Chapter XXI: Front Matter (21)

This “dressing” is especially nice if a few spoonfuls of whipped cream be beaten into it just before serving. It should be very cold, or very hot. If the latter, omit the whipped cream but froth by heating over the fire.

Strawberry sauce for vanilla cream

Crush a pint of berries, mix with them a cupful of sugar; stir until dissolved; strain through a fine colander or a vegetable press, and set on ice until needed.

Hot maple sauce for vanilla ice cream

Boil a pound of maple sugar with a very little water until it begins to “thread.” Then stir into it a half a cupful of shelled English walnuts, broken, not chopped, into bits. There should be enough to make the sauce quite thick. Pour hot over vanilla ice cream.

Chocolate ice cream

Make a custard according to the directions given in the recipe for vanilla ice cream, stirring into it, while in cooking, four tablespoonfuls of grated chocolate. When this chocolate custard is cold beat in a pint of rich cream and freeze.

Burnt almond ice cream

Beat the yolks of four eggs light, add to them a cupful of sugar and a pint of hot milk. Put over the fire in a double boiler, cook until the mixture thickens like a custard, take from the fire, whip in the whites of the eggs, beaten stiff, and when the mixture is cold stir in lightly half a pint of sweet cream, whipped stiff, a cupful of almonds, which have been shelled, blanched, chopped fine, browned in two teaspoonfuls of caramel sugar, and pounded to a coarse powder. Flavor with a teaspoonful of vanilla and half a teaspoonful of almond extract. Freeze as you would other ice cream.

ICE CREAM WITH HOT MAPLE SAUCE

AFTERNOON TEA SANDWICHES]

Pistachio ice cream

Blanch a quarter of a pound of pistachio nuts by pouring boiling water over them, letting them stand in this for ten minutes and slipping off the skins. Grind to a powder or pound to a paste, adding a few drops of cream in the latter case. Have ready a custard as for vanilla ice cream, made of six eggs, a quart of milk and a pound of sugar, and after this is cooked to a custard, and cold, add a quart of rich cream, the pistachio nuts and enough green vegetable paste to make it of the desired shade of green. Turn into the freezer and freeze.

Maple frappé

Into two cupfuls of maple syrup stir a cupful of water and a cupful of rich cream, and freeze. Serve in punch-glasses with teaspoons.

Nesselrode pudding

Make a rich custard of eight eggs and a quart of milk; stir into it a quart of rich cream, turn into a freezer and grind until half-frozen. Now open the freezer, remove the dasher and with a long-handled spoon beat into the cream a pound of chopped marrons glacés. Replace the top of the freezer, pack down in ice and rock salt, and leave for three hours. Turn the pudding upon a chilled platter, and heap whipped cream about the base.

Crushed strawberry ice cream

Make a custard like the one for which directions are given in the last recipe, only doubling the quantity. Add a quart of cream and pour into the freezer. Grind or leave packed down until half-frozen. Have ready a quart of strawberries mashed and abundantly sweetened. When the ice cream is half congealed carefully remove the top from the freezer and with a long spoon beat in the crushed berries, stirring up the contents from the bottom. Replace the top and continue to grind until frozen.

Red raspberries may be used in the same way.

Macaroon ice cream

Spread a half-pound of macaroons on a pastry-board and with a rolling-pin crush them to a powder.

Make a custard after the following manner: Heat a pint of milk to the scalding point and pour it gradually upon three eggs beaten light with one and a half cupfuls of granulated sugar. Put into a double boiler over the fire and stir until like thick cream; remove, and set aside to cool. When cold stir into this custard a pint of rich cream, the powdered macaroons and a teaspoonful of vanilla extract. Turn into the freezer and grind until frozen.

Macaroon mousse

Make custard as in last recipe, but whip the cream, then beat the powdered macaroons well into it, pack an ice and freeze without grinding.

The “mousse” or mossy effect is produced by freezing whipped cream without turning the crank. (See directions given at beginning of this chapter.)

Strawberry mousse

Whip a pint of thick cream very stiff and stir into it a cupful of crushed berries which have been sweetened abundantly and from which all of the juice has been drained. Mold and pack in ice and salt for four hours. When ready to serve, garnish with whole strawberries.

Raspberry mousse

Mash a quart of red raspberries and cover them with a pint of granulated sugar. Whip a quart of cream to a stiff froth, and beat it gradually into the mashed berries. Turn into the freezer. Do not grind, but pack in ice and cracked salt for three hours. This is delicious served with or without whipped cream.

Peach ice cream (No. 1)

Scald a pint of cream and pour it very gradually upon three eggs that have been beaten light with three cupfuls of sugar. Put over the fire in a double boiler and cook, stirring constantly until you have a custard that coats the spoon. This will take about fifteen minutes. Set the custard aside until cold, then stir into it a pint of rich cream and three cupfuls of cut-up peaches. These peaches should not be peeled and cut until just before the time for freezing them, and must be cut into very small bits, and sprinkled abundantly with sugar. Stir custard, cream and peaches well together, turn all into the freezer and freeze until firm. If you freeze without grinding, beat the fruit in after the cream has been packed down for an hour.

Peach ice cream (No. 2)

Make a quart of rich ice cream and flavor with almond. When frozen hard take up and cut into cakes. Line the bottom and sides of the freezer with these. Reserve one-fourth for a cover. Fill the center with layers of sliced peaches and thick whipped cream. Cover with the reserved cream and let the freezer remain in ice and salt an hour. Dip quickly into warm water and turn out carefully.

