The home cook book

Put one tablespoon of butter, two tablespoons of water, and one cup of sugar in a kettle. Stir and watch when the mixture boils. Then add half a cup of molasses of the best sort — not the adulterated which floods the market, but pure New Orleans molasses if you can get it. Boil fifteen minutes, watching carefully, and then test. If the mixture candies in cold water, it is done. Have on the bottom of buttered tins rows of hickory-nuts or other meats you have picked out while the syrup is boiling. Pour the syrup over the meats and cool. NOUGAT To make this most delectable of candies, melt over the fire in a porcelain-lined vessel one pound of fine white sugar with two tablespoons of water. Have ready a half pound of sweet almonds, blanched and chopped. When the syrup begins to turn yellow, add the nuts, stir for five minutes, add a little grated lemon-peel, and pour at once into a well-oiled flat pan. When partly cooled, mark with a greased knife into bars. PEANUT CANDY Melt slowly in a saucepan a pound of heavy wet brown sugar — add no water. Shell a quart of fresh roasted peanuts and chop them a little. When the sugar is cooked to a thick syrup, shake a little salt over the peanuts and stir them in. Pour in shallow buttered tins and cool. PRALINES The fame of these delicious sweetmeats has come north from New Orleans, where you find them sold on the streets. Boil together two scant cups of powdered sugar, one cup of maple syrup, and half a cup of thick cream. When this mixture can be dipped into cold water and forms a soft ball it is ready to take from the fire. Beat it till smooth and creamy, then stir in two cups of broken pecan meats and drop from a teaspoon in small piles upon paraffine paper. POPCORN WAFERS Make a receipt of boiled icing. Stir in fresh popcorn that has been buttered and salted. Have long wafers. Pile on the corn till it is nearly an inch thick ; set in the oven and brown to a light color. CHESTNUTS CANDIED OR MARRONS GLACES Parboil eighteen or twenty large French chestnuts till the skins rub off easily. Then put in hot water and simmer till tender. Dissolve a cup of sugar in a cup of water, and add the tender chestnuts. Move them carefully so they will not break. Let them cook in the hot syrup till clear, then take them out. Next boil the syrup till it hardens on being dropped in cold water, take from the fire, and add half a dozen drops of lemon-juice. Put in the chestnuts, turn them about till they are coated with the syrup and drain on oiled paper. STUFFED DATES Purchase the finest dates for this sweetmeat, and after separating them wipe each one careful!)' with a bit of damp cheesecloth. Make a cut the entire length of a date and remove the stone. Fill the cavity with a blanched almond or an English walnut. Sprinkle the palms of the hands with powdered sugar and roll the date to its original form. Leave the dates in powdered sugar until ready to serve. FRUIT CANDY