Harper's cook book encyclopædia

Raspberry Meringue. — Line a pie-plate with good, light pastry and bake in a quick oven. While still warm, spread thickly with red raspberries. Make a meringue of the whites of four eggs beaten stiff with Strawberry Foam Raspberries, Prepared a half-cupful of powdered sugar, and when it is a froth stir lightly through it a half-pint of raspberries. Heap the meringue on top of the berries in the pie-plate, and brown very delicately in the oven. Eat as soon as it is cool. Raspberries, Prepared (for dessert). — An hour before it is to be used, take up the fruit, examine it, and carefully remove every bit and every imperfect or decayed portion. Have ready a bowl of cold water. Take a small handful of raspberries at a time, and pass them quickly through the water without allowing them to remain in it for a second. Put them into the dish in which they are to be served, and sprinkle powdered white sugar plentifully over them. This process will freshen the fruit, and not do it any harm. Care should be taken not to touch the fruit after it has been picked until within an hour before it is to be served. Strawberries and Cream. — Pick the strawberries, and remove every imperfect and unsound berry. Do not wash them unless it is absolutely necessary. If, however, they are dusty or not quite fresh, they may be cleansed and freshened by taking them in handfuls and passing them quickly through a basin of cold water. They should not be allowed to remain in it one instant. If the strawberries have been gathered in rainy weather, it is very desirable that this cleansing process should be performed. Strawberries are very delicious served with thick cream and finely powdered sugar. These accompaniments should be sent to table separately, as the sugar, if put upon them even for a short time, will draw out their juice and change their color. Strawberries, Compote of. — Take a pint of strawberries. Pick them, and put them into a bowl. Pour over them a little clear syrup which has been made by boiling a quarter of a pint of water with 5 ozs. of sugar for ten minutes. Cover the bowl containing them with a plate, and let them stand for an hour or more. Drain off the syrup ; boil it for a few minutes, skim it, and strain it over the strawberries piled in the centre of a compote-dish. The flavor of this dish will be greatly improved if a wineglassful of red- currant juice is added to the syrup. When it is at hand, a glass of maraschino may also be added with advantage. For a superlative dish, the syrup, after being flavored with maraschino or kirschenwasser, may be set in ice till it is almost frozen, and in this condition poured over the fruit. Time to soak the strawberries, one hour. Strawberries, Conserves of. — Sprinkle the strawberries with sugar, when freshly gathered, in the proportion of Yz lb. of sugar to one of fruit ; let them stand four hours. Pour off the syrup, and put it on the fire in a preserving-kettle ; drop in the fruit as soon as it comes to a boil, and let it become well scalded ; take out with a split spoon ; spread the berries on dishes in the sun to dry ; cover with a thin muslin to protect them against inse cts ; bring them in at nightfall, turn them, and repeat the process two days more until they are dry enough. Pack them in glass jars, interspersing each layer of fruit with a sprinkling of granulated sugar.