The Whitehouse Cookbook (1887) written by Mrs. F.L. Gillette

M >> Mrs. F.L. Gillette >> The Whitehouse Cookbook (1887)

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Two cupfuls of sugar, two cupfuls of dark molasses, one cupful of cold
butter, grated rind of half a lemon. Boil over a slow fire until it
hardens when dropped in cold water. Pour thinly into tins well
buttered, and mark into inch squares before it cools.

MAPLE WALNUTS.

Beat the white of one egg to a stiff froth, stir in enough powdered
sugar to make it like hard frosting, dip the walnut meats (which you
have taken care to remove from the shells without breaking) in a syrup
made by boiling for two or three minutes two tablespoonfuls of maple
sugar in one of water, or in this proportion. Press some of the hard
frosting between the two halves of the walnut and let it harden. Dates
may be prepared in this way, and butternuts and English walnuts also.

POP-CORN CANDY. No. 1.

Put into an iron kettle one tablespoonful of butter, three
tablespoonfuls of water and one cupful of white sugar; boil until
ready to candy, then throw in three quarts nicely popped corn; stir
vigorously until the sugar is evenly distributed over the corn; take
the kettle from the fire and stir until it cools a little, and in this
way you may have each kernel separate and all coated with the sugar.
Of course it must have your undivided attention from the first, to
prevent scorching. Almonds, English walnuts, or, in fact, any nuts are
delicious prepared in this way.

POP-CORN CANDY. No. 2.

Having popped your corn, salt it and keep it warm, sprinkle over with
a whisk broom a mixture composed of an ounce of gum arabic and a half
pound of sugar, dissolved in two quarts of water; boil all a few
minutes. Stir the corn with the hands or large spoon thoroughly; then
mold into balls with the hands.

POP-CORN BALLS.

Take three large ears of pop-corn (rice is best). After popping, shake
it down in pan so the unpopped corn will settle at the bottom; put the
nice white popped in a greased pan. For the candy, take one cup of
molasses, one cup of light brown or white sugar, one tablespoonful of
vinegar. Boil until it will harden in water. Pour on the corn. Stir
with a spoon until thoroughly mixed; then mold into balls with the
hand.

No flavor should be added to this mixture, as the excellence of this
commodity depends entirely upon the united flavor of the corn, salt
and the sugar or molasses.

HOARHOUND CANDY.

Boil two ounces of dried hoarhound in a pint and a half of water for
about half an hour; strain and add three and a half pounds of brown
sugar; boil over a hot fire until sufficiently hard; pour out in
flat, well-greased tins and mark into sticks or small squares with a
knife as soon as cool enough to retain its shape.

JUJUBE PASTE.

Two cupfuls of sugar, one-quarter of a pound of gum arabic, one pint
of water. Flavor with the essence of lemon and a grain of cochineal.
Let the mixture stand, until the gum is dissolved, in a warm place on
the back of the stove, then draw forward and cook until thick; try in
cold water; it should be limber and bend when cold. Pour in buttered
pans, an eighth of an inch thick; when cool, roll up in a scroll.

CANDIED ORANGES.

Candied orange is a great delicacy, which is easily made: Peel and
quarter the oranges; make a syrup in the proportion of one pound of
sugar to one pint of water; let it boil until it will harden in water;
then take it from the fire and dip the quarters of orange in the
syrup; let them drain on a fine sieve placed over a platter so that
the syrup will not be wasted; let them drain thus until cool, when the
sugar will crystallize. These are nice served with the last course of
dinner. Any fruit the same.

FIG CANDY.

One cup of sugar, one-third cup of water, one-fourth teaspoonful cream
of tartar. Do not stir while boiling. Boil to amber color, stir in the
cream of tartar just before taking from the fire. Wash the figs, open
and lay in a tin pan and pour the candy over them. Or you may dip them
in the syrup the same as "Candied Oranges."

CANDY ROLEY POLEY.

Take half a pint of citron, half a pint of raisins, half a pound of
figs, a quarter of a pound of shelled almonds, one pint of peanuts
before they are hulled; cut up the citron, stone the raisins, blanch
the almonds, and hull the peanuts; cut up the figs into small bits.
Take two pounds of coffee-sugar and moisten with vinegar; put in a
piece of butter as large as a walnut; stew till it hardens, but take
off before it gets to the brittle stage; beat it with a spoon six or
eight times, then stir in the mixed fruits and nuts. Pour into a wet
cloth and roll it up like a pudding, twisting the ends of the cloth to
mold it. Let it get cold and slice off pieces as it may be wanted for
eating.

MOLASSES CANDY.

