French dishes for American tables

582. Meringues. Beat the whites of eight eggs as stiff as possible, then mix with them lightly three quarters of a pound of sugar ; but do not beat them after adding the sugar. Fill a tablespoon with your beaten eggs, which place in oval form on a board slightly moistened and covered with a sheet of white paper ; continue until your eggs are all used, and place each spoonful about an inch apart from the other. Send to a very gentle oven, with the door shut, for about ten minutes, and, if sufficiently firm, remove them, turn them over on a pan, which put in a very gentle oven for about three quarters of an hour ; take them out, press them in the middle with your thumb, so as to render them hollow, and, when cold, fill them with whipped cream to which you have added two ounces of sugar and a teaspoonful of vanilla. When the weather is very hot, and it is sometimes difficult to whip cream, put it in a bowl, which place in a larger one, and surround the smaller with cracked ice, mixed with a little rock salt. 583. Jelly of Mixed Fruits. Dissolve on the fire two ounces of gelatine in three or four tablespoonfuls of water, add ten ounces of sugar, and, when melted, remove from the fire. Mix the whites of three eggs in half a glass of water, add to your gelatine, stirring quickly with an egg-beater. Then put all on the fire until boiling, then remove to the back of the range to simmer gently for half an hour. Strain your jelly through a flannel until perfectly clear ; pour a little of it into a mold, and, when the jelly is sufficiently stiff, place on top of it two dozen very red cherries from which you have removed the stones, an ounce of white currants, the same of red, two ounces of pineapple, and the same of raspberries, or strawberries if in season. Pour the rest of your jelly into the mold, which put on the ice until sufficiently stiff to turn out of the mold. 584. French Chestnuts with Coffee Sauce. Remove the shells from three dozen French chestnuts, boil the chestnuts five minutes in water, then peel off the skin which covers them, put them in a saucepan on the fire, with enough water to cover them, and two ounces of sugar ; boil them until soft, without breaking, and drain them. Put in a saucepan on the fire four yolks of eggs, three ounces of sugar, a teacupful of black coffee, and half a glass of cream. Stir until just before boiling, then strain it, allow it to become cold, pour it over your marrons, and serve. 585. Nougat. Put half a pound of almonds in boiling water for two or three minutes, remove the skins, wash the almonds, and cut them each in seven or eight long strips, then put them in the oven to dry. Put in a copper or well-enameled saucepan, on the fire, five ounces of powdered sugar, which be careful to stir very gently until colored brown, then add your almonds, which should be slightly browned and very hot. Mix all together, rub a little oil lightly over a pan, into which pour your nougat, cut it im- mediately into pieces about four inches long and an inch and a half wide, and let them become cold.