Most other fruits are preserved so much like the preceding that it is needless to give any more particular directions than to say that a pound of sugar to a pound of fruit is the general rule for all preserves that are to be kept through warm weather and a long time.
Preserved Water-melon Rinds.—This a fine article to keep well without trouble for a long time. Peel the melon, and boil it in just enough water to cover it till it is soft, trying with a fork. (If you wish it green, put green vine-leaves above and below each layer, and scatter powdered alum, less than half a tea-spoonful to each pound.)
Allow a pound of sugar to each pound of rind, and clarify it as directed previously.
Simmer the rinds two hours in this sirup, and flavor it with lemon-peel grated and tied in a bag. Then put the melon in a tureen, and boil the sirup till it looks thick, and pour it over. Next day, give the sirup another boiling, and put the juice of one lemon to each quart of sirup. Take care not to make it bitter by too much of the peel.
Citrons are preserved in the same manner. Both these keep through hot weather with very little care in sealing and keeping.
Preserved Pumpkin.—Cut a thick yellow pumpkin, peeled, into strips two inches wide and five or six long.
Take a pound of white sugar for each pound of fruit, and scatter it over the fruit, and pour on two wine-glasses of lemon-juice for each pound of pumpkin.
Next day, put the parings of one or two lemons with the fruit and sugar, and boil the whole three quarters of an hour, or long enough to make it tender and clear without breaking. Lay the pumpkin to cool, strain the sirup, and then pour it on to the pumpkin.
If there is too much lemon-peel, it will be bitter.
CHAPTER XVIII.
DESSERTS AND EVENING PARTIES.
Ice-Cream.—One quart of milk. One and a half table-spoonfuls of arrow-root. The grated peel of two lemons. One quart of thick cream.
Wet the arrow-root with a little cold milk, and add it to the quart of milk when boiling hot; sweeten it very sweet with white sugar, put in the grated lemon-peel, boil the whole, and strain it into the quart of cream. When partly frozen, add the juice of the two lemons. Twice this quantity is enough for thirty-five persons. Find the quantity of sugar that suits you by measure, and then you can use this every time, without tasting. Some add whites of eggs; others think it just as good without. It must be made very sweet, as it loses much by freezing.
If you have no apparatus for freezing, (which is almost indispensable), put the cream into a tin pail with a very tight cover, mix equal quantities of snow and blown salt, (not the coarse salt), or of pounded ice and salt, in a tub, and put it as high as the pail, or freezer; turn the pail or freezer half round and back again with one hand, for half an hour, or longer, if you want it very nice. Three quarters of an hour steadily will make it good enough. While doing this, stop four or five times, and mix the frozen part with the rest, the last time very thoroughly, and then the lemon-juice must be put in. Then cover the freezer tight with snow and salt till it is wanted. The mixture must be perfectly cool before being put in the freezer. Renew the snow and salt while shaking, so as to have it kept tight to the sides of the freezer. A hole in the tub holding the freezing mixture, to let off the water, is a great advantage. In a tin pail it would take much longer to freeze than in the freezer, probably nearly twice as long. A long stick, like a coffee-stick, should be used in scraping the ice from the sides. Iron spoons will be affected by the lemon-juice, and give a bad taste.
In taking it out for use, first wipe off every particle of the freezing mixture dry, then with a knife loosen the sides, then invert the freezer upon the dish in which the ice is to be served, and apply two towels wrung out of hot water to the bottom part, and the whole will slide out in the shape of a cylinder. Freezers are now sold quite cheap, and such as freeze in a short time.
Strawberry Ice-Cream.—Rub a pint of ripe strawberries through a sieve, add a pint of cream, and four ounces of powdered sugar, and freeze it. Other fruits may be used thus.
Ice-Cream without Cream.—A vanilla bean or a lemon rind is first boiled in a quart of milk. Take out the bean or peel, and add the yelks of four eggs, beaten well. Heat it scalding hot, but do not boil it, stirring in white sugar till very sweet. When cold, freeze it.
Fruit Ice-Cream.—Make rich boiled custard, and mash into it the soft ripe fruit, or the grated or cooked hard fruit, or grated pine-apples. Rub all through a sieve, sweeten it very sweet, and freeze it. Quince, apple, pear, peach, strawberry, and raspberry are all very good for this purpose.
A Cream for stewed Fruit.—Boil two or three peach leaves, or a vanilla bean, in a quart of cream, or milk, till flavored. Strain and sweeten it, mix it with the yelks of four eggs, well beaten; then, while heating it, add the whites cut to a froth. When it thickens take it up. When cool, pour it over the fruit or preserves.
Currant, Raspberry, or Strawberry Whisk.—Put three gills of the juice of the fruit to ten ounces of crushed sugar, add the juice of a lemon, and a pint and a half of cream. Whisk it till quite thick, and serve it in jelly-glasses or a glass dish.
Lemonade Ice, and other Ices.—To a quart of lemonade, add the whites of six eggs, cut to a froth, and freeze it. The juices of any fruit, sweetened and watered, may be prepared in the same way, and are very fine.
Charlotte Russe.—One ounce of gelatine simmered in half a pint of milk or water, four ounces of sugar beat into the yelks of four eggs, and added to the gelatine when dissolved. Then add a pint of cream or new milk. Lastly, add the whites beat to a stiff froth, and beat all together. Line a mold with slices of sponge-cake and set it on ice, and when the cream is a little thickened, fill the mold; let it stand five or six hours, and then turn it into a dish.
Flummery.—Cut sponge-cake into thin slices, and line a deep dish. Make it moist with white wine; make a rich custard, using only the yelks of the eggs. When cool, turn it into the dish, and cut the whites to a stiff froth, and put on the top.
Chicken Salad.—Cut the white meat of chickens into small bits the size of peas. Chop the white parts of celery nearly as small.
Prepare a dressing thus: rub the yelks of hard-boiled eggs smooth, to each yelk put half a tea-spoonful of liquid mustard, the same quantity of salt, a table-spoonful of oil mixed in very slowly and thoroughly, and half a wine-glass of vinegar. Mix the chicken and celery in a large bowl, and pour over this dressing.
The dressing must not be put on till just before it is used. Bread and butter and crackers are served with it.
Wine Jelly.—Two ounces of American isinglass or gelatine. One quart of boiling water. A pint and a half of white wine. The whites of three eggs.
Soak the gelatine in cold water half an hour. Then take it from the water, and pour on the quart of boiling water. When cooled, add the grated rind of one lemon, and the juice of two, and a pound and a half of loaf-sugar. Then beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, and stir them in, and let the whole boil till the egg is well mixed, but do not stir while it boils. Strain through a jelly-bag, and then add the wine.
In cold weather, a pint more of water may be added. This jelly can be colored by beet-juice, saffron, or indigo, for fancy dishes.
An Apple Lemon Pudding.—Six spoonfuls of grated, or of cooked and strained, apple. Three lemons, pulp, rind, and juice, all grated. Half a pound of melted butter. Sugar to the taste. Seven eggs well beaten.
Mix, and bake with or without paste. It can be made still plainer by using nine spoonfuls of apple, one lemon, two thirds of a cup full of butter, and three eggs.