Put one quart of West India molasses, one cupful of brown sugar, a
piece of butter the size of half an egg, into a six-quart kettle. Let
it boil over a slack fire until it begins to look thick, stirring it
often to prevent burning. Test it by taking some out and dropping a
few drops in a cup of cold water. If it hardens quickly and breaks
short between the teeth it is boiled enough. Now put in half a
teaspoonful of baking soda, and stir it well; then pour it out into
well-buttered flat tins. When partly cooled, take up the candy with
your hands well buttered then pull and double, and so on, until the
candy is a whitish yellow. It may be cut in strips and rolled or
twisted.

If flavoring is desired, drop the flavoring on the top as it begins to
cool and when it is pulled, the whole will be flavored.

STRAWBERRY CONSERVE.

Prepare the fruit as for preserving, allowing half a pound of loaf
sugar to one pound of fruit. Sprinkle the sugar over the fruit at
night; in the morning, put it on the fire in a kettle and boil until
the berries are clear. Spread on dishes and put in the sun until dry;
after which roll the fruit in sugar and pack in jars.

PEACH CONSERVE.

Halve the peaches and take out the stones; pare. Have ready some
powdered white sugar on a plate or dish. Roll the peaches in it
several times, until they will not take up any more. Place them singly
on a plate, with the cup or hollow side up, that the juices may not
run out. Lay them in the sun. The next morning roll them again. As
soon as the juice seems set in the peaches, turn the other side to the
sun. When they are thoroughly dry, pack them in glass jars, or, what
is still nicer, fig-drums. They make an excellent sweetmeat just as
they are; or, if wanted for table use, put over the fire in porcelain,
with a very little water, and stew a few minutes.

PEACH LEATHER.

Stew as many peaches as you choose, allowing a quarter of a pound of
sugar to one of fruit; mash it up smooth as it cooks, and when it is
dry enough to spread in a thin sheet on a board greased with butter,
set it out in the sun to dry; when dry it can be rolled up like
leather, wrapped up in a cloth, and will keep perfectly from season
to season. School-children regard it as a delightful addition to their
lunch of biscuit or cold bread. Apple and quince leather are made in
the same fashion, only a little flavoring or spice is added to them.

COCOANUT CARAMELS.

Two cupfuls of grated cocoanut, one cupful of sugar, two
tablespoonfuls of flour, the whites of three eggs, beaten stiff. Soak
the cocoanut, if desiccated, in milk enough to cover it; then beat the
whites of the eggs, add gradually the sugar, cocoanut and flour; with
your fingers make, by rolling the mixture, into cone shapes. Place
them on buttered sheets of tin covered with buttered letter paper and
bake in a moderate heat about fifteen or twenty minutes. They should
cool before removing from the tins.

DRIED PRESERVES.

Any of the fruits that have been preserved in syrup may be converted
into dry preserves, by first draining them from the syrup and then
drying them slowly on the stove, strewing them thickly with powdered
sugar. They should be turned every few hours, sifting over them more
sugar.

CANDIES WITHOUT COOKING.

Very many candies made by confectioners are made without boiling,
which makes them very desirable, and they are equal to the best
"French Creams." The secret lies in the sugar used, which is the XXX
powdered or confectioners' sugar. Ordinary powdered sugar, when rubbed
between the thumb and finger has a decided grain, but the
confectioners' sugar is fine as flour. The candies made after this
process are better the day after.

FRENCH VANILLA CREAM.

Break into a bowl the whites of one or more eggs, as the quantity you
wish to make will require; add to it an equal quantity of cold water,
then stir in XXX powdered or confectioners' sugar until you have it
stiff enough to mold into shape with the fingers. Flavor with vanilla
to taste. After it is formed in balls, cubes or lozenge shapes, lay
them upon plates or waxed paper and set them aside to dry. This cream
can be worked in candies similar to the French cooked cream.

CHOCOLATE CREAM DROPS.

These are made or molded into cone-shape forms with the fingers, from
the uncooked "French Cream," similar to that which is cooked. After
forming into these little balls or cones, lay them on oiled paper
until the next day, to harden, or make them in the morning and leave
them until afternoon. Then melt some chocolate (the best
confectioners') in a basin set in another basin of boiling water; when
melted, and the creams are hard enough to handle, take one at a time
on a fork and drop into the melted chocolate, roll it until well
covered, then slip from the fork upon oiled or waxed paper, and set
them aside to harden.

FRUIT AND NUT CREAMS.

