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

Crèmes au Citron_ (_with Lemon_).--Put one pint of milk in a tin saucepan with the rind of a lemon; set on the fire, and as soon as it rises place an iron spoon in it and boil gently five minutes; take from the fire. Mix well in a bowl four ounces of sugar with four yolks of eggs, then turn the milk into the bowl, little by little, stirring and mixing at the same time. Strain the mixture and put it in small cups; put the cups in a pan of boiling water, boil gently for about ten minutes, and put in the oven as it is, that is, leaving the cups in the water. The cups must not be more than half covered with water, else the water will fly into it. It takes from ten to fifteen minutes to finish the cooking in the oven, according to the size of the cups. Take them from the oven when the _crème_ is rather firm, except a little spot in the middle, and which you ascertain by moving the cups. Anyone with an ordinary amount of intelligence can make creams as well as the best cooks, after having tried only two or three times. When you know how to make one, you can make fifty, just by using different flavorings. _Au Café (with Coffee_).--The stronger the coffee the better the cream. The most economical way of making strong coffee is: when you intend to have cream with coffee for dinner, put the first drops that fall, when you make the coffee for breakfast, into a glass; put it immediately in cold water, and as soon as cool cover it with paper, which you tie around it with twine, and use when you make the cream. Always use good fresh milk and fresh eggs. As soon as the whites of the eggs are separated from the yolks, put them, together with the shells, on ice, and use the next day to clarify your jellies, or to make icing, etc. A little care is a great saving in the kitchen. Put one