The century cook book

with the aid of a cornet. It is placed on a dish, surrounded with sweet jelly, minced; the tassels are imitated in spunsugar. The second cake is glazed, emptied, filled with a bavaroise preparation with pistachios or strawberries; the center of the cushion is surrounded with a turban, imitated in fine white spun-sugar, garnished with small red beads. The two tufts (pompons) on the top and center, are also imitated in spun-sugar. This entremets well executed, has always a beautiful effect. The King's Meringues. These meringues are the traditional and indispensable entremets of the family dinners of the Prussian court. For this reason they are called the king's meringues. They are made with a very fine meringue-paste, according to a process specially observed in the royal kitchens. The preparation for meringue is composed in the proportions of a pound of sugar to eight whites of eggs, and a pinch of salt. The king's meringues are small in size; each shell has on the central point a hollow, very difficult to produce, but which characterizes them in a peculiar manner. They are moulded with the spoon. The mode of proceeding deserves to be studied with care. The preparation is taken, in equal portions, with a tablespoon ; it is then rolled up against the sides of the basin. When the preparation is quite smooth, it is dropped onto a sheet of paper, while holding the spoon perpendicularly, and turning it from left to right, as soon as the preparation touches the paper; it is by so doing, that it falls in a round form, leaving a hollow on the central part. When the shells are all laid on the paper, they are sprinkled with icing sugar powder, and sifted through a piece of wool. The meringues are baked in the usual way, that is, on damp boards in a very moderate oven ; then they are allowed to dry completely in a hot closet, and then cooled. 230 Artistic Cookery A quarter of an hour before serving them, the meringues are garnished with whipped cream, flavored with sugar and vanilla. They are then piled up on a sugar or gum-paste stand, light and low in shape, ornamented on the friesewith a nice wreath of oak leaves, imitated in gum-paste. Muscovite Jelly. It is composed of sweet jelly prepared with isinglass, juice of fresh pineapple mixed with lemon juice, filtered and mixed with a little champagne; the jelly is set in an entremets mouldy embedded in common ice; it must be set, layer by layer; each of which layers is intermingled with slices of raw pineapple. The jelly having set, the mould is frappe with salt, with its lid shut; it must be frappe for twenty-five or thirty minutes. At serving time, it is washed with cold water, then dipped into water not too warm, wiped, and turned out on a bordered bottom, masked with gum paste, or white paper. This Muscovite preparation must be slightly glued (that is, with but half the usual quantity) ; for if too much glued, the jelly would not be eatable, because the action of the salt hardens the glue. This entremets must be served, shortly after being turned out of the mould; because, when coming out of the mould, it bears quite a particular physiognomy.