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 MARMALADE FOR THE CHARLOTTE.

Weigh three pounds of good boiling apples, after they have been
pared, cored, and quartered; put them into a stewpan with six
ounces of fresh butter, three quarters of a pound of sugar beaten to
powder, three quarters of a teaspoonful of pounded cinnamon, and
the strained juice of a lemon; let these stew over a gentle fire, until
they form a perfectly smooth and dry marmalade; keep them often
stirred that they may not burn, and let them cool before they are put
into the crust. This quantity is for a moderate-sized Charlotte.
 A CHARLOTTE À LA PARISIENNE.

This dish is sometimes called in England a Vienna cake; and it is

known here also, we believe, as a Gâteaux de Bordeaux. Cut
horizontally into half-inch slices a Savoy or sponge cake, and cover
each slice with a different kind of preserve; replace them in their
original form, and spread equally over the cake an icing made with
the whites of three eggs, and four ounces of the finest pounded
sugar; sift more sugar over it in every part, and put it into a very
gentle oven to dry. The eggs should be whisked to snow before they
are used. One kind of preserve, instead of several, can be used for
this dish; and a rice or a pound cake may supply the place of the
Savoy or sponge biscuit.
 A GERTRUDE À LA CREME.

Slice a plain pound or rice cake as for the Charlotte à la

Parisienne, and take a round out of the centre of each slice with a
tin-cutter before the preserve is laid on; replace the whole in its
original form, ice the outside with a green or rose coloured icing at
pleasure, and dry it in a gentle oven; or decorate it instead with
leaves of almond paste, fastening them to it with white of egg. Just
before it is sent to table, fill it with well-drained whipped cream,
flavoured as for a trifle or in any other way to the taste.
 POMMES AU BEURRE.

(Buttered apples. Excellent.)

Pare six or eight fine apples of a firm but good boiling kind, and
core without piercing them through, or dividing them; fill the cavities
with fresh butter, put a quarter of a pound more, cut small, into a
stewpan just large enough to contain the apples in a single layer,
place them closely together on it, and stew them as softly as
possible, turning them occasionally until they are almost sufficiently
tender to serve; then strew upon them as much sifted sugar as will
sweeten the dish highly, and a teaspoonful of pounded cinnamon;
shake these well in and upon the fruit, and stew it for a few minutes
longer. Lift it out, arrange it in a hot dish, put into each apple as
much warm apricot jam as it will contain, and lay a small quantity on
the top; pour the syrup from the pan round, but not on the fruit, and
serve it immediately.
Apples, 6 to 8; fresh butter, 4 oz., just simmered till tender. Sugar,
6 to 8 oz.; cinnamon, 1 teaspoonful: 5 minutes. Apricot jam as
needed.
Obs.—Particular care must be taken to keep the apples entire:
they should rather steam in a gentle heat than boil. It is impossible to
specify the precise time which will render them sufficiently tender, as
this must depend greatly on the time of year and the sort of fruit. If
the stewpan were placed in a very slow oven, the more regular heat
of it would perhaps be better in its effect than the stewing.
 SUÉDOISE OF PEACHES.

Pare and divide four fine, ripe peaches,

and let them just simmer from five to eight
minutes in a syrup made with the third of a
pint of water and three ounces of very white
sugar, boiled together for fifteen minutes; lift
Suédoise of Peaches. them out carefully into a deep dish, and
pour about half the syrup over them, and
into the remaining half throw a couple of
pounds more of quite ripe peaches, and boil them to a perfectly
smooth dry pulp or marmalade, with as much additional sugar in fine
powder, as the nature of the fruit may require. Lift the other peaches
from the syrup, and reduce it by very quick boiling, more than half.
Spread a deep layer of the marmalade in a dish, arrange the
peaches symmetrically round it, and fill all the spaces between them
with the marmalade; place the half of a blanched peach-kernel in
each, pour the reduced syrup equally over the surface, and form a
border round the dish with Italian macaroons, or, in lieu of these, with
candied citron, sliced very thin, and cut into leaves with a small
paste-cutter. A little lemon-juice brings out the flavour of all
preparations of peaches, and may be added with good effect to this.
When the fruit is scarce, the marmalade (which ought to be very
white) may be made in part, or entirely, with nonsuches. The better
to preserve their form, the peaches are sometimes merely wiped,
and then boiled tolerably tender in the syrup before they are pared or
split. Half a pint of water, and from five to six ounces of sugar must
then be allowed for them. If any of those used for the marmalade
should not be quite ripe, it will be better to pass it through a sieve,
when partially done, to prevent its being lumpy.
Large ripe peaches, pared and halved, 4: simmered in syrup, 5 to
8 minutes. Marmalade: peaches (or nonsuches) 2 lbs.; sugar, 1/2 to
3/4 lb.: 3/4 to 1 hour, or more. Strained lemon-juice, 1 tablespoonful.
Citron, or macaroons, as needed.
Peaches, if boiled whole in syrup, 15 to 18 minutes.
 Obs.—The number of peaches can, at pleasure, be increased to
six, and three or four of the halves can be piled above the others in
the centre of the dish.
 AROCĒ DOCĒ (OR SWEET RICE, À LA PORTUGAISE.)

