMALADE (Conserva di albicocche)

Use good and ripe apricots. It is a mistake to believe that jam or marmalade can be obtained with any kind of fruit. Take off the stones, put them on the fire without water and while they boil, stir with a ladle to reduce them to pulp. When they have boiled for about half an hour, rub them through a sieve to separate the pulp of the fruit from the skins that are to be thrown away, then put them back on the fire with granulated sugar in the proportion of eight tenths, that is to say eight pounds of sugar for ten pounds of apricot pulp. Stir often with the ladle until the mixture acquires the firmness of marmalade, which will be known by putting from time to time a teaspoonful in a plate and seeing that it flows slowly.

When ready, remove from the fire, let it cool, and then put in vases well covered and with a film of paraffine or tissue paper dipped in alcohol, so that the air may not pass in.

215 PRESERVE OF QUINCE (Conserva di cotogne soda)

The ingredients are quinces, peeled and with the core removed, and granulated sugar, in the proportion of eight tenths of quinces to five tenths of sugar, or a little more than one and a half quinces for one part of sugar.

Dissolve the sugar on the fire with half a glass of water, boil a little, then remove from the fire and put aside.

Cut the quinces—peeled and coreless—in very thin slices and put them on the fire with a glass of water, supposing the quantity to be about two pounds. Keep covered, but stir once in a while with the ladle, trying to break the slices and reduce them to a paste. When the quinces are made tender through cooking, pour in the thick syrup of sugar already prepared, mix and stir and let the mixture boil with the cover removed until the preserve is ready, which will be known when it begins to fall like shreds when taken up with the ladle.

Let it cool and put in well covered jars.

ICES (Gelati)

Although it is in America that there is a greater consumption of ice cream, it is in Italy that it was first made, and in various European capitals it is the Italian gelatiere who prepares the frozen delicacy. A few Italian recipes of gelati will then be acceptable, we believe, as a conclusion to this little work.

216 BISCUIT (Pezzo in gelo)

Make a cream with:

Water, five ounces.
Sugar, two ounces.
The yolks of four eggs.
A taste of vanilla.

Put it on the fire stirring continually and when it begins to stick to the ladle remove from the fire and whip to a stiff froth. Then mix about five ounces of ordinary whipped cream, put in a mold and pack in salt and ice.

Keep in ice for about three hours.

This dose will be sufficient for seven or eight persons.

217 LEMON ICE (Gelato di limone)

Granulated sugar, ¾ lb.
Water, a pint.
Lemons, three (good sized).

Boil the sugar in the water, with some little pieces of lemon peel, for about ten minutes, in an uncovered kettle. When this syrup is cold, squeeze the lemons one at the time, tasting the mixture to regulate the degree of acidity. Then strain and put in the freezer packed with salt and ice.

218 STRAWBERRY ICE (Gelato di fragola)

Ripe strawberries, ¾ lb.
Granulated sugar, ¾ lb.
Water, one pint.
A big lemon.
An orange.

Boil the sugar in the water for ten minutes in an uncovered kettle. Rub through a sieve the strawberries and the juice of the lemon and the orange: add the syrup after straining, mix everything and pour the mixture in the freezer.

219 ORANGE ICE (Gelato di aranci)

Four big oranges.
One lemon.
One pint of water.
Sugar, ¾ lb.

Squeeze the oranges and the lemon and strain the juice.

Boil the sugar in the water for ten minutes, put in the juice when cold, strain again and put in the freezer.

220 PISTACHE ICE CREAM (Gelato di pistacchi)

Milk, one quart.
Sugar, six ounces.
Pistaches, two ounces.

Skin the pistaches in warm water and grind them very fine with a tablespoonful of the sugar, then put in a saucepan with the yolks and the sugar, mixing everything together. Add the milk and put the mixture on the fire stirring with the ladle and when it is condensed like cream, let it cool and put in the freezer.

221 TUTTI FRUTTI

To make this ice a special ice cream mold is necessary, or a tin receptacle that can be closed hermetically.

Take several varieties of fruits of the season, ripe and of good quality, that is to say, strawberries, cherries, plums, apricots, a big peach, a good sized pear, a piece of good cantaloupe. Peel, skin and remove stones and cores of all these fruits. Then cut them into very thin slices, throwing away the cores and stones.

