Cassell's dictionary of cookery

Melon Water Ice.— To make a quart of melon-water ice, skin and pound the whole of a ripe melon, and pass it through a sieve. Mix with a pint of syrup a little orange-flower water and the strained juice of two lemons. Freeze. Melts, Ragout of Pish.— Wash the melts in cold water, and then steep them in boiling water to which some vinegar has been added. Eemove the melts from the water, dry them on a cloth, and cook for a quarter of an hour with parsley, chives, salt, and pepper, in half a glassful of stock broth, and the same quantity of white wine, mixed with a few spoonfuls of blanc de veau. Take out the melts when cooked, evaporate the liquid in which they were cooked to the consistence of a sauce, and thicken with two ounces of butter, mixed with a little flour. Before sending this dish to table, remember to squeeze the juice of a lemon into it. This ragout may also be prepared by another method. Cut into small pieces two onions, one carrot, and half a parsnip, fry them in butter with parslej% chives, pepper, salt, and nutmeg. When nearly ready add a little flour, and mbc it well with the other materials. Afterwards pour a sufiicient quantity of bouillon maigre, or water, and half a glassful of white wine. Boil the materials in a stewpan over a steady fire until they are reduced one-half. Now strain off the clear liquid, and simmer the melts in it for about twenty minutes. When about to send to table, mix with it the yolks of two eggs beat up with cream ; simmer the whole at a gentle heat, to thicken it ; and add the juice of a lemon. Meringues. — Take of finely-powdered sugar one pound, mix it lightly and expeditiously with eight well-whisked whites of eggs — these should be to a high froth. Wlicn the sugar has been all put in, fill a table-spoon with the paste, and smooth it with another spoon to the desired egg-like shape, always remembering that the meringues — for so they may be now called — are not worked too much, and that they are baked as soon after they are moulded as possible, that they may not lose their stiffness. Drop them separately, and about two inches apart, on strips of firm white paper, and keep them well moulded with the spoon. Dust them with sifted sugar, and put the strips on the baking-tia into a moderate oven for half an hour, or, as some prefer, a quick oven. In the latter the oven should not be closed, or the meiingucs unwatched, for if they are too much coloured, their appearance will be spoiled. When sufficiently coloured and a little cooled, pass a thin knife under each, to slip them from the paper, scoop out a little of the soft part, the hollow to be fUled with thick well-flavoured cream, and the two halves fastened together with a little of the meringue mixture. To secure variety, finely-chopped almonds or curi-ants may be sprinkled over the top, and the insides may be filled with firm jelly or a rich preserve. Serve piled high. Probable cost 2s. Sufiicient for two dishes.