Cassell's dictionary of cookery

Batafia, Black Currant.— Take twelve pounds of black currants, and mash them in a deep earthen pan. Pound in a mortar half an ounce of cinnamon, three pods of vanilla cut in bits, an ounce of cardamom-seeds, four sticks of Jamaica pepper, a drachm of mace, a quarter of a pound of bitter almonds, and six apricot kernels. Add these ingredients to the fruit, together with a quart of syrup. Put the whole into a large stone bottle, and let it stand during a fortnight near the fire. Then strain out all the juice through a linen bag, pressing it well out, and with each quart of the juice mix a quart of the best French brandy. Let it stand another fortnight in the same place. Then run it through a jelly -bag until it is clear, and bottle for use. Batafia, Cacao. — Take one pound of Caracca cacao-nuts, half a pound of West Indian cacao-nuts, both being roasted and bruised, and a gallon of proof spirit. Digest for a fortnight, then filter, and add two pounds and a half of white sugar and half a drachm of tincture of vanilla, or, instead of this, a shred of vanilla may be infused with the nuts in the spirit. After a month, decant and bottle the ratafia. Batafia Cake. — Blanch and pound together to a smooth paste six ounces of sweet almonds and two ounces of bitter almonds. Add the whites of two eggs beaten to a solid froth, and beat in very gradually half a pound of loaf sugar powdered and sifted, half a teaspoonful of grated lemon-rind, and the yolks of eight eggs. Beat the mixture thoroughly. Add two ounces of fine flour, and the remaining whites of the eggs whisked to a firm froth. Butter a mould, half fill it with the mixture, and bake the cake in a slow oven. Let it stand a few minutes, shake it to loosen it, take it out carefully, and set it upon a reversed sieve till cold. Time to bake, about three-quarters of an hour. Probable cost, 2s. Batafia Cheese-cakes.— Boil a pint of milk till lukewarm. Sweeten and flavour it with a dessert-spoonful of sugar and two table-spoonfuls of brandy, then stir into it a table-spoonful of rennet. Let it stand in a cool place till it is turned to a curd. Beat it well, draw off the whey, and stir into it three-quarters of an ounce of powdered ratafia biscuits, one ounce of dissolved butter, and two RAT (715) RAT well-beaten eggs. Line some patty-pans with good puff paste, pour a spoonful of the mixture into each, and bake the cheese-cakes in a wellheated oven. Time to bake, about a quarter of an hour. Probable cost, 1-J-d. each. ■ Ratafia, Cherry (a Danish recipe).— Bruise two pounds of black cherries, so that all the kernels may be broken ; add a quarter of an ounce of bitter almonds or peach kernels, half an ounce of cinnamon, a quarter of an ounce of pounded cloves, and one pound of white sugar to the cherries, also half a pint of brandy and a quart of old white wine. Let these remain a few days to infuse, stirring frequently; then filter the liqueur and bottle it. For this and several of the following ratafias we are indebted to Amelia von Kochheim's interesting " Handbook of Foreign Cookery." Ratafia, Coffee. — "This beautiful liqueur," says Robinson, writing in 1848, in his "Whole Art of Making British Wines," " is made by infusing the following ingredients in a jar : —