Wash thoroughly, then drain, and wipe dry in a soft cloth, half a
pound of the best Carolina rice. Pour to it three pints of new milk,
and when it has gently stewed for half an hour, add eight ounces of
sugar broken into small lumps, let it boil until it is dry and tender, and
when it is nearly so, stir to it two ounces of blanched almonds,
chopped[163] or pounded. Turn the rice when done into shallow
dishes or soup plates, and shake it until the surface is smooth; then
sift over it rather thickly through a muslin, some freshly-powdered
cinnamon, which will give it the appearance of a baked pudding.
Serve it cold. It will remain good for several days. This is quite the
best sweet preparation of rice that we have ever eaten, and it is a
very favourite dish in Portugal, whence the receipt was derived. One
or two bitter almonds, pounded with the sweet ones, might a little
improve its flavour, and a few spoonsful of rich cream could
occasionally be substituted for a small portion of the milk, but it
should not be added until the preparation is three parts done.
163. The Portuguese use them not very finely chopped.
Rice, 8 oz.; milk, 3 pints: 30 minutes. Sugar, 8 oz.: 1 hour or more.
Pounded almonds, 2 oz.; cinnamon, 1 teaspoonful. Obs.—The rice
must be frequently stirred while boiling, particularly after it begins to
thicken; and it will be better not to add the entire quantity of milk at
first, as from a quarter to half a pint less will sometimes prove
sufficient. The grain should be thoroughly tender, but dry and
unbroken.
 COCOA-NUT DOCE.

This is merely fine fresh lightly grated cocoa-nut stewed until

tender in syrup, made with one pound of sugar to half a pint of water
(or more to the taste) and flavoured with orange-flower water.
 BUTTERED CHERRIES. (CERISES AU BEURRE.)

Cut four ounces of the crumb of a stale loaf into dice, and fry them
a light brown in an ounce and a half of fresh butter; take them up,
pour the butter from the pan, and put in another ounce and a half; to
this add a pound of Kentish cherries without their stalks, and when
they are quite warmed through, strew in amongst them four ounces
of sugar, and keep the whole well turned over a moderate fire; pour
in gradually half a pint of hot water, and in fifteen minutes the
cherries will be tender. Lay the fried bread into a hot dish, pour the
cherries on it, and serve them directly.
Bread, 4 oz.; butter, 1-1/2 oz. Cherries, 1 lb.; butter, 1-1/2 oz.: 10
minutes. Sugar, 4 oz.; water, 1/2 pint: 15 minutes.
Obs.—Black-heart cherries may be used for this dish instead of
Kentish ones: it is an improvement to stone the fruit. We think our
readers generally would prefer to the above Morella cherries stewed
from five to seven minutes, in syrup (made by boiling five ounces of
sugar in half pint of water, for a quarter of an hour), and poured hot
on the fried bread. Two pounds of the fruit, when it is stoned, will be
required for a full-sized dish.
 SWEET MACARONI.

Drop gently into a pint and a half of new milk, when it is boiling
fast, four ounces of fine pipe macaroni, add a grain or two of salt,
and some thin strips of lemon or orange rind: cinnamon can be
substituted for these when preferred. Simmer the macaroni by a
gentle fire until it is tolerably tender, then add from two to three
ounces of sugar broken small, and boil it till the pipes are soft, and
swollen to their full size; drain, and arrange it in a hot dish; stir the
milk quickly to the well-beaten yolks of three large, or of four small
eggs, shake them round briskly over the fire until they thicken, pour
them over the macaroni and serve it immediately; or instead of the
eggs, heat and sweeten some very rich cream, pour it on the drained
macaroni, and dust finely-powdered cinnamon over through a
muslin, or strew it thickly with crushed macaroons. For variety, cover
it with the German sauce of page 403, milled to a light froth.
New milk, 1-1/2 pint; pipe macaroni, 4 oz.; strips of lemon-rind or
cinnamon; sugar, 2 to 3 oz.: 3/4 to 1 hour, or more.
 BERMUDA WITCHES.

Slice equally some rice, pound, or Savoy cake, not more than the
sixth of an inch thick; take off the brown edges, and spread one half
of it with Guava jelly, or, if more convenient, with fine strawberry,
raspberry, or currant jelly of the best quality (see Norman receipt,
478); on this strew thickly some fresh cocoa-nut grated small and
lightly; press over it the remainder of the cake, and trim the whole
into good form; divide the slices if large, pile them slopingly in the
centre of a dish upon a very white napkin folded flat, and garnish or
intersperse them with small sprigs of myrtle. For very young people a
French roll or two, and good currant jelly, red or white, will supply a
wholesome and inexpensive dish.
 NESSELRÔDE PUDDING.

