English and French cookery

Flavouring Essences form such a valuable adjunct to the rapid production of tasty and appetising savouries, custards, pastry, puddings and jellies, that a few words of counsel as to their use seems worth imparting, more especially since several deaths have been traced to the too free use of cheap, carelessly-manufactured articles. It cannot be too widely known that the essences of bitter almonds, noyeau, peach kernels, and ratafia, are highly poisonous unless freed from their destructive properties, as in the ingenious process originated by Mr. G. F. Langdale, of Hatton Garden, whose various preparations are guaranteed absolutely innocuous. The essences most commonly favoured in domestic economy are those named below : For cakes, custards, blancmanges, ices and jellies, the essences of lemon, bitter almonds, vanilla, peachkernels, cinnamon, nutmeg, and more rarely pineapple. For biscuits, buns, cakes, etc., Jamaica ginger, caraway seeds, allspice, and mixed spices. Essence of cloves is useful for flavouring stewed apples, stewed pears, and confectionery, and for pickling — a teaspoonful to a gallon of vinegar being sufficient. Raspberry, strawberry, and cherry impart an exquisite and true flavour to ices, creams, and custards, as also to cooling drinks — the former more particularly. Orange is used in preparing orangeade, orange syrup, and flavouring confectionery, and rennet for making curds and whey ; camphor, peppermint, and black currant are mainly therapeutic, while the liquid extract .of cochineal and concentrated Spanish saffron serve as colouring agents. Altogether some 120 essences are distilled, so that almost any imaginable culinary want can now be met. Fruit, Stewed. — One secret of good stewed fruit is to avoid overstewing, a second is to stew in syrup. One pound of sugar to a pint of water makes a good syrup. The sugar and water should be boiled in an enamelled or patent ‘ sanitary ’ seamless steel stew-pan. When the syrup is boiling, the fruit should be added, and removed as soon as soft. A dish of green gooseberries, for instance, stewed in syrup, is incomparable by the side of gooseberries stewed, as they often are, with nothing but sugar. The pure flavour of the fruit is retained when slightly cooked with syrup. With stewed fruit, we may dispense with pastry, eating it with bread and butter, biscuit, milk, pudding, or blancmange. Gooseberry Fool. — Stew 1 quart of ripe gooseberries in enough water to cover, and when soft and broken, rub through a sieve to remove the skins. While still hot, beat in 1 tablespoonful butter, 1 teacup sugar, and whipped yolks of 4 eggs. Pile in a glass dish, and heap upon the top a meringue made from the whipped whites and 3 tablespoonfuls of pounded white sugar. Gooseberry Souffle. — Pick the gooseberries, and boil them with sugar until tender. Then press through a coarse sieve, and put into a glass dish. When cold, pour over a good custard. This may be made with the yolks of eggs, and the whites may be beaten till firm, and cooked. The appearance is improved by colouring half the white of egg with a few drops of Langdale’s cochineal. Each quart of gooseberries should take about | hour to boil.