Raisins seeded, currants, figs and citron, chopped fine, and mixed
with the uncooked "French Cream," while soft, before the sugar is all
mixed in, makes a delicious variety. Nuts also may be mixed with this
cream, stirring into it chopped almonds, hickory nuts, butternuts, or
English walnuts, then forming them into balls, bars or squares.
Several kinds of nuts may be mixed together.

ORANGE DROPS.

Grate the rind of one orange and squeeze the juice, taking care to
reject the seeds; add to this a pinch of tartaric acid; then stir in
confectioners' sugar until it is stiff enough to form into balls the
size of a small marble. This is delicious candy.

The same process for lemon drops, using lemons in place of orange.
Color a faint yellow.

COCOANUT CREAMS.

Make the uncooked cream as in the foregoing recipe. Take the cream
while soft, add fresh grated cocoanut to taste; add sufficient
confectioners' sugar to mold into balls and then roll the balls in the
fresh grated cocoanut. These may be colored pink with a few drops of
cochineal syrup, also brown by adding a few spoonfuls of grated
chocolate; then rolling them in grated cocoanut; the three colors are
very pretty together. The coconut cream may be made into a flat cake
and cut into squares or strips.

With this uncooked cream, all the recipes given for the cooked "French
Cream," may be used: English walnut creams, variegated creams, etc.

COFFEE, TEA, BEVERAGES.

Boiling water is a very important desideratum in the making of a cup
of good coffee or tea, but the average housewife is very apt to
overlook this fact. Do not boil the water more than three or four
minutes; longer boiling ruins the water for coffee or tea making, as
most of its natural properties escape by evaporation, leaving a very
insipid liquid composed mostly of lime and iron, that would ruin the
best coffee, and give the tea a dark, dead look, which ought to be the
reverse.

Water left in the tea-kettle over night _must never be used for
preparing the breakfast coffee_; no matter how excellent your coffee
or tea may be, it will be ruined by the addition of water that has
been boiled more than once.

THE HEALING PROPERTIES OF TEA AND COFFEE.

The medical properties of these two beverages are considerable. Tea is
used advantageously in inflammatory diseases and as a cure for the
headache. Coffee is supposed to act as a preventative of gravel and
gout, and to its influence is ascribed the rarity of those diseases in
Prance and Turkey. Both tea and coffee powerfully counteract the
effects of opium and intoxicating liquors: though, when taken in
excess, and without nourishing food, they themselves produce,
temporarily at least, some of the more disagreeable consequences
incident to the use of ardent spirits. In general, however, none but
persons possessing great mobility of the nervous system, or enfeebled
or effeminate constitutions, are injuriously affected by the moderate
use of tea and coffee in connection with food.

COFFEE.

One full coffeecupful of ground coffee, stirred with one egg and part
of the shell, adding a half cupful of _cold_ water. Put it into the
coffee boiler, and pour on to it a quart of boiling water; as it
rises and begins to boil, stir it down with a silver spoon or fork.
Boil hard for ten or twelve minutes. Remove from the fire and pour out
a cupful of coffee, then pour back into the coffeepot. Place it on the
back of the stove or range where it will keep hot (and not boil); it
will settle in about five minutes. Send to the table _hot_. Serve with
good cream and lump sugar. Three-quarters of a pound of Java and a
quarter of a pound of Mocha make the best mixture of coffee.

VIENNA COFFEE.

Equal parts of Mocha and Java coffee; allow one heaping tablespoonful
of coffee to each person and two extra to make good strength. Mix one
egg with grounds; pour on coffee half as much boiling water as will be
needed; let it froth, then stir down grounds, and let boil five
minutes; then let it stand where it will keep hot, but not boil, for
five or ten minutes, and add rest of water. To one pint of cream add
the white of an egg, well beaten; this is to be put in cups with
sugar, and hot coffee added.

FILTERED OR DRIP COFFEE.

For each person allow a large tablespoonful of finely ground coffee,
and to every tablespoonful allow a cupful of boiling water; the coffee
to be one part Mocha to two of Java.

Have a small iron ring made to fit the top of the coffeepot inside,
and to this ring sew a small muslin bag (the muslin for the purpose
must not be too thin). Fit the bag into the pot, pour some boiling
water in it, and, when the pot is well warmed, put the ground coffee
into the bag; pour over as much boiling water as is required, close
the lid, and, when all the water has filtered through, remove the bag,
and send the coffee to table. Making it in this manner prevents the
necessity of pouring the coffee from one vessel to another, which
cools and spoils it. The water should be poured on the coffee
gradually so that the infusion may be stronger; and the bag must be
well made that none of the grounds may escape through the seams and so
make the coffee thick and muddy.

Patented coffeepots on this principle can be purchased at most
house-furnishing stores.

ICED COFFEE.

