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

for lemon. Cover and bake for five minutes, after which take off the lid and brown the meringue a very little. Sift powdered sugar thickly over the top. To be eaten cold.

WASHINGTON PIE.

This recipe is the same as "Boston Cream Pie" (adding half an ounce of butter), which may be found under the head of PASTRY, PIES AND TARTS. In summer time, it is a good plan to bake the pie the day before wanted; then when cool, wrap around it a paper and place it in the ice box so to have it get very cold; then serve it with a dish of fresh strawberries or raspberries. A delicious dessert.

CREAM PIE.

Make two cakes as for Washington pie, then take one cup of sweet cream and three tablespoonfuls of white sugar. Beat with egg-beater or fork till it is stiff enough to put on without running off and flavor with vanilla. If you beat it after it is stiff it will come to butter. Put between the cakes and on top.

DESSERT PUFFS.

Puffs for dessert are delicate and nice; take one pint of milk and cream each, the whites of four eggs beaten to a stiff froth, one heaping cupful of sifted flour, one scant cupful of powdered sugar, add a little grated lemon peel and a little salt; beat these all together till very light, bake in gem-pans, sift pulverized sugar over them and eat with sauce flavored with lemon.

PEACH CAKE FOR DESSERT.

Bake three sheets of sponge cake, as for jelly cake; cut nice ripe peaches in thin slices, or chop them; prepare cream by whipping, sweetening and adding flavor of vanilla, if desired; put layers of peaches between the sheets of cake; pour cream over each layer and over the top. To be eaten soon after it is prepared.

FRUIT SHORT-CAKES.

For the recipes of strawberry, peach and other fruit short-cakes, look under the head of BISCUITS, ROLLS AND MUFFINS. They all make a very delicious dessert when served with a pitcher of fresh sweet cream, when obtainable.

SALTED OR ROASTED ALMONDS.

Blanch half a pound of almonds. Put with them a tablespoonful of melted butter and one of salt. Stir them till well mixed, then spread them over a baking-pan and bake fifteen minutes, or till crisp, stirring often. They must be bright yellow-brown when done. They are a fashionable appetizer and should be placed in ornamental dishes at the beginning of dinner, and are used by some in place of olives, which, however, should also be on the table, or some fine pickles may take their place.

ROAST CHESTNUTS.

Peel the raw chestnuts and scald them to remove the inner skin; put them in a frying pan with a little butter and toss them about a few moments; add a sprinkle of salt and a suspicion of cayenne. Serve them after the cheese.

Peanuts may be blanched and roasted the same.

AFTER-DINNER CROUTONS.

These crispy croutons answer as a substitute for hard-water crackers and are also relished by most people.

Cut sandwich bread into slices one-quarter of an inch thick; cut each slice into four small triangles; dry them in the oven slowly until they assume a delicate brownish tint, then serve either hot or cold. A nice way to serve them is to spread a paste of part butter and part rich creamy cheese, to which may be added a very little minced parsley.

ORANGE FLOAT.

To make orange float, take one quart of water, the juice and pulp of two lemons, one coffeecupful of sugar. When boiling hot, add four tablespoonfuls of cornstarch. Let it boil fifteen minutes, stirring all the time. When cold, pour it over four or five oranges that have been sliced into a glass dish and over the top spread the beaten whites of three eggs, sweetened and flavored with vanilla. A nice dessert.

LEMON TOAST.

This dessert can be made very conveniently without much preparation.

Take the yolks of six eggs, beat them well and add three cupfuls of sweet milk; take baker's bread, not too stale, and cut into slices; dip them into the milk and eggs and lay the slices into a spider, with sufficient melted butter, hot, to fry a delicate brown. Take the whites of the six eggs and beat them to a froth, adding a large cupful of white sugar; add the juice of two lemons, heating well and adding two cupfuls of boiling water. Serve over the toast as a sauce and you will find it a very delicious dish.

SWEET OMELET. No. 1.

One tablespoonful of butter, two of sugar, one cupful of milk, four eggs. Let the milk come to a boil. Beat the flour and butter together; add to them gradually the boiling milk and cook eight minutes; stirring often; beat the sugar and the yolks of the eggs together; add to the cooked mixture and set away to cool. When cool, beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth and add to the mixture. Bake in a buttered pudding-dish for twenty minutes in a moderate oven. Serve immediately with creamy sauce.

SWEET OMELET. No. 2.

Four eggs, two tablespoonfuls of sugar, a pinch of salt, half a teaspoonful of vanilla extract, one cupful of whipped cream. Beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth and gradually beat the flavoring and sugar into them. When well beaten add the yolks and, lastly, the whipped cream. Have a dish holding about one quart slightly buttered. Pour the mixture into this and bake just twelve minutes. Serve the moment it is taken from the oven.

SALAD OF MIXED FRUITS.

