Original White House Cookbook

Have the cream ice cold when you begin to whip it ; and it is a good plan to put a lump of ice into the cream while whipping it. Maria Parloa. ANOTHER CHARLOTTE RUSSE. Two TABLESPOONFULS of gelatine soaked in a little cold milk two hours, two coffeecupfuls of rich cream, one teacupful of milk. Whip the cream stiff in a large bowl or dish ; set on ice. Boil the milk and pour gradually over the gelatine until dissolved, then strain ; when nearly cold, add the whipped cream, a spoonful at a time. Sweeten with powdered sugar, flavor with extract of vanilla. Line a dish with lady-fingers or sponge cake ; pour in cream and set in a cool place to harden. This is about the same recipe as M. Parloa’s, but is not as explicit in detail. PLAIN CHARLOTTE RUSSE. No. 1. Make a rule of white sponge cake ; bake in narrow shallow pans. Then make a custard of the yolks after this recipe. Wet a saucepan with cold water to prevent the milk that will be scalded in it from burning. Pour out the water and put in a quart of milk, boil and partly cool. Beat up the yolks of six eggs and add three ounces of sugar and a saltspoonful of salt ; mix thoroughly and add the luke-warm milk. Stir and pour the custard into a porcelain or double saucepan and stir while on the range until of the consistency of cream ; do not allow it to boil, as that would curdle it; strain, and when almost cold add two teaspoonfuls of vanilla. Now, having arranged your cake (cut into inch slices) around the sides and on the bottom of a glass dish, pour over the custard. If you wish a meringue on the top, beat up the whites of four eggs with four tablespoonfuls of sugar; flavor with lemon or vanilla, spread over the top and brown slightly in the oven. PLAIN CHARLOTTE RUSSE. No. 2. Put some thin slices of sponge cake in the bottom of a glass sauce dish ; pour in wine enough to soak it ; beat up the whites of three eggs until very light ; add to it three tablespoonfuls of finely powdered sugar, a glass of sweet wine and one pint of thick sweet cream ; beat it well and pour over the cake. Set it in a cold place until served. NAPIE BISCUITS, OR CHARLOTTE RUSSE. Make a double rule of sponge cake ; bake it in round deep patty-pans ; when cold cut out the inside about one-quarter of an inch from the edge and bottom, leaving the shell. Eeplace the inside with a custard made of the yolks of four eggs beaten with a pint of boiling milk, sweetened and flavored; lay on the top of this some jelly or jam; beat the whites of three eggs with three heaping tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar until it will stand in a heap ; flavor it a little ; place this on the jelly. Set them aside in a cold place until time to serve. ECONOMICAL CHARLOTTE RUSSE. Make a quart of nicely flavored mock custard, put it into a large glass fruit dish, which is partly filled with stale cake (of any kind) cut up into small pieces about an inch square, stir it a little, then heat the whites of two or more eggs stiff, sweetened with white sugar ; spread over the top, set in a refrigerator to become cold. Or, to be still more economical : To make the cream, take a pint and