Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well (88 page)

2 deciliters (about 4/5 of a cup) of syrup

1 deciliter (about 2/5 of a cup) of Marsala wine

1 tablespoon of rum

You do not need any sugar. If you must, use very little of it since the syrup is already very sweet. In all other respects proceed as in the previous gelatin recipes.

If you use fresh raspberries instead of syrup, use the same proportions and follow the same directions for strawberry gelatin (see recipe 715).

Would you like to know how to quiet a child who is crying for a morning treat? All you need is a fresh egg. Beat the yolk with two or three teaspoons of powdered sugar in a shallow bowl. Beat the egg white until stiff and carefully fold it into the yolk. Place the bowl before the child with slices of bread which he can dip in the egg, and with which he can make himself a yellow mustache—he’ll be in heaven.

Would that all children’s meals were as harmless as this, for there would be far fewer hysterical and convulsive children in this world! I am talking about foods that irritate people’s nerves, such as coffee, tea, wine and other products, tobacco among them, which become part of household routines much more quickly than they should.

This is a family pudding—do not expect anything exquisite.

100 grams (about 3-1/2 ounces) of good, ordinary bread

70 grams (about 2-1/3 ounces) of sugar

40 grams (about 1-1/3 ounces) of chocolate

20 grams (about 2/3 of an ounce) of butter

4 deciliters (about 1-2/3 cups) of milk

3 eggs

Pour boiling milk over the bread, cut into thin slices. After allowing it to soak for approximately two hours, pass the mixture through a strainer to obtain a smooth cream; put it then on the fire, adding the
sugar, butter, and chocolate, which you have grated. Stir the mixture often and boil it for some time. Then let it cool. Next add the eggs, first the yolks and then the whites, beaten until stiff. Cook in
bain-marie
in a smooth mold greased with butter and serve cold. To give it a more attractive appearance, it would not be a bad idea to cover the pudding with a custard after removing it from the mold.

These amounts serve five people.

This dish could be called “apple pie” which would not be an improper term.

Core and peel red apples or some other kind of firm apples and cut them into thin, round slices. Place them on the fire with enough water to cook them and a cinnamon stick. When the apples are half-cooked, add enough sugar to make them sweet and some bits of candied fruit.

Pour the apples into a copper pie plate or an ovenproof porcelain dish, cover them with shortcrust pastry dough, bake in an oven or a Dutch oven, and serve hot as a dessert.

3 egg yolks

30 grams (about 1 ounce) of powdered sugar

1-1/2 deciliters (about 3/5 of a cup) equal to approximately nine tablespoons of Cyprus, Marsala or Madeira wine

Double these amounts to serve eight people. If you prefer it more “spirited,” add a tablespoon of rum; adding one teaspoon of ground cinnamon wouldn’t be a bad idea either.

With a wooden spoon beat the yolks with the sugar until they turn almost white, then add the liquid, mix well and put over a high flame, whisking constantly and taking care not to let the mixture boil, because in that case it would curdle. Remove the zabaione from the flame the moment it begins to turn light and fluffy. In my opinion, it is best to use a chocolate pot.

Dissolved in cold or iced water, syrups made with tart fruits are pleasant, refreshing drinks, most fitting for the heat of a summer’s day. However, it is better to consume them only after digestion is complete, since that natural process might be disturbed by the sugar they contain, which makes them sit rather heavily on the stomach.

The delicate flavor of this fruit (
framboise
, as the French call it) makes this the king of syrups. After crushing the fruit by hand, proceed as in recipe 725, with the same proportions of sugar and citric acid. Since raspberries are less glutinous than red currants, the fermentation time is shorter. If you are curious to know why these syrups require so much sugar I will tell you that it is necessary to preserve them. The citric acid counteracts the excessive sweetness.

This tart drink flavoring is made by replacing the citric acid with high-quality wine vinegar which you will add upon removing the raspberry syrup from the fire. The amount of vinegar is according to
taste; therefore start with very little, and taste a drop of the syrup diluted in two fingers of water before adding more vinegar if you deem it necessary. This drink will be more refreshing and just as pleasant as the other syrups.

As it is very glutinous, this fruit requires a long fermentation; so much so that if you were to dissolve the sugar in freshly-squeezed red currant juice and put it on the fire the result would be not a syrup but a jelly. Crush the red currants while still on the stem, as you would with grapes to make must, and leave in an earthenware or wooden container in a cool place. When fermentation begins (it might take three to four days) push to the bottom any matter that has risen to the top, and stir twice a day with a large wooden spoon. Continue this procedure until the surface of the liquid remains clear, then strain through a kitchen towel a little at a time, squeezing by hand if you do not have a press. Then filter the juice two or three times, or even more if necessary, to obtain a very clear liquid. Place on the fire, and when it begins to boil pour in the sugar and the citric acid in the following proportions:

3 kilograms (about 3 quarts) of liquid

4 kilograms (about 8 pounds) of very white powdered sugar

30 grams (about 1 ounce) of citric acid

Stir constantly with a wooden spoon so that the sugar does not stick. Boil briskly for two or three minutes, and taste to see if more citric acid needs to be added. When it has cooled, bottle it and keep it in the cellar. Let me remind you that the beauty of these syrups lies in their clarity, which is the result of thorough fermentation.

