Part 39

=To Make the Coffee.= Mix two tablespoons of ground fresh Java, or Java and Mocha coffee mixed, with a little cold water and raw egg (either white or yolk) in a coffee-pot. Stir it to thoroughly mix the egg and coffee. Pour in a cup of boiling water, and set it to boil for five minutes. Then move the pot to a less hot part of the stove, where the coffee will barely simmer, for ten minutes, when it will be ready for use.

CHOCOLATE CREAM

2 Tablespoons of sugar. ½ Ounce (½ square) of Baker's chocolate. 1 Pint of cream. Whites of four eggs.

Cook the sugar, chocolate, and cream (sweet cream or, if that cannot be had, rich milk) together in a double boiler until the chocolate is perfectly dissolved. It will require occasional stirring, and should be, when done, entirely free from specks or flakes of chocolate. Then stir in, pouring slowly, the well-beaten whites of the eggs while the cream is still on the stove. Cook for three minutes, or until the albumen is coagulated, but not hardened. It should look creamy and smooth, not curdled. Turn into a pudding-dish and cool.

TAPIOCA CREAM

¼ Cup of granulated tapioca. ¼ Cup of cold water. 1 Pint of milk. 3 Tablespoons of sugar. 1 Saltspoon of salt. 2 Eggs.

After the tapioca is picked over and washed, put it into a double boiler with the cold water, and let it stand until the water is absorbed. Then pour in the pint of milk, and cook until each grain is transparent and soft. It will take an hour. At this point, beat the eggs, sugar, and salt together until very light, and pour them slowly into the hot pudding, at the same time stirring rapidly, so that the two will be perfectly mixed. After the egg is in, continue to stir for about three minutes, or long enough to cook the egg as it is done in soft custard. The pudding should have the appearance of cream, as the name indicates, with flecks of tapioca all through it. Turn it into a china dish. Serve either hot or cold.

RICE CREAM

2 Tablespoons of rice. 2 Cups of milk. 1 Saltspoon of salt. 2 Tablespoons of sugar. 2 Eggs.

Cleanse the rice by washing it several times in cold water; cook it in a double boiler with the milk until the grains will mash. Three hours will generally be required to do this. Should the milk evaporate, restore the amount lost. When the rice is perfectly soft, press it through a coarse soup-strainer or colander into a saucepan, return it to the fire, and while it is heating beat the eggs, sugar, and salt together until very light. When the rice boils, pour the egg in rather slowly, stirring lightly with a spoon for three or four minutes, or until it coagulates and the whole is like a thick, soft pudding; then remove from the fire, and pour it into a pretty dish. By omitting the yolks and using the whites of the eggs only, a delicate white cream is obtained.

PEACH FOAM

(DELICIOUS)

Peel and cut into small pieces three or four choice and very ripe peaches (White Heaths are good), so that when done there will be a cupful. Put them into a bowl, with half a cup of powdered sugar, and the white of one egg. Beat with a fork for half an hour, when it will be a thick, perfectly smooth, velvety cream, with a delightful peach flavor, and may be eaten ad libitum by an invalid.

SNOW PUDDING

¼ Box of gelatine. ¼ Cup of cold water. 1 Cup of boiling water. 1 Cup of sugar. ¼ Cup of lemon-juice. Whites of three eggs.

For the sauce:

Yolks of two eggs. 2 Tablespoons of sugar. ½ Saltspoon of salt. 1 Pint of milk. ½ Teaspoon of vanilla.

Divide a box of gelatine into fourths by notching one of the upright edges. Cut off one fourth of the box for a measure, which can afterward be used as a cover. When taking out a fourth, be sure to pack the measure as closely as it was packed in the box. Soak the gelatine in the cold water for half an hour. Then pour on the boiling water, add the sugar and lemon-juice, stir for a minute, and strain through a fine wire strainer into a granite pan; place the pan in iced water to cool. Meanwhile beat the eggs as light as possible, and as soon as the gelatine mixture begins to thicken, or is about as thick as honey, turn in the eggs, and stir slowly and regularly, with the back of the bowl of the spoon against the bottom of the pan, until the egg is mixed completely with the gelatine and the whole nearly stiff. Just before it becomes firm turn it into a melon-mold, and return it to the iced water to harden. It should be perfectly white, literally, like snow.

With the materials for the sauce make a soft custard, cool it, and serve with the pudding either in a pitcher, or poured around it in an ice-cream dish, or other shallow pudding-dish.

PRINCESS PUDDING

¼ Box of gelatine. ¼ Cup of cold water. ¾ Cup of boiling water. 1 Cup of sugar. ½ Cup of white wine (sherry). Juice of one lemon. Whites of three eggs.

For the sauce:

1 Pint of milk. Yolks of two eggs. 3 Tablespoons of sugar. 1 Saltspoon of salt. 1 Teaspoon of rose-water.

The process is exactly the same as for snow pudding, and it is served in the same manner, with the soft custard for a sauce. Ordinary sherry wine may be used, although white sherry is better.

CORN-STARCH PUDDING

1½ Tablespoons of corn-starch. 1 Tablespoon of sugar. 1 Saltspoon of salt. 2 Tablespoons of cold water. 1 Pint of milk.

Put the milk on the stove to heat. Mix in a saucepan the corn-starch, sugar, and salt with the cold water, and when the milk has just begun to boil pour it in, slowly at first, stirring all the while. The corn-starch should become thick at once, when it may be poured into a clean double boiler and cooked thirty minutes. The time should be faithfully kept, as corn-starch is an unpalatable and indigestible substance unless thoroughly cooked. See to it that the water in the under boiler actually boils during the thirty minutes. At the end of that time beat one egg very light, and stir it in, pouring slowly, so that it may be mixed all through the hot pudding and puff it up. Then cook for one minute, turn it into a china pudding-dish, or into individual molds, and cool. Serve with cream.

Corn-starch pudding should have a tender consistency and a sweet and wholesome taste. The difficulty with many is that they are not thoroughly cooked, and are too stiff and hard when cool. When you find this to be the case, lessen the amount of corn-starch used. The proportion in this recipe may always be relied upon.