Put in the centre of a dish a pineapple properly pared, cored and sliced, yet retaining as near as practicable its original shape. Peel, quarter and remove the seeds from four sweet oranges; arrange them in a border around the pineapple. Select four fine bananas, peel and cut into slices lengthwise; arrange these zigzag-fence fashion around the border of the dish. In the V-shaped spaces around the dish put tiny mounds of grapes of mixed colors. When complete, the dish should look very appetizing. To half a pint of clear sugar syrup add half an ounce of good brandy, pour over the fruit and serve.

ORANGE COCOANUT SALAD.

Peel and slice a dozen oranges, grate a cocoanut and slice a pineapple. Put alternate layers of each until the dish is full. Then pour over them sweetened wine. Served with small cakes.

When oranges are served whole, they should be peeled and prettily arranged in a fruit dish. A small knife is best for this purpose. Break the skin from the stem into six or eight even parts, peel each section down half way, and tuck the point in next to the orange.

CRYSTALLIZED FRUIT.

Pick out the finest of any kind of fruit, leave on their stalks, beat the whites of three eggs to a stiff froth, lay the fruit in the beaten egg with the stalks upward, drain them and beat the part that drips off again; select them out, one by one and dip them into a cup of finely powdered sugar; cover a pan with a sheet of fine paper, place the fruit inside of it, and put it in an oven that is cooling; when the icing on the fruit becomes firm, pile them on a dish and set them in a cool place. For this purpose, oranges or lemons should be carefully pared, and all the white inner skin removed that is possible, to prevent bitterness; then cut either in thin horizontal slices if lemons, or in quarters if oranges. For cherries, strawberries, currants, etc., choose the largest and finest, leaving stems out. Peaches should be pared and cut in halves and sweet juicy pears may be treated in the same way, or look nicely when pared, leaving on the stems and iced. Pineapples should be cut in thin slices and these again divided into quarters.

PEACHES AND CREAM.

Pare and slice the peaches just before sending to table. Cover the glass dish containing them to exclude the air as much as possible, as they soon change color. Do not sugar them in the dish—they then become preserves, not fresh fruit. Pass the powdered sugar and cream with them.

SNOW PYRAMID.

Beat to a stiff foam the whites of half a dozen eggs, add a small teacupful of currant jelly and whip all together again. Fill half full of cream as many saucers as you have guests, dropping in the centre of each saucer a tablespoonful of the beaten eggs and jelly in the shape of a pyramid.

JELLY FRITTERS.

Make a batter of three eggs, a pint of milk and a pint bowl of wheat flour or more, beat it light; put a tablespoonful of lard or beef fat in a frying or omelet pan, add a saltspoonful of salt, making it boiling hot, put in the batter by the large spoonful, not too close; when one side is a delicate brown, turn the other; when done, take them on to a dish with a d'oyley over it; put a dessertspoonful of firm jelly or jam on each and serve. A very nice dessert.

STEWED APPLES. No. 1.

Take a dozen green tart apples, core and slice them, put into a saucepan with just enough water to cover them, cover the saucepan closely, and stew the apples until they are tender and clear; then take them out, put them into a deep dish and cover them; add to the juice in the saucepan a cupful of loaf sugar for every twelve apples, and boil it half an hour, adding to the syrup a pinch of mace and a dozen whole cloves just ten minutes before taking from the fire; pour scalding hot over the apples and set them in a cold place; eat ice cold with cream or boiled custard.

STEWED APPLES. No. 2.

Apples cooked in the following way look very pretty on a tea-table and are appreciated by the palate. Select firm round greenings, pare neatly and cut in halves; place in a shallow stewpan with sufficient boiling water to cover them and a cup of sugar to every six apples. Each half should cook on the bottom of the pan and be removed from the others so as not to injure its shape. Stew slowly until the pieces are very tender; remove to a glass dish carefully, boil the syrup a half hour longer, pour it over the apples and eat cold. A few pieces of lemon boiled in the syrup add to the flavor.

BAKED PEARS.

Pare and core the pears without dividing; place them in a pan and fill up the orifice with brown sugar; add a little water and let them bake until perfectly tender. Nice with sweet cream or boiled custard.

STEWED PEARS.

Stewed pears with a thick syrup make a fine dessert dish accompanied with cake.

Peel and cut them in halves, leaving the stems on and scoop out the cores. Put them into a saucepan, placing them close together, with the stems uppermost. Pour over sufficient water, a cup of sugar, a few whole cloves and some sticks of cinnamon, a tablespoonful of lemon juice. Cover the stewpan closely, to stew gently till the fruit is done, which will depend on the quality of the fruit. Then take out the fruit carefully and arrange it on a dish for serving. Boil down the syrup until quite thick; strain it and allow it to cool enough to set it; then pour it over the fruit.

The juice could be colored by a few drops of liquid cochineal, or a few slices of beets, while boiling. A teaspoonful of brandy adds much to the flavor. Serve with cream or boiled custard.

BAKED QUINCES.

Take ripe quinces, pare and quarter them, cut out the seeds; then stew them in