Café parfait

Put together one quart of thick cream, one gill of clear, strong coffee and a cupful of fine white sugar. Whip all light in a cream churn, or with any other appliance you have for whipping cream. When stiff and light put into a mold that will fit in a freezer, and bind a strip of cloth or several folds of tissue paper about the top of the mold so as to keep the salt water from getting in. Put the mold into a freezer tub and surround it with fine ice and rock salt, well packed down. It should stand in this for at least three hours. As a rule it is served heaped in glasses or cups.

Raspberry parfait

With a silver spoon mash a quart of red raspberries and stir into them a pound of granulated sugar. Set in a cold place for several hours while you soak half a box of gelatine in a half a pint of cool water. When the gelatine has soaked for two hours turn it into a saucepan, pour over it a cupful of boiling water, and stir until dissolved. Rub the berries and sugar through a fine colander into the dissolved gelatine, and again set it in a cold place for an hour or two. Meanwhile, beat a pint of sweet cream stiff. (This will make about a quart of whipped cream.) When the gelatine mixture is cold beat the whipped cream into it, put into a freezer and freeze.

Fruit meringue glacé

This is one of the simplest and most delicious of desserts and may be made of any kind of fruit that is at hand. It is especially good when made of strawberries, red raspberries, or ripe peaches.

Crush a quart of fruit to a pulp and cover it with a pint of granulated sugar. Pour on this a half pint of cold water and the unbeaten whites of five eggs. Mix and turn into the freezer. The grinding process will whip the contents into frozen foam, light yet firm.

Orange and banana meringue glacé

Peel, seed and chop five oranges fine, and cover them with two cupfuls of granulated sugar. At the end of half an hour peel and chop five or six bananas, and stir immediately into the sugared oranges. Now add a pint of cold water and the unbeaten whites of five eggs. Turn into the freezer and grind until you have a frozen fruit froth.

Strawberry surprise

Mash two quarts of strawberries to a pulp, add to them a pint of sugar, a pint of water, the juice of two lemons and the unbeaten whites of six eggs. Turn into the freezer and freeze. The turning of the dasher will beat all to a foamy and delicious “surprise.”

Alaska bake (No. 1)

Whites of six eggs. Six tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar. Two-quart brick of ice cream. A thin sheet of sponge cake.

Make a meringue of the egg whites and the sugar, cover a board with white paper, lay on the sponge cake, turn the ice cream out upon the cake (which should extend one-half inch beyond the cream), cover with the meringue, and spread smoothly. Place on the oven grate and brown quickly. The board, paper, cake and meringue are poor conductors of heat and prevent the cream from melting. Slip from paper on ice cream platter.

Alaska bake (No. 2)

Cover thickly a two-quart brick mold of ice cream with a meringue made of the whites of six eggs and six tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar.

Place the dish upon a board and set in a very quick oven to brown. The meringue acts as a non-conductor, and prevents the heat from melting the ice cream.

It may also be browned with a salamander or a heated fire-shovel.

Sherbet

Squeeze all the juice from six lemons and one large orange. Put into this the grated rind of the orange, and of three of the lemons, and let it steep for an hour. Strain in a bag, squeezing this hard; add two cupfuls of granulated sugar and one pint of water. Mix well and put into a freezer. The length of time it will take to freeze depends upon the make of the freezer. Some require more time than others.

Berry sherbet

Mash one quart of berries, or enough to make one pint of juice; add one pint of sugar, and after the sugar is dissolved, add one pint of water and the juice of one lemon. Press through coarse lace, or cheese cloth, and freeze.

Tutti-frutti ice cream

Break the whites of seven eggs into a chilled bowl, add to them two cupfuls of powdered sugar and a pint of rich cream into which you have stirred a bit of baking-soda the size of a pea. Put over the fire in a double boiler and make it scalding hot, but remove before the boiling point is reached. Now set the inner saucepan in a pan of ice, and churn until cold and light. Turn into the freezer and grind. Peel and cut into small bits three peaches, an apple, an orange, a banana, two dozen cherries (crystallized, if you can not get the fresh), and cut into small pieces a half cupful of red raspberries. Mix all these fruits thoroughly together. When the cream is frozen, but not very stiff, carefully wipe off the top of the freezer, remove the cover, and take out the dasher. Turn the mixed fruits into the cream, and with a long-handled spoon stir them in. Press all down hard, replace the cover, and pack the freezer down in ice and salt for three hours longer.

Cherry ice

Stem and stone a quart of cherries, crush and cover them with two cupfuls of sugar. At the end of an hour squeeze the cherries through a vegetable press and extract all the juice. To this add the juice of a lemon, a pint of water and the unbeaten whites of three eggs. Turn all into a freezer and grind until you have a firm, light ice. Pack the freezer in ice and salt for an hour after the dasher is removed.

Whole banana ice cream

Wash and wipe twelve large ripe _red_ bananas, cut the skins down carefully all the length on one side, and as carefully extract the pulp without breaking the skins. Remove the pulp, scrape out the fibrous portion from the skins and put the latter in the ice-chest until the cream is ready. Mash the pulp of the bananas, mix with it two cupfuls of sugar and one quart of cream, and add two teaspoonfuls of lemon juice. Rub through your colander to get rid of fibrous parts, and freeze in the usual way. When almost hard, fill the banana skins with the cream, packing it in well, tie with soft thread and return to the cleaned and chilled freezer. Freeze for another hour (without turning). Have ready a dozen narrow green ribbons. Remove the threads, tie the bananas up with the ribbons; lay back in a freezer when you have wiped it dry, and leave in ice and rock salt until served.