3 garden lemons

600 grams (about 1-1/3 pounds) of fine white sugar

a table glass (about 3 deciliters or 1-1/5 cups) of water

Without squeezing it, cut out the pulp of the lemons, removing all seeds and peeling off the white rind. Put the water on the fire with the peel of one of the lemons cut into thin strips with a penknife. When the water begins to boil, pour in the sugar. Let it boil for a while, then remove the peel and add the lemon pulp. Keep boiling until the syrup is reduced and cooked to just the right consistency, that is when the bubbles acquire a pearl-like appearance and the liquid becomes the color of white wine. If possible, store it in a glass container, so that it can be taken out by the spoonful and dissolved in cold water. You will have an excellent, refreshing drink whose absence from the list of drinks served in cafes in several Italian provinces astounds me.

Take true morello cherries, which even when ripe should be very sour. Remove the stems and crush them as you do grapes to make wine. Set aside a handful of cherrystones (the use of which I will tell you later on), and place the cherries together with a large cinnamon stick in an earthenware jar in a cool place. Allow them to ferment for at least forty-eight hours. However, the moment the pulp from the cherries begin to rise, push it down into the liquid, stirring every now and then. Now you should use a press to extract the juice; if you don’t have a press, use your hands, squeezing the mixture a little at a time through loosely woven cloth.

The beauty of these syrups, as I have said, is their clarity; therefore, when the juice has rested a while, decant the clear portion and strain the remaining liquid several times through a woolen filter. Once all impurities have been removed from the liquid in this way, put it on the fire in the following proportions with the cinnamon stick.

6 kilograms (about 6 quarts) of filtered juice

8 kilograms (about 16 pounds) of very white sugar

50 grams (about 1-2/3 ounces) of citric acid

Wait until the liquid is quite hot before pouring in the sugar and the citric acid. Stir frequently so that the sugar does not sink to the bottom, where it would begin to burn. Boil as little as possible: four or five minutes is enough to dissolve the sugar into the liquid. Boiling the liquid too long would cause the fruit to lose much of its aroma, while boiling it too little would cause the sugar to settle at the bottom over time. When you remove the cherry syrup from the fire, pour it into an earthenware container to cool, then bottle it. Cork the bottles without any paraffin and store in the cellar where this and other syrups can be kept for some years.

Lastly, I will explain how to use the cherrystones mentioned above. Dry them in the sun, crush them, and remove up to 30 grams (about 1 ounce) worth of the kernels inside. These you will pound very fine in a mortar and mix in with the cherries before fermentation. The pleasant bitterness of these kernels makes the syrup even more tasty.

The most refined way to prepare morello cherries is the one I have described in the previous recipe. However, if you would like to eat as well as drink the fruit, as they do in some places, mix into the preceding syrup some cherries which have been prepared as follows:

1-1/2 kilograms (about 3 pounds) of morello cherries

2 kilograms (about 4 pounds) of very fine powdered sugar

Remove the stems and keep the cherries in the sun for five to six hours. Then put them on the fire with a small piece of cinnamon. When they have lost some of their liquid, add the sugar, stirring carefully so as not to damage the fruit. When they become wrinkled and turn brown, remove them from the fire and use them as I’ve just suggested.

200 grams (about 7 ounces) of sweet almonds with 10 or 12 bitter almonds

600 grams (about 2-2/5 cups) of water

800 grams (about 1-3/4 pounds) of fine white sugar

2 tablespoons orange-flower water

Blanch and crush the almonds in a mortar, moistening them every now and then with the orange-flower water. When they have been reduced to a very fine paste, dissolve them in a third of the water and strain the juice through a cloth, squeezing well. Return to the mortar the dried paste remaining in the cloth and pound again with the pestle. Dilute again with another third of the water and strain the juice. Repeat the procedure a third time. Place all of the liquid thus obtained on the fire, and when it is very hot pour in the sugar. Stir and boil for about twenty minutes. When it has cooled, bottle it and keep it in a cool place. If made in this way, this orange-flavored syrup will not ferment and will keep for quite a while, but not as long as fruit syrups. Moreover its consistency is such that a very small amount of it diluted in a glass of water is enough for an excellent, refreshing drink. It comes out even more delicate made with melon seeds.

You need good red wine to make this drink, which deserves to be included here both for its taste and its ease of preparation. You can use Bordeaux, Chianti, Sangiovese and similar wines.