The encyclopaedia of practical cookery

Lemon-Cream-Tart Meringue. —Boil 1 pint of water in a saucepan, put in another vessel 4oz. of powdered sugar, mix with it loz. of corn-starch, grate in the rind of a Lemon, squeezing in the juice, and stir well with the spatula for one minute. Break in two whole eggs, beat all together for one minute, and add it to the boiling water in the pan, stirring sharply with a whisk until it comes to the boil, then take from the fire. Have ready a flat pie-dish lined with paste, put it in the oven, and bake for ten minutes, so that the crust gets a good golden colour. Remove from the oven, and pour the preparation into it, then let it get thoroughly cold. Beat with a whisk, in a copper basin, the whites of three eggs to a stiff froth, mix in 3oz. of powdered sugar, and with a spoon lay half of it over the tart, using a knife to flatten it evenly on the top and sides. Pour the rest of the froth into a pastry-bag, decorate the top of the tart artistically, laying it in any fanciful design. Sprinkle over plenty of sugar, place the tart in a slow oven for ten minutes to let it get a pale brown colour, remove it, put it away to cool, slide carefully on to a dessert-dish, and send to table. Lemon Custard. — (1) Put into a saucepan lqt. of milk, the thin rind of a Lemon, two bitter almonds, and 41b. of sugar. Bring the milk to the boil, strain it gradually through a fine sieve into a saucepan over six well-beaten ' eggs, and stir well until it thickens. Pour it at once into custard-cups or glasses, and serve hot or cold as required. (2) Boil the peel of one Lemon till very tender, then rub it through a sieve into a stewpan; mix with it fib. of loaf sugar, the strained juice of two Lemons, the thinlypared rind of one, and 1 pint of white wine. Boil all for a-quarter-of-an-hour, then take out the peel and a little of the liquor and set them to cool, pouring the remainder into a dish; beat the yolks of four eggs and the whites of two, and mix them with the cool liquor and peel; then strain them into a jug or basin, stir thoroughly, and set them over the fire in a pan of boiling water. When cooked, grate the peel of a Lemon on the top of the custard, brown it over with a salamander, and serve either hot or cold. Lemon Drops. — (1) Take a large piece of loaf sugar and with it grate off the yellow rinds of three large Lemons, scraping the surface off the sugar as it becomes yellowed. When all the rinds are grated and all the yellow sugar scraped off, add and mix well with it 1 table-spoonful of flour, and then beat it to a light paste together with the white of an egg. Drop it on white paper laid on a tin baking-sheet, and bake in a moderate oven. (2) Make a mixture of powdered white sugar and strained Lemon-juice almost thick enough for a teaspoon to stand upright in. Put it over the fire in a deep pan and keep stirring till it is quite hot but do not let it boil ; then stir in a little more sugar, let it get hot, chalk the spout of the pan,, and with a small stick make the sugar drop in small drops on tin or pewter plates. Let the drops get quite cold and then take them off the plates and put them on sieves into the stove to dry. Lemons — continued.