Plum Bavarian cream

Soak half a box of gelatin in half a pint of cold water. Press through a sieve one pint of canned, or freshly stewed and sweetened plums. Stir the gelatin over boiling water until dissolved; stir the plums into this and mix well; pour into a bowl set in ice, and stir constantly until it begins to thicken; then add one pint of whipped cream; stir lightly until well-mixed. Turn into a mold and stand in a cool place. Serve with whipped cream.

Cider ice

Dissolve one and a half cupfuls of granulated sugar in one quart of cider. Add one cupful of orange juice and one-fourth cupful of lemon juice. Mix the ingredients well together and freeze in the usual manner.

Raspberry and currant cream

Mash one quart of black raspberries and one pint of red currants with two and a half cupfuls of sugar. Let them stand several hours, strain off the juice and turn into the freezer. When partly frozen, add one cupful of sweet cream, sweetened, flavored and whipped.

Candied citron ice cream

Cut peeled and cored citron into strips. To each pound of these strips allow a pound of granulated sugar. Make a syrup of the sugar and water, allowing a cup of water to each pound of sugar. Cook the citron strips in this until clear and tender, adding enough ginger-root to flavor. Take out the citron and lay on platters to cool, and boil the syrup until very thick. Add a little lemon juice, return the citron to the syrup and stir until candied. Lay on a platter to cool and dry. When you wish to use it cut into tiny shreds and beat into plain vanilla ice cream when half-frozen. Close the freezer and turn until the contents are firm.

HOME-MADE CANDIES

There has of late years been so much criminal adulteration of candy that the cautious parent is tempted to condemn all bonbons as unfit for human stomachs. In our wholesale condemnation we are prone to forget that the longing for sweets is a natural craving of the system, and that pure sugar, taken in moderation and at the proper time, is not injurious, but rather aids in the process of digestion.

A moderate amount of good candy eaten directly after a hearty meal should not prove injurious to any healthy person.

Appreciation of this hygienic law has led to the introduction of the bonbonnière upon the luncheon and the dinner table. The sweet morsels are nibbled because it is fashionable to partake of them, but the good results are the same as if intelligent comprehension of need and supply were the motive power.

Maple candy

Break a pound of maple sugar into bits and then crush it fine with a rolling-pin. Stir it into two cupfuls of hot milk; put over the fire, and stir until the sugar is melted. Now boil hard, stirring all the time, until the syrup is brittle when dropped into cold water; beat in a lump of butter the size of a small hen’s egg, and as soon as this melts, pour the candy into greased pans. Cut into large squares before it hardens.

Maple caramels

Break two pounds of maple sugar into a quart of milk—half cream, if you have it—and boil steadily, until a little dropped into cold water, hardens. Pour into greased pans, and as it cools, mark into squares.

Maple fudge

Break a pound of maple sugar into small pieces and put it over the fire with a cupful of milk. Bring to a boil, add a tablespoonful of butter and cook until a little dropped into cold water becomes brittle. Take from the fire, stir until it begins to granulate a little about the sides of the pot, and then pour into a greased pan. Mark into squares with a knife.

Sugar candy

Wet two heaping cupfuls of granulated sugar with a half pint of cold water and put over the fire in a porcelain-lined saucepan. When the sugar is dissolved, stir in a bit of cream of tartar (as large as a Lima bean) dissolved in a spoonful of cold water. Boil the candy until a bit hardens when dropped into cold water; remove from the fire, stir in a teaspoonful of vanilla, turn into greased pans, mark into squares and set aside to harden. Or, as the candy cools, pull it with buttered finger-tips into long white ropes. Let it get very cold and brittle before eating.

Chocolate fudge (No. 1)

Boil together a cupful of sugar, one cupful of grated chocolate, one-half cupful of milk, one-quarter of a cupful of molasses. Boil, stirring often, until a little hardens in cold water. Remove from the fire, beat in a teaspoonful of vanilla, stir for a minute and turn into a buttered pan.

Chocolate fudge (No. 2)

Three pounds of light brown sugar, one-half pound of chocolate, one-half cupful of cream, one-quarter pound of butter, three tablespoonfuls of vanilla extract.

Put all into a porcelain kettle, or smooth iron pot, excepting the vanilla extract. Set on the back of the stove and let it melt slowly—two hours are none too long, if you value smooth, rich fudge. Then pull forward to boil about ten minutes. Try, at the end of seven or eight minutes, in ice-cold water, and if it “balls” in the fingers, take off and beat, adding the vanilla. Turn out into buttered tins, and score when cool enough.

Penotchie

Put over the fire in a saucepan three cupfuls of light brown sugar—not coffee sugar—with a cupful of milk and boil to the stage when dropped into cold water it makes a soft but firm ball in the fingers. Add, then, a teaspoonful of butter; take from the fire, flavor with a teaspoonful of vanilla and stir in a cupful of kernels of English walnuts, hickory nuts, or pecans, broken into pieces. Turn out upon a well-buttered shallow pan and mark into squares with a buttered knife.

This is sometimes known as “Penuchie,” sometimes as “Mexican Kisses.”