We give Monsieur Carême’s own receipt for this favourite and

fashionable dish, not having ourselves had a good opportunity of
proving it; but as it originated with him he is the best authority for it. It
may be varied in many ways, which the taste or ingenuity of the
reader will easily suggest. Boil forty fine sound Spanish chestnuts
quite tender in plenty of water, take off the husks, and pound the
chestnuts perfectly with a few spoonsful of syrup; rub them through a
fine sieve, and mix them in a basin with a pint of syrup made with a
pound of sugar clarified, and highly-flavoured with a pod of vanilla, a
pint of rich cream, and the yolks of twelve eggs; thicken the mixture
like a boiled custard; when it is cold put it into a freezing pot, adding
a glass of maraschino, and make it set as an iced cream; then add
an ounce of preserved citron cut in dice, two ounces of currants, and
as many fine raisins stoned and divided (all of which should be
soaked from the day before in some maraschino with a little sugar);
the whole thus mingled, add a plateful of whipped cream, and the
whites of three eggs prepared as for Italian meringue. When the
pudding is perfectly frozen, mould it in a pewter mould of the form of
a pine-apple, and place it again in the ice till wanted to serve.
Preserved cherries may be substituted for the raisins and currants.
Chestnuts, 40; syrup, 1 pint some spoonsful; vanilla, 1 pod; cream,
1 pint; yolk of eggs, 12; maraschino, 1 glassful; citron, 1 oz.;
currants, 2 oz.; raisins, 2 oz.; whipped cream, 1 plateful; whites of
eggs beaten to snow, 3.
Obs.—As Monsieur Carême directs the eggs for his Italian
meringues to be prepared as follows, he probably intends that they
should be mixed with the syrup before they are added to the
pudding. Boil together half a pound of the finest sugar, and half a pint
of water, until they begin to be very thick; then, with a wooden spoon,
work the sugar against the side of the pan till it whitens; leave it to
cool a little, work it again, and then with a whisk mingle with it the
eggs whipped to a very firm froth, which ought to produce a
preparation very white, smooth, and brilliant.
 STEWED FIGS. (A VERY NICE COMPOTE.)

Put into an enamelled or a copper stewpan, four ounces of refined

sugar, the very thin rind of a large and fresh lemon, and a pint of cold
water. When the sugar is dissolved, add a pound of fine Turkey figs,
and place the stewpan on a trivet above a moderate fire, or upon a
stove, where they can heat and swell slowly, and be very gently
stewed. When they are quite tender, add to them two glassesful of
port wine, and the strained juice of the lemon; arrange them in a
glass dish, and serve them cold. From two hours to two and a half of
the gentlest stewing will generally be sufficient to render the figs fit
for table. Orange-juice and rind can be used for them at pleasure,
instead of the lemon; two or three bitter almonds maybe boiled in the
syrup to give it flavour, and any wine can be used for it which may be
preferred, but port is best.
This compôte may be served in the second course hot, in a rice-
border; or cold for rice-crust.
 CHAPTER XXIV.

Preserves.

GENERAL REMARKS ON THE USE AND VALUE OF

PRESERVED FRUIT.

Simple well-made preserves—especially those of our early summer

fruits—are most valuable domestic stores, as they will retain through
the entire year or longer,[164] their peculiarly grateful and agreeable
flavour, and supply many wholesome and refreshing varieties of diet
through the winter months and spring. They are, indeed, as
conducive to health—when not cloyingly sweet or taken in excess—
as good vegetables are; and they are inexpensive luxuries (if as
luxuries they must be regarded), now sugar is so very reasonable in
price. By many families they are considered too much as mere
superfluities of the table, and when served only—as they so often
are—combined with rich pastry-crust or cream, or converted into ices
and other costly preparations, may justly be viewed solely in that
light. To be eaten in perfection they should be sufficiently boiled
down to remain free from mould or fermentation, and yet not so
much reduced as to be dry or hard; they should not afterwards be
subjected to the heat of the oven,[165] but served with some plain
pudding, or light dish of bread, rice, ribbon-macaroni, soujee,
semoulina, &c. When intended for tartlets or creams, or fruit-sauces,
for which see Chapter XX., they should be somewhat less boiled,
and be made with a larger proportion of sugar.
164. We have had them excellent at the end of three or four years, but they were
made from the produce of a home garden, as freshly gathered, and carefully
selected as it could be. Some clear apricot-marmalade, some strawberry-
jelly, and some raspberry-jelly, were amongst those which retained their full
flavour and transparency to the last. They were merely covered with two
layers of thin writing paper pressed closely on them, after being saturated
with spirits of wine.