Make more coffee than usual at breakfast time and stronger. When cold
put on ice. Serve with cracked ice in each tumbler.

SUBSTITUTE FOR CREAM IN COFFEE.

Beat the white of an egg, put to it a small lump of butter and pour
the coffee into it gradually, stirring it so that it will not curdle.
It is difficult to distinguish this from fresh cream.

Many drop a tiny piece of sweet butter into their cup of hot coffee as
a substitute for cream.

TO MAKE TEA.

Allow two teaspoonfuls of tea to one large cupful of boiling water.
Scald the teapot, put in the tea, pour on about a cupful of _boiling_
water, set it on the fire in a warm place, where it will not boil, but
keep very hot, to almost boiling; let it steep or "draw" ten or twelve
minutes. Now fill up with as much boiling water as is required. Send
_hot_ to the table. It is better to use a china or porcelain teapot,
but if you do use metal let it be tin, new, bright and clean; never
use it when the tin is worn off and the iron exposed. If you do you
are drinking tea-ate of iron.

To make tea to perfection, boiling water must be poured on the leaves
directly it boils. Water which has been boiling more than five
minutes, or which has previously boiled, should on no account be used.
If the water does not boil, or if it be allowed to overboil, the
leaves of the tea will be only half-opened and the tea itself will be
quite spoiled. The water should be allowed to remain on the leaves
from ten to fifteen minutes.

A Chinese being interviewed for the _Cook_ says: Drink your tea plain.
Don't add milk or sugar. Tea-brokers and tea-tasters never do;
epicures never do; the Chinese never do. Milk contains fibrin, albumen
or some other stuff, and the tea a delicate amount of tannin. Mixing
the two makes the liquid turbid. This turbidity, if I remember the
cyclopaedia aright, is tannate of fibrin, or leather. People who put
milk in tea are therefore drinking boots and shoes in mild disguise.

ICED TEA.

Is now served to a considerable extent during the summer months. It is
of course used without milk, and the addition of sugar serves only to
destroy the finer tea flavor. It may be prepared some hours in
advance, and should be made stronger than when served hot. It is
bottled and placed in the ice chest till required. Use the black or
green teas, or both, mixed, as fancied.

CHOCOLATE.

Allow half a cupful of grated chocolate to a pint of water and a pint
of milk. Rub the chocolate smooth in a little cold water and stir into
the boiling water. Boil twenty minutes, add the milk and boil ten
minutes more, stirring it often. Sweeten to your taste.

The French put two cupfuls of boiling water to each cupful of
chocolate. They throw in the chocolate just as the water commences to
boil. Stir it with a spoon as soon as it boils up, add two cupfuls of
good milk, and when it has boiled sufficiently, serve a spoonful of
thick whipped cream with each cup.

COCOA.

Six tablespoonfuls of cocoa to each pint of water, as much milk as
water, sugar to taste. Rub cocoa smooth in a little cold water; have
ready on the fire a pint of boiling water; stir in grated cocoa paste.
Boil twenty minutes, add milk and boil five minutes more, stirring
often. Sweeten in cups so as to suit different tastes.

BUTTERMILK AS A DRINK.

Buttermilk, so generally regarded as a waste product, has latterly
been coming somewhat into vogue, not only as a nutrient, but as a
therapeutic agent, and in an editorial article the _Canada Lancet_,
some time ago, highly extolled its virtues. Buttermilk may be roughly
described as milk which has lost most of its fat and a small
percentage of casein, and which has become sour by fermentation. Long
experience has demonstrated it to be an agent of superior
digestibility. It is, indeed, a true milk peptone--that is, milk
already partly digested, the coagulation of the coagulable portion
being loose and flaky, and not of that firm indigestible nature which
is the result of the action of the gastric juice upon cow's sweet
milk. It resembles koumiss in its nature, and, with the exception of
that article, it is the most grateful, refreshing and digestible of
the products of milk. It is a decided laxative to the bowels, a fact
which must be borne in mind in the treatment of typhoid fever, and
which may be turned to advantage in the treatment of habitual
constipation. It is a diuretic, and may be prescribed with advantage
in some kidney troubles. Owing to its acidity, combined with its
laxative properties, it is believed to exercise a general impression
on the liver. It is well adapted to many cases where it is customary
to recommend lime water and milk. It is invaluable in the treatment of
diabetes, either exclusively, or alternating with skimmed milk. In
some cases of gastric ulcer and cancer of the stomach, it is the only
food that can be retained.

_Medical journal._

CURRANT WINE. No. 1.