Molasses candy (No. 1)

Stir together three cupfuls of New Orleans molasses and a cupful of brown sugar. Add a gill of vinegar and put all over the fire in a porcelain-lined saucepan. Bring slowly to a boil and stir the syrup often as it cooks. Test the candy, from time to time, by dropping a bit into iced water. As soon as this bit hardens stir into the boiling syrup a heaping teaspoonful of butter; when this melts, add a teaspoonful of baking-soda dissolved in a tablespoonful of boiling water, and remove immediately from the fire. Pour into buttered tins and cut into diamond-shaped candies, or pull into ropes.

This is the good old-fashioned molasses candy of “candy pulls”—the frolics dear to our mothers’ girlish days. In my opinion it is sweeter to taste and to memory than chocolate creams or any other modern bonbon.

Molasses candy (No. 2)

Boil together a cupful of molasses, one of brown sugar, a tablespoonful of butter and a tablespoonful of vinegar. When a drop hardens in cold water remove from the fire, beat in a small teaspoonful of baking-soda, stir hard, and turn into buttered pans. As it hardens, cut into squares, or when hard break into bits.

Molasses “velvets”

One cupful of molasses, three cupfuls of sugar, one cupful of boiling water, three tablespoonfuls of vinegar, one-half teaspoonful of cream of tartar, one-half cupful of melted butter, one-fourth teaspoonful of soda. Pour the first four ingredients into a kettle placed over the front of the range. As soon as the boiling point is reached add cream of tartar. Boil until, when tried in cold water, the mixture will harden and crisp. Stir constantly during the last half hour of cooking. When nearly done add the butter and soda. Pour into a buttered pan and pull as you would plain molasses candy. Before pulling add one teaspoonful of vanilla, one-half teaspoonful of lemon extract, or any essence you may prefer.

Molasses taffy

Boil a pint of molasses for twenty minutes, then stir in two saltspoonfuls of baking-soda and boil for fifteen minutes more, or until a little dropped into cold water is brittle. You must stir the taffy constantly while boiling, or it will scorch. When it is done add a teaspoonful of vinegar and pour into buttered pans, or pull to a light brown.

Molasses walnut candy

Boil a quart of molasses for half an hour, then add a saltspoonful of baking-soda and boil until a little dropped into cold water becomes brittle. Stir in shelled and halved walnuts, and pour into a greased pan.

Molasses stick candy

Boil together a pint of molasses, two tablespoonfuls of butter, a pound of brown sugar and two tablespoonfuls of vinegar. When a little hardens in iced water remove from the fire, and, as it cools, pull into long light strips with floured finger-tips. Lay on waxed paper to harden.

Chocolate caramels (No. 1)

Heat together over a slow fire two cupfuls of brown sugar, half a cupful of molasses, half a cupful of cream, four tablespoonfuls of butter, and half a cake of Baker’s unsweetened chocolate, grated. Cool until it is brittle when dropped into cold water; flavor with a teaspoonful of vanilla, turn into a greased pan, and when cool cut into squares with a knife.

Chocolate caramels (No. 2)

Boil together two pounds of granulated sugar, a quarter of a pound of grated chocolate, a half pint of milk, a quarter of a pound of butter. Cook until a bit hardens when dropped into cold water, flavor with vanilla, pour into greased tins and mark into squares.

Opera caramels

Stir into two cupfuls of granulated sugar just enough milk to dissolve it, add a quarter teaspoonful of cream of tartar and put over a slow fire. Stir constantly while boiling until a little dropped into cold water has the consistency of putty. Pour into a shallow pan and set aside to cool until so stiff that your finger pressed on it leaves a dent. Now beat until you have a soft, dough-like mass. Knead this, put upon a pastry board sprinkled with powdered sugar, and roll into a sheet a half inch thick. Cut into squares. If you wish to make vanilla caramels of these stir in the vanilla just before taking the mixture from the fire.

Chocolate creams

Beat the white of an egg light with a teaspoonful of sugar, add a teaspoonful of vanilla and enough confectioner’s sugar to make a mixture stiff enough to be rolled into balls. Beat very smooth, then form into balls the size of a small marble, and spread in a pan to get stiff and firm. Cover with a chocolate coating.

Chocolate coating for creams

Melt sweetened chocolate in a double boiler. Run a thick skewer into each cream ball and dip in the melted chocolate until thoroughly coated. Spread on buttered tins to dry; or, spread upon waxed paper.

Chocolate marshmallows

Buy two ounces of finely powdered white gum arabic and let it stand, covered with eight tablespoonfuls of cold water, for an hour. Put it then into a double boiler, and let it heat slowly until the gum is dissolved. Strain through a cheese-cloth, wash out the double boiler and return the gum arabic to this with seven ounces of powdered sugar and two tablespoonfuls of grated chocolate. Stir over the fire for about three-quarters of an hour. At the end of this time the mixture should be stiff. Take from the fire, beat rapidly for two minutes, put in a teaspoonful of vanilla, and pour into a pan which has been well dusted with corn-starch. When cold cut into squares.

Fondant for cream candies

To one pound of granulated sugar put into a granite saucepan, add a gill and a half of boiling water, and stir until the sugar is dissolved—no longer. Let the syrup boil about six minutes, and dip a fork into it. Try this, holding up the fork and watching the syrup on the point, until this has reached a stage where it spins a thread. Test it still further by dropping a little of the boiling sugar into iced water. When it can be made into a very soft ball with the fingers, turn it out on a large platter, which has been lightly buttered. Be careful not to stir the sugar when boiling, and do not scrape off the sugar that adheres to the side of the saucepan. As soon as the syrup in the dish is blood-warm, stir it with a wooden spoon, or paddle, until it begins to crumble. It should be a smooth white mass, and when it has come to this stage should be kneaded in the hands like dough. Pack it into a bowl, cover it with a thin cloth, slightly moistened, and set it away until needed.

