three minutes, take off the scum, and pour the boiling juice on eight well-beaten eggs; thicken the custard in a jug set into a pan of water, pour it out, stir it till nearly cold, then add to it carefully, and by degrees, half a pint of rich cream, and last of all two tablespoonsful of strained lemon-juice. When the currants are very ripe omit one ounce of the sugar.

White currants and strawberries, cherries, red or white raspberries, or a mixture of any of these fruits, may be used for these custards with good effect: they are excellent.

Currant-juice, 1 pint; sugar, 10 ozs.: 3 minutes. Eggs, 8; cream, pint; lemon-juice, 2 tablespoonsful.

QUINCE OR APPLE CUSTARDS.

Add to a pint of apple-juice prepared as for jelly, a tablespoonful of strained lemon-juice, and from four to six ounces of sugar according to the acidity of the fruit; stir these boiling, quickly, and in small portions, to eight well-beaten eggs, and thicken the custard in a jug placed in a pan of boiling water, in the usual manner. A larger proportion of lemon-juice and a high flavouring of the rind can be given when approved. For quince custards, which if well made are excellent, observe the same directions as for the apple, but omit the lemon-juice. As we have before observed, all custards are much finer when made with the yolks only of the eggs, of which the number must be increased nearly half, when this is done.

Prepared apple-juice (see page 427), 1 pint; lemon-juice, 1 tablespoonful; sugar, 4 to 6 ozs.; eggs, 8. Quince custards, same proportions, but no lemon-juice.

Obs. In making lemon-creams the apple-juice may be substituted very advantageously for water, without varying the receipt in other respects.

THE DUKE'S CUSTARD.

Drain well from their juice, and then roll in dry sifted sugar, as many fine brandied Morella cherries as will cover thickly the bottom of the dish in which this is to be sent to table; arrange them in it, and pour over them from a pint to a pint and a half of rich cold boiled custard; garnish the edge with macaroons or Naples' biscuits, or pile upon the custard some solid rose-coloured whipped cream, highly flavoured with brandy.

Brandied Morella cherries, to whole pint; boiled custard, from 1 to 1 pint; thick cream, pint or more; brandy, 1 to 2 glassesful; sugar, 2 to 3 ozs. ; juice of large lemon; prepared cochineal, or carmine, 20 or 40 drops.

CHOCOLATE CUSTARDS.

Dissolve gently by the side of the fire an ounce and a half of the best chocolate in rather more than a wineglassful of water, and then boil it until it is perfectly smooth; mix with it a pint of milk well flavoured with lemon peel or vanilla, add two ounces of fine sugar, and when the whole boils, stir it to five well-beaten eggs that have been strained. Put the custard into a jar or jug, set it into a pan of boiling water, and stir it without ceasing until it is thick. Do not put it into glasses or a dish till nearly or quite cold. These, as well as all other custards, are infinitely finer when made with the yolks only of the eggs, of which the number must then be increased. Two ounces of chocolate, a pint of milk, half a pint of cream, two ounces and a half or three ounces of sugar, and eight yolks of eggs, will make very superior custards of this kind.

Rasped chocolate, 1 oz.; water, 1 large wineglassful: 5 to 8 minutes. New milk, 1 pint; eggs, 5; sugar, 2 ozs. Or, chocolate, 2 ozs.; water, pint; new milk, 1 pint: sugar, 2 to 3 ozs.; cream, pint; yolks of eggs, 8.

Obs.—Either of these may be moulded by dissolving from half to three quarters of an ounce of isinglass in the milk. The proportion of chocolate can be increased to the taste.

COMMON BAKED CUSTARD.

Mix a quart of new milk with eight well-beaten eggs, strain the mixture through a fine sieve, and sweeten it with from five to eight ounces of sugar, according to the taste; add a small pinch of salt, and pour the custard into a deep dish with or without a lining or rim of paste, grate nutmeg or lemon rind over the top, and bake it in a very slow oven from twenty to thirty minutes, or longer, should it not be firm in the centre. A custard, if well made, and properly baked, will be quite smooth when cut, without the honey-combed appearance which a hot oven gives; and there will be no whey in the dish. New milk, 1 quart; eggs, 8; sugar, 5 to 8 ozs.; salt, saltspoonful; nutmeg or lemon-grate: baked, slow oven, 20 to 30 minutes, or more.

A FINER BAKED CUSTARD.

Boil together gently, for five minutes, a pint and a half of new milk, a few grains of salt, the very thin rind of a lemon, and six ounces of loaf sugar; stir these boiling, but very gradually to the well-beaten yolks of ten fresh eggs, and the whites

of four; strain the mixture, and add to it half a pint of good cream; let it cool, and then flavour it with a few spoonsful of brandy, or a little ratifia; finish and bake it by the directions given for the common custard above; or pour it into small well-buttered cups, and bake it very slowly from ten to twelve minutes.

FRENCH CUSTARDS.

