Take five large lemons and rasp off all the outside; then squeeze the lemons, and put what you have rasped off into the juice; let it stand two or three hours, if all night the better. Take eight whites of eggs and one yolk, and beat them well together; put to it a pint of spring water: then mix them all, and sweeten it with double-refined sugar according to your taste. Set it over a chaffing-dish of coals, stirring it till it is of a proper thickness; then dish it out. Be sure not to let it boil.
_Lemon Cream._ No. 2.
Pare three smooth-skinned lemons; squeeze out the juice; cut the peel in small pieces, and put it to the juice. Let it stand two or three hours closely covered, and, when it has acquired the flavour of the peel, add to it the whites of five eggs and the yolks of three. Beat them well with two spoonfuls of orange-flower water; sweeten with double-refined sugar; strain it; set it over a slow fire, and stir it carefully till it is as thick as cream; then pour it into gla.s.ses.
_Lemon Cream._ No. 3.
Set on the fire three pints of cream; when it is ready to boil, take it off, and squeeze a lemon into it. Stir it up; hang it up in a cloth, till the whey has run out; sweeten it to your taste, and serve it up.
_Lemon Cream._ No. 4.
Take the sweetest cream, and squeeze in juice of lemon to your taste: put it into a churn, and shake it till it rises or ferments. Sweeten it to your taste, but be sure not to put any sugar before you churn it, for that will hinder the fermentation.
_Lemon Cream._ No. 5.
Pare two lemons, and squeeze to them the juice of one larger or two smaller; let it remain some time, and then strain the juice to a pint of cream, and add the yolks of four eggs beaten and strained; sweeten it, and stir it over the fire till thick. You may add a little brandy, if agreeable.
_Lemon Cream without Cream._
Squeeze three lemons, and put the parings into the juice; cover and let it remain three hours; beat the yolks of two eggs and the whites of four; sweeten this; add a little orange-flower water, and put it to the lemon-juice. Set the whole over a slow fire till it becomes as thick as cream, and take particular care not to let it boil.
_Lemon Cream frothed._
Make a pint of cream very sweet, and add the paring of one lemon; let it just boil; put the juice of one large lemon into a gla.s.s or china dish, and, when the cream is nearly cold, pour it out of a tea-pot upon the juice, holding it as high as possible. Serve it up.
_Orange Cream._
Squeeze the juice of four oranges to the rind of one; pat it over the fire with about a pint of cream, and take out the peel before the cream becomes bitter. Boil the cream, and, when cold, put to it the yolks of four eggs and the whites of three, beaten and strained, and sugar to your taste. Scald this, but keep stirring all the time, until of a proper thickness.
_Orange Cream frothed._
Proceed in the same way as with the lemon, but put no peel in the cream; merely steep a bit a short time in the juice.
_Imperial Orange Cream._
Take a pint of thick sweet cream, and boil it with a little orange-peel.
When it just boils, take it off the fire, and stir it till it is no hotter than milk from the cow. Have ready the juice of four Seville oranges and four lemons; strain the juice through a jelly-bag, and sweeten it well with fine sugar, and a small spoonful of orange-flower water. Set your dish on the ground, and, your juice being in it, pour the cream from as great a height as you can, that it may bubble up on the top of the cream; then set it by for five or six hours before you use it, if the weather is hot, but in winter it may stand a whole night.
_Pistachio Cream._
Take a quarter of a pound of pistachio-nuts and blanch them; then beat them fine with rose-water; put them into a pint of cream; sweeten it, let it just boil, and put it into gla.s.ses.
_Raspberry Cream._
To one pint of cream put six ounces of jam, and pulp it through a sieve, adding the juice of a lemon; whisk it fast at the edge of your dish; lay the froth on the sieve, and add a little more of the juice. When no more froth will rise, put your cream into a dish or cups; heap the froth well on.
_Ratafia Cream._
Boil three or four laurel-leaves in one pint of cream, and strain it; when cold, add the yolks of three eggs beaten and strained; then sweeten it; put in it a very little brandy; scald it till thick, and keep stirring it all the time.
_Rice Cream._
Boil a quart of milk with a laurel-leaf; pour it on five dessert spoonfuls of ground rice; let it stand two hours; then put it into a saucepan, and boil it till it is tender, with rather less than a quarter of a pound of sugar. Beat the yolks of two eggs, and put them into it when it is almost cold; and then boil till it is as thick as a cream.
When it is sent to table, put in a few ratafia biscuits.
_Runnet Whey Cream._
Turn new milk from the cow with runnet; press the whey from it; beat the curd in a mortar till it is quite smooth; then mix it with thick cream, and froth it with a froth-stick; add a little powdered sugar.
_Snow Cream._
Sweeten the whites of four eggs, add a pint of thick sweet cream and a good spoonful of brandy. Whisk this well together; take off the froth, and lay it upon a sieve; when all the froth that will rise is taken off, pour what has run through to the rest. Stir it over a slow fire, and let it just boil; fill your gla.s.ses about three parts full, and lay on the froth.
_Strawberry Cream._
Exactly the same as raspberry.
_Sweetmeat Cream._
Slice preserved peaches, apricots, or plums, into good cream, sweetening it with fine sugar, or the syrup in which they were preserved. Mix these well together, and put it into gla.s.ses.
_Whipt Cream, to put upon Cake._
Sweeten a pint of cream to your taste; grate in the peel of a lemon, and steep it some hours before you make use of your cream. Add the juice of two lemons; whip it together; and take off the top into a large piece of fine muslin, or gauze, laid within a sieve. Let this be done the night before it is to be used. In summer it may be done in the morning of the same day; but the whipt cream must be drained from the curd before it is put upon the cake.
_Cuc.u.mbers, to preserve green._
Take fine large green cuc.u.mbers; put them in salt and water till they are yellow; then green them over fresh salt and water in a little roch alum. Cover them close with abundance of vine leaves, changing the leaves as they become yellow. Put in some lemon-juice; and, when the cuc.u.mbers are of a fine green, take them off and scald them several times with hot water, or make a very thin syrup, changing it till the raw taste of the cuc.u.mbers is taken away. Then make a syrup thus: to a pound of cuc.u.mbers take one pound and a half of double-refined sugar; leave out the half pound to add to them when boiled up again; put lemon-peel, ginger cut in slices, white orris root, and any thing else you like to flavour with; boil it well; when cool, put it to the cuc.u.mbers, and let them remain a few days. Boil up the syrup with the remainder of the sugar; continue to heat the syrup till they look clear.
Just before you take the syrup off, add lemon-juice to your taste.