Chop nuts and roll in this fondant, or roll in it whole. Citron cut into strips may be coated with it.

Cream dates

Stone dates, opening at one side only, fill with fondant, close gently into the original shape and sprinkle with sugar.

Butterscotch

Wet a pound of brown sugar with a cupful of water, into which two tablespoonfuls of vinegar have been stirred. Put into an agate saucepan. Cook for ten minutes, add four tablespoonfuls of butter and boil until a drop hardens in cold water. Pour into large buttered tins, and as it cools, mark off into squares.

Lemon butter

Boil together half a pound of brown sugar, a tablespoonful of vinegar and a gill of water for ten minutes, and add a heaping tablespoonful of butter. Boil until the candy becomes brittle when dropped into cold water, and take from the fire. Add to it the juice of a lemon and pour into a shallow, well-greased pan.

Hoarhound candy (made from fresh leaves)

Make a strong solution of hoarhound leaves; strain this, and put a quarter of a cupful of it over the fire with a pound of brown sugar and a very little water. Cook until a little dropped in cold water is brittle. Add a tablespoonful of vinegar, boil up once and turn into greased tins.

Hoarhound candy (made from dried leaves)

Steep a heaping tablespoonful of dried hoarhound leaves in half a cupful of boiling water for one hour, then strain and squeeze. Add the liquid to two cupfuls of brown sugar, put over the fire in a saucepan, and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Put in a tablespoonful of vinegar and boil until the candy breaks when dropped into cold water. Drop from the point of the spoon upon buttered paper, or pour into a pan and cut into squares.

Wintergreen candy

Made as directed in last recipes, substituting wintergreen for hoarhound.

Walnut creams

Beat the whites of an egg very light with enough XXX sugar to make it very stiff. Now add cream, a few drops at a time, until the mixture is of the consistency of putty, working it with the hands until it is soft and smooth. Flavor with vanilla, or with lemon juice and the grated rind. Roll into small balls, flatten these, and press a half walnut on each side of every ball.

French cream almonds

Four cupfuls of granulated sugar; one cupful of boiling water; two tablespoonfuls of glucose.

Stir until mixed and dissolved, then cover, and boil until the syrup strings. Pour into a crock and allow it to stand undisturbed until cool enough for you to hold your finger in it. Stir with a wooden spoon until thick; pour upon a marble slab and knead all lumps out. Work in flavoring and coloring if desired. Mold into balls and press a blanched almond on the top of each ball.

Creamed English walnuts

For this use the large English walnuts, cracking them carefully so as not to break the kernels. Remove each half in one piece and free it from all bits of shell.

Heat over boiling water half a pound of fondant like that for which directions have been given in the recipe for chocolate creams. Flavor it with a teaspoonful of vanilla extract, stir it until it becomes creamy and dip into it with a pair of small sugar tongs the half of the walnut. Lift it out carefully and lay it on waxed paper until it is dry.

Or you may make a fondant of another kind by mixing the white of an egg with an equal quantity of cold water and stirring into it enough confectioner’s sugar of the variety known as “XXX” to make a dough-like paste that can be handled with the fingers. This may be flavored to taste with vanilla or bitter almond, or any other extract, and formed with the fingers into small balls. To each side of this may be pressed the flat surface of an English walnut kernel. They may then be laid on waxed paper in a box.

Peanut candy

Boil together two and one-half cupfuls of sugar and a gill of water, without stirring, until a little, when dropped into cold water, can be worked into a soft ball. Now add a tablespoonful of butter and boil until the candy hardens when dropped into cold water. Stir in a cupful of shelled, roasted and skinned peanuts, turn the mixture into a buttered pan and cut into squares.

Peanut molasses candy

Boil together a cupful, each, of molasses and brown sugar, a tablespoonful of vinegar and two of butter. When a little, dropped into cold water, is brittle, add a cupful of shelled, roasted and skinned peanuts, remove at once from the fire, add a teaspoonful (scant) of baking-soda, beat hard, and pour into buttered pans.

Nougat

Boil together a pound of sugar and a half cupful of cold water until it becomes brittle if dropped into cold water. Cover the bottom of a well-buttered shallow tin with nut kernels—hickory, walnut and pecans, blanched almonds, strips of cocoanut, bits of figs, dates and the like. Add a tablespoonful of lemon juice to the candy when it is done, and pour it over the fruit and nuts in the pan. Let it get cold and mark into squares and strips.

Creamed burnt almonds

Put two cupfuls of granulated sugar into a saucepan with two tablespoonfuls of water, set over the fire and stir continually with a wooden spoon. As soon as it is well melted, move it to one side of the fire, drop in the blanched almonds, and take them out at once with a perforated spoon, or candy dipper. Lay them on buttered dishes to harden.

Creamed grapes

Make a syrup of a pound of sugar and a gill of water. Boil without stirring until a drop put into iced water becomes brittle. Remove from the fire, set in an outer pan of boiling water, and add to the syrup a dessertspoonful of lemon juice. Run a stiff wire or the prong of a pickle fork through each grape, and dip them, one by one, in the hot syrup, then lay on waxed paper to dry.

