Hand-Book of Practical Cookery, for Ladies and Professional Cooks: Containing the Whole Science and Art of Preparing Human Food

and a pinch of salt in a saucepan, and set it on the fire; at the first boiling throw the _nouilles_ in, boil two minutes, stirring occasionally; drain, throw them in cold water and it is ready for use. It may be kept in cold water half a day. _Nouilles_ are used to make soup, and are prepared in the same and every way like macaroni. SWEET DISHES. These are served both as _entremets_ and _dessert_. Many are _entremets_ at a grand dinner, and _dessert_ at a family dinner. As the name indicates, sugar is one of the most important of the compounds used to prepare them. It is used in syrup, the making of which is generally more difficult than the rest of the operation. The _father of cooks_, the great Careme, divides syrup, or the "cooking of sugar," as he calls it, and as every practitioner has called it since, into six degrees; each one corresponding to the six different states into which the sugar passes, while on the fire, from the time it begins to boil to that when it begins to turn _caramel_ or burned. A copper pan is the best and handiest of all; it can be done in another, but it is more difficult; the sugar turns brown before being thoroughly cooked or reduced. Always use good loaf sugar. If it be necessary to clarify it, do it in the following way: for five pounds of sugar, put the white of an egg in a bowl with half a pint of water, and beat well with an egg-beater; then turn into it nearly three pints of water, stir, put away half a pint of it to be used afterward. Then add to the rest five pounds of sugar, in lumps, set on a rather slow fire, and as soon as it comes to a boil, mix with it the half pint put away, little by little, skimming off carefully the while, and when no more scum gathers on the surface, strain through a towel and commence the working. If the sugar does not require