The Whitehouse Cookbook (1887), Hugo Ziemann [world of reading .TXT] 📗

BOILED CUSTARD, OR MOCK CREAM.

Take two even tablespoonfuls of cornstarch, one quart of milk, three eggs, half a teaspoonful of salt and a small piece of butter; heat the milk to nearly boiling and add the starch, previously dissolved in a little cold milk; then add the eggs well beaten with four tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar; let it boil up once or twice, stirring it briskly, and it is done. Flavor with lemon, or vanilla, or raspberry, or to suit your taste.

A good substitute for ice cream, served very cold.

FRENCH CUSTARD.

One quart of milk, eight eggs, sugar and cinnamon to taste; separate the eggs, beat the yolks until thick, to which add the milk, a little vanilla, and sweeten to taste; put it into a pan or farina kettle, place it over a slow fire and stir it all the time until it becomes custard; then pour it into a pudding-dish to get cold; whisk the whites until stiff and dry; have ready a pan of boiling water on the top of which place the whites; cover and place them where the water will keep sufficiently hot to cause a steam to pass through and cook them; place in a dish (suitable for the table) a layer of custard and white alternately; on each layer of custard grate a little nutmeg with a teaspoonful of wine; reserve a layer of white for the cover, over which grate nutmeg; then send to table and eat cold.

GERMAN CUSTARD.

Add to a pint of good, rich, boiled custard an ounce of sweet almonds, blanched, roasted and pounded to a paste, and half an ounce of pine-nuts or peanuts, blanched, roasted and pounded; also a small quantity of candied citron cut into the thinnest possible slips; cook the custard as usual and set it on the ice for some hours before using.

APPLE CUSTARD.

Pare, core and quarter a dozen large juicy pippins. Stew among them the yellow peel of a large lemon grated very fine, and stew them till tender in a very small portion of water. When done, mash them smooth with the back of a spoon (you must have a pint and a half of the stewed apple); mix a half cupful of sugar with them and set them away till cold. Beat six eggs very light and stir them gradually into a quart of rich milk alternately with the stewed apple. Put the mixture into cups, or into a deep dish and bake it about twenty minutes. Send it to table cold, with nutmeg grated over the top.

ALMOND CUSTARD. No. 1.

Scald and blanch half a pound of shelled sweet almonds and three ounces of bitter almonds, throwing them, as you do them, into a large bowl of cold water. Then pound them one at a time into a paste, adding a few drops of wine or rose-water to them. Beat eight eggs very light with two-thirds of a cup of sugar, then mix together with a quart of rich milk, or part milk and part cream; put the mixture into a saucepan and set it over the fire. Stir it one way until it begins to thicken, but not till it curdles; remove from the fire and when it is cooled put in a glass dish. Having reserved part of the whites of the eggs, beat them to a stiff froth, season with three tablespoonfuls of sugar and a teaspoonful of lemon extract, spread over the top of the custard. Serve cold.

ALMOND CUSTARD. No. 2.

Blanch a quarter of a pound of sweet almonds, pound them, as in No. 1 on preceding page, with six ounces of fine white sugar and mix them well with the yolks of four eggs; then dissolve one ounce of patent gelatine in one quart of boiling milk, strain it through a sieve and pour into it the other mixture; stir the whole over the fire until it thickens and is smooth; then pour it into your mold and keep it upon ice, or in a cool place, until wanted; when ready to serve dip the mold into warm water, rub it with a cloth and turn out the cream carefully upon your dish.

SNOWBALL CUSTARD.

Soak half a package of Cox's gelatine in a teacupful of cold water one hour, to which add a pint of boiling water, stir it until the gelatine is thoroughly dissolved. Then beat the whites of four eggs to a stiff froth, put two teacupfuls of sugar in the gelatine water first, then the beaten white of egg and one teaspoonful of vanilla extract, or the grated rind and the juice of a lemon. Whip it some time until it is all quite stiff and cold. Dip some teacups or wine-glasses in cold water and fill them; set in a cold place.

In the meantime, make a boiled custard of the yolks of three of the eggs, with half a cupful of sugar and a pint of milk; flavor with vanilla extract. Now after the meringue in the cups has stood four or five hours, turn them out of the molds, place them in a glass dish and pour this custard around the base.

BAKED COCOANUT CUSTARD.

Grate as much cocoanut as will weigh a pound. Mix half a pound of powdered white sugar with the milk of the cocoanut, or with a pint of cream, adding two tablespoonfuls of rose-water. Then stir in gradually a pint of rich milk. Beat to a stiff froth the whites of eight eggs and stir them into the milk and sugar, a little at a time, alternately with the grated cocoanut; add a teaspoonful of powdered nutmeg and cinnamon. Then put the mixture into cups and bake them twenty minutes in a moderate oven, set in a pan half filled with boiling water. When cold, grate loaf sugar over them.

WHIPPED CREAM. No. 1.

To the whites of three eggs, beaten to a stiff froth, add a pint of thick sweet cream (previously set where it is very cold) and four tablespoonfuls of sweet wine, with three of fine white sugar and a teaspoonful of the extract of lemon or vanilla. Mix all the ingredients together on a board platter or pan and whip it to a standing froth; as the froth rises, take it off lightly with a spoon and lay it on an inverted sieve with a dish under it to catch what will drain through; and what drains through can be beaten over again.

Serve in a glass dish with jelly or jam and sliced sponge cake. This should be whipped in a cool place and set in the ice box.

WHIPPED CREAM. No. 2.

Three coffeecupfuls of good thick sweet cream, half a cup of powdered sugar, three teaspoonfuls of vanilla; whip it to a stiff froth. Dissolve three-fourths of an ounce of best gelatine in a teacup of hot water and when cool pour it in the cream and stir it gently from the bottom upward, cutting the cream into it, until it thickens. The dish which contains the cream should be set in another dish containing ice-water, or cracked ice. When finished pour in molds and set on ice or in any very cold place.

SPANISH CREAM.

Take one quart of milk and soak half a box of gelatine in it for an hour; place it on the fire and stir often. Beat the yolks of three eggs very light with a cupful of sugar, stir into the scalding milk and heat until it begins to thicken (it should not boil, or it will curdle); remove from the fire and strain through thin muslin or tarlatan, and when nearly cold flavor with vanilla or lemon; then wet a dish or mold in cold water and set aside to stiffen.

BAVARIAN CREAM.

One quart of sweet cream, the yolks of four eggs beaten together with a cupful of sugar. Dissolve half an ounce of gelatine or isinglass in half a teacupful of warm water; when it is dissolved stir in a pint of boiling hot cream; add the beaten yolks and sugar; cook all together until it begins to thicken, then remove from the fire and add the other pint of cold cream whipped to a stiff froth, adding a little at a time and beating hard. Season with vanilla or lemon. Whip the whites of the eggs for the top. Dip the mold in cold water before filling; set it in a cold place. To this could be added almonds, pounded, grated chocolate, peaches, pineapples, strawberries, raspberries, or any seasonable fruit.

STRAWBERRY BAVARIAN CREAM.

Pick off the hulls of a box of strawberries, bruise them in a basin with a cup of powered sugar; rub this through a sieve and mix with it a pint of whipped cream and one ounce and a half of clarified isinglass or gelatine; pour the cream into a mold previously oiled. Let it in rough ice and when it has become firm turn out on a dish.

Raspberries or currants may be substituted for strawberries.

GOLDEN CREAM.

Boil a quart of milk; when boiling stir into it the well-beaten yolks of six eggs; add six tablespoonfuls of sugar and one tablespoonful of sifted flour, which have been well beaten