Creamed popcorn

Make a syrup as for creamed grapes in the recipe given above, but omit the lemon juice. Drop into the syrup enough crisp popcorn to make it thick; take out this, after stirring for half a minute, by the great spoonful and lay on greased paper. As the mass hardens roll a spoonful of it into a ball, then roll this over and over in freshly popped and sugared corn, until the white kernels adhere to the sticky ball.

Popcorn balls

Make an old-fashioned molasses candy, and just before removing from the fire, stir in enough popcorn to thicken it. Take the mixture out by the spoonful and roll, as soon as it can be handled, into balls, then roll these over and over in kernels of popcorn until no more will adhere to the balls.

Sugared peanuts

Prepare as you would salted nuts, but substitute butter for oil, and fine sugar for salt, after you have rolled the nuts in the white of an egg, beaten light. Spread out upon white paper to dry in the sun, or in a moderate oven.

Orange straws

Select thick-skinned oranges, and cut the peel in strips a quarter inch wide. Have a pan of boiling water on the stove, and place as many pieces of the peel in the water as you can easily handle. Let it boil five minutes, drain, cover again with boiling water, boil five minutes more, drain again, once more cover with boiling water and boil five minutes, making fifteen in all. Drain thoroughly, then make a syrup of one teacupful of sugar to three tablespoonfuls of water; when this boils add the peel, and cook until this is absorbed (about twenty minutes); remove from the pan, and, while hot, roll each straw in granulated sugar which you have placed previously upon clean paper. Then put each straw on paper in a pan until the bottom of the pan is covered, and place in a warm oven until all are dry. Have the sugar to roll the straws in and all ingredients ready before beginning the cooking, as the straws must be handled very rapidly. They will keep for weeks and not become sticky. One cup of sugar will do for five oranges.

Candied orange peel

When peeling the orange cut the rind into quarters, then cut into long strips. Put into a pan, cover with cold water, bring to the boil and drain. To six oranges allow one and a half cupfuls of granulated sugar and a cupful of water; put these into a granite saucepan and bring to a hard boil. Add the orange peel and boil down quickly, taking care not to burn. When the liquid is almost cooked away take the saucepan off the stove and stir in a cupful of sugar. Stir until almost cold, pick apart with the fingers, and lay on a plate.

Candied pineapple

Peel, slice and weigh the pineapple, and allow a pound and a half of granulated sugar to each pound of fruit. Put the fruit and sugar together in a granite kettle and add just enough water to cover the fruit. Boil until the fruit is tender, remove and spread on a dish to cool while you boil the syrup until very thick. Now lay in the pineapple; cook and stir for five minutes more, and then spread the sliced fruit on platters until dry and “candied.”

Candied citron

Peel and core the citron and cut into strips. Weigh the fruit, and allow a pound of sugar to each pound of the citron strips. Make a syrup, allowing a cupful of water to each pound of sugar. Cook the citron in this until it is tender; remove and spread on dishes. Boil in the syrup enough ginger to give a slight flavor, and when the syrup is very thick stir in a little lemon juice. Now lay the strips of citron back in the syrup, and stir until candied and coated with sugar. Lay on a platter to cool and dry.

Marshmallows

Soak four ounces of pulverized gum arabic in a teacupful of cold water for two hours. Put into a double boiler with cold water in the outer vessel and bring gradually to the scalding point. When the gum is dissolved, strain through coarse muslin, return to the double boiler with a heaping cupful of powdered sugar, and stir steadily until the mixture is white and stiff. Remove from the fire, beat very hard for a minute and flavor with vanilla; beat a minute longer, and pour into tins, the insides of which have been rubbed with corn-starch. When the paste is cool cut it into squares of uniform size and turn each of these over and over in a mixture made of three parts corn-starch and one part powdered sugar. Keep packed in a tin box until wanted, as they soon dry if exposed to the air.

Peanut brittle

Boil together a cupful, each, of molasses and brown sugar, a tablespoonful of vinegar and two tablespoonfuls of butter. When a little dropped into cold water is brittle, add a cupful of blanched peanuts; remove at once from the fire, add a teaspoonful of baking-soda, beat hard, and pour into buttered pans.

Hickory nut candy

Prepare half a cupful of hickory nut kernels by chopping them. Boil together one cupful of “A” sugar, one-third of a cupful of water, and a piece of butter the size of a walnut until it makes a soft lump when tested in water. Remove from the fire and stir in the nuts. When it begins to look cloudy, pour by the spoonful into buttered tins. It will spread into flat cakes.

Maple nut candy

Butter a shallow tin and cover the bottom with butternut meats. Place on the cooler part of the stove one quart of maple sugar and one cupful of water. Cook slowly and test in water. When done, pour over the nut meats. Before it hardens, mark into squares.

Crystallized fruits

Make a syrup of a pound of sugar and a gill of water. Boil, without stirring, until a drop put into iced water becomes immediately brittle. Remove the saucepan from the fire and set it at once in an outer pan of boiling water. Add to the syrup the juice of a quarter of a lemon. Run the prongs of a sharp pickle fork through each piece of fruit to be candied, and dip it in the hot syrup. Lay on buttered or waxed paper to dry.

Stuffed dates

Remove the stones from dates and fill with a mixture made as follows:

Put into an agate saucepan one cupful of granulated sugar and a gill of cold water, with half a saltspoonful of cream of tartar. Stir just long enough to dissolve the sugar, then boil, without touching, until a drop put into cold water can be formed into a soft ball. Remove from the fire immediately, skim off every particle of crust, if there be any upon the surface of the syrup, and pour the syrup into a bowl. When so cool and thick that the finger leaves a dent when pressed upon it, stir with a wooden spoon to a smooth white paste. When too stiff to stir with a spoon, work the mixture with the hands. This filling will keep for weeks. When you wish to use it, set the cup containing it in a pan of hot water until soft enough to handle.

