The residue from the making of raspberry vinegar may be employed for this purpose, or they may be made by adding a pound of fine powdered sugar to a pound of jam. Any of the fruit pastes may be formed into cakes like these, or into drops, by forcing them out on paper with a small pipe and bladder attached to it.
VIOLETS, GUM OF.--Violet flowers one pound, picked gum two pounds, sugar four ounces in syrup. Pour three pints of water at the boiling point on the flowers in an earthen jar; stop it perfectly close, and keep it in a warm place for ten or twelve hours; strain the infusion by expression into a flat pan or dish, place it on an inclination, and let it rest for an hour, that the fæces may subside; pour off the clear gently from the bottom or settling, and add to it six grains of turnsole bruised, and six grains of carmine, as this clear infusion is not sufficiently colored to give it the beautiful tint of the violet. Mix in the powdered gum and sugar, stir it over a moderate fire until dissolved, pass it through a sieve, and finish in the bain-marie as jujubes.
Any of these gums, when dry, may be crystallized.
In making Ice Cream always use rich, sweet cream, sweetened with powdered sugar, and flavor with the extract of lemon.
VANILLA, ETC., ETC.--In warm weather be particular that the cream is not set anywhere near the fire, as there is danger of the least heat turning it sour. It should be left in the refrigerator, or some cool place, until time to prepare it for freezing.
When cream cannot be had, an excellent substitute may be made as follows: To a quart of new milk add two beaten eggs; set it on the fire in a saucepan, but be careful not to stir it after it is hot, as that would be apt to make it burn. While it is heating mix smoothly with a teacup of new milk a table-spoonful of flour, and be ready to stir it into the milk on the fire as soon as it comes to the boiling point. Remove it immediately, and pour it into another vessel to cool. This is known to cooks as boiled custard; and although some take more than two eggs, that number, used as directed, will be found sufficient to make a delicious substitute for cream, and for this purpose all the more desirable because not taking so much of the egg; the color also being that of a very rich cream. The custard thus prepared should now be sweetened well, and treated just as in making with cream, with the exception that this requires the addition of a small pinch of salt; and when the whole is frozen very few can distinguish it from genuine ice-cream; indeed, half that sold in confectionaries is prepared in this manner. Some confectioners use arrow-root instead of flour for thickening; but either flour or corn-starch is better for the purpose, as they have no taste of their own.