To a quart of new milk allow the yolks of twelve fresh eggs, but to equal parts of milk and cream of ten only. From six to eight ounces of sugar will sweeten the custard sufficiently for general taste, but more can be added at will; boil this for a few minutes gently in the milk with a grain or two of salt, and stir the mixture briskly to the eggs, as soon as it is taken from the fire. Butter a round deep dish, pour in the custard, and place it in a pan of water at the point of boiling, taking care that it shall not reach to within an inch of the edge; let it just simmer, and no more, from an hour to an hour and a half: when quite firm in the middle, it will be done. A very few live embers should be kept on the lid of the stewpan to prevent the steam falling from it into the custard. When none is at hand of a form to allow of this, it is better to use a charcoal fire, and to lay an oven-leaf, or tin, over the pan, and the embers in the centre. The small French furnace, shown in Chapter XXI., is exceedingly convenient for preparations of this kind; and there is always more or less of difficulty in keeping a coal fire entirely free from smoke for any length of time. Serve the custard cold, with chopped macaroons, or ratifias, laid thickly round the edge so as to form a border an inch deep. A few petals of fresh orange-blossom infused in the milk, will give it a most agreeable flavour, very superior to that derived from the distilled water. Half a pod of vanilla, cut in short lengths, and well bruised, may be used instead of either; but the milk should then stand some time by the fire before or after it boils, and it must be strained through a muslin before it is added to the eggs, as the small seed of the vanilla would probably pass through a sieve.

New milk, 1 quart; yolks of eggs, 12; sugar, 6 to 8 ozs. Or, new milk, 1 pint; cream, 1 pint; yolks of eggs, 10; flavouring of orange-flowers or vanilla: simmered in water-bath, 1 to 1 hour.

GERMAN PUFFS.

Pound to a perfectly smooth paste two ounces of Jordan almonds and six bitter ones; mix with them, by slow degrees,

the yolks of six, and the whites of three eggs. Dissolve in half a pint of rich cream, four ounces of fresh butter, and two of fine sugar; pour these hot to the eggs, stirring them briskly together, and when the mixture has become cool, flavour it with half a glass of brandy, of cuirasseau, or of orange-flower water; or, in lieu of either, with a little lemon-brandy. Butter some cups thickly, and strew into them a few slices of candied citron, or orange rind; pour in the mixture, and bake the puffs twenty minutes, in a slow oven.

Jordan almonds, 2 ozs.; bitter almonds, 6; eggs, whites, 3, -yolks, 6; cream, pint; butter, 4 ozs. ; sugar, 2 ozs.; brandy, cuirasseau, or orange-flower water, wineglassful (or little lemon-brandy): 20 minutes, slow oven.

MERINGUE OF PEARS, OR OTHER FRUIT.

Fill a deep tart-dish nearly to the brim with stewed pears, and let them be something more than half covered with their juice. Whisk to a solid froth the whites of five eggs, stir to them five tablespoonsful of dry sifted sugar, and lay chem lightly and equally over the fruit; put the meringue immediately into a moderate oven, and bake it half an hour. Cherries, bullaces, and damsons, with various other kinds of plums, first either stewed as for compotes (see page 428), or baked with sugar, as for winter use, answer as well as pears for this dish; which may, likewise, be made of apples, peaches, apricots, or common plums boiled down quite to a marmalade, with sufficient sugar to sweeten them moderately: the skins and stones of these last should be removed, but a few of the blanched kernels may be added to the fruit.

Dish filled with stewed pears or other fruit; whites of eggs, 5; pounded sugar, 5 tablespoonsful: baked, hour.

AN APPLE CHARLOTTE, OR CHARLOTTE DES POMMES.

Butter a plain mould (a round or square cake - tin will answer the purpose quite well), and line it entirely with thin slices of the crumb of a stale loaf, cut so as to fit into it with great exactness, and dipped into clarified butter. When this is done, fill the mould to the brim with apple marmalade; cover the top with slices of bread dipped in butter, and on these place a dish, a large plate, or the

cover of a French stewpan with a weight upon it. Send the charlotte to a brisk oven for three quarters of an hour should it be small, and for an honr if large. Turn it out with great care, and serve it hot. If baked in a slack oven it will not take a proper degree of colour, and it will be liable to break in the dishing. The strips of bread must of course join very perfectly, for if any spaces were left between them the syrup of the fruit would escape, and destroy the good appearance of the dish: should there not have been sufficient marmalade prepared to fill the mould entirely, a jar of quince or apricot jam, or of preserved cherries even, may be added to it with advantage. The butter should be well drained from the charlotte before it is taken from the mould; and sugar may be sifted thickly over it before it is served, or it may be covered with any kind of clear red jelly.

A more elegant, and we think an easier mode of forming the crust, is to line the mould with small rounds of bread stamped out with a plain cake, or paste-cutter, then dipped in butter, and placed with the edges sufficiently one over the other to hold the fruit securely: the strips of bread are sometimes arranged in the same way.

to 1 hour, quick oven.

MARMALADE FOR THE CHARLOTTE.

Weigh three pounds of good boiling apples, after they have been pared, cored, and quartered; put them into a stewpan with six ounces of fresh butter, three quarters of a pound of sugar beaten to powder, three quarters of a teaspoonful of pounded cinnamon, and the strained juice of a lemon: let these stew over a gentle fire, until they form a perfectly smooth and dry marmalade; keep them often stirred that they may not burn, and let them cool before they are put into the crust. This quantity is for a moderate-sized charlotte.

A CHARLOTTE À LA PARISIENNE.

This dish is sometimes called in England a Vienna cake; and it is known here also, we believe, as a Gâteaux de Bordeaux. Cut horizontally into half-inch slices a Savoy or sponge cake, and cover each slice with a different kind of preserve; replace them in their original form, and spread equally over the cake an icing made with the whites of three eggs, and four ounces of the finest pounded sugar; sift more sugar over it in every part, and put it into a very slack oven to dry. The eggs should be whisked to snow before they are used. One kind of preserve, instead of several can be used for this dish; and a rice or a