Slippery-elm cough candy

Soak a good handful of dried slippery-elm bark in a pint of water all night. In the morning bring it to a boil, strain and press to get out all the mucilaginous matter, and put the liquid thus obtained over a slow fire with two cupfuls of sugar. Wet the sugar well with lemon juice before adding it to the slippery-elm tea. Simmer, stirring until the sugar dissolves. When the candy “ropes” pour it out into broad buttered tins and mark into squares. You may pull it white if you like. It is palatable and excellent for colds and coughs.

AFTERNOON TEA

In every respectable English dwelling, be it palace or cottage, tea is served between four and five o’clock every afternoon in the year. The crone in the almshouse takes hers direct from the hob in winter, and in summer hobbles with her black teapot, a teaspoonful of the precious leaves in the bottom, to the common kitchen to have it filled. Her betters in name and in worldly gear assemble about the tea equipage in drawing room or library, or in the family “parlor.”

For the wealthy there are tea-tables of divers patterns, some with leaves that draw out to accommodate cups and saucers when set in array. The conventional afternoon tea-table is lower than that intended to hold bric-a-brac and books. The chair occupied by the mistress of the house or one of her daughters is low and broad, that she may sit at her ease while making and dispensing the beverage. The central figure upon the tray is a teakettle of silver, copper, brass or lacquered Japanese ware, with a spirit lamp beneath. When the water boils the tea is “masked,” _i. e._, a little is poured upon the dry leaves in the pot, a wadded “cozy” is fitted over the latter, and the tea is “drawn” for about two minutes before the rest of the water is added.

The cups are passed by a servant if none of the young people of the family or intimate friends are present to whom the graceful task can be delegated. The tone of the whole function is easy sociability.

This is especially marked in the English country house, where sportsmen, who have been out with the dogs and gamekeeper all day, are allowed to drift into the drawing-room, in splashed gaiters and knickerbockers, for a chat and a cup of hot tea before going off to dress for dinner.

As accompaniments to the tea we have a basket of light cakes or biscuits, thin bread and butter, now and then buttered scones or “tea cake.” Anything more elaborate mars the simplicity of the custom, perverting it into an “occasion.” It ceases to be afternoon tea, a rest station between the one o’clock luncheon and the seven or eight o’clock dinner. In some towns and cities—particularly in the lavish South—the effort to introduce this simplest of social functions has failed ignominiously, because—like dish-washing, toast-making and tea-making, speaking the truth and spelling correctly—the right way of doing it is too easy to learn. The “spread” of oysters, salads, cakes and creams, bouillon and bonbons, flummery and fruit, into which the imported custom degenerated, was as foreign to the true spirit of the original as the crush of elaborately dressed women and the sprinkle of uncomfortable men who attended the teas was to the cordial informality that should obtain with guests and entertainers.

It is a wholesome symptom in our feverish social system that the beneficent break in the diurnal rush and press furnished by afternoon tea-time is becoming more and more prevalent. In tens of thousands of homes, in city and in country, five o’clock brings together the scattered parts of the home circle in the living-room. Jaunty wicker stands, three and four-storied, for holding plates of fancy biscuits, thin bread and butter, cake and crisp strips of lightly buttered toast spread with anchovy paste, have crept into conservative drawing-rooms; teakettle, teapot and their appurtenances appear duly at the stroke of the hour, and visitors who happen to call at that hour are cordially made welcome to the grateful refreshment. “Tea” is always there, no matter who comes or goes, and it typifies what we need more than all else besides in a land where labor is the rule and relaxation the exception—home joys, home comfort, home _rest_!

Five o’clock tea has come to stay! Whether as a simple refreshment for busy women who long for a life-saving station in the afternoon rush, or as an informal—and inexpensive—fashion of entertaining one’s friends, it seems to be as firm a fixture on this side of the Atlantic as on the other.

One of the chief charms of the afternoon tea is its adaptability. It may be as much or as little of a function as one chooses. I do not refer now to the cup of tea that the hostess pours for herself or the chance friend every afternoon in the week, but to the tea where guests are regularly invited. It may be madame’s At Home day, which extends over a period of a few weeks, or runs through the whole winter, or it may be one of the more formal occasions, to which guests are invited in droves, and social debts thereby paid _en bloc_.

For the simpler function it is easy to lay down rules. Little is required for it. If it is to be a weekly affair for which cards are issued early in the season, it is foolish to plan an elaborate menu, and even worse than foolish, for it is in bad taste. The guest who goes to such a day, “at home,” does not expect a “spread,” and the hostess who offers too much makes life harder for the timid woman of small means who is not quite sure what is the correct thing, but is only positive that it must be expensive.

For the ordinary one-day-every-week-all-winter afternoon tea there are many houses where one has only bread and butter or fancy biscuits and a simple cake. I know one woman who prides herself upon the quality of the doughnuts she serves at her afternoon teas, and they are the only sweets she has beyond a little dish of bonbons. To be sure, there are simple sandwiches or thin bread and butter, but further than this she does not go except for some special occasion.