When the fruit is prepared in this manner, weigh it, and sprinkle over one fifth of its weight of powdered sugar, squeezing also one lemon. Mix everything and let the mixture rest for half an hour.

Put a sheet of paper in the bottom of the mold that is to be filled with the fruit pressed together, close, and pack in salt and ice, keeping it for two hours or a little less.

This is not the tutti frutti ice cream as is known in America, but a macédoine of fruits, that comes very pleasant to the taste in the summer months.

INDEX

NUMBERS REFER TO RECIPES

African hen, 143   103 Almond, cake, 189   129     crisp cake, 193   133     (roasted) pudding, 205   143 Anchovy sauce, 14   16 Apricot marmelade, 214   151 Artichokes, with butter, 31   27     fried, 28   25     in mold, 96   73     steamed, 29   26     stewed, 30   27     stuffed, 105   78     stuffed with meat, 106   79     with sauce, 104   78 Asparagus, 114   85

Balsamella, sauce, 59   46 Bean soup, 7   9 Birds, 132   95 Biscuit, 191   131 Biscuit (ice), 216   153 Biscuit, crisp, 183   124     soft, 184   125     sultan, 185   126     wafer, 194   134 Blackberry syrup, 212   149 Bread soup, 3   7 Breast of Veal stuffed, 80   62 Brittle (see crisp cake) Broth, 1   5 Brown stock, 13   15

Cabbage, stuffed, 112   83 Cake, almond, 189   129     corn meal, 190   130     crisp, 206   144     Madeleine, 192   132     Margherita, 186   127     portugaise, 196   136     quince, 195   135 Cakes, farina, 198   138 Caper Sauce, 57   45 Cappelletti, soup, 2   6 Cauliflower, in mold, 95   72     with balsamella, 111   83 Celery, au jus, 166   116     dressing 103   77     fried, 168   117     purée, 169   117     sauce for, 167   116     with butter, 165   115 Chicken alla cacciatora, 35   30     boned and stuffed, 40   33     breasts sauté, 45   37     fried, 34   29     sauté, 142   102     stuffed, 139   100     stuffing, 64   51     with ham, 141   102     with egg sauce, 44   37     with sausages, 43   36     with sherry, 42   36     with tomatoes, 41   35     with sauce piquante, 140   101 Cod fish, boiled, 122, 123   90-91     croquettes, 125   91     fried, 124   91 Corn meal, cake, 190   130     pie, 37   31     with sausages, 36   30 Crisp cake in double boiler, 206   144 Croquettes, fried, 67   53 Curly tart, 188   129 Currant, syrup, 209   146 Cutlets, chopped meat, 74   58     veal, 75   58     stewed, 73   57     stuffed, 76, 138   59-99

Dog fish, fried, 126   92     stewed, 127   92 Duck, tame, 144   104     wild, 46   38

Eels, stewed, 118   88     with peas, 119   88 Eggs, scrambled, 181   123     with ham, 179   122     with onion sauce, 178   122     with tomato sauce, 180   123 Egg-plants, fried, 100   75     in the oven, 102   76     stewed, 101   76

Farina, cakes, 198   138     tart, 200   139 Fish, with bread crumbs, 115   86     cutlets, stewed, 116   86 Fry, Roman, 68, 69   54-55

Gnocchi, 4   7     milk, 207   145

Hare, roast, 135   97     stewed, 51   42

Ices, biscuits, 216   153     lemon, 217   153     orange, 219   154     pistache, 220   155     strawberry, 218   154     tutti frutti, 221   155

Kidney, broiled, 152   108     fried, 153   108     sauté, 71   56     sliced 151   107     with anchovy, 150   107     omelet, 61   48

Lamb, leg of, 147   105     omelet, 33   29     shoulder, 79   61     roast, 133   96     with peas, 78   61 Lemon, ice, 217   153     pudding, 204   142     syrup, 211   148 Lentils, soup, 9   10 Liver, loaf, 89   68

Macaroni, Napolitaine, 20   20     fried with oil, 21   21     au gratin, 19   19     a la Corinna,