The currants should be quite ripe. Stem, mash and strain them, adding
a half pint of water and less than a pound of sugar to a quart of the
mashed fruit. Stir well up together and pour into a clean cask,
leaving the bung-hole open, or covered with a piece of lace. It should
stand for a month to ferment, when it will be ready for bottling; just
before bottling you may add a small quantity of brandy or whisky.

CURRANT WINE. No. 2.

To each quart of currant juice, add two quarts of soft water and three
pounds of brown sugar. Put into a jug or small keg, leaving the top
open until fermentation ceases and it looks clear. Draw off and cork
tightly.

_Long Island Recipe._

BLACKBERRY WINE. No. 1.

Cover your blackberries with cold water; crush the berries well with a
wooden masher; let them stand twenty-four hours; then strain, and to
one gallon of juice put three pounds of common brown sugar; put into
wide-mouthed jars for several days, carefully skimming off the scum
that will rise to the top; put in several sheets of brown paper and
let them remain in it three days; then skim again and pour through a
funnel into your cask. There let it remain undisturbed till March;
then strain again and bottle. These directions, if carefully followed
out, will insure you excellent wine.

_Orange County Recipe._

BLACKBERRY WINE NO. 2

Berries should be ripe and plump. Put into a large wood or stone
vessel with a tap; pour on sufficient boiling water to cover them;
when cool enough to bear your hand, bruise well until all the berries
are broken; cover up, let stand until berries begin to rise to top,
which will occur in three or four days. Then draw off the clear juice
in another vessel, and add one pound of sugar to every ten quarts of
the liquor, and stir thoroughly. Let stand six to ten days in first
vessel with top; then draw off through a jelly-bag. Steep four ounces
of isinglass in a pint of wine for twelve hours; boil it over a slow
fire till all dissolved, then place dissolved isinglass in a gallon of
blackberry juice, give them a boil together and pour all into the
vessel. Let stand a few days to ferment and settle; draw off and keep
in a cool place. Other berry wines may be made in the same manner.

GRAPE WINE.

Mash the grapes and strain them through a cloth; put the skins in a
tub, after squeezing them, with barely enough water to cover them;
strain the juice thus obtained into the first portion; put three
pounds of sugar to one gallon of the mixture; let it stand in an open
tub to ferment, covered with a cloth, for a period of from three to
seven days; skim off what rises every morning. Put the juice in a cask
and leave it open for twenty-four hours; then bung it up, and put clay
over the bung to keep the air out. Let your wine remain in the cask
until March, when it should be drawn off and bottled.

FLORIDA ORANGE WINE.

Wipe the oranges with a wet cloth, peel off the yellow rind very thin,
squeeze the oranges, and strain the juice through a hair-sieve;
measure the juice after it is strained and for each gallon allow three
pounds of granulated sugar, the white and shell of one egg and
one-third of a gallon of cold water; put the sugar, the white and
shell of the egg (crushed small) and the water over the fire and stir
them every two minutes until the eggs begin to harden; then boil the
syrup until it looks clear under the froth, of egg which will form on
the surface; strain the syrup, pour it upon the orange rind and let it
stand over night; then next add the orange juice and again let it
stand over night; strain it the second day, and put it into a tight
cask with a small cake of compressed yeast to about ten gallons of
wine, and leave the bung out of the cask until the wine ceases to
ferment; the hissing noise continues so long as fermentation is in
progress; when fermentation ceases, close the cask by driving in the
bung, and let the wine stand about nine months before bottling it;
three months after it is bottled, it can be used. A glass of brandy
added to each gallon of wine after fermentation ceases is generally
considered an improvement.

There are seasons of the year when Florida oranges by the box are very
cheap, and this fine wine can be made at a small expense.

METHELIN, OR HONEY WINE.

This is a very ancient and popular drink in the north of Europe. To
some new honey, strained, add spring water; put a whole egg into it;
boil this liquor till the egg swims above the liquor; strain, pour it
in a cask. To every fifteen gallons add two ounces of white Jamaica
ginger, bruised, one ounce of cloves and mace, one and one-half ounces
of cinnamon, all bruised together and tied up in a muslin bag;
accelerate the fermentation with yeast; when worked sufficiently, bung
up; in six weeks draw off into bottles.

_Another Mead._--Boil the combs, from which the honey has been
drained, with sufficient water to make a tolerably sweet liquor;
ferment this with yeast and proceed as per previous formula.

_Sack Mead_ is made by adding a handful of hops and sufficient brandy
to the comb liquor.

BLACK CURRANT WINE.

Four quarts of whisky, four quarts of black currants, four pounds of
brown or white sugar, one tablespoonful of cloves, one tablespoonful
of cinnamon.