For such an Afternoon Tea the following menus are offered as suggestions:

AFTERNOON TEA MENU. I

Caviar Sandwiches Creamed Chicken Sandwiches
Fancy Cakes
Tea, or Coffee, or Chocolate

AFTERNOON TEA MENU. II

Chicken and Celery Sandwiches Anchovy Toast
Fancy Cakes
Tea, or Coffee, or Chocolate

These menus may be modified in many ways. Other varieties of sandwiches may be provided. Both tea and coffee, or tea and chocolate, may be offered. Plain cake may be supplied instead of the fancy cakes, and a good tea biscuit may be given instead of one kind of sandwiches. Little dishes of bonbons may stand by to supplement the feast.

For these, as for the ordinary afternoon tea where there are no invited guests, the preparations are the same. The tea-table is not to be left standing fully equipped to gather dust when it is not in use. The cups and saucers and other tea plenishings are brought in on a tray and placed on the table. This may be a regular tea-table, or it may be the table one finds in every drawing-room where are piled the magazines and books of the day. These may be swept to one side to make space for the tray. The hostess may make the tea and pour it, or it may be brought in ready from the kitchen.

When tea-time extends over the whole afternoon, a tea-ball will prove of value. Then each guest is sure of a fresh hot cup of tea, and while the alcohol lamp holds out to burn the supply will not fail.

If there are a good many guests there may be a maid at hand to pass cups and offer the plates of sandwiches and sweets. But, as a rule, the affair is so informal that hostess and guests wait on themselves.

With the cup and saucer there may be offered a plate, and some hostesses offer doilies as well, but this is not obligatory. The maid is chiefly needed to replenish the hot water, to take away empty cups and the like, and if she is within sound of the bell, it answers as well as though she were at the elbow of the hostess.

When the tea is to be a larger and more formal function, matters are differently arranged. In those cases where a hostess gives perhaps two days, and invites all her dear five hundred friends to be present at one or the other of them, there is not room in the drawing-room for the tea-table nor place for the chatty informality of the simpler afternoon tea. The table is laid in the dining-room, or the library, and a friend is invited to “pour.” If there are two beverages,—as there are, almost invariably,—one friend takes each end of the table, and there may be even a third, presiding over another hot drink, or over the punch bowl. A waitress or two must be at hand to take away the dishes that have been used and bring fresh, and to see that the guests have enough to eat and drink. The hostess has no time to see to anything beyond the salutations of the guests as they come in, and can only suggest to them that they go out to the dining-room and find something to eat.

Once in a while, a hostess will give no more than is contained in the menus already suggested, except that the supplies of all kinds may be increased, and that there may be three kinds of sandwiches, instead of one or two, and a larger choice in the matter of cake. Two hot drinks, at least, must be supplied.

But in so large a function the bill of fare is more likely to be something like the following:

AFTERNOON TEA MENU. III

Bouillon
Lobster Sandwiches Chicken Truffle Sandwiches
Lettuce Sandwiches
Salted Almonds Olives Bonbons Cakes
Tea Coffee
Chocolate, or Claret Punch

When an afternoon tea gets to this stage it may still be called “a tea,” but it has gone far beyond that, and has become a daytime reception. Even if the sun is shining outside there is usually artificial light in the rooms. The lamps are burning with a pleasant subdued light, there are candles with colored shades, the women who are receiving and presiding over the table are in full dress. The table itself is beautiful with china and cut glass and silver. Flowers are about everywhere, and except that the men are in morning dress and the women guests in street costume, it might be an evening party.

There is a reception held in the afternoon that is even more elaborate than this. When a woman wants to make signal some special “occasion,”—to honor a guest, or perhaps because it is the only “crush” she gives in the year,—she often makes it a tea. For this the cards will be out ten days or more in advance and the refreshments provided are more elegant and numerous than those mentioned above. Such a collation might be as follows:

AFTERNOON TEA MENU. IV

Bouillon

Chicken or Lobster Salad Creamed Oysters
Nut Sandwiches Sardine Sandwiches
Cream Cheese Sandwiches
Olives or Pimolas Salted Nuts Bonbons
Ices Frappé Cakes
Tea Coffee Chocolate Punch

The table is arranged for this as for the third tea mentioned, but there must be waiters in attendance, and they serve nearly everything. In most cases there is nothing done by the young women friends of the hostess who gather in the dining-room except entertain the guests and see that they have enough to eat. Once in a while, these young women may preside at the coffee-urn, or the chocolate, or teapot, but it is not a common occurrence.

The matter has been put into the hands of “the profession.”

It is all very nice, and an excellent way to clear the debit side of one’s social ledger, but the mind turns to the quiet afternoon tea-table with the hot tea under the cozy, the saucer of sliced lemon, the tiny flask of rum or the graceful cream jug, the sugar basin and plate of sandwiches, or bread and butter, with affection one never cherishes for the huge kettledrum.

SOME DAINTIES FOR AFTERNOON TEA

Tea cakes

Sift a quart of flour three times with two teaspoonfuls of baking-powder and one of salt. Chop into this a tablespoonful of butter and one of cottolene or other fat.

(In all preparations requiring shortening, cottolene is preferable to lard.)

Mix in a bowl with a wooden spoon, adding about three cupfuls of milk, or enough to make a soft dough. Turn out upon your board and roll, with swift, light strokes into a sheet half an inch in thickness. Reverse a jelly-cake tin upon the sheet and cut with a sharp knife cakes just the size of the tin. With a spatula, transfer to a floured baking-pan and bake in a quick oven.