165. For the manner of serving them in pastry without this, see “small vol-au-vents
and tartlets,” Chap. XVIII.

Fruit steamed in bottles is now vended and consumed in very

large quantities in this country, but it is not wholesome, as it
produces often—probably from the amount of fixed air which it
contains—violent derangement of the system. When the bottles are
filled with water it is less apt to disagree with the eaters, but it is
never so really wholesome as preserves which are made with sugar.
That which is baked keeps remarkably well, and appears to be
somewhat less objectionable than that which is steamed.
The rich confectionary preparations called wet preserves (fruits
preserved in syrup), which are principally adapted to formal desserts,
scarcely repay the cost and trouble of making them in private
families, unless they be often required for table. They are in general
lusciously sweet, as they will only remain good with a large
proportion of sugar; and if there be no favourable place of storage for
them they soon spoil. When drained and well dried, they may much
more easily be kept uninjured. The general directions for them,
which we append, and the receipts for dried gooseberries, cherries,
and apricots which we have inserted here will be sufficient for the
guidance of the reader who may wish to attempt them.

Fourneau
Economique, or
Portable French
Furnace, with
Stewpan and Trivet.
No. 1. Portable
French Furnace.—2.
Depth at which the
grating is placed.—3.
Stewpan.—4.
Trivet.

The small portable French stove, or furnace, shown in the

preceding page, with the trivet and stewpan adapted to it, is
exceedingly convenient for all preparations which require either more
than usual attention, or a fire entirely free from smoke; as it can be
placed on a table in a clear light, and the heat can be regulated at
pleasure. It has been used for many
of the preserves of which the receipts
are given in this chapter, as well as for
various dishes contained in the body
of the work. There should always be a
free current of air in the room in which
it stands when lighted, as charcoal or
braise (that is to say, the live embers
of large well-burned wood, drawn from
an oven and shut immediately into a
closely-stopped iron or copper vessel Closed Furnace and Cover.
to extinguish them) is the only fuel
suited to it. To kindle either of these,
two or three bits must be lighted in a
common fire, and laid on the top of that in
the furnace, which should be evenly placed
between the grating and the brim, and then
blown gently with the bellows until the
whole is alight: the door of the furnace must
in the mean while be open, and remain so,
unless the heat should at any time be too
fierce for the preserves, when it must be
closed for a few minutes, to moderate it. To
Grating.
extinguish the fire altogether, the cover
must be pressed closely on, and the
door be quite shut: the embers which
remain will serve to rekindle it easily,
but before it is again lighted the
grating must be lifted out and all the
ashes cleared away. It should be set
by in a place which is not damp. In a Trevet.
common grate a clear fire for
preserving may be made with coke, which is a degree less
unwholesome than charcoal.
The enamelled stewpans which have now come into general use,
are, from the peculiar nicety of the composition with which they are
lined, better adapted than any others to pickling and preserving, as
they may be used without danger for acids; and red fruits when
boiled in them retain the brightness of their colour as well as if
copper or bell-metal were used for them. The form of the old-
fashioned preserving-pan, made usually of one or the other of these,
is shown here; but it has not, we should say, even the advantage of
being of convenient shape; for the handles quickly become heated,
and the pan, in consequence, cannot always be instantaneously
raised from the fire when the contents threaten to over-boil or to
burn.
It is desirable to have three or four
wooden spoons or spatulas, one fine hair-
sieve, at the least, one or two large squares
of common muslin, and one strainer or
more of closer texture, kept exclusively for
preparations of fruit; for if used for other
purposes, there is the hazard, without great
Copper preserving- care, of their retaining some strong or
pan. coarse flavour, which they would impart to
the preserves. A sieve, for example, used
habitually for soup or gravy, should never,
on any account, be brought into use for any kind of confectionary,
nor in making sweet dishes, nor for straining eggs or milk for
puddings, cakes, or bread. Damp is the great enemy, not only of
preserves and pickles, but of numberless other household stores;
yet, in many situations, it is extremely difficult to exclude it. To keep
them in a “dry cool place” (words which occur so frequently both in
this book, and in most others on the same subject), is more easily
directed than done. They remain, we find, more entirely free from
any danger of moulding, when covered with a brandied paper only,
and placed on the shelves of a tolerably dry store-room, or in a
chiffoneer (in which we have had them keep unchanged for years).
When the slightest fermentation is perceptible in syrup, it should
immediately be boiled for some minutes, and well skimmed; the fruit
taken from it should then be thrown in, and well scalded also, and
the whole, when done, should be turned into a very clean dry jar; this
kind of preserve should always be covered with one or two skins or
with parchment and thick paper when it is not secured from the air
with corks.